Practice Storyworld – Rachel Teo
Practice Storyworld – Loke Ting Wei
Genre: Fantasy
In the goblin world, goblins travel by flying cars and live in mushroom houses. They could also teleport to different time periods with time machine doors everywhere. They also have healing armour to heal themselves and other goblins, and build houses with a scanning property. This is to protect themselves and ensure that they will have a roof over their heads. They could also come up with any food they like simply by thinking about it and rubbing their tummy pocket. Ingredients will be formed and food will cook by itself in the kitchen.
Goblins have tasks and missions to execute in the human world. Every time they finished one mission, they are allowed to rest for 2 years in the goblin world. One day, a few goblins of power working in the heavens decided to mess up the system because they were unsatisfied of lack of rewards and rest given to goblins, including those of their family. They also felt unfair that they were not treated as well as fairies. So, they opened the heavens door for the goblins to escape to other worlds. Only goblins who had true unhappiness were able to escape.
The heaven gods found out and closed the doors in time. Only 20 goblins managed to escape. They went to the candy world, where everything in the world is made of candy. They tried to survive there, but regretted as they preferred living in the goblin world with their friends and family. Hence, they tried to make their way back to the goblin world, and kept sending messages to their fellow goblins for them to open the heavens door for them again. But it was in vain.
Hence, they stayed at the candy world, hoping to someday get back to goblin world. Over time, Hardworking Goblin fell in love with Pretty Candy. Forgetful Goblin also fell in love with Cute Candy. As time goes by, Pretty Candy and Cute Candy told their goblin partners that they have special powers to open the heavens door. The goblins were happy and wanted to go to goblin world to bring their family members to the candy world to live in, since they do not want to leave their partners. And they could not bring their candy partners into the goblin world. They came up with a plan to do so, but it would mean their partners might risk getting smashed by keeping the door open for a long time. Hence, the goblins would have to act as soon as possible.
The goblins went in, but their family members did not want to leave after hearing about how living in the candy world will be an aimless life, with no missions or goals. They also did not want to risk not being able to come back to their loved ones. Seeing that their attempts were futile, the goblins left, but just as the goblin door was closing, Hardworking Goblin changed his mind as he thought about his sick mother and went into the goblin world, attempting to pull Pretty Candy in. But the suction force was strong and prevented Pretty Candy to enter. By force, Pretty Candy was pulled in. However, in the goblin world, she started melting into a pool of sugar. Only her soul could move around. Devastated, Hardworking Goblin hired witches to help him put together his lover but they failed.
For a long time, Hardworking Goblin lived with the invisible soul of Pretty Candy, until his sick mother died. After that, they escaped into the candy world yet again, only to realise that candy world had been in disaster for years. There had been sugar tornado that crushed many houses. Hence, they tried to save the people and houses with their goblin powers as Pretty Candy has absorbed some goblin powers back in goblin world. They also had healing armour that can detect sickness, give out medicine and even operate surgeries for the people. They also possess scanners that can assess the damage done and restore houses the way they were. Their tummy pocket also allows them to come up with food to save these candy people. For 2 years, they rebuild the entire candy world and rescued the people, and Hardworking Goblin became crowned the king of the candy world.
The character list:
Hardworking Goblin
Forgetful Goblin
Hungry Goblin
Laughing Goblin
Pretty Candy
Cute Candy
HOW will you tell your story? –
Props, material and the role of devices:
Healing armour – inflatable balloon
Scanning property with antennas
Tummy pocket – food
Candy characteristics:
Bumper for them to bounce into anywhere of the universe, including goblin world
Sugar sprinkles to open the heavens door
Cultural Probes – Yukie Miyazaki
The cultural probes I came up with were for my friend who makes earrings out of clay.
The cultural probes were made with the intention of getting to know the creative practitioner a little bit better, and also to better understand the creative process that the practitioner goes through as she creates her earrings, with a slight focus on how/where she gets her inspiration for the different patterns and designs that she comes up with.
Questions from the question booklet.
Activities from the activity booklet.
She mentions that her workspace is “always a mess”. Her love for nature is also emphasised through her choice of pattern, but definitely doing her craft in nature may not be the most feasible at the moment.
Gave us the idea for our story world, where people are crafting on the train. Also noted is the need for a flat surface.
Share your world—Shelton Chang
Storyworld
Linda is a makeup artist is facing a huge crisis.
It’s 2025 and the threat of global warming is more real than ever. Singapore has recently passed a law that requires all materials to be recycled and reused. No one is allowed to produce more than a kg of trash.
Revised Storyworld
It’s 1 August 2025, five years after EOD, or Earth Overshoot Day. The scientists had warned us in 2018 that Earth close to reaching an ecological debt, whereby there’s a deficit in natural resources caused by the
population’s overconsumption. And of course, nobody believed it. Even Trump himself said that global warming is a “bogus”, a ruse conjured by scientists to request for more funds for their research. Well, little did he know that all the findings reported were true: we were indeed living on the last few dregs of resources. Words says that as soon as the electricity at the White House went down, the president immediately came to an absurd decision that it’s time to go green albeit too late.
In Singapore, we are glad to have been consistently managing our resources so our EOD has been extended, with a price of course. A law that restricts our waste production to a single kilogram a year, to allow our landfills to have time to decompose into the land. We’ve switched over to electric powered-everything. How do we manage to do so you may ask. Spin classes. Those bike that people pay horrendous amounts for? They generate enough to power the entire nation.
Me? I’m Linda. Just an average makeup artist trying to make a living, while trying to not flout the rules. Law by law as the ‘Poreans calls it. NEA deemed my MAC cosmetic caboodle “too environmentally unfriendly”, reasons unknown. And now I have to make something out of thin air to carry all my equipment around. Maybe YouTube might have some DIY videos back in the days. Before EOD.
(Sigh)
Welcome to 2025.
Poster design
Share your World – Celine, Karin & Darren
Genre
Dystopian
Storyworld
In the year 2150, pizzas are driven to extinction due to the extreme shrinkage of carb diets due to the fad Keto dieting that made everyone grow independent of carbs. And how everyone is on the go now so small-food take outs are all the rage while bulky large pizzas are the age of the past.
So Peter the Pizzaiolo, grandson of Italian pizza-making prodigy, Penelope Pepperoni, never giving up his dreams of continuing family tradition, decides to make Pizzas great again.
SO HE INVENTED THE PIZZA HAT, combining the fad diets to make small pizzas now available on the go and also reaches out to people’s nostalgia to restore the glory of pizzas again!
Finalised Microstory #1 (Darren)
‘Ring ring ringgggg …!’ The loud and quirky alarm broke the silence in the room. Bobby, with his face still planted on his pillow, reluctantly stretched his hands out to reach out for his iPhone XXVII. He slowly raised his head and slowly open his eyelids to glance at the time. His eyes widened.
‘IT’S ALREADY 10AM?! I’M SOOOOOOOOOOO LATE FOR WORK! PETER IS GOING TO KILL ME’, yelled Bobby.
On his future-high-def-AR phone screen (like JARVIS’s UI in Iron Man) was 20 missed calls from his boss, Peter, the Pizzaoilo. There was one text message left in a following notification: ‘YOU’RE LATE FOR WORK PETER!!!! WHERE ARE MY INGREDIENTS!’ – every character in caps, demarking.
Bobby leapt out of bed, hurriedly put on his signature green jacket and held his hair back before placing on his work cap. He was two hours late for work and he was in charge of preparing the ingredients for the wacky experiments for the invention that will revive pizza for mankind, the PizzaHat.
Finalised Microstory #2 (Karin)
As Bobby was making his way to Peter’s house for his daily job, he heard the usual Boom! Crash! Thud! of Peter tinkering about in his workshop/former pizza parlour. He sighed and entered the space thinking for the umpteenth time when this was going to end. At least there are free pizzas for me he muttered to himself.
“Free pizzas for you? Oh boy when I’m done with this machine there’ll be free pizzas for everyone!!!” exclaimed Peter suddenly from his side. “Or at least for a day, then we open for business officially” he pondered.
Peter was always so optimistic about everything, even when his family-run pizza parlour closed down and everyone had shifted on to the Keto diet officially, Peter was still determined to #makepizzagreatagain. Instead of letting people’s smaller appetites get to him, he adapted around it and focused on creating the ultimate device that would still get people to eat pizza! Although the only problem was that the device had to actually work first……
Meanwhile, Bobby, his intern was as done with this as he was with everything in life. He stayed purely for the delicious free pizza and money he made that could sustain him just enough. But deep down, Bobby actually had a soft spot for Peter and his zealous enthusiasm for his dream. He and Peter both knew that despite his many complains and comments, he would still come to help out the next day.
And so, this 2 distinctly different characters embark on the journey to make the world’s first ever PizzaHat and on that very day indeed……..
“Bobby! Come quick! Over here!…. I think…. I think I did it!”
Finalised Microstory #3 (Celine)
Putting an end to the 20th time he has dialled Bobby the Intern, Peter the Pizzaiolo heaved out a sigh.
“I really should be firing him or cutting his paycheck… but ya he’s working for free… and actually… I don’t have anyone else so URGH!”
Thinking back 10 years ago on a rainy night when he first met Bobby the Intern, little Bobby was no more than a street castaway… abandoned by his family due to poverty. He remembered feeling sorry for Little Bobby and decided to bring him home for the night, at least out of the rain.
That night, he relived his memories of his family’s age old pizza making tradition with Little Bobby, and little did he know, Little Bobby shared the same dreams with him! They both wanted to make Pizza great again… reintroducing the world to Pizza once again! That was how their little partnership began….
10 years on, the duo finally had some breakthroughs in their technology and today was the day for the world to change. Today was the day the PizzaHat would revolutionise the world and bring pizzas back into people’s lives. Despite Bobby the Intern’s tardiness, Peter the Pizzaiolo knew he was the only one he could count on… the only one who shared the same dreams and aspirations as him…
Poster
Share Your World – Boo Shangyou & Low Jia Yi
Storyworld:
In the year 20XX, traditional news outlets have become universally banned in the global effort to combat fake news. As a result, citizen journalism has become the main source of news, and individuals now sell their self-recorded news footage directly to broadcast stations that are willing to pay lucrative amounts of money for footage of a high standard. In this video-quality-competitive world, gone are the days of blur and shaky videos recorded on mobile phones being shared on social media, as stable top-grade Ultra HD video footage has become the expected standard across all digital platforms.
In the wake of this newfound universal demand for professional videography, Wonkru Designs has created an innovative camera bag that has the storage space to hold a 12K UHD camcorder while simultaneously having the function to unfold itself into a sturdy tripod.
Finalised Microfiction #1 (Shangyou):
Title: Blinded by Night
Genre: Horror
Octavia is a freelance videographer who makes her living selling video footage to broadcast companies and alternative media outlets. Although only 21 years of age, she has already become the sole breadwinner of her family of wastrels. Her single mom, Aurora, constantly abuses her emotionally, always convincing Octavia that she is a shameful “useless daughter” who deserves to be tormented. Her good-for-nothing brother, Bellamy, is a delinquent gang leader who spends his whole time doing whatever the hell he wants, which is almost never a good thing, to say the least. Her abusive boyfriend, Lincoln, is a quiet but physically aggressive guy who is overly-possessive and gets jealous extremely easily.
While driving home on her scooter one day, Octavia witnesses a young man robbing an elderly woman. She initially intends to jump in to help the old woman, but suddenly realises that she was carrying her Wonkru Designs Camera Tripod Bag. It was tough making ends meet, and she knew this was an excellent opportunity to shoot some juicy footage that she could sell. It would feed her and her family for at least a week—she thought to herself. Much to her shock, the petty theft turns into a murder, when the elderly woman refuses to give up her handbag, and the young man stabs her in the chest with a knife. She had just recorded a murder on video, and she was completely beside herself. Afraid of being implicated in the crime, she quickly flees the scene with her footage before the police arrive. When she reaches home, she is tormented by her mother once again, and cries herself to sleep as she always does.
The next day, Octavia heads over to Polis Broadcast Studios and offers to sell the footage to them. To her surprise, she is offered US$20,000 for the video, which is more than she’s earned in the past 6 months of covering boring live events! She agrees to sell the video, and leaves the studio gleefully with the full US$20,000 in cash, just as she had requested. Hesitant to tell her family or her boyfriend about her sudden windfall, she decides that she should spend the money on herself for once. After all, she deserved it anyway. She heads over to a nearby Azgeda Autos dealership and spends US$18,000 on a blood red Shadow Valley BR-5—her dream motorcycle ever since she was 13 years old.
When she reaches home, her mom catches her with her new motorcycle, and begins unleashing a verbal and physical tirade upon her. The confrontation escalates out of hand, and Octavia accidently kills her mother in self-defence. Realising what she had just done, she is completely distraught, but then she looks over to her Wonkru Designs Camera Tripod Bag and an idea springs to her mind. She unfolds the bag and sets up her camera within seconds, and records a video of the blood oozing out of her mother’s skull. Then, she quickly wipes her fingerprints off the glass mug that she had hit her mother with, and phones the police. The police arrive and she puts on a show, crying and begging for them to catch her mother’s killer, and they comfort her, assuring her that they will do so. Eventually, her brother Bellamy arrives home, and upon learning about the situation, assumes that one of his rival gangs had been responsible for the murder.
The next day, Octavia heads back to Polis Broadcast Studios once again, and sells them the footage for US$6,500. The amount was a lot less than the previous video, because this video did not show the actual murder as it occurred. Disappointed, Octavia leaves the studio with the US$6,500 in hand. She had her eye on the brand new Arkadia T-100 motorcycle, but that would set her back at least US$35,000. Then, she has an epiphany. If she wants more money, all she has to do is create more news to shoot video footage of—it’s just that simple. Thus, she begins planning the murders for her next victims—Bellamy and Lincoln.
Finalised Microfiction #2 (Jiayi):
Title: Animalification
Genre: Adventure
Cover Photo:
In this world overfilled with citizen journalists aiming to earn great quick bucks by selling their video footage to conglomerates, Max was struggling to make ends meet to support his wife and growing son.
“Get out of my way!” citizen Z shoved Max away with his bulky equipment bag, blocking his camera lens from shooting the latest celebrity scandal.
The constant ‘beep’ ‘beep’ from his phone reminding him of his low account balance broke him out of his mental tirade of that obese man. This can’t go on. Max packed his bags, kissed his wife and son good bye and left, vowing to come back a man with greater prospects.
One month passed, then two, then three… Nothing. Jane did not hear a word from her husband. Strapping her giggling son to her back, she left for the woods – supposedly her husband’s last location detected by his ID chip. It was a deadly place, overtaken by whatever animals were left roaming. Those animals were mad, their family and friends having been rampantly killed by humans a few decades ago. Since then, nobody who entered their territory ever left alive.
Jane sets out to find her husband in the treacherous location, and slowly finds herself warming up to those wild animals. After weeks of searching, she finally finds her husband who had been camping out to film the never-before-seen sights of the wild creatures. Armed with enlightening footage of the misunderstood animals, the couple return to civilisation to set things right again with the animal kingdom.
Share Your World – Jo-Ann Ng, Jhnn Ymn, Kaitlyn Ho
Revised Storyworld
- Within a cybernetic world where fabricated human hybrids with immensely long life spans are the norm, a small nomadic commune of elderly avant-garde art therapists exists on the fringes of society. Members of the commune have long refused to modify their internal biologies on ideological grounds. Instead, these elderly rebels rely on external, wearable technology to hide their actual age while assimilate into the mainstream.
- The commune practices artmaking and remains closely bonded together, moving from place to place as a group. Together they cope with ageing, their pasts, and the realities of a cybernetic world that deems them outmoded through art therapy, using tools and equipment integrated into specialised jumpsuits. These specialised jumpsuits act as their wearable, portable studios.
- The art therapists utilise the wearable studios that facilitate the commune’s artistic production in secrecy and on-the-go, and regulate the art therapist’s own emotional health — the commune is bonded through these continual acts of facilitated artmaking even with the inevitability of ageing.
- The commune is outlawed and continually chased down by authorities, seen as a threat to public health with their unmodified, vulnerable, biological bodies.
Microfiction 1: Bartender
An alchemical bubbling of polyseuteroxane with saccharified synthetic starches… the bartender plays an important role in the morale of the cybernetic society. In a seedy dive bar within designated nightlife district, the bartender serves all sorts of citizens, from gleaming officiated bodies with smooth 3D modeled torsoes to the outlawed biopolitical bodies that skulk about softly.
Microfiction 2: Commune caught
The art commune is continually on the run – their external technologies and unmodified bodies are considered a health threat to the general population… but the commune knows that these updates, modifications, syntheses are unnecessary; all they need are their bodies, their tools, and their art. Yet, the city and its citizens, and citizen-police keep a look-out, obediently report whenever the ‘dangerous’ art commune is sighted.
Microfiction 3: Lovers
At the top of Monsoon Towers a cybernetic yuppie couple gaze down at the city from their air-purified, chrome-surfaced apartment… They receive personalised messages of recent sightings of the illegal art commune. Safe in Monsoon Towers, with its security systems, privacy updates, cashless payments, the couple pays no heed and switches on their personal holographic entertainment systems.
Revised Microfiction (Based on Microfiction 2): Citizen-Police
我想起月下，我想起花前，
多少的往事，留在我心田。
一半是辛酸，一半是甜蜜，
一年又一年，長教我留戀。。。
The modified mind is clear and precise, no room for error, synapses blinking, autoanalysis complete to the one-hundredth of a second, all under 0.70082699341 units of time (standard measurement as adjusted for seismic geoshifts and post-neolunar patterns). Looping about the vaporous pools of data gathered as skeins within cloud storage systems above, below, and within, Citizen-Police 000000023918_3481.874PZT’s embedded transducing chip hidden within flesh picks up audio waveforms lapping against the cochlear. Tides come in, tides go out, brackish flows intermingle and the hertz make themselves legible as electronic signals blinking across the spine, tingling across modified membranes and polyethylene endoskeletons.
A song that has no reason to exist in present analogue soundsystem forms, no reason to echo out in the alleyways of Street 184.558202A (intersecting Avenue 99238.61U). Citizen-Police 000000023918_3481.874PZT is keenly aware of what this could mean – their logic card does the necessary calculations, re-orientations, telepresence siting, and séances, they gaze from beyond the dense overgrowth of satellite TV antennae to see the outlawed commune, with their clumsy technologies sitting over their aged, withering bodies, the cables and protrusions, the machinery so unlike his smooth, synthetic, spa-treated & regularly moisturised polysiloxane flesh (toner removes sebum produced during the night and balances your skin’s pH.). They are making, making those artefacts long ago rejected as outmoded art, how trite, confusing, utterly repugnant – no sight of systems, of computation, no conceptual basis, no theoretical grounding.
Without even 0.70082699341 units’ of hesitation, Citizen-Police 000000023918_3481.874PZT sends out the electromagnetic signal for reinforcements.
Cover Art
世纪秘辛： ＳＥＣＲＥＴ HOLLYWOOD HAUNTINGS： CYBWAR
Share Your World – Reyna Corrales & Tracy Leong
Creative Practice
Tattooing
Sociological Issues
- Negative associations with body art, especially in the workplace still exist despite (slowly) changing attitudes (https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/commentary/tattoos-employers-still-discriminate-workplace-companies-10631276)
- Chronic pain (e.g. carpal tunnel, back aches, nerve damage) from tattooing reduces longevity of career (https://news.osu.edu/being-a-tattoo-artist-is-a-pain-in-the-neck-study-finds/)
- Importance of hygiene (https://myhealth.alberta.ca/Alberta/Pages/Think-before-you-ink.aspx)
Technological Development
- Chairless Chair – http://www.noonee.com/en/
- The future of tattoos – https://gizmodo.com/the-freaky-bioelectric-future-of-tattoos-1494169250
- Brief list of essential tattoo tools – https://mdwipeoutz.com/tattoo-shop-supplies/
Storyworld Genre
Science-fiction
[OLD] Storyworld Description
Once considered a stigma in society, tattoos have become the norm for everyone. What better way for those in power to keep track of each and every individual’s life, by having them emblazon their life story across their own body? Gone is the need to dig up personal documents, financial statements or medical records to figure out the background of a person. Just look at their body! Dictated by the ruling party, every milestone in life will be commemorated with a suitable tattoo. Just graduated? Get a tattoo. Got a promotion? Get a tattoo. Got into a relationship, or just came out of a break up? Get a tattoo. People no longer hire clowns or face painters at birthday parties, but a tattoo artist instead. Responding to the drastic increase in demand, tattoo artists are constantly on call and have developed a wearable worksite that enables them to take appointments outside of their traditional studio setting.
[REVISED] Storyworld Description
It’s the year 74700 and tattoos are no longer taboo. In fact, body modification goes beyond art and self-expression. It is a means of functionality for different life stages, at all ages. In this new world, parading information about yourself has extended beyond the online space. Skin becomes a medium where we wear our factual and personal identity on our sleeves. We update our tattoos just like social media, like Facebook or Twitter statuses.
For every milestone, there is a tattoo. It’s become a societal norm to get a tattoo whenever someone wants to share a personal event – anything from a break up, to getting a new pet.
In addition, the law also ordains that people ‘update’ their skin (within one working day) when they change in age, education, career and health. What better way for those in power to keep track of each and every individual’s life by having them emblazon their life story across their own body? Gone is the need to dig up personal records. Considered as civil servants, tattoo artists are highly trained and respected professionals who are expected to get the job done in the most efficient and precise manner. They are easily distinguished by the latest wearable gear – Verte 74700, a hybrid exoskeleton-toolkit that carries the essential instruments of the tattoo trade while keeping their balance and posture in check.
With so many people to tattoo daily, tattoo artists are high in demand. But in this fast-paced society, there is limited time for people to make their way to tattoo studios. Not only that, they also have to constantly monitor their health and well-being because there’s no time for them to feel ill. Hence, tattoo artists have adapted to working on-the-go – ready to give anyone a new skin.
Cover Art
Microfiction #1
In the middle of a cold, faded-brown bench sat John, sprawled in a deflated manner. He threw his head back and looked up.
“Was the sky always like this? Boring. Blank. Blue,” he thought.
His arms spread lifelessly by his side. His arms which were cluttered with tattoos – A number 26 (his age), a gear (degree in mechanical engineering), the GoFast logo (automobile company he works in) and a milk carton with a huge red cross (lactose intolerant). But this one tattoo – a cloud with the initials J ❤️ E – felt uncomfortably pressed against his skin.
It was about time to let this cloud go. A miserable sigh escaped his lips as he took out his phone and made the necessary call. The screen lit up: “Booking confirmed!”
Within minutes, an all-too familiar figure donned in their advanced gear approached him. John have had gotten so many tattoos in his life, but this might just be the most painful one yet.
Microfiction #2
She glanced at her watch, waiting for the last chorus of ‘Happy Birthday’ to die down around the room. Same old, same old.
Caitlyn had been assigned to this family for years — had seen how the parents aged over time, and how their children grew from little infants to the young adults they were now. This was their youngest daughter’s coming of age party as she stepped into adulthood at the age of 21.
It took awhile for everyone to settle down, with the birthday girl taking seat centerstage. Caitlyn tightened her Verte 74700 around her waist as she made her way to her client – her exoskeleton supporting her as she let her weight drop, sitting on air. For coming-of-age tattoos, they always took at least an hour.
“Ready?” she asked, while swiftly popping the ink holders open. The girl nodded eagerly. Caitlyn shot the girl a smile. So many years of tattooing but seeing the excitement in their eyes never gets tiring.
She reached for her tattoo machine that was attached to her side. Hopefully her back wouldn’t ache too much by the time she was done. She still had five other appointments before the day came to an end.
Share Your World – Yukie, Johan, Hazzry
Storyworld
There is extreme economic inequality in the nation, small industries are dying out at an extremely fast pace due to the nation’s push for the technology, machine learning, artificial intelligence, etc. Art is increasingly being overlooked and shunned, and practitioners such as clay jewellers are doing their best to survive such that they have to work 24/7, even when they are on-the-go.
Chilli has also become a staple in modern day Singapore and is found in every food item in Singapore. Being fully aware of this fact and the potential that it can bring, clay jewellers has decided harness the power of chilli even after its consumption – to use it as an indirect heat source.
What they did was to create a workstation that they could carry on their backs, deployable when they carry it on their front, allowing them to work on-the-go and even baking their clay jewellery through harnessing the heat source coming from their tummies – a result of their chilli-centric diet.
Cover art
Microfiction #1 – Yukie Miyazaki
Staring intently at the piece of clay in my hands, I feel contentment rise up within me.
The coloured specks sit on the clay perfectly and look amazing.
I blink a few times, trying to ease my eyes from the strain of being too focused. I look up and the bright lights hit me a bit too suddenly. My eyes begin to water as they tried to adjust, and slowly, I’m aware of the chatter and the life of the environment around me.
Ah, life. Something I haven’t had the chance to enjoy in such a long time.
Opposite me stands an older lady, busy knitting away. The yarn is dangling off her arm and almost touches the floor. She sighs, her eyes fixated still.
*Ding dong* “Next stop, One North.”
One more stop to go. My tummy begins to grumble. It took me awhile to get used to all that spicy food, but it’s worth it. I’m finally adjusting, and I quite enjoy it actually. The tummy aches occur less frequently now. I may even be able to try outdoing myself this time.
I start packing up to get ready to alight. I look around once more and catch a glimpse of the lucky few, those that can afford to simply do nothing. They don’t realise how good they have it. But who do I have to blame? No one but myself. I should count my blessings while I still can.
Microfiction #2 – Johan Ng
“Hey mom, can we please have something else for dinner?”
“Honey, you know that this is all we have, now be a good boy and eat your dinner.”
“But it is too spicy and my stomach hurts….”
“That’s the point, you will have to get used to it eventually. Now, come over here, ill get that fixed up for you.”
Mom places a thin patch onto Thomas’s stomach. The colour of the patch turns rapidly from brown to bright red. Thomas heave a sigh of relief and mom gave a huge smile.
“Seems like today the output is good as usual.” Mom removes the patch and attaches it to the worn-out television.
Bzzt* Bzzt* ….. Bzzt* Bzzt* …. Static noises comes out from the television and colour slowly returns to the screen. The broadcast seems to be the ever so famous cooking show called C Padi’s kitchen, featuring all sorts of cuisine that could be made with the wonder spice of chili.
Microfiction #3 – Muhammad Hazzry
Life is good. Business is booming, money is flowing, food is always on the table, family is healthy and living without any stress. In fact, life is grea- *BAM*, someone walks into me at full speed. DARN IT, just when I was about to feel good about life in general, something had to dampen my spirits.
“Oh? Jewellery made of clay? Wow I can’t remember the last time I saw these, or any form of art, for that matter”, I thought to myself as I observed the lady hastily picking up her work; some of which did not survive the fall. I decided to set my anger aside and help her instead.
“Thank you, you’re very kind.”
“Hey don’t mention it, just watch where you’re going next time yeah? It’s a good thing neither of us got hurt.”.
“O-oh… okay, sorry. I should go. Thanks again.”, as she rushes off, continuing on her craft, or at least what’s left of it. After what just happened, you would think she would just focus on the commute no? No, she STILL decides to work on-the-go, as she fades into the distant crowd. Unbelievable.
Anyway, where was I? Oh yes, life. Life is great. I continue to stroll towards my workplace, just a two minutes’ walk away from the MRT station. Thank god for the fully air-conditioned pathway as well; I don’t know how I could survive in the modern heat, especially after that hotter-than-usual pancakes this morning. But it’s fine, that is how life is now, and it’s great.
Share your world – Charmaine Goh & Stephanie
Cover Art
Storyworld
Fast forward to
With so little time and so much wealth, humans started being obsessed with elevating their standard of living as much as they can during the precious 4 hours that they have each day. With less time being allocated to
Just like robots, humans need some maintenance too.
Microfiction #1 – Stephanie
The skyscrapers were stacked one after another, and the roads that we know today has ceased to exist. Humans zipped around in glass elevators from one place to another in a fraction of a second – there was no moment to lose.
With such little time left in a day each day, humans gradually stopped spending time on ‘frivolous’ and unimportant things like maintaining social relationships. Rather, they sought after more superficial things that they deemed would elevate their status in the eyes of society and those around them.
They had beauty and health appointments scheduled everyday. Visits to the clinics, spas and beauty treatments as we knew it have ceased to exist. With the rapid increase in demand for skyscrapers for work and housing, these spaces were gradually phased out. Instead, they had daily visits from the various beauticians so as to ensure that they are constantly in the best form possible.
As Sasha opened her front door, a ‘ding’ went off from the elevator. “Mmm.. right on time” she murmured under her breath.
The TCM practitioner, Stacy, was decked out in white and her look was complete with a lab coat.
“Hi Miss Sasha, please place your thumb here so that we can scan your heart rate, blood pressure and stress levels.”
“Have you had any discomforts since the last I saw you 48 hours ago,” Stacy continued.
Sasha sighed and lamented: “Well.. Yes. My lower back has been hurting, can you do something about that please?”
“Yes, of course! We’ll look to that right away!”
Stacy’s mobile phone beeped as the health report came back.
The aroma diffuser went off and soft slow music started to play from the speakers. Sasha sighed and lay down on her chest – it was time for rejuvenation and healing.
Microfiction #2 – Charmaine Goh
She could only arrange for a maximum of two clients a day with each appointment lasting an hour long. Catching only 2 hours of sleep on days when her appointments were fully booked. Any delay in the first appointment or mistakes made would cost Stacy her customer in this highly competitive part-time service industry.
She can’t risk that. Not with all the debts her father left her.
In the day, Stacy works as a app developer in the information and technology industry but the pay is insufficient to sustain her living so she had little choice but to work as a part-time Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) practitioner from the 20th to the 22nd hour of the day. As a result, on days without clients, Stacy spent her time developing the most efficient medical tool box that is capable of providing her customer with an unique, quality, and therapeutic TCM experience to secure them.
Time was ticking.
“BP – 110, HR – 80, Estimated Stress Level – High, Recommended Aromatherapy – No.032”
The screen on her mobile lighted up, reflecting the patients’ details as the patient placed her finger on a small black box with red light emitting out of it. Background music started playing on auto and the aroma diffuser went off.
Stacy then detached a inflatable mattress from the bag and threw it into the air lightly. The mattress unfolded into a fully pumped cushion for the patient to lie on.
“We will be proceeding with our second electrolysis acupuncture session for your backache. Please feel free to take a rest during the process,” Stacy commented.
After administering the needles, Stacy pulls out the electrolysis machine powered by the portable energy stored in her bag. She then proceeds on to connect the wires to the needles.
Stacy’s eyes gradually became heavier as the aroma of No.032 slowly diffused throughout the house. Developed by Stacy, the diffuser scent is customised to each and every patient’s’ condition, which can help patients to de-stress while regulating their heart rate to the most optimal level for treatment.
Right when the alarm signifying the end of treatment rings off, Stacy’s eyes sprung open. Relieved that her patient did not find out that she dozed off, Stacy quickly started packing up whilst letting her patient know, “The prescription will be delivered to you as per usual, do follow the same instructions and within two weeks and your backache should fully recover fully!”
“Thanks Dr. Stacy. It was the best and most efficient TCM experience I’ve ever had! Will definitely refer you to my friends and family members,” replied the patient.
Stacy smiled and walks off with a heavy feet to her next appointment…