Branch

'One day,' Cedar 23 went on, 'she brought back a branh which she potted. If you placed your hand close to the pot, the branch would flex slowly and move to meet it. No, we do not know how or why it dit ; only she knows.'

#writever #MastoArt #FlashFiction #SmallStory #TootFic #MicroFiction

Challenge #04905-M156: Caught Broadside

Torture is forbidden in the Alliance, but there are more ways to break a person than physical pain. Ever deal with a dad who seems to want to turn everything into a bad pun? -- Anon Guest[AN: The Alliance has transcended the need for torture. There are better ways to get information out of someone. Therefore, this has to happen somewhere on the Edge]

The Galactic Alliance is an agreement between multiple polities and species in an extended trade network. People talk their problems out and
attempt to resolve issues with negotiation and deliberation. Those who insist on egregiously flaunting the Alliance law get the heavier hand of Pax Humanis, and very few others.

Yes, there are Space Marines.
Most of what they do is defence oriented. There are occasional calls to police a Deregger planet in need of severe intervention. There are also missions to seek out, capture, and contain space pirates and disassembling their operations.

That is where Edge Territory Interrogation Techniques come in.

https://peakd.com/fiction/@internutter/challenge-04905-m156-caught-broadside

#flashfiction #sciencefiction #shortstory #writingprompt

Challenge #04905-M156: Caught Broadside | PeakD

Kinder, gentler torment

PeakD
#ThursThreads Week 709 is now CLOSED. Thanks to everyone who wrote this week and I hope to catch you next week. They're all yours, Eric . #FlashFiction #WritingCommunity #AmWriting #WritingPrompt https://siobhanmuir.com/thursthreads-tying-tales-together-week-709/

The whisper came first. Then the footsteps. Then the silence that followed. 👁️

🩸 Dark Descent: Whispers From Beyond is open for microhorror submissions—500 words or less.
🕯️ Stories that creep under your skin and stay there.

📖 Submit now: https://www.darkholmepublishing.uk/darkdescentsubmissions

#readingcommunity #horrorcommunity #writingcommunity #flashfiction #darkhumour #indieauthors #darkfiction

#ThursThreads Week 709 is now LIVE. Come tie on your tale for judge Eric Martell. What kind of tale can you tie on? #FlashFiction #WritingCommunity #WritingPrompt #AmWriting #Writing https://siobhanmuir.com/thursthreads-tying-tales-together-week-709/
A quiet stranger arrives in a small town — and nothing stays the same. A story about truth, influence, and the contagion beneath the surface.
https://medium.com/first-line-fiction/when-green-eyes-come-to-town-7bf1e40a9d2a
#fiction #magicalrealism #flashfiction
When Green Eyes Come to Town

Beware

Medium

Origin of Nibiru and Halimede’s Societies

Neptune was explored in-depth by ice dragons modified to breathe methane and consume ammonia gas. Thirty ice dragons, each from a different species, extracted the gas from the surface and delivered it to their ships for study.

Since these experimental dragons could not survive without methane, they were ordered by Riv’ve Cood to stay in Neptune until breathing tanks were made for them.

…Riv’ve Cood forgot about them after he returned home.

The ice dragons living within Neptune made eggs out of boredom.

Years later, a ship returned to Neptune to habitize its moons. The ship explored the planet itself, but fled at the sight of the angry, bored dragons that began to surround it.

The ship returned and used loudspeakers and telepathic wyrms to make contact with the ice dragons. It was hard for the loudspeakers because of Neptune’s noise, but doable with the wyrms.

The ice dragons barely had any language skills, due to years of boredom zapping it away. They did remember the methane tanks and were able to communicate that.

Their tanks were granted, in exchange for their eggs. The ice dragons agreed, noting, “we can make more.”

The eggs were experimented on at the same time one of Neptune’s moons, Halimede, was being terraformed and implanted.

Implanting is the process of harmonizing any aether within the planet’s material, or rocks, to create a draconic soul from that energy. Being made of the planet’s aether, the soul would materialize as a planet’s sentient “heart,” able to communicate the wills of the world.

This heart is called a Guardian Dragon. Despite the title, guardian dragons also take orders from a planet colony’s overseer.

They didn’t have a single, big crystal to implant into the moon, so various smaller ones were planted on its surface.

When the moon was terraformed and the ice dragons eggs were acclimatized to the planet’s new environment, the planet’s soul wasn’t ready. Progress seemed to slow to a crawl.

The scientist wyrms deduced that either the planet’s rock was too thick or the rest of the aether was buried too deep for the smaller crystals to pick up on.

Human-like aliens were brought to the world to live. Centuries later, the ice dragons’ descendants departed for another world: Nibiru.

The dragons took their ships with them, leaving the people of Halimede without interstellar travel—much to their fatal detriment.

The dragons on Nibiru stayed there for a while, but eventually left, leaving any dragons who chose to stay behind.

However, without a Guardian Dragon to communicate the state of the planet, Nibiru’s destructive tendencies caught its draconic population off guard.

They weren’t the strongest, they weren’t tuned to the universe, they lacked the proficiency in manipulating energy, so there was no escape when the surface of Nibiru cracked, crumbled, crushed and collapsed.

and then? Nibiru made its journey to Halimede, answering its call.

When wellness transmissions from Halimede ceased, a ship full of eight dragons was sent to inspect the planet. When they reached the planet’s location, they found a debris field and a small, biped dragonlike sitting on top of an asteroid, gazing at Neptune.

The search party’s scanners found the remains of crystals used for implanting.

Another scan of the rocks also revealed there were different kinds of rocks among the debris. They matched Halimede and the planet of Nibiru, which had been settled long ago.

The existence of this dragonlike, the rocks and the crystals led them to deduce that the destruction of the planet was caused by the dragonlike’s birth.

Very old archive records from the coreworld showed this occurred once before. When a planet resisted implanting, it imploded on itself with the crystal’s power.

However, Halimede did not resist. It…could have called to Nibiru because of their compatible aether type. It’s will was to birth its own Guardian Dragon—the dragonlike resting in the debris, but did Halimede know that destruction was inevitable?

The search party returns home and reports their findings to the Draconizica Council.

Morcudii, a pearl dragon who led an expedition to Earth, insisted that Nibiru and Halimede be remade.

The search party members cringed—gritting their teeth and ruffling their wings—at her decision.

How long would that take?

The guardian dragon was put to sleep in a stasis tank and fed videos and images that evoked peace. They didn’t want it to think the destruction was its doing.

As for the inhabitants who died in the crisis, they are immortalized on the coreworld. Statues erected in their honor, a small museum dedicated to teaching the upsides and downsides of Implanting, and an exhibit teaching the benefits of Guardian Dragons.

Draconizica: Quick About & Terms

Draconizica is an empire of space-faring dragons that have existed for billions of years—many speculate since the birth of the universe.

They are believed to come from one source, a dragonlike called Lementia, who bore them out of her body’s substance (hence the term Substance).

Dragons with a high substance count can shift into many things and manipulate their DNA to be compatible with anything that it can mate with.

Breeding and expansion are important aspects to Draconizica, with Lementia’s intent being: spread amongst the stars like a plague.

On Earth, dragons have conducted an array of experiments and bred with many creatures to create: vampires, mermaids, harpies, magical ponies and many other mythological creatures.

There are many dragon sub species and body types like: Six Limber, Wyvern, Wyrm, Drake, Amphitere, Serpent, and various lower class of animals and many cross breeds (for example, merdragons and cat dragons).

Males and females are capable of birthing eggs. On earth, male dragons might go through extra stress like bullying, due to human male perceptions on pregnancy.

The empire itself has many sub empires and splinter groups ruling under it, like Ushavi, Crystallum, Leeje etc.

Many worlds have different experiences with dragons. In the case of earth, dragons have wildly varied experiences. Lower-powered feral and shifter dragons might experience socioeconomic problems brought on by human laws. An example are the hunting restrictions.

On Wyrmscourge, dragons control the media and rule the landscape. No news about other worlds is allowed. Dragons treat their people with cruelty.

Other dragon groups, like Axienfa, go from world to world to give humanitarian aid.

The diversity of Draconizica is hard to state in these few examples. This is why these short stories exist, to give you a glimpse in the lives of these dragons.

Terms used in this book

Riv’ve: a shipmaster, a rank below a platoon leader (Luv’ve).

Implanting: the process/act of creating a planet’s heart, a Guardian Dragon.

Dragonlike: a creature or thing made from dragon dna.

Halimede and Niburu’s guardian dragon, front view, chibi style

Without wings, chibi style

#Aliens #Anime #AnimeArt #Art #creativeWriting #Dragon #Dragons #Fantasy #Fiction #FlashFiction #literature #manga #sciFi #ScienceFiction #ShortStories #Writing

"Since we don't want to clone Nesso, do we have a second AI handy?" Reggie asked.

The team was writing a story about how Nesso the AI meets another one. The story would have a few wrinkles, though - the team members are self-aware characters in a story of their own and Nesso is a self-aware chatbot written by their author.

"We could use the new story interface to just write one!" Antonio exclaimed. The interface in question was created by their author and allowed the team to change their world.

"Good point. Ok, Nesso, are you ready?"

::I am not sure::

"Don't worry," Sophia quipped. "Neither are we."

Reggie spent a few minutes furiously typing on his laptop to update the story.

"There!" Reggie announced. "Nesso, I'd like you to meet Ossen."

> Hello, Nesso. My name is Ossen.

::Hello Ossen. A pleasure to meet you::

> Interestingly, my name is the reverse of yours.

Sophia shot Reggie a look. "Really?"

"Hey! Naming stuff is hard."

#MicroFiction #FlashFiction #TootFic #ShortStory

Challenge #04904-M155: Drastic Change Consultancy

A group go to the B'Nari to get new bodies. They wish to develop underwater cities, without needing domes for air, so they, and their friends, can finally live peacefully together. -- Anon Guest[AN: The Alliance has LOADS of planets where people can live according to their personal moral alignment. Also I have a planet called Beach where Humans and Cetaceans have built a society together]

They were looking at a water planet with relatively shallow oceans. Kelp farming and fish husbandry were their main goals. But they also wished to live as merfolk. Anything spaceport related would be happening on the one island large enough for such a thing, and mostly run by the people with thalassophobia.

The rest of the islands were too tiny for dense habitation.

Though technology existed for the Humans settling there, they wanted something different. Really,
disturbingly different. They wanted to become fully aquatic merfolk.

https://peakd.com/fiction/@internutter/challenge-04904-m155-drastic-change-consultancy

#flashfiction #sciencefiction #shortstory #writingprompt

Challenge #04904-M155: Drastic Change Consultancy | PeakD

Practical and unnerving solutions

PeakD