#flash-fiction — Public Fediverse posts

#PennedPossibilities 1120: Saturday Word Edition: Share something from your WIP pertaining to the word “entertainment.”

Bolt is acting as the photographer for her friend Shugh as he interviews a male diva actor for a magazine similar to The New Yorker. Hers is a woman-centric society. The scene in this #excerpt hints that Bolt can be sexist as the actor being interviewed needles her.

Upstairs, Shugh hit it off with Morning Glory. Both men sought careers not often occupied by men. The actor-playwright became more animated as the magazine interview progressed, allowing me with my camera to fade into the background of the plush upper lounge of the theatre. By the time the long-legged delicate man started pacing as he told his life story, I had gleaned that his tale was glorified and larger-than life, like the man, his persona, his masks. His elegant pacing allowed me to move with my Flicka4, steadying myself using the back of a gilt divan, a bamboo formed-steel torchere lamp (one of pair), and then a black marble tea table to as I composed pictures of a celebrity, but a man, lost in thoughts about inflating the image he presented the world, finally dropping his actor's mask. I caught the sparkle in his eye. I caught flamboyant hands thrown wide, later framing his face as he sang a note. I caught an absentminded sneer aimed at an unnamed actress who'd worked to derail his entertainment career.

"I'm changing the way women perceive men," he declared. He sat abruptly on a hanger chair, one of those short shallow chairs built with a bench seat of a single plank of wood, finely finished glowing golden oak but uncushioned; it barely supported his thighs in deference to his hips, forcing the man to crouch. Also called a man's chair because a man looked really adorable hanging there when unclothed in a certain way. (It totally did Morning Glory.) That it made men shorter than any women in a room seemed like a plus, but then I was female. These days, especially in the city, I'd seen men leave a room in disgust if they saw one. Not Morning Glory! Probably furnished it here himself, stage managing, to spike the drama. Legs wide, crouching—his hands above his knees, framing his crotch—eyes narrowed and on me, his body language firmed up my perception of him.

Performatively male, sure of his good looks.

Aggressive.

Dominant.

He addressed Shugh still meeting my gaze. "Steamed Milk and Sugar—can I call you Milk? How does it feel working as her protégé? Do we live in progressive times?"

Hint, hint! I am a #gender #fiction #writer. If you think a hanger chair in this Basic Instincts scene is peculiar, realize that it is a male-oriented gender domination device analogous to what stiletto heels achieve physically with women in our society. Like many women today, Morning Glory is "owning" it (trying anyway) and changing the device's meaning.

[Author retains copyright (c)2026 R.S.]

#BoostingIsSharing

#author
#cozy #mystery #sf #sff #sciencefiction
#writing #writingcommunity #writersOfMastodon #writers
#RSdiscussion
#RSstory #RSReluctanceStory
#microfiction #flashfiction #tootfic #smallstory

RE: https://eldritch.cafe/@sfwrtr/112497915608418589

#PennedPossibilities 1119: MC POV: How did you learn your most valuable skill? Who taught you, and why is it so important?

[I will keep Bolt SFW, promise! Tl;dr tootfic follows, nevertheless.—RS]

A surprising number of my skills are self-taught. I must be a genius, even if'n I've done a lot of stupid things. My most valuable skill is flying, naturally being as I'm a day angel, but flight kindergarten failed me epically. Everybody fledged but me by 3. Despite the incentive of being picked on by all the girls in school (boys knew better), it took being shoved off a cliff at 10 before I flew, and then but for Mom and Uncle teaching me to land, I taught myself everything else. Turned out live'n in the world 3D is—My Stars!— flapping awesome, not at all frightening as I'd wound up myself into thinking. Flew into my share of lamp posts, but still, flap'n it! Spending more time a-wing than walking, I became an athlete, captaining the flight and field team, learning stunt flying, flight dance, and tandem. None of it more valuable than walking and running for the flightless in the long run, except, I guess, tandem.

They teach you never to fly close to anybody. I remember distancing from flight kindergarten. It was reiterated by every PE teacher there after. Knock it into your head, they do. A "primary feather length at wing tip; your height above." Feather fields will tangle if'n you're too close. You'll lose lift, they say, maybe crash, but that never made sense to me having learnt to fly late.

I experimented with all sort of crazy, consider'n that I skated out of most of the knocking of "flight stuff into my head" for the seven years everybody else was flying and I wasn't. I dove hard into precision flying, which meant warping my flight feathers hard, sometimes twisting the up and down fields to push away from or get sucked toward things like cliff walls or between tree trunks in a dense forest. Called decompensating. Dangerous? For you, unadventurous noob, maybe! I finally could get a finger length close to things—close enough to suck your hair and feathers against bark, rockface, and occasional stupid people who do their deer in the lantern light imitation seeing you, they think, flying into them—so why not boys? (Girls thought me a masculine muscle nerd! Their loss.)

While I found victims volunteers to fly near me in middle school, it was that first semester in high school that I perfected my awareness of my wings in space, and theirs, close up, and got boys to understand what I'd learnt. It helped that in high school, finally, the boys were less shy (especially the seniors) and dangling flying with us touching really helped incentivize them. Me, too, actually. I got better. They got better, caught the tandem fever, though we got chewed out by Coach when she saw, before she stopped noticing since we didn't kill ourselves. Our team morale soared. We started winning. I became captain of an otherwise male team. I got my string of ponies (stallions only).

Good times.

Valuable? Actually, valuable?

Well, a dozen years and lots of stupid decisions later, I have a friend, Blue, who is a praetorian training to protect Rainy Days. We encountered her in the sky, and I ended up flying stunts around the guy with her mirroring and challenging my agility, pushing me harder, apparently to test my limits, and to piss me off. I'm too competitive for my own good! She correctly figured out it was me who taught Blue flying tandem; it was the definitive skill that got him a job that was very unlikely for a guy to get.

Rainy Days praised me. She's far better at tandem techniques than me. Still. The Director of Home and the Nine Outer worlds praised me. My Stars!!!

Valuable? Flap yes!

Yet. Even considering when she left with Blue, the stress of me stupidly challenging the most important woman ever shot me out of the sky. I nearly crashed trying to land, then puked so hard, I thought some of my liver came up.

I still would challenge her again, given the chance. [Big words, Bolt! Read the quoted story for the second round. —RS]

[Author retains copyright (c)2026 R.S.]

#BoostingIsSharing

#gender #fiction #writer #author
#cozy #mystery #sf #sff #sciencefiction
#writing #writingcommunity #writersOfMastodon #writers
#RSdiscussion
#RSstory #RSReluctanceStory
#microfiction #flashfiction #tootfic #smallstory

What if someone could predict your death with math? Bad party trick. Worse business model. The Deathclock Machine asks what you would do with the date. https://inkican.com/emergency-reality-shelter-science-fiction-short-stories/deathclock-machine-scifi-flash-fiction/ #SciFi #FlashFiction #STEM

The #ThursThreadsPlus post is up. I'm making progress but it's slow. Join today to find out what I'm working on. #FlashFiction #RomanticSuspense #PNR https://www.patreon.com/SiobhanMuir/posts/thursthreads-3-168541557?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=postshare_creator&utm_content=join_link

Into the Madness #6

https://markneweden.wordpress.com/2026/09/04/into-the-madness-6/

👁 Small stories can still leave scars.

Flash Fiction Frenzy is open inside the Dark Forum. Submit a two-sentence horror piece there and it will be published in the next volume of Dark Descent: Whispers From Beyond. 🖤

📖 https://www.darkholmepublishing.uk/darkforum#flash-fiction-frenzy

#writingcommunity #readingcommunity #horrorcommunity #flashfiction #twosentencehorror

Esther Chilton’s Can you tell a story in… 

https://markneweden.wordpress.com/2026/09/03/esther-chiltons-can-you-tell-a-story-in-11/

#ThursThreads Week 721 is now LIVE. Come tie on your tale for judge Nellie Batz. Have prompt, got tale? #FlashFiction #WritingCommunity #WritingPrompt #Writing https://siobhanmuir.com/thursthreads-tying-tales-together-week-721/

Jacob announced to his team he was going to delete the fifth wall app, a program that would allow them to communicate with their past selves. Their past PUBLISHED selves, specifically - they were, after all, sentient, fictional characters.

Reggie says, "In all seriousness, I'm proud of you, Jacob. I was going to say that-"

Jacob opened the lid to his computer to delete the program.

"-we need to nip this thing in the bud-"

The laptop started generating what sounded like feedback. Everyone clapped their hands over their ears.

"-What is-?" Reggie started. "The fifth wall is open again! Shut it dow-"

Jacob slammed the lid shut again. "How am I supposed to delete the app when I can't even open my laptop?!"

Enzo crossed his arms. "Is everything about the app on your laptop?"

"Yeah."

"Ok, pull the battery out-"

Jacob's eyes widened. "That'll allow me to restart it..."

"-then smash the laptop to pieces."

Jacob paused. "That WON'T allow me to restart it."

#MicroFiction #FlashFiction #TootFic #ShortStory #SciFi #ScienceFiction

There is a whole lot you can say with just a few words, and if you need help, the #freeresources on our website can inspire you when it comes to writing #FlashFiction.

🔗 Check them out here: http://dlvr.it/TVHxM6

#WritingTips #CreativeWriting #Storytelling

Why the Moral Code was put into place on Earth

The moral code ensures that dragons do not commit mass murder on humans and other species. It can be considered a curse, causing psychic damage should a dragon end up harming a human. This was put into place after scores of humans died by draconic claws. It started with Kohri and Belleu and escalated from there.

A big, muscular dragon named Belleu fell in love with an ancient human. Belleu stopped spending time with his family as he spent more time with the human and her clan. His brother Kohri got mad and after years he finally confronted him. Kohri went on a rant about how the dragon left the pack. Kohri is a poisonous dragon, so he decided “I’ll show you how precious your pets really are” and he went on a killing spree. Belleu was able to stop Kohri but many humans were already dead.

Kohri spread lies that humans were free food created by Morcudii and her assistants. He kept repeating this lie and would speak it like as if it were fact. Many dragons brushed him off at first. He kept repeating it and told compelling stories. His evidence would be fake logs whose authenticity was hard to verify with just eyes.

A band of dragons who wanted free food helped him spread these lies. Eventually, more and more dragons fell for it and would eat humans.

After, dragons began hunting humans for sport while humans hunted dragons for food. Eventually there was a great loss of human life, which Morcudii (her body now elderly) saw as a loss for the Empire.

Angered at the senseless killing and hunting for sport, she enacted rules for the “stupid earth dragons” to follow. She stated, “as far as I know, other planets didn’t have this problem. It is shameful that this is happening on earth.”

Her rules were put in place and breaking them was a punishment of death or being sent to roast in a cold star (or in the sun, for more cold-inclined dragons).

She stated, “humans are to grow, and we are to shepherd them along this process.”

However, she was presented with reports from other dragon-owned planets with varying degrees of loss of life. She saw the violent tendencies and bloodshed in the wake of the wyrms.

Everywhere they go, there is a chance—not a certainty—of bloodshed occurring after full draconic control.

Her rules were enforced in every planet, with the empire’s core values, “conquer and control. Breed and integrate. Harm, not kill. Spread the draconian species” being enforced even harder for the sake of ‘newer species of dragons and ensuring the eternal continuation of our species.’

What happened to Kohri and Belleu?

Eventually, Kohri finally took a human form. His curiosity got the better of him. He kept to himself for a while, surviving in forests or, if he were traveling the desert, living at an oasis. His travels took him into Persia. He slowly entered human society by stealing their food and selling items he found on his travels. He even sold a few of his scales to afford a small house.

Kohri learned human laws and customs by interacting with them, and eventually became fluent in human society. He did find someone to love. A lady who dreamed of being a warrior. Kohri trained her and sparred with her every day. He told her, “I never thought a human would best me in battle.” He was enthusiastic every time they’d have practice.

When war came in the form of Phillip II’s Macedonian army, Kohri assumed dragon form and vowed to protect his home. With his lady, they rode into battle on dragonback. Kohri set fire to Phillip, the leader, and the Macedonians were forced into retreat. However, it was not the last he’d see of them.

They returned with Alexander at the helm. He targeted Kohri specifically, and his portions of his arm for surprise attack. Kohri forced his lady to flee, and then he set fire to some of the soldiers, but found himself bound at the maw, tripped onto his back and subsequently had his limbs torn apart. Meanwhile, the rest of the conquest continued. Kohri was taken as a prize. It’s hard to find any records of his escape, but scattered stories and reports say he was seen flying over Thebes three years after his capture.

He is survived by his descendants whom he sired with the lady.

Belleu had a happier time. He also assumed human form and traveled though north and west Africa. He settled in Mali where he created his own family and studied the Muslim faith. As a dragon, he used his strength and abilities to assist the locals in their everyday lives. His presence attracted more dragons, and the ones who took human guises were compelled to reveal themselves.

He had contact with Mali’s numerous rulers. He accompanied Mansa Musa on his pilgrimage to Mecca. He had to carry some gold, which he complained about for the first few days, but that wore off when he saw the different human societies and different Crotonian and dragon species living within.

Belleu and his family stayed with the Malinese emperors, and were even advisors in some of their situations. Although, Belleu always tries to take the pacifist route with political dealings. His son? Eh…

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In the 433th edition of #Paranatellonta, we're celebrating life together with the gods!
🩻
#skeletons #trees #treearch #mythology #gods #photography #flashfiction #totterpad #meerhout #death #bones #cemetery #celebration
🍃
https://paranatellonta.tumblr.com/post/826561137942429696/celebration-it-is-a-common-misconception-that-the

"I have an announcement that may shock you."

Jacob tried not to stare at his shoes. This was his team, after all - software developers who discovered they were fictional characters.

He sighed. "I had this whole presentation figured out. I'd say, 'Hello team, I present the fifth wall interface, allowing us to contact past published versions of ourselv-' oh crap!" He had bumped the mouse, and it skittered across the keyboard.

"That's not supposed to be on, yet-," he closed the lid to his laptop, but continued staring at it.

Maggie spoke up. "Several weeks ago, we heard your voice coming from the future. It was your voice that we heard just now, wasn't it, through your fifth wall app?"

Jacob nodded slowly. "I'm going to delete the fifth wall app, though."

After a pregnant pause, Reggie responded, "That you would back away from a crazy app like this is actually more shocking than knowing you just sent a message to our past selves."

"Hey!"

#MicroFiction #FlashFiction #TootFic #ShortStory #SciFi #ScienceFiction

“We’re gonna be able to live forever. The way we keep advancing medicine, it’s inevitable.”
His teeth are too white, and he slicked down his hair with some sort of oil. Brylcreem perhaps. He tapped his phone screen.
“Look at the data. I’ve got it all on my website.” He holds out the phone for me to see. “Soon, there’ll be no more dying.”
I spit a glob of phlegm onto his sneakers. “Liar. You’re just selling air.”
...
#microfiction #satire #writing #existential #fiction #flashfiction #nihilism

🔮 Dive into spine-chilling tales that pack a punch in just a few words. Submit your microhorror stories (under 500 words) to Dark Descent for a chance to unsettle and linger.

📖 https://www.darkholmepublishing.uk/darkdescentsubmissions

#horrorwriters #flashfiction #readingcommunity #horrorcommunity #writingcommunity #indieauthors #darkfiction

My flash fiction, “The Tick Tick Tick of Today and Tomorrow’s Smoky Promise," appears in Unfurled: An Anthology of Trans and Genderqueer Voices. My story is about possibly breaking through procrastination.

https://books2read.com/u/b5eEy7

#FlashFiction #Anthology #CanLit #QueerLit #SpeculativeFiction

👁 Same image. Every writer found something different to be afraid of in it.

The Dark Descent Picture Prompt entries are open — worth a read if short horror is your thing. Community votes for the top three and they go into the Dark Descent Monthly Magazine.

👉 Have a read here: https://www.darkholmepublishing.uk/dark-descent-microhorror-comp

What makes micro-horror actually land for you?

#HorrorLit #Bookstodon #FlashFiction

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Your-Stories-Anthology-September-2026-ebook/dp/B0HGY1SGRZ/ #stories #fiction #flashfiction

Last Limp

Old old old fiction taking place within the Ruggizuomo storyline featured in Dragon Mafia

In the mist of New York, Roland Nikdydobrý was running in the rain. He had neither an umbrella nor a hat. He frantically looked around, as if he was searching for someone. He studied the crowd. There were no signs of steady movement. The people were walking like robots. He ran across the rainy streets, avoiding cars that honked at him but dared not stop. He stumbled into a nearby café. When that little bell rung, everyone slowly lifted their heads to stare at him. Their eyes were a thirsty blood red color. One woman reading a magazine stared at him with emerald green eyes. A teenage boy took his stare away from his iPhone to stare with blue eyes.

Roland gulped. His chest was heaving. He ran out the door but was met with a crowd of people surrounding him…staring at him. He dashed across the street, little light shone in the rainy and cloudy skies. He ran up to a payphone, probably the last of its kind, and dialed a number like a frantic man.

“Rugizzuomo Army, please!”

He constantly checked his surroundings with quick glances. He waited for someone to pick up, and finally a click.

“Maya! It’s Roland! Tell Riley I love him as a brother and I’ll miss him. I need this message delivered to Emperor Aaron. I am going to follow Beatrice to Illinois by posing as an entourage member. Someone is already letting me know they know I’m suspicious. I know because all of New York is possessed! Even when I was on something called the Wendy Williams show and the spell took affect there. Do not send forces until I end up dead and on the news!”

He hung up and frantically looked like someone on the run from police. He searched for a taxi while watching the surroundings. A man across the street stared at him. Another person across the street smiled. Everyone started smiling at him as the rain came down harder and the winds picked up like a hurricane. A newspaper flew in his face. Roland struggled with it, and when he ripped it off a taxi was right in front of him. He forced the door open and scrambled inside with haste.

“Drive!” He commanded as he slammed the door.

The wet man looked in the rear-view window and saw the taxi driver, whom was smiling and had eyes flooded with green colors. Roland stumbled out of the moving car and ran across the street and into the flowing crowd of walkers. They stopped to watch as he entered another taxi. He made his way inside and examined the driver. He smiled, but his smile wasn’t sinister and evil. The car drove off and Roland sighed with relief. As they came to an intersection Roland heard the sound of a speeding car. He looked out the window and another car slammed into the taxi. The left door creaked open and Roland, bloodied from his left cheek to his hand, fell out shaking and trembling. He stood up and limped across the sleek city streets. The world was spinning. Those red eyes still followed him like red neon lights.

There were 3 stories in the Last Limp saga. One preceded this, and was about Roland going to Illinois to monitor Beatrice. In this version Roland, brother of Riley, was investigating a cult of some sort. They called themselves Kuruga. It is left open to your interpretation. I will certainly not play with it.

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#ThursThreads Week 720 Winners post is up. Congrats to Three Time Winner Miranda Boers and Honorable Mention Eric Martell . Great thanks to Mark Ethridge for judging this week. Check out the winning tale. #FlashFiction #WritingCommunity #Writing https://siobhanmuir.com/thursthreads-week-720-winners/

#ThursThreadsPlus post is up. Want to see what I'm working on? Join today. #Romance #RomanticSuspense #PNR #FlashFiction #Writing #Patreon https://www.patreon.com/SiobhanMuir/posts/thursthreads-27-167864155?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=postshare_creator&utm_content=join_link

Post-apocalypse tip: if a stranger offers a free hot meal, ask 'what's the catch?' Jimmy G skips the MREs for a cafe meal, only to learn the menu has plans for him too. https://inkican.com/emergency-reality-shelter-science-fiction-short-stories/table-for-one-scifi-flash-fiction/ #SciFi #FlashFiction #Dystopia

#ThursThreads Week 720 is LIVE. Come tie on your tale for judge Mark Ethridge. What will your 250 words say today? #Flashfiction #WritingCommunity #Writing #WritingPrompt https://siobhanmuir.com/thursthreads-tying-tales-together-week-720/

🩸 The silence is thick, the shadows deeper.
Dark Descent is seeking horror flash fiction — short stories under 500 words.
We’re after bite-sized nightmares, cursed relics, and creeping dread.
📖 Submit: https://www.darkholmepublishing.uk/darkdescentsubmissions

#horror #writingcommunity #flashfiction #darkfiction #microfiction #shortstory #creepyreads #indieauthors #fictionwriters #scaryreads

Being self-aware fictional characters that could interact with the outside world was uncharted territory for Jacob and his colleagues. Even to Jacob, though, his new app was beginning to feel like he was playing with fire.

Nesso, the sentient chatbot sharing their world, felt compelled to point this out.

::Jacob, didn't both Sophia and Maggie express strong opinions against pursuing this?::

"It's just a small prototype."

::How small of a prototype?::

"The app can view... and modify our past stories," he replied guiltily.

::Jacob, your stories are hosted in three different data centers. Author doesn't have a synchronization mechanism set up. Any modifications you'd make to the current copy wouldn't be replicated to the other two::

"I know. I've tried to make this safe, which is why the app is currently set to read-only."

::Guardrails - you? I'm shocked::

"Hey!"

#MicroFiction #FlashFiction #TootFic #ShortStory #SciFi #ScienceFiction

Are y'all ready for #ThursThreads tomorrow? Mark Ethridge is our judge and he's looking forward to your tales. Got a tale to tie on? #FlashFiction #WritingCommunity #WritingChallenge #Writing https://siobhanmuir.com/blog

#flashfiction

"Sarah sat on the sofa while her mother prepared biscuits she had never liked..."
Coming Home by Chris Kenn https://medium.com/lit-up/coming-home-d2c59b3fdcc4
#flashfiction #fiction #darkfiction in the Lit Up press #litpub and #readingcommunity