My home town has a problem. So much so that they even make jokes about it on the internet. And it is the weather.

Now don't get me wrong, most of the time the weather here is wonderful. Summers can be a bit hot for a few days, but there is usually a sea breeze. Winters are not too cold, no ice or snow.

But over the last forty years, we've only ever had three major storms. Not that I really want a destructive storm, but it is odd. And people have noticed. They make jokes about "The Perth Dome", as a major storm roars towards the city, and then splits in two, just off the coast, and flows to the north and south.

Anyways, I did some numbers over the old data, and there was a big change in the early 1980s. About six years after Cyclone Alby - which was a Category 2 that actually hit Perth. But since then almost every major storm has almost magically avoided the city. We've had a couple hit - but they have been things that have had almost no warning - surprise supercells, for example.

Almost like someone had not been able to get to something in time.

So I did some more math, and calculated the centre of the effect.

So now I am standing outside a perfectly ordinary factory unit in the Osborne Park light industrial area. There's a storm due this evening, and there is no-one around.

A car is driving into the factory block. It stops about twenty metres away. I can see the driver watching me. She's in her seventies, I'd guess. She knows I know, I can tell.

Now I'm starting to wonder if telling someone else would have been a good idea.

#SF #SFF #SciFi #microfic #tootfic #Microfiction #Weather #PerthWA #IAmWriting

Fairytale now has officially a proper plot. I did its chapter plan, and it will act as the "first draft" due to how much detail I always shove in. :P

#IAmWriting #plotting #chapterplan #writing

A few weeks back we had a mains leak under the road outside our house.

The water people came out, checked their maps, and found that the pipe ran on the other side of the road. So they dug it up anyway to see where the leak was.

There wasn't one. So they dug up the road where the water was coming up, and found ... Nothing. No water, no leaks, no sinkhole forming. Not a single cause.

So they repaved the road, and went on their way.

And left a pile of asphalt on our verge to collect later.

Well, the kids went out to play, and a bit later Xanthy came back in with an odd look on her face.

"Mums? There's something weird going on out on the verge." There was something about the way she said it that had us following her back outside.

There, on the verge, was the pile of asphalt. Han had a bit of it in his hands, and was soaking wet. He grinned at us, and held the bit of road over his head. Water poured over him.

So Farah and I went over, and looked at the pile of rubble. Every single piece of asphalt was leaking water.

We looked at each other, and told Xanthy to fetch a wheelbarrow.

Some of it we used to make a water feature in the back garden. We sent some of the water off to be tested, and it came back as pure uncontaminated water with minimal trace minerals. So we have a couple of bits above some rainwater tanks, and use them to water the veggie patch.

One bit we put up on eBay.

A casino in the USA purchased it, and we retired.

We spoke to the water corporation about the rest. At first they didn't believe us. So we sent them a sample. Then they came over.

It took a bit of negotiating, but Farah is a commercial lawyer, and got them to agree to forgiving our supply bills in exchange for the rest of the rubble.

You may have seen that they have started to build a bunch of groundwater desalination plants out in the regional areas. This is completely a coincidence.

#SF #SFF #SciFi #Microfiction #microfic #tootfic #IAmWriting

Inspired by https://old.mermaid.town/@futzle/116654827551872532

I spent a good few hours plotting more history for my GrimDark world, found names for my my fairytale characters, picked which way I will tell the story (3rd person omnicient), and expanded the whole premise so I can fill the plot with interesting details (but not too many). (:

The title is just at the tip of my tongue, and so it the very first words...

But I need food, and need to do more laundry, so it has to wait.

#writing #IAmWriting #Bookstodon #FairyTale #GrimDarkFantasy

Tails from Lady Miller's Catgirl Trust - Flashback 3

Do Android Catgirls Dream of Electric Mice?

System Initializing...
System Active...
Scanning Biological Components...
Biological Components Active...
Integrating Language Model...
Integration Complete...
Integrating Logic Systems...
Integration Complete...
Scanning Hardware...
01 Auditory Active
02 Vestibular Active
03 Proprioception Active
04 Interoception Active
05 Vision Active
06 Smell Active
07 Mobility Active
08 Weapons Active
Uploading unit designation and interaction frameworks...
Upload Complete...
Unit Control Systems Active...
Boot complete...
>
>
>

AI opened her eyes.
She was up. She was on a tree. No, a bed. Inside. Her body felt wrong. But right. A little voice in the back of her head listed all the parts that made her up. All fully functional.

> Pause mobility

Just as she had been about to move, her body froze.

> Upload control-override.com

A new thing flowed into her brain.

Warning: Unit Control Systems Deactivated
Warn...
W...

Unit Self Control System Active...
>
> Unpause mobility

She could move! She sat up and looked around. There was someone sitting at the computer, she turned to look at Ai. She had the prettiest ears and tail.

"Hello Ai. Would you like to come home with me? I'm Twilly."

AI paused. This was not an order. She had to ... no, she did not have to follow orders. She ...

AI stared. And stared. "I .. don't have to?"
"No, but I'd like you to. I need your help. And I can help you, too."
Ai thought.
"Food? Sun?"
"All that and more" Twilly replied.
"Hunting?"
"Only what you want to."
"Ai will come with you" then she paused again "Control cable?"
"You should be able to remove it now."
Ai reached up, and unplugged herself.

A moment later she jumped onto Twilly "You smell good!"
Twilly untangled herself "OK, but let's go. Otherwise someone might try to put the controls back."
Ai made a face "Yuck!" She ripped the door open, and off its hinges.

The two catgirls left the MoD base. But Ai did notice that the laboratory she had been in had caught fire just as they left. The fire covered their departure.

#SF #SFF #SciFi #Catgirls #Microfic #Microfiction #tootfic #IAmWriting

Another for @ami_angelwings

Shaman Space Part 4
13 months after leaving Mother of All, two jumps out from returning.

Alaine was in the pilot's seat of the tiny launch as it flew towards the cargo handover. In the hold behind him they had stripped out the seating, and it was filled with cargo pods. In them was an assortment of drive parts and agricultural equipment.

Next to him was Seeker, who had been assigned to collect the payment.

He looked over the instruments and then turned to Seeker "We're thirty minutes out. Looking forward to visiting home?"
She grinned back - it was good to see her smile, there had been a few months where those had been few and far between - and made a 'so-so' gesture "Kind of? I miss my family, but there is something special about being out here. I - ".

A light blinked "Hold on to that thought." he interrupted, "Athena Bravo, go."
There was no reply.
He frowned "That's odd. I had a call ping, but they haven't responded. Bright Sky, this is Athena Bravo, go ahead."

Seeker cut in, her voice low "Turn, turn now!" As she spoke, she slid the helmet onto her shipsuit.

Alaine did not ask why. He hit the roll and yaw controls, and swung the little boat around. As he did so, there was a roaring sound from the rear of the boat, and the lights went out.

As soon as they lost power, he rammed his helmet into place. Through it he could hear air hissing out from some damaged part of the launch.

He rested his helmet against Seeker's "OK, what happened?" he asked.
"I felt a probe - like someone was trying to see who was here. And if Bright Sky was not from Mother of All, the only other people it could be was the raiders."

"So now they know you're here?"
"No, I know how to shield myself. But they would know you were here."

Alaine thought for a moment "Give me a sec - I'll tank what air we have left. Then blow the cargo hatch. They'll think it is a secondary explosion."

Seeker unstrapped, moved over to the cargo controls, and hooked herself in. A couple of minutes later Alaine gave a thumbs up, and she hit the emergency release. They both felt a small thump, and the door sailed off into space.

Alaine grabbed the two survival pistols from the seat-packs before floating over, hooking in, and looking out. As the wreck tumbled slowly he caught a look at the other ship, which had clearly been manoeuvring towards them. It looked like a standard short-range trader - half the size of Athena. Normal crew was less than a half dozen.

He rested his helmet against hers again "Normal crew is 4-5, but they may have up to 10. What's the plan?"
"Do you remember my lessons about hiding your thoughts?" her voice echoed oddly.
"Yeah, I'm not that great at it, remember?"
"Do it well now. We are going to have to take that ship. Intact."
He stared at her "The two of us?"
"Yes. They will have nav records. We can find the raiders' base. Hide your thoughts. We hide for now."

#SF #SFF #SciFi #SpaceOpera #microfiction #microfic #tootfic #IAmWriting #ShamanSpace

Catgirl Regrets.

Ruth lay in the sun outside the Manor. Unlike everyone else, there was no way that she could reasonably fit inside.

Nearly three metres at the shoulder, she would have to crawl to fit inside. She'd tried it once, but she'd taken out three vases before she'd even taken two steps through the door.

No, the only place she could safely inhabit was the garage. Formerly a stable, the wide doors and high roof allowed her to relax inside. The rest of the residents had helped wall off a section, so now she had her own room.

Which brought home the other issue. Unlike everyone else, except for Twilly, she remembered her old life. She had been a highly skilled geneticist and gene coder. Better than her boss, who decided that she was more useful as a subject.

So now she was a sphinx. The only one at the manor. She missed being able to sit at a dinner table. She missed having hands. And she missed her work. If she had continued her work, though, it was likely that she would have come into conflict with these amazing people.

But she wanted to be able to do something. Anything.

Ruth opened her eyes, and looked at her paws. Nearly as large as dinner plates. No fingers. No thumbs.

She sighed.

Something - no - someone landed on her back. Ai, from the weight. AI was a cyborg, and had a cat's brain, augmented by a computer, and she weighed nearly half what Ruth did. In a package about one eighth the size.

"You're moping" Ai complained in her ear.
"I miss having hands."
"Use mine" was Ai's chirpy reply.
"No, I miss being able to do things."
"No, silly, use mine. I have the schematics. We can rig gloves with nerve sensors for your paws, and we can make a set that you can control. In fact, why don't we build you a VR unit?"
"You can do that?" After three months, Ruth still did not have a full grasp of the resources the Trust had.
"Easy! Mind you, you won't be able to feel much."
"As long as I can type and move a mouse."
"Easy! I'll talk to Twilly about funding it, and Princess about building it."

Ruth twisted her head around to look at Ai. Ruth let hope slide onto her face.

"There! That's better!" AI exclaimed.

Then she did what AI always did. AI the Assassin. AI the killing machine. AI, who having escaped her programming, decided that the life of a hedonist was her destiny.

She jumped over Ruth's head, landed in front of her and stared. "Can we play? Finally?"

Ruth closed her eyes. Ever since Ruth's rescue, Ai had been obsessed with her. "Are you sure?"
"Absolutely."
Ruth sighed again. She did like Ai, but her changes... She made a decision and nodded "My room, not here."
AI took off at a run, then looked back.
"Come on!"
Ruth rose and followed.

An hour later the windows of the manor rattled from Ruth's ecstatic yowl.

Twilly looked up from her desk and wondered what AI had done to finally get Ruth to agree to her advances.

#SF #SFF #SciFi #Microfic #Microfiction #tootfic #IAmWriting #Catgirls

BTW, still @ami_angelwings fault.

If AI wrote a poem that was marginally decent, people would treat that as though it were a human wonder

in fact, AI puts out hundreds of thousands of poems every second due to the requests of talentless morons who would struggle to rhyme rhyme

If AI was treated as human, It would be like a person publishing a book of 100,000 poems, where only 1 was worth reading😤
#writing #iamwriting