DISCUSSION THREAD -- FEBRUARY 2022 -- 75 Word Writing Challenge

[AnRoinnUltra]

As above, loads to pick from and no easy job to pick a top story:
Really liked:
The Cautionary Tale of Faux Clint Eastwood and the 3D printer
@Peter V
Something fake and dark.
Faux Cheval
@Bren G
Something fake and paradoxically hopefull.
Year 473 - Generation Ship Endeavor
@Parson
Something thoughtfully fake.
Dream ending
@Astro Pen
Some more thoughtfull fakery.

Voted for:
Afternoon Delight
@worldofmutes
Something fake and mind blowing. I mightn't have got this but it sent me away wondering if numbers can be faked. Throw in the chocolate bar and a moment of clarity, and the 100 worder did something right.

 

[Dan Jones]

I realised this morning that I'd missed the deadline to enter something, which is pity as I'd conjured an idea so magnificent it would have undoubtedly hoovered up all possible votes, and if you don't, I'll unleash fury the likes of which you've never seen, and, and, and...

Where was I? Ah yes, voting. Some really nice stories submitted, as always. @BT Jones came within a whisker of a vote, as did @reiver33 and @Phyrebrat, while @M. Robert Gibson deserves a mention for a good pun. But @Guttersnipe was the pick of the bunch for me. I always enjoy entries that are playful and witty, and this had both.

 

[Astro Pen]

It was a hard one. Quite a cocktail of styles and ideas

Crème de month:
@Cat's Cradle
@OuttaInc
@DF17

Gin Fizz
@Peter V

 

[paranoid marvin]

Cat's Cradle I really enjoyed, and gets my third place. This has the seeds of a great, much longer story.

First two was a toss up between two delightfully macabre entries by cyprus7 and Phyrebrat; cyprus7 just shades it.

 

[StilLearning]

The last month has been mental, so I didn't make my self appointed goal of getting a story in, but reading the entries was some much needed down time: Sincerely, thank you everyone, this forum could publish a quarterly flash anthology and it would sell like hotcakes!

The line 'fairy bullets don't leave marks' has set my brain abuzz, so the vote goes to 'Deadeye' by Victoria Silverwolf



Runners up:


Don’t Water the Fake Plants -- johnnyjet

To sun-dive or not, is it really happening. -- Ian Fortytwo

Even a Broken Clock is Sometimes Right -- Christine Wheelwright

My Name Is Actually Gill -- Matthew Kusza

 

[Parson]

As almost everyone has said, there's a lot of worthy stories here.

Shortlisted because:

In the Blink of an eye by @Luiglin because it was the most unbelievable fake.
Dream ending by @Astro Pen because it's the sad reverse of fake and real and their experience.
Don’t Water the Fake Plants by @johnnyjet because it's ending was so unexpected, a perfect double fake.
Mirror, Mirror by @paranoid marvin because it has excellent philosophy behind it's fake.
Sleight of Hand by @mosaix because it had an ending that left me sputtering.
Open Casket by @Phyrebrat because it had such a perfectly cringe-worthy ending.

I found it hard to choose between Don’t Water the Fake Plants, Mirror, Mirror, and Sleight of Hand. In the end I had to pick Mirror, Mirror because I love stories with an important moral.

* I had to make a special award for the comment I couldn't get out of my head from @Christine Wheelwright: (Because I like a man who is good with his wand)

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

Elckerlyc: A tongue-in-cheek warning against expressing desires.

M. Robert Gibson: A post-modern look at the process of creation.

MatthewKusza: A thrilling tale of bluff and counter-bluff.

Bowler1: A chilling prediction of what may very well occur.

The Judge: A wickedly clever twist on a familiar tale.

chrispenycate: An intricate consideration of subterfuge, in poesy.

Abernovo: A provocative account of revolution.

Ursa major: A grim tale of evil's deceptions.

_____________________________________________________________

Short List:

Astro Pen

Aknot

Outtalnc

Hugh

reiver33

Phyrebrat

Bowler1

Ursa major

___________________________________________________

VOTE

Peter V

 

[BT Jones]

In the crazy, unstable world we live in today, it's nice to see people's takes on the monthly challenge remain as varied and entertaining as ever.

Shortlist:

• @Astro Pen
• @Guttersnipe
• @Bren G
• @redzwritez
• @reiver33
• @nixie
• @Daysman

My vote went to @Hugh for a poignant, touching tale.
And thanks so much @reiver33 for the vote, and also @Dan Jones for the mention. Fake news may be the Human Race's greatest enemy... especially when purportedly fake things turn out to be real.

 

[worldofmutes]

Voted for:
Afternoon Delight
@worldofmutes
Something fake and mind blowing. I mightn't have got this but it sent me away wondering if numbers can be faked. Throw in the chocolate bar and a moment of clarity, and the 100 worder did something right.

Thanks for the vote. It’s just a thing I was thinking about, I think about pi a lot. But actually, the fakeness is in the indulging in chocolate all by one’s self.

 

[AnRoinnUltra]

Thought I coulda been wrong -seemed to me that numbers exist in a sort of universe of their own ...and some could be illusions: 'a-ha, fooled ya, number five doesn't exist and all your calculations are wrong!'
Great story, thanks

 

[worldofmutes]

Thought I coulda been wrong -seemed to me that numbers exist in a sort of universe of their own ...and some could be illusions: 'a-ha, fooled ya, number five doesn't exist and all your calculations are wrong!'
Great story, thanks

Sometimes I think numbers just exist in space, like aethyr, and we calculate them that way because that’s the system our ancient ancestors created. To me it’s like linguistics. Only- if you have 5 oranges, you have to have a term to count them, so we use 5. If we add 3 oranges we say “adding three we get 8.” And so on… But really, these are only ideas- and ideas don’t have matter, unless otherwise conceived physically.

 

[worldofmutes]

And thinking about it more, ideas do have matter, don’t they? We don’t give names to things imperceptible to us… if we could, we would have more imaginative aliens, aliens that aren’t bipedular vertebrates.

 

[AnRoinnUltra]

ideas do have matter, don’t they?

There's something I'll never know -someone else once said to me that ideas don't have matter and I took it to be true as they seemed to know their stuff. It's serious philosophical stuff and way outside what I can manage -nice to have a few minutes of wonder about it every now and then though. Thanks again for the story.

 

[BigJ]

And thinking about it more, ideas do have matter, don’t they?

Do they? An idea stored, say, on a computer, is just a particular arrangement representing 1s and 0s (be it the spinning metal of an HDD or the NAND chips of an SSD). I'm not sure how it works in the brain, by what electrical or chemical means a memory is stored in your mind, but we can transmit ideas from one to another by talking; by producing a particular composition of vibrations in the air, I take an idea from my mind and give it to yours. Similarly if I were to send you a text from my phone, except the vibrations are in the electromagnetic field instead of the air molecules. Is the idea composed of those vibrating air molecules? The electromagnetic field? The neurons in my brain? In yours? Are we, ourselves, the matter that composes our body at any given time, or are we defined by the unique way in which that matter is arranged? After all, our bodies are constantly shedding old cells and creating new ones, no?

Of course, that's all assuming that everything we perceive through our senses exists as we perceive it, but that's a different conversation entirely.

We don’t give names to things imperceptible to us… if we could, we would have more imaginative aliens, aliens that aren’t bipedular vertebrates.

Don't we, though? How does one perceive infinity? Eternity? I can see to the end of my nose, to the end of my block, all the way to the horizon, but how do I see to forever? If you go digging in the right corners, you can find ideas so abstract they'll make your head spin trying to make heads or tails of them.

I wonder if there's an argument to be made that aliens need to be at least a little bit familiar in order for fiction to sell. There's certainly an argument to be made that I'm not well read enough to be chiming in on this topic, though!

 

[BigJ]

. . . I took it to be true as they seemed to know their stuff.

Self assuredness and a strong vocabulary (and charisma, I suppose) don't always go hand in hand with real knowledge; I've known a few people over the years who would easily convince you otherwise if you didn't step back to think critically about what they were saying.

Edit: Not saying what that person said to you was wrong or right, I'm not in a position to say.

 

[paranoid marvin]

Many thanks for the vote and kind comments Parson.

 

[nixie]

Favourites
@reiver33
@Phyrebrat
@The Judge

Vote
@mosaix.

 

[redzwritez]

This has been a great challenge and I've loved all the stories I've read. Thank you to every who mentioned my story in their short lists, it's great to know people liked it especially with the quality of all the other stories here. My vote is for Who Chooses The Chosen One, WSDuffy's story.

 

[WSDuffy]

This has been a great challenge and I've loved all the stories I've read. Thank you to every who mentioned my story in their short lists, it's great to know people liked it especially with the quality of all the other stories here. My vote is for Who Chooses The Chosen One, WSDuffy's story.

Thanks for the vote! Particularly this round, when I could have picked at least 5 entries

 

[WSDuffy]

First off, congratulations to @Peter V for a prompt that brought out incredible, and really different work. My "short" list is below, although my long list went REALLY long this round

@Starbeast a clever and easy to follow twist
@Justin Swanton Feels like the inverse of the story I presented, but with more emotional weight and authenticity than mine
@Bren G The world building here is fantastic. If you ever choose to write an expanded work in this space, I will enthusiastically offer to beta read
@BT Jones I changed my named char's name from John to Vladimir after reading this, if you want to see the degree to which it immediately impacted my writing
@johnnyjet a twist I didn't see coming, but somehow fully earned in 75 words. An "audacious" entry in the best possible way
@Ashleyne Such an ambitious story, but plausibly combines magic, tech, and politics in one space
@paranoid marvin a wonderful heartwarming tale, and creates a fantastic story without actually using magic
@reiver33 I got some real "Total Recall" vibes here
@Phyrebrat Somewhere a horror film student just got their thesis project
@M. Robert Gibson An idea about muses I'd never even thought about, and I literally taught mythology for a living
@The Judge Wonderful use of audience "knowledge" to take me in a surprising direction

And my vote goes to @Guttersnipe : I'm a sucker for metafictional worlds, and this story really scratched that itch