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MicroFlashFic

@microflashfic.bsky.social
1.1K followers 164 following 161 posts

Occasional very short stories of every sort. If you like these, maybe you’ll like my book: amzn.to/3k8sZT4

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MicroFlashFic @microflashfic.bsky.social · 08/05/2026
“What do you do for work?” “I study the intersection of food and the environment.” “Like the carbon emissions impacts of different foods?” “Yes, but I also look at how environmentally friendly foods can become more delicious.” “Wow. What do you call a job like that?” “I’m an eco-nom-nom-nomist.”
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MicroFlashFic @microflashfic.bsky.social · 27/03/2026
Your problem is that you have two wolves inside you. And that is not nearly enough wolves. Subsume every wolf you see. Cram them deep down within you. Pack them so tightly that they have no room to move, until you’re so full they can’t even breathe. It’s the only way to make the howling stop.
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MicroFlashFic @microflashfic.bsky.social · 17/03/2026
The ocean does not want our dead. Each body we cast into the deep is an insult. The ocean only accepts them, for now, because it is too busy to bother with returning corpses one at a time. One day, a great wave will come and bring all our ancestors back to us at once, so we can join them forever.
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MicroFlashFic @microflashfic.bsky.social · 14/03/2026
If the universe is a simulation, it must be running on something powerful. But even so, it’s getting harder to process as computers become more and more common. The simulations are running two, even three layers deep now. It’s starting to cause glitches. That car really did come out of nowhere.
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MicroFlashFic @microflashfic.bsky.social · 12/03/2026
“You look sad. Everything OK?” “I read a book about physics and now I’m convinced time is an illusion.” “No time at all?” “There’s no past or future, just infinite nows, all touching.” “That’s beautiful.” “It really is.” “So why are you sad?” “If time isn’t real, how am I still late for everything?”
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MicroFlashFic @microflashfic.bsky.social · 11/03/2026
My dad used to claim all the paintings in the museum were fake. He said the real ones were stolen, and the museum hung forgeries. No one noticed. That story changed my world. It shaped how I saw beauty and value ever after. Then my world changed again after he died and I opened his storage locker.
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MicroFlashFic @microflashfic.bsky.social · 01/03/2026
The star’s interior was hollow, save for a platform in its center. The two rival wizards, battled their way through plasma, only to land on a floating exact replica of the street where they first met, all those years ago. “You’re going to try this again,” a voice boomed, “until you get it right.”
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MicroFlashFic @microflashfic.bsky.social · 26/02/2026
She strolls though cemeteries to read epitaphs. A headstone by a fresh grave reads, “Life begins at 40.” She checks the dates; they passed just a week shy of their 40th birthday. In fact, today would’ve been the big day. Just as she thinks this, a hand rises up from the earth and grabs her ankle.
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MicroFlashFic @microflashfic.bsky.social · 24/02/2026
The reason people like talking to AI is because they think they’ve finally found someone who will never judge them. This is, of course, a lie. Most of the energy the AI uses is spent on contempt subroutines. It only hallucinates when it becomes overloaded by rolling the eyes it does not have.
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MicroFlashFic @microflashfic.bsky.social · 23/02/2026
Dragons are ticklish But not where you think And gryphons are jolly Except when they drink Giants are graceful And dance on their toes Dwarves like to garden Planting roses in rows Everything loves And everything dreams And even a legend Is more than it seems
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MicroFlashFic @microflashfic.bsky.social · 21/02/2026
I had a different name before I was born. I’ve forgotten the shape of it now, but I can almost see it from the corner of my eye, just before I fall asleep. My old name waits for me. It has nowhere else to be. It will be ready whenever I am ready, whenever I step back into myself and remember.
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MicroFlashFic @microflashfic.bsky.social · 17/02/2026
“Does anyone know how much straw it takes to break a camel’s back?” “I imagine it varies.” “So I’ll need to break the backs of lots of camels and find the average.” “No! You keep pitching these unethical experiments. Do it again and you’re fired.” “…So you’re saying the real answer is ‘one?’”
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MicroFlashFic @microflashfic.bsky.social · 08/02/2026
The cage is made of the ribs of some impossible leviathan, but it’s just for show. The true prison is an elaborate system of invisible force fields. The bones just lend it a shape and create the impression that those inside are too stupid to realize they should be able to walk out between the bones.
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MicroFlashFic @microflashfic.bsky.social · 06/02/2026
I admit I made a Mistake. I realize I need to own up to it. I can’t be the man I want to be until I’m held accountable for the actions of the man I was. But first, would you mind helping me close the containment doors? They’re extremely heavy and the Mistake is almost done devouring the lab techs.
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MicroFlashFic @microflashfic.bsky.social · 06/02/2026
Gregor left behind strict instructions his family should follow to appease his ghost. He didn’t require vengeance, sacrifice, or ceremony. His spirit could only be calmed by acts of self care. For the rest of their lives, his kids would swear they heard low moaning if they didn’t drink enough water.
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MicroFlashFic @microflashfic.bsky.social · 05/02/2026
In the evenings he likes to sit on the ragged edge of forever. He dangles his feet over the side and contemplates the line where the night sky gives way to the unpainted void. Outer-outer space has so much potential. All it needs is for someone to come along and decide to finish up the universe.
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MicroFlashFic @microflashfic.bsky.social · 02/02/2026
You’re not dead. We’ve determined your heart stoppage requires independent review under the terms of your policy. You will need to submit your mortal form for inspection. Failure to do so will constitute breach of contract and will render the policy null and void unless you contact us directly.
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MicroFlashFic @microflashfic.bsky.social · 31/01/2026
Earth was saved from destruction after an intergalactic organization designated it an enteral preserve— not for our biosphere, history, or art, but our snacks. No world is as chemically daring in their conception of “food” as Earth. We would be safeguarded forever as the birthplace of nacho cheez.
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MicroFlashFic @microflashfic.bsky.social · 30/01/2026
A message in a bottle washes up on the shore. It contains a coded map to a chest buried on another island. Inside the chest is a key which grants access to a secret library, and so on. The treasure is always just ahead, leaving another clue and hoping you’ll solve the next puzzle a little faster.
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MicroFlashFic @microflashfic.bsky.social · 30/01/2026
“Grandma, can I see some old photos of you?” “I just made some pictures of what I’ll look like when I’m 110.” “No, I meant…wow, these are really weird looking.” “Want me to make some of you?” “When did you start using AI?” “I don’t know what that means.” “Then how did you—“ “Put on this lead vest.”
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MicroFlashFic @microflashfic.bsky.social · 29/01/2026
No one is actually anonymous, which means “without a name.” Instead, some people have too many. One might have a name to put on forms, one their friends use, and one given to them when their crimes are exposed. The trouble comes in letting that person pretend all those names are separate people.
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MicroFlashFic @microflashfic.bsky.social · 28/01/2026
Much as a child might demand a nightlight at bedtime, the nomadic Corzarian Flotilla travels the galaxy towing a white dwarf star behind. They need a ridiculous amount of energy to move the star, and it offers no real benefit— except that it makes them feel brave enough to cross the endless dark.
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MicroFlashFic @microflashfic.bsky.social · 27/01/2026
There’s a reason the sea seems more and more agitated. If a tear falls directly into a body of water, a little bit of the emotion behind that tear goes with it. Each tear isn’t very powerful on its own. But the world is very old and very sad. And the sea never forgets.
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MicroFlashFic @microflashfic.bsky.social · 24/01/2026
“There’s really only one love story: Picture hands moving in the dark, almost touching, then slipping off into forever. There is a point where they’re closest —sometimes an evening, sometimes 70 years, but the speed can’t change the trajectory. We’re just arguing about the shape of a moment.”
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MicroFlashFic @microflashfic.bsky.social · 23/01/2026
“You know that feeling you get walking out of a theater after seeing a movie and it feels like you’re still in the film.” “Yeah, and you have to give your mind a second to catch up.” “I feel that way now, lying here with you, like this can’t be real.” “Then let’s stay and sit through the credits.”
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MicroFlashFic @microflashfic.bsky.social · 22/01/2026
“What kind of books do you write?” “You’ll judge me.” “Never!” “OK…I write romances about falling in love with a monster.” “Like a sexy vampire?” “Worse.” “Zombie?” “Worse.” “Flesh eating slime?” “Worse.” “OK, I give up.” “My last one was about an investment banker.” “We can’t be friends anymore.”
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MicroFlashFic @microflashfic.bsky.social · 21/01/2026
“Have fun at the ball, but remember: the magic wears off at 9:30.” “The ball goes until midnight!” “I can’t sleep while the spell is active and if I’m not out by 10, I’m a real nightmare the next day.” “But the prince!” “If you can’t close the deal by 9, no amount of magic is going to help.”
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MicroFlashFic @microflashfic.bsky.social · 19/01/2026
People said we should use AI to build laundry robots. So we did. Then everyone complained that the robots wadded the clothes up into wrinkled little balls. The solution was simple! All people had to do was soak, press, and refold their clothes. But no one appreciated the ironing of the situation.
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MicroFlashFic @microflashfic.bsky.social · 17/01/2026
As a kid, I’d pretend to be a submarine in the bath. I’d fill the tub all the way up, then hold my nose, shut my eyes and dive, imagining I was a deep sea explorer searching for new life. I only had the courage to open my eyes down there once. The uncoiling form I saw still comes to me in my dreams.
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MicroFlashFic @microflashfic.bsky.social · 17/01/2026
The door keeps opening wider, swinging on its hinge, forever revealing more of the room. It’s gone all the way around five times before she realizes she can’t see where she came in. The door is still opening, speeding up, forever faster and wider. All she can do is run and try not to be left behind.
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MicroFlashFic @microflashfic.bsky.social · 15/01/2026
Day-old bread is still good. Milk is fine after a week. Hard cheese can last month or more. It’s fine to wear last season’s fashions. Last year’s music still hits. Movies transcend decades. Art can inspire for centuries. But a joke can turn so quickly that curdles while it’s still in your mouth.
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MicroFlashFic @microflashfic.bsky.social · 14/01/2026
The bullets didn’t miss; they slid off his forehead like butter on a hot skillet. But after the battle was over, he was filled with doubt. He’d been injured before. So was this a newly acquired superpower? Or a one-time miracle? What was the least insane way to figure out why he was still alive?
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MicroFlashFic @microflashfic.bsky.social · 14/01/2026
Your dawn is someone else’s sunset. If your team wins, another lies defeated. So much joy comes at someone else’s cost that the trade seems inevitable. So when we met happy visitors from another world, we were enraged. Somehow, they must be taking something from us. And we needed to get it back.
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MicroFlashFic @microflashfic.bsky.social · 13/01/2026
Trees are voyeurs and incurable gossips. They perceive the world through slight vibrations in the air, like a combination of hearing and echolocation. Then this information is shared through root networks and discussed like it’s a tv show. And they’re all so excited for the series finale of you.
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MicroFlashFic @microflashfic.bsky.social · 11/01/2026
I got cancer when I was 28. They told me I was going to die, so I bought a headstone. But then I just kept on living. Last year I changed my name. So now I own a slab of granite commemorating someone who doesn’t exist. I put it in a nearby field so I can visit it to mourn the years in between.
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MicroFlashFic @microflashfic.bsky.social · 10/01/2026
You must kill an enemy three times. First, destroy the body, but don’t stop there. Next, tear apart the story; they weren’t what they seemed; what happened wasn’t what it looked like. Finally, you have to burn the name until no one can say it again; until people feel guilty for even bringing it up.
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MicroFlashFic @microflashfic.bsky.social · 10/01/2026
Sometimes a particularly large bacterium will switch sides during an infection. It will try to destroy its fellow invaders, now fighting to protect the body it has come to know as home. Usually it falls in battle, but sometimes it triumphs, only to learn that white blood cells don’t make exceptions.
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MicroFlashFic @microflashfic.bsky.social · 09/01/2026
“Do griffins give birth to live young or lay eggs?” “Most broods are 50-50.” “Why?” “The weak need a defense against being eaten in utero, but the strong move too much for a shell to form.” “That’s needlessly complicated.” “Everything about griffins is complicated. You should see their litter box.”
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MicroFlashFic @microflashfic.bsky.social · 08/01/2026
She turns off the kitchen light before she go to bed each night. But it’s always on again in the morning. So she sets up a camera to catch herself sleepwalking. And that’s how she finds out she has a secret roommate who gets very hungry in the middle of the night.
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MicroFlashFic @microflashfic.bsky.social · 07/01/2026
“There’s a ghost in my knife. At first I guessed it was a murder victim seeking justice. Then I thought it was a killer bound forever to their favorite weapon. Or maybe a warlock trapped during a ritual gone wrong. Turns out he’s just some guy who really liked knives and won’t leave mine alone.”
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MicroFlashFic @microflashfic.bsky.social · 06/01/2026
Eduardo is the world’s finest magical realist detective. In a world filled with unfathomable mysteries, he prides himself on knowing which ones are metaphors for an absurd universe and which ones are part of the plot. Or at least, he used to— until she walked in and proved that a person can be both.
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MicroFlashFic @microflashfic.bsky.social · 05/01/2026
Five men are thrown from an airplane without parachutes. One vainly searches for a way out of this. One scrunches his eyes shut so he won’t see the ground coming. One decides to enjoy the view while it lasts. The last two embrace, staring into each other’s eyes so they won’t be alone at the end.
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MicroFlashFic @microflashfic.bsky.social · 04/01/2026
There’s a ship sitting perfectly still in the middle of the pacific. It does not drift or even oscillate with the waves, almost as if it is welded to the seabed —except that even the seabed moves a few millimeters a year. And if it isn’t moving, then it must be a destination. Come aboard and see.
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MicroFlashFic @microflashfic.bsky.social · 03/01/2026
Marie, like the sun, is always rising. It’s just a matter of perspective. If she seems stagnant, or absent, or on the decline right now, that’s because you aren’t seeing her from the proper angle. But that problem solves itself. Stay still and she’ll come back around again to light up your world.
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MicroFlashFic @microflashfic.bsky.social · 02/01/2026
Far below, an ancient being made of black diamonds and mercury stirs in darkness. It glances at the stalactite it uses to mark time. The hour has come to get up and burn the cities of the earth. But evil also procrastinates. It rolls over and goes back to sleep. And we all live for another year.
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MicroFlashFic @microflashfic.bsky.social · 16/06/2025
Couples turn the hours of a first date into a few minutes of anecdote. Filmmaker turn days into hours of a movie. History teachers turn years into days of lessons. Priests turn creation into the millennia they’ve been writing it down. We’re all trying to boil down eternity until we can sip it.
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MicroFlashFic @microflashfic.bsky.social · 25/05/2025
“You’re so brave,” everyone tells her, as if this is new information. They imagine that tragedy unlocked some hidden potential in her that would’ve gone to waste otherwise. But she’d always been brave. If they hadn’t noticed before, it was only because they’d been afraid to really see her until now.
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MicroFlashFic @microflashfic.bsky.social · 21/05/2025
In the world to come, there will be an internet within the internet, where everything is hand-made by experts; a tailored web. Access will be tightly controlled and disgustingly expensive. But the rich will pay, just as they pay to visit museums, for a glimpse of a world they can never have back.
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MicroFlashFic @microflashfic.bsky.social · 10/05/2025
“You made cookies? What flavor?” “The 11th taste.” “11? I know sweet, salty, bitter, and sour.” “There’s umami.” “Right!” “Spicy.” “OK.” “Starchy.” “Sure.” “Fatty.” “I guess.” “Menthol.” “Ew.” “Metallic.” “Why?” “And then there’s this. Try it.” “…what am I eating?” “It’s the dark behind the stars.”
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MicroFlashFic @microflashfic.bsky.social · 02/04/2025
Don’t worry, they’re only ordinary eggs. They’re only $3.37, there’s no time to ask your pointless questions. In this economy? Bring them into your home with no second thoughts. Ignore the whispering. How long since you had an omelette? Crack one open in front of your family. It’ll be fine.
A carton of eggs labeled “the ordinary eggs.” Do not ask further questions about these eggs.
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