This is a 8-tweet relay story that @FloorKist_SciFi and I wrote.
Enjoy!

Assassin Droid

“Softy, softy, catchy monkey,” the police commissioner Balfort said to the security minister. They had received intelligence that an assassin droid was targeting the emperor. Balfort was optimistic about a source that would give him more information on the attempt.

Minister Durges wasn’t so sure. Everyone’s career was on the line if the killer succeeded. Need-to-know compartmentalization excluded him from the actual raw intelligence data. And that made him nervous. He wished he could be as reassured as the jovial police commissioner.

Two days later, Balfort received more intel: the would-be assassin was someone inside the security services. This didn’t shock him, really. Bribes by organized crime weren’t very common but did happen. What the commissioner hoped for is to have information on a possible date.

Minister Durges grew pale: someone inside the services?! He hated being out of the loop like this. He phoned a old friend of his, a public prosecutor, so she could look into the matter. It was more than reasonable for her office to take an interest. She accepted the task.

Prosecutor Raines asked Balfort to inform her. He was reluctant. She then asked if he had a critical review of the available intelligence. Balfort realized Raines had a point. If things went wrong, they would share the blame. In the best case, Raines would uncover new leads.

She did! Raines managed to piece together when and where the attempt could take place. It would not be a public occasion, but a more private setting of a meeting in the palace.
They both realized that they needed to inform the emperor of this latest and very real threat.

“Minister Durges, Commissioner Balfort and Public Prosecutor Raines, your Majesty,” the majordomo announced.
The emperor liked the handsome Balfort, but thought Durges an alarmist and dull. He hadn’t met Raines and was pleasantly surprised by a good-looking competent woman.

“Everything went according to plan, Master,” the assassin gynoid reported. “As expected Durges reached out to Raines. It was easy to impersonate her, suggest a male assassin and arrange for the meeting. The handshake with the emperor was all I needed to transfer the poison.

OMG! I had so much fun writing a tweet relay Twitter story with Floor Kist!

A what-now?
We may be the first authors of a tweet relay Twitter story. I started the story with a tweet. Then Floor wrote the next, then me again. And in four days this is what the story became! I loved it!

Can Music Make AI Cry?

Can Music Make AI Cry?

Professor Ravenport smoothed her skirt before entering. It would be the first time a Earth human visited the Alder Matrix Superior, the leader of this hybrid AI-humanoid race. Why they had selected her, Miranda didn’t know. She knew nothing of diplomacy or AI.

For the meeting to go smoothly, Miranda had been prepped to call the Matrix Superior, “MatS”. What the Alder wanted with her college’s director of Chamber Music was unclear. Her government contact told her that no matter whom else they suggested, the Alder were unmovable.

“Why do humans cry when they hear music? Or dance or laugh?” the Matrix Superior asked without introduction. “Why should the combination of rhythm and sound to form a functional melodic line touch human senses?” MatS looked at Miranda expectantly and with a hint of a smile.

It wasn’t her position that interested the Alder, but her knowledge of ethnomusicology. She had some published work about what kind of people were moved to tears and what those tears meant. They must know them. So, Miranda concluded that MatS wanted to feel that as well.

“Do Alder cry, MatS?” Miranda asked just as directly as the Alder did.
“We’ve rationalized so much in our world, that we hardly ever do. After deliberation, we concluded that our mental health should improve by 42.8% if there were more emotional release; 47.23% with music.”

“Do you need happy tears or sad tears?”
This question seemed to surprise MatS a fraction of a moment. “Ah, the beauty of humanity and the richness of choice. Could we but order our emotions…”
Miranda nodded. “Maybe not, but we can set a mood and let it overwhelm us.”

The Matrix Superior considered this. “We don’t let our senses overwhelm us, professor Ravenport. It is not our way. Can you tell us what happens when we do?” MatS asked nervously.
“You cry, you laugh, you love. You know, you do silly things…” Miranda answered with a smirk.

“And this is what music will do for us?”
“My studies show that people who rank high on neuroticism scale experience sadness. People who score high in openness to experience scale cry because music provokes a sense of awe.”
MatS knew she had to choose before it was too late.

The End