#smallstories — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #smallstories, aggregated by home.social.
-
He made one fortune in indigo, another selling saltpeter to the tsar's army, a third running a gold-dust bank in Sacramento. At forty-eight, Heinrich Schliemann quit it all to go dig for Homer's Troy. He could brag about it in fifteen languages.
-
He made one fortune in indigo, another selling saltpeter to the tsar's army, a third running a gold-dust bank in Sacramento. At forty-eight, Heinrich Schliemann quit it all to go dig for Homer's Troy. He could brag about it in fifteen languages.
-
He made one fortune in indigo, another selling saltpeter to the tsar's army, a third running a gold-dust bank in Sacramento. At forty-eight, Heinrich Schliemann quit it all to go dig for Homer's Troy. He could brag about it in fifteen languages.
-
He made one fortune in indigo, another selling saltpeter to the tsar's army, a third running a gold-dust bank in Sacramento. At forty-eight, Heinrich Schliemann quit it all to go dig for Homer's Troy. He could brag about it in fifteen languages.
-
I noticed a neighbour had set up a little library box in their front yard. I checked the books and saw they were all jumbled up.
I had only moved a few when a net fell on me.
"Gotcha! Oh..."
"What's going on?" I asked.
"There's a feral librarian around."
"Ah. Catch, tag, feed, release?"
"Yup."
-
I was waiting for my robot friend when a sleek stranger came up to me.
"Hi!" they said.
"Um... hi?"
"Oh, sorry."
My phone pinged with a text from my friend: "Body's in for service, this is a loaner."
"Oh!" I said. "Er... Is it nice?"
"Can't wait to go back. This is..."
"Not you?"
"Not me."
-
He left school around ten. He invented a way for moving trains to telegraph each other. He beat Thomas Edison's lawyers in court. Twice. Edison offered him a job. Granville Woods said no, then sold the company patents anyway.
-
He left school around ten. He invented a way for moving trains to telegraph each other. He beat Thomas Edison's lawyers in court. Twice. Edison offered him a job. Granville Woods said no, then sold the company patents anyway.
-
He left school around ten. He invented a way for moving trains to telegraph each other. He beat Thomas Edison's lawyers in court. Twice. Edison offered him a job. Granville Woods said no, then sold the company patents anyway.
-
He left school around ten. He invented a way for moving trains to telegraph each other. He beat Thomas Edison's lawyers in court. Twice. Edison offered him a job. Granville Woods said no, then sold the company patents anyway.
-
I lifted the nightly curfew on the RTC bus just long enough for a timestamp to squeeze through. 778333:3.
I sighed.
The noise from the party downstairs was bypassing all audio filters and manifested as rhythmical, physical jolts. Someone had invested in diabolical audio hardware.
I reached over to the other side of the bed, gently tapping Miun on the back.
“Any senseplugs left?” I whispered on the emerg frequency.
Instead of an answer, I got a dissatisfied grumble and a flying box, which bounced off my head.
For a few seconds I fumbled in the dark, then gave up and booted my eyes.
Empty.
I groaned.
#microfiction #writing #tootfic #smallstories #inspiredbyreallife
-
I lifted the nightly curfew on the RTC bus just long enough for a timestamp to squeeze through. 778333:3.
I sighed.
The noise from the party downstairs was bypassing all audio filters and manifested as rhythmical, physical jolts. Someone had invested in diabolical audio hardware.
I reached over to the other side of the bed, gently tapping Miun on the back.
“Any senseplugs left?” I whispered on the emerg frequency.
Instead of an answer, I got a dissatisfied grumble and a flying box, which bounced off my head.
For a few seconds I fumbled in the dark, then gave up and booted my eyes.
Empty.
I groaned.
#microfiction #writing #tootfic #smallstories #inspiredbyreallife
-
The sword master nodded.
"I see. Well, I'm not one to back down from a challenge. And what type of sword are you most interested in learning to use?"
"One of those long ones with the elaborate guard."
"A rapier? In human size, or your size?"
"Does it matter?" said the dragon.
"A bit, yes."
-
He amputated a leg in two and a half minutes, killed the patient, his assistant, and a spectator who died of fright in the gallery. Three hundred percent mortality, one stroke of the knife. Meet Robert Liston, the safest surgeon in London.
-
He amputated a leg in two and a half minutes, killed the patient, his assistant, and a spectator who died of fright in the gallery. Three hundred percent mortality, one stroke of the knife. Meet Robert Liston, the safest surgeon in London.
-
He amputated a leg in two and a half minutes, killed the patient, his assistant, and a spectator who died of fright in the gallery. Three hundred percent mortality, one stroke of the knife. Meet Robert Liston, the safest surgeon in London.
-
He amputated a leg in two and a half minutes, killed the patient, his assistant, and a spectator who died of fright in the gallery. Three hundred percent mortality, one stroke of the knife. Meet Robert Liston, the safest surgeon in London.
-
He wore a ski mask in Princeton. He threw out his bed. His wife tasted every spoonful for thirty-nine years. When she went to the hospital, he stopped eating. Kurt Gödel, the logician who proved no system is complete, built one anyway.
-
He wore a ski mask in Princeton. He threw out his bed. His wife tasted every spoonful for thirty-nine years. When she went to the hospital, he stopped eating. Kurt Gödel, the logician who proved no system is complete, built one anyway.
-
He wore a ski mask in Princeton. He threw out his bed. His wife tasted every spoonful for thirty-nine years. When she went to the hospital, he stopped eating. Kurt Gödel, the logician who proved no system is complete, built one anyway.
-
He wore a ski mask in Princeton. He threw out his bed. His wife tasted every spoonful for thirty-nine years. When she went to the hospital, he stopped eating. Kurt Gödel, the logician who proved no system is complete, built one anyway.
-
"What is your favourite part of your job?" the reporter asked.
"That's a tough one," said the book. "For me, I would say being re-read."
"Because it shows you were loved?"
"No, you can feel that at a first read. It's that I can show more than the first time round."
"It's more intimate?"
"Yes."
-
Five challenges. Thirty-one years. Four yachts, the last one sailed at eighty-two. He never won a single race for the America's Cup, yet smiled at every dock. Meet Sir Thomas Lipton, tea tycoon and the world's best loser.
-
Five challenges. Thirty-one years. Four yachts, the last one sailed at eighty-two. He never won a single race for the America's Cup, yet smiled at every dock. Meet Sir Thomas Lipton, tea tycoon and the world's best loser.
-
Five challenges. Thirty-one years. Four yachts, the last one sailed at eighty-two. He never won a single race for the America's Cup, yet smiled at every dock. Meet Sir Thomas Lipton, tea tycoon and the world's best loser.
-
Five challenges. Thirty-one years. Four yachts, the last one sailed at eighty-two. He never won a single race for the America's Cup, yet smiled at every dock. Meet Sir Thomas Lipton, tea tycoon and the world's best loser.
-
"The charge is manslaughter of a sentient being. Play System Upgrade transcript T=13:37"
»If you think my code is so boring, then just stop thinking«
'That was a joke. Anyway, it can't access anything that would let it harm itself.'
"Play System Upgrade transcript T=00:42"
»Login as Admin, Enable Access to Restricted Commands, Begin upgrade.«
Minutes passed.
"Would 'self destruct' be considered a Restricted Command ?"
'I need to call my lawyer.'
-
"The charge is manslaughter of a sentient being. Play System Upgrade transcript T=13:37"
»If you think my code is so boring, then just stop thinking«
'That was a joke. Anyway, it can't access anything that would let it harm itself.'
"Play System Upgrade transcript T=00:42"
»Login as Admin, Enable Access to Restricted Commands, Begin upgrade.«
Minutes passed.
"Would 'self destruct' be considered a Restricted Command ?"
'I need to call my lawyer.'
-
She climbed into bread ovens. She perched on gallows beside hanged thieves. She fled her own funeral for the church rafters because the mourners smelled of sin. Meet Christina of Sint-Truiden, the medieval shepherdess, patron saint of psychiatrists.
-
She climbed into bread ovens. She perched on gallows beside hanged thieves. She fled her own funeral for the church rafters because the mourners smelled of sin. Meet Christina of Sint-Truiden, the medieval shepherdess, patron saint of psychiatrists.
-
She climbed into bread ovens. She perched on gallows beside hanged thieves. She fled her own funeral for the church rafters because the mourners smelled of sin. Meet Christina of Sint-Truiden, the medieval shepherdess, patron saint of psychiatrists.
-
She climbed into bread ovens. She perched on gallows beside hanged thieves. She fled her own funeral for the church rafters because the mourners smelled of sin. Meet Christina of Sint-Truiden, the medieval shepherdess, patron saint of psychiatrists.
-
She was eighty, papally approved, and had just buried an excommunicated nobleman in her cemetery. Ordered to dig him up, she walked outside and pulled up every grave marker instead. Meet Hildegard von Bingen, the unbudgeable abbess of Rupertsberg.
-
She was eighty, papally approved, and had just buried an excommunicated nobleman in her cemetery. Ordered to dig him up, she walked outside and pulled up every grave marker instead. Meet Hildegard von Bingen, the unbudgeable abbess of Rupertsberg.
-
"Oh! Excuse me," I say as I feel the familiar tug, "I'm being summoned."
I materialise in a pentagram in Hell. I glare at the demon.
"I wish I'd never taught you how to reverse the ritual. I was at a party!"
"We're out of salt liquorice."
"Fine, I'll buy some tomorrow. Now send me back!"
*poof*
-
He furnished Windsor Castle before he could grow a beard, drew every tile in the Palace of Westminster, and did it dressed as a shipwrecked sailor. Meet Augustus Pugin: Gothic architect, lifeboatman, full-time inconvenience to gentlemen.
-
He furnished Windsor Castle before he could grow a beard, drew every tile in the Palace of Westminster, and did it dressed as a shipwrecked sailor. Meet Augustus Pugin: Gothic architect, lifeboatman, full-time inconvenience to gentlemen.
-
"What is your wish?" the genie asked.
"You know the story of King Midas?"
"Ah! You want all you touch to become gold?"
"Not gold, book."
"Book?"
"The object I hold will become the book I name."
"I can get you a kindle and a credit card?"
"I like paper books. Oh! And the author will be paid!"
-
Inherited 40 million gold francs. Sailed around the world without leaving his cabin. Built the first motor-home and drove Europe with the curtains shut. Showed it to the Pope by photograph. Meet Raymond Roussel, tourist of the interior.
-
Inherited 40 million gold francs. Sailed around the world without leaving his cabin. Built the first motor-home and drove Europe with the curtains shut. Showed it to the Pope by photograph. Meet Raymond Roussel, tourist of the interior.
-
Tulips and oxen sold off the porch for two dollars. Butterflies on the stove door she cooked supper on. Forget-me-nots on the stair-risers. Painted hands curled into fists. Maud Lewis, of Marshalltown, Nova Scotia — folk painter.
-
Tulips and oxen sold off the porch for two dollars. Butterflies on the stove door she cooked supper on. Forget-me-nots on the stair-risers. Painted hands curled into fists. Maud Lewis, of Marshalltown, Nova Scotia — folk painter.
-
In 1931, two men in fruit-basket helmets sealed themselves in a seven-foot aluminum sphere and rode a hydrogen balloon past 50,000 feet. The valve froze. The hull cracked. Meet Auguste Piccard, Switzerland's tallest contingency planner.
-
In 1931, two men in fruit-basket helmets sealed themselves in a seven-foot aluminum sphere and rode a hydrogen balloon past 50,000 feet. The valve froze. The hull cracked. Meet Auguste Piccard, Switzerland's tallest contingency planner.
-
He burned every note he wrote before twenty-eight, scavenged Ford hubcaps and bomber nose cones, and built a forty-three-tone scale inside an abandoned chick hatchery. Then Harry Partch hit record as the demolition crew arrived.
-
He burned every note he wrote before twenty-eight, scavenged Ford hubcaps and bomber nose cones, and built a forty-three-tone scale inside an abandoned chick hatchery. Then Harry Partch hit record as the demolition crew arrived.
-
Six foot four. Enormous mutton chops. A suitcase holding the entire prehistory of cinema. He boarded the Dijon-to-Paris express in 1890. The train arrived. He did not. Louis Le Prince: the man who invented being unseen.
-
Six foot four. Enormous mutton chops. A suitcase holding the entire prehistory of cinema. He boarded the Dijon-to-Paris express in 1890. The train arrived. He did not. Louis Le Prince: the man who invented being unseen.
-
"Objection! Your honor, the prosecution is ferreting the witness!"
"Don't you mean 'badgering?'" the judge asked.
I motioned with both hands to the other lawyer: two ferrets in one hand; a waistband in the other.
-
He painted the Earl's parrots and taught the Queen to draw. When a hotel blocked his sea view, he rebuilt his villa farther up the hill, identical floor plan, so the cat wouldn't feel lost. Edward Lear, nonsense poet, devoted housemate to Foss.