JANUARY 2017 -- 75 Word Writing Challenge -- VICTORY TO LITTLESTAR!

[Glen]

Soft

‘You’re soft, Jenkins!’
‘Just because I don’t like Rugger?!’
‘No. Your tampering with the continuum destabilising engine has left you out of focus.’
‘I’m not clear...’
‘Precisely! Quick! Get back in there and try to come out with a sharper image!’
‘My word, Smythe. Every experience is worse than the last. How do I look?’
‘Problem fixed! You are high definition!’
‘Excellent. I am never going in there again!’
‘Wise move. More port?’

 

[Zoe Mackay]

A Brand New Year

This year is going to be different.

This year, I will:

• Get a better job
• Lose weight
• Not screw around

This year:

• Arsenal will win the Premiership
• The right party will win the election
• My horse will win the Grand National

This year will be the best ever. I’ll make sure of it.

And if, for some reason, it doesn’t turn out right, I’ll rewind time to the first of January and start over.

Again.

 

[johnnyjet]

No Man is an Island

How Aaron Whistler became the chosen vessel of a thousand civilizations, he did not know. However, he accepted his great responsibility. He gave up alcohol and drugs. He ate healthy. He kept fit.

Then when war broke out between two civilizations, he slumped in sadness. It happened again and again.

Aaron grew tired of his role. They needed to grow up. He would tolerate fighting no more.

He cast his children into the cold universe.

 

[Heijan Xavier]

Unshrinking Resolution

I do not live here.
“Relax!” they say, but they don’t know me.
They know another me in another universe,
one millimeter and one millisecond away.

I’m merely a misaligned participatory observer, a disjoined splinter of space-time.

I won’t acquiesce though.
I’m resolved to rejoin, to realign.
But how?

“Have you tried sleeping a bit, instead of staying awake writing all night?”

That’s impossible doctor;
let’s try strong anti-psychotic medication,

but not too strong.

 

[Calliopenjo]

Wrong Resolution

My resolution should be to use less magic. Yes! No, that would not work for the multitude of duties I must accomplish before the end of day. I would be too exhausted should I do that.

I needed to rethink this. Hmm, to make a decision to better oneself. To create an accomplishable goal. Something to strive for. What would that be? Oh, dragon’s dung, nothing came to mind.

What to strive for then?

 

[Azzagorn]

2330

​

“This day will be remembered as the day we finally reached the end of this battle. It has been a long slog, many have fallen. Only two remain. This is a momentous time in OUR history never before has so little been given by so few…”

RATTLE AND ROLL

“1, 2, 3. Time to pay the piper buddy.”

“Damnit, take it, you win.”

“GG buddy.”

“Even in 2330 monopoly takes twelve hours.”

 

[Ihe]

Re-Solution Inc.


“How much longer?” Xavier whispered, crouching behind bushes. He adjusted the infrared binoculars.

“Synapses have begun cascading. Decision’s been made,” Luther answered.

“Impasse reached; timeline to cohere into inevitability in three minutes with her arrival. Green light,” the earpiece voice informed.

Xavier and Luther moved fast. Target was knocked unconscious; they replaced the ring with spa tickets. Proposing was not the solution. The future husband knew now, and had paid generously for their services.

 

[juelz4sure]

Last Act of Defiance

"Never again," he whispered kissing her neck. They found each other again, despite the Gods cruel attempts at tearing them apart.Waves rose maliciously from the depths, sending him overboard!

The ocean laughed as it swallowed him up. Diving in for her soulmate, water erased the tears she shed, only to find him lifelessly sinking. Wrapping her arms around him she kissed his neck "never again," she whispered as water filled her lungs.

 

[chrispenycate]

Insufficient Resolution ​

At comet's aphelion the sun subtends barely four pixels. The telescope gives more, but is mainly used to scan new vistas, not nostalge. Homesick human eyeballs manage that, though Earth itself is invisible from here.

Vacuum-dried sight attempts impossible discernment, sucking information from the dark, even recognising that the only information garnered here, about Earth's conflict, will be bad.

 

[Stable]

Contact​

a brush of soft eyelashes
How long have I been here?
the tip of a tongue along my spine
They want me to do… something. But what? Why?
a claw crushing my toe, water on my scalp
I call out my refusal, but hear no sound.
cold air from a fan, silk, an apple’s crunch, flame consuming my hand
I must not give in.


“Tactile didn’t work. Let’s try audible interaction.”

a baby’s laugh
No.

 

[Perpetual Man]

Waiting.

“Come away!” the gulls cry. I stand rigid, staring between the dark clouds and grey sea.
My wife and child are out there still.
The storm CANNOT have taken them.
So, I stand here. Determined.

Salt encrusts his unmoving frame, deposits obscure the man that was; slowly revealing the stone like sentinel that will be. Still the eyes stare.
Days become centuries.
Forever he will wait, as stone dead as his family beneath the sea.

 

[Parson]

At Terrible Cost ​

Admiral Krinon ruminated. Vastly outnumbered his fleet could almost as well scuttle themselves as fight conventionally. The Garingee fleet would certainly engulf his fleet and destroy it.


Krinon ordered Operation Bait Ball.

A carrier and four destroyers transitioned. Seeing the Garingee they ran for the hyper limit. When they were engulfed, the feeding frenzy began. Then the remaining fleet transitioned and rained planet busters on the engulfing Garingee. Victory was Krinon's.

The nightmares came later.

 

[Hugh]

Riding the Wild Hippocampus​

He stabbed, gouged, killed, again and again, desperately craving vengeance for the murder of his wife. Somehow, to his incredulous relief, a great mountain stream of sadness began to wash through him. He became enveloped by an overwhelming compassion for the desperate ignorance that blinded not just him and this victim-murderer, but all of misguided humanity.

The technician monitoring neural activity noted the change and slowly opened the lid of the hypnobooth.

 

[Coast]

Best Laid Plans


I’m not going back out.

Dangerous, lonely, cold. Air stale, conditions atrocious.

Never again.

“One drink.” “To say goodbye.” “For old times’ sake.”

Why not, I won’t be back.

Days later, head aching, drowning in nausea. Money gone, fresh tattooed ‘Steve’ on my hip, ticket to Earth missing.

Broke. Sick. Stranded.

The transport leaves dock in an hour, rotating out to the mines of the deep belt.

Maybe one more tour. Just one.

 

[Shyrka]

The Highest Definition

“Still here, Brother?”

That new custodian again. Toby? Tobias?

“Indeed.” Leave now. Please.

“Brother Ganon says she’s a myth. And anyway, to search the whole archive would take superhuman resolve. It would take a lifetime!”

Seventeen years, three days, twelve hours. And counting.

Another image. Another blur of pixels and compression artifacts. Next.

A duplicate? Next!

Wait. A raw capture? Back! Back!

There! There! She is real!

“Not resolve, Brother.”

“Mmm?”

“Resolution.”

 

[mosaix]

Truer Words Never Spoken...

"Be patient, wait for the target to show himself," they said in trainin'. Truer words never spoken. Always remembered 'em. Made me the best goddam sniper on Enceladus. Them and my upgraded Sabre Nite-Site, that is. Sniper's best friend.

No activity down there for a while. Hope he ain't dead already. No fun in that. Let's see... If I adjust the resolution... That's better... What's that he's got? Looks like an upgraded Sabre Nite-

 

[HazelRah]

A Turbulent Success


The plane shuddered, fighting crosswinds on its sharp descent.

"Cactus 1529, you can land - runway one, Teterboro," the radio crackled.

"Unable."

He levelled up and continued towards the icy river.

"Is this a good idea, Captain?" The co-pilot fidgeted in his seat.

"Yes." No other option.

"Cactus 1529, you still on?"

No.

He flicked the intercom switch.

"This is your Captain. Brace for impact."

I can do this. I can do this. I can...

 

[Abernovo]

Our Last Flipping Hope.


I turned to the crew. “Last chance to pull out.”

Abi stepped forward. “We’re all determined on this, skip. We’re going to save the prince and return him to the senate. Together. Do or die.”

Big girl pants, then. “Okay.” Pointing first to myself, I said, “Sexy space pilot, supergenius communications specialist, rugged weapons mistress, strangely accented engineer.” Rachel stuck her tongue out. “All check. The Starship Cliché is a go.”

“Punch it, skip.”

 

[Culhwch]

New Year’s Resolutions

• Start a diet
  
  
• No, I’m serious
  
  
• Drink less
  
  
• Like, a lot less
  
  
• And NO MORE dwarven ale
  
  
• Stop doing stupid things
  
  
• Like spellcasting during a bender
  
  
• And do something about that portal to hell in the spare room
  
  
• At least ask the demon to pay rent
  
  
• OR MAYBE MONETISE PORTAL SOMEHOW?
  
  
• No
  
  
• That’s daft
  
  
• Wait
  
  
• Are you writing this down?
  
  
• All of it?
  
  
• Every word?
  
  
• Start a new list
  
  
• Find a new PA

 

[Moonbat]

An excerpt from the Last will and Testament of HRH Queen Elizabeth II​

...exercising the Royal prerogative granted to me by the will of God and the subjugation of my people I hereby invoke the Harrington Resolution; resulting in the dissolution of the entity known as The Crown, upon my death. The Crown’s estate will be passed to my heirs (as denoted in section 3a) and all public liability and parliamentary control over the Crown and its Estate will cease, so too will any head of state requirements.