Writober is a list of 31 propositions, one for each day of October 2021. The objective is to create, in at most 280 signs, a science-fiction, fantasy or fantastique story. In the blog post, I collect, more or less regularly, all my productions…

1/ The other side of the dream

Each of them believes he or she lives in a Dream.

None of them realizes they are so many.

Only I know they all share a single Dream.

2/ The weighing of the soul

Anubis : “Be thy soul heavier than this feather, then Ammit will devour you; lighter, then Osiris will welcome you to Sekhet-Aaru.”

C3PO : “… I think I can make do with this offer, sir.”

3/ The dawn of chimeras

“What walks on three legs in the evening?”, repeated the Sphinx endlessly as it crawled, dragging its shredded leg, trying to flee the squad while they were casually reloading their machine guns.

4/ Passe Muraille

“Take my soul in ten years, and until then, give me the power to walk through walls.”
“… Done. You are now exempt from the Pauli exclusion principle. Say hello on my behalf to the core of the planet. See you in ten years!”

5/ Gender trouble

“I don’t understand! The protocol says I used the correct gender!” the emissary shrieked, shuddering at each impact on the Kevlar bubble. “Yep,” replied his bodyguard, “but the wrong number.”

6/ At the cliff edge

“Right. The abyss took fifty microseconds to stare back at me, which means a depth of roughly fifteen kilometers. The iris is one angle degree wide, that’s about three hundred meters across. Check your equipment, we’re jumping in four minutes.”

7/ Evil wave

We ride forever on the giant wave, relentlessly chasing the black hole which we call our sun. Behind us, the ruins in our wake; before, the tranquility which we are about to annihilate.

8/ Let the monsters in

I beg you, dearest child, I know that you are scared, but you have to let the monsters in, or they will die! I swear I will not let a single human break through and harm them, or you.

9/ Event horizon

She could skirt the blackhole but that would not prevent him from catching up and shooting her down. Unless… She fired straight ahead. Seven seconds later, hers ion beams struck the back of her pursuer.

10/ Interworld library

“- Ah… Is there a map of this library?
– Yes.
– Oh? Good, th–ah. Of course… that map is somewhere *in* this library, right?
– Right.”

(OK, I cheated, by presciently responding thusly to a 2019 #DailySketchChallenge topic of “library”: https://mastodon.art/@aaribaud/102067522165914534)

11/ Jumanji IN SPACE!

I cursed under my breath as I unrolled my whole list of evasion manoeuvers. Crossing an asteroid belt at full speed: I could do that with both hands tied in my back. But escape a horde of cannibal asteroids? I would have to improvise.

12/ Star gate

Millenia to find it. Centuries to travel to it. Years to understand its working. Now they were about to activate the star gate.

That’s when they heard the knock.

13/ Highway to Hell

“You breed like rabbits on mephedrone and less than one in a hundred thousand of you is worthy! So yes, that really *is* a highway. And even with that, I STILL CAN’T CARRY YOUR WHOLE TRAFFIC TO HELL!”

14/ Shaman and undertaker

I don’t really take the dead under. but yes, I do check that tey are indeed deceased.That’s easy for me: I see their frightened spirits swirl around their bodies. That’s when also being a Shaman helps, I can show them the way.

15/ Memory palace

I quite master the memory palace technique, and I know how to put each memory in one place. However, I never manage to remember that place, hence I spend my time rummaging through the whole palace.

16/ Island of the dead

She wanders through the island of the dead, as the others do. But other go at random. She roams the coast tirelessly, looking for a way to flee, to leave the island. Because then, maybe, she’ll live again.

17/ Recovery room

He regains consciousness. A nurse gives him a luscious smile. « You’re awake! We can start the dissection… » The lancet cuts through his thorax. He faints.

He regains consciousness…

19/ Time capsule

Born from cross-breeding the best Klatchian coffee trees with the mightiest reannual grapes, compatible with the latest dwarf steam machines, CMOT Dibbler introduces: time capsules!

20/ Endless corridor

I have been walking for hours trying to conserve my energy, but what with the regularly spaced lamps, I feel like I can see miles ahead at least, and there’s still no sign of any restroom.

21/ Auditory hallucination

Only I heard “3600”, then “3599”. One minute apart. Therefore, in less than 60 hours, something will happen, and I have less than 60 hours to find out what and, if need be, stop it.

22/ The land which you never get to

I was expecting just about anything once I’d crossed the Schwarzschild radius. Even a shrimp universe, why not? What I didn’t expect was *yet another* Schwarzschild radius to cross.

23/ Cleft chrysalis

Kint was a Butterfly, with a tall, slim, body, long thin legs, stunning iridescent wings, all of which contrasted with its horribly deformed head, the result, some whispered, of a cleft chrysalis.

24/ Cosmic void

People think the interstellar space is void. Actually, this void contains about a million particles per cubic meter. Doesn’t look like much, until you strike them at twenty per cent of lightspeed.

25/ The Eye of the Storm

The Warlock’s Wheel: a copper disc, a resistance spell, a spinup spell, and mana gets destroyed leagues around. Now add fins to the disc, and the storm will destroy everything.

26/ At the threshold

Pros of being a vampire in a rescue team: haemostatic saliva. One discreet lick, hey, that can save a life. Right now that could save his life, PROVIDED HE INVITES ME IN HIS HOME…

27/ Underground paintings

Ants are everywhere, burrowing, invisible, the whole planet, drawing, tirelessly, in the dark, the tortured glyph of the curse which will destroy us without us even realizing its existence.