Tag Archives: microfiction

The Microcosmicon – Introduction and Index

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Introduction

Much has been said in academic circles concerning the origins of this book, but the truth is quite simple.

Anciently, people used to be able to derive answers to their questions directly from the Macrocosmicon, the book of life. But this ability was lost, so the Kanj of Nebol ordered 1000 stories gathered from around the universe to serve as oracle.

Originally, to answer a question, 1000 eunuchs were left on Scorpion Island for 42 days, after which the story was read and interpreted that corresponded to their remaining number.

Today, a simple randomly generated number is used for practicality.

Index

1 – 50
1. Victims of Each Other’s Discomfort with Themselves 2. The Emperor’s Exile 3. Food for Thought 4. The Synthwave Surfer’s Sacrifice 5. The Waiting Ones 6. Planet Empathy 7. Fighting the Vast Ones 8. Like the Wind 9. Problem Solvers 10. The Visionary 11. Artificially Generated Predictions Concerning the Most Likely Behavior of OneNet’s Netizens by RealValue, Inc. 12. The Prom 13. The Mellified Man 14. Allies 15. The Origins of Morality 16. A Sociosyntonic Disorder 17. The Virtue Signal 18. Public Safety 19. The Sentinel at the End of Times 20. Idols of the Mind 21. The Search 22. The Fuel of History 23. The Love Dimension 24. A Loose Page From Dr. Ferguson’s Copy of the DSM 25. Eternal Life 26. Mrs. Pettigrew’s Cat 27. The Great Watcher 28. Learning From Experience 29. Blending In With The Locals 30. The Circumstances of Greatness 31. An Age Without Titans 32. Space Hagsploitation 33. The Soul’s Journey 34. The Scarecrow 35. On the Way to Follow 36. The Jewel In Space 37. Grandpa Dell 38. Makers of History 39. A Parasite 40. Blood

MQS

The Emperor’s Exile

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From the Microcosmicon, 2:

The asteroid was barren, awhirr with inferior life. Not worth dominating, for him who had dominated the galaxy. Who had been the galaxy.

The ship’s doors puffed open.
“New body, new kingdom,” they snickered, forcing him out, but not noticing his hand.
He smiled. The ship left. With the laz-knife, he unbound his hands. And he stabbed himself.

They returned. But didn’t find him. Then, thin filaments shot out of the darkness, injecting him into their bodies. In time, others came looking for them. New recruits. New minds.
He had been the galaxy. He could start over as an asteroid.

The Emperor’s new clothes

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Victims of each other’s discomfort with themselves

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From the Microcosmicon, 1:

The two species had long coexisted peacefully, though the amphibian Kalans resented the Jongas’ fixity, while their inconstancy unsettled their earthbound neighbors.

Tensions escalated when the Kalans proposed that the Jongas learn to adapt to different environments. The Jongas, conversely, demanded that the Kalans stick to the oceans and don’t bother them again. It became a struggle for power, each wanting enough to define, alone, the other’s reality.

Mutual hatred boiled over into an angry war, raw with resentment, which ended with Jongas sawn in half and Kalans sewn together by twos, each made whole according to the other’s conception.

Two aliens stitched together

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