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"Professor, we were wondering if you could recommend a biologist with helping us to identify--Professor? Professor, are you listening?"

Dr. Schwartz shook his head. "It doesn't matter. You do not need a biologist/ All you need to do is look in front of you."

Politely, Jim looked at the pendulum swinging in front of him. "I'm sorry, Professor, I don't think that this is quite what we need right now. There's land out there that none of us recognize, but I figure that a biologist might be able to give us an estimate of where we are."

"Ha!" Dr. Schwartz interrupted, pointing at the pendulum with a shaking finger. "There! Do you see that!?"

"No, professor, I don't. I think I'll just go--"

The professor surged to his feet and seized Jim by the shoulders. "Don't you understand? It changed! The pendulum changed! I deduce that you would notice if the sun in the sky shifted above you too greatly, so we cannot be traveling through time, or perhaps we are traveling enough through time that it syncs up...ahem. The only way the pendulum's rhythm would change is if it was in a different location. Do you understand? Go look at the land you didn't recognize earlier, and it will be even less familiar to you now!"


Inspiration: Foucault's 194th birthday
Story potential: Medium
Notes: Could be a fun shifting-place premise, but, um, I really need to do a bit more research to get the science of the observable details right.
I always look for sharp edges and corners, things I could open my head up on, but part of the problem with unreal space is that what you see is not always there. I figure that's not a problem, not really. I don't care if other people see me carefully skirting empty space. I don't worry about looking like an idiot, and the unreal space vision is marked clearly on my identification, which usually keep away the cops and bughouse people, both the real and the unreal ones. The bigger problem is when something keeps me from seeing what *is* really there. It's not much of an issue, because people who don't see what's there tend to die a lot younger than those who see what isn't, but I'm one of the ten percent who have a mild enough bit of it that they survive. Also, my parents were the most paranoid people around. You've never seen childproofing until you've seen what they did to our house until I was twenty-five and had passed all the tests and vocational training and was officially emancipated and moved into a government apartment. I nearly died that first night, walking into a bathtub and slipping and hitting my head. Sheer luck I didn't drown while I was unconscious. I didn't tell my parents that part, but--


Inspiration: Thinking about childproofing.
Story Potential: High.
Notes: I'm not sure where this one would go, but I felt myself getting more drawn in and interested the longer I wrote. Good character, if nothing else.
I have always loved you. In six of the time-streams I kill you--twice because you cheated on me, once because you were dying of cancer, twice because you were leaving me because I cheated on you, and once because I was insane. In eight time-streams we married, but we always divorced. Twice, after fifteen years of marriage. Sometimes we have children, but that doesn't correlate to any of our love problems. Once, the children died, and you killed yourself. In one time-stream, I never worked up the courage to even talk to you, and you never realized you were being stalked by a mad scientist. You had a good life, but I died young. I wonder, sometimes, if that's the time stream I should work to make immanent, but the thought of never seeing your eyes light up when you see me is intolerable.


Inspiration: "Lovesong" - Snake River Conspiracy
Story Potential: Medium.
Notes: Eh. It could be a decent flash story, but it doesn't really pull me in.
The trick to it was not dying. Once you got past that, it was easy. It was a hell of a trick, though, and just because he'd managed it--once--didn't mean this time would be any easier. He looked back over his shoulder and saw the bullyboys approaching warily, their eyes on the singularity. On the other hand, they didn't look like they'd be much impressed by any trick he could pull, and he doubted they'd just let him go. So--it was the long dive through godonlyknewwhat. Again. He tucked his wallet away inside his pocket and buttoned it shut, quickly checked to make sure he had no loose bits or bobs, took a deep breath, and jumped in, feeling his testicles retract as soon as they realized what he was doing.

Inspiration: I was--thinking of tricks to doing stuff?
Story Potential: High.
Notes: Though I don't know what's going on here. I just love the first line. And hell of a title, there.

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penthius

January 2025

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