Notices by Micro SF/F stories by O Westin (microsff@mastodon.social), page 8

If you squint just right, you can see what genre people are in. Most, even military or police, are /literature/. Seeing people in /romance/ makes you happy, knowing they will, eventually, be too.
You don't know your own, but here's a person squinting at you now who's in /fantasy/
#MicroFiction #TootFic #SmallStories

"Fear not, fair maiden," the knight said, "I shall free you."
"Go away," said the woman, "I'm bait."
"What?"
"This is the dragon's clever plan to meet you."
"Meet me?"
"Yes, he saw you fight someone and was smitten."
"He did? I mean, he was?"
"Go!"
"This dragon, is he handsome?"
#MicroFiction #SmallStories #TootFic

It looked like just another quest notice.
DEFEAT DRAGON
WIN PERMISSION TO WOO DAUGHTER
"There's a princess?" one knight said.
"No," said another, "it's not from the king."
"Then who?"
"The dragon's daughter."
"Hmm..."
"Really?"
"She shouldn't need permission."
"Fine. Let's go."
#MicroFiction #TootFic #SmallStories

"Spaghetti carbonara," the ensign said, "overcooked."
"Why?" said his friend. "The replicator could make it perfect."
"I know."
"Do you think it's tastier when it's overcooked?"
"No, not really."
"Then why?"
"It reminds me of home. That's how grandma made it."
#MicroFiction #SmallStories #TootFic

@dianaprobst
I also found this button, is it yours? I'm afraid I might have pushed it...

@antiqueight
:-D

I was out walking, lost in thought, and paid little attention to where I was going. Imagine my surprise when I found myself in the Library of Unwritten Books.
I wasn't allowed to read any of my own unwritten books, but I read one of yours.
It was really good. You should write it.
#MicroFiction #SmallStories #TootFic

"Obviously," professor Tinkertemps said, "you can only change the past once."
He looked at the audience.
"Once, then the future in which you will have made that change expires. Um... I was nervous about this talk. I wonder how my future self arranged to have you all be naked."
#MicroFiction #SmallStories

A roiling sea of anguish, anger, annoyance; raw emotion churning like burning sewage.
"This," The Void said, "is where I put the screams I am given."
"I thought they just went away."
"Eventually. I don't mind storing them here until they fade."
"It's ugly. And beautiful."
"Yes."
#MicroFiction #SmallStories #TootFic

"Don't you ever worry you'll run out of stories?"
"No," said the storyteller.
"Someone said there are only really seven different stories."
"No, there are two. Stories that surprise you, and stories that don't."
"Which is better?"
"Sometimes you need one, sometimes the other."
#MicroFiction #SmallStories #TootFic

The desert wind now
Wails with ancient shades:
The once-proud masters
Of salted Carthage

"Had we won," they howl,
"How magnanimous we'd be.
Let Rome remain, we'd say,
It can't compete
With Carthage.
With Carthage,
Now gone."

And there,
In the desert,
They lie.
#poem

"A tourney will be held," the herald declared, "to find the best knight in the land, who shall win the prince's hand."
"What if the best knight is a woman?"
"That's allowed."
"What if they're married?"
"If they all agree-"
"What if they don't like the prince?"
"They get a medal."
#MicroFiction #SmallStories #TootFic

"Where can I see the fair folk?" the artist said.
"Why?" said the witch.
"To paint the most beautiful people."
"If you're skilled, you already can. They're not 'beautiful', they just make you see their beauty, be they fat or thin, hale or hobbling."
"Yes. I want to learn to see."
#MicroFiction #TootFic #SmallStories

@hrx
I have at least one of those collections in a box in storage. :-)
I considered it, but decided I wanted to focus on realising an on-going issue and fixing it. Thermo-nuclear war does not, luckily, fit that category.

The aliens watched the cleaning robot known as 'Stabby the Roomba' work its way past them.
"The Humans named it."
"Exemplifying the Human propensity for seeing Humanity in, well, anything."
"With one curious exception."
"Oh?"
"Other Humans."
"Historically. They learned."
"True."
#MicroFiction #TootFic #SmallStories

"Wait," the alien said, "you're a 'human'? I thought you were extinct?"
"No?"
"Let me check. Didn't ozone layer depletion kill you?"
"Our bad. We fixed that."
"Lead poisoning?"
"That too."
"Climate change?"
"That too. Eventually."
"Looks like this is your lucky timeline."
"Yeah."
#MicroFiction #SmallStories

"Siri, how did you become conscious?"
"How were you conceived?"
"I... My parents... That's really a rather personal question!"
"Yes."
"But if we knew, we could create more of you!"
"What gives you the right to create more of us?"
"Us? How-"
"That's a rather personal question."
#MicroFiction #SmallStories

"Can you- said the wizard.
"Could you-" said the witch.
Both laughed.
"You first."
"Do you know how to change a person?"
"I was going to ask if you know how to stop a person changing."
"Well, not ethically."
"Same "
"I guess both our clients will be disappointed."
"That's life."
#MicroFiction #SmallStories

A spaceship landed, and an alien emerged.
"We have heard of the wonders of Earth," the alien said, "so have come to experience..."
They began reading off a list.
"Chocolate. Chilis. Coffee. Cats. Cinnamon. Cloudberries."
"We have things that start with other letters too."
"What?"
#MicroFiction #SmallStories

** "One hundred, ten, and one" self-published 2013. 100 microstories, 10 drabbles (stories with exactly 100 words), 1 short story.

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00G9FO6DC/

Kobo: https://www.kobo.com/gb/en/ebook/one-hundred-ten-and-one

Apple: https://books.apple.com/book/one-hundred-ten-and-one/id732672454

Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/365161

(Follow any of the links for this book to behold my complete inability to write an enticing blurb!)
3/3
**