These pieces are pieces of microfiction written on Mastodon for Writever in July 2024. The list of words has been established with the theme “the mental health of people experiencing discrimination is moving from the Margin to the centre”; I have chosen to interpret the words individually and not necessarily within the context of said theme.
July 1st – Psy
Psy (noun): unit of measurement of mental pressure. 1 psy is equal to 6,895 xaviers.
Etymology: from psychic; wordplay on psi, equal to 6,895 pascals.
July 2nd – Collective
Esteemed gaggle of colleagues, the incorporation of our planet to the Federation gives us the unique opportunity to discuss collective names for our new associates. The Greys are delighted with “a grisaille of Greys”; the Mantids prefer “a vigil of Mantids” over “a congregation of Mantids” and that’s fine for us; however the Blue Avians are afraid that “a murder of Blue Avians” would be somewhat derogatory. Does anyone have a better suggestion?
July 3rd – Margins
“Isn’t it weird that life on Ægir is entirely aquatic, and that nothing apparently ever got the idea of conquering their continents?
— It’s not that weird if you consider the geology of it. Here on Earth, our plates are well behaved, we have continental margins between the continental and oceanic crust, so the transition is, in practice, reasonably smooth. On Ægir, it just… drops abruptly. Or, from the Ægian perspective, their world is surrounded by huge walls.
— It’s still weird they went to space before exploring their surface.
— And as weird for them it took us so long to explore the depths of our oceans…”
July 4th – Build
Compiling light ##### 100%
Testing light ##### 100%
Compiling planets ##### 100%
Testing planets ##### 100%
Compiling all living things ##### 100%
Testing all living things ##### 100%
Compiling eternal life ## 40% ERROR - Build failed - Missing ';' at line 9210912093
July 5th – Joy
I always found joy in seeing the seedlings pop from the soil after planting them. Seeing seedlings appear on this particular soil, the soil we reclaimed from a wasteland that hadn’t seen a hint of green in years, makes me feel something beyond joy. I’m going to call that exseedlaration.
July 6th – Convictions
“We got raided again, the muffalos ate half our reserves, Alex is close to mental breakdown, and to be fair so am I because I ate without a table again. How can you stay hopeful?
− You don’t stay hopeful. You use your convictions as a lighthouse, the strong belief that you can make a difference every day to make things better for you and your fellow colonists. Hope is not a feeling, it’s acting for a better tomorrow.”
July 7th – Questioning
It must have been weird in the Before Time, needing to choose your studies and your career and your partner.
Sometimes, I yearn for that freedom. But removing questioning also avoids mistakes; or, if it does not, it avoids the associated guilt. We seem to be happier that way. Although maybe that’s the Mood Optimizers talking.
July 8th – Solidarity
The TRAPPIST colonies, strongly condemning the acts of the Gliese planetary system state, and expressing strong support towards Earth and the Solar system, call for an immediate and durable cessation of hostilities.
For Earth, we stand in Sol-idarity.
July 9th – Travel
I don’t think I’d want to go back.
But it used to be that, to feel fully “on vacation”, you traveled for roughly a day. Whether you were traveling 900km at 150km/h, 6’000km at 1’000km/h or 400’000km at 50’000km/h… you were still essentially traveling for a day.
Teleportation made travel times moot, and maybe we have lost something there.
July 10th – Interstices
Humans say that the greatest trick I ever played was convincing the world that I did not exist. I beg to differ: it was convincing the world that idleness was a sin.
I have so much more opportunities to sway people my way, in all these interstices of time where they used to daydream and are now trying to fill at all cost.
July 11th – Share
The problem with trying to replicate services that worked reasonably well in the 21st century is that some things really don’t translate well. Car-sharing did assume that people would refill the tank before leaving the vehicle; but antimatter stations are not exactly common enough for starship-sharing to make any kind of sense.
July 12th – Queer
I’m not super sure I like this one – I think it might say things I do not intend / be misinterpreted. This was still part of this month’s production, so I’m adding it; but I might reconsider an alternate entry when/if I get an idea.
“You mean, they were living with a single partner?
− Most of them, officially, yes.
− And they believed in binary genders?
− It was the prevalent view at the time, yes.
− And they were pairing exclusively with people of the other gender?
− Exclusively, no; by a large majority, yes.
− How queer.”
July 13th – Training
Modern town planning tends to put the hatcheries in the middle of the town and not on its limits, as it used to be. Sure, it has its dangers, but if you avoid going outside during class times, you’ll be fine. And dragon training is definitely more compatible with forges, ovens and glass and pottery manufacturing than with forests.
July 14th – Situated
FOR SALE
Cozy manor, 10 rooms, piped water, central chimney heating.
Well situated, good road to the town center, quiet area. Friendly neighbors, mostly quiet spirits.
Some work (ceilings, floors, exorcism) needed. Furniture available on demand.
Write to agent for pricing.
July 15th – Listening
The strongest argument against devices allowing anything remotely close to telepathy is surveillance agencies.
They read our mail, they listened to our phone calls, they watched our online activity… do we really want them listening on our thoughts?
July 16th – Flamboyance
“The kingdoms are competing for the most exuberant gifts for the royal wedding.
− As expected.
− We have received a lot of the usual: gold, jewels, art, spices, fabric… and a group of flamingoes.
− Of… flamingoes?
− That’s the best flamboyance the Queen of Isla could come up with, considering the circumstances of her territory.”
July 17th – Care
“Why do you care?
− I have hypermerimnasia.
− What now?
− From hyper, excessive, merimna, care, suffix -ia, denoting the disease.
− You suffer from giving too many fucks?
− From giving ALL the fucks.
− Sounds exhausting.
− You have no idea.”
July 18th – Relieve
“So this is Heaven?
− Yes, welcome.
− As in… eternal bliss?
− Not exactly. The only thing we do when you pass the Gates is relieving your from all your earthen emotional baggage. What you do next is up to you.
− Sounds close enough, to be honest.”
July 19th – Sibling
One of the earliest techs developed by our civilization was DNA testing. When you have 1/ strong genetic diversity rules 2/ 4000 siblings coming from the same clutch on average, that specific problem gets solved VERY FAST.
July 20th – Bissap
Vampires lost a lot of their mystique when a particularly meddlesome young girl discovered they had switched from blood to bissap centuries ago with no other side effect than much better cholesterol levels.
July 21st – Support
QuanticStorage is not liable for data or information loss resulting from the use of the products in a manner that is not in accordance with the use cases specified in the documentation. In particular, due to the high risk of data transmission error, QuanticStorage does not support the usage of the products in teleportation appliances or any other present or future apparatus using physical matrix transmission.
July 22nd – Walk
The vintage self-help books I found in my grandmother’s trunk all have a similar theme: going for a walk is easy and can solve a ton of problems.
I’m not saying it can’t, and the few times I did, it did help. But they vastly overestimate the “easy” part in a context where you need a pressurized suit, air bottles and magnetic boots to go for a walk outside.
July 23rd – Maroon
Stupid transmission errors, stupid Make-a-Wish AI. I had won a low-grade wish, so I wished for something realistic: twelve dozens macaroons. This is currently the 54th deserted island I’m marooned on in a row. 120 to go…
July 24th – Partners
“Are you two married?
− We can only be registered partners for now. Our state just barely made robot wedding legal; we’re still fighting for human/robot wedding.
− I’m sure we’ll get there.
− I hope so. I can’t wait to marry my human.”
July 25th – Dream
Of all magic essences, Dream is considered the most powerful and the most dangerous one. The ability to conjure anything at all, no matter how small, big, complex or twisted, by the power of thought comes with the need to control one’s nights with an unwavering consistency. Accidents happen way too often; thankfully, no mage has yet managed to Dream themselves out of the Enclave.
July 26th – Play
“Pff, technology is really getting worse and worse. In my days, things were much more intuitive. This new holoviewer you gave me is full of buttons that are completely opaque to anyone who hasn’t spent hours watching the tutorial, because there’s not even a written, let alone paper documentation coming in the box. Not to mention, watching the tutorial requires starting the thing; and I don’t even know how to do that!
− Have you tried pressing <Play>?”
July 27th – Group
Space exploration brings some more or less expected issues. Aliens, fine. Stupid behaviors in the vicinity of c, and in wormholes, nothing new.
But the chemists are really unhappy with the discovery of fractional atomic number elements. Worse: they won’t fit neatly into groups, because they’re all over the place in the periodic table.
The current consensus is to call them “foramenvermites”, add a new table below the f-group and be done with it.
July 28th – Decenter
As the climate change is becoming a more and more pressing issue, more and more ludicrous ideas are gaining traction. The latest I’ve seen is the Decenter project, whose goal is to modify the orbit of Earth around the Sun so that it’s a bit further away (and colder) and somewhat off-center (to get a longer cold season). And to take the opportunity to offset a bit more to compensate for the CO2 production necessary for such an endeavour, obviously…
July 29th – Speaking
“Sasha and I aren’t exactly on speaking terms anymore.
− Oh, what happened? Did you fight?
− Quite the opposite! We got matching My-Mind-To-Your-Mind implants, so speech became mostly useless between us.
− Only mostly?
− Yeah, puns are still much better out loud.”
July 30th – Survey
When I was a kid, I wanted to be a librarian. More than the books themselves, I think I had a fascination for the Dewey system, and finding the right code for every book.
Later, I found tremendous joy in inputting and organizing all kinds of data, from my sticker collection to samples at the lab.
When the new exploration mission started recruiting, I applied for the survey cataloger job. The day I got selected is still the happiest day of my life.
July 31st – Black
Most colonists adjust pretty well to the underground facilities. A lot of effort has been made to give a good day/night cycle, and the progress around sun-substituting lights have been impressive (the people working the ‘ponics even need sunscreen!)
But we haven’t found a way yet to get stars look like anything else than a bunch of lights projected on too black a screen. Turns out, nightlight is much harder to get right than daylight.
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