THE FUZZIVERSE / STORY ARCHIVE
Small stories.
Big little worlds.
A suspicious button. An unnecessarily complicated biscuit. Pick a tiny adventure to read here, or download a free PDF to keep.
The Button That Said DO NOT PUSH
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The button was pink, perfectly round, and wearing a label that said DO NOT PUSH.
Little Professor adjusted her enormous glasses. Ancient Fat Wizard Cat lowered himself onto the nearest cushion. He seemed to know this might take a while.
“That’s a very interesting instruction,” LP said. “It tells you what not to do. But it doesn’t tell you why.”
The cat blinked slowly.
LP took a notebook from her teal backpack. She wrote: QUESTION ONE: WHY? Then: QUESTION TWO: WHO MADE THE LABEL? Then: QUESTION THREE: IS THIS A TRICK?
The cat sighed.
She inspected the button from the left. She inspected it from the right. She crouched to see whether there was anything underneath it. There was a crumb.
“That raises another question,” she said.
Eventually, LP noticed something the enormous label had almost covered: a tiny second label. She leaned close enough for her glasses to nearly touch the glass dome over the button.
The little label read: PLEASE RING BELL FOR ASSISTANCE.
Beside the button was a very small bell.
LP rang it.
From somewhere behind a wall came a mechanical click. A little drawer slid open. Inside was a cleaning cloth and a note: THANK YOU. PLEASE DUST THE BUTTON.
For a moment, nobody moved.
Then LP laughed so hard her glasses slipped down her nose. All that mystery. All those questions. And the button needed dusting.
She cleaned the glass dome carefully. Beneath it, the pink button shone like a tiny planet.
Ancient Fat Wizard Cat performed a small, dignified butt wiggle. A flicker of magic lifted the crumb and deposited it neatly in the drawer.
LP added one last line to her notebook: LOOK A LITTLE CLOSER.
The cat closed his eyes.
He had been supervising the whole time. It was exhausting work.
THE END. KEEP WONDERING.
One Very Small Improvement
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The Mad Professor had invented a machine to deliver one biscuit.
It had three levers, seven lights, a purple funnel, and a very important-looking dial. The biscuit sat on a little platform in the middle.
“A small improvement to teatime!” he announced, pushing his goggles up into his electric-blue curls.
Little Professor looked from the machine to the empty plate beside it. Ancient Fat Wizard Cat looked at the biscuit.
The Professor pulled the first lever. The lights blinked. The funnel hummed. A little flag popped out and said PREPARING BISCUIT.
“Lovely,” he said.
He pulled the second lever. The machine rotated the biscuit halfway around, paused, and rotated it back.
“Checking the orientation,” he explained.
LP nodded thoughtfully. The cat’s eyelids lowered.
The third lever produced a puff of perfectly harmless pink confetti. A second flag appeared: BISCUIT CONFIRMED.
“But it’s still over there,” LP said.
The Professor considered this. He turned the dial. A tiny mechanical arm emerged, waved politely at the biscuit, and retreated.
The laboratory became very quiet.
Ancient Fat Wizard Cat stood up. He performed one small butt wiggle. A spark shimmered beneath the biscuit, which floated gently off the platform and landed on the plate.
The machine’s seven lights flashed together. A third flag popped out: YOU’RE WELCOME.
The cat stared at it.
LP pressed her lips together. The Professor adjusted his goggles. Somewhere inside the machine, a gear made a pleased little click.
“I think,” LP said carefully, “the machine might be taking the credit.”
The cat gave a long, ancient sigh.
The Professor switched the machine off, picked up the plate, and set it on the tea table. LP brought the cups. The cat settled back into his chair.
They shared the biscuit. Nobody needed a lever.
On a fresh page in his notebook, the Professor wrote: NEXT IMPROVEMENT: BIGGER BISCUIT.
Ancient Fat Wizard Cat opened one eye. At last, a sensible experiment.
THE END. KEEP WONDERING.
Leave a little room for wonder.
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