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Challenge #02092-E268: Call of Destiny

"How stupid do you think I look?"

"I don't know, I can't see you from here." -- Anon Guest

Of all the curses, in all the known universe, there is little that's more insulting than being sassed by a telemarketer. "Listen," I said, "I'm not going to do your stupid damn check for a windows virus. I'm not paying my taxes by the phone. I'm not suing someone for a car accident I had twelve years ago that didn't even do any damage, I'm just... not. You might think you're getting paid for doing four jobs at once, but you're just fucking them all up, faster."

"You're fucking them up faster," said the voice on the other end of the line. Clearly, they had cut out the whole management supervision section of the damn telescammer central building or wherever they were these days.

This had to be the weirdest telemarketing call I'd ever got. "Are you trying to get fired or something? I can sympathise."

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Challenge #02091-E267: Schrödinger's Bounty

"How did the cat get inside a locked cupboard?"

"It's an incomplete Schrödinger." -- Anon Guest

Krissk stared at his Human companion. "How is a thought experiment on the nature of the Uncertainty Principle at all related to the presence of a feline in a locked box with no other exits?"

Human Jan said, "It's because of the Uncertainty Principle that cats can teleport," with a completely straight face. "That's how they get into places and things that they physically should never

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Challenge #02090-E266: A Bond Cemented With Carbonic Acid

"I'm just joking!… Unless you're down for it." -- TheDragonsFlame

Evidently, Thrass had been contemplating too long. "I am still positing the logistics," she said. "I need time, please."

Human Josh quelled in her place. "Sorry."

Thrass and Human Josh had been through a great deal together. War, survival, relying on each other's strengths and supporting each other's weaknesses. They had really bonded on the long, exhausting, trying trip from the wreck of their ship to the relative safety of the Edge

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Challenge #02089-E265: Living Corbomite

"I don't know what is happening, but I don't like it"

"Why ?"

"The human is smiling" -- Anon Guest

One of their own writers said it the best: Never trust a creature that smiles all the time, they're up to something. And they were very, very correct. The most frequent portent of doom, next to phrases like, "Hold my beer," or "I think I know what I did wrong," is most definitely a Human smiling in a certain way for a period

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Challenge #02088-E264: Visual Aids

Just read and interesting science article about how Humans are actually Bioluminescent but we can't see it because our eyes are not sensitive enough.

How amazing would that look to aliens? Especially if it were different colours like the Naa'vi in Avatar -- Adam in Darwin

The most astonishing fact that the Scollarids learned about Humans was this: Humans can't see their own glow. These Deathworlders were on par with them when it came to surviving strategies. They did more with less,

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Challenge #02087-E263: The True Revolution

[AN: Steemit has reconfigured its jiggery-pokery and I won't be able to post today's story there until much, much later. When that happens, this post will have a link. Stay tuned]

a female who hears about bad stuff happening to other ladies, but are oblivious because it never happens to them. -- Anon Guest

Cindy never knew she was her friends' Protector for years. She just thought that everything that happened was normal. Walking with Sishawna and any of her friends to

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Challenge #02086-E262: Love on Lo Batt

"I don't know how to get home,"

"But you walked there yourself, just walk back the way you came,"

"Just because I managed to blindly stumble into the right building doesn't mean I have any idea where I am or how I got here." -- OohLookShiny

"What?" Blue made a face. It was a face that could easily be read as What the hell? because the print was so large.

Red sighed. "It's like this. My mind is constantly somewhere else. It's

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Challenge #02085-E261: One Heartbreaking Revelation Far From Home

"Dragons are such majestic, Noble creatures!"

Drunk dragon forces its way through the doorway then collapses and starts snoring -- TheDragonsFlame

Marvin was grinning at everything around him like a child at their first Winterfeast Festival. He would giggle at odd moments and was almost vibrating with glee. Lady Anthe had her hood down for the first time since they had begun as an adventuring party because this was where the dragon-folk lived. Kobolds, Dragonborn, assorted Lizardkin, and actual real live Dragons

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Challenge #02084-E260: Warned You So

It's been said, regarding history, that "Everything repeats over and over again. No one learns anything, 'cause no one lives long enough to see the pattern..."

...but what if someone did? -- Anon Guest

My name is Loth. It rhymes with moth. I've taken up variations on the surnames Smith and Jones, all over the world. I know a lot of people who do illegal things to make certain my identities are stable. See... when you're immortal, you don't always want the

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Challenge #02083-E259: Nonhostile Takeover

Their faces were caked with color, like they had heard of make up and tried to use it, but weren't quite sure what went where. -- OohLookShiny

This is space - theoretically, there's room for everyone. The only caveat is that most times, you have to build it. This is Ambassador Jess. She is negotiating with the owners of an otherwise boring asteroid so she can turn it into a semi-profitable habitat. This is the problem - the owners belong to Greater

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Challenge #02082-E258: Limited Universal Communication

what if memes are a totally human thing?

like we meet aliens and try to explain this cultural thing, and they have nothing to compare it to, they don't have self replicating cultural phenomena. -- Anon Guest

The Human tripped on their own feet, tumbled, but tucked and rolled and recovered their footing in one nearly smooth moment.

"Sweet flips," cheered a different Human.

"Got the moves like Jagger!" The initial Human did a weird series of gyrations, causing them to hurt

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Challenge #02081-E257: Young Game, Old Players

The thing most deserving of both respect and fear in equally large amounts is an old man in a place where they often die young. -- Anon Guest

Oort Herding is a game for the young. The ability to weave through free-floating bodies in the depths of absolute darkness, to spot a dirty snowball before the Hungry Caterpillar does, to do the necessary gravitational kicks to cometary objects and get out of the way in the correct direction, all needs fast reflexes

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Challenge #02080-E256: Station Cats

what would be a "normal" day for a cat in a space-station? -- Anon Guest

[AN: I originally thought - normal pet cat or Skitty? And then I thought... why not both?]

Pet.

The day begins with the rude noise as Elith's Feedme[1] stirs in their sleep nook. Elith used her claws to show mild displeasure at having her own rest disturbed by the movement of the Feedme. Not that she could stop the bald, two-legged creature. Feedmes were much bigger

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Challenge #02079-E255: Minions These Days

In a lab, an avian in a white coat with 'assistant' written on it has got a test tube in each hand while the researcher does her work. "What is he doing with those test tube?" "I'm helping Dr Susie !" "I told him that I needed him to hold those 2 important test tube and that one of them is highly poisonous and the other one is an unstable explosive. He doesn't know that's water." "Why ?" "Assistant, give me the explosive one.

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Challenge #02078-E254: Breach

[Camera recording ○○, Research lab. Subject identified as "Wolf I think?" by Interviewer] [Interviewer enters the room, Subject emits a pulse of light, Interviewer collapses on his knees.Blue light connects foreheads of both Subject and Interviewer] [Subject] I was... created for the sole purpose of... preserving knowledge of my creators. I was... cannoned? [Interviewer, unconscious] Launched. [Subject] Launched... Directly away from our [スタル]. It went supernova. [long pause, Interviewer wakes up, Blue light vanishes, Subject suddenly vanishes] -- 誰ですか?

"Oh shit," they

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