#daydreaming — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #daydreaming, aggregated by home.social.
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@cmconseils #daydreaming is such an undervalued activity 🥲 we should teach it at school 💭
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@cmconseils #daydreaming is such an undervalued activity 🥲 we should teach it at school 💭
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SHORT STORY: The Last Train Out
THE LAST TRAIN OUTAva had just clocked out of work and was heading home.
She usually passed by the train station on her way back, although she rarely used it. She preferred taking a bus and walking the rest of the distance. It was her little way of keeping fit after spending most of her day sitting in a laboratory.
Ava worked in one of the largest biochemical research laboratories in the city. She couldn’t imagine herself working anywhere else. The laboratory was known for its experimental research, but it had also become strangely notorious. There had been three unexplained contamination outbreaks within the facility in the past year, and even the CDC couldn’t keep up and had threatened to shut them down multiple times. Most people found that terrifying. Ava found it fascinating.
She had always been curious about everything and even things that science couldn’t immediately explain. That curiosity would eventually be the reason she survived.
While heading home she passed by the train station and heard it whistle, she instantly had dejavu like she had heard the whistle before, not just the whistle, the exact whistle, the same length, the same pause at the end of the whistle, and at the exact same time, 9:00 p.m.
Eventually, she shrugged it off. She passed the station every day. Maybe her brain was simply playing tricks on her.
The next evening, it happened again.
Same whistle.
Same time.
Same strange feeling.
Then again the following day.
And the day after that.
By Friday, Ava had stopped pretending it was a coincidence.
Suddenly, Ava found herself standing in the middle of Central Station with thousands of other people.
She didn’t remember walking there.
She didn’t remember entering the station.
One moment she had been walking to get a bus. The next, she was surrounded by people staring desperately at the tracks.
Ava looked around with no idea what was going on.
At exactly 10:00 p.m., every phone in the station buzzed at once.
Ava pulled hers out.
The same message appeared on every screen.
DO NOT GO OUTSIDE.
Then the electricity went out.
Then the explosions began.
One.
Then another.
Then several at once.
The ground shook beneath their feet.
People screamed.
The train everyone was waiting for was no where to be found just the sound of train racks shaking. Within an hour of waiting at the train, parts of the city were on fire. Everyone scattered around moving to different platforms hoping the next train that came they’d jump in without thinking. While there was chaos everywhere, At 11:30 p.m., another message appeared.
LAST TRAIN LEAVING CENTRAL STATION AT 12:30 A.M.
DESTINATION: NORTH TERMINAL.
Ava stared at the message.
North Terminal had been abandoned for years. She knew that because her laboratory had once worked with the railway authority on environmental testing around the site. There hadn’t been a functioning train there in years. So why was the city sending a train there now?
Ava was already at central station, she sighed relief but before she knew crowd of people were already trooping in, some even pushing others onto the empty tracks.
While struggling not to fall and also to wait for the train, she heard a familiar voice.
“Ava!”
She turned.
Daniel was running toward her.
“You made it,” he said, breathless.
“I almost didn’t.”
Neither of them had time to say anything else.
Then the train whistle sounded.
Neither of them spoke.
The train rolled into the station.
It looked old
Dark
Its windows reflected nothing.
The doors opened.
People rushed inside even pushing some people out of the way.
Ava grabbed Daniel’s hand.
“Don’t let go.”
They boarded.
As soon as everyone settled into the train the lights came back on.
The first journey lasted forty-three minutes.
Ava remembered that because she kept checking the clock.
12:31.
12:47.
1:03.
1:14.
Then the train stopped.
The doors opened.
North Terminal.
But there was no station.
Only darkness.
A voice came through the speakers.
“One passenger must remain.”
Then the lights went out.
Ava grabbed Daniel’s hand.
“Daniel?”
Nothing.
She squeezed harder.
Her hand closed around empty air.
“Daniel?”
When the lights returned, everyone was gone.
When the lights returned, everyone was gone.
Every passenger.
Every bag.
Every person.
Ava was alone.
Then she saw him.
Daniel was standing outside the train.
On the platform. A single flickering light hung above him. His back was turned.
“Daniel!”
Slowly, he turned around.
His face was covered in blood.
Ava stopped breathing.
Something moved behind him.
Two eyes opened in the darkness.
They were looking directly at her.
Ava screamed and stumbled backward, hitting her head against the metal wall of the train.
The train doors slammed shut.
The train moved.
Ava woke up at her desk.
Her heart was pounding.
The laboratory was silent.
It was already 9:00 p.m. She couldn’t remember falling asleep.
She felt a stinging feeling like her palm was burning.
A strange symbol had appeared across her palm. A small black circle. She had never seen it before. She rubbed it but it hurt her as she did like a fresh flesh wound.
She picked up her things to leave the office.
The hallway lights flickered as she walked toward the elevator.
One.
Two.
Three.
Each light went out just after she passed it.
Ava stopped.
The last light above her flickered.
Then went completely dark.
She stepped into the elevator.
When the doors opened again, she was standing outside the train station.
Ava stared at the entrance.
She didn’t remember walking there.
Her phone buzzed.
DO NOT GO OUTSIDE.
Ava stared at the message.
Then another appeared.
LAST TRAIN LEAVING CENTRAL STATION AT 12:30 A.M.
DESTINATION: NORTH TERMINAL.
She was already at central station. People began trooping in.
She dropped the phone.
She saw Daniel
They got on the train together
The darkness.
His bloodied face.
Everyone disappears
She hit her head and falls
The train doors slammed shut.
The train moved.
She wakes up in her office again at exactly 9:00pm
Same cycle repeating itself
This time when she woke up in her office, she was the only one.
Same thing on her palms.
Then someone knocked on her door.
Three times.
Ava froze.
“Who is it?”
No answer.
She opened the door.
Nobody was there.
Only a piece of paper lying on the floor.
She picked it up.
There was one sentence written on it.
DON’T LET HIM GET ON THE TRAIN.
Ava stared at it.
She didn’t know who “him” was.
Until she got the train this time and saw Daniel, it clicked and looked at Daniel.
“Don’t get on the train,” she told him.
He laughed.
“Ava, the city is literally burning.”
“I know.”
“You want us to stay here?”
“I want to know what’s happening.”
The train arrived.
Ava watched the doors open.
Everyone boarded.
She didn’t.
Daniel stared at her.
“Ava.”
“Don’t.”
The train doors began closing.
Daniel stepped back.
Then suddenly, a little girl grabbed Ava’s hand.
Ava looked down.
The girl was crying.
“Please don’t let it leave.”
“Why?”
The girl pointed toward the train.
“My mother is inside.”
Ava looked through the windows.
The passengers were sitting silently and strangely every passenger was looking at her.
The doors closed.
The train left.
The moment it disappeared into the tunnel, the entire station went dark.
The little girl disappeared.
Ava was alone.
She looked around looking for Daniel but didn’t find him.
Then everything went black again but this time she didn’t hit her head.
Ava woke up in her office.
Again.
She screamed.
She knew immediately.
She was living a repeated cycle.
But this time, something was different.
The symbol on her palm had changed.
There were now two circles.
Ava stared at it.
Then she remembered the little girl.
The man on the train.
The sentence on the paper.
And one thought came to her.
Maybe the train wasn’t the destination.
Maybe it was a clue.
She had less than 2 hours before the whole cycle reset itself again.
Ava didn’t go to Central Station.
She went to the old railway archives.
She searched through newspapers.
Maps.
Construction records. Everything she could find about North Terminal.
She discovered that the North Terminal had been abandoned five years ago due to the fire outbreak and train accident that happened.
There was no functioning station there.
She looked at the map of the station and discovered an underground control room.
The original railway plans showed a tunnel that had been sealed.
Ava found an old photograph with newspapers that talked about a fire outbreak.
Six people stood in front of the tunnel.
Engineers.
Scientists.
Government officials.
And behind them was the same symbol on her palm. The two circles.
Ava’s heart began pounding. She needed to know more but she was running out of time.
She took the map and pictures and was heading further but she was out of time. Everywhere became pitch black and she woke up in her office again.
This time Ava went straight to the North Terminal.
She found the sealed tunnel.
Behind the rusted doors was a staircase.
She walked down.
Until she heard something.
A train.
But there were no tracks.
The sound was coming from beneath the ground.
She followed it.
At the bottom, she found a massive underground room.
Machines covered the walls.
Thousands of wires disappeared into the ceiling.
And in the centre was a giant glass chamber.
Inside it were people.
Dozens of them.
Sleeping.
Connected to machines.
Ava walked closer.
Then she saw Daniel.
Her breath caught.
He was inside the chamber.
Alive.
She ran toward him.
“Daniel!”
His eyes opened.
“Ava?”
She touched the glass.
He shook his head.
“You need to destroy everything, Ava.”
The lights in the room came on.
Six people stood behind her.
The same six people from the photograph.
Except they hadn’t aged.
Not a day.
“You finally found us.” One of them said
Ava turned.
“What have you done?”
The woman in front stepped forward.
“We built the first train.”
“Why?”
“To save the city.”
Ava looked at the machines.
“You’re killing people.”
“We’re preventing something worse, and the sacrifices are for the greater good.”
“Every cycle ends with the city destroyed.”
“So you reset it.”
“Yes.”
Ava stared at her.
“And everyone forgets.”
“Everyone except you.”
“Why me?”
The woman smiled.
“Because you were the first person who survived the last train out.”
Ava froze.
“What?”
“You were never supposed to remember.”
“How many times?”
The woman answered:
“One hundred and twelve.”
Ava’s face went pale.
She had lived this night 112 times.
Each time, she had boarded the train.
Each time, the city had died.
Each time, everything had started again.
“But why?”
“We built the machines using untested chemicals and machines that were found in space to make the train faster, we realised we could also travel in time and reset things using the train, but the more we used the more we upset the balance of time.”
“We’ve been stuck here feeding the machine and trying to stop the end of the world.”
The room began shaking.
“You have two choices, Ava. Only you can save us all.”
The woman raised her hand.
“Board the train again.”
The machines began humming.
“And the cycle continues.”
She pointed towards the machines
“Or destroy the machine.”
Ava looked at the people trapped inside the chambers.
Then at Daniel.
Then at the machines.
“What happens if I destroy it?”
Before the woman could answer she fell and hit her head and was having a seizure.
The other five tried to attack Ava but she took a metal pipe and hit the chamber filled with liquid. She knew the liquid was harmless, but volatile and realised that her laboratory were the ones who first created the liquid. At that time she didn’t realise what they were creating such large quantities. The liquid from the chambers swept the other five in different directions hitting their head on the metals around.
Ava looked at Daniel.
“Can you walk?”
He nodded.
“Then let’s end this.”
The alarms began screaming.
Daniel pulled the emergency lever beside the glass chamber.
The machine exploded with sparks.
The room shook violently.
“Stop!”
The woman got up and screamed.
“You don’t understand what you’re doing!”
Ava looked at her.
“I understand perfectly.”
She ran toward the central machine.
The woman tried to stop her.
Ava pushed her. Crashing each other against the controls.
The machine began overheating.
The train whistle sounded somewhere beneath them.
The woman screamed:
“IF YOU DESTROY IT, THE TRAIN WILL NEVER COME BACK!”
Ava pulled the final lever.
The machine exploded.
The underground room filled with white light.
Every screen shattered.
Every wire burned.
The sound of the train became deafening.
Before they could make it out, it exploded flinging them outside to the train tracks.
Ava felt a ringing sound in her ears before closing her eyes and then silence.
Ava opened her eyes.
She was lying on the floor of Central Station.
The station was crowded.
People were talking and walking past her.
Trains were arriving.
Nobody was screaming.
Nobody was running.
Nobody was dying.
Ava sat up and quickly looked at her palm. The symbol was gone.
Ava’s phone rang, it was the hospital.
They had called to tell her Daniel woke up from the coma. She smiled. Daniel was Ava’s fiancée, he had been in the train accident that happened five years ago and had been in a coma since.
She looked toward the tracks.
A train arrived.
Ava’s heart skipped a bit.
It was the same black train.
The same one.
But this time, it was different.
The windows reflected the passengers.
The lights inside were warm.
The doors opened.
People stepped off.
Alive.
Real.
Ava watched silently.
Then she saw them.
The six people from the photograph.
They stepped off the train.
Behind them came the little girl and her mother.
The woman who had been trapped inside the machine looked at Ava.
She smiled.
“Thank you.”
Ava frowned.
“For what?”
“For letting us go.”
Ava looked at the train.
“The six of you…”
The woman nodded.
“We were trapped inside the machine just as much as everyone else.”
“And the train?”
The woman looked back at it.
“It was trapped too.”
Ava looked at the black train.
For five years, it had carried the same people toward the same ending.
Over and over.
Never arriving.
Never leaving.
Until now.
Ava looked back at the tracks.
The black train slowly disappeared into the morning light.
For the first time, it wasn’t taking anyone anywhere.
It was simply leaving.
Thank you for reading!!!
Love,
Dupe Abiona
#books #daydreaming #dreaming #fiction #fictionalstories #fictionalwriting #future #futuristicnovels #futuristicshortstories #lifeloveandstories #shortstories #story -
SHORT STORY: The Last Train Out
THE LAST TRAIN OUTAva had just clocked out of work and was heading home.
She usually passed by the train station on her way back, although she rarely used it. She preferred taking a bus and walking the rest of the distance. It was her little way of keeping fit after spending most of her day sitting in a laboratory.
Ava worked in one of the largest biochemical research laboratories in the city. She couldn’t imagine herself working anywhere else. The laboratory was known for its experimental research, but it had also become strangely notorious. There had been three unexplained contamination outbreaks within the facility in the past year, and even the CDC couldn’t keep up and had threatened to shut them down multiple times. Most people found that terrifying. Ava found it fascinating.
She had always been curious about everything and even things that science couldn’t immediately explain. That curiosity would eventually be the reason she survived.
While heading home she passed by the train station and heard it whistle, she instantly had dejavu like she had heard the whistle before, not just the whistle, the exact whistle, the same length, the same pause at the end of the whistle, and at the exact same time, 9:00 p.m.
Eventually, she shrugged it off. She passed the station every day. Maybe her brain was simply playing tricks on her.
The next evening, it happened again.
Same whistle.
Same time.
Same strange feeling.
Then again the following day.
And the day after that.
By Friday, Ava had stopped pretending it was a coincidence.
Suddenly, Ava found herself standing in the middle of Central Station with thousands of other people.
She didn’t remember walking there.
She didn’t remember entering the station.
One moment she had been walking to get a bus. The next, she was surrounded by people staring desperately at the tracks.
Ava looked around with no idea what was going on.
At exactly 10:00 p.m., every phone in the station buzzed at once.
Ava pulled hers out.
The same message appeared on every screen.
DO NOT GO OUTSIDE.
Then the electricity went out.
Then the explosions began.
One.
Then another.
Then several at once.
The ground shook beneath their feet.
People screamed.
The train everyone was waiting for was no where to be found just the sound of train racks shaking. Within an hour of waiting at the train, parts of the city were on fire. Everyone scattered around moving to different platforms hoping the next train that came they’d jump in without thinking. While there was chaos everywhere, At 11:30 p.m., another message appeared.
LAST TRAIN LEAVING CENTRAL STATION AT 12:30 A.M.
DESTINATION: NORTH TERMINAL.
Ava stared at the message.
North Terminal had been abandoned for years. She knew that because her laboratory had once worked with the railway authority on environmental testing around the site. There hadn’t been a functioning train there in years. So why was the city sending a train there now?
Ava was already at central station, she sighed relief but before she knew crowd of people were already trooping in, some even pushing others onto the empty tracks.
While struggling not to fall and also to wait for the train, she heard a familiar voice.
“Ava!”
She turned.
Daniel was running toward her.
“You made it,” he said, breathless.
“I almost didn’t.”
Neither of them had time to say anything else.
Then the train whistle sounded.
Neither of them spoke.
The train rolled into the station.
It looked old
Dark
Its windows reflected nothing.
The doors opened.
People rushed inside even pushing some people out of the way.
Ava grabbed Daniel’s hand.
“Don’t let go.”
They boarded.
As soon as everyone settled into the train the lights came back on.
The first journey lasted forty-three minutes.
Ava remembered that because she kept checking the clock.
12:31.
12:47.
1:03.
1:14.
Then the train stopped.
The doors opened.
North Terminal.
But there was no station.
Only darkness.
A voice came through the speakers.
“One passenger must remain.”
Then the lights went out.
Ava grabbed Daniel’s hand.
“Daniel?”
Nothing.
She squeezed harder.
Her hand closed around empty air.
“Daniel?”
When the lights returned, everyone was gone.
When the lights returned, everyone was gone.
Every passenger.
Every bag.
Every person.
Ava was alone.
Then she saw him.
Daniel was standing outside the train.
On the platform. A single flickering light hung above him. His back was turned.
“Daniel!”
Slowly, he turned around.
His face was covered in blood.
Ava stopped breathing.
Something moved behind him.
Two eyes opened in the darkness.
They were looking directly at her.
Ava screamed and stumbled backward, hitting her head against the metal wall of the train.
The train doors slammed shut.
The train moved.
Ava woke up at her desk.
Her heart was pounding.
The laboratory was silent.
It was already 9:00 p.m. She couldn’t remember falling asleep.
She felt a stinging feeling like her palm was burning.
A strange symbol had appeared across her palm. A small black circle. She had never seen it before. She rubbed it but it hurt her as she did like a fresh flesh wound.
She picked up her things to leave the office.
The hallway lights flickered as she walked toward the elevator.
One.
Two.
Three.
Each light went out just after she passed it.
Ava stopped.
The last light above her flickered.
Then went completely dark.
She stepped into the elevator.
When the doors opened again, she was standing outside the train station.
Ava stared at the entrance.
She didn’t remember walking there.
Her phone buzzed.
DO NOT GO OUTSIDE.
Ava stared at the message.
Then another appeared.
LAST TRAIN LEAVING CENTRAL STATION AT 12:30 A.M.
DESTINATION: NORTH TERMINAL.
She was already at central station. People began trooping in.
She dropped the phone.
She saw Daniel
They got on the train together
The darkness.
His bloodied face.
Everyone disappears
She hit her head and falls
The train doors slammed shut.
The train moved.
She wakes up in her office again at exactly 9:00pm
Same cycle repeating itself
This time when she woke up in her office, she was the only one.
Same thing on her palms.
Then someone knocked on her door.
Three times.
Ava froze.
“Who is it?”
No answer.
She opened the door.
Nobody was there.
Only a piece of paper lying on the floor.
She picked it up.
There was one sentence written on it.
DON’T LET HIM GET ON THE TRAIN.
Ava stared at it.
She didn’t know who “him” was.
Until she got the train this time and saw Daniel, it clicked and looked at Daniel.
“Don’t get on the train,” she told him.
He laughed.
“Ava, the city is literally burning.”
“I know.”
“You want us to stay here?”
“I want to know what’s happening.”
The train arrived.
Ava watched the doors open.
Everyone boarded.
She didn’t.
Daniel stared at her.
“Ava.”
“Don’t.”
The train doors began closing.
Daniel stepped back.
Then suddenly, a little girl grabbed Ava’s hand.
Ava looked down.
The girl was crying.
“Please don’t let it leave.”
“Why?”
The girl pointed toward the train.
“My mother is inside.”
Ava looked through the windows.
The passengers were sitting silently and strangely every passenger was looking at her.
The doors closed.
The train left.
The moment it disappeared into the tunnel, the entire station went dark.
The little girl disappeared.
Ava was alone.
She looked around looking for Daniel but didn’t find him.
Then everything went black again but this time she didn’t hit her head.
Ava woke up in her office.
Again.
She screamed.
She knew immediately.
She was living a repeated cycle.
But this time, something was different.
The symbol on her palm had changed.
There were now two circles.
Ava stared at it.
Then she remembered the little girl.
The man on the train.
The sentence on the paper.
And one thought came to her.
Maybe the train wasn’t the destination.
Maybe it was a clue.
She had less than 2 hours before the whole cycle reset itself again.
Ava didn’t go to Central Station.
She went to the old railway archives.
She searched through newspapers.
Maps.
Construction records. Everything she could find about North Terminal.
She discovered that the North Terminal had been abandoned five years ago due to the fire outbreak and train accident that happened.
There was no functioning station there.
She looked at the map of the station and discovered an underground control room.
The original railway plans showed a tunnel that had been sealed.
Ava found an old photograph with newspapers that talked about a fire outbreak.
Six people stood in front of the tunnel.
Engineers.
Scientists.
Government officials.
And behind them was the same symbol on her palm. The two circles.
Ava’s heart began pounding. She needed to know more but she was running out of time.
She took the map and pictures and was heading further but she was out of time. Everywhere became pitch black and she woke up in her office again.
This time Ava went straight to the North Terminal.
She found the sealed tunnel.
Behind the rusted doors was a staircase.
She walked down.
Until she heard something.
A train.
But there were no tracks.
The sound was coming from beneath the ground.
She followed it.
At the bottom, she found a massive underground room.
Machines covered the walls.
Thousands of wires disappeared into the ceiling.
And in the centre was a giant glass chamber.
Inside it were people.
Dozens of them.
Sleeping.
Connected to machines.
Ava walked closer.
Then she saw Daniel.
Her breath caught.
He was inside the chamber.
Alive.
She ran toward him.
“Daniel!”
His eyes opened.
“Ava?”
She touched the glass.
He shook his head.
“You need to destroy everything, Ava.”
The lights in the room came on.
Six people stood behind her.
The same six people from the photograph.
Except they hadn’t aged.
Not a day.
“You finally found us.” One of them said
Ava turned.
“What have you done?”
The woman in front stepped forward.
“We built the first train.”
“Why?”
“To save the city.”
Ava looked at the machines.
“You’re killing people.”
“We’re preventing something worse, and the sacrifices are for the greater good.”
“Every cycle ends with the city destroyed.”
“So you reset it.”
“Yes.”
Ava stared at her.
“And everyone forgets.”
“Everyone except you.”
“Why me?”
The woman smiled.
“Because you were the first person who survived the last train out.”
Ava froze.
“What?”
“You were never supposed to remember.”
“How many times?”
The woman answered:
“One hundred and twelve.”
Ava’s face went pale.
She had lived this night 112 times.
Each time, she had boarded the train.
Each time, the city had died.
Each time, everything had started again.
“But why?”
“We built the machines using untested chemicals and machines that were found in space to make the train faster, we realised we could also travel in time and reset things using the train, but the more we used the more we upset the balance of time.”
“We’ve been stuck here feeding the machine and trying to stop the end of the world.”
The room began shaking.
“You have two choices, Ava. Only you can save us all.”
The woman raised her hand.
“Board the train again.”
The machines began humming.
“And the cycle continues.”
She pointed towards the machines
“Or destroy the machine.”
Ava looked at the people trapped inside the chambers.
Then at Daniel.
Then at the machines.
“What happens if I destroy it?”
Before the woman could answer she fell and hit her head and was having a seizure.
The other five tried to attack Ava but she took a metal pipe and hit the chamber filled with liquid. She knew the liquid was harmless, but volatile and realised that her laboratory were the ones who first created the liquid. At that time she didn’t realise what they were creating such large quantities. The liquid from the chambers swept the other five in different directions hitting their head on the metals around.
Ava looked at Daniel.
“Can you walk?”
He nodded.
“Then let’s end this.”
The alarms began screaming.
Daniel pulled the emergency lever beside the glass chamber.
The machine exploded with sparks.
The room shook violently.
“Stop!”
The woman got up and screamed.
“You don’t understand what you’re doing!”
Ava looked at her.
“I understand perfectly.”
She ran toward the central machine.
The woman tried to stop her.
Ava pushed her. Crashing each other against the controls.
The machine began overheating.
The train whistle sounded somewhere beneath them.
The woman screamed:
“IF YOU DESTROY IT, THE TRAIN WILL NEVER COME BACK!”
Ava pulled the final lever.
The machine exploded.
The underground room filled with white light.
Every screen shattered.
Every wire burned.
The sound of the train became deafening.
Before they could make it out, it exploded flinging them outside to the train tracks.
Ava felt a ringing sound in her ears before closing her eyes and then silence.
Ava opened her eyes.
She was lying on the floor of Central Station.
The station was crowded.
People were talking and walking past her.
Trains were arriving.
Nobody was screaming.
Nobody was running.
Nobody was dying.
Ava sat up and quickly looked at her palm. The symbol was gone.
Ava’s phone rang, it was the hospital.
They had called to tell her Daniel woke up from the coma. She smiled. Daniel was Ava’s fiancée, he had been in the train accident that happened five years ago and had been in a coma since.
She looked toward the tracks.
A train arrived.
Ava’s heart skipped a bit.
It was the same black train.
The same one.
But this time, it was different.
The windows reflected the passengers.
The lights inside were warm.
The doors opened.
People stepped off.
Alive.
Real.
Ava watched silently.
Then she saw them.
The six people from the photograph.
They stepped off the train.
Behind them came the little girl and her mother.
The woman who had been trapped inside the machine looked at Ava.
She smiled.
“Thank you.”
Ava frowned.
“For what?”
“For letting us go.”
Ava looked at the train.
“The six of you…”
The woman nodded.
“We were trapped inside the machine just as much as everyone else.”
“And the train?”
The woman looked back at it.
“It was trapped too.”
Ava looked at the black train.
For five years, it had carried the same people toward the same ending.
Over and over.
Never arriving.
Never leaving.
Until now.
Ava looked back at the tracks.
The black train slowly disappeared into the morning light.
For the first time, it wasn’t taking anyone anywhere.
It was simply leaving.
Thank you for reading!!!
Love,
Dupe Abiona
#books #daydreaming #dreaming #fiction #fictionalstories #fictionalwriting #future #futuristicnovels #futuristicshortstories #lifeloveandstories #shortstories #story -
I think only the older folks around here will get this one...
#RalphPhillips #patton #macarthur #cartoon #x #tweet #cartoon #vintage #nostalgia #DC #WashingtonDC #mantoddler #babyman #drumpf #image #daydream #daydreaming
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I think only the older folks around here will get this one...
#RalphPhillips #patton #macarthur #cartoon #x #tweet #cartoon #vintage #nostalgia #DC #WashingtonDC #mantoddler #babyman #drumpf #image #daydream #daydreaming
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@icing People (and companies mostly) will use the paid support channels of course - they learned their lesson, that guarantees are normal to pay for.
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@icing People (and companies mostly) will use the paid support channels of course - they learned their lesson, that guarantees are normal to pay for.
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A quotation from Eleanor Roosevelt
To me who dreamed so much as a child, who made a dreamworld in which I was the heroine of an unending story, the lives of people around me continued to have a certain storybook quality. I learned something which has stood me in good stead many times — The most important thing in any relationship is not what you get but what you give.
Eleanor Roosevelt (1884–1962) First Lady of the US (1933–1945), politician, diplomat, activist
Memoir (1961), The Autobiography of Eleanor Roosevelt, PrefaceMore about this quote: wist.info/roosevelt-eleanor/60…
#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #eleanorroosevelt #daydreaming #engagement #filter #giving #receiving #relationship
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✮ Eleven ✮
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Subscribe #Admiration #Adolescence #AwkwardMoments #books #ChildhoodLove #Crush #Daydream #Daydreaming #Disappointment #Disillusionment #Embarrassment #EmotionalJourney #EmotionalTurmoil #Ephemeral #Erwinism #Fantasy #Farewell #Fiction #FirstLove #Friendship #FYP #GrowingUp #Heartache #Heartbreak #HeroFantasy #Humiliation #Infatuation #Innocence #InnocentCrush #InnocentLove #Inspiration #Learning #Life #LostLove #LostOpportunity #Love #LoveLetter #Memory #Misunderstanding #Motivation #Naivety #Nostalgia #Pain #Poem #Poetry #Progress #RealityCheck #Regret #Rejection #Romance #SchoolDays #SecretAdmiration #TeenageYears #UnrequitedLove #Writing #YoungLove #YouthfulDreams -
#portrait #photographer #photography #beauty #monochrome #modelswanted #photomodels #bnw #photomodel #daydreaming #piercing
Model: xanjax
Location: on location
Photo and edit: The Blotch 666 -
#portrait #photographer #photography #beauty #monochrome #modelswanted #photomodels #bnw #photomodel #daydreaming #piercing
Model: xanjax
Location: on location
Photo and edit: The Blotch 666 -
We drove past a roadside sign - offering a free trampoline, with safety netting. My gardening fixated brain immediately thought that it would be a good makeshift raised garden space, protected from bunnies/deer. I was imagining growing a bunch of vined food plants, growing up the netting & growing a bunch of edible flowers below, all encircling the upper trampoline garden.
I did not get the free trampoline. I was only daydreaming about how it could be repurposed for more #gardening 👩🌾 -
We drove past a roadside sign - offering a free trampoline, with safety netting. My gardening fixated brain immediately thought that it would be a good makeshift raised garden space, protected from bunnies/deer. I was imagining growing a bunch of vined food plants, growing up the netting & growing a bunch of edible flowers below, all encircling the upper trampoline garden.
I did not get the free trampoline. I was only daydreaming about how it could be repurposed for more #gardening 👩🌾 -
Last week's post on how your body influences your mind wandering - daydreaming that is. Fascinating!
https://leadingbrainsreview.substack.com/p/brain-snack-how-your-body-influences?r=59dsl
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Last week's post on how your body influences your mind wandering - daydreaming that is. Fascinating!
https://leadingbrainsreview.substack.com/p/brain-snack-how-your-body-influences?r=59dsl
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Everyone needs a place to escape when reality gets too loud. What does yours look like?
#cinematicmusic #escapism #musicdiscovery #fantasyworld #daydreaming -
#portrait #photography #bnw #photographer #photomodels #modelswanted #monochrome #photomodel #daydreaming
Model: xanjax
Location: Business Park, Cologne, Germany
Photo and edit: The Blotch 666 -
#portrait #photography #bnw #photographer #photomodels #modelswanted #monochrome #photomodel #daydreaming
Model: xanjax
Location: Business Park, Cologne, Germany
Photo and edit: The Blotch 666 -
memories –
white pine boughs
sway in the wind#DailyHaikuPrompt | evergreen
#SmallPoems
#DayDreaming -
memories –
white pine boughs
sway in the wind#DailyHaikuPrompt | evergreen
#SmallPoems
#DayDreaming -
BASIC ideas:
- BASIC written in Arduino assembly again
- BASIC written in Common Lisp
- yet another 6502 BASICCommon Lisp (SBCL) ideas:
- a line editor in Common Lisp
- a static site generator the way i actually like to do it... in Common Lispspecial mention:
- try and remove the C primitives from emacs again
- look into guilemacs again#ideas #showerthoughts #daydreaming #commonlisp #basic #6502 #arduino #emacs #lisp #elisp #commonlisp #projects #passionprojects #hobbies #guile
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BASIC ideas:
- BASIC written in Arduino assembly again
- BASIC written in Common Lisp
- yet another 6502 BASICCommon Lisp (SBCL) ideas:
- a line editor in Common Lisp
- a static site generator the way i actually like to do it... in Common Lispspecial mention:
- try and remove the C primitives from emacs again
- look into guilemacs again#ideas #showerthoughts #daydreaming #commonlisp #basic #6502 #arduino #emacs #lisp #elisp #commonlisp #projects #passionprojects #hobbies #guile
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"Sometimes, the most valuable work you might do is the quiet work of thinking nothing at all." - Futurist Jim Carroll
Let's get right to the point.
It's OK to daydream.
It's OK to get lost in your thoughts.
It's OK to be absent-minded.
It's OK to lose your focus.
It's OK to stare blankly out the window.
It's OK to let your mind wander.
It's OK to have a thought pop into your head unrelated to what you're doing.
It's OK to take a mental detour.
It's OK to let your thoughts drift.
It's OK to not have an immediate, practical goal for your thinking.
It's OK to be a little disorganized in your thoughts.
It's OK to mull things over slowly.
It's OK to take an unguided mental walk.
It's OK to space out.
It's OK to ponder an unlikely scenario.
It's OK to doodle without a plan.
It's OK to follow a train of thought to an unexpected destination.
It's OK to let your mind jump from one idea to the next.
It's OK to not check things off a list right now.
It's OK to mentally play with concepts.
It's OK to get stuck in your head.
It's OK to revisit old memories for inspiration.
It's OK to have an 'aha!' moment while doing nothing.
It's OK to trust your intuition over logic for a bit.
It's OK to embrace mental downtime.
It's OK!Here's why: Have you ever been told to stop staring out the window and get back to work? It turns out that letting your mind wander might actually be one of the smartest things you can do. Scientists have discovered that daydreaming isn't laziness—it's your brain doing some of its most important creative work.
And as someone who has helped organizations around the world with concepts related to innovation, it's a story I often share from the stage.
Consider this: Your brain operates in two different modes: focused thinking and diffuse - or unfocused - thinking.Focused thinking is what happens when you're concentrating hard on a math problem or writing an essay. It's great for learning new information and working through things step-by-step. But here's the catch: you can't be creative while you're hyper-focused.
That's where daydreaming, drifting, imaging comes in - aka diffuse thinking - comes in. When you let your mind wander, space out, or daydream, your brain switches into a different mode that makes unexpected connections between ideas. This is when you have those "aha!" moments where a solution suddenly pops into your head.
So the next time someone tells you to stop daydreaming, you can tell them you're actually problem-solving.
You are doing important work!
You are being creative!
Futurist Jim Carroll zones out frequently.
**#Daydreaming** **#Creativity** **#Thinking** **#Mindwandering** **#Innovation** **#Rest** **#Reflection** **#Breakthrough** **#Intuition** **#Downtime**
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"Sometimes, the most valuable work you might do is the quiet work of thinking nothing at all." - Futurist Jim Carroll
Let's get right to the point.
It's OK to daydream.
It's OK to get lost in your thoughts.
It's OK to be absent-minded.
It's OK to lose your focus.
It's OK to stare blankly out the window.
It's OK to let your mind wander.
It's OK to have a thought pop into your head unrelated to what you're doing.
It's OK to take a mental detour.
It's OK to let your thoughts drift.
It's OK to not have an immediate, practical goal for your thinking.
It's OK to be a little disorganized in your thoughts.
It's OK to mull things over slowly.
It's OK to take an unguided mental walk.
It's OK to space out.
It's OK to ponder an unlikely scenario.
It's OK to doodle without a plan.
It's OK to follow a train of thought to an unexpected destination.
It's OK to let your mind jump from one idea to the next.
It's OK to not check things off a list right now.
It's OK to mentally play with concepts.
It's OK to get stuck in your head.
It's OK to revisit old memories for inspiration.
It's OK to have an 'aha!' moment while doing nothing.
It's OK to trust your intuition over logic for a bit.
It's OK to embrace mental downtime.
It's OK!Here's why: Have you ever been told to stop staring out the window and get back to work? It turns out that letting your mind wander might actually be one of the smartest things you can do. Scientists have discovered that daydreaming isn't laziness—it's your brain doing some of its most important creative work.
And as someone who has helped organizations around the world with concepts related to innovation, it's a story I often share from the stage.
Consider this: Your brain operates in two different modes: focused thinking and diffuse - or unfocused - thinking.Focused thinking is what happens when you're concentrating hard on a math problem or writing an essay. It's great for learning new information and working through things step-by-step. But here's the catch: you can't be creative while you're hyper-focused.
That's where daydreaming, drifting, imaging comes in - aka diffuse thinking - comes in. When you let your mind wander, space out, or daydream, your brain switches into a different mode that makes unexpected connections between ideas. This is when you have those "aha!" moments where a solution suddenly pops into your head.
So the next time someone tells you to stop daydreaming, you can tell them you're actually problem-solving.
You are doing important work!
You are being creative!
Futurist Jim Carroll zones out frequently.
**#Daydreaming** **#Creativity** **#Thinking** **#Mindwandering** **#Innovation** **#Rest** **#Reflection** **#Breakthrough** **#Intuition** **#Downtime**
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🚀✨ "Mitchell's groundbreaking method for staying motivated during big projects: actually do stuff and see results. Who would've thought?! 🤯 Meanwhile, the rest of us mere mortals will continue to daydream about productivity while scrolling through cat memes." 🙄🐱
https://mitchellh.com/writing/building-large-technical-projects #motivationalmethods #productivityhacks #projectmanagement #catmemes #daydreaming #HackerNews #ngated -
🚀✨ "Mitchell's groundbreaking method for staying motivated during big projects: actually do stuff and see results. Who would've thought?! 🤯 Meanwhile, the rest of us mere mortals will continue to daydream about productivity while scrolling through cat memes." 🙄🐱
https://mitchellh.com/writing/building-large-technical-projects #motivationalmethods #productivityhacks #projectmanagement #catmemes #daydreaming #HackerNews #ngated -
Can we please have a zip method on java.util.Optional? I've implemented a static util function to implement this in each of my last projects...
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Can we please have a zip method on java.util.Optional? I've implemented a static util function to implement this in each of my last projects...
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Rainy Piano Sketches – Rainy Piano Sketches
#Classical #chillout #classical #daydreaming #lofi #pianomusicforstudying #pianosolo #rainy #rainyday #relaxing #sleepmusic #studying #LosAngeles
CC BY-NC-ND (#CreativeCommons Attribution Non Commercial No Derivatives) #ccmusic
https://rainypianosketches.bandcamp.com/album/rainy-piano-sketches -
Rainy Piano Sketches – Rainy Piano Sketches
#Classical #chillout #classical #daydreaming #lofi #pianomusicforstudying #pianosolo #rainy #rainyday #relaxing #sleepmusic #studying #LosAngeles
CC BY-NC-ND (#CreativeCommons Attribution Non Commercial No Derivatives) #ccmusic
https://rainypianosketches.bandcamp.com/album/rainy-piano-sketches -
Some #daydreaming:
My dream occupation would be to have a "store" selling audio / musical equipment, like guitar pedals and so on.
The point is: There are few customers but I'd have a lot of time for each of them, to hear what they need, make small talk etc.
In fact I would also serve coffee and maybe some simple & cheap food/drink and the place would be really nice to hang out at.
Maybe it would have a small co-working space or some games.If I had the space I would make a studio / "cinema room" basically like a karaoke room, but with a nicer setup that people could rent to watch movies or bring and play games with their friends, or use for band practice.
So actually like a community space that provides room / equipment you don't necessarily have at home, and makes it easy for people to connect to others with a common hobby, have events etc.
Buying stuff is just an extra.It would somehow be financially sustainable without much worry. (Probably my apartment would be on the 2nd floor of the place.)
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Some #daydreaming:
My dream occupation would be to have a "store" selling audio / musical equipment, like guitar pedals and so on.
The point is: There are few customers but I'd have a lot of time for each of them, to hear what they need, make small talk etc.
In fact I would also serve coffee and maybe some simple & cheap food/drink and the place would be really nice to hang out at.
Maybe it would have a small co-working space or some games.If I had the space I would make a studio / "cinema room" basically like a karaoke room, but with a nicer setup that people could rent to watch movies or bring and play games with their friends, or use for band practice.
So actually like a community space that provides room / equipment you don't necessarily have at home, and makes it easy for people to connect to others with a common hobby, have events etc.
Buying stuff is just an extra.It would somehow be financially sustainable without much worry. (Probably my apartment would be on the 2nd floor of the place.)
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Thought is the work of the intellect, reverie is its self-indulgence. To substitute day-dreaming for thought is to confuse a poison with a source of nourishment.
[La pensée est le labeur de l’intelligence, la rêverie en est la volupté. Remplacer la pensée par la rêverie, c’est confondre un poison avec une nourriture.]Victor Hugo (1802-1885) French writer
Les Misérables, Part 4 “St. Denis,” Book 2 “Eponine,” ch. 1 (4.2.1) (1862) [tr. Denny (1976)]Sourcing, notes, other translations: wist.info/hugo-victor/1990/
#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #victorhugo #lesmiserables #lesmiz #contemplation #daydreaming #intellect #mediation #mind #reverie #thinking #thought
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👾🤖 Oh, the tragedy! Large language models can't daydream like us mere mortals—alas, they remain as stiff as your Uncle Bob at a yoga class. While #Gwern waxes poetic about 'missing capabilities,' one can't help but think: perhaps these #AI systems are just too busy counting ones and zeros to appreciate the finer points of a good nap. 🌈💤
https://gwern.net/ai-daydreaming #Daydreaming #LanguageModels #Humor #TechTragedy #HackerNews #ngated
