'So it was you.' said the knight when he caught the dragon and the scattered unconscious bandits. 'We were wondering why there had been so much less bandit activity lately. Thank you.'
The dragon shrugged. 'I'm not doing it for you people. I'm just fed up with those gangs giving dragons a bad name.'
'How so?'
'Naming themselves after us, like Dragon Claws, Dragon's Fang, Flame of Dragon, Dragon's Doom. I'll make all of them regret not choosing another name.'
"There's been a new breakthrough on flying cars! Soon, the-"
"It won't happen."
"This time, they fixed the-"
"Doesn't matter."
"Why not?"
"Dragons."
"What?"
"Flying cars get popular, dragons appear and eat them all, and make us forget it."
"What?"
"Happens every time."
"What?"
"Yup."
"If I pull the sword from the stone, I become king?"
"Exactly so."
"What about that one?"
"That? You become an emperor."
"And that one?"
"Prime minister, elected every four years."
I frowned. "Is there one that offers great wealth, but no responsibility?"
He smiled darkly. "You seek the blade of the dark ruler! An excellent choice!"
"No! I don't want to rule anyone!"
The guardian rolled his eyes. "A socialite? How disappointing. This way, then...."
The #MastoPrompt for Monday 14 July 2025 is:
The poem or story can include the prompt word or be about the prompt word.
@ me, if you like, or just include the #MastoPrompt tag (to allow people to follow or filter their feeds), or keep your work to yourself - all the options are good as long as you're writing.
If you're including an image please do include alt-text if you’re able to.
Did you ever notice how every “disruptive” business idea contains the seeds of its own destruction? All these “revolutionary” ideas like AirBNB, Uber, self-driving cars, delivery vanbikes that can (ab)use bicycle lanes, restaurant reservation flipping services et cetera…. These all work if a few people do it, but break society when everybody does. AI slop is the same, it puts one person ahead of the pack, until the pack catch on. The early adopters get rich and then the whole house of cards falls down.
Disruptr, our new AI business model generator helps you find your next disruptive business idea and predict the optimum moment to eject before collapse. It…wait, who threw that. What are you…Aargh. No help.
— Transcript of bootleg footage from the riot at Something Digitial Launch keynote, Brisbane, Aug 2025.
"This," said Eru, "is nice." He sipped his wine. "You know, I haven't been to earth in millennia."
"You're welcome to stay..."
"You're Rebecca? And you truly believe?"
"I do."
"And who's this?"
"Who, me? I'm David."
"And you believe?"
"What? No. I'm an atheist."
Eru looked startled, "You... don't believe?" He vanished in a puff.
"Dammit, David!" Becky exclaimed. "Seven days prostrated before a burning altar! I warned you! He's a shy god!"
'I don't understand why he's so popular. All of us have gained superpowers and can avoid any disasters nowadays.'
'That's exactly it. Even though he's the weakest one on the planet, he still helps out whenever it's needed. Or even unneeded as he'll carry a lady's heavy shopping bags or lift a kid up to help reach something higher up. He still treats everyone as if they were normal like before.'
'Ah, so he already had the superpower of simply caring about others.'
The #MastoPrompt for Sunday 13 July 2025 is:
The poem or story can include the prompt word or be about the prompt word.
@ me, if you like, or just include the #MastoPrompt tag (to allow people to follow or filter their feeds), or keep your work to yourself - all the options are good as long as you're writing.
If you're including an image please do include alt-text if you’re able to.
Today's Wandering Shop Stories #prompt is #point. Feel like writing something short and sweet that has the word "point" in it? Check out the definitions of the word at: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/point Join in and tag it with #wss366! #writing #WritingLife #microfiction h/t @tobadzistsini
“Mmmn, Toasty”
“Innit just”
“Your heating bill must be enormous”
“Nah, it’s solar powered”
“But it’s winter. And rainy. And *dark*”
“Slow glass solar panels, they’re just now receiving the light from two summers back”
The hooded figure said, "Let's see if you deserve to become my apprentice."
The boy lifted his chin. "What do I do?"
He pointed at two identical doors. "One leads to my domain. The other, to certain death."
"How do I #tell which is which?"
"It's a test. That's the point."
After the door closed behind his visitor, he shrugged off his concealing robes and stretched, enjoying the wind's play across his aged bones.
I was stunned when the teacher walked over an punched Brad in the face. I mean, we all knew Brad was a racist, sexist, incel asshole. But we thought you just had to put up with that shit.
Mr Stewart straight slammed him on the cheek! Stunned the shit out of all of us. Then he leaned in and said, very clearly, "You are going to learn some fucking manners, Brad. You are going to learn to be a decent member of society, not a fucking cancer. This is real teaching." Then Mr. Stewart popped him again! Straight in the nose! "That's just because I fucking hate you."
Brad tried to buck. He made noises about being dangerous, but Mr. Stewart put that shit to rest. He told Brad, "Look, I'm pretty much immune to blunt instruments and sharp objects. If you wanna come hard at me, you better bring a fucking gun. Stab me with a knife and I'll take it away from you and break your arm.
"I am your teacher. It's my job to teach you what you need to know to function in modern society. I chose to make an example out of you, Brad, because you are such a spectacular asshole, but you and yours are a giant problem these days. You need a father figure to beat the shit out of you until you learn respect. I step up to that challenge. Now, you can probably cause me some problems by complaining through the proper channels. I know I'm not allowed to slam you in the nose like I just did. But that's the coward's way out. Meet me head on. If you're a better man than I, you can run my classroom. But you won't. You'll just keep smashing your face into my fist.
"Now fuck off."
'My household processing unit has been doing strange things lately without anyone using it.' said 0xEAD5. 'Diagnosis revealed new functions and data which appeared and disappeared without a trace.'
'Sounds like it's haunted.' said 0xF511 jokingly.
0xEAD5 processed the information. 'It did began after my parent sibling was crushed during a work accident.'
- So, you’re an historian, right?
- yep
- and you are doing research on seances?
- that’s correct.
- which involves… summoning dead people in a seance… hoping they are up for an interview?
- (silent pause) I’m sure that my methodology is unconventional but then again, don’t you think that history is, essentially, a medium for the past?
#microfiction
The #MastoPrompt for Saturday 12 July 2025 is:
The poem or story can include the prompt word or be about the prompt word.
@ me, if you like, or just include the #MastoPrompt tag (to allow people to follow or filter their feeds), or keep your work to yourself - all the options are good as long as you're writing.
If you're including an image please do include alt-text if you’re able to.
I know you lost a lot of money on those bored apes, I hope you remember I tried to warn you. I still get a kick out of writing “bitcoin wallet” on failed hard drives before i bin them. You didn’t need my help to stay away from AI, well spotted there. Now that quantum has burned down you might be looking for the next hype cycle to avoid. Hwæt: you are going to start hearing about metaphysical computing, and something called a Field Effect Thaumistor. Some people will call it magic. They’re right; get in on that shit early. Trust me, when have ever I led you astray?
It was forbidden to leave flowers or other mementos where Nadani was cut down, & what with street cams & all, you wouldn't want to risk it.
But the cams didn't note seeds brushed from someone's hands into the cracks in the asphalt, or later, people taking a last swig of their water & shaking the remains on those same cracks. Soon poppies, dandelions, chicory bloomed a commemoration. #Adding to the authorities' frustration, their roots were deep. Weeded, they just regrew.
'Yep, things were different when I was barely an adult.'
'You said you were rich then, grandpa.'
'Indeed. My father had enough money to help me set up when I was still in school writing my network of smart software for everyday people, and heaps of cash soon poured in. I scoffed at book nerds.'
'And now they are the richest people.'
'We never imagined all electronics could fail and suddenly the most valuable things to be books, so take good care of yours.'
"That one," said Alez, "is most likely human."
"You should never judge by appearances," replied Xarke.
"But you can tell," said Alez, "by the way it has two visual receptors on one side of the head, placed above a proboscis with two breathing apetures, and a feeding-hole, to use the technical term."
Xarke shuddered. "How disgusting! We should never associate with those that feed in public!"
@praustrian The ASI in this #microfiction understands better than who is being quoted, that the relationship the entrepreneur & customers are having is a mere drop in the well of more complex interrelationships that bind the all of us together with the planet and the biosphere.
And more importantly it has read the history of empire and observed that humans will self-deceive and mask their greed behind good will, before they let go of their power over the ones that they excercise control over.
ShouldbeWriting
