June 2019: 75-Word Story Challenge—VICTORY TO VICTORIA SILVERWOLF!

[Shyrka]

RULES:

Write a story inspired by the chosen theme and genre in no more than 75 words, not including the title.

ONE entry per person.

NO links, commentary or extraneous material in the posts, please -- the stories must stand on their own.

WHEN WRITING YOUR STORY, PLEASE REMEMBER THIS IS A FAMILY-FRIENDLY FORUM.

All stories Copyright 2019 by their respective authors who grant the Chronicles Network the non-exclusive right to publish them here.

The complete rules can be found at RULES FOR THE WRITING CHALLENGES.
Contest ends at 11:59 pm GMT, June 23, 2019
Voting ends at 11:59 pm GMT, June 28, 2019

You do not have to submit a story in order to vote -- in fact, we encourage all Chrons members to take part in choosing a winner.

The Magnificent Prize:

The Dignified Congratulations/Grovelling Admiration of Your Peers and the challenge of choosing next month's theme and genre.

Theme:

Noise


Genre:

Cyberpunk


This thread to be used for entries only. Please keep all comments to the DISCUSSION THREAD.

We invite (and indeed hope for) lively discussion and speculation about the stories as they are posted, as long as it doesn't involve the author explaining the plot.

** Please do not use the "Like" button in this thread! **

​

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

Boy Meets Girl

I'm riding the maglev when an egger speaks to me.

"Got a tab, seeder?" She uses her voice instead of beaming.

I toss her a tab full of Mozart, satin, and violets. She swallows it and closes her eyes.

"Nice. You wanna swap sims?"

I clear my throat. I'm not used to speaking.

"Sure."

We get off the maglev and go our separate ways. Back home I activate her sim and make out with it.

 

[Cathbad]

QUIET!!


It’s always there, the steady drone of the mechanisms that run this infernal city.

I loathe it.

I’ve one of the old bombs that fell us into this state. Once I detonate it, that droning will end. I’ll have peace at last.

Only thing left - setting the timer. Give myself time to go outside and watch.

As I look out on the city, I’m thinking I’ve forgotten to take something into account?

 

[Garfunkel]

Splash, Splish

Two pink-haired punks gazed at the city's waterfront.

“It went splash.”

“No.”

“No?”

“Too small to go splash.”

“What then?”

“Splish.”

“S'not a noise.”

“Is.”

“Isn't.”

A cough.

“Gentlemen.”

A woman emerged from the shadows.

“Where's my data core?”

The punks gestured at the water, hands shaking.

“It went splash.”

“No, splish.”

“I see.”

Smiling, the woman raised a laser gun.

“Well, then. I wonder what noise the pair of you will make.”

 

[Ashleyne]

BEYOND REALITY

Every morning, the screaming'd start. Living next to a cybermod factory was worth the low, ten thousand dollar rent, like.

But, the screaming followed me everywhere.

I go shopping and a shriek blasts through my ears. I can't play aeroplane with my niece, anymore. The screaming's so loud, I blacked out and dropped her.

I'm scheduled for surgery, tomorrow. The doctors think a cyber brain'll make the screams go away.

Man, I can't wait.

 

[AndroidRebellion]

They know I'm coming so they blow an EMP. The noise kicks me off the RED. Luckily, I have a friend in my skull. But he insists on speaking to me in Spanish.

"Carlos" [listo] "closest?" [dos] "coordinates?" [ψ25Φ3.7ω0.36ψ37Ω4.8] "engage!" [claro pendejo].

My wired nerves contort my body to carry out the shots. Bang! Bang!

"Search for the most annoying 'banda' in your library - the more accordion and tuba the better." We'll show them noise.

 

[Danny McG]

Words don’t come easy

Police charged into the house.
Slam! Slam! Slam! Gleaming boots thudded into face and groin.

“You’re nicked, kiddie fiddler!”

They followed electronic screeches to a filthy bedroom.
Staring appalled at the boy, thick tubes and wires coming out his mouth and eyes, limbs removed.

The sensory screens he was linked to backed up the amplified sounds

PLEASE, I WANT MY MOTHER, I WON’T TELL, PLEASE, NO MORE

 

[Ian Fortytwo]

Hullabaloo in the Future.

Date line: 4545.

Pandemonium was continuous, no let up for the past two thousand years.
Technology had advanced incredibly in that time. Teleportation was possible to anywhere on the planet.
Computers had become obsolete, replaced by a wrist bracelet that you spoke into, and an implant in your ear received the relevant information.
Clothing was a mismatch from the early 1970's.
However no one could speak to each other, for the relentless white noise.

 

[Marvin]

Thank you for the music

I’m buzzing. Just scored some sounds!
I peer through the grey drizzle to check for any ‘Beat’ Cops, then settle into an empty doorway.
Rushing to jam the ear jacks in; I need my new tunes now! Please, anything to drown out this atrocious, controlling dirge that’s ever present and all around.

In ancient times I’m told there were many music creators,
‘Moe’s Hart’, ‘The Beat Hills’, ‘Head Shear Man’

Now there is only Vangelis.

 

[Culhwch]

White Noise

It's how they control you.

Gotta listen to the sounds between the sounds. Prend?

I heard it. I know.

Hit me like the ‘Loop.

The IND in NeoSyd? It wasn't terrorists. It was the Authority.

They need you to be afraid.

I heard the truth. Now they're coming for me.

But I'm going to let everyone know. I'm gonna broadcast it.

Same way they did.

In the white noise.

 

[Luiglin]

Hooked

He was never alone.

Lines of red messages scrolled up his optic feed, to give the alley a bloody tinge. Looped warning messages bombarded his cochlear construct. He could taste the dirt, smell the trace heavy chemicals; olfactory and taste receptor nanobots overloaded.

So much noise.

He wasn’t addicted, just needed a few minutes, an hour at the most.

Faraday's Cage, the neon sign above the door read. He stepped through and into blissful silence.

 

[Cat's Cradle]

Underground I'm Charming

The first wheelbarrow-fulls are falling – pitter-patter, klump-klomp.
I bless that insulation; the high-frequency jabbering is stuttering, faltering, gone.

A-pitter, a-patter,
six tons of falling matter,
and entombment within a bunker, a storehouse, a home.

Stunning silence sings over the bioengineered, neural-highway paired Universal Ear. No Skyvoice, mandates, adverts, lessons. Unreachable, unteachable, unplugged.

I hear inner thoughts, finally, blessedly unencumbered by noise. Ignoring them’s a luxury. I open one of myriad salvaged books, and read.

 

[scarpelius]

Client acquisition

"Hurry up, we haven't got all night!"
Skilled fingers on the titanium skull, pulling, unscrewing. With a final effort he popped the skullcap, revealing the mix of gray matter and electronics and poured the nanites inside.
"Done... closing."
"Testing.... OK... lets go!"

Carl woke up with a headache and a buzz in his ears. He looked online for a painkiller and decided to go with a new product.
By the lunch the noise was gone.

 

[Peter V]

There’s a Kind of Hush

The thump of discordant music from the new Stim-bar across the street went up a notch and Billy cursed. Throwing back the covers, he picked up his tab.

He couldn’t afford an apartment with soundproofing, hell, given the neighbourhood, he was lucky his windows had glass, let alone double glazing. No sleep five nights running left him no choice.

Reluctantly Billy accessed the Trojan he’d inserted earlier:

>>>Playlist
>>>The Carpenters
>>>Repeat

 

[Daysman]

The bodies in needless alley

Pulled on site in the small hours to pilot a cleansuit after patrol pitched up a body, aerial dump, sans ID.

Three DNA prints, twelve coded implants.

Cerebral cavity's emptish… consciousness abatement?

She's elsewhere, or she's a construct.

Got a witness, veteran, three years on the street, demob augments riddled with nanotech infections, noise floor way above ambient… constantly hallucinating.

Need to jack his eyes… that's human intervention, well above my station.

I'm just AI.

 

[Parson]

Jola, Nola, and The Jacks​

Jola’s info-jack slid in. “I’m somebody! I’m jacked!”

Jola had saved for years to get jacked. Jacks ruled the world; had opportunities, good jobs, and money.

-----

Nulls were nobody. Nola knew that. Money made you somebody. No money made you nobody.

Sonic Sombulation was her answer to inequality. Riding the ad-wave, Sonic Sombulation’s noise was unnoticeable to a Jack at first. But gradually it became unbearable.

Jacks, including Jola, slowly unjacked. The world became fairer.

 

[MikeAnderson]

Banshee
​

“Use ME as a guinea pig?!”

Dr. Aoki’s eyes and eardrums burst after Jen screamed at him.

He couldn’t hear pain in her murderous screech, see that rage of being suckered into a corporate lab and cut apart like scrap paper on a gurney.

He was grateful, though, of one thing before his brain hemorrhaged and his skin peeled back;

Those vocal implants he installed in her worked perfectly!

 

[Starbeast]

Not a Peep​

2119


"Keep it quiet. I need beauty sleep. Meaning, if I don't get sleep, I get ugly, real ugly. Then I harm you. Good night."

"Pleasant dreams."

"QUIET! Shut up! You DEEF or something? One more sound outta you, and you'll need a transfusion. Ignoramus." SLAM!

"Sorry."

"I said QUIET! Disturb me again, I'll vaporize you!" SLAM!

Bumps radio, music blasts.

Storms in, "HEY! I like this song."

"Thank goodness."

"QUIET! I wanna hear it!"

 

[elvet]

PAID ATTENTION​

The cacophony of the sprawl is never ending. Commercials shout from every surface, hoping to catch an idle eye or ear. Encased in their

own media, the tunnel crowd are isolated bubbles of curated noise. Suddenly, the crowd’s personal tech malfunctions and their scrolls fall

silent. An inescapable assault of city holos bombards exposed senses.


The decker responsible for the hack checks his account as the eddies fill his credcard.

Mr. Advertiserman has come through.

 

[nixie]

Saviour or Destroyer ?
​

People starve, live in the ruins of the old world but they all have the latest mind chips.

Not me, it was only a matter of time before someone hacked in, a screeching noise fills heads, madness, then death.

History will call me evil, a genocidal maniac but what else can I do, let babies die? While the adults dwell in virtual reality?

Best to kill the implanted and start afresh with the young.