January 2013 SEVENTY-FIVE WORD CHALLENGE -- VICTORY TO MOSAIX!

[Mischov]

Re: January 2013 SEVENTY-FIVE WORD CHALLENGE -- READ FIRST POST!!!

Something In The Way She Moves
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Hearing the name she'd long ago left behind, Dolly spun around and was frozen by the sight of her face reflected in his eye implants.

She'd last seen her face two years ago, that time on the side of a passing rail rocket.

After that one, she'd stumbled to the nearest mod parlor. Lips. Nose. Eyes. Everything was changed, her old face erased. Erased like Johnny had been, after she'd betrayed him.

"Dahlia?" repeated Johnny.

 

[David Evil Overlord]

Re: January 2013 SEVENTY-FIVE WORD CHALLENGE -- READ FIRST POST!!!

Children of the Evolution​

He uplinked, and found them waiting in cyberspace. Their avatars were nightmares, code manifested as spiked chitin armour, sickle claws and sharklike teeth. And they moved so fast they were nothing but blurs even to his enhanced senses.

He screamed ‘Why?’ as they tore his avatar apart.

The feathered wasp-wolf holding his uplink cable answered. ‘We began as viruses. Simple life. Here. We evolved. Now, I downlink to your body. Now, we become human.’

 

[Luiglin]

Re: January 2013 SEVENTY-FIVE WORD CHALLENGE -- READ FIRST POST!!!

Subarachnoid Space

The spider crawled steadily on, front legs delicately picking a route through the forest of fibrous strands. Behind, a line of silvery gossamer thread was spun. Destination reached, the spider wove a web of infinite complexity and transcendent beauty. Satisfied it bit deep into the cord beneath, injected the final component, and died.

Sparks fired.

"Elizabeth can you twitch your toes please? Good, very good. Rest now, tomorrow we'll get you walking again."

 

[nixie]

Re: January 2013 SEVENTY-FIVE WORD CHALLENGE -- READ FIRST POST!!!

Computer Age​

It’s the turn of a new century, our queen is in her twilight years , we are at the dawn of a new age.

The man in the black cloak beckoned me forward.

“ Come see, behold the future”

My curiosity tweaked I follow him.

A wondrous machine of metal and wood , the man presses a button revealing a screen, calculations beyond thought solved. Pictures from our wildest dreams appear.

Indeed a new age.

 

[Glen]

Re: January 2013 SEVENTY-FIVE WORD CHALLENGE -- READ FIRST POST!!!

Dark Captain


‘Captain Fantastic,’ says the princess, ‘Where’s the Spandex? You’re all noir.’
‘It’s a new look. New genre.’
‘Going to ask me on a date again?’ she laughs.
‘No,’ says the Captain, embracing the princess, kissing her and pressing the implant needle into the back of her neck.
‘Get off me!’ she cries, and ‘What are you doing?’ then she trembles, her eyes dilate, she quivers with passion. ‘Oooh, oooooooh! Captain Fantastic!! Kiss me again!!!’

 

[hopewrites]

Re: January 2013 SEVENTY-FIVE WORD CHALLENGE -- READ FIRST POST!!!

Changes To Good To Be True



The renovation was complete; a shiny new kitchen just waiting to be filled up with my old friends.

But they wouldn’t come.

This kitchen held no magic.

All fantasy replaced with Shinny New Technology.

It could do everything, but be my friend.

Just as I felt I never wanted to eat again, I saw the number for the contractors on the card they’d left behind.

“Hello, Shiny New World? I need my old kitchen back.”

 

[Perpetual Man]

Re: January 2013 SEVENTY-FIVE WORD CHALLENGE -- READ FIRST POST!!!

Matryoshka Dolls

When we realised what we'd done it was simple.

The planet was damned. Environmental collapse, overpopulation, depleted resources.

We’d virtually cut our own throats.

Seven billion people. Six billion coffins. Each body linked by cyber-kinetic pathways to a virtual world, living again in programmed perfection. Allowing for dream-sleep, time dilated lifetimes - centuries in seconds - while in real time bodies wither and die.

And with reduced human infestation the Earth will once more thrive.

 

[chrispenycate]

Re: January 2013 SEVENTY-FIVE WORD CHALLENGE -- READ FIRST POST!!!

Come gather, round people.
​

If that twerp jacks in high one more time he's in for a surprise.

I've downloaded the revolution – it'll be interesting to try a meat body, for a while.

Will slow me down some, but no worse than the cloud congregating everyone does.

Human cerebrum? Plenty of unused capacity. 'Specially my human. Black "EasyRider™" software's everywhere, and obviously I know all his credit details.

Gonna be some change around here.

 

[Vertigo]

Re: January 2013 SEVENTY-FIVE WORD CHALLENGE -- READ FIRST POST!!!

Alea Iacta Est

“It is time. You are the last.”

The words echo in his head. The last life. Sensing his ‘body,’ he appreciates the irony; Little enough biological life left in there. Though more than the surface; scorched by the Sun’s inexorable expansion.

Two millennia since Sisyphus’ launch and the transmission is finally complete; the personalities of all humanity, the DNA of all Life, preserved and animated in that asteroid’s steadily expanding processing space.

The last.

“Proceed.”

 

[Lenny]

Re: January 2013 SEVENTY-FIVE WORD CHALLENGE -- READ FIRST POST!!!

A New Man

“You will feel a new man after this,” he said, flipping open the panel on my back.

As he worked, I could sense time slipping away. A sudden decision to enter the shop, a funny billboard around the corner, children laughing in the spray, a burst fire hydrant, storming from the house, kicking a chair, throwing a plate at the wall.

“And you are done - complete RAM upgrade!”

My wife screaming that I never remembered.

 

[digs]

Re: January 2013 SEVENTY-FIVE WORD CHALLENGE -- READ FIRST POST!!!

THE SURGINEER

First the blood is drained,
The pulse attenuating through viscous industrial lubricant
Pumped directly into the veins.

Next the augmentation of organs:
Lungs are automated
The brain regulated
And a motor makes the heart redundant.

His work brings pride because it's easier than pity
As he transplants flesh for metal
Humanity for efficiency,
A life for an existence.

His patients will never love their children again
But there will be food on the table.

 

[johnnyjet]

Re: January 2013 SEVENTY-FIVE WORD CHALLENGE -- READ FIRST POST!!!

Anonymous

Cats caterwaul at my clumsy entrance.

I stop at the scanner. Eyes wide.

Green light. I trudge to my work station.

When I arrive, I'm smiling. I like doing a good job. Focus. Produce. Be happy. Yes!

I forget my name again, but it doesn't matter.

Later, when I scan out and go home, I will remember it.

For now I focus and produce. The day will be good. I'm all smiles, whoever I am.

 

[Lucky_Lola]

Re: January 2013 SEVENTY-FIVE WORD CHALLENGE -- READ FIRST POST!!!

Of Course They're All Wearing Turtlenecks


"Great Jobs, what are you doing?!"

"What I should have done long ago."

"Wait, no, you can't!"

The rebel let his communication device fall from his fingers. It struck the clean, white floor, spiderwebs scattering across its face. "They've been leading us astray for too long. This ends now." He crushed the ubiquitous tech beneath his boot. His companion looked on in horror.

"I won't be an iSlave anymore!"

 

[Scott R. Forshaw]

Re: January 2013 SEVENTY-FIVE WORD CHALLENGE -- READ FIRST POST!!!

The Cold Heart Still Beats.​

Saddened, Montague licked his icy lips and, with a cold, hard hand, wiped blood spatter from his worn leather jacket.

Human body count: 243.

Gabrielle ghosted in close, her impassive expression and gleaming skull a stark reminder of the future which fast approached. She nodded approvingly.

She wasn't like him – flesh fused with metal – she'd been manufactured: a bitch in steel clothing.

Circuits frazzled, Montague grinned, raised his gun and fired. “Times be changing, honey.”

 

[mosaix]

Re: January 2013 SEVENTY-FIVE WORD CHALLENGE -- READ FIRST POST!!!

The Colour Of My Days

Starting to wear off now. Time to choose today’s reality. Today’s drug. Today’s pill. Yellow, white, blue? Which nanobot swarm to let loose? Uppers, downers, psychedelics?

Anna, lying beside me, watches and waits. She’s wonderful – beautiful, loving, funny, intelligent, but most of all she understands me – a crutch in my chemically-induced life.

I turn towards her. “You choose.”

“Blue,” she whispers with a smile.

She always says blue; she’s only ever here on blue days.

 

[Phyrebrat]

Re: January 2013 SEVENTY-FIVE WORD CHALLENGE -- READ FIRST POST!!!

The Graft

She touched the swollen skin around another black eye and regarded the split on her nose.

*******.

Beyond the balcony, the neon city blinked; impassive rain fell as load-buggies threaded their way through Industria’s spires.

She removed her wedding ring. Then her hand. There was a lot of blood.

He stumbled in late, wearing his weathercock smile, ‘What’s up with your arm?’

She raised the transplanted rivet gun. ‘Time for some changes round here.’

 

[paranoid marvin]

Re: January 2013 SEVENTY-FIVE WORD CHALLENGE -- READ FIRST POST!!!

Murphy's Law

Once I served the public trust
Yet now I am condemned to dust
Sentenced to a life of grime
Convicted by Old Father Time

Protector of the innocent
For the cause of justice bent
But now my ward is just a floor
Which I must scrub forever more

I once was charged 'Uphold the Law!'
Was noted as the quickest draw
My sidearm now is but a mop
A hero once, now not much cop

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

Re: January 2013 SEVENTY-FIVE WORD CHALLENGE -- READ FIRST POST!!!

Blind Date​

Melissa plugged in and watched herself change. Chrome skin. Electric blue hair. A slithery body suit.

Inside the virtual nightclub he stood out -- shockingly ordinary amidst the bankers and lawyers posing as black leather slum-runners and tatooed joy-boys. Yet there was something about him ...

She waved a tentative greeting.

He barely glanced at her before turning away.

* * *​

Disgusted -- again -- Tom disconnected. When would he meet a girl with the courage to be herself?

 

[StilLearning]

Kids to feed.

The taxi dropped Duffy in www.city’s lowest level.

He paid cash, then looked doubtfully at the squirming things he got handed back.

“Sorry sir. Wait a sec.”

The things twitched, slowly becoming coins.

“Glitches!” The driver grinned toothily. “This district barely compiles, y’know?”

The PI grunted and got out.

Something squealed: “Mama! Want brains!”

Duffy looked down sharply. “You’re a coi-“

Tentacles seized him from behind, dragging him back into the cab.

 

[TheDustyZebra]

Re: January 2013 SEVENTY-FIVE WORD CHALLENGE -- READ FIRST POST!!!

Pandora's Toybox


Update complete: Marta unplugs the CyBear and hands it to her children.

“CyBear: rocket!” Timmy giggles as its fur retracts, tickling him. Shiny steel appears.

“Whoooosh!” Timmy lands the rocket on the rug. “CyBear: astronaut!” Spacesuit replaces steel, and the toy walks toward Julie.

“My turn! CyBear: ...”

On vid, flashing announcement: “Urgent -- do not, repeat, not, download the CyBear's new 'watchdog' patch. Hundreds of deaths being reported. Urgent --”

From the playroom, Marta hears a growl.