M.

Joined January 2024

48 stories

Bio

Half-time writer, all time joker. M. Maponi specializes in speculative fiction, and speculates on the best way to get his shit together.

Author of "Reality and Contagion" and "Consultancy Blues"

Stories (48)

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Violet Skies and White Fields
Violet skies and white fields. We cross a parking lot covered by a thick blanket of snow. Everything seems otherworldly – the concrete jungle of the city’s outskirts hidden beneath a white coating. Concrete jungle is a term I use with a poetic license, here. This is not NY. Not even remotely that important. It is a town, too mediocre to be called shitty.
By M.2 years ago in Confessions
The fates run a bar
The three fates run a bar in Bologna's central station, on the underground floor in between the 16th and the 17th track. Clotho, with round, South American face, a band-aid over her right eyebrow, Lachesis blonde and motherly, Atropos skinny as a thread, looking like an escapee high school girl that regularly skips lunch and P.E. class.
By M.2 years ago in Fiction
The stage IV muse
She is much better now. Still wearing my old clothes, but it almost looks intentional now, and dare we say - vintage? There's color on her cheeks and a little meat on her bones and she no longer looks like someone left out in the cold during long winter nights.
By M.2 years ago in Fiction
Quake
It oughtta be a easy, easy plan. The Weasel had called it "victimless thing". Except that the girl they 'napped was crying, always crying, bound to a bed in a decrepit house in Rio, near Rieti, Italy. Pino was starting to get gut-wrenched every time he looked at her.
By M.2 years ago in Fiction
When the wind comes
When the wind comes And gently whispers The walls of your house They listen. As the rain pit-patters
By M.2 years ago in Poets
To kill Samsa. Top Story - February 2024.
Shut in a company’s bathroom, I stare at myself in the mirror. “You’re solid rock,” the reflection says, “but you’re having one of those. This is what a panic attack feels like.”
By M.2 years ago in Fiction
Fallow Ground
Frets the farmer on the plow, unmoved, the field foregoes. Vane, through harvests that don't last, grounded, are those who came to pass.
By M.2 years ago in Poets
Essentially, a tool
“You cannot hope to be successful as a writer without one of these, nowadays.” I stared at the little device with a disproportionate amount of diffidence. It didn’t look like much – a black box with rounded edges, a black screen, a few lines to mark where the buttons were. Just the latest slim-looking gadget funded by some tech billionaire. It reminded me of the early iPods, which was only indicative of how out-of-touch with modern trends I was getting.
By M.2 years ago in Fiction
A Struggle
Who the fuck would play mahjong in a park? I have spent the whole morning cleaning up my single room apartment to make it decent. Clothes are tidy, the bed has fresh sheets, the floor is scrubbed, I set up the square table and all. My boyfriend lingers around like a restless ghost asking how he can help. The couple we planned to play with postponed it to one hour later, because they overslept. Ok. It’s two in the afternoon. Then the message comes in.
By M.2 years ago in Humor
Failing forward as a writer
When I started working as a system-engineer, I quite didn’t get that failure is a part of the process. I lived each mistake as a personal flaw, to the very obvious consequences. Mini screw-ups would annoy me and chip my self-esteem, while the occasional, once every two-years major screw-up led to anxiety spikes.
By M.2 years ago in Writers
THE HUMAN BOX. Content Warning.
I had the human box delivered to my house and it came in a discreet black package. Well, 'discreet' as a manner of speaking. It was a rather big box, a perfect cube one meter wide, and heavy too. There was no indication on which side was supposed to be up and - much to my dissatisfaction - it wasn't marked as fragile.
By M.2 years ago in Fiction
This piece was AI-generated
This piece was AI-generated. This piece was AI-generated. I mean this piece was co-written by an Artificial Intelligence and edited by a real human writer.
By M.2 years ago in Fiction

M.

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Stories .css-1svwz57-Text{display:inline-block;color:var(--text-default-mute);}(48)

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Violet Skies and White Fields

The fates run a bar

The stage IV muse

Quake

When the wind comes

To kill Samsa. Top Story - February 2024.

Fallow Ground

Essentially, a tool

A Struggle

Failing forward as a writer

THE HUMAN BOX. Content Warning.

This piece was AI-generated

Stories (48)