Shredded leaves from the weekend’s storm
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Asakiyume
@asakiyume@wandering.shop
mastodon 4.7.3Nobody special, but I dream. I was Morinotsuma on the bird site. Author of LAGOONFIRE, THE INCONVENIENT GOD (both from Annorlunda Books); PEN PAL.
418 Followers
214 Following
50 Posts
Joined August 11, 2023
The kitten was chasing its tail. It watched the tip intently, then crouched, wiggling its rear, which made the tail tip wiggle too. That was the signal: the kitten pounced, then chased in mad circles until it trapped the tail beneath its front paws, only to let it go again--for mere seconds. Then once again it trapped the tail firmly beneath its claws.
"Cats are so cruel, always playing with their prey," said Chloe.
"Even when their prey is attached to them, " said Evan.
#wss366 #microfiction
The game was played at 2 am in the supermarket parking lot. Two-player teams lined the perimeter. Scattered inside the parking lot were weird, random prizes: a pile of VHS tapes. A 5-lb jar of cashews. Etc. One player in each team sat in a shopping cart. The other was the pusher. The pushers pushed their partners as far as a chalk-drawn line, then let go. The carts hurtled on; you couldn't #steer them from inside. If a cart hit a prize, the team got to keep it.
#wss366 #microfiction
"There are 3 steps to becoming a sage," the old man said, authority in his voice & a twinkle in his eye.
"First, rid yourself of encumbrances. By which I mean clothes." The crowd stripped.
"Second, repeat the sound of the universe birthing itself."
"Is that 'om'?" a woman asked.
"No, it's moo." The crowd mooed.
"Third, whirl round." They whirled.
"I don't feel sagelike," someone said.
"There's a #fourth step: observe what foolishness pursuit of sagehood causes."
#wss366 #microfiction
fault line
Ridley's older brother Sam was the best at #skipping stones. He could get a stone to skip practically across Halfmoon Pond, or so it seemed to Ridley. Five, ten, seventeen skips.
Riding a skipping stone would be more exciting than waterskiing, Ridley thought. You wouldn't be tethered to anything! You'd have to be really tiny, though. And how would you hold on?
He mused on this a while.
"Hey Sam," he said. "D'you think we could glue tiny straps on a skipping stone?"
#wss366 #microfiction
I handed the customs agent my passport. She flipped thru the pages, glanced at me, glanced at her screen, frowned.
"Step aside, please."
This part of the process is always entertaining.
"Your passport's #flagged. Jeri Wyldman's the name of a jewel thief wanted on 3 continents."
"Wrong Jeri Wyldman. I do PR for Tractus Systems...Anyway, wouldn't a wanted jewel thief travel under a different name?"
Eventually, they let me thru. They always do! Onward to the next heist.
Lord Danquedred of the #Bastion of Moans was the perfect #foil for Lady Larkmarie, a self-proclaimed #Spirit of Joy. Larkmarie wasn't actually all that joyful, what with her many medical anxieties ("Do you think I've exhaled too much today? How much do *you* exhale?") and her unpredictable rages ("WHY are there bees on my sunflowers? WHY??") But you only needed to stand her next to the silent, morose form of Lord Danquedred, and suddenly yes, she did seem quite joyful.
#wss366 #microfiction
Veena's lover had found someone new, leaving her full of sighs and tears.
"Make a loaf of heartbreak #bread," her aunt instructed. "Let your tears fall into the dough, tell it all your feelings as you knead, then feed it to the sparrows when it's baked. You'll feel much better."
Veena started to make a loaf, but she worried. What if the sparrows couldn't handle her heartbreak? She decided to share happy memories with the dough instead.
Remarkably, the cure still worked.
Replying to
@futurebird@sauropods.win I think about this and play with it all the time because of doing microfiction. The character limit for my instance of Mastodon is quite low, so if I want to write a story in one toot, I'm often thinning out words ... but then sometimes I want to enrich and expand the story, maybe to submit it to a flash fiction market.
At first Misleidy created #cocktails based on phrases that irritated her as lead-ins for social media posts, things like the Buckle Up, the Strap In, and the Gentle Reminder. Then she took to naming them after depressing news (drink your sorrows, right?) Those drinks included the Overton Window Shift, the AI Boom, and the K-Shaped Economy. But more recently she's been creating drinks based on logical fallacies. Would you care for a Sunk Costs? How about a No True Scotsman?
Six-year-old Marissa arrived at the family reunion in a #purple dress with gauze sleeves and a skirt of tulle, embroidered with violets.
"Oh my," said an aunt with a smile. "What a little lady!"
Just then Marissa went tearing after her older brother yelling, "HEY! PASS TO ME, PASS TO ME!" practically knocking him down when he didn't instantly pass her the soccer ball.
"Well," said her mom. "She likes dressing up, but I'd say she's as rough and tumble as her brothers."
#WritersCoffeeClub 10 May: What wisdom do you wish you could share with your younger self?
I think she did okay just muddling along, but a thing I've come to think in the years since, and which I share with my friends is this: that we've handled hard things in the past and will to do so in the future. We may not know how, but we'll figure it out. Some stuff may not work, but we'll then try other stuff. We'll adjust. And we're not alone: we have friends. We'll help them and they'll help us.
Replying to
@georgepenney@sunny.garden Several intelligence agencies approach Small Human with the Listening Skills with a job proposal. They pay in the snacks of your choice...
"Look up," said Evan.
Above Bettina in the courtyard, barefoot footprints appeared & disappeared.
"What's making those?" she asked.
"People bouncing on a Marpinski #Film," Evan said. "Want to see?"
They took an elevator to the next level. There, a thin, semi-opaque film was anchored to the sides of the courtyard. Bettina stepped tentatively onto it & began to bounce. She couldn't see down to ground level, but she knew people would be seeing her feet appear & vanish.
#WritersCoffeeClub 12 April: How does being a writer influence your life outside the work.
It makes me go places, and then those places change my life.
Replying to
@futurebird @thebeeguy Love these guy. They make holes in the posts on my deck, too, but they're so charming, somehow. I guess if I thought the deck was going to fall apart due to their activity I'd feel differently, but so far it's not that many holes!
Replying to
@futurebird@sauropods.win
--to the "something of value, not a punishment" part,
I was like you in liking feedback, but I think it's because I received mainly positive or encouraging comments, which I think means I had teachers who valued that. I think that some kids have the experience of teachers who just write. "No" and "Explain" and "Word choice??" which can be deflating and discouraging and can lead them to not want feedback.
(And/But it's also true that they think teachers have unlimited time!)
"You said the buyer was coming this evening," said Pereira, pacing and flicking a switchblade open, shut, open, shut. "So where is he?" Pereira was wearing one of those shirts printed with Rococo art--Jesus's ascension to heaven. Jesus's uplifted eyes gazed into Pereira's impatient face as if he were commiserating with Pereira.
"I said he's arriving in *the city* tonight," Nick #hedged. "Not sure he'll make it *here* tonight or--"
Nick's phone sounded. "That's him!"
Chefla and Nors spotted Gelnow sitting dejectedly on a bench.
"So... you didn't #fare well in your evaluations?" Nors guessed.
"I failed Sunsets," Gelnow mumbled. "The examiner said I didn't have a good sense of clouds & that my colors were amateur."
"It happens," said Chefla. "People think Sunsets are easy, but there's a whole lot of second-order resonances, and the whole question of...."
She didn't finish. She could see from Gelnow's face that she wasn't helping any.
shopping-cart cryptid (crows are warning us about it ... or maybe warning it about us) #cryptids
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/fjsfZGnBQyY
Boosted by @GroupNebula563@mastodon.social
Replying to
@dillyd@turtleisland.social I feel this way about pineapples!
It's not summer if I don't do some chalk drawings. Here's an American goldfinch eating sunflower seeds.
#birds #AmericanGoldfinch #ChalkDrawing #ChalkArt #StreetArt
Replying to
@Da_Gut@dice.camp LOL, I wrote this from imagination, not memory, but somewhere out there kids probably HAVE done this. I mean, shopping carts beg to be used this way.
2026
Replying to
@Tom_ofB @Lightfighter OMG, reading fail on my part!!
This is much, much more resonant! Thank you!
RE: @TheConversationUS@newsie.social
"During my time in Koian I understood this as their collective refusal – a community’s decision to reject systems that had abandoned them and instead create their own terms for survival."
Replying to
@rai I wish and hope so hard that some companies will come to realize that there is a very willing supply of labor and a very willing market of purchasers for the company that is willing to dedicate itself to NOT using AI. To creating and promoting human-centered work, sold in a human way to human users. If they could only see that there's an advantage to that, as opposed to blindly chasing after gen AI!
... Sadly, I have no information that could help you, but I truly hope you find a position.
RE: @nantucketlit@mastodon.social
If you subscribe to @nantucketlit@mastodon.social 's postcard project, you get these, hand-typed, with an illustration on the front. I was honored to be included, but it's been even more wonderful to be a subscriber: a real tribute to sharing handmade, human art.
And here's Ivan Morris's translation of the intro to Sei Shōnagon's Pillow Book, same idea, even earlier (1002 AD)
"In spring it is the dawn that is most beautiful. As the light creeps over the hills, their outlines are dyed a faint red and wisps of purplish cloud trail over them." (1/?)
https://dn720003.ca.archive.org/0/items/the-pillow-book/The%20Pillow%20Book.pdf
Replying to
@extraspecialbitter@indieauthors.social @NaraMoore@sakurajima.moe @MarkBrigham@universeodon.com @stevendbrewer@wandering.shop
Conceptually, I like the idea! Right now I'm too scattered to read the rengay article, but I've participated in renga before (and read them in Japanese), so I understand general principles.
If everyone who wants to participate agrees in advance, so that all participants are known, and then we have a set order, then each person could just add their ku as a reply to the preceding one.
A #wss366 4-parter....
Replying to
Replying to
@Lightfighter This is irony, right? The working class isn't calling for tech that destroys the environment, jobs, and the ability to think.
Great thread with lots of sweet videos
Very funny, clever short story, "Herkimer Inquiriers, about a psychogeographer investigating disturbances in an Albuquerque neighborhood. Enjoyed the (queer) narrator immensely.
https://reckoning.press/herkimer-inquiries/
Replying to
@AngelicAura@transfem.social @futurebird@sauropods.win
Yeah, that's another thing a teacher can learn--the sensitivities of individual students. But it's hard, given how overburdened they are.
Replying to
@AngelicAura@transfem.social @futurebird@sauropods.win Very glad to have it! There are so many sides and aspects to any idea, discussion--anything really.
Replying to
@jondresner@spore.social 😂 😂 There was some joke/story/ thing we did as kids, I think a story of where a guy gets people to repeat magic words or something, and the magic words are Ohwa, Tagoo, Siam. And you say them faster and faster: Oh what a goose I am. (too bad I don't remember any of the surrounding story)
Replying to
@Jgbird@mas.to
Thought balloon over roadrunner's head:
Greater roadrunner?! GREATEST roadrunner 😌
I've been offline the past few days. Let me catch up on what the #wss366 prompt words have been in that time... they have been...
--"spat," for 10 April
--"lean," for 11 April
and for today, 12 April, the word is "ghost"
Join in if you feel like writing something short and sweet ... or long and epic; we have both sorts on the hashtag.
Replying to
@tobadzistsini@bonequest.net No, but how are you doing? I mean, I see you've kept on posting after this, but that must have been some mood you were in when you were writing.