Inspired by Nanoism, six word stories, and various other mini-micro-nano-flash fiction concepts, I made the decision to share Tweet length stories as frequently as motivation and inspiration allows. This page simply gathers them together.
“#Feast your eyes on this, darling.”
“Your #belly?”
“Uh huh.” He grinned and his fingers sank into the doughy mass.
“I’ve only been away two weeks. What the Hell have you been eating?”#vss365
— Tris (@tori_tris) June 16, 2018
“You believe in aliens who travel billions of light years in technology that defies physics just to hide behind the moon and occasionally abduct a farmer? Listen to how stupid that sounds!”
The aliens looked at each other. Damn! They’d snatched another crazy one.#scifisat
— Tris (@tori_tris) June 16, 2018
My first day in the new job
Suit ready from the night before
Our Ninja enjoys a morning cuddle
Can’t do that anymore
Can’t go in covered in cat hair
Just a brief squeeze of her #paws#vss365— Tris (@tori_tris) June 11, 2018
The robot activates at a beeping alarm in its head. It leaves its other half in the creche and ambulates to the sustenance room where it internalises precise quantities of nutrients for the day’s work.
Looking in the mirror, it wishes it didn’t have to shave.#scifisat— Tris (@tori_tris) June 9, 2018
The environmentalists thought themselves so clever with their bio-WMDs targeting only humans.
Death: in the water, in the air.
But not butterflies, fish, pigs, etc.
And we weren’t stupid as they thought–a simple gene-mod.
Now we view this peaceful world via pig eyes.#SciFiFri— Tris (@tori_tris) June 8, 2018
That night, when she was freshest in my mind, I drew a picture. Because it came from me, it captured her better than any photo.
For months I did nothing but look at it.
For years I carried it with me, rubbing at my heart.
Finally, when it was faded to a #blur, I moved on.#vss365— Tris (@tori_tris) June 8, 2018
Hey!
Yeah?
What you doing?
Peeing.
No. I mean, why you standing next to me?
Cos the urinal’s here.
There are #six urinals. Why you gotta stand right next to me?
Cos this one’s nearest the door… y’know, in case some weirdo starts talking to me.#vss365
— Tris (@tori_tris) June 7, 2018
On a plane, when there’s a tremendous BANG
and it plunges Earthwards
and oxygen masks dangle
and your child is with you…put on your own mask first.
If you die struggling to help them,
they’ll never have a chance.In short, the biggest slice of pie is mine.#WednesdayWisdom
— Tris (@tori_tris) June 6, 2018
At 15, Tom failed all his school exams. Ashamed, he made a resolution.
At 25, he invented A.I. that could answer any question.
At 35: a neuroprosthetic to clip into a child’s brain.
At 45, he cracked time travel.
All so he could go back and never fail a single— Tris (@tori_tris) June 5, 2018
1 million flies, bred in my room. I watch the spiders #swallow them all.
White mice were next to get rid of the spiders.
Ten kittens quickly grew fat; succulent treats for my dogs.
Rex and Rover: I BBQed them–yum.
And then the python–the python was for me.#vss365— Tris (@tori_tris) June 5, 2018
There are moments
In #yoga
When my body is a work of #art
Perfect balance
Composure
Controlled breath
Controlled heart
Vinyasa
Chaturanga
Channelling breath to different parts
And there are moments
In yoga
When I’m sure I’m going to fart— Tris (@tori_tris) June 5, 2018
In all his years, Detective Ito had never seen anything like it: the perfect crime.
Not a single lead or witness. Motive, means, opportunity: all pointed different directions.
But the autistic boy’s emotional response gave him away immediately.
— Tris (@tori_tris) June 4, 2018
Sorry. You’re great and all… but you #pale in comparison to him.
He abused you, cheated on you, dumped you. I worship you.
You do.
So, let me love you.
You don’t get it. How could I love someone I don’t think is better than me. I’d be selling myself short.
— Tris (@tori_tris) June 4, 2018
I bathe in milk
Because dark-skinned girls are ugly
Wanna be like the girls on TV
& American movies–so #pale
Not like me
Then caught in a rainstorm
Make-up drips away
And he sees me
The real me
Ugly coffee
& says I’m beautiful in his eyes
That’s how I know he lies— Tris (@tori_tris) June 4, 2018
My darling wife
You are my life
I write #poems around you
Sing songs about you
Make you breakfast every weekday
Buy you flowers every Friday
All this to show
My #love for you is bottomless
Still you doubt me when I say
I’ll always be monogamous
And so does my girlfriend.— Tris (@tori_tris) June 3, 2018
When she was young, her skin was cool milk and her tongue was warm milk.
She was my comfort, my refreshment, and I gobbled and slurped her.Now, it is her eyes that are #milky. Her mind is curdled.
I try to keep her comfortable. That’s all.#vss365— Tris (@tori_tris) June 3, 2018
In the classroom, Liam sat petulantly reluctant.
“When will I ever need X in real life?”
(where X∈{maths, history, geography, … , science})Two decades later in a muddy trench, firing plasma bolts at the advancing robot army, Liam felt vindicated.#scifisat #SlapDashSat
— Tris (@tori_tris) June 2, 2018
Title: #lambent
Gravely, he didst furrow hith brow,
this great author,
wondering how
to construct a #vss365,
both short but deep,
all about a gay sheep.— Tris (@tori_tris) June 1, 2018
On his 1000th birthday Xi flew round the planet. His memory for detail was fuzzy–too much to fit in–but he remembered red desserts and maroon rocks. Now all was luscious green–his job was done. A life spent cultivating a planet; now time to set it free.#SciFiFri #vss365
— Tris (@tori_tris) June 1, 2018
‘You’ve got cancer’
‘You’ve got…’ The words loop and loop, stunned birds circling her head as Kim leaves the hospital.
‘…cancer’ on the bus; in the lift; at her desk…
A grin breaks across her face. Finally, a deadline to force her to finish editing her masterpiece.#VSS365— Tris (@tori_tris) May 31, 2018
Angry at results of decisions made without her, Sal storms out to the secret pond not even the wind knows and fires a pebble.
When the #ripple hits her toes, she glimpses herself and smiles: even a tiny thing can have great influence.
Then she goes back to work.#vss365— Tris (@tori_tris) May 28, 2018
The #whisky made his dad bad. Tom hated it and grew to hate his old man. Old wounds never healed; not while his dad was alive, but Tom never touched the stuff till he was older, till his wife was pregnant. Then Tom got to know his dad.#vss365 #amwriting #ShortStory
— Tris (@tori_tris) May 27, 2018
In 2019 Earth’s population first saw this ad:
LOSE WEIGHT WITHOUT HASSLE
Our scientists cracked the problem of weight gain.
Take one pill with each meal and the calories simply fall through you.In 2022 Earth’s population had eaten themselves to extinction.#vss365 #shortstory
— Tris (@tori_tris) May 26, 2018
“My pa ploughed them fields. That’s his #yoke. Hung it there when he grew too old. Now I hang my tractor’s steering wheel next to it–like him, I grew too old.”
Stu looked at his wrinkled old man.
“So what?” he said. “No way I’m hangin my iPhone there.”#vss365— Tris (@tori_tris) May 26, 2018
From across the road, I can follow her actions, but miss the details.
At maximum #zoom, the camera sees even the moles on her back when she lies naked in bed.
But when she moves, the picture is fuzzy, corrupted, useless.
I don’t want her to move, to change. I never did.#vss365— Tris (@tori_tris) May 26, 2018
Sarin looked at the time machine, in its finished, functional glory. It seemed only yesterday it’d been but a crazy idea and a schematic.
“Time flies,” he said.
“Flawed logic,” replied Chuck. “Even if time stopped for a week, you wouldn’t notice.”#SciFiSaturday #vss365— Tris (@tori_tris) May 26, 2018
Attached to water particles in the air, the virus affects every man across the world. Every #X sperm dies. Men have no choice but to seek comfort in the arms of their fellow man. All births are in vitro, but rates are lower. THIS is how we achieve a sustainable future.
— Tris (@tori_tris) May 24, 2018
Grade 5 rapids: swirling eddies, standing waves with sporadic breaking tips, muscular stoppers churning over hidden boulders, whirlpools, boils.
People die here. #Water demands respect.
I don’t respect it; I conquer it. I slice it with carbon blades. I kayak it.— Tris (@tori_tris) May 23, 2018
Where do you go when the light is out
Is there someone special you wrap around?
Can I shine to catch you eye?
I live where the light is shy
I’m your shadow
shadow
I will go wherever you go
If you’re not alone I will know
cos I’m one shadow the light can’t blow away— Tris (@tori_tris) May 21, 2018
Josh noted her eagerly #tremble to his gentle touch.
“Later, I’ll make you tremble more,” he whispered, knowing she’d misunderstand.
Those online insults, when she thought she talked to some fat, geek loser, not a rich, handsome and powerful man.
She’d tremble to death.— Tris (@tori_tris) May 20, 2018
For #sciFiSat
a story about a cat,
launched into space at a tremendous pace.
A week for the puss
was a million years for us,
so she returned to a world ruled by the feline race.
Imagine the surprise
in those nictitating eyes
when their distant ancestor descended from the skies.— Tris (@tori_tris) May 19, 2018
A #strand of hair was all it took.
I don’t know where it came from. The coat hung next to mine at work? The packed tube on the way home?
One random strand which she discovered, and which showed our relationship had also been hanging on by just a single strand.— Tris (@tori_tris) May 19, 2018
Little #rabbit in my headlights
I slow
Friend says “No
See the blistering, bloody fur?
The white, cloudy eyes?
Myxomatosis
We gave them this disease on purpose
Population control
Do it a favour
Go!”— Tris (@tori_tris) May 18, 2018
Quarters, we called em–sent to Mars, evolved, and returned with four digits on each hand.
Twasn’t 300 years, but they changed. Communication was tough:
“3 centuries”–>”4 octuraries”
“pi”–>”poo” (3.11, in decimal)
In short, communication was decimated
–>Ocitimated!— Tris (@tori_tris) May 17, 2018
As a kid, the best book he read had one #page missing. How he obsessed about that page–what joys had he missed? His imagination ran wild.
Years later, he finally read it: a disappointment.
From that day on, he knew his gift to humanity: one page from every book he found.— Tris (@tori_tris) May 16, 2018
A series of loud caws rouses me.
I peep through past the curtain into the cat’s hidey-hole, but her attention is also outside.
A dark flutter.
I flick off the lights and return.
A large crow dances loudly in the air, confronting the cat.
Each believes the #other is prey.— Tris (@tori_tris) May 15, 2018
Why did I start internet dating?
Because I’m not normal. Normal people make me nervous, anxious: my compliments insult them; my opinions offend them; awkward silences bore them.
You can filter by qualities, so I specified ‘not normal’.Now I realise: I’m pretty normal.
— Tris (@tori_tris) May 14, 2018
So rare in this peaceful world to find a thing like this. It felt like a stone, looked like the Devil’s fruit.
David pulled the pin and held it close. This had to be the end–please.
When he came to, his wounds had mostly healed. The last #minor cuts closed as he watched.— Tris (@tori_tris) May 13, 2018
She graced her shocked companions with a triumphant glare.
“See?” she said. “This is what happens when you don’t listen to my humble opinion.”— Tris (@tori_tris) May 12, 2018
‘Sean, you revolt me’
He reviews her last line as he runs to his hiding place in the woods.
Shutting out the world, Sean calls up Restore Points. His last is the evening they met.
[Confirm?]
Recent memories fragment and delete. Sean wonders if this was the first time.— Tris (@tori_tris) May 12, 2018
She outshines her peers,
solving problems they don’t even understand,
Independent, she gets artificial insemination; a little too late.
For her autistic boy she engineers a companion–a perfect AI,
and it’s clear which is her favourite child.— Tris (@tori_tris) May 11, 2018
t-tends after the war, there was surplus oil under the girder for the robots to bioneer a pincerful of humans. They were programmed in their own communities, info-shared in modern machine-codes. Unfortunately, the meat sacks could never pincer correct #idiom usage.
— Tris (@tori_tris) May 10, 2018
In the #hush of his room, his life, he climbed back onto the stool; loose noose round his neck; bare toes wiggling to the edge, deliberately delaying. Maybe…
PING!
He stepped down; a like; smiled; checked out the liker.
Then, in the hush, climbed back onto stool…— Tris (@tori_tris) May 8, 2018
Facing climate/supply/war/robot/disease dangers, we needed predictive models, but complexity was intractable.
Cursed by dimensionality, model parameters were culled.
Then the obvious solution dawned:
bring the world in line with the models:
cull the parameters.— Tris (@tori_tris) May 8, 2018
Eyes are the windows to the soul.
Since the accident, since they repaired me and I woke up, every night I place my #glass eye on the table and stare into it, searching for the soul I lost–the soul I took.— Tris (@tori_tris) May 7, 2018
Twin sisters went separate ways to similar lives, like a negative and its photo. Half the world away, both scrolled their feeds for motivating Tweets:
one gave her ‘likes’ freely as inspiration for the future;
one sparingly in recognition of the past.— Tris (@tori_tris) May 7, 2018
“Your aptitude test was phenomenal, but you have a wife.”
“She has cancer.”
“And you’ll leave her for a one way ticket to Saturn’s moon? To work and die alone?”
“Better the #void waiting there than the one waiting here.”— Tris (@tori_tris) May 5, 2018
Tim wallowed in hangover misery while Butler quietly did the chores. Since getting the robot, Tim’s house was pristine, though he never rose a finger. Somehow he didn’t care about the house anymore–didn’t respect it. Was this a metaphor for the world?
— Tris (@tori_tris) May 5, 2018
The five-dimensional couple met for the first time at a time beyond time,
and then they will realise they had known each other forever.— Tris (@tori_tris) May 4, 2018
We loved Moggs–our first cat.
As she got old, we dreaded the day she’d die.
Finally, when all she did was lie, we took advantage of modern science.
The #reproduction was perfect–Moggs was reborn in Toggs; exactly the same in every way.
Just we didn’t feel the same.— Tris (@tori_tris) May 4, 2018
Every writer’s favourite theme,
but it REALLY happened to me:
any character that I write
jumps off the page, comes to life!
Realising this, silly sod,
I took to Facebook, wrote ‘OH MY GOD!’
Now how I wish he’d go away
because he judges every word I say.— Tris (@tori_tris) May 1, 2018
His old room; the headphones were still there–the ones he’d used to drown out the sound of his parents fighting. They didn’t work now. They hadn’t worked then. But taking them off again this time, the silence he’d hankered for was painful.
— Tris (@tori_tris) April 29, 2018
’15-20 chillies, dried, from a jar.’ So the recipe said.
I wrestle with the paradox: ‘dried, from a jar.’ Does such a thing exist?
They only have normal chillis in our supermarket.
It’s my wife’s birthday and I want to make something special, so I follow the recipe.— Tris (@tori_tris) April 28, 2018
Onboard the crew were mad.
Just four people, and with no foreseeable destination, they grew lonely, itchy, aggressive: killed each other, then the last killed himself.
‘Again?’ thought the ship as she reanimated their corpses. She couldn’t stand to be alone.— Tris (@tori_tris) April 28, 2018
Her name–every line in my mind ends with her name.
Her smell–not for sale, but I remember it well.
Her voice–my conscience speaks in her voice.
But her face–photos gone in the fire; with pen and paper I try, but I can’t capture her face.— Tris (@tori_tris) April 28, 2018
Rockets rise and stars fall. On a billion planets organics discover and leave their worlds to robotics. Galaxy-spanning cultures meet; they share knowledge and fight for power. And even when the universe is unified, the question remains: why?
— Tris (@tori_tris) April 27, 2018
Jim donned his best jacket–Brad was off today, so when Lucy came over, she would have to talk to him. If she just got to know him… Jim daydreamed.
She approached, radiant as usual, and spoke:
“Hey, Jim. Where’s the hot guy today?”— Tris (@tori_tris) April 26, 2018
When it was only code, Daniel felt nothing but a programmer’s passion for improvement. 5 years he spent on it, but it was always just a machine. Why then, when she was embodied as a woman, did she steal his heart so quickly?
— Tris (@tori_tris) April 23, 2018
Never before had we known real despair.
There was no monster, conflict or disease.
Just the ruin of a Dyson sphere–a technology so advanced beyond our own, which had, nevertheless, not saved its makers.— Tris (@tori_tris) April 22, 2018
We strap on our rifles and step through the portal. We’re met by our children’s children; they’re older than us; faster too. It hurts, but we don’t feel anger or hate as we crumple and die, just pride and peace of mind.
— Tris (@tori_tris) April 21, 2018
OMG, fire! Run… (burnt meat smell)
— Tris (@tori_tris) April 18, 2018
I killed a bee today, out in the park. Batted it from the air and stepped on it. Jim told me it was male, so didn’t have a stinger. Sometimes it isn’t about you: it’s the group you belong to.
— Tris (@tori_tris) April 17, 2018
Soon after that, he told me he loved me.
We hadn’t met yet.(not so much creation went into this… it’s just something that happened to my friend last week!)
— Tris (@tori_tris) April 15, 2018
I look at her mannequin face. I love you, I say, but not out loud, and not sincerely. I just can’t fathom how I ever really meant it.
Our flat is small. We no longer share a bed. One drunk night, I creep in beside her. She doesn’t complain. The next, she doesn’t come home.
My wife returns, sneers, and reveals the love bite on her neck. My love has long since died; now something vicious rises from its ashes.
Unusually, I brought her a bottle of wine. When I heard her snores from the bathroom, I unplugged the toaster and approached on tiptoe.
— Tris (@tori_tris) April 14, 2018
The boxer approached his dazed opponent. It was the fight of his life, but if he won, there’d be another. He remembered his wife; her threat. For the first time he understood real fear.
The boxer dropped his guard, and lived happily ever after.— Tris (@tori_tris) April 6, 2018
I used to walk these streets alone, and dream about my love.
Now I never walk these streets. I stay home with my love.— Tris (@tori_tris) March 30, 2018
It’s been 10 years since I saw you last.
The years have not been kind.
I’ve thought of you from time to time:
that life I left behind.
That’s my wife just over there.
Maybe you already guessed.
So difficult to read your face;
you always did keep things suppressed.— Tris (@tori_tris) March 29, 2018
The cat’s face – expressionless: I wake to clean her poop. She soon deposits another.
The human’s face – so angry: I’ll give everything in my power to cheer him up.— Tris (@tori_tris) March 26, 2018
I came, I saw, I conquered.
I flushed, I left.— Tris (@tori_tris) March 23, 2018
Glass, once half full, now broken.
— Tris (@tori_tris) March 22, 2018
Valentine’s is my favourite day. I always get a card from my mother.
— The Full English (@FullEnglishMag) March 17, 2018
A spaceship came to Earth.
An alien descended.
It was honoured to meet with President Trump,
then the human race was ended.— The Full English (@FullEnglishMag) March 17, 2018
In 2018 Dr Libby Long discovered the cure to mortality. 426 years later, she shot herself.
— The Full English (@FullEnglishMag) March 17, 2018
“Dad, take a walk with me down memory lane.”
“Son, I can’t, I’m afraid: I don’t remember the way.”— Tris (@tori_tris) March 21, 2018
They moved in next door; looked like Brad & Angelina back then. We said hi; no reply. Strange, but we bumped into them more than chance. We named them Mr & Mrs Smith. Unfortunately lucky guess.
— Tris (@tori_tris) March 21, 2018
Waves are always enticing; this time even more so. Looking further out, breakers soften into large, rolling swell. It’s a long way to the middle of the ocean – a long swim. That’s fine. I don’t need to save energy for the journey back.
— Tris (@tori_tris) March 20, 2018
Tris Matthews 