“Grief”: A SciFanSat Microfiction Compilation

The rover did not know fear or grief or love. Battery low. That was its last message to Earth, under the blue sunset of Mars. #SciFanSat #grief

— Voimaoy (@voimaoy) October 16, 2021

“What am I, Father?” asks the clockwork man.

“You are the child of my grief,” answers the artificer. “The soldier to win a war long lost.”

A brass hand touches the old man’s tears.

“A guardian for a family already in their graves,” he weeps.#SciFanSat #2WordPrompt

— Jason H. Abbott (@Jason_H_Abbott) October 16, 2021

I took her to all the beginnings & their endings, to each whirlwind of stardust & every ocean of tears.
“This is what it means,” I told her, setting the dials for the end of her home world. “A universe of love and hate, #fun and #grief. Always in balance.” #vss365 #SciFanSat

— Apparitional Amy 👻🎃 (@WritesAmy) October 16, 2021

grief for our lost moon
we invent more excuses
through the long dark nights

Blue days we spend in galleries, gazing at moon art, our old seasons.
Some say, let's make a new moon – what fun!
Maybe they'll change our tides again.#SciFanSat #ScifaikuSaturday #whistpr #vss365

— Jenny Gaitskell (@JennyGaitskell) October 16, 2021

I took to my cabin in the woods to outrun my #grief.
Not to have #fun, but I hoped to find peace under the leafy #omspt boughs.
I didn't want a life without you,
but now, running bruised & scared, the creature gaining
I want to live#AchtenWrite #vss365 #SciFanSat#Satsplat pic.twitter.com/qvgL2mropw

— 🤩 Debbie Iancu-Haddad 🍒 (@debbieiancu) October 16, 2021

The old man heard a haunting melody from inside the shimmering silver rain portal. The dirge evoked such grief that it toppled him like an old tombstone in this cemetery world. #SciFanSat #SciFiSat

— Irene (@_Irene_Dreams_) October 16, 2021

"Well, that was #fun," she said. I looked at what was left of my arm.

"Maybe for you."

The AI implanted in my head chose that moment to chirp up. "#Damage report substantial. No time to #fabricate #grief or sympathy. Next wave incoming."#vss365 #vssDreams #vssdaily #scifansat pic.twitter.com/KSl0boZmIb

— That Burnt Writer (@ThatBurntWriter) October 16, 2021

Deep in the dark
I thought he was mine
Have I fallen for a copy
Detour to the uncanny
Was this only ever for #fun
Cold fingers to still
A frozen heart, mid-beat
Claiming my #grief
My soul, my stories
As he fills his book
Of the damned#vss365 #SciFanSat

— Anna✨💫✨ (@annaburnswriter) October 16, 2021

The #fun-fair lays rusting, paint peeling in long strips, gaudy colours outshone by wildflowers and lichen. The creatures settle in satiated heaps, claws retracted, eyes doubled lidded.
Under an upturned seat, a boy holds still, grief clasped inside his silence#scifansat#vss365

— John Everex (@EverexJohn) October 16, 2021

My grief never ends
I invented time travel
and lost her — again

I couldn’t invent
anything to save her life
Deep grief fills my soul

My grief has doubled
I’m reinventing myself
in the past — alone#SciFanSat #grief#SciFaikuSaturday #invent#SciFaiku#Haiku#Poetry#SciFi pic.twitter.com/aF2PiP14rO

— Alan Vincent Michaels (@AlanVMichaels) October 16, 2021

This place reminds me of the woods I grew up in, yet home is galaxies away. These creatures slaughtered every last member of my crew. Why was I spared and left alone here in the dark with my #grief?
Something distracts me. Red eyes amid predatory silence. #Satsplat #SciFanSat

— Maria A. Perez (@MariaAPerez1) October 16, 2021

Words were stranded here long before people. Waiting silently in the undergrowth for the first sign of #grief. Then they crawled into the ear of those primates, and curled round their hearts, infected their minds, controlled them, eventually escaping back to the stars#scifansat

— 🐕SteVe🐇sOc🧦ToeBer🌳🌸🖋📚 (@PatchieSteve) October 16, 2021

When the universe was young we thrilled in our fun. But our recklessness led to the extinction of life on every planet…except 1.

We receded from reality out of grief.

Their scientists noticed our missing mass. If they found us, we'd die of shame.#vss365 #SciFanSat #vssmurder

— A. A. Rubin (@TheSurrealAri) October 16, 2021

Flying through the balmy nitrogen of upper Venus, from one floating district to the next of the greater ring city, is great fun. But jetpacks can fail, leading to grief in the acid clouds below. "Always *check* your jetpack!" Barked the instructor again.#SciFanSat #vss365

— RicPELong (@RicPELongSC) October 16, 2021

He's shut himself in his room. He's really upset about what you've done to Earth. Said it's no #fun anymore.

I've done? It wasn't me.

But you've got control of all the world leaders – it's not really fair. He's just a child.

Oh come on. It's only a game.#vss365 #SciFanSat

— Ellen✍K (@poeticnihilist) October 16, 2021

The brass rebuffed his controversial report, handing him personally their blunt judgment.
His #grief was immaterial to their belief; losing a wife a collateral damage.
"Do you think it's #fun admitting I'm wrong about body snatchers? They're real."#vss365#SciFanSat#2WordPrompt

— aran (@AranPotente) October 16, 2021

As an Agent I feel dissociated, a harmless sociopath, when I witness banal group expressions of grief. The same with fun, anger, any tribal outburst, despite participating in them and understanding their necessity, their worth, when it's my tribe.#vss365 #bravewrite #SciFanSat

— Occam Razor (@BeKindHumans) October 16, 2021

The #grief slowly #ebbed, leaving me high and dry, gasping like a landed fish, desperate for you. That’s why I invented the quantum sniffer; I’m searching for the faint traces your living has left on space-time, like a bloodhound, sniffing out your scent. #VSS365 #ScifanSat

— Mark BurningHawk Baxter (@MarkBurningHawk) October 15, 2021

Sol was once in love. He knew her life would be brief, but still let his passion burn bright. When her flame was spent, the tears of his #grief flowed freely, gathering on one of the orbs. It became a sapphire jewel that brought a little company to ease his suffering. #SciFanSat

— Scurra Ignavus (@ScurrasFolly) October 15, 2021

Forget the dead. Their suffering is over, but we still have to endure the apocalypse. So if I wanna make light of it all, leave me be, it's the only thing that gets me through. Grieving won't bring 'em back anyway.#SciFanSat #SciFiSat #indiegamedev #VisualNovel #DoomsDaisy pic.twitter.com/6J4GCL3IrF

— DoomsDaisy™ (@DoomsDaisy) October 16, 2021