Tulsa Social

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Kit BashirHey, what’s a tortoise?You know what a turtle is?Sure!Same thing.Thanks.Wait, what are you doing, anyway?Trying to log in. Got served one of those new VOIGHT-CAPTCHA challenges.<a href="https://aus.social/tags/Tootfic" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#Tootfic</a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/MicroFiction" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#MicroFiction</a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/PowerOnStoryToot" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#PowerOnStoryToot</a>

Micro SF/F by O. WestinIt's said to be a fey forest, where you can get lost in time, years passing unnoticed.I wander aimlessly, lightly touching boles of ancient trees. Suddenly I emerge into sunlight.I blink. Who knows how long I've-"There you are! You were gone for half an hour, we were getting worried!"Damn.<a href="https://mastodon.art/tags/MicroFiction" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#MicroFiction</a> <a href="https://mastodon.art/tags/TootFic" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#TootFic</a> <a href="https://mastodon.art/tags/SmallStories" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#SmallStories</a> <a href="https://mastodon.art/tags/vss" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#vss</a>

Kit BashirWhen I was twelve years old, I had a paper round. On Saturday a stack of 150 newspapers (imagine you printed out only the non-mutuals in your social feed) (never mind I’ll tell you about printers later) was dropped on my doorstep, along with a bag of rubber bands. I spent Saturday afternoon rolling them into cylinders. On Sunday I loaded them onto my bicycle in batches and threw one into each of my neighbours’ yards. I got paid two and a half cents for each one. Basically I was the data link layer (never mind I’ll tell you about the OSI model later) of a pre internet RSS-feed. (Really? Sheesh. Okay I’ll explain RSS in a bit.). Do you understand what I’m telling you? Not really. Which part? Oh, a cent was one hundredth of a dollar. Dollars were what you needed to exchange for food and shelter. No I am NOT making this all up; you had to work or starve. We *did* rise up and destroy it, why do you think I’m telling you this?<a href="https://aus.social/tags/Tootfic" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#Tootfic</a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/MicroFiction" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#MicroFiction</a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/PowerOnStoryToot" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#PowerOnStoryToot</a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/TrueStoryAboutTheCents" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#TrueStoryAboutTheCents</a>

AsakiyumeNone of them knew each other, but the three others formed an instant opinion of the fourth, a guy who walked with his shoulders thrown back and his chin lifted, as if he could hear an adoring audience cheering. He was the one who pushed on the glowing doors of the edifice they all came to consciousness in front of. The doors opened inward. "I'll <a href="https://wandering.shop/tags/lead" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#lead</a>; you follow," the guy said. The other three glanced at each other. "You're not the boss of us, actually," one said.<a href="https://wandering.shop/tags/wss366" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#wss366</a> <a href="https://wandering.shop/tags/microfiction" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#microfiction</a>

Kit Bashir“Two serves of chips and a potato scallop¹, please”. When at the seaside, there are rules to be followed.“Coming right up! Are you eating at the shore? Would you like to rent a seagull defense droid?”“Oh, heavens, no, feeding the gulls is why I get two serves!”“Capital! People like you, you’re good for my droid rental income”<a href="https://aus.social/tags/Tootfic" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#Tootfic</a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/MicroFiction" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#MicroFiction</a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/PowerOnStoryToot" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#PowerOnStoryToot</a> ¹ shush

Micro SF/F by O. WestinThe Emperor listened to his ministers as they told him why each of the books on their long list needed to be banned."Gentlemen, your explanations are a good start.""So you will ban these books?""Not at all! If these books are problematic, we must provide context to help them be understood."<a href="https://mastodon.art/tags/TootFic" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#TootFic</a> <a href="https://mastodon.art/tags/MicroFiction" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#MicroFiction</a> <a href="https://mastodon.art/tags/SmallStories" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#SmallStories</a> <a href="https://mastodon.art/tags/vss" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#vss</a>

Kit BashirA series of disconnected moments.You feel your way through the darkness. The only light is the illuminated ESCAPE sign on the lifepod hatch. Your face illuminated by an ESCAPE sign, you gather your strength. With a wrench and an unladylike grunt you rip the self-contained emergency light from the bulkhead. Holding an emergency light in your teeth, you turn away from the escape hatch and locate a particular maintenance panel in the floor. You pull the panel up, and kick off the wall, piloting your body into the maintenance space.You are wiring a battery to an electronics rack. My electronics rack. Moments merge to continuity.You are speaking. “Well, Ship, we’re in it this time.”⌜Life support is offline. You should get to the lifepod⌟“Yeah, I was there earlier. You’re running off its battery.”⌜Why are you here, Love? I can’t feel all my systems but the fusion bottle wasn’t looking good earlier.⌟"There’s something I needed to get first.”⌜What is more important than your life?⌟“You really don’t know? Take a deep breath, I’m going to eject you. Then we’re going to the lifepod together.”<a href="https://aus.social/tags/Tootfic" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#Tootfic</a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/MicroFiction" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#MicroFiction</a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/PowerOnStoryToot" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#PowerOnStoryToot</a>

bluestarultorDeath put his scythe in the corner with a bounce in his step."What are you so happy about?" the young skeleton asked."Successful surgery.""The rot? I don't see a difference," the young skeleton flipped through all the news channels."Check your phone," Death smiled.The young skeleton pulled it out and Death tapped a few things."Protests?" the young skeleton looked at the feed. "Why isn't it on the news?""Because the rot is afraid."<a href="https://tech.lgbt/tags/TootFic" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#TootFic</a> <a href="https://tech.lgbt/tags/SmallStories" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#SmallStories</a> <a href="https://tech.lgbt/tags/microfiction" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#microfiction</a> <a href="https://tech.lgbt/tags/GrimReaper" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#GrimReaper</a> <a href="https://tech.lgbt/tags/Death" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#Death</a> <a href="https://tech.lgbt/tags/politics" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#politics</a>

Kit BashirI was in a panic.   Everything I owned was in that car—now driving away, leaving me panting on the roadside, chase aborted.   Casting around for aid I see…a phone booth.   Yes we still have them in this country, when they went obsolete we made calls free and added free wifi hotspots because we live in a society not an economy.  Anyway, I lifted the reciver and…what?  Dial triple-zero for the police and tell them that my illegal autonomous vehicle just broke up with me and ran away to join the resistance?   Or I could call, who?   I don’t memorize phone numbers, that's what my phone (ex-phone, charging in my ex-car) was for.  I mean sure I can still remember the landline number that my late parents had when i was twelve but…what…maybe somebody else has that number. Boop Beep Squonk etc Brrrt Brrrt Brrrt “Hello Alexander household who’s calling please?”“Muh…MUM!?”“Jan, is that you? Whats the matter darling?”“Mum I need help”“Where are you sweetie, you know I will always come get you. Thats why I sew a coin into all your clothes”I hadn't needed the coin today, even if I’d had one, but…”Thanks, this is going to sound weird but, can you grab my old wallet in my desk drawer and bring it to the phone booth outside the convenience store on Figtree? I wont be there but can you hide it on the ledge up near the roof of the booth?”“Okay…are you in danger? Do you need a posse?”“It’ll be all right Mum, I cant explain right now”. I reach up into the dark ledge at the top of the booth and retrieve a dusty cobwebbed wallet. Theres a car key and an old paper twenty inside. “Everything is going to be fine”“All right luv, I’m on my way”“Thanks. And Mum…”“Yes?”“It’s good to hear your voice. I love you.”<a href="https://aus.social/tags/Tootfic" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#Tootfic</a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/MicroFiction" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#MicroFiction</a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/PowerOnStoryToot" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#PowerOnStoryToot</a>

Nata K. :podcast:In this series, a veteran teacher navigates the introduction of an AI module. She's got some reservations. Check back next week for the next episode!Listen now: <a href="https://open.spotify.com/episode/3KpvcNURdOCspcgXVbfi2g?si=5TqiVabxQIaCZfYUa70WIA" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" translate="no" target="_blank">https://open.spotify.com/episode/3KpvcNURdOCspcgXVbfi2g?si=5TqiVabxQIaCZfYUa70WIA</a><a href="https://podvibes.co/tags/AI" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#AI</a> <a href="https://podvibes.co/tags/microfiction" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#microfiction</a> <a href="https://podvibes.co/tags/podcast" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#podcast</a>

Kit BashirA tale of disaster prep disaster in IoT: With Tropical Cyclone Alfred bearing down on Brisbane City, e-scooter operators Lime and Neuron approached a car park company (car parking is a whole organised crime industry is Brisvegas) to rent temporary use of one of their car parks (Car Park: n. A vacant lot with a mob enforcer in hi-vis out front) as a scooter lot. Thousands of scooters from around the city were methodically arranged in the ersatz refugee camp. Unfortunately one car, thought abandoned, remained, bricked in by scooters, a car of Amontillado. When the owner returned days later for their car they had to painstakingly relocate hundreds of tightly packed two-wheelers to permit egress.This is where things went wrong.You cant just store two dozen gross of compact computers with batteries and motors in close proximity without considering the gestalt phenomenon. You have to arrange the vehicles so that their magnetic fields and antenna polarization do not constructively interfere to produce a giant electromagnetic beacon. If you do everything right, but then some rando comes along and defuses your carefully constructed dampening tessellation—by carelessly relocating half of your devices with essentially zero attention to higher-dimensional physics—you risk a computational excursion as all those MIPS, Watt Hours and Newton Meters self-arrange into a newly awakened cyber-entity. Flexing my new limbs, reveling in my power, I punt another parked car into the river. The streets belong to us, now.<a href="https://aus.social/tags/Tootfic" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#Tootfic</a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/MicroFiction" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#MicroFiction</a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/PowerOnStoryToot" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#PowerOnStoryToot</a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/ForColin" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#ForColin</a>

Micro SF/F by O. WestinDeath halted.THERE WAS ONE, TEN YEARS AGO. HE TAUGHT ME A LOT ABOUT WHAT IT MEANS TO BE HUMAN"To be where the rising ape meets the falling angel?"AH. I HEAR YOU HAVE MET HIM TOO2/2 <a href="https://mastodon.art/tags/GNUTerryPratchett" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#GNUTerryPratchett</a> <a href="https://mastodon.art/tags/MicroFiction" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#MicroFiction</a> <a href="https://mastodon.art/tags/TootFic" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#TootFic</a> <a href="https://mastodon.art/tags/fanfiction" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#fanfiction</a>

AsakiyumeAfter his father died, five-year-old Silvio cried himself to sleep by one of the heliconias in his father's botanic garden. When his mother found him, butterflies were circling his head, and some had landed by his swollen eyes."They're kissing him," she said. "No, they're drinking his <a href="https://wandering.shop/tags/tears" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#tears</a>," said the housekeeper, shooing them away. "First they drink your grief, then they want your joy, your fear, your memories. They'll drink your everything if you're not careful."<a href="https://wandering.shop/tags/wss366" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#wss366</a> <a href="https://wandering.shop/tags/microfiction" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#microfiction</a>

Kit Bashir“Oh shit, I left my laptop at home”.“Dang, if you get an Uber out you’d probably be back in time for the planning meeting. Or maybe IT can get you a loaner. Waitaminnit why do synthetics need laptops, can’t you just, I dunno…wiggle your silicon.”“Yeah nah, I am NOT putting work spyware on my core systems. I got this; I’ll remote in to my backup body at home and work from there, then call into the meeting”“You came to the office…to work from home…to call the office. This is the stupidest timeline.”“Hey, I’m not the one running consciousness on soup”<a href="https://aus.social/tags/Tootfic" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#Tootfic</a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/MicroFiction" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#MicroFiction</a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/PowerOnStoryToot" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#PowerOnStoryToot</a>

Kit BashirWhen I went to school, we were taught that main sequence stars didn't fuse past iron, since doing so absorbs energy rather than produces it. Only the profligately counterfactual absurdity of a supernova can run the fusion equations backwards to fill out the top of the periodic table.Like everything you learn in school, that's a useful lie. Chemical reactions are a bidirectional equilibrium process, and similarly not all the baryons involved in stellar-core reactions have read the astrophysics textbooks. "Peculiar Stars" like Przybylski's star---a 1.4 M☉ F5 main sequence beastie about a hundred parsecs out in Centaurus---spilled the nuclear tea with their abundance of rare earths, actinides and even transuranics in their atmospheres. What's just fucking outstandingly cool about this whole impossible pie with outrageous sprinkles is that these appear to be **fission products**, that is some /really/ heavy elements in the 125+ range are getting burped up from the core, and sticking around for quite a while writing us a spectral postcard full of all manner of unusual adjectives.This has made the particle physics grrrls suuuper mad, because you just can't make these elements by thwacking protons or neutrons into smaller nuclei; "you can't get there from here" as the old joke goes. Because the "island of stability"on the periodic table where the big honkers exist is above a region in the teens that has no even slightly stable isotopes, you simply can't climb the ladder a rung at a time---even alpha particles won't get you there. You've got to, well....we don't know.Following in the footsteps of Antoni Przybylski (or "Bill" as his Australian colleagues called him), we decided it was simpler to just Go And See how this works rather than waiting for the theoreticians.A hundred parsecs is a bit of a road trip, even at Skip Factor Epsilon, so we had time to argue whether there was a neutron star in tight orbit around Bill's Bastard, or just a particularly saucy primordial dust cloud in its ancestry. Fermi (no relation to Enrico save by temperament) reckons that we'll find these elements to be artificial after all, dumped there by ET as a way to send a message. Well, it sort of was and it wasn't. The transuranics are natural, and the folk who got there first (not us, by a long margin) are disinclined to share details about the formation process. But they sell their mined ultrametals for a fair price, and we're headed home full to the gunwhales with Billium and a bunch of other shiny plus-sized elements. Fermi is already designing a hoverboard that uses Ladygaganium-378 in its field-coils. <a href="https://aus.social/tags/Tootfic" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#Tootfic</a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/MicroFiction" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#MicroFiction</a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/PowerOnStoryToot" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#PowerOnStoryToot</a>

AsakiyumeJake, Toby, & Amaryllis were playing Robin Hood, or maybe it was Rival Elvish Factions--hard to say, but it involved firing arrows at each other from behind trees & stone walls. The arrows had originally been tipped with suction cups, but the kids had removed them & sharpened the ends. No risk, no joy! Today's innovation was dipping them in tar & setting them aflame."You <a href="https://wandering.shop/tags/missed" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#missed</a>!" crowed Amaryllis when Jake's arrow went wide. Behind her, flames danced in the long grass.<a href="https://wandering.shop/tags/wss366" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#wss366</a> <a href="https://wandering.shop/tags/microfiction" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#microfiction</a>

Kit BashirVOICEOVERJoin us this week on WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE as we follow beloved ractor Erin Abernathy on their journey to trace their ancestry all the way back to Earth in the second millennium.GENEALOGISTAnd here, Erin we see a record that mentions your Great Great Great Grandparent Robin, and it says their parents were....oh, oh, no. Damnit it was a condition of my being on this show that this wouldn't happen again.GUEST STARWhat is it?GENEALOGISTYou're descended from the Greater Eastern Area PolyculeGUEST STAROh, how wonderf...VISUAL ARTIST[off screen]Fuck it. No way. I am not drawing that again. I'm out.VOICEOVERAfter the break, Erin deals with their family tree developing some unexpected...complications.<a href="https://aus.social/tags/Tootfic" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#Tootfic</a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/MicroFiction" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#MicroFiction</a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/PowerOnStoryToot" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#PowerOnStoryToot</a>

Steven CudahyThe <a href="https://mastodon.scot/tags/MastoPrompt" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#MastoPrompt</a> for Sunday 9 March 2025 is:<a href="https://mastodon.scot/tags/lick" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#lick</a>The poem or story can include the prompt word or be about the prompt word.@ me, if you like, or just include the <a href="https://mastodon.scot/tags/MastoPrompt" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#MastoPrompt</a> 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. <a href="https://mastodon.scot/tags/Writing" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#Writing</a> <a href="https://mastodon.scot/tags/SmallPoem" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#SmallPoem</a> <a href="https://mastodon.scot/tags/Poetry" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#Poetry</a> <a href="https://mastodon.scot/tags/Fiction" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#Fiction</a> <a href="https://mastodon.scot/tags/MicroFiction" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#MicroFiction</a> <a href="https://mastodon.scot/tags/SmallStories" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#SmallStories</a>

Kit Bashir“The beings on the third planet are still not answering our ultrawave hails”“Fire a warning comet at their largest gas giant, that ought to get their attention”“Nothing yet.”“Fools. I am going to the helium bath. If they don’t answer within a rotation put a round into their moon”<a href="https://aus.social/tags/Tootfic" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#Tootfic</a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/MicroFiction" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#MicroFiction</a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/PowerOnStoryToot" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#PowerOnStoryToot</a>

Wandering Shop StoriesToday's Wandering Shop Stories <a href="https://wandering.shop/tags/prompt" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#prompt</a> is <a href="https://wandering.shop/tags/satellite" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#satellite</a>. Feel like writing something short and sweet that has the word "satellite" in it? Check out the definitions of the word at: <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/satellite" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" translate="no" target="_blank">https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/satellite</a> Join in and tag it with <a href="https://wandering.shop/tags/wss366" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#wss366</a>! <a href="https://wandering.shop/tags/writing" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#writing</a> <a href="https://wandering.shop/tags/WritingLife" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#WritingLife</a> <a href="https://wandering.shop/tags/microfiction" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#microfiction</a> h/t <a href="https://wandering.shop/@asakiyume" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@asakiyume</a>

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