Instant Story

Flash fiction fresh from my fingers to your mind!

Challenge #01961-E137: A Word

Fictional character in 'Real World'. -- Anon Guest

A little kindness goes a long way. Especially when it's been so clearly lacking. When Jenny found Hodor shivering in an alleyway, she thought he was yet another homeless person out of luck. She'd given him a blanket she'd been planning to throw out anyway. And instead of saying anything that might have made sense, he'd said, "Hodor." And then followed her to work.

For Jenny, any weird situation was an opportunity. She'd always needed help with the flour sacks at the bakery anyway, and Hodor was eager to carry around fifty-pound sacks like they were pillows. He could understand, she figured that out but... he only had one word. So she invented a rudimentary sign language with him. Flapping a hand for 'hot'. Blowing on fingers for 'cold'. Patting the middle for 'hungry'. And so on.

And his presence tended to cool down the average angry and impatient baby boomer, too. All he had to do was hang around in Jenny's shadow and the customers were suddenly very polite and extremely patient. Not that Jenny and her co-bakers ever tested that very hard. Others at the bakery liked him, too. Just for that one service.

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Challenge #01960-E136: Playing With Alice

The lines of reality cross and a childhood print character is in our world. -- Anon Guest

Be careful what you wish for, they say. They know what they are saying. They've had to fight this sort of thing before.

But nevertheless, now that magic has returned to the world, some wishes have power. Some words are uttered in full faith. At the right time. On the right leylines. With the correct pose. On the correct night.

Star light, star bright, the

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Challenge #01959-E135: Something Blue

Pick a cartoon character from print media, and the lines between reality cross. -- Anon Guest

[AN: I couldn't pick just one]

"Unglaublich..." said five voices at once. Various incarnations of Nightcrawler were staring at each other.

"Hail and well met," said another blue figure in a ridiculously tall hat. "This is not the markets I was in a second ago, not racially profiling, here, but... did anyone do anything... eldritch?"

"Fear not, citizens," said a big, beefy, man beef in a

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Challenge #01958-E134: The New Terror

They warned us about AI, aliens, the government... but nobody expected the ducks. -- TheDragonsFlame

"That's not exactly true," said one of the survivors. "Alfred Hitchcock tried, but it didn't quite get there."

Sandy fed another page of a glossy magazine to the guttering flames as she tried to work this out. "You mean The Birds?"

"That was full of crows and seagulls and pigeons, though."

"Yeah, well. Ducks are hard to be believable as a threat. Or they were."

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Challenge #01957-E133: If it Works...

person one: human do you have a plan?

person 2 : yes

p1: a good one?

p2: a TERRIBLE PLAN! -- Anon Guest

G'roz stared at the human. "How can you have a plan that is terrible? Do you not say that a plan that works cannot be terrible."

Human Steve sighed and said, "It's terrible in that you'll find it upsetting, stressful, and with a high danger potential."

And it was telling how long G'roz had been around humans, because ze said,

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Challenge #01956-E132: Impressive, But...

"Hmm... I'm impressed."

"I/We thought you'd like it."

"I said I was impressed, not that I like it." -- TheDragonsFlame

There are certain things that were just... impressive. A cellar full of drunk middle-schoolers chanting Fuck da police whilst a policeman is present. Singing, This is me giving a shit, in front of a man who has the power of life and death over you after he has just attempted to insult you. Staging a resistance against a superior force, alone,

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Challenge #01955-E131: Good Morning! Good Morning!

From the "Coffee Zombie" Human to the "Warmth Seeker" Reptilian, the earlier hours of the morning can be amusing. -- Anon Guest

Of all the phenomenon in known civilisation, slow starters versus morning people is one of the most universal. The people who spring from their slumber, fresh-faced and cheerful and raring to go are both treasured and hated in equal measure. Treasured, because they are the kind of people who can be relied upon to make the coffee or hot beverages

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Challenge #01954-E130: Surrogacy of the Beast

Are you mad?! You realize you basically just made a deal with the devil, right? Literally!” “Ah, you weren’t paying close enough attention. I did not just make a deal with the devil... No, in fact, the Devil just made a deal with me.” -- Anon Guest

"Now. Mister... Scratch," said the lawyer. "I understand that you wish this particular event to proceed, but my client wishes to have some... guarantees."

Beelzebub, Lord of the Flies, Angel of Lies, the Fallen,

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Challenge #01953-E129: Lost in a Hellscape

A couple who have no recollection of how they got there find themselves in a lethally dangerous environment where every creature and several of the plants seem to be trying to kill them. Being religious, they realize they are lost souls and this must be hell.

Then the search party finds them. They were vacationing in Australia and had wandered off after someone gave them roofies.

But what happened in between that would make and amnesiac tourist decide that they were just

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Challenge #01952-E128: Transformative Love

Fan fiction, some of it heartbreakingly brilliant, some of it so badly written you wonder if they ever even saw the original series. But glued to their devices they tap out their allegiance to people or beings who are imaginary. -- Anon Guest

The Archive of Transformative Works is a subset of the Archivaas Conglomerate. Those who strive to preserve everything humanity or intelligent life has created. Even the worst that a barely creative mind has to offer. It is oppressively huge.

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Challenge #01951-E127: Posthumous Communication

Sandwiched between cardboard, or up-market leather they colour our lives, change the way we see the world, and of course they never age. Sherlock Holmes, Robin Hood, James Bond, Mr Darcy, Alice, Tom Sawyer. -- Anon Guest

"And then there's the curious incident of the dog in the night-time," Alpex read out loud. Like all new readers, the reading was painful and slow and almost monotonous. Ze stopped. "You do know this method of information sharing is the one least likely to

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Challenge #01950-E126: What is Life and What is Real

They are quite real to us these lines coloured in sometimes, they've been with us since we first met them, and they seem 'real'. Comics, graphic novels, the funny pages. -- Knitnan

They were just shapes on a page. They should very clearly not be so impactful. They were the written word. They were pictorial representations of impossible things. They were imagination. They weren't real. And yet...

There he was. Hiding away from the world because these particular shapes on a page

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Challenge #01949-E125: Naked Without it

Pointy hats! There are the black, with a brim witch's model, the sparkly and starred wizard or wizzard's, the upside down ice cream cone with a floaty veil princess model and the plain paper cone with a big "D" for dunce. -- Knitnan

[AN: I don't think the D-cap existed outside of the Victorian Era]

You couldn't deny he was a wizard. The hat was a huge give-away. It made his full, wizarding height two feet taller and he changed it in

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Challenge #01948-E124: Who's a Good Dog?

In the land of magic, Death frequently has problems with pets that absolutely refuse to stay dead. -- Anon Guest

In all of creation, there is nothing more loyal than a good dog. Though it was widely agreed that Kerby was one of the truly daft ones. He was a rescue dog, and had some kind of skin infection that made him look dead. Dan, who had picked him up with a shovel as part of his job, got the fright of

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Challenge #01947-E123: Loose End Tied

"Never, ever empty this person's pockets again!" referencing Harpo Marx, Sergeant Constantine Bothari, and any JOAT! -- Anon Guest

Okay, now I've fucked up, thought Taako, transmutation wizard extraordinaire. Crew-member of the Starblaster. Multi-dimensional traveller. One of the Seven Birds of Prophecy. Member of the B.O.B. Best chef in all of Faerûn. Oh, and main squeeze of the Grim fucking Reaper. This thought came, of course, at half-consciousness as the not-so-stupid guards dragged him to the throne room of the

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