Lovesick
Ross tapped his mask, invoking a pop-up in the lower right of his view. Ten percent and dropping. Ross uttered a short curse. He should have checked it before he left for work this morning. As it was, he wasn’t going to be home on LoveDay at the normal time with all the kissing and…
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Downgraded
Trevor shuddered in the misting rain. His thin-film poncho was worn in spots, cold droplets soaking into his dark shirt. A battered “FreeStick” leaned at an angle from the concrete, covered in dents and looping graffiti. He was hungry and cold. The vendor would dispense one ration per day, and not one gram more. It…
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TruLove
Pulse racing, hammering thud in my head. Damn it. DAMN IT. The sweet clinical voice of the pharmcore doctor echoed in my memory. “DVote is the best of Synthetic Synaptic Tech coming out of the New Mandarin Collective. This however, comes at a price. You MUST have your follow up visits, a personal scan and…
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Budding Universe
Feynman knew, and we made damn sure he played ball. There was a short stint in the 80’s where we thought he’d write some memoir and leak it to the press, but our boys were on him from the moment he made his discovery, down to his last breath fighting cancer on his deathbed. The…
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ReLive
This was going to be too easy. Backing away from the junction box, I clipped the taps into my custom console. The air was dry, sharp notes of ozone from the humming transformers lining the vault wall. A faded sign attached to each had “HIGH VOLTAGE” with stylized lightning bolts. I was deep in the…
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CloudSteaders
I love living in the sky. Sure, there are those that chose to stake out more interesting views in former national parks and snow capped mountain peaks, but that seemed too conventional for me. It’s a heady time, full of dwindling sovereign states begging for citizens to tax and crazy volters staking out an acre…
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Negatory
Bloody hell, another Redliner. He pushed by me on the sidewalk, head covered with a fraying hoodie flecked with paint. My Personal Rating Display showing a large negative number floating above his head, minus 10,000 and counting. It ticked downward with each step he took, plunging into new territory. I checked his outbound data, no…
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Deadlock
“Listen, baby. I’m still in love with you. I prove that every day!”, Death rattled, exhaling noxious fumes. He had been drinking again, distilled spirits of purgatory. It stank like hopeless regret. Life glared. She wasn’t going to put up with this any longer. They always had their ups and downs, but lately Death had…
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Cellpocalypse
I was walking to get lunch when my phone pinged. “Your account is under review and might get CLOSED – Respond Immediately!”. The subject line flipped up on my screen in subtle tones. Another spam email. I thought my filter had been configured to screen them out. Entering the deli, I sat down at the…
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Lunar Lament
The docked resupply shuttle had just shoved off with a few crew members inside, all anticipating open skies and media interviews, when the world blinked out of sight. I was near the aft porthole, which offered a spectacular view of our many sunrises and sunsets as we whirled around the globe at 8 kilometers per…
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Mirror, Mirror
Please help me. I know you’re looking for proof, some kind of evidence that my fate is what I say it is. I don’t have the means to provide pictures or video. You’re going to have to rely on my personal account of what is happening. I’m influencing electrons in your computer’s memory, collapsing them…
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Monsoonian
Phirun tugged the drawstrings at his neck, fitting the hoodie tighter to his skull. Leaden skies had been threatening rain all evening, gusting winds rattling bare tree branches. Phi didn’t care, it was more for warmth than staying dry. He had always liked the rain, even growing up. As he got older, it seemed he…
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Pixelate
I knew today would be the end. Let me explain, and I know I might be covering things that you already know – but please be patient, this is for the people just switching in to this chat. Everyone I know loves games. The older games, the kind that came on silicon and had to…
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Golden Opportunity
Macx licked his lips nervously, pressing the access button on the scratched panel. He hated having to do this, but he had no other choice. Standing in the shade, he paced nervously until the speaker crackled to life with harsh high tones. “What do you want?” “I’m the 5 pm appointment.” “Quantity?” “Two liters.” “Stand…
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Dangerous
I was stumbling out of the bar, trying to get my bearings when I saw her. About 25, wearing all black with sheer stockings and heels. “Well, don’t you look like a big ‘ol drink of a man”, she said, parting iridescent painted lips over perfect teeth. I was in shock. What, me? You have…
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Mondays
I was late for work again. Running around my apartment, picking up clothes that seemed passable and shoving various limbs into them, zipping and buttoning. Had no idea where my tie was, so I snatched my backup from my dresser, slamming the drawer shut with my sock feet. I can’t believe I did this to…
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Bored To Death
So annoying. I’m really getting tired of humanity in general. Its always the same thing, a do-gooder with too much time on their hands comes up with a law, it gets passed somehow into the books. Then I come along and being a free spirit with not much else to do, I eventually run afoul…
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MemBank
The cold wind fluttered at the edges of my tattered coat, swirling between my knees and chilling me to the bone. December, and the sky was a grey bowl over the city. Walking slowly, I had to keep stopping to rest my weary legs. This was it. Down to my last. The economy had crashed,…
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Blue Strike
“They should be killing each other right now on the west coast.”, the Agent smiled, eager to get things going. It was midnight PST, when the first wave of uncontrolled violence would be unleashed. Perfect timing for this operation. Down in the underground bunker, computer operators lounged and joked with each other, taking side bets…
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CredHunt
I was sitting near the driver, looking around when I caught the reflection of the knife. He was sitting towards the back, twirling the blade, trying to decide who’s credit was negative enough for him to collect his kill. I was fine, paid up and racked at AAA – “Responsible and open to new offers…
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Blood Lines
I couldn’t tell who he was, but he certainly wasn’t the mailman I was expecting at my door. “You know what the problem with people is don’t you? They never change. Sure, you can point to the extremes and say person ‘A’ is very different than person ‘B’, or how person ‘C’ made this miraculous…
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Suntastrophe
Everyone had a theory about why the sun stopped shining. All of them, from junior research assistants to nobel prize winners flooded the internet with wild speculations and advanced hasty conjectures on what to do about it. NASA took the problem head on, scrapping a resupply launch in favor of perturbing our star with exotic…
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Dumbest Thing
It was probably the third dumbest thing I’ve ever done. No wait, back up a second. You’re probably wondering about the first two. And seeing how I’m here, on my knees with a bloody nose, surrounded by cops, your mind is stitching together assumed facts and broad strokes – none of them flattering. Let me…
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Mortis
It was January. They couldn’t have moved me far, because the air still had that penetrating cold that winter always brings. Blustery wind against the dark hood over my head, chilling my ears. My legs were cramping from the sitting in the van, hands drawn behind me. I was trussed like an animal with oversized…
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Nemo
I don’t know if this is going to reach anyone. It took me days to get to the datacenter I’m in now. Fighting through waves of enemies, hoping I had decontaminated well enough through the one-person airlock. It all took so long. But I had to try. There was no guarantee anyone knew what we…
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Whiskey
I was quite drunk. Not in the way that elicits slurred speech and wobbling steps. Just a pleasant hum that was surging through my veins, eroding the mental barrier that prevented me from making a fool of myself. It was nearly time for the liquor store to close, and I wasn’t up for being in…
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Future, Redacted
Goddamn meddlers. It was bad enough, fighting the vertigo and the unavoidable mind-splitting migraine from being hurled back in time 500 years. And now, so close to the objective, and one of these damn natives [Future Event Redacted]. It was in a bar, where I had to make sure [Target Redacted] was going to meet…
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Bureaucracy
There are procedures for this kind of thing, you know. Well, not exactly this kind of thing, but other events close to it I guess. I filed a ERE-3821 (Emergency Reportable Event) as soon as I found out, but I must’ve missed one of the checkboxes, because it thudded back in my in-tray shortly after…
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Open Road
It was expensive, but so worth it. Sliding back in the drivers seat, I brushed my fingertips over the central console menu, looking for something entertaining. Not many people drove themselves, not in the old-time 2k-er sense. It was a hobby reserved for those that were rich enough for the insurance and the extensive permits…
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F8 Express
A fine drizzle fell from the leaden sky, coating the glass partitions of the bus stop. Dampening the usual routine on a weekday morning, bustling lanes of traffic and pedestrians urgently trying to get somewhere, as soon as possible. I’d normally take a car-for-hire to the station, but a last-minute call meant I was out…
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Super Obsessed
I’m really sick of super-hero movies. The perfectly bronzed and chiseled face stuffed into the ridiculous suit. Add a cape, or silly gadgets (a grappling hook from a belt would have you windmilling sideways, dammit, not straight up) and you have the complete picture. I should know, I see the same kinds of movies advertised…
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Alienated
Not another one. Hurrying to work, I had few options to make my morning meeting. I don’t know where these “Peep” bastards came from, but they’re getting in the way. Don’t even get me started on the smell. Its horrendous. Like part compost pile, part wet dog. I wrinkled my nose as I got closer.…
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Accidental Evil
“I tell you my boy, the world is your oyster. You just have to apply yourself and do great evil.”, I winked at my new protege, hustling him along the long hallway to my office. The volcanic lair was undergoing some renovations, (damn magma, it burns through everything), so the underground bunker would have to…
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Absolution
Screeching of tires, blaring car horn. I smiled, eyes locking with the driver as I finished crossing the street. Two tons of metal weren’t going to scare me. What is the worst that could happen, I get sent back to hell? Not a chance. I’ve paid my debt, given the mark by the Demiurge himself.…
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Dusty Rogue
Everything I own drags me down. Like ballast on a deep-sea diver, leaden weights in large bandoliers over both shoulders. My car, in the shop. Again. When I pulled in to the service bay, the mechanic looked at me with a sly grin that meant at least a thousand dollars. Probably more. I try my…
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Bounced
Albert sighed heavily. Lowest of the low, technically a “guardian angel” in the grand hierarchy of heaven. Not lifted up on ceaseless choirs of praise like the Archangels, or favored and given important missives like the Powers or Lordships. Most definitely not lifted up on high to the absolute pinnacle like the mighty Seraphim. No,…
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Redlight
Rayatoo Boh tapped on the navigation console, swiping through system clusters and stars looking for the familiar diamond logo of a StarStop. He needed rest, and refueling. Smuggling was a tough business with even tougher customers, but Rayatoo or “Ray” to his friends, wouldn’t have it any other way. Ray had been to the outback…
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Lucked Out
The world was never a fair place. It just needed some help. Gordon adjusted his crisp white lab coat, changing the lapel pin from a four-leaf clover to a golden horseshoe. Its the details that matter, after all. The Dimensional Probability Adjustment Bureau was created in the late two-quads as governor of all chance-based events…
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Heretic Hero
It happened in fits and starts. Buried in tabloids, alongside articles on bat-boy and alien abductions. The man who self-combusted but didn’t burn his house down. The woman that disappeared in broad daylight, car crashing into a bus stop. Little things, like a pale moon tinted red. Wolves sighted in large cities baying at the…
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Omnivore
A plume of dust flared from the back of the carrier, large tires droning like bees. 112th Recon, routine patrol out of Austin, Texas. High noon sun baking cracked asphalt, nothing moving but the tumbleweeds, drifting across the faded double yellow line. Maxx adjusted his goggles and chewed on a pep-stick, stimulants drying out the…
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Mundane Mayhem
Sparks flew from the large coils, energized fields pulsing in the massive containment chamber. Steve cackled as the generators struggled with the load. He knew they would hold, despite the deafening whine. “Series 3 is nearly complete!”, Steve cackled slapping the back of his assistant, Bob. Bob had answered an ad on a local job…
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Killjoy
The sky was a brilliant sapphire blue. Maxx smiled and and tucked in his arms, reducing air resistance. Slashing down at a sharp angle, vectoring in on the bright yellow jumpsuit below him. To the left and right, blossoming canopies as chutes deployed. He had to make this, there wouldn’t be another chance. Air pushing…
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New Darwin Inc.
Eldon Graves drummed his fingers on the conference room table. Junior ad execs were lined up outside, vying for slots to pitch their new product ideas. Eldon dreaded this time of year, young shining faces stuffing the metaphorical hopper with naive and unoriginal pitches. The promotional sweeps were coming, and he had to be in…
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New Normal
The memories began haunting me after I came of age. Sitting at the edge of the river, scraping clay and discarding small stones. My fingers tracing a square, then three dots across and down. It felt good, to push in each of the pits. There was no sound in my ears. There should be something.…
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End Of Times
I had drank too much, again. The alarm pierced my ears, shrill beeping growing in volume. Slapping the the clock on to the floor, I slowly sat upright with my head throbbing. I had been celebrating a friends birthday and didn’t leave until the early hours of the morning. At least I didn’t have to…
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Sapphire
Oscar swore as the drill pipe swung overhead. Brian, his Derrickhand, was getting sloppy on his shift. Each pipe was nine meters long, threaded at the ends to screw together with the next lowered section. That is, if it was lowered properly for Oscar to do so. “Hey, wake up man! Haul that back up…
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Osculator
There’s a comfort to the sameness. Working on the line, processing thousands upon thousands of units every minute. In better times, I’d be making mental plans for trips and fancy purchases. Those were long gone, crushed under a wave of cheap labor and diminishing need for skilled artisans. I used to have a shop. Small…
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Deprivation
I don’t know where it came from. It was during one of those moves, the kind that took me to a new place with unfamiliar faces and rooms the wrong size. Unpacking and unwrapping, kicking empty boxes across the floor into a pile. Arms aching with the sun sinking low. I didn’t even put the…
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Scuppering
Today’s post is an excerpt from my writing notebook – a glimpse into a city where aliens are commonplace. It was an okay job, I guess. The guys in the back of the house knew how to work hard, but they also had a dedicated sense of when to goof off. It was necessary, just…
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The Arch
Today’s post is an excerpt from my writing notebook – a glimpse into a city where aliens are commonplace. Working at тупики wasn’t bad, just providing enough credit flow to make the bills go away. At least until the next cycle. I usually sat out front, watching the people along the street. After a while…
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Adapter
Image: Artefakt 4 Acryl-Öl auf Hartfaserplatte 50 x 40 cm Bogan scratched his wrist, pulling up the bandage crusted with dried blood. It was his mark, the chineoid blessing so he may travel between zones, feeding the collective. Feeling the shifting pulse of internal chineites he fell to his knees in prayer, bright red blooms…
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Deluge
Alex reached out a trembling hand to the roaring waterfall. They had taken it, his dry place. He had fought, kicked and screamed for help, but it never came. He washed the blood off of his hand, multiple cuts criss-crossing his knuckles. The cave walls were smooth, worn down through time by ancient rivers. It…
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Oddly Office Series
Falling Out Series
Attenuated Series
Bootstrap Series
(If you’re wondering why have another page that you click-through to read, its to set up for expanding on this category with subsequent posts. Thanks for your understanding.)