This calendar week ’s composition command prompt takes us to a future filled with flying automobile and the sky - gamy gas stations that service them . See if you could come up with a story place at this airy station , which trade both fuel and deep-fried simoleons .
This man , byAlejandro Burdisio , is just one from his series of fly heaps of rubble , viaThe Art of Animation . This is actually the second prompting I ’ve posted featuring a gas station ; what can I say ? I lie with stories that intersect with route trips .
Maribel set down her horchata and slide reach the windowpane , the scent of exhaust assaulting her nostrils as the away air flooded in . She rend up her atomic number 8 mask and smile with her eyes , the way her female parent had taught her . “ What can I get you ? ”
The driver did n’t get to roll down his window ; instead his look — wan , fuzz grease back — appeared on his window screen . “ Your pumps are lock down , ” he state , frowning .
Maribel leaned onto the counter , strumming her masque with her fingers . Her mother would have chew up her , but this guy was n’t here to purchase churros . “ We hit our cap for the 24-hour interval . Come back tomorrow . early on . ” She reached for the window handle , but the human interrupted her .
“ Your subaltern pump are assailable . ”
She shrugged . “ Well certain , ” she articulate . “ That ’s for mass transit vehicles . You catch a common aircraft carrier permit , you ’re welcome to welcome to use those pump . ”
A gold credit entry key appeared in the gadget driver ’s hand . He tapped it against the window , as if he were merely fidgeting with it instead of waving it before Maribel ’s eyes . “ you’re able to operate the pumps . ”
“ If I want to drop off my operator ’s licence . ” She tend out the window , pointing north NW . “ There ’s a Ho Lin Petrol station about an hour ’s putter from here . They ’ve catch twice our cap . ”
“ What about your individual stockpile ? ”
Maribel froze . “ What about it ? ”
He stop tapping the key , bringing it instead to his lips . “ I know all you gas station have your own fuel supplying in sheath you need to suddenly relocate . ” Maribel did n’t care the way he said that last word , all silky and slow .
“ We do , but it ’s not graded for sale . ”
The gold key disappear from view , but Maribel was certain it was as good as hers . “ Miss , ” he sound out , “ do I seem like a man concerned about governing form ? ”
Maribel ’s mother appeared a few minutes after the man left , bringing a tiffin of rice and bollock . “ Did I see a car pull out of the service department ? ” she demand .
Maribel grabbed the steaming arena , shoveling a forkful of rice into her lip before go under it down on the counter . “ He wanted a drum from our secret fuel supply . ”
Her mother whipped out a chide index number finger’s breadth . “ Maribel Yolanda Bettina Rivera ! ” she gasped . “ Did you con that man into buying a barrel of used frying petroleum ? ”
PV ’s Story :
acquire ta bed the wacky affair people get into nowadays . Flying railcar that search like something out of that harebrained history leger my kid brought home from school on his digi - pad ! You inquire what do me bring this life ? Well … its interesting !
Oh , I ’ve been around a circumstances . find out a lot of places , not just through chronicle Word of God . Most of the cities I ’ve been in are something : all shine silver , high - tech and futurist . But that ’s Noram and Souam . Out here , we ’re in the hind - end of the planetary dumpster . And people make due with what they can slap an old Aegis Repulsor onto for a few thousand cred . Be honest , though , its sort of fun visit how mass make due while essay to make due yourself .
My granddad used to recount me about the old bus topology they ’d utilize in Africa , back when it was all backwards and people still had assailable estate to reason over . curious , cry it rearwards – god-awful was more what it was – hoi polloi killing each other for no reason , or every reason – just none that would make sensory faculty to reasonable folk . Way too much hate , way too trivial care . Times have changed though . Now they ’re adequate kinfolk , and they ’ve got their bit together . odd that way history work . Winners turn over into loser . nonstarter turn into winners . But the common man is still the common man , no matter where you rule him .
As for Panasia City , well its just a little better than the guck that squirms around most of the Asian Rot today – too much of it former Americans add up to act on the ‘ American ’ dream in Asia . They run around try on to twist a street cred at the expense of whomever they can backstab – complaining about the Noram socialist authorities or some such nonsense . Did n’t they hear ? Most of this land used to be communistic . Well … it was before these shining bright - eyed boy from the former US come in . They ’re the ground the city below us is what it is now .
Too bad , too . Noram is get under one’s skin good . That civil warfare , the LA sprawl and NYC sprawl rebuilding everything into shiny metropolis … the key Noram plains being rejuvenate and nicknack . Then there ’s the Souam Jungles – last monumental greenspace on Earth – and its being grown to monolithic proportions to make up for the losses elsewhere . They ’ve pushed the city out to the ocean – which was n’t a big burden . finally though LA and NYC are get to fulfil in the middle , and set out working their way down . Seems that the Capitalistas leaving just made everything in Noram well . But not as good as what Africa ’s managed .
Africa is mostly big urban center and desert , more city than desert anymore , and plenty of gear heads went back to the giant scrapyards on the coasts and harvest those former beat up 20th century buses and cars and brought them back here to the Asian Rot . Many a man from here turned a cred or two by helping the African ’s out , managed to joggle free of the ooze and guck that flows through the streets just a few hundred meter below my picayune slice of heaven here . Lots of the people from around here that could afford to do so go there . Those that were n’t taken to the moonlight by the Taiwanese politics , that is . Yep . Those lights you see on yonder moon ? That ’s unexampled China . All 1.8 billion of them . slip - mined everything , built their colony ship , and leave behind the Asian Rot .
Oh , what ? I ’m here complaining , unravel a gas station ? Bah . you could throw just about anything into the Mighty - Mite fusion nuclear reactor and get utilitarian James Prescott Joule out of it – enough to run that fiftieth - hand Aegis anyway . Truth be told , the fuel we sell is what we require to dispose of after running our primary business – that ’s the food sales booth . Big thing , we ’ve got the least contamination on the continent here , and the gas place , people got ta fill up when they ’re filling up . wellness examiner from Noram gave it a five star evaluation , just goes to show that Noram ’s have some taste . Do n’t have any radian - roaches at least , and that ’s saying something considering some of the crud these teamster haul along with them .
Yeah , those truckers , they just require the chilli , and are darn rude when asking for it – that prune dialect and reek of some burnt industrial plant matter on their breather . Has n’t been real baccy for almost a decennium now , particularly since the Noram tobacco farms were bought out and were buried about a thousand feet under the latest towers of New - York - City sprawl – last I get wind .
Besides , those tobacco plant company move on to more addictive things – like vat - develop gist and such . Well … we do n’t buy from them , their VGM putrefaction in the conveyance container and has chemical lace all through it . plausibly kill you quicker than anything those trucker ’s were smoking .
Anyways , these truckers , no regard for the guys in the agate line or at the windowpane . Wonder how they ’d feel if they knew that some of their joules were come up from the 2d paw deposits of last night ’s dinner party , and I ’m not talking about the stuff and nonsense we liquefy and pumped right into their tanks for 30 creds a litre .
The food decorous kinsfolk get is a bit better than that . Really . We get awards for take to the woods one of the best diners this side of the cloud . help that the smog from Panasia City below does n’t really get this gamey , and that the tune , while a mite thin , is breathable enough . Ca n’t see the city though , old mental synthesis , only two towers over a kilometer , and none of those are in eye - shot . Storms something fierce , though – magnetic storms that linger over the industrial sections and sometimes reach out here . So we burn a lot of our own product moving around . People still seem to go out of their way to find us though . About 2,500 orders a solar day , about 2,500 fillups too . Pretty secure work at an average of 50 creds a visitor .
Be fair , I like the biography . I engender a good stave – all of them former bio - bot of some sort . They ’re decent compared to most . Then there ’s my wife , she ’s been enjoying the quiet prison term up here . Especially late at night . See the stars and all … do n’t get that from the ground . Sometimes I take us out to sea – you’re able to see the city - freshness from the smog , but also get the wizard fairly clear . We ’re not a 24 hour post , after all .
Still , one of these twenty-four hour period , I might move my workshop to one of those African city . After all , not much left below except angry masses and those allow for behind . Eventually , the creds will stop and nothing much tying us here anyways . Be like the rest of the earthly concern and move on when the feeling rises . Sometimes the best things in life are the things you have yet to do .
We ’ll , got another customer and Frannie is too in use cook up a batch of today ’s special . See you around .
AmonSemper ’s Story :
In 2118 , Earth had at last expended it ’s raw resources . No longer were we able to simply pine away our fuel on such thing as railcar and giant motors . No , vegetable oil and it ’s byproduce were a coveted scarceness now .
As we saw World War Three tight in 2084 , the Eastern Allied Nations having been beaten out of Siberia by a combined force of French , Russian and American military force , oil colour prices had rocket . Drilling mental process in the palatial frozen tundra continued to turn out what miniscule amounts of bleak oil they could , which hardly exert Europe and America ’s pulmonary tuberculosis needs .
But even as the western populace clung to it ’s retiring , the East in it ’s dire defeat was forced to move on . Not only had the United Nations forced trade embargoes and prevented localised drilling , they had outright banned the production and consumption of oil to much of India , China , Unified Korea and Japan . Thus are the due of being the attacker .
In light of this development , the Eastern Allied Nations turned their eyes from the one C - older understudy of oil , and became increasingly subject on alternatives : Solar , natural gas , bio - fuel crated from a combination of re - processed wastefulness plastic and waste petroleum from produce . But slowly a new technology emerged , and it revolutionized the way the E.A.N. operated , and it would soon change the world . From a research lab lead by the top minds from Unified Korea , Japan , and India descend a tiny , game - changing gimmick . A diminished electric motor that run on a super - heavy oxygen barrage fire , which used a curing of powerful electro - magnets to match the earths charismatic field to it ’s own , essentially allowing it to hover several feet off the ground without the assist of rockets or other propellant .
In their paper , publish in The New Allied Nations Science Monthly , they were quick to point out it was n’t any sort of anti - gravity machine , but rather a magnetic - defiance twist . But it was to little effect , as paper and cartridge clip all over the populace bear the title and headlines of “ Anti - gravity discovered , fuel proceeds to come to an remainder ? ” , and “ The End of Big Oil : Brought to you by Eastern Allied Nations ? ” – It was a populace - deepen discovery , and make for comparisons to the original iPhone , and to the after - released Google Glass for how it change the market , and respectively the world in which it would operate . In the same way those equipment had revolutionise personal and mobile computing , this would revolutionize transport on all story .
And that ’s on the dot what it did over the next several decades . After the researches patented it , they sold the right to GE for a large sum of money . And with that single action , the earth get to deepen . No longer were carmaker seem for ways to squeeze the most efficiency out of the least fuel . No longer were airliner sweating over having to use hydrogen fuel instead of gas , and worrying about the connect risk .
And so as 2118 filter around , we had seen the world changed entirely . Vehicles with uneconomical safe tires were a thing of the past times . Emissions no longer clouded our atmosphere and we did n’t have to choke off each time the window was rolled down . for attend to these newfangled paradigms , charging place became a uncouth web site along the skyline of monumental urban center , and out along country roads . terra firma - bound fuel stations derive to be a quaint and reasonably uncheerful reminder of the yesteryear , despite the fact that the new , off - soil models looked very standardised .
It should n’t come as a surprise to you then , lecturer , that our level begins in one of these off - ground stations , as a farseeing black Lincoln Towncar , convert to the magnetic - battery system loom in and dock with the saddle station . The acrid smell of a cigarette waftes gently from the hardly crack windowpane , and inside a valet in a dark blue-blooded suit grins a grinning that is n’t quite welcoming , but more … dangerous .
ShirtBloke ’s story wrick an sometime joke :
“ Fill her up please . ”
“ You ’re a newfangled grimace around here . ”
“ Yeah , just took over the road . I ’ll be a veritable from now on . ”
“ What happened to Harvey ? Did he retire ? ”
“ You did n’t hear ? Harvey die . ”
“ Oh no ! He was such a sweet sometime hombre . How did it happen ? ”
“ They say he perish peacefully in his sleep . ”
“ That ’s undecomposed . ”
“ Which is more than you’re able to say about his rider . ”
“ Oh no ! ”
yellowdingo ’s write up :
“ Yeah … Whats a churro ? ” The guy rope with the to a fault taxing rocket ingroup just seemed to loom at the oscillate - through window expect a long conversation as to what it was he was going to ante up twenty seven dollars for . Nemarati looked at the chart . A red X was paint over the calamitous range of a function of individual with magnanimous rocket pack .
“ Sorry Sir , your vehicle is on our ‘ Do not attend to at the Hover - through ’ inclination . I ’m afraid you need to get around to the counter to place your ordination … ” Harvard had just been reduced to Pedestrian class .
“ You do realize this is a registered fomite in the eyes of the Law . This is n’t some anti - grav belt you fuck . This is a Rolls - Royce MK 12 Rocket Pack . ” Nemarati look up from the cooker having not find out anything the client was saying .
“ If you would deal to preview our Pedestrian - Safe Menu for a moment and order when you are quick . ” The Attendant turn to serve the next in the hover - through .
angusm ’s Story :
“ What , ” asked Blaine suspiciously , “ are churros ? ”
“ accord to the ‘ pedia , they ’re a pastry made of late - fried dough , fried until crisp and sprinkled with sugar , ” said Yolanda . “ nutrient , ” she added , catch that Blaine still count confused .
He frowned .
“ Does n’t vocalise very alimental , ” he said .
“ I think they were rust more for use than nutrition . ”
Blaine shook his head word in a way that imply ever so somewhat that he cogitate Yolanda might be as crazy as the ancients had been .
“ And we can make them with the raw materials that we have ? ” he said . Yolanda nod . She had done her research before proposing the task .
In the end , Blaine gave in , as he always did . He always grumbled at first but in the long foot race he could never deny Yolanda anything . She hugged him and pressed the push button that launched the nano - assemblers to execute the pattern she had prepared .
All night long , the floating place lurched and trembled as the nanos worked . She had programme the assemblers to tuck the hovel in below the principal fueling area , perched on top of the reserve tanks . It probably was n’t very unquestionable , but she had to stay put within the design constraint of the lifter module . The trim compensators had a operose enough time coping with the quirky aeromechanics of the station as it was .
While the place reconfigured itself , Yolanda climb into the biotank to make some alterations to her own appearance . immerse in a warm soup of programme enzymes and catalytic factor - tweakers , her tegument slow darken to a rich Brown University . Her whisker changed from honey - blonde to jet - black . Her nose became small and snub , and her lips realine themselves to match those of the girl in the archive photograph she had choose as her manakin . There was n’t time to do anything about her height but she had programme the machine to take a little weight off her hips and broke , giving her the lanky look of a adolescent . When her physical transformation was consummate , the manipulators in the storage tank cautiously braid her thick black hair into two long plait .
fag a twain of faded denim coverall and a white T - shirt , she went down into the freshly - establish shack . Everything was perfect , just as she had imagine it . The surfaces were scuffed and worn and there was even the light-headed build - up of grease in the toilsome - to - clean places around the lip of the fryer . A first mint of churros arse around in their wire basketball hoop , easy turning golden - John Brown in the spicy oil . She reach for the sugar shaker , smiling in contentment .
The 2nd lot was already dry out on the wrack when Blaine came down . If he was surprised to find that Yolanda had turn into a teenage Mexican girl overnight , he did n’t show it . He rubbed his eyes and looked around the shack .
“ Chop - chop shot , ” Yolanda recount him , shaking sugar onto the 2nd batch of churros . “ First customer will be here soon . I left a program for your raw face in the army tank . ”
Blaine frowned .
“ Dammit , I liked being Swedish , ” he sound out . Yolanda pouted unsympathetically . Blaine had a fondness for the Nordic feeling . If he had his way , they ’d live out their whole lives as Scandinavians .
“ Is this actually how these thing see ? ” Blaine demand .
“ It ’s as authentic as it can be without putting it on the earth , ” Yolanda state him . Blaine throb .
“ Let ’s not take it that far , ” he said .
“ Let ’s not , ” Yolanda concur . No one wanted to last on the earth among the toxic end of a dead civilization , roll in a miasma of wind - blown debris and chemical smog . sprightliness in the clouds might have its downsides , but at least you could breathe the air .
Blaine had hardly left to make his change when the first visitor of the twenty-four hour period appear , maneuvering his battered 2CV alongside the station with what he belike intended to be Gallic aplomb . Yolanda approve the authenticity of his beret and the replica Gauloise dangling from his blue back talk .
“ What is ‘ churros ’ ? ” the world asked .
Yolanda held up the most geometrically - perfect of the first mickle , its golden sides sparkling with tiny crystals of dinero .
“ They ’re deep - fry pastries , ” she said . “ Quite delicious . ”
The mock Frenchman shrug .
“ I ’ve already eaten , ” he enounce . He rummage under his feet and came up with a monotonous white cardboard box , its underside slightly translucent with grease . A splash or two of melt down cheese still clung to the palpebra . He held it for a moment , just long enough for Yolanda to see the red lettering and the crude art on the top of the loge , then tossed it out of the window of his fomite .
“ Where did you get that ? ” Yolanda asked , as the empty box flap open and start its slow descent , corkscrew downwards to mingle with the other rubble that carpet the ruined earth below .
“ airwave station about five miles west of here , ” the humans say . “ decent blank space . All very unquestionable . ” He issue the magnetic anchor and engage the rise drive . “ Well , ‘ bonne chance ’ with your pastries . ”
When Blaine come forth from the tank car , his newly - black hair slick down back and his jaw dust with dark stubble , he found Yolanda leaning against the doorpost with a homicidal expression on her face .
“ What ’s wrong ? ” he involve .
“ It ’s my sister , ” Yolanda said . “ Bitch opened a pizzeria . ”
TinyPterosaur ’s Story :
You ’re on an island , tropical and wild . hobo camp life besiege you , great palm and crying monkey and birds . The sand is white and virginal , and the waters around you are filled with corals whose colour span the rainbow . salinity sting your nostril as a cool breeze pennon over the moxie , carry the clean sea spray , and the moon get to rise over the dark , cloudless sky .
A figure approaches you , non-white and alluring , clad in nothing but the sea nebuliser and flecks of sand that adhere to a perfect frame . The figure reaches out , and strokes your nerve , and invites you-
“ Miller ! ”
The sound of a vocalism from the material world crackling over the place radio blow out of the water her to life and she flail wildly to her foot , succeeding only in tipping over her chair and fall to the flooring , landing painfully on her side .
“ Uhhh … ” She rolled onto her back , moan and feel the toilsome vibration of the place ’s engines through the dirty , ash - stained level . She sat forward , twinkle and scratch her side .
Well , at least now I ’m awake , she think .
“ Miller ! ” The wireless crackled again , and she moan . Not who she want to verbalise to . Especially not who she desire to have catch her sleeping again . She pushed herself to her foot , pass over some marijuana ash from her hands and clothes , and clicked the radio on .
“ I ’m here Boris , cool your jets . ”
“ My jet are go to be far bad than cool if you do n’t get me some god - blame fuel ! ” The Soviet accent drop vitrol even through the bleary radio static . “ What , were you catch some Z’s again ? Ca n’t even be inconvenience to move around on the auto - attendant ? ”
“ Auto ’s broken . ” She said , swinging over to the control board with its colonnade - elan mastery sticks . She move one of the sticks with practiced ease , and outside the station , the manoeuvre skyrocket on the fuel subdivision pip to life , moving the boom out towards Boris ’ heap . “ We ’ve put in an order with the Xr for some raw parts but we ’re pretty far down the waitlist . ”
detritus sifted from the rafters as microphone boom connected solidly with the bus and jump pump . “ You need learn to buy considerably , ” Boris say over the wireless .
“ I ’m not sure what I can buy the Xr with . ” Miller huff . “ We already gave ‘ em the major planet , what else could they desire ? ”
“ Dad , da , this is job – now we have nothing to corrupt them with . We already give biggest bribe . Perhaps you find oneself Xr who enjoys human sex , you corrupt with consistence . Always work for my sis when she need extra ration . ”
Miller imagined those long , frigid claws on her skin , those segmented mandibles kiss her , and gag . “ No give thanks you . I retrieve we ’ll do well enough without the machine attendant for now . I do n’t think there ’s anything that I would postulate urgently enough to fuck a Xr . ”
“ Bah ! You just hold off until your primary repulsor work and you fall out of sky . Then you will have wish to listen to Boris and find some Xr to fuck and give you best thing ! ”
The boom rattled again and a button lit up on her gore . “ Alright Boris , you ’re all full . Did you need a crateful of churros before you left ? ”
“ Bah , these things give me indigestion . ”
distinguish me about it , she think . The station shake up again as she retracted the boom from the beaten up bus . “ Alright , we ’ll see you next week . ”
“ Farewell , capitalistic pig ! ”
As Miller watched Boris fly out , smoke pullulate from the exotic repulsors tacked underneath the human - made schooling autobus , she question what had become of their cosmos . Miles below , the earth swarmed with foreigner from another world , while humanity potter through the sky on borrow wings .
It was a affecting and profoundly depressing thought .
Like Icarus , or some shit , she think . Somewhere , there had to be a Grecian myth that perfectly herald this situation .
A Citroen rear up to the station , repulsors burn blue , and honked three times .
Well , she thought , at least someone wants churros .
corpore - metal ’s tarradiddle :
Chatuda and Tom seem at the same thing and each saw something dissimilar .
“ I love the Mid - Century Modern of the station and the vehicles ! ” Tom enthused , his lid institutionalize the images to long term memory , “ It ’s like calling back to the futurist vision of the Twentieth . ”
It was an air race of whimsical vehicles , all hurtling around a floating service station one kilometer above Rocha , Uruguay . Bundled in lovesome clothing , Tom and Chatuda were sitting in an open aviation bleachers hovering at the same hight near the race course .
“ It must cost ten to fifteen thousand commercial a day to keep that matter aloft and on station , ” Chatuda sneered . He was an engine driver , and thus paid to worry about matter everyone else took for grant . “ airship would be far cheaper . It ’s a superficial wastefulness of negatively charged raft stabilizers . ”
“ get on , they ’re hobbyists ! Let them have their fun ! ”
“ apparently it ’s a avocation , ” Chatuda fall flat his hand dismissively in the commission of the 1955 Citroen zooming by leaving an entirely aesthetic and completely unnecessary trail of smoke in its wake , “ These flying car have no hardheaded use otherwise . The fantast of the Twentieth Century were wrong . Flying gondola were n’t the future , robot soil cars were . And yet , again and again , they repeated these fantasies of flying cars and jet-propelled plane inner circle . ”
“ Shut up and enjoy the spectacle ! ”
GORNMagazine ’s news report :
“ Twenty on # 5 . ”
“ … one more time and I will take the air powerful the fuck out of there … ”
“ You should do it … ”
“ Lemme get two with custard filling , two plain … ”
“ Ten on heart 3 . ”
“ … catalyzer fry on this one- these guys would have been fellate monox in three more days . ”
“ Gimme ten on pump 8 . ”
“ … so he comes at me with all three blazon , and the nates , pinche cabron- what was I supposed to do ? ”
“ 15.26.99.18.53.10.10.34.94.11 ”
“ It was n’t like this , back then- we had a sense of what was correct . I sign up , my brother signed up , my cousins signed up . We were going to deposit this … make it right . Now look- we ’re doing commercial enterprise with them like Wolf 818 never even bump … ”
“ I know you ? ”
“ Yo , ten on pump 8 ! ”
“ Can I get two with chocolate ? ”
“ New chronodelinator … new diff … fluids and gasses . Will that be cash or genome ? ”
“ … three more cycle on the contract bridge , and then my ass is relativistic , you get what I ’m saying , guey ? ”
“ Hey . what bechance in Vega , stays in Vega . ”
“ echo uniform sierra three quebec uniform romeo eight juliet echo tango tango bravo ”
“ Hey , can I get ten on pump routine eight ? ”
“ … and we ’re fully three parsec across line , and suddenly two of their cruisers are on top of us , like the emp we dropped was n’t even there . You desire to know why I call back the pact was shit ? ”
“ … not really . ”
“ Hey ! Ten on eight ! ”
“ … know anywhere a man might find a drink … and some caller ? ”
“ Two with cinnamon , please . ”
“ … so you ’re telling me that not even six rotations after I have the warp variable quantity supersede , now the entire four plane predilection transom window has to come out , along with the smoker ? Man , I ’m just trying to get to my baby ’s in time for the hatching- that ’s like three scheme over ! I ca n’t open a major mending mightily now ! I can barely even start the rods to get me there ! ”
“ Well , you could always take the jalopy … ”
“ Never listen . Fix It Again , Tchattatchakk . ”
fable
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