Instant Story

Challenge #01426-C331: But Why Not?

This shopping list.

You can have four. -- RecklessPrudence

"Aw come on..."

"None of that 'come on', love. This is beyond a bad idea."

"But how can I do my YouTube special Mythbuster Busters?"

Claire glared at Kevin. "You. Don't."

"Aaaaawwwww.... come ooooonnnnnn... I could be internet famous..."

"You could be hospitalised."

"That's the best way to get internet famous."

Claire glared him down. "Find another way. You have other talents that can get you there without hurting yourself. Come up with something creative. You can do that easily."

"How about two treadmills?"

"No."

"A treadmill and a bicycle?"

"Use what we have, love. And that's final."

Kevin grumped and peeved in her trail. "I still get the four candles, right?"

Sigh. "Yeah. You can have the four candles."

The way Kevin fist-pumped and whispered, "Yes!" victoriously gave Claire cold shivers.

"And don't set anything on fire."

"Aw, come ooooooonnnnn..."

(Muse food remaining: 10. Submit a Prompt! Ask a question! Buy my stories! Or comment below!)

Challenge #01425-C330: Corrupted Signals

Truly showing someone you love them. -- RecklessPrudence

Mating displays in the common human are more than perplexing. Subtle signs of affection are usually missed and overt signals of hostility are misinterpreted. The dominating culture of an individual can lead to confusion when meeting an individual from another...

"Hey babe."

"I'm working." Kiri didn't even look up from her work. Didn't acknowledge him.

"All work and no play makes Jill a dull girl," said Don. He thought he was being flirtatious. She

Challenge #01424-C329: Loyalty to Immortals

Going along with humans being fae to city animals (#01413-C318), humans being the long-lived elves to dogs.

(Hi, I'm back! Sorry for the hiatus in prompts) -- RecklessPrudence

[AN: No worries]

Mother had brought them to see Grandmother, who sniffed them all in greeting before she lay in the sunshine. Her muzzle was grey and her joints were stiff.

"Soon," said Grandmother, "you will be chosen. One may be chosen to remain... here..." She dozed a little, panting at her own happy

Challenge #01423-C328: Avoid The Greens

People discover, quite by accident, that aliens and spicy food don't mix, and that capsaicin is considered a deadly toxin by most species. -- YizukiKhons

[AN: Yeah sorry I'm late. I had to mind Miss Chaos through an exploration of QUT and some of the courses available there.]

Lynn had been trading with the Hyracont for some time. After years of setting up blind trading arrangements, she got to know a brave few. In their own livesuits, of course. There was never

Challenge #01422-C327: Some Things Don't Work

"Kill it with fire!" -- OohLookShiny

It was a joke amongst the Glunk Cleanup Detail. They were a mix of either the most dedicated cleaners, or the most incorrigible of criminals. And both were under careful watch from rescue teams, but for different reasons.

And all of them knew that flamethrowers had negligible effects on the Glunk.

Well. All of them that weren't new.

Once in a great, long while, someone who was unfamiliar with all the tried-and-failed methods of cleaning up

Challenge #01421-C326: Finding Need

"The world has need of you." It's a poem by Ellen Bass. Write something based on it please. -- Knitnan

[AN: You can read the poem over here if you're interested.]

Space is big. It's easy to imagine that the dark gulf doesn't care for the whims of one small scavenger and their ship. It was easy to feel like one tiny candle in a vast expanse of hungry darkness.

And doing EVA, checking out some empty and dark hulk... it was

Challenge #01420-C325: Intolerance Turns

"I'm not stupid, I'm not expendable, and I'm not going." Originally Kerr Avon Blake's 7. Write your own. -- Knitnan

She expected resistance. She expected hostility. Even in the face of clear and present adversity. What she hadn't expected was absolute and raw hostility.

"Mr President, I'm here to help you."

He made words come out of that ugly sneer on his face. "Go back to Iraq, you filthy Muslim! What the hell are you doing out of the seraglio anyway?"

"Sir,

Challenge #01419-C324: Creatures of the Night

Quote from Hellboy: There are things that go bump in the night. We're the ones who bump back. -- Anon Guest

[AN: I haven't had the dosh to acquire the original comics, alas. I want to get them though.]

From ghoulies and ghosties and long-leggity beasties...

It was a fine thing to believe in a merciful god. Chanda endorsed it. Belief is a powerful thing and a defense against certain evils. Unfortunately, with belief in the good, comes belief in the evil.

Challenge #01418-C323: The Button

"You should have told me what that button did."

"You shouldn't have pressed it!"

"I wouldn't have pressed it if i knew what it did!" -- OohLookShiny

"Just. Why?" said Holly.

"It was big and red and said don't touch on it," said the Doctor. "You can't understand what a raw temptation that is."

"Maybe there was a reason it was like that," argued Holly. "You don't touch big red buttons that tell you not to touch them."

"You don't touch big

Challenge #01417-C322: Contentious Neighbour

Vuvuzelas aka stadium horns plus a group of children ages 5 to 8. -- Anon Guest

The big house in the neighbourhood had finally sold. Not to a dot-com temporary millionaire or some other fancy individual, but to a business of sorts. A foster home.

Biff didn't like it. As their immediate neighbour, he got to see a lot of what was going on over the maximum-legal-tall fence. And he was offended by most of it.

Hardly any of the kids had

Challenge #01416-C321: Feed the Cow

"Cash cow" : Money producing object or project, some are carefully tended and flourish. Some are bled of cash, milked dry and only then last minute revival plans, or quick sale contemplated. -- Anon Guest

It was a mystery how such a show made it to the number one position of any television genre at all, let alone the number one watched show in the entire world. The premise was daft, the characters were simple archetypes, and the plot, such as it was,

Challenge #01415-C320: No Plan Survives

Check your plans before you press "go". in tribute to many recent project that started up with great fanfare, followed by the mad scramble to fix the mess caused by not fully planning. -- Knitnan

They say that no plan survives first contact with the enemy. In truth, hardly any plan survives the planning stage. Especially when there's the kind of person hanging around who lives to deflate any growing plan.

And then there's the sad case of anti-serendipity.

"I knew I

Challenge #01414-C319: If it Ain't Broke...

"If it isn't broke don't fix it." -- Knitnan

It was a rule every JOAT broke, sooner or later. The desire to tweak, finesse, and otherwise improve something in their radius of activity would become overwhelming.

Tel found it extremely difficult resist, stranded on a comms station that had barely enough life support for technical staff. She had edible algae making her air, and a daily supply of algae cakes that kept her alive. But also bored out of her skull.

At

Challenge #01413-C318: The Otherworldly Ones

http://phantomrose96.tumblr.com/post/152590950362/airyairyquitecontrary-aprillikesthings

Humans are Fae for urban animals -- Gallifreya

"They live in a cave," the corvid insisted. "Caves all over the cliffs. Caves in the grasslands. They're all so confusing that it's difficult to find your way out again. The sky turns into a wall. But if you find a nice one, they will take you to the wall that is open and let you be free."

"They leave food," said the possum. "Some even give

Challenge #01412-C317: To Sleep...

At around 3am she discovered the neighbours had a rooster -- OohLookShiny

It was the worst night of her life. And it started in the airport.

Her flight had to sit in a holding pattern for so long that she worried that it would fall out of the sky from lack of fuel. Then the TSA "randomly selected" her because she looked brown enough to be a terrorist, and insisted on searching both her and her things while she verbally catalogued everything

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Flash fiction fresh from my fingers to your mind!

Challenge #01426-C331: But Why Not?

Challenge #01425-C330: Corrupted Signals

Challenge #01424-C329: Loyalty to Immortals

Challenge #01423-C328: Avoid The Greens

Challenge #01422-C327: Some Things Don't Work

Challenge #01421-C326: Finding Need

Challenge #01420-C325: Intolerance Turns

Challenge #01419-C324: Creatures of the Night

Challenge #01418-C323: The Button

Challenge #01417-C322: Contentious Neighbour

Challenge #01416-C321: Feed the Cow

Challenge #01415-C320: No Plan Survives

Challenge #01414-C319: If it Ain't Broke...

Challenge #01413-C318: The Otherworldly Ones

Challenge #01412-C317: To Sleep...