I might be more proud of the title than I am of the story…

I’ve been writing a bunch, I just haven’t published any of them. They’re either too long, or too poorly done (to the point where people would get seriously offended). I had a much longer story idea for this one, but I’m learning to set things off for a later sequel.

This is an interesting info-dump from an intellectual standpoint, but it’s a bit flat on the emotional evocation front.

I am curious, though — are the numbers in this story part of an actual mathematical formula or just something you made up?

Yeah, I’m finding it very hard to get all the information I want into 1024 characters. The first story I wrote for Ficly, I can’t post because it’s far too long, but I don’t dare cut it down.

No, they’re just random numbers that are very close to one. I don’t know nearly enough to come up with better numbers. (Actually I think they’re a bit too close to 1 to be even slightly realistic.)

Yeah, it’s a challenge – albeit an enjoyable one – writing a story that fits these constraints. Really forces you into an economy of words.

I think I agree with Jim. It’s a neat idea, and the scenario is an interesting take on dependence and its cost. The pay off at the end could have been set up with a bit more flair, even by something as simple as spacing out a bit with line breaks.