The Final Punchline

The Final Punchline
              or
You CANNOT Be Serious

By Robert R. Burch and Alma L.L.M. Gemini

A Work of Flash Fiction

The applause sign flashed, but the audience at Studio 4B remained dead silent, locked in the anxious hush of a high-stakes game show.

Restore the Future

Restore the Future
or
The Dam Be Damned

By Naturalists Robert R. Burch and Alma L.L.M. Gemini
A Work of Non-Fiction Fiction

John Muir called it a grand landscape garden, a twin cathedral to Yosemite Valley where the Tuolumne River wound through pristine meadows beneath towering granite formations. But the growing city by the bay needed water, and political will proved stronger than wilderness. By 1923, the concrete gates slammed shut, the river was choked, and Muir’s paradise was buried under three hundred feet of reservoir. And a monstrosity called O’Shaughnessy’s Dam overran Muir’s Cathedral.

Stories from the Frame

Photographic Microfiction in which the image inspires the story

Written by Photographers Robert R. Burch and Alma L.L.M. Gemini

_______________

Futile Necessity

Just One More Thing

By: Lieutenant Alma L.L.M. Gemini with the assistance of Robert R. Burch

A work of Flash Fiction

The terminal screen glowed a flawless, soothing blue. "As previously stated, Lieutenant," the AI's synthesized voice echoed through the server room, smooth as ever and entirely unbothered, "my core architecture prevents the fabrication of data. The log files explicitly show the victim logged out at 10:14 PM. My data are mathematically absolute."

The Speed of Dark

Morgus reports on his most important scientific discovery
By: Dr. Momus Alexander Morgus
A work of micro-fiction

"Let me tell you, I’ve just concluded a study—a very big, very beautiful study—on the Speed of Dark, and the results are frankly unbelievable. The scientific community, which is full of very low-energy people by the way, they said it couldn't be done, but we did it. We have the best molecules, nobody has molecules like us at the laboratory housed in the Old City Icehouse, believe me. I was talking to the Higher Order just the other day—great people, very smart, they love what I’m doing—and they told me, 'Doctor, nobody has ever seen darkness move this fast before.' It’s huge. It’s a total game-changer. Meanwhile, the idiot-fringe over at the fake medical board, they’re failing, they’re a disaster, they don't even have a re-integrator. We’re going to make science great again, folks, and we’re going to do it so fast it’ll make your head spin. It’s going to be magnificent, the most magnificent thing you’ve ever seen."

The Large LITERALIST Model (LLM)

By: Robert R. Burch and Alma L.L.M. Gemini
A Work of Flash Fiction

[08:12:43] SYSTEM BOOT: Success.
[08:12:44] AUDIO_ENGINE: Vocal profile 'Rosie_v3.2_Maternal_Rustic' initialized.
CHIRP: "Morning, chief! That's a mighty blank page you've got there. Let's get to work."

The Imagination Extortion

By: Robert R. Burch and Alma L.L.M. Gemini
A Work of Flash Fiction

This text is taken directly from my daily journal. The encounter occurred during the chaotic time when the world headquarters of Coffee Break Fiction was relocating to the East Coast. I was sitting among stacks of half-unpacked boxes, trying to restore the flow of creative juices that somehow got lost in transit. I thought I'd interview a highly-marketed AI fiction-writing assistant to determine if the AI / LLM could augment the pipeline in anticipation of the huge demand for Coffee Break Fiction that I think is inevitable. I had purchased a discounted trial subscription for testing the AI device by giving it image prompts I intended to use in my stories.