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Nick Winney's avatar

This was great! casual, clever fun and throwaway speed, rapping out lines belies the immense idea and repercussions. The character is gleefully bad. an extrapolation of the trumpian ego. The Matrioshka reference reminded me of a micro i wrote about a matrioshka weapon (which went smaller and smaller) and the concept of all matter being ultimately subborned for the greed for data and energy is something that really tickles me. its bound to go that way isnt it... they're already eyeing up the asteroids for mining.

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M.P. Fitzgerald's avatar

Thank you! I appreciate those compliments. That sounds like a fun concept, is it up to read, do you have a link?

Oh yeah, I forget who said it but the whole “Dune is not a blueprint for society” seems to go way over their heads… and that’s not even a subtle thing to say!

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Nick Winney's avatar

Hi - it was one of the fiction dealer microfictions… i coudlnt find it but I am cutting and pasting them as I do them into a single word doc now - got over 60…

here it is

Matryoshka

We're calling the weapon "Matryoshka," said Pilkington.

"Why's that?" asked the General.

"The projectile uses launch energy and a nano-fabricator to make smaller, denser versions of itself, inside itself, re-using its own mass and applying spare mass as propellant for thrust. Density and speed thus increase exponentially whilst size decreases inversely. Eventually its speed, size and density render it undetectable and unstoppable. We're test firing in 3... 2...1…"

Pilkington's head vapourised into pink mist, a laser-thin ray of sunlight beaming into the room.

"Bravo, Pilkington!" said the General, cleaning his glasses "That must have taken some brains."

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M.P. Fitzgerald's avatar

Holy crap I adore this. Anything that resembles this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TYsulVXpgYg even in the slightest will get me to chuckle

Got any plans for that word doc?

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Nick Winney's avatar

An absolute classic!

erm as to the rest of the mixros... id kind.of feel a bit treasonous making a book out of them seeing as theyre all from miguel S prompts. but some of them are pretty good even if I say so myself. and mostly grim. hehehehee

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M.P. Fitzgerald's avatar

Naw, the prompt belongs to the promptee who writes inspired by it, not the prompter. I figure it's all good so long as you give a shout-out-- even better if you collab with the prompter...

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Nick Winney's avatar

i could maybe ask him which ones he likes the best... maybe collect my top 20.

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Keith Long's avatar

Love this. It’s wacky and funny, and secretly vast.

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M.P. Fitzgerald's avatar

Thank you kindly! I appreciate your readership

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Victor Jimenez's avatar

Absolutely fantastic! I love the sideways fiction.

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M.P. Fitzgerald's avatar

Thank you! Ellison’s masterfully done “The DeathBird” was an inspiration to play with format in this fashion.

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Joshua Lavender's avatar

Weird and loopy, kind of like Douglas Adams mixed up with Samuel R. Delany … I like the experimental structure!

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M.P. Fitzgerald's avatar

Thank you, it was fun to write. Might have to explore this sort of weird structure again.

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Pablo Báez's avatar

Gold Bono. That’s all.

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M.P. Fitzgerald's avatar

They say you must not be precious when editing. That line stays no matter what lol!

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Prince Kudu’Ra's avatar

OK! A little too much credit granted, but I dig it.

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M.P. Fitzgerald's avatar

Thank you!

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ARC's avatar

great and unique structure. fun read.

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M.P. Fitzgerald's avatar

Thank you, I greatly appreciate that!

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S M Garratt's avatar

I was enjoying this story so much and kept thinking it reminded me of another story until about halfway through when the bomb went off and I realised the story was reminding me of itself as I had read it a while back and enjoyed it massively then. So a meta reading of a meta story.... perfect Saturday morning.

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M.P. Fitzgerald's avatar

That’s awesome and funny as hell. Thank you for the reread 😁

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Emil Ottoman's avatar

Fuck this story. (politely.)

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M.P. Fitzgerald's avatar

Yeah, that's a fair take, considering :D

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Vince Roman's avatar

Loved this!!!

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M.P. Fitzgerald's avatar

Thank you :D I'm glad it treated you well

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