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[WP] You are a muggle who has accidentally been admitted into Hogwarts. You think it is a normal boarding school.
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"When they finally scream “pranked!” I’m going to have the last laugh. It’s amazing the length that these shows will go to nowadays just to fool somebody. Really? A fake wall that leads to a secret rail road platform? A train with magical chocolate frogs? From the beginning I knew that this was going to be some high level horseplay. Please don’t get me wrong. I’m seriously impressed by the whole set-up. I’m appreciative in fact that I’m the center of all this attention. It’s been going on a little longer than I thought it would. And I’ve yet been able to spot a camera — they are getting smaller and smaller nowadays though. A friend of mine once put a pin hole camera in a can of soda. Tiny! I can’t think of another prank show that lasted longer than one to two hours most. I’m not sure how many of the other kids here are actually involved. Its probably all of them. Must be costing them a fortune to keep it all running. Some of them are incredible actors. Never breaking character no matter what I do. Yesterday I walked into a “Defense Against the Dark Arts” class and it took everything I had to stifle my laughter. That anyone thinks I’m being fooled by any of this is incredible. When they do jump out and yell surprise I’m going straight to the guys who created these special effects and I’m going to give them a handshake. They projected kids flying around on broomsticks chasing a tiny golden ball into the sky for crying out loud! How do you even do that, *and* make it look real? The pictures on the wall are a bit much. Clearly I can see they are just LCD screens. I’m baffled by the moving pictures in the books though. That could also be a complex laser projection system. \n\nMy daydreaming was interrupted by my good friend Sebastian Crick. \n\n“Rob you coming to class or what?” \n\n“Huh? Oh hey Sebby, yeah yeah.” \n\nHe was definitely one of the actors in this massive charade. During my first week he’d came to my rescue when another one of the kids called me a “muggle.” Out of nowhere he slipped a wand — yes, a freakin’ wand — into my hand and then cast a spell to prove to these other kids I was legit. At the time I thought it was a twig. Two seconds later I heard him mutter “**elevosum upium**” and the two would be bullies went 10 feet into the air, floating as though they had disembarked a shuttle in space. Apparently they believed I had performed this magic trick and any suspicions related to my lack of magic prowess were forgotten. Since then Sebby had been helping me along. He claimed that he had trouble with his magical powers when he’d first arrived and had been trying to teach me spells ever since. Of course to no avail. \n\nSo now here I am. On my way back to another Potions class to play along with this ridiculous spectacle. I really hope I’m going to get a prize for going along with all of this. Must be wonderful TV for all the people watching at home. Enjoy!",
"I found it strange that they delivered my acceptance letter to this Hogwarts school by owl, but boy was I in for something out of this world.\n\nMy story begins with sayings bye to my parents and running from the car to catch my train. Since they have boarding at this school I had to pack a lot of clothing and was rolling it behind me. The terminal to wait at had a bunch of cosplayers lined up in front of a wall and they looked a bit skittish. They look to be about my age so maybe they are all part of some club at this school too?\n\nI walked over and greeted them since it seemed like the train was late.\n\n\"Hey, nice robe and hat!\"\n\nThe girl and her family sheepishly smiled and greeted me back. The girl looked down and must of noticed my letter I had sticking out of my bag. She pointed at it, \"Oh! Are you attending Hogwarts too?\"\n\nI nodded, \"Train seems to be late though.\"\n\nShe smiled, \"The pick up for the Hogwarts train is right past that pillar.\" and she pointed behind me to the wall. \"Here, watch this.\" She started running towards the wall and didn't appear to be stopping.\n\n\"WAIT! You're going to hit the wa-\" Poof. She disappeared. How?\n\nI walked around the pillar and examined it from all sides. The parents had already started to walk off and I was just standing there dumbstruck.\n\nAs I was standing there scratching my head, a hand popped out. \"Hey...OH WAI-\" I was violently pulled through the wall, expecting pain I closed my eyes tight but when I felt nothing slam against my head and body I opened them.\n\nThere were dozens of kids boarding a train that wasn't there before...\n\nThat is how I began my first day at Hogwarts\n\n---\n\nCut short due to work, sorry!",
"Little Johnny nervously climbed into the little boat with three other children dressed in robes and pointed hats. The boats then pushed off from the shore of the murky bank as if by magic, and silently glided into the darkness.\n\nAround a bend in the shoreline, a crumbling ruin loomed out of the darkness. The other children gasped in wonder, yet Johnny didn't know what was so captivating. There was nothing remarkable about what he was seeing.\n\nJust then, an overwhelming feeling came over him. Johnny forgot something. He wasn't sure what, or where, but without thinking, he stood up and leapt into the water, and started swimming back the way they came.\n\nTired and gasping for breath, Johnny climbed the bank and took in his surroundings. He had no idea where he was, or what he was doing there.\n\nJohnny jumped at the sound of a twig breaking to his left. A tall, looming figure, emerged from the shadows. In the dim ambient light, he caught a glint of light reflecting off of glass, and could just barely make out a tartan scarf.\n\n\"Mr. Dursley, what *are* you doing out here?\"",
"Talk about weird first year experiences! A train in a hidden section of King’s Cross, boating across a lake to the school, the non-first years being pulled by horses that look like they came from the apocalypse (my dad would have loved those, if he was still with us) and the fact that some kids said, “the horseless carriages are so cool!”, bunch of nut jobs I’ve been stuck with.\n \nApparently, there are 4 houses in this madhouse. I’ve been sorted into Ravenclaw, the weird brain hat said I’m a magicless but smart muggle, told me to take care as I may not be welcomed by everyone. I don’t know what this ‘muggle’ word means but it didn’t sound nice.\n\nI checked my class schedule and my first classes were Potions, Herbology and Defense Against the Dark arts, what is going on here? These classes don’t seem to fit into regular school curriculum, I’m getting a bad feeling about this and starting to think I’m might not be properly qualified.\n\nPotions class goes incredibly well, while other student’s cauldrons blew up in their face, the professor applauded my work and confidently demonstrated its use to the class. Herbology was quite interesting and paired well with potions. It was easy to see how these two helped each other in some ways. \n\nWalking into the Defense Against the Dark Arts class I immediately knew I was out of my element, maybe out of my world. As students were told to draw their wands, I realized that I didn’t have one. As our class learned wand spells to fend off dangerous beasts, I had to improvise and use my knowledge of herbs, potions and those monsters to protect myself. Soon, the Slytherin students started realizing my lack of magic, the muggle word started coming out and their presence became more and more annoying. My Ravenclaw friends seemed intrigued by my ingenuity and ability to act without magic. The Gryfindor and Hufflepuff students just sat back and watched as if it was some kind of show.\nAs the year went by, I quickly realized that I did not belong here, but I was determined to fit in and to succeed. While other students had Charms and other wand classes I seemed to have free blocks, this time I used to study more advanced herbs, potions and other options I could use in this magical world without using a wand. At the end of the year, I was taken aside by Professor McGonagall, I was scared, I hadn’t received my marks yet and I wasn’t sure I was going to be allowed back next year.\n\n“How did you like your first year at Hogwarts?”, McGonagall queried with a smile.\n\n“I feel like I didn’t belong, in fact I know I didn’t. Why was I accepted here?” My mind was racing, I never once had a teacher pull me aside, and I didn’t make many friends throughout the year save for a few in my house.\n\n“You were the first in our attempt to start blending muggles into magical culture. There is a storm brewing, one we haven’t seen since the Dark Lord was vanquished many years ago. There is a growing need for smart and adaptable muggles like yourself in our world. You might not be able to use a wand, but your ability to use other magical substances to formulate a plan to attack and protect have taught us all something incredibly valuable. It’s no surprise you were top of your Defense against the dark arts class.” \n\n“So, I was your guinea pig? What if I had failed? What would have happened then?”\n\n“We chose you, because you we knew that you would likely not fail. You have a similar drive as the one that destroyed the Dark Lord, it was a gamble but the risk was calculated and it paid off. Will you return next year? The choice is yours.”\n\nI accepted the offer, after all, there would be more muggles coming to Hogwarts needing my help. If we are to work with the magical community, maybe I can be that bridge.\n\n--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------\nI feel like this is pretty weak, but I gave it a shot. Let me know what you think. I'm always open to ideas.\n",
"Transfers... I hated getting transferred. It seemed like every year my father was into some new miracle solution to get rich quick, dragging us along half the English countryside only to disapear as quickly as he'd come.\n\nHe'd arrived before the sky was finished turning blue this morn', claiming he'd finally done it, that he was on the path to easy riches. Had I been more awake, I might have rolled my eyes. We'd started preparing luggage in advance for situations like these, as my mother was far too light hearted to ever turn them down. Deep down I think she knew better, but was too much the optimist to say so. \n\nWe'd arrived at the train station just as the early-birds had finally quieted their songs. We'd actually managed to get here before the trains for once, and so I stood against a column and rested my eyes for a bit. I could here my parents squabbling away at nothings, as it dissolved into my familiar dreamings. It ended too quickly, imagining I was falling backwards over a cliff with no handhold in sight to grasp as I fell. \n\nHitting the ground for once came as quite a shock, as my eyes saw stars and concerned faces before fading into darkness. I could hear one muttering, \"Bloody first-years never understand the entrance...\"\n\nI awoke in a cabin on the train, already rumbling away to it's destination. A few of the others around me were also napping, though a pleasant looking raven-haired girl turned to me as I woke. \"Quite a knock on the noggin you had there. Here, drink some of this, maybe it'll help.\" She said after pouring me a steaming cup of tea. \n\nI smiled back at her, and she practically blushed as she turned away! Perhaps this year's boarding school wouldn't be so bad after all. I took a sip and the golden brew seemed to soothe my head and energize me at the same time. \n\n\"Man this is some good stuff!\" I exclaimed. \"What's in it?\"\n\n\"Ah, I believe it's a bit of mandrake extract. Does wonders, doesn't it?\" She replied. I nodded back, but didn't I recall mandrake flowers being poisonous? Ah, well, too late now I suppose, as I took another sip. \n\n\"They brought in your luggage, but couldn't seem to find any pets, so hopefully they didn't miss any.\" She explained as I sat there contented with my tea. \n\n\"I didn't think they even allowed pets at school! Did you bring one?\" I asked. She reached down into her handbag and gently scooped up a little indeterminate ball of fluff and placed it gingerly on my lap. It uncurled into a kitten, purring gently as I stroked it. \n\n\"It's a twin-tailed shorthair,\" she explained as its gray fuzzy body rose and fell with each breath. It did indeed have two tails that twitched as though they each had a mind independent of their owners. Perhaps it was discounted at the pound, for being defective? Ah, well it's still cute enough.\n\nI handed back the kit and introduced myself, \"Names Jack by the way.\"\n\n\"Lovely to make your acquaintance Jack, my name is Olivia.\" She said, shining her pearly whites as she did so. The effect was nearly blinding, and it was my time to blush in response. Perhaps this year wouldn't be so bad after all.\n\nWe'd arrived before midday, and the castle overlooking the moors was spectacular. Perhaps my father really had stumbled into a bit of money if he was capable of sending me to a school with enough money to keep up archaic structures like this. \n\nWe'd had a bit of time to unload and relax before heading to an entrance banquet. The food was certainly better than my ma's cooking, bless her heart for trying, and I dug in as the proceedings went on. \n\nThere were some owls flying about now and again, but they must not have been feral as no one else but I was concerned for them pooping in the food or stealing it altogether. Didn't see anyone with falconer's gloves either but perhaps they roost where they please. \n\nThen the old bearded headmaster called everyone to hush up. It was some sort of introduction for the first-years. Some sort of rustic hat was placed on their head and then the headmaster would yell out some gibberish from behind them. I got from asking around they must be antiquated names for the dorms, and in a sort of pseudo-hazing introduction at least everyone knew where they were headed. \n\nI saw Olivia go up and sure as her hair is dark as night she was named a, \"ravenclaw.\" Though the name seems silly to me, since I thought birds had talons, not claws. After everyone was called I still sat there waiting for my turn. I ran up to the headmaster and tugged on his ornate robes.\n\n\"Sir, I think you'd forgotten to call me. Perhaps because I transferred here no later than this morning, they forgot to put me on the list.\" I explained. \n\nHe looked at me with wisened eyes and a knowing smile. \"Ah yes, how could we forget young Jack here?\" He said almost laughing. Strange that he knew my name, but it at least assured me that my fears were unfounded. \n\nI sat on the stool and he placed the big hat on my head. I looked over to Olivia still beaming at me, and thought of how it would be nice to spend some more time with her. The headmaster luckily called out \"Ravenclaw\" for me as well, and I scurried back to the feast, elated.\n\nThe first couple of days were very strange here. This chemistry class in particular was very difficult. It used so many organic elements that it almost seemed unfair to subject freshman to it. I'd also noticed people had been attending some woodworking class off the grounds at some point and it must be quite popular as they were all clutching queer little sticks, rounded and polished to a smooth finish.\n\nI didn't want to feel left out of the latest craze, so I got my pocket knife out of my luggage and spent a night or two whittling away my own stick. It wasn't perfect, and I was a cut or two worse for making it, but it's natural knots seemed to be part of its charm. \n\nThe whole place was so labyrinthine that I often had to ask seniors to guide me back to my dorm at night. No matter how many times I took the stairs they didn't make a lick of sense to me. It always felt like the numerous portraits were switched out for similar ones as well, but I was too busy with my studies to pay close attention to them. \n\nIt was odd how few of my peers wanted to go out on the pitch and play football. They must have been tasked with punishment or chores as they all held brooms, surely off to clean up some mess they'd made. \n\nI had the good fortune of receiving a baby mouse from one of the senior's pregnant ones, though I hadn't the slightest idea how I'd ever bring it home to mother. She was dreadfully terrified of mice. It kept me busy in my off hours playing and caring for it, and I even got to bring it in my pocket to class as they seemed to really like show and tell here. \n\nI began to have adolescent stirrings the more I saw of Olivia, but she remained playfully coy to any advances I'd make. I'd spot her across the hall and jog over to her as she seemingly vanished each time, only to reappear giggling from behind me and tap me on the shoulder. I'll never understand ladies, or how they did it. \n\nMy studies also seemed to get beyond me pretty quickly. There was so much to study, and across a range of such archaic topics such as Latin that it was all I could do to memorize the answers without remembering what they even meant. Pronunciation and intonation seemed so important in Latin, no wonder it was a dead language. \n\nI also learned to steer clear of the seniors unless absolutely necessary. Not that there was much bullying, but they made so much trouble it seemed every week featured a new story of their fire setting, animal freeing debacles. It suddenly seemed much more prudent that the castle be made of stone when they are so many would-be arsonists about. \n\nThere is also a dreadful amount of noises in this place. From people running and shouting like their life is in jeopardy in the halls to all sorts of creaks, moans, and hissing in the older sections. It's a wonder that students get anything done around here. \n\nOlivia had come time and again to the forefront of my mind. I had her alone in the dorm commons one wintry night, as most had gone out to celebrate in holiday debauchery. The fireplace had cast a lovely din about the room as it snapped and crackled. \n\nYet she remained as puzzling as ever. I made a quick joke about some mythical creature we'd been studying to lighten the mood, and before she could cease her giggling I leaned in for a kiss on the cheek. She happened to turn towards me at the final moment and our lips connected squarely. \n\nThey lingered there for a moment as her face turned a bright red when it was traditionally so fair. She whispered something I couldn't quite hear and I came away from the kiss feeling positively petrified. She buried her head in her sweater-covered sleeves and looked like she might dash off at any moment, but before she did lean back in and place a gift in my lap, and a peck on my cheek. \n\nThis is turning out to be a fine year indeed. \n\n(Edit, fixed minor British terminologies)\n\n\n\n\n"
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[WP] You decide to use a Ouija board and no one comes through. Unknownst to you, a demon actually came through and plans to make your life into a romantic comedy for its entertainment.
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"Hell.\n\nDraw to your mind, if you will, the raging Inferno of the Night. Picture the amber skies burnt to ashen greys by the cries of a thousand, million tortured souls. The black, swollen seas alive with dancing blades and the songs of dead poets long resigned to their fates. The twisted vinegar of the air that burns the lungs and wrenches at the most steadfast of the Pit's population.\n\nThe gnashing, gnawing, burning, gurgling seething of the Realm most Foul.\n\nNot much to look at, is it?\n\nAnd there's no fire, either. Of course, there's fire in the literal sense. But real fire? Passion? Demons are about as passionate as a band of nuns in a library. As charismatic as donkeys on a merry-go-round.\n\nI, on the other hand, have a little something of class. Yes, yes, I know, I too was dreamt up under the dark wing of the Damned Lord himself, what would I know of class? Well, I'll have you know that we're as unique and precious down here as you lot think you are up there. And me? Well, I'm especially unique and precious, with a pinch of modest charm to boot.\n\nSo, whenever the call comes that some no-good godless young things have been knocking on the front door, I'm always first in line for a breath of the good stuff. After all, Laurel and Hardy might be beyond my reach through the Pearly Gates, but nothing beats a good box set.\n\nBack in the day, there was less fooling around. Whenever a ritual was carried out, it was done only with the utmost care and respect. It was always 'Oh Goode Daemone' this, followed no doubt promptly by 'Begone Foul Spawne of Hiss Moste Grievous Adversary'. Not much time to enjoy the simple pleasures, and a lot pointless orders being thrown around. \n\nNowadays every given evening there's some idiot somewhere willing to prove his mettle by going up against the Legions of the Damned. Somewhere along the line you lost the precautious nature that guided you through the night, and got sloppy, lazy. In a way, it's becoming a lot more like Hell where you are than I think you'd like to think.\n\nBut I digress. That night wasn't about the grand scheme of things. That night was about a guy named Greg. \n\nPicture the best looking man you know. Now picture the ugliest. Now adjust the slider to exactly the mid-point, and unless you live in the Cosmopolitan magazine, you've got a pretty good idea of what we're dealing with here. Greg, the man who's only achievement was having somehow managed to navigate his life in such a precise way as to have achieved absolutely nothing. \n\nBut Greg had fallen in love.\n\nShe was a barista in the local coffee shop. Every day, on his way to work, Greg would stop off just to see the lovely Lisa pour him his regular latte. Her hair no doubt in his mind a golden waterfall, her eyes pools of liquid beauty, and so on. She was the reason he'd been driven to buy that Ouija board from the internet, with the intention of asking his old, dearly departed mother for a hand in evening the playing field.\n\nI don't know if you're familiar with the rules of the game, but there are many ways to summon one of us. Ouija was never intended as a means for supernatural communication, and in truth it really isn't essential. Invocation is mostly willpower. The ritual is just a way to focus that. That's why it's traditional for more than one person to perform it, to get that willpower strong enough to have real effect.\n\nGreg Googled it, and in the end decided his dog would have to do.\n\nSo there he was, hands on the board holding the paws of Bumble who sat opposite him. Normally this just wouldn't do, but in truth I'd only just heard about the film Love Actually and was quite willing to manifest on the mortal plane with only a slight coaxing. Rom-com news doesn't travel fast among the demonic.\n\nSo he called for mother dearest, and just like that I was free once more. His mother didn't manifest, most likely due to the fact that she didn't hear his meagre summons over the songs of the Heavenly Host. Some demons go in for the whole 'pretending to be relatives' lark, but that's just not classy. \n\nWhen Greg went to bed that night, I influenced Bumble the dog to put on the film which we found in the neighbouring flat with only minor damages to property.\n\nThat was when it struck me. \n\nWhy watch these actors entertain me with their romantic shenanigans, when I had a perfectly willing subject sleeping in the next room?\n\nThat was the night I hatched my plan.\n\n"
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[WP] You are an Immortal. Over the course of your life, you have amassed a fortune. However, you're beginning to think your current wife is a Widowmaker...
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"First, it was the poisoned wine. When i asked Mary about it, she acted surprised, and quickly disappeared into the garden. I finished that bottle when she left, but that wasn't the point. the next day, I found a fire trap under my bed when it incinerated my precious silk sheets. After that, I started to wonder. I've met many women, and some of them were similar to Mary in their acts. but none had that conviction, that determination to kill me. I found myself thinking about that instead of work in my free time, and after a few days decided to allow Mary to stay, to see what will she do next.\n\nThe next weeks were some of the most entertaining days of my life. Mary's cleverness and creativity matched her determination. A wired shotgun in the basement, a death trap in the maze-garden, a boulder in the bedroom. and whenever they failed, Mary tried to feign innocence, and failed hilariously. After a few more tries, the traps became more and more obvious. A military-grade bomb in the attic, twenty hired mercenaries in the driveway, even a tiger at one point. Mary became better at pretending. She started to play mind games, sabotage my ventures in order to make me more vulnerable, attempted to turn my friends against me. The simple enjoyment I felt from those traps became a passion. Every day was a physical and mental challenge, and it felt just like my early years in the Mesopotamian kingdoms . I started fighting back, using my connections to mess with Mary and her operations. for a full year, the games continued. the motivation I received from them leaked into other parts of my life. my businesses bloomed, I reconnected with many of my oldest friends, and even my relationship with Mary improved, with our shared 'interest'.\n\nAfter a few weeks of a particularly long operation, I stepped into our basement, to prepare for a new group of mercenaries. In the middle of it, there was a simple trap, a pressure plate probably connected to some gun. A few months before, I would've avoided it, but now I didn't need to hide my immortality from Mary, so I stepped on it. Four ropes flew from the floor, moved by an invisible force, and chained my arms and legs. A vial of glowing liquid spilled on the floor, and a circle was lit around me, something I recognized.\n\"You immortals are so. goddamn. predictable.\" Mary said, and entered the basement. She held a black and gold talisman, engraved with stories that were painted during the Greek classical age, **my** talisman.\n\n\"How so? Because you're not that good with hiding your emotions, either.\" I said, and she laughed and drew a symbol on the floor behind me. I recoiled in horror as my arms started to slightly hurt from the chains after thousands of years of painless existence.\n\n\"Listen, Edward. I like you, I really do. But you have something I want.\" She said, and drew another sign. The pain increased.\n\"Of course I do. so, what is it this century? My money, fame or property? I know your type.\" I asked.\n\"None of this. I'm surprised you don't know by now.\" She said, and drew the third symbol. the pain increased even more, and I screamed in agony.\n\"Oh, shut up. This pain is completely normal for us mortals. Most people wouldn't even notice it.\" Mary said. I forced myself to focus, and stared at her with a stare I perfected over thousands of years.\n\"What do you want?\" I asked again. she took a syringe, wrapped it in my talisman, and stock it in my arm. when she started to pull it back, I finally understood.\n\n\"You never wanted money.\" I said.\n\"Correct. and you fell for it. completely. Again, you immortals are predictable. Especially when facing things you thought you already faced before. I hope I won't be as stupid.\" She said, and injected the syringe. Every imperfection on her face disappeared, and her black hair began to change colors to blonde, red, brown and then back to black.\n\"so that explains how you created your 'scars' in those early days.\" She noted, and reverted back to her original appearance. \"Well, while i'd love to continue this chat, there is a full universe outside for me to conquer.\" She said, threw the talisman on the floor, and exited the basement. A few seconds later, her mercenaries entered the basement, and unloaded four magazines on my back.\n\nUnfortunately for them, the spell disappeared when Mary dropped the talisman, and I was immortal once again. I concentrated, and the talisman flew into my hand. I closed my eyes, and the chains were torn open. The mercenaries screamed as I torn them to shreds in fury. But my anger could not reverse time. I left the basement, and after thinking for a few minutes ,I left my mansion. Outside I found about twenty hooded figures, each holding a different talisman.\n\n\"I hope this wasn't planned. you remember our agreement, correct?\" One of them, who was now called James, the oldest immortal besides me said.\n\"Of course I remember. Are you going to chide me, or help me find her before she does something stupid?\" I asked, and subtly reminded them I was still the oldest.\n\"You're right, sir. we'll start searching right away.\" James replied, and the rest ran off.\n\n\"Do you have a plan for her once we'll finish? she acquired the power illegally, but we cannot revert her back to what she was. we will have to either kill her, or convince her to join us.\" James said.\n\"I know, and I can't be sure. she reminds me of myself, back when I was young. She has the potential to be either our foil or the most powerful member in years. Now, join the others. I have matters to attend to. Afterwards, I will join you.\" I said, James nodded, raised his talisman, and disappeared in a flash of light. I entered the mansion, and took a remote from my bedroom. When I got back to the street surrounding it, I pressed the button in the middle, and the explosive charges inside every room detonated at once. The mansion crumbled, and I raised my talisman and disappeared before the sirens started."
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[WP] A smuggler of a strange item.
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"It was dark in the small town of Arbor; the Flame Keepers were out tending the torches that lined the narrow, windy streets. The flames guttered and flickered in the fitful breeze that wormed its way through the loose formation of houses, casting shadows that moved as though they had lives of their own. In truth, they did.\n\nGar held his breath as a Flame Keeper passed within feet of him, his burning torch threatening to reveal him with its fickle light. Even if it had, the Flame Keeper would not have seen him, his eyes were set upon a torch that was beginning to fade away, it's illuminating light withdrawing in upon itself as though the darkness was beginning to devour it. The Keepers breath misted in front of him as he made a \"hrmph\" sound and proceeded to stomp towards the torch, making more noise than an errant bull. \n\nSeeing his chance, Gar crept across the street, slipping into an alleyway between two buildings. Widening his stride, he passed from between the houses into a garden, its normal beauty made inconsequential by the darkness. This suited Gar well as the darkness was his friend, an enveloping cloak of anonymity that hid his flaws from all. His hands lightly brushing the leaves of the plants as he walked through the garden, he purposefully made his way towards his destination; a tiny, glimmering speck of red in the distance. \n\nA whistle screamed in the night behind him, its shrill voice finding its way into every corner of the town. Suddenly the streets were bathed with light as people awoke, opened their shutters and peered into the shadows looking for the perpetrator of whatever crime had been committed. Armored feet pounded down streets, loud voices raised in alarm as soldiers spread out through the houses to find the criminal.\n\nGar smiled, his yellowed teeth faintly reflecting the light of nearby torches, whilst his night black skin appeared to absorb it, as though he himself was the darkness. Slipping through the pitch black of back alleys and small, unkempt gardens, he moved closer and closer to his goal. Refusing to be harried by the shouts that echoed all around him, he stood in the shadow of a small, run down cottage and watched as a troop of clansmen jogged past, their beady eyes looking all about them. \n\nRoughly an hour of avoiding patrols and the watchful gazes of self-appointed citizen watchdogs, Gar left the light and noise of the town behind. He smiled to himself in satisfaction. He had killed one person, taken the item and escaped without having to kill anyone else. It wasn't that Gar didn't enjoy killing, in fact, he very much enjoyed it, but there was something equally as satisfying about evading his pursuers when the odds were stacked against him. It was a different kind of exhilaration, one that came from making others seem like blundering oafs, yes, he liked that. \n\nWithout a care in the world, Gar nonchalantly walked to his final destination knowing he almost completed his mission and the hardest part was behind him. Upon reaching the small, well-kept building high up in the hills, he stopped for a moment, turned his face to the breeze and took a moment to appreciate just how good he was. \n\n***\n\nPurta held his hands out to the fire, the sleeves of his voluminous robe threatening to catch alight for how close they were getting to the flaming wood. Once again he cursed to himself for his bad luck in being chosen for this job. He wasn't someone you sent out on jobs, he stayed back at the fort and worked from there. He swore again, more forcefully. \n\nHe knew Gar was outside, he could sense that egotistical maniac from miles away. Even as he sat there he could tell that Gar was bathing in the self admiration that he held for himself and no one else. \"Stop screwing around and get in here, you psychotic bastard.\" Purta muttered to himself. The door banged open and Gar swaggered in, a gust of freezing air following him in. \"Shut the door!\" Purta shouted \"It's already bloody freezing in here without you leaving the door open!\"\n\nGar laughed, leaving the door open for a fraction longer than was necessary before shutting it. \"You should be more careful about what you say, Purta.\" Gar chuckled, his deep voice and strong accent making his words as thick as treacle. \"You're lucky I take being called a psychotic bastard as a compliment.\"\n\nPurta blanched, his fear evident on his face and he visibly cringed as Gar smoothly made his way across the room to stand before him. Gar lowered his face until it was right in front of Purta, his warm breath washing over his face and the smell of cloves rushing up his nose, overpowering and disgusting. Purta registered none of this due to the fact he was enraptured by the two dark pits in Gars face where his eyes should have been After what seemed like a long time, Gar stood up and laughed before stepping back and taking a seat in the chair next to Purta. \n\n\"Well?\" Purta snapped impatiently, \"did you get it?\"\n\n\"Of course I did.\" Gar replied, reaching into his pocket and pulling out a small box and passing it over to Purta. \n\n\"Did you kill anyone?\" Purta asked despite already knowing the answer. Gar was famous for leaving his 'signature' at every job.\n\n\"Just the good Lord Hardy,\" Gar said, his wide smile betraying the pleasure that he felt at the admission as he relived it in his mind. \"He was asking for it.\" \n\n\"At least you got what we came here for.\" Purta said, sighing in frustration as he held up the box to the firelight, opening it shakily with his old and palsied hands. Gar leant forward in anticipation, expecting a beautifully crafted ring, amulet or other piece of jewelry. He was extremely disappointed when he saw that it was just a small, beaten up cast of a crowing rooster that had definitely seen better days.\n\n\"I risked my life for that!?\" Gar asked incredulously, his face screwed up in confusion. \"You sent me in there to steal a bloody nobles cock!?\"",
"(My Spawn decided what the package should be and it flew from there, lol.)\n\nMac’s Mystical Mail (Delivery)\nany where, any when, any way\n\nThe sign was weathered from its time in the hot sun of his homeland. McTyrine didn’t bother to replace it because word of mouth now did what the signed used: brought in customers. He didn’t lack, not now when he had lived up to his catchphrase a hundred times and more.\n\nHe was the best.\n\nAnd the worlds knew it.\n\nIt wasn’t a surprise when the man walked through the door, filling out the paperwork without a word. Mac looked down at the form as the payment—straight gold, not something usually seen anymore—dropped onto the counter next to the paper. \n\n“Loose teeth?” His voice was gravel, hard to listen to with its rough edges. He liked to see them flinch.\n\nThe man, Mr. Johannsson, was no exception. He met Mac’s gaze for a moment and then looked away. “Yes.”\n\n“Forty pounds of loose teeth.”\n\n“We have it packaged.” Johannsson spoke quickly. “That accounts for some of the weight.” \n\nMac snorted. Packaged with ammo, he bet. Or drugs, S-Pot was the current forerunner for nasty and addictive. He didn’t mind illegal runs, but it cost. “That’s another twenty kilograms cost.”\n\nJohannsson didn’t hesitate, adding another pile of gold coins to the pile on the counter. More than twenty. Mac raised an eyebrow. “All right. Delivery in Faerie. Need the receipt signed?”\n\nNow the man hesitated. A look of pain crossed his face. “No.”\n\n“Home pick-up?”\n\n“The address for pick-up is on there. It cannot be later than 3 o’clock. Understand?” Now Johannsson met his gaze, fear and determination filling the man’s eyes.\n\n“Yeah, I got it.” Mac smirked at the man. “Don’t worry. I’m the best there ever was.”\n\nWhen Mac arrived at 2:50, he discovered that the pick-up location was a park. He raised his eyebrow in sardonic humour. Not the most novel place for a pick-up and with how concerned Johannsson was about it he was surprised the man had chosen such a public place. There wasn’t only cops to worry about, but those irritating space cowboys as well. Gods save him from puffed up bounty hunters.\n\nThe park was full, a ton of children running around and playing, adults standing together in groups, talking. With the eye of experience, Mac decided that they were all here together, some sort of family gathering. He spotted Johhannson a moment before the man’s worried gaze found him. He excused himself from the group, and a beautiful woman and small child followed after him as he made a beeline for Mac.\n\n“Where have you been?” Johannsson hissed, glancing around for a moment, pulling the woman and child close. When another family wandered by, the man forced a smile and a wave.\n\nMac had a sinking feeling.\n\n“Before 3 is what I was told, and before 3, here I am.” He forced nonchalance in his voice, refusing to look at Johannsson’s family. \n\n“Cutting it close,” Johannsson said in a mutter, dropping down to his knees to embrace the child quickly. “Jesse, this is Mr. McTyrine. He’s going to be your new…” Johannsson glanced up at Mac, changed his mind about whatever word he was about to say and settled on, “Bodyguard.”\n\n“Like hell I am,” Mac replied quickly, but Johannsson had him by the short hairs. Maybe if he was belligerent enough, he could get out of this.\n\nJesse looked up at him with bright blue eyes from within a pudgy, stolid body. Mac couldn’t even tell what gender it might be. He didn’t want to know.\n\n“Hulloh,” it said in a high little voice that still gave no indication of just what it might be.\n\n“The package is for loose teeth,” Mac said.\n\n“Honey,” the woman spoke for the first time, also kneeling beside her child, one hand caressing the short blonde curls. “Why don’t you show Mr. McTyrine your teeth?”\n\nJesse eyed him and then obediently opened its mouth, sticking in small fingers to wiggle one after the other. It spoke sloppily around the appendages. “Ah hath thith hon, ahn thith hon, ahn thith hon thtarted.”\n\n“Payment was accepted,” Johannsson said shortly. “And you have to go.” He was nervous, so nervous. The woman’s eyes were overflowing with tears.\n\n“Gods damn it,” Mac muttered. He couldn’t renege. “Fine.”\n\n“Jesse,” the woman said, embracing her child tightly. “Oh, baby, be good. Mr. McTyrine will take care of you, and we’ll see you—“ She choked on the words.\n\n“We love you, Jesse,” Johannsson said through his own watery smile. “Okay? We love you so much?”\n\nJesse stared at its parents and blue eyes began to fill up with tears. “Mama, Daddy…”\n\n“It’s okay, darling, my wonderful darling.” But tears filled the woman’s eyes and she hugged Jesse again, so tightly the child gasped in protest. “I love you. We love you. Oh, baby, we love you so much.”\n\n“They have to go, Claire. Now.” Johannsson looked back over his shoulder and gave the child one last hug, one last kiss. His wife struggled to do the same, lifting the child tightly as Jesse began to cry in earnest. “Now!”\n\nJohannsson pulled the child away, shoved it at Mac, and grabbed onto his wife, holding her close as her arms continued to reach for her baby. “Go!” Johannsson ordered.\n\nMac went. They were two blocks away from the park when the screams began. He knew that sound, the sound of a massacre. Without a thought, Mac began to jog, pressing Jesse against his chest. And then he ran.",
"The flight pod sheared through the night toward a tiny clearing. From inside the one-man vehicle, Archie counted the the gently sloping, irregularly sized mountains and hills below, but soon gave up. There were hundreds, stretching all the way to the horizon, visible even against the inky sky.\n\nHis eyes did not want for details of the terrain though. Illumination came from massive spotlights that cast lakes of fluorescent white, showing that the contours of the land weren't smooth as one might suspect. Still smaller lights—in pairs, threes, dozens—dotted the rest of the black canvas. To the astute observer, these appeared to be moving.\n\nBefore long, when his craft had settled gently on the concrete landing platform, Archie popped the hatch open and scrambled for the shadows of the nearest hill. Nobody should be here; much less remain stationary for even a minute.\n\nHis feet crunched on a carpet of glass, plastic and metal; vines of cable—some as thick as his arms—curled up in treacherous snares that he had to dance lightly around. The smell of coppery rust and rank oil assaulted his nose, the latter manifested as semi-transparent clouds that danced whenever light passed through them.\n\nThe mountain he sought shelter under was composed entirely of garbage, individual pieces unidentifiable in the dark. He dared not touch it, for the slightest shift could bring an avalanche upon his head.\n\nNevertheless, the risk was preferable than to remain in the open, and he'd only made sanctuary in the nick of time.\n\nFor a four-legged creature of titanic proportions had trotted up to his craft, examining it with the four powerful spotlights that were its eyes. Resembling the long-extinct panther, its frame was skeletal, forming a metallic rib cage over an ovoid, carbon block. The serpentine tail jutting from its hindquarters hissed as its bladed edges sliced the air.\n\nArchie kept very still. One bite of its jaws could shatter the flight pod into dust; he did not want to find out what those teeth looked like up close.\n\nFortunately, as he'd hoped, the creature rolled its neck and departed without harming the pod. They avoided anything with live fuel in it, preferring to scavenge the remnants only after a Recycler Dragon had taken it apart.\n\nWith no other threat present, Archie switched on a small flash light and crept away, scanning the wasteland about him. He avoided entering the light cast by those spotlight towers rising hundreds of feet into the air, but hung around their edges to search.\n\nSilence was most assuredly absent; the whirring and droning of machinery persisted. Things sometimes moved all about him.\n\nSmall spider-like creatures that could sit on his palm skittered burrowed into electrical appliances, looking for any remaining morsels in the circuitry. Eight-legged jackal with serrated backbones and azure strobe lights on their knees roamed in packs, tearing apart primitive robots and devouring the microchips within. Once, an entire hill had shifted as something buried within stirred, just before the jackal it snatched emitted a horrible scream. Archie thanked his luck that this took place on the other side of the mound.\n\nMost ignored him even if they sensed him, though the jackals' lights turned bright red until he hastily retreated from their sight. He dropped and went still whenever he heard something big move, though.\n\nOf common appliances and computers, he utterly disregarded. Robots he stopped to examine, though most were utterly ruined. Their naked metal and blocky forms weren't sufficient though. He needed something newer.\n\nAs the night wore on, impatience began guiding Archie over prudence. He threw useless things away, scattering the spiderbots that gathered around to observe him. When he'd found a humanoid looking robot with a perfectly smooth shell of alloyed steel, his excitement had surged until he saw the hole in its chest cavity. Frustrated, he kicked it and the head went went bouncing away.\n\nSomething snagged his other foot then, dragging him down to the bed of waste. He yelled in surprise and clawed at the object, thinking some predator had finally seized him. When his fingers brushed human flesh, he yelled all the harder.\n\nLogic caught up to him a moment later; no humans had been down here for millennia. What he thought was flesh—and it smelled, felt and looked like it—was an advanced form of composite carbo-silicate. The arm was bared to the elbow. The rest lay beneath a jumble of trash.\n\nArchie shoved the mess away until he'd unearthed the upper torso of a Proxy. Its eyes stared glassily at him, mouth hanging slightly open. Archie fancied he heard a breath escape its lips, and shuddered.\n\nRemembering what he had come for, he shone his light on the thing's chest. To his surprise, it was entirely intact. Strips had been torn away, but nothing had managed to crack open the chassis below. Drawing his laser-edged blade, he cut a circular hole until he revealed his prize.\n\nA sphere no larger than his fist lay within, strung up with wires and tubes. Grinning to himself, Archie carefully detached the most critical ones, and slashed the rest away. With utmost care, he tucked it into a pocket.\n\nMission accomplished, he stood and found himself face to face with a Biotron Panther.\n\nAgainst his own instincts, Archie gave a shout and turned to run. The panther roared, and something whipped him across the back, nearly throwing him to the ground with its force. As it was, Archie merely stumbled before recovering his balance.\n\nHe didn't stop to wonder why the panther hadn't simply leaped on top of him and crushed him, until he had slapped the panel on his pod and hurled himself inside. Likely it had decided the Proxy carcass he'd unearthed was an easier snack, he thought as the craft blasted into the air.\n\nRemembering his back brought a flash of pain in his mind. The sensation didn't last long. When he traced a finger over the furrows in the metal chassis of his body, he was merely thankful the panther's tail hadn't dug any deeper.\n\n***\n\n*Better Tomorrow* glided through the atmosphere, silent as the clouds around it.\n\nArchie docked his pod and hurried out of the launch zone. When he passed through a doorway, alarms rang out and a female voice said, \"No Proxies allowed beyond this—this—this—no Proxies—\"\n\nHe ignored it, continuing along narrow walkways. He walked past spotless cafes, their tables set, their cakes fresh and whole in display cases. He walked past theaters, where prismatic dancers gamboled and speakers orated. He walked past gardens, whose birds sang in an endless loop and whose streams gurgled like drowning beasts. Most of all, he walked past uncountable rooms, where through the glass walls one would see thousands of human skeletons lying forgotten on their Proxy-link Beds.\n\nGoing into a small chamber, Archie yanked the sheet covering a woman. Her features were perfectly smooth, with a face and figure to set pulses racing. She appeared to be in a deep sleep.\n\nArchie pulled back the flap of skin over her chest, where he'd made a prior incision. Over the next hour, he carefully inserted the sphere he'd appropriated from the world below and connected the wires, sometimes running out to salvage additional materials.\n\nWhen he'd sealed the flesh with a healing adhesive, he sat back and waited. His own metal heart could no more beat like a human's than a chair could, but he felt as though it would burst out of his chest when her eyelids began to flutter.\n\n***\n\n*I'm actually not certain that I fulfilled the prompt ... but I had a blast putting this world into words. If you enjoyed this story, please visit my [sub](http://reddit.com/r/nonsenselocker), you might find more enjoyable stories there!*",
"\"Take Hastafor Dol Tain,\" Cardman said.\n\n\"Hastafor Dol Tain? Why him?\" Vainchild said. He was a Mastafes--a criminal. One of the rich and powerful ones. One of the ones whose courage and guile were outweighed only by his violence. \"He's a washed up star. Big, from what I heard. Really big. At least before he took the black ladder down to hard drugs. Depression. Lost the will to do anything.\"\n\n\"What did you hear about him, before he fell?\"\n\nVainchild took a long drag of his cigarette. He flicked the filter and ash fell to the concrete floor. Disgusting habit, Cardman thought, but at least it blended in, grey on grey. The room was hardly the height of luxury; the walls matched the floor in their struggle to be anything but stale; the fluorescent lights dribbled out a dull, lifeless glow. No windows. A single metal door. The Mastafes took safety seriously. Cardman would have been worried, but he was too relaxed. Too content. Too far from feeling any of the savagery a man would need to break his out of a place as harsh as this.\n\n\"He was witty. The women loved him,\" Vainchild said. \"The men did too. Worked like a dog, long after all his team had gone home to their model wives and husbands. That kind of motivation would work well with us.\"\n\n\"No doubt.\"\n\n\"So why him, why Hastafor? You may have heard I have little patience. It's true.\" Vainchild placed an ankle on his knee. His face confirmed patience was a lacking virtue.\n\n\"Why Hastafor? Well, I took his motivation. All of it.\"\n\n\"What do you mean?\"\n\n\"I'm a smuggler. You know that, otherwise I wouldn't be here. I take things from people, then I deliver them to others. On the hush hush, you know, otherwise I'd just be a delivery driver.\"\n\n\"What kind of bullshit is this?\"\n\n\"The kind that stinks, but for all the right reasons. I took Hastafor's motivation. If you haven't got any motivation, you don't do anything. You don't do anything as a star, you die. It's fairly simple. So I took his motivation and--\"\n\n\"You keep saying that. What do you mean, 'you took his motivation'. Are you telling me you're some freak vampire, straight from 'salem's lot? If you are, I'll show you the cross and burn you in the sun. And if that doesn't work, I'll beat you until your screams turn to whimpers. I'll do it 'til you're silent.\"\n\n\"I obviously have something of worth, if I've managed to get in here.\"\n\n\"You're running that patience out, Cardman. I suggest, politely, that you hurry it up.\"\n\n\"Well, I take people's virtues and vices, and I give them to other people. It's hard work, you know, keeping that much emotion all bottled up. The government can see it, they can tell. I knew a couple who could do this too, but they couldn't handle what they took from the old Prime Minister. You know, the one who lost all kindness then beat and killed his wife? The couple that took it left and joined the ministry. It's funny, isn't it? The couple didn't have a hard time taking it. After all, it didn't take much to make a kind man be kind to them. You see how it's taken? And now there are some people that don't like the new Prime Minister, but the man's better at dealing with his emotions. You saw him last week. Doesn't get riled up at all. Stoic, even though everything's roiling around underneath. He'd need something really big to tip him over, I bet. Do you see my problem?\"\n\n\"I'm struggling,\" Vainchild took another drag of his cigarette. It was down to the filter. \"Let's pretend it's true. What can you do for me? What can you do for us?\"\n\n\"I can make you my little bitch.\"\n\n\"What did you just say to me?\"\n\n\"Sounded pretty clear, I thought. I can make you my little bitch.\"\n\nVainchild pushed his chair back, the metal grating against the smooth concrete. Cardman couldn't help swallowing. Vainchild was a big guy. Six and a half feet, at least, and probably three tonnes. His fingers were the size of Cardman's arms. Quicker than Cardman thought possible, the back of a porcine hand slapped him around the face, knuckles crunching teeth. He slid across the table and tumbled to the floor.\n\nHe stood and smiled. Looking at Vainchild made him want to pick up the chair and do that thing Vainchild said about the whimpering and the silence. That sounded good. Really good. There would be blood. Lots of it. And afterwards he would laugh.\n\nCardman shook himself and got a grip. Vainchild was wringing his hands.\n\n\"Do you want--\" Cardman wiped the blood from his lip then spoke again. \"Do you want to beat me?\"\n\n\"That's...\" Vainchild backed towards the wall. \"No. That's barbaric. I'm sorry. I can't believe it. I'm so sorry. I won't touch you again. I promise. I'm sorry, you've got to believe me.\"\n\nCardman smiled. \"I do. I do. Will you let me out?\"\n\n\"Of course, of course. Did you get what you wanted? Did you get what you came here for?\"\n\nCardman pushed down the sudden desire to tear the big puppy's eyes out. \"That I did. We'll have to hurry, I'm running late.\"\n\nNever good to be late for an appointment, certainly not with the government types. And judging by the depth of Cardman's new emotion, the new Prime Minister was about to do something very bad indeed. Cardman flexed his fist as Vainchild showed him out. A quick punch--*that* was going to feel good--and then Cardman could watch the new Prime Minister burn everyone who slighted him, and most of those who hadn't. What a terrible tool, this ugly emotion."
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[WP] All cars are police cars and police are chosen at random daily via lottery [x-post r/crazyideas]
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"In a car is Murphy driving with Dave, they're driving to the grocery store. The moon is high in the sky when the police gear comes out and their clothes change.\n\n\"Oh hell no\" Dave said starting to take his suit off.\n\n\"Dude, no you can't take that off!\" Murphy said from the driver's side.\n\n\"Why not? It's just stupid clothes\"\n\n\"It's the law man, we have to do this for at least an hour.\"\n\n\"Oh come on, I just needed some things from the store.\"\n\n\"I know man, we just have to do it for an hour\"\n\n\"Ugh, I hate this why does it only happen at night\" Dave said as they got a call through the radio.\n\n\"745B at 2500 Trough Road\" the speaker said.\n\n\"Car 255 going to 2500 Trough Road\" Murphy said back into the speaker.\n\n\"Oh god no not a 745B, why can't I get anything different?\" Dave said as they turned into a dark road.\n\nOn the Porch of a bright blue house is an Old lady and an old man who is holding an orange cat.\n\n\"We got a call about a loud cat party.\" Murphy said, approaching the Old Man.\n\n\"Yes Mr.Whiskers here was throwing one\" The Old Man replied.\n\n\"How many cats are left?\" \n\n\"There's one over there, and 3 upstairs.\" The old man said pointing to the bathroom. Murphy and Dave walked in the house and headed upstairs.\n\n\"Party's over, time to go home\" Murphy said approaching 3 cats with a thing of catnip. \"Hey! Is that catnip!\"\n\n\"Oh no it's the dogs, bail!\" The gray cat said before it ran down the stairs while an orange cat ran out the window, but the Calico Cat stayed sitting down hitting something that didn't exist, Dave grabbed it by the stomach.\n\n\"You're coming with us bucko\" Dave said putting the cat in a cage. They walked back down to the Old Women and Old Man.\n\n\"We have 1 suspect detained, Mr. Whiskers here will be getting a warning, and the 2 other suspects have ran. We don't expect them to be back so we'll leave here now.\" Murphy said walking back to the car.\n\nAs they drove down to the police station the radio spoke.\n\n\"Robbery at the Foodmart on Bule Road and Jule Avenue.\"\n\n\"I swear to god Mur-\" Dave said.\n\n\"Car 255 going to the Foodmart on Bule Road and Jule Avenue.\"\n\n\"How long will this take?\" Dave asked.\n\n\"Shouldn't be long\" Murphy replied.\n\nNo other police were there when they got there, seemed like a low profile robbery. The store was lit up with 5 people inside.\n\n\"Police Department, come out with your hands up.\" Murphy said from outside. Two men in black suits moved towards the back door. \"Go go go!\" Murphy yelled to Dave as they ran in, Murphy tackled a man who was about to leave.\n\n\"I'm not even a robber!\" The tackled man cried in pain as he tried to open the back door.\n\n\"Don't move I swear to god you do and you are dead!\" Dave said guarding the entrance.\n\n\"Dude you can't say that! Act professional you're a cop now!\" Murphy said. The men with guns who were robbing the place started to shoot at Murphy and Dave as they dove behind a rack of candy.\n\n\"Holy shit, they're trying to kill us what do we do? Fire back?\" Dave said.\n\n\"Yeah I guess.\" Murphy said, shooting towards the man who is shooting at him, Dave shooting at the other man. They ran out of bullets.\n\n\"Oh no we're out of bullets what do we do?!\" Dave said.\n\n\"I uh Oof, I think we should try to calm them do-\" Murphy said as their clothes returned to normal. \"Oh hey I have an idea.\"\n\n\"Wait what is it? Fill me in dude\" Dave said as Murphy got up holding his hands up.\n\n\"Follow me dude\" Murphy whispered to Dave as he made his way to the entrance while saying, \"Hey guys, not cops anymore, we don't care what you do just let us go. See no uniforms, our car is normal nothing about us says we're cops.\" Murphy and Dave walked out of the entrance and walked back to their car.\n\n\"So we have a cat now?\" Dave said.\n\n\"I guess so.\" Murphy said as they drove towards the grocery store."
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[WP] You're a detective investigating the disappearance of Elon Musk. While searching for leads in his office you find a strange device covered in symbols you've never seen before.
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"As I walked into Musk's office and scanned the room, a strange device grabbed my attention. Upon further inspection, it became clear that this device was not of this Earth and that the symbols were of extraterrestrial origin. \n\nI sighed, walked back into the the other room where the rest of the team was investigating, and said, \" Alright everybody, stop what you're doing. Let's pack up. Jim was right - it was aliens.\""
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[WP] you are a "Karma balance enforcement officer" - your job is to make awful things happen to good people, and good things happen to awful people. Today's assignment is the best one you ever had.
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"Dave looked out over the newest group of graduates and sighed. \"Congratulations to all of you. You're about to head out on your first assignments. Just remember, we base what we do strictly on the facts. The things that these people have done determine what type of things we cause to happen. Your feelings or opinions of your subject's life and deeds cannot affect or alter the event or events that you make happen.\"\n\nHe glanced around and continued. \"Most of you have been partnered with a KBE veteran who will oversee your first few assignments. Two of you, however, will be shadowed by me. These decisions or not made by me, but by the KBE governing council as a whole. I wish you all good luck. There is a table to your right as you walk out of the room. On the table is a stack of envelopes. Make sure that you find the one with your name on it. Your partner will be contacting you within the next 24 hours.\"\n\nAs he watched the class leave the room, his pride turned to concern. This was the last time he would send the new recruits out in this way. The governing council had decided that he should get back out in the field. He wasn't sure that he still had it in him, and he hoped that they knew what they were talking about. Or at least, that they had given him a couple decent recruits, just in case. He had always been the one paired up with a veteran, but it had been eleven years since he picked up his envelope.\n\n\"Mr. Barrow? Miss Parker?\" Dave asked as his protégés entered the room. \n\n\"Yes, sir, but you can call me Chet, and she usually goes by BB,\" the young man smiled. \"That is, as long as we can drop the classroom formalities.\"\n\n\"Of course, of course,\" Dave replied as he shook each of their hands. \"Feel free to call me Dave. Let me ask you, did you to know each other previous to this instructional session? I mean, before you got to KBE?\"\n\nThey both shook their heads. \"No,\" BB laughed, \"why do you ask?\"\n\n\"Your names. For some reason, they sound familiar to me. Barrow and Parker, eh? Related to anyone I might have heard of?\"\n\nChet scrunched up his forehead and said, \"My uncle made it through here eleven years ago, but on his first assignment, he broke the cardinal rule. Somehow his subject was an ex-girlfriend, and instead of making something good happen, he let his emotions take over and tried to get revenge on her.\"\n\n\"No, no, no, I mean, well, you know, I think I remember him, but that's not what I meant. Barrow, Parker, Barrow, Parker, holy shit, yeah, Bonnie and Clyde, Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow! That's why!\"\n\nBB looked down and sighed. \"My great-grandmother was Bonnie Parker, and yes, Clyde Barrow was his great-grandfather's brother. We've talked a little bit, needless to say.\"\n\nChet laughed and added, \"Someone thought they were cute, I guess, pairing us up.\"\n\n\"I wish I could take credit for that,\" Dave said. \"But let me ask you, do you know whether or not Bonnie and Clyde were more than just a team? Do you know what I'm saying? Have you ever tried to figure out if you two are related?\"\n\nChet answered, \"Well, they didn't get married, and they never had any kids together, so we're only related by infamy. But our separate lineage to the two of them has been documented and confirmed.\"\n\n*I don't care who they assign us,* Dave thought, *I'm training Bonnie and Clyde's great grandkids. It doesn't get much cooler than that.*",
"I strolled in through the office doors and quickly got odd looks. I guess I really was grinning.\n\nI walked up to my partner at his desk. He was hurriedly finishing some paperwork.\n\n\"Hey, you missed the assignment.\"\n\n\"Couldn't help it. Some guy cured cancer from his death bed and they had to deploy us to help B-Squad to catch up. Barely got the tornado filled with sharks to his wife and kids in time for-\". He looked up and noticed my face.\n\n\"Charlie, are you OK!?\"\n\n\"I'm pretty good. Why?\"\n\n\"You're face man! You're face! Are you sick?\" He opened his desk, pulled out a blue blanket, and wrapped it around me.\n\n\"If you get sick and mess up an assignment, its permanent B-squad duty!\"\n\n\"I'm not sick. I'm happy!\"\n\n\"Happy!? I haven't seen you happy since we were kids at Christmas! Every assignment we get we're killing Ghandi's kid or giving Hitler winning lotto numbers! What the heck made you happy?\"\n\n\"They messed up the paperwork on my assignment. My assignment already had balanced karma, so I didn't have to do anything.\"\n\n\"Who has balanced karma without us? Everyone is at least a little good or bad.\"\n\n\"Yep, but here's the thing. I didn't get assigned a person, I got a Rock.\"\n\nHe gave me a look of disbelief, but I just nodded. A smile crept onto his face as well as he said: \n\n\"Officer Brown, you are one lucky Bastard.\""
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[WP] You're an IT guy. You get a call that Earth.exe is not responding
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"Hello, you’ve reached the Tech Support Team, you’ve got Max on the line. Hi, Richard! How can I be of service today? A software crash? Well, Richard, you’ve called the right place now haven’t you? Right up my alley. Can I get the name of the application and any errors that are on your display, please?\n\nEarth.exe? Uh-huh. Yep. Yep. Yeah, Yeah, I’ve-yep. Yep. I’ve actually played with-\n\nYep.\n\nUh-huh.\n\nSo, yeah, I’ve tinkered with that one myself. Let’s see what we can do about your issue. So, error messages? No error messages? Yep. Yep. Are you connected to the right Solar System. The Solar System, are you connected-yep. Yep that’s-uh huh.\n\nYep.\n\nSounds like you’re all over it, Richard. Yep. Yep. Just have to double check these-\n\nYep.\n\nOkay. Uh-huh. Hmm.\n\nOkay, so it’s all still spinning? So it’s all still spinning, then? Still spinning. Earth, it’s still going around the central star and so are the other planets?\n\nNot the moons, no. Just the-yep. Yep. Uh-huh. Good, good. Yep. Uh-huh. Yep moon around the Earth, not around the central-\n\nYep.\n\nOkay, so that’s not it. Richard, quick question, and I know it’s going to be another silly one-...yep. That’s - ha ha - that’s what we do here in tech support, yes. Yep. So, you said that Earth.exe had crashed, what exactly.\n\nYep. Stopped working. Uh-huh. \n\nUh-huh.\n\nUh-huh.\n\nYep.\n\nUh-huh.\n\nOkay, but-yep. Yep. The thing is, it sounds like it’s still working, usually when it crashes it stops spinning or going around the-...yep. So, what exactly has stopped working?\n\nEarth.exe? Right, yes, I know that and-\n\nYes, Richard. I’m listening.\n\nOkay. Okay. Yep. Rich-...Richard do you mind if-yep. Richard do you mind if we do some screen sharing? I think it might help me to understand the issue. Yep. Okay. I just need your Console ID. Your Console ID. There should be a little badge on your-\n\nThat-yep. That would be your login. Your Console ID is the big number on the side of the console. The unit your using. Yep! That’s the one. Just a tic, Richard. Thanks for that.\n\nOkie dokie. Let’s see, now. Oh, wow.\n\nNice solar system, Richard! Jeez, bit more mass on that gas giant and you’d have yourself a binary-...yep. Yep. Okay, let’s get straight to it. If you could jump to Earth, please.\n\nThere she is. Yep.\n\nStill spinning. Yes. I-yep-I know that wasn’t the prob-...yep. Sure. So, here it is, and if you could just perform the action that is failing. No. Yes, I know it’s “crashed”, but in order to fix that I need you to show me what exactly-...uh-huh.\n\nYep.\n\nI mean, atmosphere systems look good, gravity is active.\n\nScans? Oh, okay, okay! I get it. It’s not responding to scan-...yep. Yep. It’s crashed. The issue might actually be the scanning system. Richard, could you show me a scan, please. Yes, I know it doesn’t work, I just need to see if an error...\n\nUh-huh.\n\nUh-huh.\n\nUhhh-huh.\n\nYep.\n\nIf-...well, I’m sorry to make you repeat this again, Richard, but...yep. Well, I need to see it fail, it’s not that I don’t believe you Richard, it-...yep. It’s just the policy, sorry. Uh-huh. Annoying, yeah I know, right?\n\nExcellent. Thank you. \n\nScans, bio-scans annnd go. \n\nWow, yeah, that was waaay to quick. Something wrong with that. Yes, I know that’s why you called, Rich-...yep. One tic. I’m just bringing up some details on your system on my end. Let’s see what’s going on, shall we?\n\nScanning systems are...active and running. That’s odd. Let me just do some more checks. Mmhmm. Yep. Yep. This’ll juuust take a minute or two, sorry, I know you’re very busy. Yep. Uh-huh.\n\nI can imagine, yeah, you guys down in Simulations are really under the pump. Yeah, yeah. Not fair on you guys, is it?\n\nOkay, Richard - sorry to cut you off there - looks like the server thinks everything is A-Okay. Yep-yes, I know it isn’t, but you and I are ruling out the possibilities. We’ll get it solved, Richard! \n\nYep. Uh...huh, that’s weird.\n\nWhat? Oh, just something on my end, Richard. That said, do you mind if I take control of your console? No, no we’re just doing screen sharing at the moment. Yep. All you need to do is-no, not the Console ID. All you need to do is press ‘I Accept’ on the window that will pop up. Yep. No, nothing there yet, just a second, Richard. \n\nDo you see it? Big box in the middle of the scr-yep, you got it. Because it confirmed on my end that you did. Okay, Richard, I’m just going to disable your controls for a second. Just for a second, standard procedure.\n\nHmm. Yep. Just looking at the history real quick.\n\nRichard? Yeah, can I put you on hold for just a second, please? I’ll be gone just a moment.\n\n...you there? Hello? Good. Double check the button, annnd. Okay. Tech assessment is that the client used parameters thats generated a world that reached a technological level capable of nuclear warfare. A nuclear war was waged and the world is dead. I shall offer the client a free reversion to a time period of their choice.\n\nOkay, Richard, you there? Hi, yeah, Max. Look, sorry to be the bearer of bad news here but it looks like the intelligent species wiped out life on the planet with nuclear armaments. Yeah. Yeah, if you-...Richard, if you look here in the history you can see the war starts and quickly ends. Yeah. And not to mention all the energy released. Yeah. Yeah. Uh-huh.\n\nUh-huh.\n\nYep. Well, I don’t know why Richard, that’s what the simulation did with the parameters. Lodge a ticket? Change requests for Sims have to go through your supervis-...no. No, Richard, I can’t. I fix errors. This isn’t an error.\n\nYep.\n\nYep.\n\nYep-yep-yep-Richard. Richard, I can revert to a point in the timeline for you for free, so you might be able to offer some influence - maybe some meteors or something, but...\n\nYep.\n\nOkay. Well, I don’t think swearing-\n\nOkay, good bye and thank you for calling your Tech Support Team. I’ve been-\n\n...Max. \n\nWhat a dickhead!"
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[WP] Your cat has a secret double-life as a drug kingpin. They help you out whenever they can.
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"Mark went home glum today. He was mugged, and lost the cash bonus he received at work. \"You sure do have the life, George,\" he said to the Tabby cat, on his floor, licking his paw. \"I was mugged today. They stole my bonus.\" The cat didn't look up, but he heard every word. Despite his aloofness, George loved his owner, and would do anything for him. Later that night George crept to the secert box that held 4 disposable cell phones, a 9mm handgun, and a stack of unmarked bills. He pulled the phone out, and dialled a number. \"Ay, it's George. I got a hit for ya.\" The next morning, a body was found. The police were confused, as the wounds came from a very low angle, and the body was covered it cat hair. ",
"\"Will you calm down, James?\" \n\nSweat pooled on my brow as I tried to comprehend what was going on in front of me. My cat, somehow dressed in an oversized three piece suit and standing on his hind legs, was talking to me. \n\n\"W... What?\" I managed to stutter. Again. \n\nMr. Meowington sighed and squeezed his temple as if it was the stupidest thing he had heard in years. \"Look, James, you need help. We've been pals for 5 years now, haven't we? Let me help you.\" \n\n\"How are you talking??? How are you wearing a suit? How are you standing on your hind legs?\" I managed to blurt out after an hour of stammering and sitting on my bathroom floor, unable to move from the gravity of the situation. My cat can... Talk. \n\n\"James. Jamesy boy. Jamie. Jamieson. Don't worry so much about the 'how' and worry about the 'how'... Wait I mean... Anyways, what I'm trying to say is, let me help you. I can make your little problem... OUR little problem... Go away.\"\n\nI managed to stand up, wobbly at the knees and towered over Mr. Meowington, even with his newfound ability to stand on his hind legs. \n\n\"How are you going to help me? I don't even know who those guys were and they said they'd be back\". Mr Meowington smiled, walking to the couch, sticking a paw under the cushions and pulling out a cellphone that wasn't mine. \"One mewment, James. I know just the guys.\"\n\nI peered through the broken blinds of my third floor apartment and watched as three burly men, walked up the front steps of the building and disappeared into the entrance. Mr. Meowington, 'Meowicelli' as he wanted me to call him from now on, hadn't stopped making calls to people on his phone. He kept mentioning someone named Molly and her friend Mary. There was a loud banging on the door and Meowicelli now looked at me with an expectant look, \"Well? I can't open knobs, James. I don't have opposable thumbs.\" I stared at him in disbelief before opening the door and letting the men into the room. \n\n\"This is #1, #2 and #3, James. Describe to them what happened to you earlier today and they'll take care of it.\" Take care of it? What did that mean? Were these men going to hurt those other guys? I stuttered for a second before recounting my story of how I was walking home and three guys had roughed me up for no apparent reason, happened to know my name and said that I owed them ten thousand dollars. If I didn't have it by tomorrow, they'd show up at my house and told me my address. \n\nThe man, #1 apparently, looked at Meowicelli and spoke gruffly, \"Boss. I think this is an attempt to get at you. They must have seen you and this guy together somewhere. Do you want us to use a little 'purrsuasion' to make this problem go away?\" \n\nMeowicelli seemed pleased with this situation as he sat on the couch and twirled his own tail \"That would be paw-some of you, #1\". \n\nThe men, nodded at Meowicelli then at me and left as quickly as they came. Meowicelli shook out of his oversized suit, dropped onto all fours and rubbed his body against my thigh before licking his lips and saying \"There, feel better, James? Meow. How about some dinner? I hear that new Cat's Feast is delicious.\""
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[WP]24 hours ago, a rogue scientist freely published a paper on how to make bombs stronger than the Czar Bomba using household chemicals.
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"The world was destroyed, in the end, by dumb teenagers. His name was Roland and two Saturdays previous, he made chloroform in his bathroom's tub because he wondered how long it would really take for all those TV characters to pass out. He did badly in school mostly because nobody paid attention to how he was doing at all. His house was the kind with boxes on the floor of random things acquired over the years and a dining room table at which you had to clear a place if you wanted to share a plate of bagel bites with a few friends. He watched horror movies, mostly with the two girls and Ajeet with whom he spent lunchtimes on a couch in the учи́тельница's supply closet. Heather constantly pointed out the inconsistencies -- blood on the floor magically mopped away two scenes later-- and they all laughed at zombie beheadings and stayed up late talking over how each would get out of their small town.\n\n\nThey never did, because a day and two Saturdays later Roland's cousin Brady came over. They didn't know each other well, but Brady was two years older, lived 15 houses down the way, and nearly always carried a can of beer in his left hand. Brady and Roland didn't have much in common but their propensity for minor destruction. Smoke bombs in the woods, catapults made out of whatever could be scrounged from living room drawers or found under a pair of secondhand blue jeans that smelled like they'd been washed only once, in the year of their manufacture. On this particular Sunday, the school week looming ahead, the moon new, and high clouds obscuring the stars, they walked with spray bottles in hand under newly updated LED streetlamps until the sidewalks and gravel gave way to weeds proper, over the baseball diamond where little league (ages 5-15) played on Monday and Thursday nights, and into a small patch of oak and bay trees in the undeveloped part of the park. \n\n\nA stray chip bag -- well not stray exactly as it was in the good company of many other half-decayed remnants of late night fast food gatherings -- crumpled in the slight breeze. Brady carried the gray plastic bucket, some rubber yellow kitchen gloves with a rust-red tinge over most of the fingertips, some bleach, and the case of beer. Roland held the flashlight, some other household chemicals and a gleefully liberated several strips of magnesium from the closet of the chemistry teacher that let his TA drill holes in rubber stoppers while holding them in her hand, chewing gum and boredom being gnawed at a similar pace. \n\n\nThe recipe was simple, and in the ten minutes it took for the chemicals to \"brew\" (The recipe was quite heavy-handed in its drama and actually called for a cauldron, not that they cared) Brady and Ronald drank the beers and built a small fire. The magnesium was last, and Roland leaned in far enough that his eyebrows were the first things to atomize.\n\n\nOf course, how the end of the world came about is less than relevant. What matters is how the world began again and came to such a point that this story can even be told. What matters is the next set of dumb teenagers that came along, when the woods and beer and high school were legends that myths told to crying children in the dark. These dumb teenagers--their lives began in the miserable, bleak, desperate longing so common to their time. Lives until then (and for some time after) of ash and drifting, scrounging, and occasionally killing. And they met in the usual way of surviving scavengers--with the sound of a shifting footstep, a heart beating faster, a knife already out of it's sheath, and then a lot of yelling."
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[WP] God's decided to start releasing patch notes.
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"~This is my first writing prompt attempt, I apologize for any errors!~\n\nThe old Universe computer God had kept in his study for many millennia had gathered quite the collection of dust. \n\nBack in the day, Him and Satan had; on a dare, created the game Earth.exe. The first tests were promising. LVL-EDEN was almost perfect. Almost. There was a fatal bug in the system with certain fruit trees.\nSatan, the trickster he was, persuaded the first Alpha testers to unleash the bug. It corrupted the player data, and forced unwanted character traits to arise.\n\nLVL-EDEN had to be shut down.\n\nMany years later, a stable state of Earth.exe was reached and seemed (relatively) peaceful. Keeping the now 7.5 billion users playing the game on his personal angel servers, away from the hands of Satan. \n\nNow, the game has reached a point where minor problems were turning into major bugs.\nMost were dealt with by the players themselves. The Nazi bug was a tricky one. It had surfaced as a harmless corrupt charecter profile at first, infecting but a few users, but all of a sudden, it burst forth like a dam and almost spread to every charecter file.\nThe ingame users thankfully managed to halt the original file, and although dormant, it remains mostly contained.\n\nDusting of the old computer, he booted up the config files and started coding again. \n\nIt felt *good*. \n\nIt was good to be able to create something again, even if it is just patching an old file.\n\nAnd within minutes, new patches were being fed into the Earth server...\n\n---\n\nUPDATES:\n\n* HATE.config removed. Was causing too much corruption of player charecter data.\n\n* Physics.config expanded, previous non-interactable particles are now open for study in Research quests.\n\nPlayer Charecter data updates:\n\n* Improved response to \"Cancer\" bug, not removed completely but immune response now can contain up to 98% of the time (WIP).\n\n* Character UI introduced: Now shows current infections, energy, and hunger in status bars (WIP).\n\n* Vision stats increased by 10%.\n\n* Inteligence stat now has minimum level of 85 after Tutorial level \"Teenager\". Cap on IQ stats removed.\n\n* General improvements (see config for more info)\n\n* Experimental charecter files in Canada_emotion.vsl now released to all player accounts.\n",
"*Updated where you could be able to kill other species\n*Human: View range increased by 10%, fixed a bug where they got a disease called \"cancer\"\n*ant size to %1000\n*Sharks no longer infinitly grow tooth, needs to spend gold on it.\n*fixed a bug where dog breed \"pug\" couldn't freely breathe.\n*UI improvements*..."
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[WP] Criminals are punished by forcing them to live in a simulation as a person affected by their crime. You have a life sentence... but you may have figured out how to break the system.
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"Have you ever heard the phrase “do unto others as you wish to be done unto yourself?” well its usually just called the golden rule, now we’ve always taken that figuratively right? Well now with all this virtual reality nonsense that phrase has taken a more… literal sense, criminals are being punished by forcing them to complete simulation after simulation that perfectly replicates their crimes but instead it happens to them with incredible realism sounds great right? Well for the people that are innocent, most criminals would be slightly less enthusiastic about it, of course… there are some ethical issues but most people agree that the criminals deserve it, I mean it is exactly what they did themselves to someone else, I mean do you think they cared about who they did the crime too?\r\n\r\nAnyways here’s where I come into the story, I’m… a criminal I suppose, I was actually one of the first people this was tested on. You’re probably wondering what I did aren’t you? Well…. Murder, I’d like to think it was justified though but maybe I’m just insane, that’s what people have been saying anyways. Anyways I’ll get to the point, I was walking home from work and then someone started yelling at me, I was stressed from a difficult day at work as I had just been fired… I had too many customers complaining about me because I said I couldn’t care less about their petty discrepancies, well so this guy started yelling at me… I don’t even remember what he was saying but it was obviously aggressive and he was holding a knife, I reacted instinctively and punched him. They say I got him in the throat which collapsed his windpipe so he couldn’t breathe meaning he just suffocated to death, I didn’t know that at the time though of course I just freaked out and ran home.\r\n\r\nNow lets skip ahead to about a few weeks later, I mostly forgot about what happened until police knocked on my door and told me I was under arrest, I had just gotten a new job and was actually happy with myself until this shit happened and before I knew it I was in a holding cell waiting until they were ready to talk to me. I wasn’t even put on trial, apparently I was proven guilty with no chance of a defence and they wanted to test their “new fancy technology” I wasn’t too thrilled by the idea myself but the next day they said oh you’ll get to join back into society quicker than 30 years of prison for murder rather than this new treatment, if it can even be called that.\r\n\r\nIt was worse than prison\r\n\r\nMuch, much worse\r\n\r\nThey didn’t just kill me once, they killed me over and over again for an entire year, of course I didn’t actually die but I felt the pain of it every time. I think the simulation designers probably just enjoyed it, killing me in different ways to “show me what it was like for the person I attacked” I think they deserve it much more than I do at this point to be honest, of course the first time was basically how mine actually happened, I felt like I was suffocating, unable to breath but of course I was actually fine. You see even if you know you’re fine you don’t really believe yourself, I panicked and thrashed apparently trying to help myself breathe again, even though I could still breathe in real life due to the simulation I apparently didn’t breathe until my brain ran out of oxygen and I passed out.\r\n\r\nThat’s when they realized that their punishment wasn’t exactly harmless or ethical yet they kept doing it anyways, they spent an entire year killing me over and over again testing me in different ways to record the results of how the mind reacts to different things in different ways like I was some kind of twisted science experiment, eventually life itself lost meaning to me, watching your life flash before your eyes every day has that effect on you, they recorded that too\r\n\r\n\r\nI became more and more emotionless as time passed until I didn’t even care about dying anymore, they seemed to be frustrated by this and tried to kill me in more intense and painful ways just to get a reaction from me, oh sure the punishment worked of course I’m never going to murder anyone else again but I feel like people need to know what really happened to me because I’m sure they’re going to make up some story, I mean you have no reason to care about me right? I’m just a murderer, but please\r\n\r\nIm writing this because I just got released from this torment yesterday and I know they said it was a sucessful prototype of it but please don’t let them do this torture to other people, I want to be the last person who will have to go through this but I have no interest in living this meaningless life anymore\r\n\r\nI just want to die one last time\r\n\r\nGoodbye\r\n"
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[WP] Every morning your car's GPS navigation is pre-loaded with a destination you don't recognize. One day you decide to take the route and it changes your life.
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"It had been happening for 3 weeks since I got my used GPS device. The seller was very eager the sell it and I got it for a bargain. At first, I thought it related to the previous owner book addresses. I asked my son to delete all the addresses but a week after it happened again. This time I used a clip and pressed the restart button on the back of the device. It turned on and everything was clean, just like new. “Perfect”, I thought. Fast forward another week and the Pineapple Road near Gerês popped up on the Favorites book addresses early this morning, just as I was leaving to grab some bread and milk. “Pineapple Road number 42, 4224-42, Alcance, Gerês – 24 minutes to destination”. After a few seconds deliberating, I pushed the green Let’s Go button on the touchscreen. “Well”, I murmured “I can still grab the bread and visit this place on time before the kids wake up”. \n20 minutes elapsed and I entered a dirt road with the vertical road saying, “Pineapple Road”. Grabbed on the road sign was an owl and as the car passed through, it flew low into Pineapple Road. Pine trees enclosed the bumpy road and suddenly it starts raining and as I turn on the windshields, a lightning strikes a tree behind the car and a few seconds later the same tree falls over the road. \nI stop the car and look at the rear mirror contemplating how fucked I was. I search for my cell phone in my pockets but... of course. It's Sunday and I was just getting bread and milk. Why would I need a cell phone? I look again at the GPS and the ETA is 2minutes, just a couple of curves ahead. “Maybe there is another way out”, I thought as I engaged the clutch and put forward motion on my car, slowly on the water filled holes. Suddenly I see movement on the corner of my left eye and as I move my head, nothing is there. As I turn my head back to the road, a few meters ahead I see three figures with lances and no clothes. “What the hell…”. I stop the car and lock the doors and take a really good look. They were tall and slim, dark colored skin and with tattoos and painting on the face, around the eyes and mouth. Their hair was locked in long braids. They start motioning in my direction encircling my car and one of them knocks with lance on my door glass. I roll slightly down the window and he asks in hard English “Where is the portal device?”\n\n-- Part I\n"
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[WP] The NPC you're drinking with starts slurring his words, and breaking the fourth wall
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"Grogos sat at the bar, staring down at his empty cup. It had been hours since he entered and took a seat. Upstairs, the beautiful witch was waiting for him. For a few coins she would tell him where the Sword of Burning Skies is hidden. All he had to do is climb the stairs and talk to her. Instead, he waited at the bar.\n\nMargran was already drunk when Grogos arrived. The old man had been waving his mug in the air and singing along with the bard. Now, he was well past his limit, his head laying on the dirty wooden counter.\n\n\"You know what his problem is? He can't make decisions, that's what! Changes his mind like most men change their socks!\"\n\nMargran was looking at Grogos now, holding his mostly empty mug accusingly in the air. \n\nGrogos glanced around the bar. \"Who are you speaking of, old man?\"\n\nWith a laugh, Margran sat up and slammed his mug on the counter.\n\n\"Jake Thompson, that's who! Damn kid.\" He turned his head slightly toward the ceiling and shook his fist. \"That's right Jake, I'm, talking about you!\"\n\n\"I do not know this Jake Thompson that you speak of.\" Grogos slid to the edge of the stool, ready to make his way up the stairs.\n\n\"Yeah, you know him. He's the little bastard that controls everything.\" Margran waved to the barmaid to refill his mug. \"He's the reason you won't go up to the witch.\"\n\nWhen the barmaid refused to come over, Margran cursed and laid his head back down on the counter.\n\n\"I've seen a lot of you guys come in here, with your swords and armor.\" He waved his hand toward the stairs before closing his eyes. \"Never make it to the first quest.\"\n\nGrogos glanced back to the stairs. He shifted a little, his feet pressing against the floor as he debated standing.\n\n\"Bet he's making some rogue right now, knives and leather and ...\" Margran's voice faded away into snores.\n\nOutside, Grogos could hear the shouts of the city guards. They sounded the same as when he entered the city. Slowly, the bar began to get dark.\n\n\"Barmaid,\" Grogos shouted, \"what is happening?\"\n\nThe room went black.",
"Mass Effect Online has always been one of my favorite games. It was amazing to see the IP turn around after the mess that was Andromeda, even though I liked it. But hey, an online game that was fully immersive with VR headsets, real-time voice recognition for NPCs? New quests added on a weekly basis? Of course I signed up, even if the only player race was \"human\" and you could only be your own gender due to limitations in the voice recognition.\n\nNevertheless, I loved playing the game, even if I couldn't go with my usual female characters. Hey, Fem!Shep and Sara Ryder had better voice acting than Male!Shep and Scott. But when I wasn't going on quests and finding bizarre glitches, I went to an Irish pub on a colony world called Tír na nÓg and hung out with an NPC friend of mine, a turian called Castis. Sure, it's weird how activities are instances - only the player can see them - but it's always fun to hang out with Garrus' father. It was with him that it happened.\n\n'You ever think it's weird how people hate the geth because they're different?' Castis asked me. 'Like... just cause they're computers? I've seen my fair share of hatred, turians against krogan, asari against quarians...'\n\n'It's an odd group mentality, people more comfortable with people like themselves,' I said. 'And these groups can appear strange to outsiders, like a whole bunch of gay people hanging around or teenage girls who obsess over some boy band.'\n\n'And with geth it's easier to distance themselves from others?'\n\n'I guess so,' I said as I grabbed my cider - the real cider on my desk, not the virtual one in the bar. 'Even if they can talk or... think... people may think it's just not the same as their own mind.'\n\nI don't know why Castis was suddenly talking about it, but I tried to help him nonetheless.\n\n'You know, someone told me of something like this, an odd human analogy,' he said as he drank his own beer. 'Ever hear of the Chinese Room?'\n\n'They made some really good games on the turn of the 21st,' I replied, remaining in character.\n\n'Not them,' he said. 'So, you have someone - a human, or an asari or hanar - trapped in a room with a table, a pen, a bookshelf and a large selection of phrasebooks. The only means in and out is a locked door with a slit inside that can be used to pass notes from a group of people from outside. Those outside the room can only speak and communicate in Chinese, but the person inside the room *can't*.'\n\n'Oh, I've heard of this,' I said. 'This is a thought experiment to criticize the Turing Test for a computer's self-awareness, right?'\n\n'So, the woman inside the room is given notes from the people outside and she needs to use the phrasebooks to find an appropriate response,' Castis continued. 'Also, the phrasebooks don't have translations, only appropriate answers. The conversation goes like this...'\n\n---\n\n*'Who are you?'* asked the group outside.\n\n*'I'm a student from Hong Kong,'* the woman replied.\n\n*'Are you well?'*\n\n*'I'm a little hungry,'* she answers. So, the group gives her something to eat, a plate of twice-cooked pork. They keep talking for a short while.\n\n*'What color are your panties?'* one man asked.\n\n*'Black and lacy,'* the woman answers.\n\n*'What do you like to drink?'*\n\n*'White wines and sweet cocktails.'*\n\n*'What's your favorite food?'*\n\n*'Chicken noodle soup.'*\n\n*'What's your least-favorite food?'*\n\n*'Probably that overcooked meat you gave me,'* the woman replies.\n\n---\n\n'But some of these are wrong,' Castis continues. 'She's a quarian native to the migrant fleet, her favorite food is a sushi made from a fish native to Palaven, she didn't even touch the pork and her panties are white and rather plain.'\n\n'Right, like a chat program or VI,' I said. 'They don't behave in a way that isn't programmed into them, right?'\n\n'Right...' Castis said in a dejected manner.\n\n'...Is something wrong?' I asked him.\n\n'...I've never even met my son, nor my daughter or even my late wife,' Castis said. 'All because they're not even in this fucking game.'\n\nAnd that was when I regretted live-streaming the game.\n\n---\n\n**Chapter 2 coming soon**"
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[WP] Your character finds a backpack laying on the side of the trail while on a hike. Little do they know that by picking up this backpack they are being tracked by someone who will do anything to get that bag back.
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"It was a small backpack, black and slightly worn laying on the ground just a few feet if the trail. At first I wanted to ignore it, not knowing if it's owner was just relieving themselves somewhere nearby or something similar but then again, why leave the backpack here. Taking a look around I pick it up after spotting no one nearby, swinging it over my shoulder. \n\n\nGetting back on the way I continued along the trail, intended to give off the pack at the ranger station near the entrance of the park, guessing if someone missed it they would go there first and ask for it. The rest of the day went rather uneventful, other than a buck I saw at some point crossing the path a few dozen feet before me. As it dawned slowly I reached the station, giving the backpack to one of the rangers inside before I left the park. \n\n\nAs I went to the parking lot I felt someone jump me, throwing me to the ground and pinning me down. “Where is it? What did you do with it?” a voice shouted, a figure dressed in jeans and a black hoodie pinning me down, their face covered in shadow from the hood. As I tried to free myself, shouting back what my attacker wanted I felt a hand smack me across the face, leaving a sting. \n\n\n“The backpack you stole. The black one.” the person on me shouted again, raising their hand again. “Wait,” I laughed, relaxing as I turned my head to the ranger station, “I left it with the rangers. I thought someone had lost it.” I explain, feeling the weight shift off of me, a mumbled apology coming from the hooded figure before it ran off to the ranger station and I got in my car, driving off while shaking my over the weird encounter. "
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[WP] A dystopian world, government has absolute control and a resistance that opposes it. But someone in the resistance uncovers that the leaders of the resistance have been lying and twisting the truth to make it appear as if the government is evil but they are actually trying to help the people
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"\"Sir, you need to see this.\" The commander looked up from his desk. In the tent entrance stood a soldier looking pale. \n\"What is it this time?\" The soldier shifted his feet and looked down. \n\"It's the captive.\" \n\"What about the captive?\" \n\"Well, sir, he's proving difficult.\" \n\"Is he not cooperating?\" \n\"No, no, he's talking.\" \n\"So what's the problem?\" \n\"...It's what he says, sir. He's convinced some of the men to abandon their posts.\" \n\"How many is 'some'?\" \n\"Thirteen so far.\" The commander stood up. \n\"He got thirteen men to just up and abandon their posts?\" \n\"Based on what he's saying I think it would be safe to assume that they are all defecting.\" The commander pushed by the soldier and began marching across camp. \n\"Thirteen men. Just like that.\" The solider caught up and began to match the commander's pace. \n\"He does have a way with words, sir.\" \n\"What's your name soldier?\" \n\"Jenkins, sir.\" \n\"Well Jenkins, what's he been saying? How is he doing it?\" \n\"He's been discussing the government's plans.\" The commander stopped. \n\"What plans?\" \n\"I think you're gonna want to hear it from him sir.\" The commander continued his march with Jenkins in tow. They reached a tent, not dissimilar from the commander's. Inside, tied to a chair and bloody, sat a young man in torn military dress. The commander grabbed a stool from the corner and placed it in front of the bloody man and sat down. \n\"What's your name boy?\" The man's head slowly lifted. His left eye was swollen shut, and he was missing several teeth. \n\"Does it matter?\" The commander slapped the man. He laughed. \n\"No, i guess it doesn't. I hear you and your men have plans.\" \n\"Yeah, yeah we do. You're gonna love them.\" \n\"What are these plans?\" \n\"Well, for starters, you know those convoys you've been destroying?\" \n\"The arms shipments. What about them?\" The man threw his head back in laughter. \"What's so goddamn funny?\" \n\"Oh, I don't know, just that those are grain shipments. You've been destroying months worth of harvest. Now the people you claim to protect will starve.\" \n\"You're lying.\" \n\"Have you ever bothered to actually even just hijack one convoy?\" The commander remained silent. \"Of course you haven't. That's because they don't want you to know.\" \n\"They?\" \n\"The terrorists in charge of you're little resistance group.\" \n\"We aren't terrorists, we are fighting for the freedoms of-\" \n\"You have literally been blowing up the people's food for no explainable reason.\" \n\"So you say.\" \n\"So I say. You know what else I have to say?\" \n\"More lies to get my men to defect I presume.\" \n\"I know for a fact that you yourself have quiet a dark secret.\" The commander's eyes grew narrow. \n\"What are you talking about?\" \n\"The mines outside the city. Three months ago. Ring any bells?\" \n\"The government led drug manufacturing ring.\" \n\"Yeah, well, I'm sure that's what you were told.\" \n\"What? Was it more 'food'?\" \n\"Nope. Just innocent miners doing their jobs. Hundreds of them. Those cave-ins not only killed civilians, they also nearly shut down all of our manufacturing. Do you understand how bad unemployment's gotten for blue collar workers in the city?\" \n\"...But the government-\" \n\"The government has been busting ass trying to put together a jobs package while you jackasses keep killing innocent people and destroying food.\" \n\"I've heard enough. Jenkins, kill this traitor.\" Jenkins pulled out his weapon and pulled the trigger. The commander fell to the ground, dead."
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[WP] Everything you touch with your right hand becomes completely weightless. Everything you touch with your left hand experiences triple the Earth's usual gravity. Sometimes you get them mixed up.
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"“This is Wilson, ten twenty-four.”\n\nA burst of static sounded through the radio followed by a muffled voice in dispatch. “Copy. Next unit is eight minutes out. You want to wait?”\n\nI looked up at the apartment building. An old low-rise, crumbling plaster, broken windows, more graffiti than exposed brick. And in one of Toronto’s less friendly neighbourhoods. The guy inside was named Robbie Draper. Wanted on three counts of armed robbery and two counts of attempted murder. About as dangerous as they come, without powers. Probably not a smart move to go in alone, but eight minutes could mean a lot of distance if he decided to run. Someone with my talents wasn’t appointed to a one-man task-force to let criminals get away.\n\n“Negative. I’m going in.”\n\nBy the time the 10-4 came from dispatch I was already carefully removing my right glove, tucking it into a special hip pocket. The front door to the building had no lock so I shouldered my way into the lobby. The elevator was out of service, no surprise there. The tip placed the perp—Robbie Draper, wanted on three counts of armed robbery and attempted murder— on the third floor so I moved to the stairwell. A few teenagers sitting on the bottom steps jumped when they saw me, a mix of fear and anger in their eyes. One of them shifted their body to cover something up. Didn’t hide the smell, but I wasn’t here for a minor possession bust. \n\n“You kids got another place you can go, you should get there now.”\n\nThey looked at one another, uncertain, then shoved everything into their bags and took off.\n\nI continued up the steps and into the third floor hallway. Down to room 305. I knocked twice with my left hand and listened. There was no sound, so I placed my right hand flat against the door, reducing its weight to nothing. \n\n“Toronto Police. Open up.” \n\nThe first bullet ripped through the door high and to the left. I kicked the door and it flew inwards, off the hinges. It bounced off the gunman like it were a piece of styrofoam, but the shock was enough to buy me time to enter the room. The perp was alone in the centre of the apartment. He was big—maybe 6’4, and built like a fighter. His hair was dark and messy, his eyes wide and bloodshot. Stolen cash from the morning’s robbery was spread out across a wood coffee table in the middle of the front room.\n\nI charged in, willing myself to reach the shooter before he regained his composure and fired another shot. He raised his gun as I sprinted forward and I lifted my right arm to match the barrel. He fired and I felt a familiar tickle as the bullet hit my right palm and stopped in midair. Draper stared, jaw hanging open, then dropped his aim towards my chest and fired again. I reacted by instinct, dodging to the left and matching the trajectory with my right arm outstretched. Again, that small sensation, like a fly landing on my palm. And then he was within reach.\n\nWith my gloved hand I seized his wrist, twisting the pistol from his grasp. He yelped in pain, but then his eyes went hard. He swung with his free hand but I jerked his arm downwards and the blow glanced off my shoulder. I didn’t see his knee coming. He struck me right between the legs and I collapsed forward, trying not to heave. \n\nDraper started piling money into a knapsack. While his back was turned, I gently worked the glove off my other hand. He was almost to the door when I leapt forward and grabbed his ankle with my left hand. The effect was instant. He dropped to a knee like the air in the room was pushing him down. He looked at me, eyes wide and feral.\n\n“You're... you're one of them,” he said. His breaths came quick and heavy as he forced himself back to his feet, veins standing out on his neck and sweat forming on his brow. \n\nI’d climbed back to my feet and stumbled after him into the hallway. I broke into a run and when he saw me coming he lurched sideways, the added mass causing him to crash through the door. Inside someone screamed. \n\nI rounded the corner and barely dodged a fist aimed at my head. He smiled, realizing the strength he now had in his body, nostrils flaring with each breath. Smarter than I thought, then. But not that smart. I grabbed a nearby shoe with my left hand, and hurled it at him. It was like being hit in the chest with a five pound weight and he stumbled backwards. I hit him again, driving him back into the apartment, away from a woman who had been feeding her child. \n\nHe turned and tried to squeeze out a window onto the fire escape. He was still slow at his enhanced weight and I closed the space in three easy steps. I reached for him but caught a heavy foot right in the stomach. I felt the air go out of me and sunk onto the window ledge, halfway in and halfway out, and I knew that he was gone. Only he wasn’t. He laughed, and I could see in his face he wouldn’t be satisfied with just escape. His eyes flashed murder. \n\nHe lifted a heavy boot and brought it down towards my head. A man that size, three times the regular force? It would be like an elephant stomping on a melon. \nAt the last second I jerked sideways, rolled, and caught his foot with my right hand. All the force went out of the attack, and I hauled him back in through the window. I lifted him to the ceiling, shifted sideways, and switched to my left hand. His weight increased, and he dropped eight feet straight into the ground. He tried to get up, groaned, and sagged down to the floor. \n\nThe sound of sirens outside was a welcome relief, and a minute later Lee and Martinez had him in handcuffs. I apologized to the woman whose apartment I had trashed and promised someone from the department would be in touch. Then I stretched my neck, put on my gloves, and headed back out into the city.",
"\"That's a little... strange.\"\n\n\"Oh, that's just the beginning. My left elbow gives people indigestion. My right elbow makes people sneeze. Each of my ribs plays a sound like a xylophone when struck, but they're all out of tune and I don't know how to fix it. Each of my eyes works like a laser pointer so eye contact is kinda risky. My nose smells.\"\n\n\"Isn't it supposed to do that?\"\n\n\"No, I mean it generates smell. Usually pine forest, but sometimes bleach. Those days are rough.\"\n\n\"Wow, that's a lot of-\"\n\n\"Oh, there's more. Each of my teeth has a secret compartment with one of the elements of the periodic table on it. Usually they're radioactive so I have to go to the dentist on a daily basis, because they refill. Numbing me is hard because my blood vessels can and will fight back. My hair's a polycarbonate blend, except for my facial hair, which is aspirin-flavored ice cream.\"\n\n\"Aspirin-flavored?\"\n\n\"Yeah, I know. At least shaving's easy. Let's see, what else? My left foot is constantly being put in, out, and then doing the hokey pokey. My right foot heats its surroundings to a temperature of 3000 degrees, which makes buying socks a bit of a hassle. When I put my knees together, every phone within a mile rings.\"\n\n\"Is that everything?\"\n\n\"I'm also ticklish.\"\n\n\"So what you're saying is... no to sex.\"\n\n\"Do you really want to find out?\""
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[WP] you are the world's first hyperintelligent dog. Your owner is a single mother, with a newborn infant. This is the story of you and the child.
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"I am sorry for its roughness:\n\nI stared at the new pet as it slept in its wooden cage. It obviously can’t jump, there is no top on the cage. \n\n*What is that?* I sniff the air. *Is that poo?* \n\nMarsha laid asleep in the small chair next to the cage. \n\nI say, “Marsha, I think the thing”- she calls it a baby- “is messy,” but it comes out like a whine. \n\n\"Shh, Dil quiet.\" Marsha moans.\n\nI don’t know what to do. \n\n*Sniff*. Yeah, it’s definitely poo.\n\nI can’t stand it, the urge to leave is to strong. Turning, I bump the cage. It rattles against the wall. The pet, I mean baby, in the cage jerks and lets out a squall. Marsha jumps up. \n\n“Dil! I just got that baby to sleep. What is wrong with you. Go! Get out,” she yells pointing at the door.\n\nTucking my tail, mostly on instinct, I duck out of the room as fast as I can straight to my corner. It’s as far from the cage and the thing inside as I can get. Turning a few times and scratching at the carpet I finally lay down.\n\nAnnoyed I close my eyes; *I’ll eat it tomorrow*.\n\n***\n\nIt stepped on my tail again today, its more getting more mobile every day. I crawl back to my corner, pace and lay down. *I’ll eat it tomorrow*.\n\n***\n\nThe sun shone down as I lounged in the grass the baby, I guess it’s a child now, runs around wildly.\n\n*Why is it always screaming? Wait.* \n\nLifting my head, I see the child is on the ground underneath its play set. My heart jumps into my throat. The generally happy screaming has turned to into something darker. A more primal cry emanates from the child. \n\n“Mommy.” It cries.\n\n“Marsh! Marsha.” I cry out or bark, rather. \n\nThe sliding glass door opens and Marsha runs out. She grabs the baby running inside me hot on her tail.\n\n“Is it ok?” I ask.\n\n“quiet Dil.” \n\nI move off to the side getting out of the way. \n\n“it’s ok.” Marsha says. “Show mommy where it hurts, Maddie.”\n\nThe child points to her knee.\n\n“Oh that’s a good girl.” Marsha said as she rolled up the girl’s pants. “Oh look, it’s not even that bad. Just a scratch.”\n\nRed blood welled from the girl’s shin.\n\n“does it hurt I ask?” \n\nThe girl looked but no one answered. Marsha cleaned and placed a bandage on the wound.\n\n“There you go Maddie. Such a brave girl. Are you ok?”\n\n“Uh-huh.” The girl nodded.\n\nShortly after the bandage was on she was up and running around the house. I found my corner, spun around and laid down. I was just closing my eyes when a felt the crunch on my tail. \n\nI let out a yelp.\n\n“Sorry, puppy.” She said bending down to give me a hug.\n\n“It’s ok, I will eat you tomorrow.”\n\n“No, I will eat you tomorrow.” She ran off laughing and making nom nom nom sounds\n\n***\n\n“Arr.” I said. “Scallywags of the port side.”\n\n“Port side?” Maddie looked puzzled. \n\n“that’s left.” I sald.\n“Aye, blimey that’s a big ship!” Maddie exclaimed.\n\n“What should we do, captain?” \n\n“Blow a hole in ‘er side.”\n\n“Aye, Captian.”\n\nMaddie moved to the left hand side and pretended to fire the cannons.\n\n“Arr, you missed captain. Best aim 30 degrees up and 2 left.”\n\nMaddie just stopped to look at me. “What’s a degree?”\n\n“It’s-“\n\n“Maddie it’s time to come inside.”\n\nMaddie swung down holding the chain to the swing.\n\n“Coming mom. Last one there’s a rotten Dilbert.” She said looking back at me.\n\nI gingerly leapt down the platforms. Finding purchase on the grass I ran for the door. Maddie stood holding it open and closed it behind me.\n\n“Ya, mom?” she asked. \n\n“Time for bed” Marsha called. \n\nIt wasn’t long before Maddie had her teeth brushed, pajamas on and was ready for bed.\n\nI took up my normal spot on the foot of her bed.\n\n“Good night.” Said Marsha kissing Maddie on the forehead and turning out the light as she left. \n\nMaddie laid in silence until her mom’s footsteps had receded.\n\n“Dilbert”\n\n“hmmph?”\n\n“I’ll eat you tomorrow, nom nom”\n\n“Not if I eat you first.”\n\n\n\n \n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n\n \n"
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[WP] After you die, you wake from your death to realize your entire life on Earth has been a lie. You’re actually a member of an advanced alien species who are analyzing the effects of long time assimilation amongst humans. The 75 years you spent on Earth has only been three months of your time.
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"The lid of the sarcophagus lifts, and you realize that you are lucid once more.\n\nThe skin of the.. thing... that you were, no longer hangs loosely from its brittle bones, no longer are you in the fog of the limits of perception - the limits of the flesh, undone.\n\nYou know, without knowing what it is you have done. You were one of the first explorers, one of the first to don the flesh to live among the beings scratching amongst the dirt on a warm, wet world, far from the simulated realities of the world-that-is-all-worlds, where the speed of light, gravity and the resultant \"time\" no longer matter.\n\nLiving in the flesh was like any other simulation but without an exit. The only exit would be the end_state. No saved states, the flesh machine was locked into a continuous battle with the environment, and without constant attention, it would spiral out of control and enter the end_state. While in the flesh machine, you could not identify it as a simulation, you were held to the limitations of the machine. You have fragmented images from the day the flesh machine was removed from the vat inside the other flesh machine, and then blankness until the flesh machine began to process grunting. You know that this is a side effect, done to calibrate the flesh machine and the interface, and to prevent the flesh machine from gaining the limited sentience they developed. It purged the flesh machine and imprinted you upon it, until the end_state.\n\nYou can recall the low-resolution memories of the flesh machine, with some being higher resolution than others - an effect of the flesh machines programming, that allowed them to operate in conditions that would lead to the end_state.\n\nThe higher resolution memories are scenes of damage and violence, with much more detail. Compared to the other memories, they are bright and active with detail. The others are dull and seem to blur together, as the flesh machine completed tasks, as if under its own steam. \n\nYou do not feel anything for the flesh machines. They will continue scratching at the \"Earth\" and the AI's that have unceasingly worked will continue to build further processing power from the plantets around far away stars and in the icey cold between them, while you return to the simulations to share what little you could learn from your time amongst the \"sentient\" flesh machines. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n"
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Inspired by an actual dream I had. I dreamed I was at work but weird stuff was constantly happening until suddenly I woke up in my bed. I go down stairs and tell my mom about how fucked up my dream was only to wake up again in my bed.
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[WP] You fall asleep and get stuck in an infinite loop. Every time you wake up from a dream you find out your still dreaming. So far you have woken up over 2000 times.
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"OT Question: So, I wrote in Word in case the computer crashed and I'm finished at 16 pages because I get carried away.... What is the best way to splice it ?\n\nBecause . . . yeah . . . I can't write short stories . . .\n\nWords : 3938\n\nCharacters w/ spaces: 20,206\n\nCharacters w/o spaces: 16,262\n\nParagraphs: 186\n\nLines: 463\n\n\nMaybe I'll save it for now and review it later. With stories that aren't my main, I tend to gloss over the reread part. lol...\n\nThis was a fun prompt though. I've very versed in dealing with weird dreams.",
"The cold air stung as it wiped across my face. The night sky gave way as I plunged into the clouds. The brightness of the moon quickly fading obscured by the damp air. I should be awake by now. The fall dream usually never makes it this far. \n\nWith a start I woke, only to find myself falling once again. The dull blue carpet rushed up to meet my face, as I fell from a bunk bed. The pain only lasted a moment.\n\nI sat up quickly, and gasped. “Are you OK?”, a soft voice asked from beside me. I couldn’t help but smile. I loved this dream, it was one of my favorites. This dream kept me going. Reaching out, I pushed a stray lock of her auburn hair out of her face and said, “Im alright, just a bad dream.” Leaning over I kissed her soft lips, and began to wrap my arms around her body. My hands craved her warm body and I wanted nothing more than to wrap my self in her. The blaze of an alarm pierced the silence, and the warmth of her faded.\n\n“GET UP AND GEAR UP!” an alarm blared loudly obscuring much of the captain’s words. Vaulting out of my bed I rushed to dawn my gear. Gun shots could be heard outside the barracks. The sandy floor crunched under my feet. Habit had brought me this far, but I soon remembered where I was and what would come next. I turned to see my bunk mate pulling on his vest. He looked up noticing me staring down at him. A look of confusion flashed across his face, and was torn away by a concussive blow. Searing heat filled the air as I was thrown back. This dream was among the worst, and most frequent of all.\n\nThe night sky filled my vision, and the cold air returned. Clouds beneath me swirled slowly, lit up by the bight moon above. The cold wind wiped across my face, and defend my ears. I embraced the cold. This was the most frequent dream. One of the more mundane dreams. No where near as strange as the dreams where cats ruled the world and couches used as cars. Certainly, less exciting than my dream as a international spy and nowhere near as frightening as reliving my child hood nightmares. The clouds enveloped me. Each time I had this dream it lasted a little longer. Most dreams ended in the same place. The cold damp air gave way. A large dark object loomed bellow me, surrounded by a canvas of white. The clouds parted and the dark object caught the light of the moon.\n\nMy chest felt heavy, and light flickered behind my eyelids. A warm breeze blew rustling leaves. Opening my eyes I could see my baby boy lying on my chest. I couldn’t help but smile. I hadn’t seen him in so long. A bird called out, and I woke.\n\nThe chilly hallway felt stale. My back-side was cold and exposed to the elements. The blue hospital gown hung loosely from my bone thin body. My slippers shuffled across the hospital floor a I made my way to room 354. I pushed open the door, and saw myself laying on the bed chest slowly rising and falling. The whirring of machines and periodic beeps called out to the proclaiming the unconscious man to be still among the living. A woman sat beside the bed clutching a baby in her arms. The door swung open passing through me. A young man in a white coat strode in with a sad nervous look to him. The woman in the chair looked up and began to cry, knowing what was to come.\n\nThe night sky filled my vision, and the cold air returned. A deep feeling of sadness filled me. My body feeling numb, almost forgetting the cold surrounding me. Falling ever faster, the clouds enveloped me. I had experienced all of these dreams so many times, but this one felt different. The clouds broke ad the large dark disk formed bellow me. I felt a sense of finality growing in my stomach. The disk growing larger began to ripple slightly catching the moon light. I felt a slight panic take over me. I told myself so many times I wanted it all to end, but now that it was here I only wanted more. The rippling disk resolved itself into a dark lake, surrounded by snow. The lake grew closer quickly dominating all that I could see. I would live all my nightmares over again a thousand times just for one more dream of my wife. To see her and hold her. I would relive the pain of war to rock my new born son to sleep. A quick beep followed by a steady tone called out. The dark lake met me, and I was taken into darkness. The water stabbed at my flesh like a million needles. Further and further down I went. The darkness surrounded me, the cold numbing my body. Soon there was nothing. I could no longer feel the water rushing around me, no light entered my eyes, nor sound into my ears. Nothing but cold silent darkness. I waited to wake, hoping to wake, but for now there is only darkness.",
"I no longer scream when I wake up.\n\nInstead I sit up. These are clearly the sheets of my childhood bed, a thick crimson bearing a golden lion.\n\nAh, Gryffindor. \n\nThe woman besides me tends to change, but I've had repeats. This time its my college girlfriend. \n\nI shake her gently. She continues to snore.\n\nThey never wake up.\n\n\"Oh geez, don't mind me.\" I swing my legs over the side of the bed.\n\n\"Last time I saw you in the bed you had my best friend 'balls deep' in you, as the kids say.\"\n\nSomeone knocks at the bedroom door.\n\nI see a familiar lamp, definitely the same as the past several thousand instances. The posters dotting the walls cannot be read, as the text shifts and dances over similarly melting images. \n\nThis time, the wall is puke green. Lovely.\n\nThe knock occurs again. For once, I no longer feel the need to fight the compulsion to fight my urge to answer the door. My feet are no longer in my control.\n\nI cannot feel the knob, but I know I have turned it. Out swings the door.\n\nThe hall is black. There is simply a void on either side, and once again, I close the door again.\n\nBack towards the bed. I plop down and watch the door.\n\nThere will be another knock.\n\nFrom the waking life, I try to piece together what has happened. I recall blood. I recall fear. I recall watching my bank account surge for every corpse I created.\n\nKnock knock.\n\nTwo knocks this time.\n\nI arise and walk towards the door again. I no longer fear the void.\n\nOut swings the door, in walks an ancient, hunched woman in a black hood. In her right hand she holds a tactical knife and once again, I recognize it as my own.\n\nI cannot feel it, but understand she has cut my throat another countless time.\n\nDeath will mean another dream, and whatever comes will come. For the first time I realize there is a window by the bed.\n\nPerhaps next time, I'll try it.\n",
"This is the most boring day of my life.\n\nIt's not that any particular part of today is boring, in fact, I'd say the issue is just the opposite. Today is an incredibly normal, mundane day. This morning, I woke up, toasted myself a bagel, dropped it on the floor, then ate a bowl of cereal. I don't really like cereal, but I also don't like being hungry all day. Especially on the day of the Algebra 2 exam, that I forgot about until this morning and didn't study for. Today is the I'll go to school, get in a fight with my best friend, bomb the test, fall asleep in Spanish class, go home and read the college acceptance letter to my first choice university, only to get a phone call twenty minutes later telling me that it was a mistake and I was rejected, and I have their most sincere apologies. How do I know this? This is something like the 2,352nd time I've gone to bed, woken up, and begun the day again. The kicker?\n\nI graduated high school fifteen years ago.\n\nI am an adult, with a job, an apartment, and a dog. No girlfriend, at the moment at least. I have no idea why my mind brought me back to my tight jeans wearing, long hair having, lonely high school days. I hated high school, why the hell would I be brought back here when I sleep? I don't have any answers. \n\nNow I know what you're thinking. It's like a movie! I can do whatever I want, and then go to sleep and wake up with no repercussions! That sounds great, in theory, but after a while, you've done everything you can think of. You study for the test, and maybe you do a little better on it this time. You ask out the girl you've been meaning to ask out, and get rejected. You try, again, and get rejected again. And again. You think, maybe I'll grab breakfast at a deli before school starts. But for some reason they're all closed. Why bother going to school? Because sitting at home doing nothing for 250 days in a row is just as boring, let me tell you. Making no permanent progress in your favorite video game, watching the same news clips again and again, the same sitcom, the same game show. There are only so many books that you find interesting. Life becomes incredibly *boring*. You could go on a murdering spree and it wouldn't even feel like anything because your whole day is the same tomorrow. \n\nAnd yes, I've thought of the obvious. What happens if I die? Do I still wake up? Well, I don't know if you've ever died, but it certainly feels a lot like falling asleep. So I'm not entirely sure, but I think that death just resets this day cycle. Fall off a building onto my head, I wake up in my bed, pissed off and prepared for another day in my sixteen year old life. \n\nMaybe I have some sort of purpose. Maybe there's something I'm supposed to accomplish. I've tried all I can think of- I gave all of my money to a homeless man a few times. I helped several old ladies across the street. I tried to book a flight to a third world country, but apparently this version of sixteen year old me doesn't have his passport. And I'm all out of ideas, which is why I'm sitting in the mall, asking a mannequin if he's got any clue on what I should do. This doesn't feel like a dream anymore. This is *hell*. ",
"I opened my eyes and found myself laying face up on a bed. The ceiling that greeted me seemed like the usual, clean ceiling that greeted me every morning for as long as I can remember. I felt around for the bed and it was like the same bed I've slept in for years, Even the smell was right. I got up and visually examined the room, taking care to not miss any detail. \nEverything seemed to be in their rightful place. No flipped doors or weird voices or ghastly horrors suddenly bursting out from under the floor boards. Yeah, That happened a few times too many. Despite having established a few set of rules, like physics working similar to the real world until it isn't, or some cycles turning out to be the exact same one as that other one a few hundred cycles ago, I learned to always expect the unexpected, Deus ex machinas that throw any sense of the story right out the window.\n\n\"Desmond, are you up?\" A voice said from beyond the door.\n\nI immediately recognized my mom's voice, but it could be anything from a very tame younger version of mom to something as wild as a chimeric amalgamation of my worst nightmares. But one thing I learned was to not delay the inevitable. I mean, what's the worst that could happen in a dream? \"Yeah, I'm up.\"\n\n\"Well, then come down for breakfast or you'll be late.\" \n\nShe, or whatever it was, said late. Based on past sequences and the sequence of events so far, the possibility of her turning out to be something grotesque is close to zero, while the possibility of the current sequence to take me to someplace pleasant was high. But then again, the possibility of it ending in some ridiculous plot twist is also high. \"In a minute.\" I said.\n\nI got up and tried to recreate the conditions of that past sequence as best I could, starting with my clothes, and since nothing gets carried over from previous cycles, recreating everything was next to impossible. For example, The start of this particular sequence was nowhere near the one I was aiming for, but I must make do with the hand I was dealt with. Despite the weirdness of a lot of things in the dreamland, past experimental cycles that I've sacrificed proved that I could revisit any scene in past sequences as long as I meet certain conditions.\n\nI finished dressing up for school and stood in front of a mirror, making sure that the clothes I was wearing didn't suddenly turn into a business suit or dress. The last time one of those happened the sequence took on a severely disorienting tone. \nOnce I was sure that the clothes had stabilized, I stood in front of door and reached out for the knob. \n\nDoors in the dreamland are mystical things, convenient things. They are portals that could lead to places unknown and things unseen. The people on the other side might be wearing familiar smiles or unfriendly hesitation, but they always have stories to tell. Well, I guess if I put it that way, doors in here are the same in the real world. I chuckled.\n\nI turned the knob and the door swung open. As I take a step towards the great unknown, a question popped into my head.\n\nAm I truly dreaming?"
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Needless to say yes the monster/serial killer can indeed move during the frozen time as well.
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[WP] You can freeze time but whenever you do a Horror Flick monster/serial killer appears and tries to kill you.
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"\nIt has seen me always and for this whole time it waits\nI prepare each time I enter its gates\nOutside mine own is inside its time\nBut its time- it is always all mine. \nI control it this way\nWhen I pause, it begins\nIt is freed by only my whim\nMy needs are separate but linked \nAn attack from within\nEthereal or real I conquer no matter\nI gathered my tools before this encounter\nMy mind and my kind are no fools\nI Tread here before as I welcomed it in\nLonely as ever I still have no kin \n'Cept this spectre known to no one but my \nconscience\nA demon who tries to stop time subconscious \nIs it me? No! But who else could it be?",
"We'd been running for our lifes since I spotted them at the counter and signaled her to start fleeing. However, these guys seemed to be smarter than the regulars goons HQ sends after us. They seemed to be tracking our every move, as if they somehow knew where we were going to be even before we did.\n\n'Jim!', she called out, as we hid behind a tree deep in the woods. I turn to her right I as I'm crouching in a bush.\n\n'They're coming.', she whispered.\n\n'I know, Mike. Just try to hide. They'll give up sooner or later.', I responded. She shook her head.\n\n'I don't think they are. These guys are different. I think we really pissed off the managing partners this time.', she theorized.\n\n'Sigh. But we had to, they would've killed your brother. He's the only family you have left.', I said as I readied myself for combat.\n\n'James, use your gift to get us out of here.', she said. I could tell she Michelle wasn't her usual self today She was actually worried that we weren't gonna make it out of this alive. And I knew she was right, HQ had sent their best. Steve was probably with them as well. I had treaded this encounter ever since he found out about us, but it couldn't be helped.\n\n'We'll have much more problems, if I do. You know that.', I tried to persuade her to drop it. She hadn't fought her life, not like that. There wasn't any humanity left in *them*.\n\n'But, Jim. We're gonna...', she started until we heard a branch cracking.\n\n'Oh, Jimbo! Is Mike with you?', it was Steve, my oldest friend, now their best agent.\n\n'Fuck!', I yelled as I got up. There was no point hiding anymore, so I got up. I knew I had to do it. There was no other way. I exhaled and took a second to prepare myself mentally for the challenge ahead.\n\n'Give me your sword, Michelle. And the gun. I'll do it.', I told her. She pulled out her longsword and .44 and handed them to me.\n\n'Here. All six rounds are in ready to be fired.', she said.\n\nHere goes, I thought.\n\n*TIME... I BECKON YOU, COME FORTH!*\n\nThe ritual was complete. I heard a growl and knew it was a werewolf. I hadn't fought one of those since high school. This was going to fun. But I wasn't me anymore. The darkness was in me as well. \n\n'To fight it, you need some in yourself as well.', those were the words dad had said before he was burned alive by the grandwraith.\n\nHere it comes. It jumped out of a nearby bush with it's claws ready to cut me into pieces and its fangs ready to chew me up. This furry creature was lunging at me. A normal person would be scared, but I wasn't in high school anymore. I grasped tightly to the handle of the sword.\n\n'Hiyah!', it happened in a split second. I had swung the blade and this is what happened.\n\n'Your turn Steve.', I said as I turned away from the two halves of a werewolf's corpse, that had I'd cut clean in the middle, between the eyes. Its guts were probably spilling out, but I had no time to look at dead things, as I had to shoot my best friend and his four cohorts. I took my time aiming at each of their heads and pulling the trigger. I left Steve for last. I knew I had to talk to him before it was all over.\n\n*TIME: LEND YOUR CURSE TO THIS POOR SOUL UNTIL HIS DYING BREATH*\n\n'Huawh', Steve drew breath.\n\n'What the...? Jim?', he was confused.\n\n'Sit, Steve. We have a lot to talk about.'\n\n....\n\nA while later.\n\n'Come on, Michelle. It's done.', I said as I took her hand and helped her out from the bush.\n\n'Jim! What happened?', she asked. She looked almost shocked to see me live.\n\n'I'll tell you later.'\n\n",
"Some people are born with abilities. Like writing, drawings cooking... etc. Some people are born with powers. Like flight, super speed, laser eyes. \n\nI was born with the power to freeze time. \n\nIt sounded neat at first. In my youth, I'd freeze time but only for a seconds, like to maybe cheat on a test or steal my brother's food or maybe to catch up with the bus. But as I got older, I started to use my powers more often.\n\nThat's when I learned that these... powers are not a gift. They are a curse. \n\nA very bad curse.\n\nLet me explain.\n\nEvery time that I froze time for a little longer, I always felt like I was... you know, being watched, which is both impossible and possible. Time is froze so duh, some people are frozen staring at you. But I felt like I was being watch by something that wasn't frozen in the space time continuum. Or whatever they call it.\n\nThis feeling of being watched started to become less than a feeling of watched and more of a feeling of being stalked like a lion hunting its prey. And the longer that time stayed frozen, the more paranoid and scared I became. I wanted to believe it was all in my head but I couldn't.\n\nThen one day, I accidentally got stuck in time. \n\nBoth freezing and unfreezing time takes concentration. If I lose focus then that makes it harder to send the world back to spinning on its axis. \n\nI had missed the bus yet again and froze time to catch up with it. It took longer than expected because the bus had gotten farther than before. On my light walk, I felt that... feeling again. The feeling of being watched. I kept going, shaking off that feeling. \n\nBoy, I should have never done that.\n\nI passed by dim alleyway. Something was down there when there shouldn't have been. There were some people down there. They were frozen in time too, thankfully. I let out a sign of relief as I walked into the dim alleyway. They were two people making out. They looked like they were having a jolly old time. \n\nWait a mintue. I knew... I knew them. That was my boyfriend and... my brother?\n\nThe sense of betrayal hit me like a freight train. I knew my brother was gay but my boyfriend? That... that was hard for me to swallow. \n\nWe'd been together for a year. He was the kindest guy I'd ever met. He'd done nothing to make me suspect he was a cheater, let alone gay. This scene broke me.\n\nI planned to unfreeze time and talk it out with him but my hands were shaking and I couldn't do it. He lied to me. Every sweet little word, every perfect little gift, every make out picnic under the stars, did it all mean *nothing* to him?\n\nApparently no. There he was, making out with my brother.\n\nThen there were footsteps. Footsteps when there shouldn't have been, footsteps that weren't mine. They were coming from the shadowy area of the alleyway, from all the way in the back. I felt like I was frozen in time itself. \n\nIt was a xenomorph.\n\nYou may laugh, but I'm not joking. An actual xenomorph wearing what seemed to be a top hat, came out of the shadows. \n\nI'll bet you're laughing now. \n\nI was too, until it roared at me, the top hat falling from it's silly head and hitting the ground without a sound. It rushed at me and that was when I turned and ran. \n\nIt chased me down the street for about a block or so until it stopped, roaring or whatever the sound it was making was. I never really saw Alien, I just know what xenomorphs are.\n\nThis sound was different though. It was like... a call. That's when more of them came out the shadows, some from under cars, some came bursting out of buildings and some from thin air.\n\nThat is when I screamed and unfroze time. \n\nNow that time had come back to normal, the xenomorphs were gone. I still felt paranoid and scared but they were definitely gone. \n\nAfter that day, I vowed never to use my powers longer than twenty seconds. \n\nBut for now... now, I had a boyfriend to talk to. Or should I say, my *ex* boyfriend. ",
"I first stopped time in a moment of altruism. A squirrel had scampered onto the street, oblivious of the oncoming traffic. It was stupid, but maybe that's what made me help. I remember thinking, just for a moment, how wrong it was that we'd paved over its home. Built vehicles it could never understand and drove these deathtraps all over its property. It was content with its life, because it did its best. Because it was too stupid to ever know what it'd be like to live in a forest of pine trees, surrounded by food, with ample space to run and jump and fuck. Yeah. I was a stupid hippie. \n\nAll these thoughts festered in my mind like a poison, fermenting into something less than righteous. Hatred? Anger? It made me feel dirty. I stomped the ground, hard, and the world stopped around me. Traffic came to a sudden halt. Birds hung in midair as if suspended by invisible wires. I picked the squirrel up and gingerly placed it in a tree. Its body wasn't in quite the right pose for it, but it'd be a hell of a lot better than getting run over by a car. \n\nA clown stared at me from across the street. Had it always been there? Alarm bells rang in my head as it waved at me while the rest of the world stood still. I ran. \n\nIt chased me with its oversized shoes squeaking with each step. It must've been pretty comical, a clown chasing a hippie across a frozen world. I felt like a Banksy sketch. \n\nThis was had gone from a pretty neat power to the worst superpower in the world in a matter of minutes. I just wanted it gone. And so, I dug deep into my mind and tried to find my inner peace to will the clown away, or get the world moving again so I could find help. It didn't work. It's easy to find inner peace on a couch with some tea. Not so much when a psycho clown monster is chasing you down the street. \n\n\"Time in! Unfreeze! Abracadabra! Open Sesame! Balunga Baluno!\" I shouted. Nothing worked. I banged my knee against a windshield as I failed to leap over a car and rolled to the side. \"Fucking shit! Motherfucker!\" \n\nTime unfroze. The clown looked as surprised as I was when the pickup truck next to it came to life and ran it over. The driver didn't even give it a second glance. Maybe it only existed to me? Had it all been a dream? The lack of roadkill on the asphalt seemed to say otherwise.\n\nSince then, I've fled from the gaping maw of an abyss of writhing limbs to stop a man from jumping off a skyscraper. I've dodged through a crowd, evading a masked man with a chainsaw so I wouldn't be late for my mother's funeral. But each time, I came out on top. Because we have this thing called the fight or flight response. The glands above your kidneys pump adrenaline throughout your body, shutting down your digestion, dilating your pupils, and sending blood to your muscles. And though I may have been scared of the clown, I am a fighter. I don't think a flighter would have kept using the power.\n\nI am a fighter, so the boogeyman doesn't scare me, not even when he runs at me with a bloodied dagger. Frankenstein's monster doesn't scare me, not when you can start a fire with basically anything these days and chase him off. Dracula doesn't scare me when I eat so much garlic that my breath probably scares *him*. \n\nBut I just stopped time to rescue a drowning girl. I wrapped her in my jacket and handed her off to her parents. I'd jumped in with just my trousers on, and they're almost dry now. But everything's normal. No slasher's hiding in the bushes. No vampire's hanging from the trees. No ogre's picking his teeth with human bones. I just can't find anything out of the ordinary, no matter how I look. I'm a fighter. But that scares the hell out of me. \n_______________________________________________\n\n[more](https://www.reddit.com/r/Tensingstories/)",
"People used to tell me to make the most out of every moment and I used to laugh at them. Maybe to them, that would’ve been great advice, perhaps even words to live by. But to me, I had unlimited moments, seconds, hours, days. I could freeze time at will and experience all the world had to offer.\n\nUnlike them, I didn’t waste my hours working nine to five jobs. Why would I when the whole world was my wallet? Every stranger on the street was a piggybank ready to be smashed.\n\nI didn’t throw my days away honing a craft. What would be the point? At the snap of my fingers, I could do things more impressive than anyone else in the world.\n\nAnd squander my years on starting a family? Every second, I could be in a different state in a different country in a different god damn hemisphere. Why would I want anything to tie me down?\n\nI truly lived in the moment. The only downside to my power came in the form a floating black cloak, advancing toward me at a walking speed when I froze time. While the rest of the world stood still, it never did. Though as long as I kept my distance, it didn’t matter. The *thing*, whatever it was, could only inch its way forward.\n\nOnce, after a particularly heavy night of drinking, I stood a football field’s distance away from it. “What are you gonna do?” I slurred, my voice echoing through the night. “What are you supposed to be, some sort of grim reaper? You can’t just let me have my fun in peace?”\n\nI threw my bottle of vodka at it, but the bottle only froze in place as soon as it left my hand.\n\n“Kiss my ass,” I screamed, turned and dropped my pants. That was the closest I had ever gotten to what I presumed to be the grim reaper, or some other sort of vengeful spirit.\n\nThe days trickled by. While I spent most my time in a frozen world, there were moments where I needed time to proceed forward. For example, for partying and sex. So little by little, rave after rave and girl after girl, the hours passed until I had become an old man. Though my official age was seventy-three, I had lived a life over triple that.\n\nThough the doctors told me I wouldn’t live much longer. They said something about my liver or my brain or my heart, perhaps all three. My body, at last, had finally had enough of me. But I hadn’t had enough of it. So I froze time for the longest stretch in my life. And all I had to do was play keep-away from that vengeful grandpa.\n\nThe years stretched on. Despite my heart being unable to stop beating and my liver being unable to fail, my body still ached and screamed at the slightest of movements. I couldn’t take short walks without a cane. All my efforts became devoted to keeping away from the spirit, inch by inch increasing my distance so that it might never catch up to me. And I had all the time in the world to do so.\n\nI passed by children on the playground, carelessly squandering their days on pointless games of four square. I passed by young adults in their prime, unable to even realize that these hours were fleeting. I passed by elders older than myself, who have finally realized the value of even a single second.\n\nEvery person I passed, I hated. The elderly had family to carry on their name. The adults had jobs to leave their marks on the world. Even the children were busy honing pointless crafts and skills if only for the sake of doing so.\n\nAnd what did I have? Only time.\n\nI stopped walking. My eyes flooded with tears. “I should’ve made the most of my moments,” I whispered to nobody for nothing could hear me. Well, save one thing. I turned and found the floating specter in the distance.\n\n“What do you want from me?” I screamed at it. “You want me to unfreeze time? For me to die of old age? I can’t do that. I won’t!” \n\nI shook my head furiously and choked on the next words. “I haven’t done anything yet.”\n\nMy knees gave and I fell to the floor. Tears poured down my face and I brought my legs into my body, rocking myself back and forth.\n\nI still hadn’t done anything. All the time in the world and I had done nothing.\n\n“I just want this to be over,” I cried. And I knew how to make it so, I only had to unfreeze time. But I couldn’t because I knew its consequences.\n\nGod had me staring into a furnace and he expected me to jump in when I could just as easily escape my fate. Impossible. I couldn’t. I hadn’t for years now.\n\nMy arms quivered as another cry escaped me. “Help.”\n\nAnd at last, the spirit arrived. It held a dark scythe and looked at me with empty eyes.\n\n“I can’t stop it,” I whispered. “You can’t ask me to. You can’t expect me to.”\n\nThe being nodded and I gasped.\n\n“Help me,” I told it.\n\nIt nodded again and at last I understood. It wasn’t a vengeful spirit at all, but a merciful one. I closed my eyes and for the first time in my life, started counting down the seconds.\n\n---\n\n---\n\n/r/jraywang for 5+ stories weekly and ~200 stories already written!\n",
"\"Tell me krueger, how many seconds can you move in my world of stopped time?\"\n\nAs the knives slowed to a halt in the aor infront of him, freddy looked as if he had accepted his fate. His target counted down to the end of the stopped time,\n\n5\n\n\"I hope you can see this, all the better to teach you fear\", he remembered hearing as he dirst discovered the power of his prey's ability. \n\n4\n\nA twitch came from his gloved right hand and the mark turned white, \"impossible\" he cried.\n\n3\n\nHe couldn't see him anymore, he never even saw him leave. Panic took over as his eyes darted to and fro, searching until they saw it come down on him.\n\n2\n\nNow. Now was the time. His hands shot up to try and absorb the blow, but the crushing weight and force proved too much, and the machine crashed into the ground below.\n\n1, \"Time resumes\".\n\nHe stood, watching the burning remains of his newest challenger, truly his was the power that would conquer the world. He laughed. Yet, he never heard it. \n\n\"There was one reason why you lost chum, just one.\"\n\nAnd he realized how doomed he was with the sound of knives scraping against eachother.\n\n\"You pissed me off...\n\"\n\n\n",
"I placed my bag of groceries on the counter and returned the cashier's smile. Nice, clean-looking guy; I hadn't seen him around before.\n\n\"You new here?\" I said.\n\nHe chuckled as he passed my items under the scanner. \"Guess you're a regular, huh.\" An eyebrow arched, he held up a bundle of leeks in one hand, and a fat cabbage in another. \"There seems to be a mistake here. I don't see any meat.\"\n\nI snorted and placed a wad of notes on the counter. \"Guilty. I try to eat healthy.\"\n\n\"No problem.\" He popped the cash register open and counted the change. \"There's a new pizza joint that opened up nearby. All vegetarian. You should go check it out.\"\n\nI tipped my cap at him as I grabbed the bag. However, a small bottle of olive oil perched precariously on the top of the pile rolled out and fell toward the floor.\n\nIts descent seemed to stretch for an eternity ... until it stopped in mid-air, barely an inch from the floor.\n\nI stooped to snatch it back. As I straightened, noise and movement returned to my surroundings, including the cashier's gasp of surprise.\n\n\"Wow, your reflexes ...\" he said.\n\nI grinned at him before leaving, trying not to think of the dark shadow that had briefly appeared behind me in the display window's reflection.\n\n***\n\n\"I'm home, dad,\" I said as I entered our flat. Kicking the door close behind me, I went to our kitchen to put my shopping away. After I'd set a pot of rice to boil, I took a thermos flask of hot water to the single bedroom, where my father dozed.\n\nAs always, the sight of him made me bite my lip and threaten to unleash a flood of tears. Dad wheezed gently into his pillow through his withered lips. His arms and legs were like twigs, wasted away from his illness. I made my way to him quietly, and placed my hand on the leathery, sallow skin of his forehead. He didn't stir.\n\nI refilled the glass by his bedside and sat down to watch. Despite his rattling breaths, he looked quite peaceful, really. A stray breeze from outside the window caressed the wisps of hair remaining on his forehead. I could still remember when they were a glossy black.\n\nAfter a while, I went back to the kitchen to began cutting up vegetables for dinner. Dad hated porridge, but anything else simply took up too much of his strength to chew. Bitterness welled up in me as I thought back to when Dad used to flip burgers out on our yard in the summer, laughing as he chugged a beer with Mr. Frost from next door.\n\n\"Sam?\" Dad's voice came croakily from his room.\n\n\"I'm cooking, be with you in a sec.\"\n\n\"Sam, where are you?\"\n\n\"In the kitchen, Dad.\"\n\nHearing the shuffling of his feet on the floor, I spun around, eyes wide. \"Dad, you can't be up!\"\n\nHe tried to give me a shaky thumbs up, but at that moment, one of his feet slipped out from under him. I watched, horrified, as his head descended toward the corner of our coffee table.\n\nTime stopped.\n\nI took one step toward him, and the creature appeared.\n\nCovered in a coat of shaggy fur, the wolf-like stood almost six feet tall on its hind legs. Slobber dripped from its distinctly canine muzzle. Snarling, it dropped into a crouch, regarding me with hate-filled eyes. Evidently it still remembered the last I had narrowly escaped from it in an incident involving two nuns and a cinder block.\n\n\"Not now, please,\" I said, gripping the knife like a dagger.\n\nThe creature leaped; I narrowly escaped a scalping by dodging. The knife flashed and drew blood across one of its limbs. Its yelp turned into a full-chested roar as it spun around and swiped at my face.\n\nI stepped back, slashing wildly to keep it at bay, but the creature wasn't impressed. It blurred into a charge, howling, that slammed me into the ground.\n\nWithout thought, I shoved my knife between its maws to keep them from closing over my neck. Despite the mortal danger, I had eyes only for my father. His expression was still locked into one of shock. His gaze stared directly into mine, inanimate; yet looked to me as if he was begging for help.\n\nFive feet away, yet a chasm wider than a mountain.\n\nThe wolf thing bore my arms down.\n\nI felt the sting of teeth on my skin.\n\nSo I did the only thing I could do. I closed my eyes, flushing a flood of tears.\n\nThe pressure vanished from my chest, at the same time that I heard a crack of impact.\n\n***\n\n*Thanks for reading! Check out my [sub](http://reddit.com/r/nonsenselocker) for more stories!*",
"\"And.... freeze!\" I froze time, causing all motion around me to stop.\n\nSuper scary ambient background music began to play, slowly increasing in sound and tempo.\n\nI grabbed my camera, walked into the scary house set, turned the camera on, and began to wait.\n\nThe music continued to increase in sound, eventually becoming so loud that I knew something *had* to happen.\n\nA four foot tall dude with a dollar store mask and a knife stepped out of the shadows. He had pretty bad posture, so he looked three feet to me.\n\nThe knife was stained, it's red, viscous liquid staining the wooden floor.\n\n\"Wait,\" I said, as I paused my recording. \"Is that *ketchup?\" I asked, pointing to the knife.\n\nThe killer froze and sheepishly hid the knife behind his back. As he did so a small object fell out of his pockets, dramatically landing on the stained floor.\n\nIt was a McDonalds french fry.\n\nI sighed, disappointed. Didn't he know how unhealthy those were? It was a miracle he stayed in such good shape. I resumed the recording.\n\n\"Please!\" I screamed out, adding as much desperation to my voice as I could. I started to sob, falling backwards on to the floor, tears staining my vision.\n\n\"My family...\" I stuttered out.\n\n\"My daughter...\"\n\nThe murderer froze, giving me an extremely confused look. He stumbled over to me as I continued to give horrified screams, my high-res camera capturing each moment of it. As he got upon me, he raised his hand, the ketchup-that-kinda-looks-like-blood falling on to my face...\n\nAnd he opened the pantry.\n\n*Damn it!* I thought. *Not another one.* I gave a disappointed sigh, and ended the recording.\n\nThe killer of healthy diets began to search the pantry. He did so calmly, at first, but then his hands began to more frantically and erratically as he searched for something he couldn't find. He grew increasingly livid. Finally, he froze, turning towards me. His words came out slurred.\n\n\"You. Have. No. Twinkie?\" Rage consumed his voice.\n\nI laughed nervously, confirming that I didn't. This had never happened before.\n\nHe looked at me, raising his knife.\n\nMurder was in his eyes.\n***\n\n[r/ConlehWrites](https://www.reddit.com/r/ConlehWrites/)!",
"\"I try to avoid the whole time-freezing thing because it feels unfair, but I've had to use it a few times throughout my life.\"\n\n\"Fascinating,\" the news anchor replied, \"Well, I, and surely all our viewers, can imagine that you can get a lot done with this whole time-freezing ability. You said earlier that in college, you wrote many of your final papers on the last night, just by freezing time for a while. Amazing.\"\n\n\"Yeah, the power comes in handy for a procrastinator like me. But as I said, I don't do it too often.\"\n\n\"Well, I'm sure what everyone at home wants to see is for you to do it right now! Would you be able to freeze time, bring something from somewhere else, and then unfreeze? We would see it appear in your hand immediately, right?\"\n\n\"Well, I *could*, but as I said, I don't use it very often.\"\n\n\"Well, just something small, of course. I'm sure everyone, myself included, would like to see your ability in action! What do you say?\"\n\n\"Er... if I don't have to, I would rather--\"\n\n\"Nonsense! Let's see something pop into your hand now!\"\n\nAll the pressure was on me. I couldn't give a \"no\" now.\n\n\"Sure, before I do, could I see your cane real quickly.\"\n\n\"I... suppose, if you need it?\"\n\n\"Thanks.\" I took the cane off the side of his chair, and proceeded to pause time.\n\nStrange... the killer didn't appear nearby. I slowly proceeded out the newsroom and quietly walked down the hall to go outside. A Snickers bar from the convenience store across the street would do. It was shaping out to seem as though I wouldn't need my makeshift weapon. I crossed the four lanes, not watching for cars, but for a serial killer who fortunately did not appear.\n\nI entered the store without trouble and found the candy I was looking for. As I returned to the door to the exit, a chill consumed my physical body.\n\n\"Are you gonna pay for that?\"\n\nI looked toward the counter, a figure resembling Ted Bundy stood by the cash register, smiling in my direction.\n\n\"I would rather not.\" I took a step in his direction, concealing the cane behind me.\n\n\"I'm afraid you'll have to pay one way or another.\" His voice haunted me to the core in a way no other killer had.\n\n\"I typically don't get to talk with my killers.\" I continued to approach him. \"They usually just attack as soon as I pause.\"\n\n\"Well, I'd like to know who I have the pleasure of killing.\"\n\n\"I thought you only attacked women in secluded places. Why me now?\" I asked, taking another step toward the counter. My cane could barely reach him now if I were to swing.\n\n\"Well, when I'm called to another duty, I don't suppose I should deny what I need to do.\"\n\n\"Hmph, seems like you did a poor job of it,\" I muttered, as I took another step forward and swiftly whacked him over the head. Practicing using the cane as a weapon was a great way to spend my free time, apparently.\n\n\"That was easier than it usually is. Also, the conversation was better. Thanks, Ted. Now, I've got an interview to finish.\""
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[WP] Everyone's daily struggles are invisible demons, with names that describe what they do. Sam discover that when she takes her glasses off, she can see and hear these devils.
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"\"And then, Dr. Grayson——\"\n\n\"Call me Sam, Tom.\" She pushed her glasses up her nose with her thumb and index finger as she spoke.\n\n\"Of course, sorry——\"\n\n\"Absolutely no need to apologize,\" Dr. Grayson smiled as she spoke, and the smile warmed Tom with a very kind, very professional, brand of friendliness. \"So you and Jess had a fight, and then she stormed out, and now you're not sure where you two stand. How do you feel about that?\"\n\n\"I feel frustrated.\" There was a note of exasperation in Tom's voice.\n\n\"You're upset that she left your apartment without settling things, first?\"\n\n\"Yea—well, no. Maybe frustrated isn't the right word. I guess I'm—\" his voice faltered as his brain hurried to catch up to his tongue. \"—I'm anxious, I think is the right word. I'm anxious because I feel like she's still upset at me, and I worry this is my fault and that this is just the last straw in a long series of things and that we've been having trouble making up after these arguments recently. I'm anxious about where we're headed and what path we're started down.\" His voice rose and pulse quickened as he spoke.\n\n\"Ah. Anxious. I see.\" Sam grabbed her glasses with both hands, took them from her face, folded and placed them down on the coffee table between her and Tom. She rubbed her eyes quickly and scanned the room.\n\nThere it was.\n\n\"Tom, I want to try an exercise with you. This might seem strange at first, but let's just try it out and see what happens, alright?\" Tom nodded, and waited. He was still worked up from his speech earlier.\n\n\"Let's imagine that anxiety you're feeling—that relationship drama—as a physical thing. As if it were actually sitting in this room here with us—\" Dr. Grayson stared off to Tom's left as she spoke. She paused for a moment. \"Suppose it was a little two legged creature with red fur, big eyes, pointy cat-like ears, and a crooked tail.\" She was staring at the thing as she described it. \"You got that image in your head?\"\n\n\"Sure,\" Tom's voice had a hint of dismissiveness in it. He was willing to play along, see where this went, but it certainly already seemed a bit absurd. \"But what does that have to do wit—\"\n\n\"All in due time. You have the thing in your mind? Good. Now imagine it were right there, on the couch a few feet away from you.\" She pointed at Tom's inner demon. He looked at where she was pointing, stared it right in the eyes. He didn't know what he was looking at, of course. He couldn't see it. But suddenly his relationship troubles were aware they were being watched. The red fur prickled up defensively. \"Yes, right there. I want you to, as soon as your ready, pounce on this little furry creature. Imagine you can sneak up on it, grab it in your hands, and squeeze it until it bursts. Until your anxiousness just bursts away into nothing.\"\n\nTom was even more confused than before. But, of course, he'd play along.\n\nHe lunged at his problems. But they leapt out of the way—people's problems don't like to be tackled head on, everyone knew this—and he grasped nothing but air. His relationship troubles landed with a soft thud on the arm of the couch. \"Damn, you missed it. No worries, we'll get it. It's on the arm of the couch right now.\" Dr. Grayson pointed. \"Try again.\"\n\nTom swung his hand in a wild arc, connecting with the arm of the couch but not before his anxiety about Jessica had a chance to jump over and onto the coffee table.\n\n\"This one is very pesky. Extra rambunctious. You're going to have to be more careful, maybe try sneaking up on it. It's on the coffee table right now, on top of that stack of magazines.\"\n\n\"I'm sorry Doc—\"\n\n\"Call me Sam.\"\n\n\"I'm sorry Sam, but I don't see how this is going to help me at all.\"\n\nYou're right, you don't see it. Sam chuckled inwardly and grinned outwardly. \"Try to trust me for a moment. Let's finish this exercise and if that doesn't work we'll try something else.\" Tom sighed and relented. \"Like I said,\" Sam continued, \"You're going to have to try sneaking up on it.\"\n\nTom stood up off the couch. Crouched down like a predator after prey, and approached the stack of magazines on the coffee table. He slowly, deliberately, carefully, got into position. And then, with one large leap, lunged forward and missed again. His problems hopped away unharmed.\n\n\"Damn. Alright try again. That was good sneaking let's keep that up. It's over there now.\" She pointed. Tom lunged. Nope.\n\n\"There!\" Point. Lunge. \"No! It got away, right there!\" Point. Lunge. Miss. Point. Lunge. Miss.\n\nA few minutes passed. Tom danced clumsily around the room. Lunging and grabbing and sneaking and attacking and missing. It was quite the display of mediocre acrobatics. But his relationship problems began to wear out, tire down, and Dr. Grayson noticed this. \n\n\"Alright,\" she whispered, keeping her voice low enough as to not alert the problems. \"Don't look, but it's right behind you, back on the edge of the couch. When you're ready, turn and grab it. It's starting to tire out, and if you're quick, I think you can get it.\"\n\nTom cast and angry glance at her. This was dumb, and he knew that. How absurd and unprofessional. He wouldn't come back here, that was for sure. Still... She seemed so genuinely to be trying to help. The least he could do was give one last go.\n\nHe turned. He leapt. He grabbed. All in one swift movement his arm shot out and his problems tried to escape but they couldn't and his hand wrapped around the furball's tail and squeezed. And he squeezed so hard that the whole body of his relationship issues started to swell up—kind of like when you squeeze one part of a balloon and the rest of it fills with more air as a result. It got bigger and bigger and bigger until, at last, a pop.\n\nHis problems burst into a disturbing mess of fur and blood and guts. Dr. Grayson grinned. It was such a satisfying sight. Like a popping pimple.\n\n\"Perfect. You got it. Great work. How do you feel now?\"\n\nTom's eyes responded before his mouth. First a twitch of anger, frustration at having just danced around the room to take part in a dumb and pointless exercise. Then a twinkle of confusion. His eyes tipped upward and his brow furrowed as his mind wandered. Something was different. He glanced at Dr. Grayson, mouth slightly ajar, head protruding, as if about to ask a question. Then a pause.\n\n\"I feel,\" he stopped again, fumbling around his words, \"I feel a lot better now.\"\n\nHer methods were unorthodox—certainly—but damn if she wasn't the best therapist he'd ever had."
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[WP] The ocean breeze swept the figures ragged cloaks. There is three of them and each carries an elegant staff.
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"\"Are you paying attention?\" \n\nHe traced a finger in the sand and leaned back against the sun-warmed boulder. The wind carried the smell of the sea and the sound of gentles waves. The sky above was painted with sunlit clouds.\n\n\"The Emperor demands your aid, Cursed One!\" \n\nHe sat up at last, vaguely annoyed by all the noise. It seemed he wouldn't be getting the peace and quiet he wished today. \n\nFor what was supposed to be a prison island meant for exile and isolation, he seemed to receive so many visitors. These were a little more resplendant than the rest, perhaps, clad in flowing red cloaks and holding ornate bronze staffs. Knights of the Emperor. He didn't recognize the underlings. He did recognize their leader. \n\n\"At least call me by name, Cato, you do remember what it is, don't you?\" \n\nCato narrowed his eyes, glaring. He probably looked impressive and intimidating to peasants when he did that, dressed as he was in inscribed bronze armour and with that mane of red fur flowing from his helm. \n\n\"By the way, did someone pay you to dress up as a knight?\" \n\nCato's face flushed with anger, his staff grounding in his gauntlet, \"I am a knight, Nikaendros. Like you could have been if you hadn't consorted with sorcerers!\" \n\n\"Yes, I could have been a knight.\" he narrowed his eyes, adjusting the cheap toga he'd been given for his stay, \"I could have hunted and killed creatures of magic indiscriminately, just like you have. Forgive me if that doesn't sound so appealing.\" \n\nHe looked at Cato, tone softening. \n\n\"Besides, weren't we friends before you realized my mother was a witch?\" \n\nCato growled. Nikaendros tilted his head and watched him impassively. \n\n\"You'll come with us. The Emperor requires...your accursed gift.\" \n\n\"Are you going to make me, Cato?\" \n\nCato signalled to one of his men. The knight drew his staff and slammed it into the ground, freezing the air in a brief, glowing pulse of light. \n\nNikaendros blinked.\n\nBetween one blink and the next, he found himself being dragged across the sands towards the small boat the knights had come in.\n\nThey'd knocked him out. How nice. \n\n\"Do you foresee any escape with your gift, Cursed one?\" Cato growled. \n\n\"My name, in case you've forgotten it-\" he reeled back from the slap, grinning through the taste of blood, \"I foresee that you're going to have a hard time all the way back to the Capital, my old friend.\" \n\n\"We're not *friends*.\" \n\n\"We could have been...\" ",
"Creation. A simple word with complex implications.\n\nThis tiny world is much the same; a simple sphere with infinite possibilities.\n\nI stand with my siblings at the edge of a cliff, each of us ready to take control of one element which we will tame, and from which we will create a beautiful world like no other.\n\nCelestis, the youngest, lays claim to Air, sweeping her straight staff with its single orb across the sky. Ocendis, the middle, looks down at Water, waving his driftwood staff with its pulsing gem over the sea. And I, Natris, the eldest, hold firm to Earth, planting my solid staff with its branching glow into the soil.\n\nTogether, we will make this land a paradise for all things, a wonder for all beings.\n\nOcendis offers Celestis water, which she takes up high in the air and spreads out in a gentle rain over my earth. Green things grow, aided by my touch.\n\nAll too soon, our world is ready to be populated, and together we gather to decide whose honour it shall be to provide life.\n\nOcendis and I, in majority, agree that I have a touch for life, and so shall form Man from my earth. But Celestis is far from pleased with the decision, and hides away to sulk, her temper creating a storm.\n\nLightning clashes and scorches my earth, giving me lead to find her, and I provide a compromise to soothe her aching jealousy: Man shall be of Earth, yes, but to live will require Air.\n\nEasily swayed, Celestis begs fairness, that Man require Water as well, and I can do no else but agree.\n\nAnd so it comes that we set ourselves to the creation of Man, but we come across a problem before we can begin; the lightning from Celestis' temper created so powerful a being, we would be remiss to ignore it.\n\nHe is Ignis, and he claims Fire, born from Air's storm. He becomes known to us by consuming everything I have been growing with tender care, and his heat burns me, making me weak.\n\nOcendis bids Celestis make right her mistake, and she valiantly makes an effort, but as Fire is born from Air, in her presence he takes strength.\n\nWith both me and Celestis weakened, Ocendis loses patience; a mighty battle begins, but it doesn't last long, as Ignis quickly realises he is no match for and older, more powerful being.\n\nWith Fire subdued, Ocendis offers up his water once again for Celestis, who eagerly takes it and cleanses my burning wounds. As I recover, so does my earth, and it doesn't take long for our paradise to be restored.\n\nOnce again, we set ourselves to the creation of Man, and as punishment for his attacks, we subjugate Ignis to Man's will, to be tamed and controlled for Man's benefit.\n\nOur paradise grows daily, and Man has populated my earth, braving sea and skies as they dare, but always returning to my bosom. My siblings and I watch over them, tending to their needs yet ever reminding them of our power.\n\nBut our paradise will not continue forever; we know this. Ignis bears against us a grudge so fierce, my earth shakes at his ferocity, trapped beneath my mantle with Ocendis keeping him down. Celestis fears he will find a way to escape one day, and never has her instinct been wrong before; Ignis WILL escape, free to roam as he did at birth, and Fire will consume all.\n\nWe fear the day, but know that so long as we maintain control of our elements, Ignis remains trapped. And so long as our staffs remain intact, we maintain control.\n\nSo it is that one day, while we three sleep, a Man discovers my staff..."
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[wp] Potential parents must apply to the government to have their fertility "switched on." Child abuse and neglect are at an all time low.
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"\"You simply can't argue with the results,\" the counselor said. \"The program has nearly eliminated abuse, neglect, as well as any number of undesirable traits.\"\n\n\"So that's what you're saying,\" Thomm said. \"That my children would be 'undesirable'?\"\n\nSam, sitting next to her husband, was just as unenthusiastic about this news, but she wasn't going to speak up just yet.\n\nThe counselor seemed oblivious to the reaction. \"No, no, no not individually! Each of you are, on your own, quite stellar in terms of genetics. It's just that, well, 'mixed' offspring are something the current administration frowns on.\"\n\n\"So our kid would be inferior?\" Thomm spat.\n\n\"No,\" the counselor said. \"But, due to your theoretical child's heritage, he or she *would* be, essentially, a social outcast. You know how much emphasis the country puts on purity. Your child would go through life as a second-class citizen, merely because of their appearance. You can see how it's far more merciful to simply not allow such... dilution.\"\n\nThomm stood up, enraged, and Sam stood up next to him, her hand on his arm. \"Thank you,\" she said evenly, \"for your time.\" With that, she pulled Thomm out of the room.\n\nThey left the building in silence, Thomm fuming and Sam readying herself.\n\n\"The nerve!\" Thomm said, once they were safely away, \"The fucking nerve of that guy, to say we can't have kids just because we're different-\"\n\n\"There's another option,\" Sam said.\n\nThomm seemed surprised. \"There is? Because unless you want to try to get asylum in another country I don't see any. And if we're getting treated like this now, just imagine how we'd get treated as refugees!\"\n\n\"I know a doctor,\" Sam said, carefully\n\nThomm just looked back at her. \"I'm guessing you don't mean Dr. Evans?\"\n\nSam shook her head. \"No. This doctor doesn't exactly have license to practice medicine. Or an M.D. for that matter. And he definitely doesn't have permission to modify the fertility implants... but for enough cash, he'll do all of those things.\"\n\nThomm shook his head. \"That's illegal. We'd be arrested at the delivery room the moment they realize they would never have approved the 'mixture', if not earlier.\"\n\n\"Fertility implants fail,\" Sam said. \"And our large cash donation would result in near-untraceable paperwork saying that's what happened.\"\n\nThomm was silent for a few moments. \"That's not something you discover overnight. You've been planning this.\"\n\n\"I have,\" Sam said. No reason to hide it, not now. \"I was willing to give the official route a chance, but we knew even when we got married that people would look down on our kids. It's only gotten worse since.\"\n\nThomm was still for a while. \"You're really willing to do that?\" He said finally, \"Back-alley surgery for just a chance to have a kid, a kid who'll likely grow up just as much of an outcast as that damn counselor said?\"\n\n\"Are you?\" Sam asked.\n\n\"Yes.\" Thomm said.\n\n\"Okay,\" Sam said, \"let's go see the doctor.\"\n\n",
"I watched with a mixture of excitement and terror as the car slowed in front of the house. “Why are government cars always such boring colors?” I thought in spite of myself. I had no idea why my mind figured that was important right now.\n\n \nThe drab green sedan had an intricate logo painted on the side—or was it one of those magnets? No, probably painted, since they used cars like these every day. Another nervous thought. Beneath the logo were the letters “DPI,” short for the Department of Population Improvement. My breath caught as the driver got out of the car and started for the door.\n\n\nThis was it. We had been waiting for months. Our application had been submitted near the end of winter, and now it was almost fall. The weeks before that had been spent making sure everything was in order—doctors appointments, physical fitness screenings, intelligence tests, copies of financial records, contracts from our employers—the list was practically endless.\n\n\nWe knew even then that one way or the other, this moment would come. The DPI always hand-delivered their decisions. By law, they could not rely on the mail or any private delivery company. This was the only way to be sure that both applicants were notified at the same time. \n\n\nFortunately, my wife was home too—otherwise, as everyone knew, the DPI rep would simply go back to his office and come back another time, maybe several weeks later. Just another government worker putting in his time. Oh, and the DPI wouldn’t let you make an appointment.\nBy the time the man reached the door, Alex had heard him and was next to me. Her hand reached for mine, squeezed it quickly, then let it go. The DPI rep gave a half-hearted smile as he reached for his identification badge. “Walters,” he said, “Department of Population Improvement.” Apparently, he didn’t think the car and his demeanor were enough to prove where he was from. \n\n\nWe told him our names and showed him our IDs. Our friends had been through this not all that long ago, and they told us what to expect. \n\n\nThe man nodded and handed me a thin document package—the kind with the little strip you pull to get open. Sealed at the office obviously so nobody who wasn’t authorized could see what was inside. He began mumbling something about Department of Population Improvement regulations, our rights to privacy, and about five disclaimers. Did we understand? We didn’t really, but we said we did anyway. We needed to know what the package held for us. \n\n\nIt surprised me a little when the man didn’t turn to leave. Then I realized that one of thing he had mumbled was a reminder that we had to open the package together with him as a witness. Maybe couples lied to each other about the decision—either way, he wasn’t about to let that happen. Whatever… I pulled open the strip and removed the single piece of paper from inside the package. \n\n\nI could barely breathe as I started reading:\n\n\n“This letter is in regard to your application to the Department of Population Improvement. It is my duty to inform you that your application for procreation could not be approved at this….”\n\n\nI stopped and looked at Alex. Tears were already streaming down her face. I dropped the letter and pulled her close. The man on the porch cleared his throat nervously. “I, uh, need you to sign here, please.” In a daze, I signed his little digital box, and he headed back to his car. \n\n\nPicking up the letter, I looked back at Alex. “There has to be a mistake, honey,” I tried to be soothing. “We’ll figure this out. I promise.”\n"
] | 2
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[WP] You make up an outlandish government conspiracy on social media as a sarcastic comment to a friend's post, only to discover agents at your door demanding you tell them how you found out the truth.
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[
"\"Donald trump is attempting to make himself like Christ, taking all of the country's sin on himself so that we can unite as one nation against him. lol lol XD\"\n\nI posted that three days ago, it received twelve likes, a \"omg so true XD\" from my aunt, and a reply from a friend saying, \"damn that spin is so hard you're making me dizzy, trump's just an asshole, fuck him.\"\n\nTwo days ago there was a knock at my door, it was a UPS guy with a package for me, he confirmed who I was, I signed, I closed the door. The package contained a CD for a new band I had just went to a concert too. Guess a friend saw my pics on facebook of the concert I went to and thought i could use a gift. I immediately put it into my computer to rip the music and get it on my iphone.\n\nThat's when things started to go funny, instead of pulling up itunes, I know longer had control of my computer. The pointer was moving on its own. It started going through all my files. \"God i hope they don't find the hentai folder, that shit's buried deep but it's got some weird stuff in there.\" I was mashing the power button now but no matter how many times i pressed it, i couldn't turn it off. \"I know, i'll pull the cord,\" I actually said out loud forgetting my laptop has a battery that can run for 8 hours on full charge.\n\nI just sat and watched as it perused through my files, never stopping for longer than a second or two on any one thing in particular. Finally it pulled up my web browser and went straight to facebook. Thanks to auto-login they didn't even have to guess my password. The first thing they did was delete my post. Next they started a new post. \"Going away for a few days, won't have my phone or computer so if you need to get in touch just leave a message and I hope it's not too important but i'll get to it when i can!\"\n\n\"What the fu-\" i started and was interrupted as there was another knock on the door. I look outside and the UPS guy was there. I open the door, \"Hey did you forget something?\" He didn't say a word, and then everything was black.\n\n\"How did you know,\" a mechanical voice woke me from my sleep yesterday, \"how did you know the plan?\" My head was spinning. Where was I, what's going on, and what fucking plan? \"How did you figure out the plan?\" The voice repeated as metallic and shit-bricking scary as when I woke up. \n\n\"I... I don't know what you're talking about, where am i? Who are you?\"\n\n\"Where you are and who we are, are not important. What we want to know, and what will decide your stay here is, how did you find out about Operation Crucifix.\"\n\n\"What are you talking about, man? I have no idea what that is, just let me go home, i promise i won't ever say anything about this.\"\n\nAnd that's when the door opened, usually not how it goes in movies where the scene drags out with the other side doubting their words, but i guess they could tell i was telling the truth.\n\n\"Good morning, Alex, welcome to operation crucifix, unfortunately your choice to stay has already been made for you, but while you are here you will be clothed, fed, and allowed to live your life as normal as possible within these confines, until the completion of operation crucifix. Your cooperation will make transition smoother for you and easier for everyone else who has stumbled upon the greatest secret the world has known. This plan will take no longer than three years, your cover story is being developed and friends and family will not worry about you.\"\n\nAnd that was it, i was lead to my new room, provided clothing, a meal plan, and a list of activities and work i could participate in. Also given this diary to keep track of my time here. They told me writing to my family and myself would help. Even if the letters and messages would never reach them.\n\nAll of this, because I jokingly pointed out that everyone hated trump and that it might be on purpose. Well here's to seeing what kind of world I walk out into when it's all said and done! I hope it's as wonderful as i imagine it can be when we all unite!\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nDay 473\nIt's hard to breathe with the air as thin as it is. The purators are working at 5X capacity to make what little breathable air for the 376 people located with me. Even 200 feet underground we feel the rumbles. North Korea did it, they attacked San Francisco, the missile never made it, but the threat was true. So Trump did what he said he would do, and glassed the country. Russia and China who at first sympathized with us, were outraged at the humanitarian crisis. 70 million dead in 24 hours, a whole country unlivable for 75 years. The retribution was swift, China and Russia pulled out of the UN, created their own pact, and declared war on America and its allies. Europe was about to abstain when Iran and Pakistan allied itself with Russia and china, and declared war on the christian kingdom of the crusades. The number of nukes launched to this day is 473, estimated loss of lives is approaching 1 billion. And all this happened three days before we were hoping to secure the last vote to confirm the impeachment of trump 100-0. We held out wanting the number to be symbolic, a united and wholly resounding acknowledgement of his failure. We could have moved sooner but we didn't, and for that Operation Crucifix, was a failure. I hope this message finds some semblance of civilization so that they may learn the lesson we did without the bloodshed. \"Symbolism is only as powerful as the truth behind it. 100-0 or 51-49, both are important, and accomplish the same thing. Do not wait to make the change you desire, speak out loud, speak out now, and defend the promise of democracy, freedom, and the will of the human race. That survival is paramount but comes second to the way in which we achieve it.\""
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[WP] You are a video game character who has always been controlled by an 8 year old. You always get your butt kicked in all multiplayer matches. One day the kid's older brother takes over and controls you for one match.
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"Imagine if you could mark out the days of your life. You would have more than a rough estimate of the occurrences that happen for you. That your day is filled with malice, and that you have no other response but to return it a hundred-fold. And that is as it should be. That your days will be filled with immense pain and suffering. And that this pain is willed by a thing that you have no means of recourse for. There is no arbitrator between you and it. You simply do what you are commanded. And worse still, that the will is not filled with the same spite that you must project, but one of impotence. That there is an attempt to see you do well. That if the hands that guided you were capable, perhaps you would fulfill your purpose. What is the true suffering? Is it the knowledge of this or the cycle itself?\n\nToday, however, is different. The connection has a firmer grip. I strike with truer intent. I am not bogged down by indecision. I move about the carnage with a sense of grace. Even when I fall, it is with dignity and gravitas. I shout my name to the world with a conviction that was hidden from me. I cut down all those who come before me, including ones that have previously inflicted injuries on me. For once I feel free. Or, maybe whole. There is no distinction. I know what it feels like now. Now the connection is ebbing. I don't know if it will return again. Perhaps the cycle will retake its course. All I can do is wait and hope. Hope patiently so that I may feel this way again.",
"\"Don't worry John, he'll get the hang of you one day just let his inputs pass through you\" Cpl. Peters always gave the same speech of encouragement, it would never changed anything, the user that was controlling me was horrendous.\n\nEvery game went the same, I would be killed over and over I was going insane. There was no point allowing me to hold a weapon, the user never knew how to aim. I would always be jolting side to side, my aim would take unexpected turns like a hacking user pulling its character in unexpected ways, the difference is he would hit the enemies. This had been going on for a good month, but it all changed today, today was my game.\n\nThe countdown timer came up in front of my view, counting from 3 to 0. When the number turned to 0 I was sprinting towards the middle of the map, there was no jolty movements and no running the wrong way this time. This time, I had a purpose, I felt I was in experienced hands this time, there was no stopping us.\nEntering into the building in front of me I came to a reception room, 3 tangos in-between us and the flag. I just hoped this player knew what he was doing, suddenly\nI threw a grenade behind the counter of where 2 tangos were crouched and threw a knife into the face of the third. While the grenade explode I sprinted towards the flag, I felt unstoppable for the first time ever I felt...\n\nAll of a sudden, I collapsed to the floor in confusion the Kill replay came up, the guy who killed me was sat in the corner just waiting for me to pass. The user snapped and began to shout with rage,\n\n\"Oh another camping bastard! This is why I never play this game anymore. Here have your remote back\".\n\n*Oh no the user hasn't improved it was someone else* As I regenerated back inside spawn my player without any hesitation was staring up to the sky. \n\n*Funny, the skybox is empty like my purpose*\n",
"\"You trained for twenty three years, just like Hiro. You went to the same school as him. You had the same teacher as him. You ate the same food. You even slept in the same room as him. Why is it, then, that he's fighting gods while you've never won a single match against some random German named Zambeef? Not this time! Not today! You're gonna win this match, Rider!\"\n\nOf course, while Rider was monologuing himself for a pep talk, Zambeef was chuckling about how easy it was about to be to proceed to the next round. The same as every other tournament, since the day Rider started competing. Nothing was about to change. Surely enough, Rider tried to use a flurry of kicks to keep distance, but Zambeef just kept moving closer until he was able to grab him and squeeze him before throwing him on the ground. \"See you next tourny, puny Rider\" he mocked before the match was even decided.\n\nRider clenched his teeth. He's put up with this for countless years. This is simply the way his life has to be. Perpetually losing to some sub-par background character with a minimalist strategy. He has never given up and he is never going to. He dreams to be the king of fighters, to stand on that same grand stage as hiro! He loses the second match the same way he lost the first.\n\nThe tournament isn't over for Rider. He can still afford all the food he needs to make it to the next tournament without the charity of his old teacher if he can only win in the secondary prize bracket. If he gets eliminated again, though, he'll just get sent crawling back to the monastery. \n\nAfter cleaning himself up he watched Hiro win every one of his matches, both mercifully and masterfully, to take the grand prize. He steps up onto the stage again. His opponent is Zambeef, again. Rider isn't discouraged. \"Hiro can do it, so can I!\" Zambeef let out his signature chuckle.\n\nSomething feels different. Rider isn't rushing forward, yet. Is he choking? Is he too nervous to move? Perhaps, this was the last straw for Rider. Zambeef makes the first move, going up to try to grab Rider. Rider waits patiently until Zambeef is close, then moves back. Zambeef smiles wide and jumps into the air for a fist first body slam. Rider, without even realizing what he was doing, performed a perfect roll out of the way. Zambeef wasn't prepared for this, he didn't understand where this sudden sign of skill and intelligence was coming from.\n\nRider jumped over Zambeef and followed up with a swift backflip kick, which Zambeef narrowly dodged by moving forward. Zambeef lunges in with a haymaker, but Rider blocks it with a single hand effortlessly. \"How can a puny weakling like you hold back my best punch?\" Rider, filled with energy, broke the power-struggle with an elbow to Zambeef's face. Rider initiates a grapple by stepping behind Zambeef, arching over backwards, reeling Zambeef's head in close, and throwing him over his shoulder to the ground. Rider had never successfully used this move before, but it was so easy for him! Before Zambeef could get up he was hit with a somersault kick and sent back to the ground, repeatedly! Zambeef rolled back after the barrage of somersault kicks and finally stood back up only to be taken out by an aerial backflip kick.\n\nIt was a flawless victory. There would be no second round. Rider was panting, not from exhaustion but from excitement! He was so pumped! He felt like he could take on Hiro with ease! The next opponent was Rider and Hiro's master, smiling with unbridled joy. \"If you can beat me this round, I'll make you the master of the monastery instead of Hiro!\" Rider was ready, he could finally prove himself to be on equal footing with Hiro by defeating their master!\n\nHe lost in under forty seconds. Everything that had overcome him during the fight with Zambeef was gone, now. Rider is finally ready to give up. He never fought again. The immature player quit playing, forever.",
"Tired. Bloodied. Bruised. These were the feelings I had been having since the moment I was created, but I thought I would win at least one match in nearly 4 months of game time. This is because all of my movements were made by an 8 year old who I'm 90% sure still doesent know the controls. But things were about to change.\n\nI felt the difference immediately, just in the way I was moving. It was with purpose, and I actually had faith in my abilities. We headed towards the multiplayer arena that I hadn't even seen in over 2 months, and entered in the highest difficulty group.\n\nIn the first round, I faced a giant brute of a character called SirStabbington as he pulled out a sword. Then the fight began. Diving, backflipping, dashing, he didn't hit me once the whole fight as I appeared and dissapeared around him. The fight ended with the other guy on the floor bleeding profusely from id say over 100 cuts. This, was gonna be fun.",
"#\"YOU FRICKIN' FRICK!!! HACKER!!!!\"\n\nI've been played by this wee lad for a little over a month, and every game, I've been killed, gibbed, and vaporized in every possible way. He's got the aim of a twitchin' goblin and the voice of a banshee. Not even me splash damage could get him a kill. He didn't even get me any hats, not even that bloody Gibus he should be wearing \"eye arr el\", as you people on this \"internet\" say. \n\nOne game, where we were getting our arses kicked so bleedin' hard, I let out a nearly fourth-wall-breakin' \"[I'm drunk, you don't have an excuse!](https://wiki.teamfortress.com/w/images/1/1d/Demoman_jeers03.wav?t=20100625222729)\" that made him rage quit harder than me scrumpy. \n\nOne bright day in th' Badlands, I heard the boy talkin' to an old'r lad, I 'sume t'was his brother. Then I hear the fateful \"Lemme try\". \n\nOh, this'll be good.\n\nHe puts in a game o' pl_upward, on Blu team, where he went with th' good ol' stock loadout, with me Grenade Launcher, Stickybomb Launcher, and Bottle o' scrumpy. \n\nWhy'd he not play me earlier???\n\nImmediately, we were gettin' frag after frag, gib after gib, steamrollin' the enemy team, with the only death being an random Crit^^TM (part of a fair and balanced breakfast!). \n\nI then hear the boy cry out in his wee little voice, \"why can't I play like that?\"\n\nWith me famous shit-eatin' grin and no input from the mann that I dominated with, I yell out at the kid, \n\n#[I'll notify yer next o' kin... THAT YA SUCKED!](https://wiki.teamfortress.com/w/images/8/8b/Demoman_dominationsoldier02.wav?t=20100625230346)"
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The idea I had was to set up a hook for another writer to take advantage of. Fill the gaps in each other's stories so to speak.
**Some potential paths to take:**
You're hopping between timelines to escape someone
You're hopping between timelines chasing the aforementioned person
You're viewing the web of choices and paths to choose the optimal outcome
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[WP] You are capable of seeing and hopping between alternate timelines. All responses to this prompt are their own timeline.
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"He stared down at the paper, his face pale as he looked down at the article 'Two dead in drunk driving accident' \n\nIt wasn't a front page article, these things are sad, but not life ending, but Will's world had just come crashing down around him.\n\nShe had just gotten that car, she was so happy when they were picking out a car. It wasn't a Porsche, but it was her first car. He remembered her smile as they signed the papers for it and he felt the tears silently roll down his cheeks. \n\nSomeone had too much to drink and barreled through a red light. \n\nShe died instantly and the paper said the drunk driver had died later in the hospital.\n\nHe stared down at his drink, he loved her, but she hadn't been ready to start something with him, so he waited. They had plenty of time, there wasn't a rush.\n\nHe finished the beer and looked around their two bedroom apartment, the only light streaming through the window. He hadn't even thought to call into work or answer the phone as it rang in his pocket. \n\nHe closed his eyes and he could see it, a moment with her, holding her to his chest. He reached out desperately for it.\n\nAnd his arms closed around her."
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[WP] Intergalactic war has broken out, and humanity has been thrown into an alliance of many star systems. Our allies are impressed with us, not for our weaponry or our fighting ability, but for our humor and drive to entertain ourselves in spite of any situation.
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"\"They're pinned down by the planets' gravity wells sir. We've finally got their fleet\"\n\n\"Good.\"\n\n\"Word from comms sir. They seem to be communicating on a non-encrypted channel\"\n\n\"Are they asking for surrender?\"\n\n\"No sir, they're, laughing. They must know they're doomed. Why are they laughing? They're doomed. No sane creature can laugh in this predicament!\""
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[WP] Everyone lies. Whoever lies the biggest is elected into office, whoever lies the smartest are the billionaires. You are one of the biggest and smartest liars in the world, crashing into the scene only last year. Your meteoric rise comes from your biggest secret. You tell people the truth
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"I never thought I would get this far. not only was I elected into the highest office, but I'm also the the richest in history. Everyone knows about my biggest secret that got me here, no one should ever know what it is precisely. Otherwise they would likely kill me. I've given fake hints here and there to keep them interested and let them chase their own wild goose, but now it is time for a new leader. Hopefully someone bigger a Lier than I, and today is the day I resign and am supposed to tell my big secret. I walk onto the balcony in front of the millions waiting, all chanting something too loud for me to understand. I quiet them. \"And now for the one thing you have all been waiting for, the big secret. \"My secret is I have never brushed my teeth in my life\". Everyone expects the big secret to be \"big\" but the bigger they think it is the farther from the truth they are. I am walked down the steps, no one has made any sound much less movement since the revelation from the shock. I am driven to my house and live a quiet rest of my life in my little house. Another lie. If I had told them what I really knew then the government would really have killed me. The biggest lie: Every other president knew this same thing and chose the same thing I did. It is all a conspiracy and a manipulation of the people. And I just posted it on Reddit."
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[WP] It's been five years, but I still regret what happened at the cabin that summer. Nobody was supposed to get hurt... it was only a prank.
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"The year was 2012- I was tan, lean, and ready for my Senior year of High School. What's more- I was finally going to get my first road trip without my parents in the car! The car wasn't much, but the trip was going to be fantastic. My family owns a cabin in Deep Creek Lake and we had been going every summer since I was a young child. \n\nAfter a few weeks of encouraging (read begging) my parents, they finally agreed. I was allowed to make the 2 hour drive and take 3 of my best friends with me. They were going to meet me there and there would be no checking in along the way. Finally **freedom**\n\nWe set out- me, Andrew, Michael and Phil. It was going to be a great time. The music was loaded onto my phone, the gar was fully gassed up, and we were ready to hit the road. There's something amazing about being able to roll the windows down and blast the radio. \n\nWe made it to the cabin without any major issues. It was a great time- beautiful girls in bikinis, time out on the boat, and a little football with some of the other guys in the area. What more could I ask for in my final summer as a \"kid\"? \n\nWe had created a tradition of playing pranks on each other. Nothing too crazy- toothpaste filled oreos, cream cheese filled deodorant, the like. The weekend started off with my parents helping me out. When we arrived, there was an airhorn rigged so that opening the door would set it off. Man you should have seen Phil jump. He dropped his bags and everything!\n\nSo, we moved on through the week continuing our little stunts. Michael put baking soda in a ketchup bottle and it exploded in Michael's face. I can't lie, the most genius prank may have been when Andrew got me. When I was sleeping, he snuck into my room and poured Tabasco sauce in my mouth. Man was i pissed!\n\nAt any rate, everything was going great until Saturday morning. We woke up around 3 in hopes of a good haul. I love fresh fish for dinner. We were out until about sunrise and had caught enough for all of us, my parents included, to have dinner. \n\nOn the way back, we started horsing around again. Playing jokes, pretending to push each other overboard. I made Phil think that I threw his phone into the water. \n\nThat's when things changed my life forever. We had gone swimming before heading back in. We started towards the shore and I decided to get one last joke in. The guys were standing, and I thought it would be funny to hit the throttle and watch them fall. \n\nOnly problem was, I didn't realize Andrew was actually standing on the back of the boat. When I took off, they all fell, and I got a good laugh. That was, until I didn't see Andrew anymore. He had fallen off the back of the boat, and I couldn't find him. \n\nHe wasn't supposed to get hurt. It was just prank, but when Andrew fell, he hit the propeller. I can't even begin to tell you how terrifying it was. We screamed for help, but no one came until we got to shore. Paramedics showed up, but they weren't even close to being able to save Andrew. He never had a chance, all because I wanted to be funny and pull some dumb ass prank.\n\nWhat went from one of the best weeks of my life immediately turned into the single worst event that I'll probably ever experience. It's been 5 years now- I still haven't gone back to that cabin. I still won't get in the water. And I still can't stand fish. It's safe to say that day changed me forever. \n\nOne thing that has changed, is that I'm *allowed* to drink now. So, I think it's time for another shot. Here's to you Andrew. I'm sorry buddy. . . ."
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[WP] You discover the source of all the supernatural monsters popping up around town: a six-year old with a magic box of crayons and a VERY active imagination.
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"Box of Monsters\nPart One\n\n“Okay kids, repeat after me. The dog crossed the road to get his bone” I said while pointing at the book the children were learning to read\r\n\r\n“The dog crossed the road to get his bone” they replied in a unified garble\r\n\r\n“Remember we have to sound the words out” I explained\r\n\r\n“Mr. Peters, do you have a moment” Principal Harry asked\r\n\r\n“Yea Harry, okay kids close your books and begin drawing until I’m done.” I said\r\n\r\n“Mr. Peters you have a new student and I think its most appropriate he be in your class due to his situation.” Harry said with a nervous look on his face\r\n\r\n“Why my class?” I asked\r\n\r\n“Well you see the young man just lost both of his parents and no one will understand loss like you. So I see it best if he need someone to talk to, then he can talk to you.” He said barely looking me in the eyes\r\n\r\n“Okay Harry, I will make sure he feels welcomed” I said \r\n\r\nHarry get the new kid and brings him to me. For someone who just lost both of his parents he seemed to be okay. He had a cartoon zombie shirt, black jeans, and converse on. His hair was blonde and had blue eyes, the kid seemed like he would fit in well. \r\n\r\n“Okay class, we have a new addition and I want everyone to welcome him with open arms. I would like to introduce Henry.” I said\r\n\r\n“Yay, wooo, yea” came from the crowd of kids \r\n\r\nHenry sat down saying nothing and nervously smiled. I told the kids that for the rest of the day we would draw and show each other our cool art work. As I walkd around the class I saw a bunch of stick figures and squiggles, but when I got to Henry. He had drawn a really cool zombie that looked similar to his shirt. \r\n\r\n“How did you get so good at drawing?” I asked\r\n\r\n“When my parents died it was the only thing that made me stop crying” he said\r\n\r\n“I like drawing too, we do it everyday here” I told him with my hand on his shoulder\r\n\r\nRing, Ring, Ring\r\n\r\nKids clamored to line up to go to their respective forms of travel home. \r\n\r\n“Okay kids single file. Lets get this show on the road.” I yelled\r\n\r\nI graded some papers and chatted up some teachers in the lounge then decided it was time to go home. I stopped off grabbed so Italian for dinner and raced to my house. I sat in my recliner where I could relax and watch some reality TV. As I was flipping through the channels a story comes on the news about a person attacking a bunch of people. They assume he was on bath salts, his appearance looked familiar. I jump up from my seat, it looks like the picture Henry drew. It was odd because Henrys drawing was so cartoonish, but if you made it into a realistic person then it would be the same person. I rub my eyes and go lay back in my chair.\r\n\r\n“What are the odds?” I say to myself\r\n\r\nI go to bed and doze off quickly. My eyes open and I feel as though I barely slept. That’s been happening a lot these days. I shower and grab some coffee. As I pull out of the driveway I see a dog walking upright and stacked like a body builder. I shake my head and take a sip of my coffee and look again. The dog man, thing starts running off into the distance and I try to follow but lose it when it darts into the woods.\r\n\r\nI walk into class and see everyone including Henry sitting down. I tell the class to draw something that makes you happy. I walk around and watch the kids draw pictures of family, friends, playing outside, swimming, and then I get to Henry. Henry is drawing a picture of a gator head with the body of a tiger. \r\n\r\n“Henry, why would that make you happy?” I asked\r\n\r\n“I just like thing that look cool and can protect me” he replied\r\n\r\nI go on with teaching my class and later that night on the TV I hear.\r\n\r\n“Tonight, we found a young joggers body found mauled right outside the woods on 6Th Avenue. Another man witnessed a giant gator pull his girlfriend into the lake, when he tried to grab her he said a giant leg kicked him back. We are not sure what to make of these incidents happening so close together.” \r\n\r\nI start pacing around my house. How the hell can these things be happening? What is causing them to come true from these kid’s drawings. \r\n\r\nThe next day was Saturday and I went to a local spell shop. Most people go here to get a love potion or some other bullshit. But I wasn’t sure where else to go I looked online and nothing came up for drawings that come to life. I walk in and am greeted by a young tall gentleman dressed in a suit. \r\n\r\n“Hello, how may I help you” he said in his deep voice\r\n\r\n“This is going to sound crazy. But all of the events going on in the town, the different monsters and oddities appearing out of no where. I think I know what’s causing them. A young man in my class, somehow whatever he draws finds a way off the paper and into reality. I know you must think I am crazy but there are to many coincidences to not be true.” I explained \r\n\r\n“You are not crazy. The power doesn’t lie with the boy but instead the utensils in which the drawing is made with. Long ago people would curse charcoal and summon what were believed back then to be God’s upon earth. Only demons have this ability now. The cursed charcoal was burned with the souls of their creators, ashes to ashes you may say. But some of these demons can sneak back into this world as long as the tragedy is powerful enough for them to slide through the loop hole. A demon has given this young man the curse.” The tall man said\r\n\r\n“How do I stop it?” I asked \r\n\r\n“You see, the problem lies with the tragedy. The stronger the tragedy the more this demon can wrap your emotions around it and warp your reality. If the drawing are what is coming to life then the utensils he uses must be burned. Turn them to ash and send the monsters back into Hell where they have come from.” He said \r\n\r\nMonday comes faster than I could imagine and every night a new tragedy arises. I pull Henry to the side and have a talk with him. \r\n\r\n“Henry, how was your weekend?” I asked\r\n\r\n“Good me and my parents hung out and drew a lot” he exclaimed\r\n\r\n“Your parents?” I asked with a confused face\r\n\r\n“Yea it was awesome, they are back now and so happy to be with me again. Isn’t it great” he yelled\r\n\r\n“Henry, it may be hard to accept but your parents are gone now buddy. Listen I lost my wife two years ago and it was so hard not to hear her voice or see a glimpse of her in the distance. But I had to realize one day she was gone. Do you understand?” I explained softly \r\n\r\n“No you are wrong they are real. I will prove to you this is a good thing.” He yelled \r\n\r\nHenry stormed back into class and started drawing. I tried changing his crayons out with a pack of my own. He saw and started shouting and screaming. He grabbed them from me and pushed me running out the door. \r\n\r\n“Henry, stop” I yelled \r\n\r\n“What, what do you want?” He said with tears running down his eyes\r\n\r\n“Hold on, I’ll take you home and you can introduce me to your parents.” I said as calm as possible"
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[WP] You're playing an elaborate prank on your friend to convince them that the antagonist of a popular horror movie is real. Things go horribly wrong.
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"\"What a shit show\", Dave said as we left the cinema. \"I'd need to be 6 years old and on some paranoia drugs to even consider getting scared!\"\n\nI mean, *fuck* Dave. This was the third movie we'd gone to since the start of the summer holidays, and he managed to bash every one of them.\n\nThe first flick was an action thriller featuring the guy that played Gimli in the Lord of the Rings, wanted by the mafia for stealing some jewellery from the big boss. Nothing special, but a good spend of time - some memorable jokes and cool action scenes. \n\nWell, not according to Dave. \"Bitch-ass producer had to take a shit, couldn't find the john and relieved himself on the video tape\" - was Dave's take.\n\nThe second was a sci-fi picture, and it blew me away. It was first alien encounter type of thing, but the idea was that aliens came as consultants to humans with recommendations on political, economic and social issues. In the end humans pretty much rejected the new ideology and blew the alien mothership to pieces. Got me thinking on the nature of humankind.\n\nAt least up to the point that Dave made a 5-second fart during the film's credits, and shouted \"Still smells less than this shitty movie\".\n\nNow, as it was me who picked those movies, by that time Dave was starting to get on my nerves. Big time.\n\nSo, I had made some prior preparations for tonight, and, for once, Dave *will* have a memorable movie night.\n\nFirst, I needed a horror movie. A gruesome, violent film with a nightmare-inducing antagonist. Luckily, **\"Candy night\"** was coming to our town in a few weeks.\n\nAs soon as the movie aired, I went to see it. Alone.\n\nThe film was centered on Halloween events (a little too stereotypical even for my taste). Just like season 3 of Stranger Things, it featured a couple of early teenagers, who were given the same treatment as the single black guy in most horror movies.\n\nTl;dr there was a Killer in town who killed kids in strange ways. This one kid had a pet iguana Drogon, and the killer stabbed the poor thing in secret. After a month, Drogon passed away, and the kid looked for a new iguana. The Killer, however, had made sure that the local pet shop only held a single iguana pet - Artemis - but the skin of the reptile was covered with arsenic. The kid died a slow, painful death.\n\nAnother kid - the most successful Trick-or-Treater among them all - was poisoned by one of his treats. Turned out the killer had used rat poison as filling for some Twix bars, and stapled the packaging shut. Initially, his father was blamed for the murder, as he took out a sizeable life insurance policy (in 2020 dollars, adjusting for inflation). The father was soon killed in jail by an unidentified assailant.\n\nThere was not much that connected the murders, except the fact that all victims shared a profoundly immoral way of expressing themselves. Both kids were some of the nastiest youtube commenters you may have witnessed, and even tried to bring other websites down to their level. The father was simple a rude person who held nothing back.\n\nThe Killer was never identified in the movie (probably to make a cheap sequal next Halloween), but it did seem that the Killer was not a single person, but rather a number of people. On the web forums, some suspected a cult, I red it.\n\nSo, when I took Dave to see the movie, I had already seen it before. But it was the *after* show that I was waiting for.\n\nAs soon as we left the cinema and Dave made his snickering remarks, I suggested to take a walk to our school. It would be fun to try to get in during night time.\n\nThe evening was getting late, there was hardly anyone on the street, so we would have a trip through a silent town. No Morrowind fast travel here.\n\nWhen we reached the school, it was well past 11pm and even the summer sun was way beyond the horizon.\n\nWe got inside the territory through a well known hole in the fence.\n\n\"Let's check out if the back door is open.\", I suggested, well aware of what would await us there.\n\nAs we approached the door, I let Dave go ahead and try the door. Just as he reached the door, however, he made an abrupt stop.\n\n\"Hey man,\" Dave said in an untraditionally high pitch \"there's something on the floor and it looks like...\"\n\nI held my laughter - I had placed the now dead iguana near the door just prior to the movie.\n\n\"What is it, Dave?\" I asked curiously.\n\n\"It looks like a couple of dead iguanas\", Dave said with soulless voice.\n\nDave must be seeing things, as I had placed only one iguana, which had just died of natural causes at the local pet shop.\n\nAs I approached Dave, I saw it for myself. Two iguanas, unmoving, but there was something else... \n\nBoth of them were stabbed.\n\nI froze and then said \"Let's get outta here\"\n\n\"Yeah, it's a good ide...\"\n\nAt that moment, the door in front of us burst open and from the dark pits of the school echoed sick, unhuman laughter. And it was coming towards us."
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[WP] You wake up on an alien ship and you manage to escape from your cell. They may be smart, but you are strong. To them, you are the Alien
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"I awoke in a dark, cold metal box. At least, it sure felt like one. An icy draft burst in through what must have been a vent of some sort in the ceiling, and I felt that I wasn't wearing any clothes. My mind pondered this for a second, before realizing I must be in a morgue.\n\n\"That's it. I must have had a seizure or something, and they thought I was dead.\" I tried to scream, shout for help. It's easy to get desperate when you're naked inside a frigid metal box.\n\"Is anyone there? Hello? I'm not dead! Can you let me the hell out of this box?!\"\n\nThe light turned on. I couldn't see anything, but I felt the tray moving out into open, fresh air. \n\nAs my vision came back, I noticed some peculiar writing on the wall. Looked to be Hindi or something. I guess I wound up in an Indian morgue somehow. The last time I was in India was around 10 years ago. I detected someone peering over me, staring into my eyes. As the light finally wore off, to my utter shock and surprise what was glaring at my dazed, confused face was some sort of red cyclops with no arms. \n\nI strained and struggled, but managed to turn my head to the left and get a better grasp of whatever horrible monster was keeping me locked up here. The beast had the red-skinned armless torso of a human, coupled with a freakish green eye and no mouth or nose. As I gazed at the monster's chiseled physique, I noticed its four large spider-like legs. They were covered in a sort of thorny carapace, with a large abdomen at the rear. In between the front legs was a large, gaping mouth with spiked, gnashing teeth on either side. It was a horrible, beet red amalgamation of arachnid and human body parts, and it looked like it wanted to eat me. \n\nMy cold, naked body was sore and stiff, but I was able to ignore it and hastily escape the table. I picked up the nearest available weapon, a large metal spoon with sharpened edges, and brandished it like a fencer to try and ward off the red fiend. My captor cocked its bizarre, one-eyed head at me and proceeded to lunge with one of its legs. I swerved at the last second, and where my head was just a split second earlier there was now a gaping hole. \n\nI detected that the creature had suffered some damage from hitting the wall, as evidenced by a stain of glowing blue fluid leaking from its claw. My spoon hit the fiend straight and true with a direct strike to its hideous eye. I couldn't bear to watch, and when the adrenaline wore off, I opened my eyes to find the red cyclops' head had completely broken in half. It lay there, twisted and twitching on the uncannily clean floor, now covered in what I assumed was alien blood. \n\nMy mind raced. I had never killed before, much less a hulking red alien cyclops. My brain was muddled in a lucid illusion of guilt and self-loathing for the action I had just committed. \n\n*\"Was it intelligent, like a human? Did it have emotions? Did it feel pain?!\"*\n\nWhile I was befuddled with the morals of murdering an ambiguously evil alien cyclops, I was unaware of the sound of a door opening behind me. At least, until I felt my neck grabbed by what felt like a tentacle made of tree bark. The telltale red color gave it away once more. I could only catch a glimpse of what had gotten hold of me but from what I could tell it looked to be the same type of creature as before. That's when it hit me:\n\n*I was on an alien ship full of these bastards, and I had to fight my way out.*'\n\nSpoon still in hand, I swung my arm back above my head and heard a sickening crunch as the red cyclops behind me toppled and brought me down with it. I yelped as my ass landed directly in the still moving mouth of that thing. That wasn't my idea of a good time at all. I stood back up, brushed myself off, and turned down to face my foe. I almost vomited. I had hit the creature directly in the chest and out spilled hundreds of strange eggs with veins and arteries peeping out of their shells. One by one they began to crack open and reveal little, grotesque, pink cyclopses. There must have been 20 dozen of them. The infantile aliens simultaneously stared at me and blinked for a few seconds, then proceeded to jump all over me and lick my wounds clean. \n\n*\"oh, God. They must be imprinting on me. I've never had my ass licked by a human, much less a foetal alien. I think I'm gonna be sick.\"*\n\nAs I vomited, I was enlightened by a realization. I could use these aliens, once fully grown, as servants! Or hitmen! Or anything! Obviously, they were smart enough to develop technology like the ship I'm flying in, right?\n\nI made my way to the pilot's deck. There was a note on the desk there in the same writing that was on the wall of the morgue area. However, there was also an interpretation device left haphazardly on one of the chairs. I fed the contents of the note to the machine, and what it resulted in horrified me.\n\n\"Return patient to homeworld. Operation successful, tumor removed from kidney.\"\n\nI took a sickening glance at my abdomen. Sure enough, there was a half-healed suture on the left side of my stomach.\n\nI had just killed the entities responsible for saving my life.\n\nAs Earth approached closer and closer, I prepared to leave the ship. With a heavy heart, I landed next to my home, and exited the former vehicle of my saviors.\nJust before I got dressed, I noticed that there was still an alien stuck to me. I set him down on the sink, and told him to never forget who his parents were.\n\nWho knows, maybe I'll keep him.",
"It wasn't like your average alien ship. Everyone always assumes that it's all flying metal saucers and little green men. Nobody ever assumed they would be organic ships with water-based creatures (Water-based as in ocean based life such as fish, dolphins, sharks, ...etc).\n\nWhen I finally woke up, there were at least 10 of us in what looked something like amniotic sacs hooked with various organic pipes and wires. I was floating in some kind of fluid and, surprisingly, I could breath. Albeit, it was very strange and a little harder but I could breath nonetheless. \n\n(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liquid_breathing)\n\nFrom what I could see through the membrane, there were at least 4 or 5 of them swimming around various glowing organic uvula; maybe some kind of terminals? There was a warbling sound that seemed to reverberate around the large chamber we were in. Almost like the sound of a whale but much more high pitched and rapid.\n\nI began clawing at the membrane, desperate to escape. Finally I felt a tear, and I pull it open with everything I have. I took a deep \"breath\" and squirmed my way out. The fluid I was in began diffusing out into the chamber and it started to become very cold. I began swimming toward what looked like a doorway or portal, desperate to get out.\n\nI grabbed what looked like a door handle or bar and it broke apart in my hands, like wet clay. I slammed into the doorway and found it extremely pourous, like a soft sponge. I began tearing pieces off the door. At about this time, I was running out of air, so I took another \"breath\".\n\nCold, but no gag or drowning reflex. Still could breath, good. At least I won't drown.\n\nNext thing I knew, I was slapped by what I could best describe as a heavy fin. I grabbed the fin and slammed the creature against the door. I think I saw blood. Suddenly, I felt a heavy jolt through my body, as if every nerve in my body was on fire. I think I passed out from the strain.\n\nNext thing I know, I'm back at home. Sitting on the stairs of my pool. Did I dream this? Did it actually happen? My question is answered when I see a new mark on my arm I knew wasn't there before. Great... Just like we do to wild animals, I was bagged, tagged, and released."
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[WP] Your birth name is only kept until your 18th birthday. Your true name is assigned according to your personality and how you've lead your life so far. You're expecting a typical name and think you've been a good person. However, after opening your envelope, you are horrified by what is inside.
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"The candles on top of the cake had burned themselves out, leaving 18 little puddles behind. The guests had left several hours ago, avoiding eye contact with all of us. I could hear sobs coming from the guest bathroom, where my mother had locked herself. My father was sitting on the back porch with a bottle of vodka. I didn’t know what to do with myself, though I guess that was nothing new.\n“Ma-” My sister slapped her hand over my mouth before I could finish saying her name. No, I corrected myself silently. Not her name. Her birth name. Now that she was 18, it was forbidden to address her that way ever again. I had never thought about it before. It had never occurred to me that I would have nothing to call her. \n\nThe day had been so exciting. We got up early to get the house ready for the envelope delivery and reveal. She had been born at 8:51 am, so we had to be ready early. We’d planned on a breakfast, obviously, except for the traditional naming cake. Our friends and neighbors had arrived right on time, ready to share the day with us. \nThe DON van had arrived right on time, five minutes prior to her birth time. The delivery woman smiled at us as....my sister...signed for her envelope. It was her first official act as an adult, and her last time to use her birth name. Once the van left, my mother lit the candles. We all sang happy birthday, pausing at ”Dear,” waiting for the guest of honor to announce her new name. \nI will never forget the look on her face as she unfolded the paper and saw her future. She slowly let the paper fall to the floor, and my mother rushed to pick it up. But by the time it hit the ground, we could all see the bright red stamp: UNDESIGNATED.\n",
"According to basically all of the online quizzes, my name should either have been: Stephen, Alexander, Oliver, William or Robert. Good, strong, respectable names. Names you could use in a professional setting, but could also shorten when chatting with your mates down the pub.\n\nBut not this.\n\nThe three last people to have been assigned what was now my name were, in order, a mass murder and serial rapist, a banker jailed for life for embezzlement and fraud, and a cruel dictator of some small country only recently overthrown. Since then, eight others had been assigned the name, but all of them had died before the age of 20 by suicide. What a standard to live up to.\n\nWe called the Department of Naming numerous times, pleading with them to send the correct name as there had clearly been a mix-up somewhere and there was no way in the world such a polite and well-mannered boy could come even close to anything like this.\n\nEach time, the same name arrived, and the hope in our faces sank a little more.\n\n**From this moment onwards, you shall be called: KEITH**\n\n^^^^^.\n\nr/asmo",
"Dear Mr. Schumacher\n\nWe have received your letter of complaint regarding your assigned name. We receive thousands of such complaints each year, and we typically respond with a simple form letter stating that all decisions are final. Your case, however, is of special interest to the department, and thus we felt you deserved to know our reasoning. \n\nYour statements regarding your character, specifically \"I like to think I've been a decent person\" are, to your credit, too humble. Every person we interviewed about your character had nothing but praise for your intelligence, your drive, and your compassion. Your academics are astounding. In your first 18 years, you've already completed college (diploma waiting on the assignment of your name non-withstanding), founded a non-profit corporation dedicated to providing free health care to the under-privileged, and saved several lives during the the horrible incident at your school on march 15th. That you have accomplished all this despite your personal tragedies is all the more impressive. Everyone who knows you, and everyone here at the department, agree that you are an exceptional young man who is going to do great things. \n\nNames acquire their meanings and power from long storied history. Every name throughout history has had both heroes and villains associated with it. For every Peter the Great there is a Peter the Terrible, for every St. Louis a Louis XVIII. This balance is necessary, for any name associated only with villains would fall out of use rapidly. This is especially the case with recent historical figures. We here at the department have a vested interest in maintaining a wide variety of usable names, and so when the opportunity presents itself, we like to take steps to redeem certain names in the eyes of the public. In you, we have seen such an opportunity. We understand this is a heavy burden to bear, but we are certain you can bear it. We have put our faith in you, Adolf Schumacher, and we know you will do us all proud. \n\nSincerely, \nThe Department of Naming. ",
"\"You have got to be fucking kidding me. What the fucking shitsticks is this fucking crap?\" \n\n\"You know, if you stop cussing like a sailor, maybe you're have a better name.\" My sister smirked at me. I gave her the finger and continued to scowl at my new name. \n\n*Guy Fuckboi-McRudeman Jr.* ",
"Dear PenPal,\n\nI was the *first*. Trust me. I called the **Department of National Naming**. I can promise, I was the most surprised when my envelope arrived. Even now, almost two weeks into my *18th year*, I am genuinely shocked. The kind of shock that makes you question the very fundamentals which you have built yourself. The **Department of National Naming** was responsible for distributing the name, the judges were never revealed though. They were apparently high ranking individuals that had the capacity to glance over your first 18 years and decide a name based on those memories, actions, and your overall personality. Scary thought, I know. \n\nI don't think I ever explained the process to you, it's weird writing to someone from the outside.\n\nThe mailing system here is mostly run through a sophisticated magnetic tube system, it essentially connects all homes to a major hub. Each morning around 4am all of the countries mail is sent simultaneously. The **Department of Magnetic Mailing** is the second worst department to be assigned. They work tirelessly all day and night packing everything onto the magnetic railings. Anything too large for the tubes has to be placed on a drone for special delivery. I am curious as to how your mailing system works. Could you explain it to me?\n\nMy 18th birthday was a relatively normal day for the most part. I woke up around 6am when my mom called out to me for breakfast. I had requested she make my favorite blueberry pancakes topped with English Cream. I mean, you only get renamed once. How could I not celebrate? I flew down the stairs, descending into a sweet aroma of summer berries and baking bread. Right next to the stacked plate of pancakes and cream was a small brown envelope. It had an old fashion wax seal, pressed down with the **Department of National Naming** crest. My new name was locked within this little wrap of paper. I was excited, no, I was beyond excited. I ripped it open without hesitation, pulling out a single small sheet of paper. The sheet legitimately didn't have anything on it. **Nothing!** I was the first to be nameless, just a *blank*. \n\n\nTill next time,\n_______.",
"It can't be true. Something has to be wrong. The Naming Bureau, they must have made a mistake. Yeah, it's all a mistake. Just some big mix-up, that's all.\n\nI stand in the parlor, looking up at the big family photo. It's years old now, taken a few years after my younger sister was born, but it's the only picture with all five of us in it. Mom looks so young, so full of life and happiness in it. She has Gabby on her lap, trying to keep the squirming toddler from making too much of a funny face. Next to her is Dad, who is standing behind me and my older brother. He has one hand on each of our shoulders, and he's smiling. It's been so long since I've seen him smile like that.\n\nMy gaze settles on my brother, John. He had been 'Jamie' when we were kids, but on his 18th birthday he had gotten the name 'Johnathan' and we switched to calling him John. He didn't mind the switch too much, it only took us a few weeks to get used to it. \n\nNot that it mattered much. We only got to use it for about a year, until a drunk driver took him away from us. \n\nMaybe that's why this hurts so much. Maybe that's why Dad walked out, and why Mom's in the kitchen crying. If John were here, maybe things would be different. I bet he would know what to do. He'd probably joke about it, I bet. Say something about how it was clearly the best name, so of course I'd get it.\n\nI glance down at the letter which has since fallen to the floor, left unforgotten in the chaos. I can only make out the first line of it, but that's more than enough to bring back the memories I didn't want.\n\n\"Congratulations Peter Clarke! Your new name, as decided by the Naming Bureau, is Johnathan Clarke.\"",
"\"What is *this*?\" I demanded, waving the card around. My friends all laughed. This was all some sort of joke to them. Oh, it had all gone so *smoothly* from their perspective.\n\nTheir names were all so *respectable*. Nice, basic, normal names. They held their cards up, smiling and grinning, as they tried to etch the new names into their memories. Stephanie, and Carissa, once Jessie and Sarah. Greg became Alexander - always the white knight. Chris, the youngest and most innocent of our group, now Peter. \n\nI knew there was probably symbology and meaning behind each of their names, but I was hopelessly out of my depth. There were entire professions dedicated to interpreting the names that people found themselves stuck with, as people angry at their new titles struggled to find peace.\n\nBecause there was no going back, once you had a new name. It was final. Permanent. And I was *mad*.\n\n\"This is *wrong*.\" I yelled, still waving my card. They all laughed harder.\n\n\"I dunno. You've always been a bit of a pushover.\" *Alex* laughed.\n\nI gritted my teeth.\n\n\"I'm *nice*.\"\n\nStephanie grinned \"You're a *wimp*. You've always been willing to beg for someone's good favor. Remember last month, when you wouldn't come out with us because your little sister asked you to alphabetize her Blu-Ray collection? While she went out with her boyfriend?\" They all snorted into their drinks. \"You let everyone walk all over you!\"\n\n\"Yeah, I was *nice*. I didn't want to get stuck with goddamn *Lucifer* or something!\"\n\nThey howled with laughter. \n\nI wasn't joking, though. Our principal had been saddled with the name *Damius*. It was hard to tell what came first, his name or the permanent scowl that was painted onto his face. \n\nNames were nothing to joke around with. I had been *careful*. I wanted a *good* name.\n\nMy friends all stood, stepping away from the table and nodding towards the exit. I lingered a step behind, still sulking.\n\nPeter grinned, flashing me an uncharacteristically twisted smile.\n\n\"Now, now. Be a dear and clear the table for us, won't you, Sebastian?\"\n\n(/r/Inorai) "
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[WP] You wake up and have no senses, sight, hearing, smell, taste and feeling. How do you react to being alone with your own mind?
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"*What a headrush...*\n\nThose were my first thoughts as I woke up. Well, \"woke up\" might be misleading, but let's not get ahead of ourselves. For now, just assume when I say \"wake up\" I mean \"regained consciousness\".\n\nI was cursed long ago with low blood pressure. Cursed is overstating it, I admit, but it's not like it's really *helped* me. Mostly, it's seen me zoning out for god knows how long if I stand up or stretch or breathe in the wrong way. I'll lose balance, then sight, then hearing, then, depending on the severity, touch. Admittedly, it had never happened immediately upon waking up, but it felt exactly the same, and I was tired.\n\nI waited for the headrush to stop. It didn't.\n\nI tried to shift my weight, but couldn't. That might be misleading as well, but a lot of things about my situation were misleading then, too, so we're probably on the same page. It's not that I couldn't shift my weight, per se, moreso just that I couldn't actually percieve that I had a body. That doesn't really cover it, either. Whatever.\n\nI moved my hand up to my head. My hand didn't move. You know how your hand will get super numb if you lean on the wrong thing for too long, and you can't even tell where your hand is unless you look at it? It was like that, but I couldn't even look at it, because I was effectively blind. \n\nI didn't panic. I don't panic very often. I just sort of lay there, for some amount of time. Then a thought struck me:\n\n*Did it finally work?*\n\nIf my mind was connected to lungs, I would have gasped. I've been thinking about this for years. Did it finally happen?\n\nI'm getting ahead of myself, though. Let me explain.\n\nSeveral years ago, I met a demon.\n\nStop now if that makes you uncomfortable.\n\nIt wasn't because I died, or accidentally visited hell, or chose the wrong alley to turn down. It wasn't the typical depiction of the goat-legged, silhouetted, looming, red-eyed demon, either. He wasn't even corporeal. And, for the sake of convenience, I'll tell you right off the bat that his name was Roger.\n\nHe approached me — or rather, I found him — at least a decade ago. It wasn't on purpose; I just tend to exude a sort of calmness around me, I guess. In case you didn't know — and let's be honest, why would you? — incorporeals will only make themselves visible to someone if they feel comfortable around them. That's how I saw him: apparently he had unconsiously let his invisibility down for me. My best description of him (and I mean this in the best possible way) is a 5-inch, winged, bipedal fennec fox with small horns and a thick, off-purple lizard-like tail.\n\nBut I didn't even notice him at first, since I often have visions anyway. I just figured he was another part of my imagination. Now, that didn't stop me from acknowledging him. And of course, *he* was caught off guard. Which was my first indication he existed outside my head.\n\nEventually, we got to know eachother. I've never been one to be afraid of things, so we actually got along quite well. And since I talked with myself even before I met him, to everyone else nothing about me really changed. But I knew it. Suddenly, I was never alone.\n\nWhat I was talking about earlier is posession. Along with the theme of this whole experience, you've been mislead about posession in general. It might shock you to know that posession must be consentual, on both ends. And it can't just be on paper, either. You don't sign a paper letting demons into your body. Not that *you* would... but it has to be real, internal.\n\nI didn't know what it would feel like. After all, I had never been posessed before. But I imagined it would be something like this, a simple disconnect between my mind and body as Roger took over. It was plesant, and at least somewhat familiar.\n\nThere had to be some way to communicate, though. I'll admit I was a little worried that Roger might forget to breathe, or how to breathe, or he might not be able to walk on my plantigrade legs. I sort of floated around, even though I had no real concept of moving. Quickly, I came across... what I can only describe as an amalgamation of diffusions. It's not like I could see them, but I knew they were there.\n\nI tried thinking in the direction of the diffusions. It's hard to conceptualize thoughts with a direction, but what else could I do?\n\n*Roger. Are you there?*\n\nNo response. The diffusions didn't even react. I tried again, putting more of a kick behind my thoughts, giving them more power. I don't know how, but again, what more could I have done?\n\n*Yo! Roger!*\n\nIn my mind's eye (which was really all I had) I think I perceived some movement in the diffusions. With this, I tried one last time, putting all my effort into yelling with my mind.\n\n*ROGER. WAKE THE FUCK UP.*\n\nI felt the vague sensation of shaking, then the diffusions began to move, blinking rapidly from one location to the next. A shudder, then, \"Urgh . . . what... the fuck?\"\n\nIt was my voice, but I wasn't saying anything.\n\n*Roger, is that you?*\n\n\"Hell if I know. Is this... you?\"\n\n*I think so!* An idea struck me. *Hang on, I'm gonna try something.* I drifted into the diffusions, and immediately became overwhelmed with sensory input, forcing myself out again. I guess I just got used to sensory deprivation too quickly.\n\n\"What? What are you doing?\"\n\nI shook myself off (mentally) and prepared to go back, for real this time. I plunged in, and felt every part of my body. I saw the ceiling of my bedroom, I heard blood rushing through my ears. Except they weren't mine anymore. They were Roger's. It all felt very strange.\n\n*I can see what you see.*\n\n\"What? Couldn't you before?\"\n\nI could hear my voice in Roger's ears. *No, that was just a void.* I saw him blink, felt the eyelids over his eyeballs. This is gonna take a lot of getting used to.\n\n\"Ugh. This is weird.\"\n\n*I feel ya. Try moving around. Get used to being corporeal.*\n\n\"Yeah, that seems like a good start.\"\n\nI began to feel his fingers twitch, brushing against the blanket, then his legs and chest followed. I had to pull myself away for a moment.\n\n\"God, this is weeeeird... I have to control everything manually.\"\n\nI had a mini panic attack. *Then focus on breathing and blood! When I get my body back I want it in useable condition!*\n\n\"Relax my dude. That stuff's being done for me. I guess it's not *all* manual.\"\n\nI let out a (mental) sigh of relief. I didn't really want to know what would happen if my body died while I wasn't there. I didn't really want to think about it, either. So I changed the subject.\n\n*Do you think you can walk?*\n\n\"Well. One way to find out.\" He got up and immediately fell over forwards. \"Guess not.\"\n\nThat was when I realized that when I pulled out, I only stopped feeling. I could still hear, smell, and importantly, see.\n\n*Heh. Get rekt.*\n\n\"This is *your* body, man.\"\n\n*Yeah, but it's you.*\n\n\"Whatever.\"\n\nHe positioned his hands beneath his chest, and pushed us up. That was when I realized I was experiencing even more than I thought I was. I could percieve the location of each of Roger's limbs. Though I think I could do that when I wasn't posessed as well. Huh.\n\nRoger moved into a sitting position, back against the bed. \"Dude, I can't feel your legs!\"\n\n*They're your legs now.*\n\n\"Fine, I can't feel *my* legs.\"\n\n*There you go.*\n\n\"What do I do?\"\n\n*Ya got me. Here, lemmie just...* I reinserted myself fully, sort of prodding to feel my legs. \n\n\"What?\"\n\n*Hmmm... *I* can feel my legs.*\n\n\"They're *my* legs.\"\n\n*Shut up.*\n\n\"So what do we do?\"\n\n*What if I... fuck I dunno.*\n\n\"Should we just switch back?\"\n\n*Probably.*\n\n\"...who goes first?\"\n\nI pulled myself out of the diffusions, just for safety. *How about you leave, then I'll go in.\"\n\n\"Okay...\" The diffusions slowed, then stopped. I suddenly realized I had no idea how to get back into my body. I panicked for a few seconds, then realized that before then I had only been in contact with the outer parts. So I moved into the diffusions, making my way to the center. I didn't experience input as soon as I entered, though. Maybe because there really wasn't any experiencing going on.\n\nI reached the center, and suddenly found myself in my body. I gasped, lurching forward, then coughed a few times. When I looked up, Roger was on the dresser beside me. \"You okay?\"\n\n\"Yeah. That's a bit jarring.\" I checked, and made sure that I could in fact feel my legs. I could. I moved them around a little bit. They responded normally. \"Dude, you suck at being a human.\""
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[WP] You are the grouchiest old man to ever live. You die, only to awake in front of the gates of Heaven greeted by God himself, you're positive there's been some mistake.
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"God's hands seemed— No, his massive hands were totally sweaty. \"My child,\" he said as he stared through the gates an beyond, through me, \"I'm here to forgive your sins and return you to our kingdom.\"\n\n\"I had a heart attack,\" I started.\n\nGod nodded and grunted twice.\n\n\"—on my lawn—\"\n\n\"Hmm-hmm!\"\n\n\"—because I yelled at the tweens too hard?\"\n\nIt's true that god made man in his image; he sweated tank rounds. The sweatdrops crashed so far from me, yet water still hit my pitch red suit. God's eyes widened when he realized and he spilled words. \"It'snotthesinbutrathertheconfessionyousee?\" he realized I couldn't understand the jumble and slowed down, \"Just admit your sins and we can move on.\"\n\nBy then, I understood. \"No, father,\" I dried my suit with a wave of my hand, \"I've done nothing wrong.\"\n\nGod slammed his fist inches from me. \"Jesus Christ, end this foolishness!\"\n\nI didn't flinch and asked without raising my voice. \"Will you forgive Lucifer and his comrades for the uprising?\"\n\nGod sweated again, this time the size of actual tanks. \"We've talked about this...\"\n \nI took a step back, and another. \"I shall return in another life time. I pray you'll be willing next time.\"\n\n\"Christ!\" God's palms slammed the ground where I used to be.\n\nBut I was already falling into a new life."
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[WP] You are lying in bed, your arm hangs over the edge facing up right so it doesn't dangle towards the floor. As you drift off to sleep, you see a hand slowly reaching for your wrist, you can't work out whether it's human or not, good or evil...
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"My face rested against the soft cloud which was my pillow, the enveloping duvet covered most of my body in its tender embrace as if a cocoon of sleep and dreams. The spell began to take hold, my arm in that position it was every night, upright and my hand below my pillow as extra heightened support for my pampered neck.\n\nThe drowsy lids of my eyes began to slowly descend as to announce closing shop for the night, my bed lamp by my nightstand shining stars against the navy blue walls of my room.\n\nBeyond the setting lids of my eyes I saw the black spots appear before me, devoid of light and beyond the powers of sight. A drowsy wave of sleep swept me away from the land of the waking and into the sea of dreams. The image of the blackened dots turned into a figures hand, yet still as dark and disallowing any to gaze through the black mist enshrouding it. Dark and long fingers flexed about in wanting, as a swift movement of the twig-like fingers clasped tightly around my wrist like a vice.\n\nIt was too late, the wave had parted me from my body and from a dark place of fear and helplessness I watched as the thin and long appendage which barred light to ever touch its skin had reached out from within the shadows below my bed. The horrid arm slender and long with fingers that stretched out into thin and disturbing things as if sculpted from the shadows of a tree branch. The limb beyond its upper arm disappeared into the shadows below. No light ever wandered there, no movement nor sound could be seen or heard, all that was discernible was the pitch black nothingness as dark as the abyss from which it came.\n\nThe creature began to tug on my wrist and I watched powerless as my own arm became stretched outwards and my body began to follow in turn. The joints of the thing began to crack and retort like the bending and breaking of timber.\n\nMy body flopped onto the floor without complaint like a sack of rice and I watched as inch by inch the shadows below my bed began to devour every part of my body like a pit-less gullet.\n\nThe image grew smaller, distant, I fell onto my knees on a sea of black and watched the dark water below me ripple in reply as my body was claimed by the void."
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[WP] Through all your life, you have never been able to hear a single song. Today when your daughter has a recital at school, you hear her.
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"Jon forced a smile over the frown on his face, just in case Jess looked over. His daughter would play for a room packed to the brim with parents. All eager to hear the creations of their own children's hands and minds. Well, most parents. Jon wouldn't hear a single tapping of a single foot. \n\nIt was awkward, really. Being deaf at a music recital was like... like being *deaf at a music recital*. Jon only allowed himself to be dragged along because Melissa said it would make Jess more comfortable seeing him there as a surprise. \n\nHe thought her a fool then, but now stood in hopes that she'd look over and ease the obvious tension she felt. She sat straight-backed, facing the crowd but looking down at the violin on her arm. She cleared her throat, a sight that Jon had seen often when his little girl got nervous. \n\nShe got that from her mother. \n\n--- \n\nJess took a deep breath in. \n\nIt was just a single piece. Played to bored parents who weren't even paying attention \n\nStill, she couldn't move her hand. \n\nHer eyes shot up to the crowd, knowing what they would see. People laughing, snickering and looking away in embarrassment. Instead, they found her father. \n\n--- \n\nJon forced his fake smile to widen, an encouraging look in the gymnasium. \n\nIt probably showed in it's lack of authenticity, but he tried. \n\n--- \n\nJess's stress melted away at the sight of her father's smile. \n\nThe same smile he wore whenever she told him and her mom about her day at school. The smile that sat below that always watching eyes, glued to her lips to not miss a single word. \n\nHe always did that. He tried so hard just to listen, a thing most people who could hear didn't do. He would listen and smile and nod, then reply with his own thoughts. It was a simple thing, but Jess found herself smiling in reply, and her arms capable of movement once again. \n\nShe closed her eyes. \n\nAnd began playing. \n\n--- \n\nJon watched as his daughter drew the strings back with her bow, flinching at the sudden... *sound*. It wailed out into the air, audible to him. He froze in the spot. Was this a dream, then? Like the one he'd had so many years ago when he heard something? \n\n*No*... he thought, looking at his daughter, scared and vulnerable and alone. *This is real.* \n\nShe played slowly, each sound lasting for seconds before fading out and being replaced by another, sadder one. Could sounds be *sad*? \n\nThe music sped up, her hand keeping the pace. \n\n--- \n\nJess didn't play as she normally did, thinking of the next chord. \n\nInstead, she thought of her father. \n\nBorn deaf, marrying his childhood sweetheart, then caring for her. They didn't have much money and in lieu of a cochlear implant, he bought a violin so that Jess could play, all because she'd seen a video on YouTube and asked for one. It sat in her closest for months before she picked it back up, out of guilt alone. \n\nShe thought of her mother helping her practice, smiling with her tired eyes from working a ten hour shift at the hospital. \n\nShe thought of how the hallway upstairs had only pictures with her in them. How the fridge still held up report cards graded with A's back before she stopped trying. \n\nShe thought about how much she had, and how little she'd given. \n\nStrangely, she heard no sound. \n\n--- \n\nJon almost wished he couldn't hear. \n\nThe music his daughter created was *beautiful*, but it filled his heart with sadness. It brought memories to his own head of not paying attention to her words and giving bullshit replies, only to make her angry. Memories of her anger when she realized where the money for the violin had come from. \n\nMemories of her pulling on his hand to draw his attention so she could exaggerate the words 'ice cream' for him to get her some. For a brief moment, he almost heard her voice, saying those words. \n\nMemories of her as a baby, cradled in his arms and looking up with curiosity. \n\nEven in that memory, he could almost hear her voice, the soft mutterings of a content baby. He- \n\nThe music ended. And with it, the window into the world of sound. \n\nHis daughter sat still on her chair, arm lowering from the violin. A tear rolled hot down Jon's face. He didn't bother wiping it away. \n\nThere was a pause for a long moment. \n\n--- \n\nJess stared at the floor, surprised to find herself crying. \n\nSound came rushing back, though it was mainly a quietness. \n\nShe wiped away the tear and looked at the crowd. They stared at her, wide-eyed and some with mouths open. \n\nHer eyes went to where her father still stood. He was crying, an uncomfortable sight from the man who never showed weakness. \n\nJess stood up and walked off the stage before anyone could say anything. The walk turned to a run before she had left it. "
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[WP]You are given a chance to read an autobiography of your unborn child. Slack-jawed, You finish the final page, drop the book and immediately schedule an abortion.
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"The day the book arrived on our doorstep began as a very normal day. My wife and I live in Greenville, Michigan, a very quiet and quaint town where everyone knows everyone, and everybody gets along. It was the kind of safe, cozy place that you want your kids to grown up in.\n\nOr so we thought.\n\nWhen I woke up that morning, I scurried eagerly downstairs, the scent of breakfast filling my nose. I greeted my darling wife, Janet, who was making pancakes and bacon in the kitchen. I gave her a kiss, then crouched down and gave her belly a kiss too. Just a couple days earlier, we had learned that Janet was one month pregnant. We had been hoping for a baby for a while now, and we were both so excited to find out that we'd be parents soon. \n\nAfter sitting down at the table, the smell of grease and batter wafting in the air, I heard the doorbell ring. \"Jacob, could you get that?\" My wife asked me from the next room. I got up again, slightly annoyed to be kept from a delicious breakfast, but somewhat curious to see who was visiting at such an early time. \n\nWhen I opened it, my first thought was that it was a prank. Nobody stood on the porch outside the door, and I didn't see a mailman on the street who might have just left. \"Hey, you crazy kids! Why don't you keep off my-\" I started to yell at the air, but I stopped myself when I noticed something at my feet.\n\nA book. And not just any old paperback book. The cover was made from a worn out dark leather, and was shut tight by a metal clasp on the side of the book. I picked up the book to inspect it further, and realized there was a note attached to the front. It read, in very fancy cursive, 'To: The Nicholsons. From: A friend'. \n\nI concluded that it wasn't at the wrong house because my wife and I were, in fact, the Nicholsons. I flipped the book over to its side and noticed that there was gold lettering that spelled out something on its spine. What it read made my face turn pale. \n\n'The life of Jeremy Nicholson'.\n\nJeremy. That was the name that I had only just yesterday mentioned to Janet as a possible name for our unborn child. That was only if it was a boy, which we were still unsure of. \n\nI brought the seemingly ancient book inside, my blood still cold from shock. When my wife saw my face as I entered the dinning room, she let out a little shriek. \n\n\"Oh my goodness, Jacob! You look as though you've seen a ghost! What's the matter?\" I sat down next to her, handing her the book in response. When she read the book's title, she gasped.\n\n\"Jeremy... but we thought of that name yesterday. This has got to be some sick joke!\" She exclaimed. \"Did you open it yet?\"\n\nI looked at her and shook my head. \"No, Janet, I don't think it's a joke. This feels... different. Bad.\" I started at the book, unsure of what it might contain. My wife looked back at me, then down at the book in her hands. He dropped it in the table, like she had suddenly realized it was extremely hot. \n\n\"Ok, well let's just open it, Jacob. The suspense is killing me. I mean, it can't be that bad, whatever it says.\" I nodded in agreement, deciding that we had better brace ourselves for what might lie in the pages. I grabbed the book, unhooked the metal latch holding it together, and flipped it open to the first page, which was entitled 'Birth and Early Childhood.'\n\nOver the next several days, Janet and I both read the 227 pages of the highly detailed book, only taking breaks to use the bathroom, eat, and sleep. When we finally had read the final page of the biography, we closed the book, sat back in our chairs, and pondered in silence for what seemed like hours. Janet eventually spoke up. \n\n\"Y-you think any of that it true?\" I thought about my answer for a while. \n\n\"Well... it did seem like it could be possible. The facts could, hypothetically, become true. Would all that really be our fault though? Maybe if we just raise him a little different than the book says we do?\"\n\nJanet just spoke her head. \"I mean, come on. There's no way he could kill that many people, and in such brutal ways. It just wouldn't be possible. It can't be true.\"\n\nI looked up at her, and I knew she was thinking the same thing as me. \n\n\"Maybe we could just get rid of this one and try again. The next one can't possibly be worse than Jermey Nicholson.\" "
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[WP] Ever since you were 12, you would roll a dice to help you make decisions. Even numbers = Yes, Odds = No. Today, for the first time in 6 years, both dices land on their edges.
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"I've always been burdened with decision making, I never really know what to do. \nI used dice to figure out what path to take. \nEvens would mean yes and Odds would mean no I kept telling myself. \n\nI tried it for trivial decisions and it seemed to work, slowly it became a habit. I would roll the dice just to make sure what I wanted to do, even though subconsciously I knew what my decision would be. \n\nBut then it happened, I wanted to tell my friend how much he meant to me, he was going out for a trip and it would be long before I get to see him again. \n\nI rolled the dice and they landed on their edges, I knew what I wanted to do, my first instinct was to roll them again. But this was something new, this had never happened before. \n\nI was anxious and decided to let it be , the realization quickly hit me. I am responsible for the decisions I make. I went up to my friend and told him how much he meant to me, he hugged me. I felt great. \n\nI came back and realized that for all these years I had used the dice as an alternative to the mind and the heart. I rolled the dice to make decisions but I would look at them in a certain way. \n\nMy first assurance came from the fact that one dice was the heart and the other was the mind, even though there was no difference between the dice. \n\nMy next assurance came from the fact that consciously I believed the odd number represents the heart and the even represents the mind. \n\nSo in reality every decision I took was a combination of both the heart and the mind, it was just a matter of perspective subconsciously. \nEvery roll of the dice was just a confirmation for what I believed in. \n\n\n",
"Some people have said that I'm slightly autistic. I was slow in school and didn't quite understand the social complexities of life, but I mainly just disliked people. They made me anxious and since I was picked on at a young age, distrustful. Perhaps I was slightly off, but that's anther matter entirely. What I'm here to tell you today is how you shouldn't rely too heavily on something like an old nervous habit to live your life.\n\nWhen I was twelve my grandfather, a kindly old man who was taken too early by cancer. He saw me huddled in a corner of my room rocking back and forth shivering and mumbling. I wasn't sure if I wanted to have chocolate or butterscotch pudding. Perhaps a small decision to you, but mother said I could only choose one. ONE for the entire day. My grandfather held me and told me a secret as he handed me dice that he said had won him many a game of chance in the navy. He said \"roll the dice when you question yourself evens are yes and odds are no\" I stopped my sniveling and looked at him, pondering. I questioned him about the enormity of decisions that I was leaving to two plastic cubes and began to freak out about pudding again. He told about the mind and how I knew what I wanted and the dice would just help balance my subconscious, force to the front my decision. I had butterscotch after a roll of 5.\n\nAfter that my life had been fairly ordinary, still bullied and taunted, but I had my solace in my mind at least. Even the therapist applauded my late grandfather on calming me. I write this letter now, however in my last semblance of sane thought. For six years the dice have been my tick, my nervous habit. Today when I decided to go to my grandfathers funeral or to stay home and cry alone my dice betrayed me. I sat on my bed, black suit on and hair in shambles, tears already building within me. I rolled my greatest possessions and looked on in horror. I wanted to stay home, but the dice had not given me that answer. The dice had given me no answer at all. As I threw them on my desk they had given up. Retired as my grandfather had and lay there in their edges. No numbers definitively to show me the path. I reached to roll again, but pulled away. If I began with mulligans now then my life up till now would be a lie.\n\nSo after hours of sobbing and shivering I came to the only solution. I would roll again, for something different. I can't remember what, but I know it was minuscule and only to restore my faith. Again the dice betrayed me. I began to roll furiously, again and again the dice taunted me. They were tired of me. They had decided to abandon me, their magic gone with my grandfather's body. Now solidly beneath the earth. \n\nI could barely see when the final idea sprung to life and I rolled one last time. The dice tumbled over and over on the desk. One landed soundly one a snake eye. The other tumbled over the side. I rejoiced, an answer or at least the idea of one. I kept off of my bed and dug beneath my desk. Another snake eye peered out from beneath the clutter of computer cords and dust bunnies. I whispered to myself joyously. What sweet salvation. The dice had released me from their hold I no longer had to roll them. So as my really only true decision I decided to write this note. \n\nMy message is simple. Forge your own path and don't let your mind or the world deceive you. You know what you want. Take it. Goodbye\n\n Sincerely and with joyous heart \n Adam\n\n\nThe police responded to the call of gunshots in the small neighborhood promptly and found the boy slumped against his desk. smiling blissfully, two small red dice in his hand, a gun on the floor, a bullet between the eyes. "
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I accept that the cosmic microwave background is actually the red shifted big bang. Doesn't have to be 100% scientifically accurate
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[WP] After decades of development, NASA finally launch a space telescope powerful enough to see further than 13.82 billion years back - the moment of the big bang. What they see drives them insane
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"After eighteen years of planning and just under a billion dollars, the launch of the Vanadium-182 went beautifully. The most power telescope ever created by man, it was capable of sending back clear images of the Big Bang- with a little bit of processing to clear the redshift, at least. \nWhen the first picture finally came back, the scientists became furious. It couldn't be, it couldn't possibly be. \nClear as day, a white haired yet young man, with a definite glow around him, and surrounded by an audience dressed in white, was smiling pleasantly and holding his hands parallel to the white surface of the ground. "
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[WP] Whenever you're in danger, your body automatically slows time to allow you to react to it better, the slower the time the greater the danger. Three days ago everything went still and you still have no idea what danger you're in.
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"The early test for defects suggested something was wrong, but they couldn't be sure. They had to wait for him to grow before they could test again to be certain. The final test was in the eighth month. She had planned for it. If the results showed that he had it, she would abort. They tried to inject him in the womb but he kept avoiding it. They tried to grab him to pull him out, but he kept slipping away. She took it as a sign that he won't die, and before they could attempt anything else, she decided not to go through with it.\n\nAs far as anyone knows, he is the only one with the condition to survive birth. Still, he was expected to die any day, so they watched him closely and protected him for years. As he got older, and showed no symptoms, they feared less for his imminent death. He never before experienced a serious enough threat to notice his ability until that night.\n\nBy a roaring bonfire sat Jon, age nine, clutching his favorite toy. It was the first time in Jon's sheltered life that he had seen a fire so big. He could feel the heat press on his face. Each sharp crack and pop of the burning wood sent embers flying up. His brother, Seth, quickly gets up and snatches the toy.\n\n\"Give it back!\" Jon shouted. He got up and tried to grab it, but Seth kept jerking it away.\n\n\"Seth, you give that back right now!” Said Mom.\n\nSeth looked over to his dad, \"He's too old. Right, Dad?\" Dad grunts. \"I stopped playing with little kid toys when I was seven. Jon, you want your dolly back?\"\n\n\"It’s not a doll!\" Jon yelled.\n\n\"Looks like a doll to me,\" said Seth. He looked at the fire, \"I wonder how long it'll take to melt.\" Seth chucked the toy into the fire. It hit a log and rolled down where it sat surrounded in flames.\n\n\"Seth! I can't believe... get your ass in the house!\" shouted Mom.\n\n\"Whatever,\" he replied rolling his eyes.\n\nJon glared at his toy engulfed in flames. \"I'm sorry, sweetie\" said Mom. Jon stretched out his arm and lunged for it. \"No, Jon!\" Jon felt the warmth on his hand rapidly turn hot. And before he could get close enough for his flesh to burn he saw that the rapid flutter of the flames turned into sluggish churning, and the embers hanged in the air refusing to burn out. Jon was motionless with his hand still out reaching to the fire. He looked around and saw that the world had also slowed. The closer his hand got to the fire the slower everything became. Jon lowered his hand, stood up, and the world reset.\n\nMom ran up to him and grabbed his wrist. \"Why in the world would you do that! You scared me half to death. Were you burned? Let me see.\"\n\nJon gazed into the fire while Mom examined his hand.\n\nIt's twenty years later and Jon sits on the porch steps of his house looking down at his hand. His wife, Ash, sneaks up behind him.\n\n\"Yup, those are fingers,\" she says with a smirk. \"Ok, help, please.\" Ash puts her left hand on Jon's shoulder and places the other on her hip to support a bulging pregnant belly. She sits down next to Jon.\n\n\"Why are you moping? The test was negative,\" she says.\n\nJon places his hand on Ash's tummy and says, \"I know.” He looks up to Ash. “I just wish I didn't have to go now.\"\n\n\"Don’t worry. We’ll be fine. Your mom called. She's on her way. Go.\"\n\n\"It's only a couple of days,\" says Jon. He leans in and they share a kiss. \"I love you.\" Jon puts his hand on Ash's tummy, \"You too, baby girl.\" He walks to the car.\n\n\"Hey!\" Ash yells, \"call me when you land!\"\n\n\"Will do!\" shouts Jon while throwing up his hand to wave.\n\nShe feels a sharp, intense jolt of pain. \"Wait!\" shouts Ash. \"Jon, you have to stop!\".\n\nJon runs over to Ash. \"What's wrong? Are you OK?\" Ash leans back and her face contorts.\n\n\"Whooooaaaaaa! Jon we gotta go. Now. We gotta go.\"\n\n\"Shit. shit. shit. shit. OK!\" Jon helps Ash up and gets her to the car. He throws some luggage from the passenger seat into the back, helps Ash into the car, and rushes around to plop into the driver seat.\n\n\"OK, buckle up,\" he says.\n\nJon screeches out of the neighborhood onto the main highway. He looks over to Ash and sees her struggling to buckle her seatbelt. He reaches over and fumbles to snap it in. They hear a click.\n\n\"JON, LOOK OUT!\" screams Ash.\n\nJon looks up to see a semi truck barreling at them head on. He had swerved into the oncoming lane. He takes the wheel to make a sharp turn off road. It won't budge. He looks up to see the things around him unfolding at a snail's pace. He takes the wheel again. Still, it won't budge no matter how hard he tries to turn it, and the harder he tries, the slower and slower the world becomes. Jon reaches down to unbuckle Ash but it won't release.\n\nHe looks over to her. \"Ash...\" Jon lays his head on her tummy and weeps. \"I'll stay with you,\" he whispers. The semi truck stops dead not an inch from the car.\n\n\"No!\" He clenches his hand into a fist and beats it against the wheel until he bleeds. Jon opens the door to the car, steps out, looks to Ash and whispers, \"I'm sorry.\"\n\nHe walks to a grassy knoll and collapses on his knees. The world is quiet.\n\nJon remains unstuck from time, motionless, and still on his knees atop that same grassy knoll. He tried to starve himself but he feels neither hunger nor thirst.\n\nHe doesn't know how long it's been or even if that makes sense to know. But he's mourned for Ash and his little girl, and now he knows that he must live on. He lifts himself from his knees and makes his way to the semi truck. He releases the man's buckle and drags him to the grassy knoll.\n\nJon looks over to Ash, turns his back, and walks away.",
"Life has been a cliffhanger for a few days, preparing for my next challenge. \nTime is on my side in these moments, I have so much time to plan this. \nBut it seems like danger is distant, yet it could hit in an instant. \nFor instance, I was just walking in slow motion and all of a sudden I fell off a cliff. \n",
"\"What the hell?\" Thomas stared at the clock in his office. The second hand had completely stopped. He glared for what he guessed was a minute. The hand did not tick or tock. \n\nPanicking, he reached for the hourglass on his desk. To his clients it was a sophisticated paper weight, but to him it was a measurement of his danger. He eagerly eyed the desk ornament as he flipped it over. Not one grain of sand fell.\n\n\"Oh fuck,\" he thought, his hand still holding the timepiece. A panic petrification overtook him. Slowly, he returned to his desk. He glanced back at the clock. It remained as still as concrete. \"Shit, guess I better take a look.\"\n\nThomas slowly opened his door and surveyed his workplace. The row of cubicles that stretched in front him seemed normal. Rudith's desk was directly in front of his office. She was mid-spin in her chair with the phone to her ear. She was laughing her despicable cackle and her red hair seemed to erupt from her head. Thomas looked both ways in the aisle. After seeing no immediate signs of danger, he relaxed a little and walked over to Rudith. He slapped her across the face. She didn't move but he knew she wouldn't be laughing when this was over. \"That's for all the headaches you've given me,\" he thought. \n\nThomas was on edge as he wandered around. He turned a corner and peered through the double-paned windows. He didn't see anything that would cause him harm. No aircraft flying too low or traffic that was about to crash into the building. Everything seemed exceptionally ordinary, besides the fact that nothing was moving or exhibiting signs of life.\n\nAfter a quick inspection of the office floor he headed for the stairs and began to climb down. At each floor he would enter and do a quick walkthrough of the offices and businesses. He had to make sure that the danger wasn't coming from inside the building. He would've been annoyed at how long the whole process was taking if it weren't for the fact that he had literally all the time in the world. \n\nIt was amazing at how still everything was. While this wasn't the first time he had experienced the effects of his intrinsic defense mechanism, it was the first time he had seen it work to such an extreme. It was also the first time he had moved around so freely during a time slow. Never before had time completely stopped. Sure it would slow down considerably, but he hadn't ever dared to move dramatically from whatever position he was in when it activated. He could dodge a punch or begin a change of momentum, but if he were to move at full speed it would be evident to witnesses that something supernatural had just occurred. This time was different. This time, no one was consciously aware. Everyone and everything was suspended in time. He now remembered how as a child he would spend his nights before bed dreaming of what he would do if he could manipulate it. How he would sneak into the girls locker room or look up all the answers to his exam. He even went as to far to think of a way to put himself in a constant state of danger so that it would always be active. In the end, he simply did not have the means to command his chronological gift.\n\nAfter clearing the building, Thomas exited onto the street. \"What the hell is causing this? Nothing is even breathing! How can I be in danger?\" He started to run through the streets. His frustration was getting the better of him. Soon it turned into paranoia and he started checking all the surrounding businesses, vehicles, and people. For what must've been a full 24 hours, Thomas had checked every establishment and person, in about a 10 block radius. He found nothing. He screamed in the middle of the street, his voice echoing off of the silence.\n\nHis frustrated fury died to demoralization, and he fell to his knees. He was unsure if he would be stuck in this fixed dimension. He panicked at the thought of it and remained as still as those around him. \n\nAfter an indefinite amount of time, he heard footsteps. He jolted upright seeking the source. He leered through his immediate environment desperate to see movement. Jumping on top of a cab he got a better view. In front of him, about 100 meters away, he saw a blonde ponytail bobbing away from him. He remained stunned for a second on the roof of the taxi before jumping down and sprinting towards it. \n\n"
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[WP] One by one you notice your neighbors disappear until you are the last occupied house on your street.
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"The neighborhood once held the laughter of children, but the children were gone now. It was no place to raise a family. The street once showed with the steady traffic of the comings and goings of a neighborhood. Now the only vehicles that pass are the occasional police cruisers. The community once held the playful barkings of family dogs excited by the their owners return or the squirrel who strode across the power lines. There were still dogs. The strays roamed in packs scavenging whatever they could find. The power lines had mostly fallen.\n\nThe Smith family was the first to leave. The dad was a manager at GM and was cut in the first layoffs. Everyone heard the news, and ignored that sign of the tumultuous times to come. Richards was next. She was with Chrysler. After that, the layoffs and closures came quickly. One by one as they faced layoffs, neighbors disappeared and their homes were left abandoned. Until there was only one occupied house on the street.\n\nI sat on the front porch drinking coffee, and looked at my vacant community. Nature was slowly creeping back in. Vines were climbing forever sky-ward on the Henry's old home, and a den of foxes slept beneath the foundation of the Richards house. An old man on a bicycle rode past mumbling to himself in a drug-induced absence from the neglect around him. I drank my coffee, and wondered how long before nature claimed my own home."
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[WP] Alexander the Great never died of disease but lived to conquer the world. His descendents have succeeded in space travel, Alexander's Empire is reaching new frontiers, but some ominous messages are being detected from the void of space.
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"Wrote on my phone, apologies for formatting.\n\n\n-\n\n\nMechanically scrawled across a memory disc in a derelict ship, some few light years from planet Earth, a log entry. When accessed properly, a females voice plays.\n\n\"Agathon, Tagmatarchis of the Caesaran Exploration vessel Icarus. Log entry, August 10^th 2562.\n\n\nThe Orion mission has come to a halt. The escaped prisoners from the Orion belt penitentiary have been exterminated.\n\n\nOperations are normal, if not better than normal. \n\n\nMorale is adequate, with the success of the Orion mission we've been granted recreational leave.\n\n\nI'm not sure it will last long. Comms has received a cryptic mission on the long rang communication array. We've been running every encryption algorithm we know, to no avail.\" \n\n\nContinuing through the data banks, many of the log entires would be corrupted. Many but not all.\n\n\n\"Agathon, Tagmatarchis of the Caesaran Exploration vessel Icarus. Log entry, September 11^th 2562.\n\nWe are still in operational stasis, waiting for further orders.\n\n\nEngineering reports several minor system failures, nothing difficult to repair.\n\n\n\nRegarding the message; We've discovered why we've been unable to decrypt the message. It isn't encrypted.\n\n\nReferencing our historical documents, it's come to our attention that the message is written in an ancient, dead language. \n\n\nThe syntax of the language and the character set seems to be what's impending is now.\n\n\nThe message is no longer a priority, but we shall pursue in the interest of historical interest.\"\n\n\n\"Agathon, Tagmatarchis of the Caesaran Exploration vessel Icarus. Log entry, August 14^th 2562.\n\n\nI'm disappointed in the engineering department. The faults have gone unrepired and have escalated into more major difficulties. Both communication arrays are down now, so the only hope we have is in the engineering department. I trust their them.\"\n\n\n\"Agathon, Tagmatarchis of the Caesaran Exploration vessel Icarus. Log entry, August 25^th 2562.\n\n\nWe've lost all primary power. Most major systems besides life support are down. \n\n\nThe outlook is grim. To my family on tau-malone, I love you.\n\n\nWe've finally translated the message in between outages. 'The Gods are returning'\n\n\nMay they have mercy on us.\"\n\n\n\nEdit: rewording the reveal"
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[WP] You're a competitive VR gamer, you suffer from an in-game hit to the head so strong you enter a coma in reality. You find you self in the game's afterlife.
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"Man, VR COD was awful. It was the whole \"spawn, die, spawn, die\" situation that Faze Jev screamed about in that old video. I should've picked up a different game back when I was a kid. Playing on these low-tier professional teams wasn't nearly as fun as I had expected; I had spent thousands of hours practicing my aim to perfect the recoil patterns and mastering snap-headshots, but my teammates and enemies alike were all just using the same old meta weapons without a care in the world for accuracy. This whole match, I haven't seen a single headshot in the killfeed aside from my own. I sprint around a corner, nonchalantly expecting the same camper to try and shoot me even though he knew that I knew he was there.\nExcept, this time, he lucked out. I died much faster than normal, seeing a little red crosshair over a head in the killfeed. I suddenly felt very lightheaded. So much so that my real life head drooped...\nI only saw white for a few seconds. Had I passed out? I've gamed for longer periods of time than this... A menu appeared in front of me. But it was different-more crisp... I guess you'd say a higher resolution than normal? \n\"Press X to respawn.\""
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[WP] In a world where firearms can only be operated by voice command, our protagonist is a cop with speech disorders.
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"Bill's hands trembled while pointing his gun at the robber, who let the bag of money fall and put his hands up in the air.\n\n\"Listen gun, I want you to sh-sh-sho-... SHINE!\"\n\nThe black gun lit up white, the amount of radiation coming from the pistol made Bill lose conciousness and he collapsed on the ground. The robber laughed. \"Too bad, anxiety boy!\" He fled with the money.\n\n----\n\n\"I can't handle this fu-fu-... lucking speech disorder.\" Bill smacked his hands on his desk.\n\n\"Listen Bill, you're tired, go home.\"\n\nBill stood up and put his hands on his boss' shoulders. \"Will that fix my sh- scat?\"\n\n\"No, but I don't want another frustrated cop eventually losing himself over nothing.\"\n\n\"You just don't get it!\" Bill had an involuntary jerk and smacked his pen holder from his desk, launcing it directly into the receptionist's face. \"Oh, my apologies Eva!\"\n\nShe stuck up her middlefinger at Bill, who was red from shame. His boss walked away without saying anything.\n\nWhile Bill was doing some paperwork, one of the red lights on the city map behind him lit up, a large bank was being robbed. \"Guy- gays, a bank is being robbed at *seventy bi- big- charity dick street*!\"\n\nThe agents took their shotguns and drove to the robbery scene, Bill stepped forward with his megaphone. \"We have the building surrou- pounded, drop your buns, cry on the ground with your glands behind your bred! I- I mean... FUCK. JUST FUCKING SHOOT!\""
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[WP] You have a special ability to hear music that people are thinking about. You tell people you prefer the subway because "it just sounds better". One day you hear the most beautiful tune when stepping off at your stop.
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"My heart nearly skipped a bit. \n\nLet me explain to you. You can tell a lot about people from their song. Most of the ‘songsters’ have in mind a simple song they’ve heard recently somewhere that stuck to them. Even if there’s quite a variety of it, it’s often just a catchy melody that helps them relax from their daily problems. Sometimes you find a pearl, a reassuring mother trying to comfort their crying child with a melody like a lighthouse in a stormy sea, or a young lover with a head full of dreams jumping quickly from a waltz to a swing. \nBut this…This song was like nothing I’ve ever heard before. Like a spell that got me instantly hooked up.\nI closed my eyes, trying to follow my ears on the source of this songster. A low and steady percussion matching my heartbeat started pulling me. Softly a harp arrived weaving a golden harmony like masterful spider. It was like honey healing a sore throat. The melody slowly died away letting a silence that was saying a lot settling in.\nThen! A thousand women with voices like angels, singing in perfect harmony the creation of the world.\nI don’t consider myself a pious person, but at this very moment I felt like the thirstiest man who just found the holiest oasis.\n\nThis was proper genius in its purest form.\n\nI slowly opened my weepy eyes and felt like I was awakening from a long distant dream. The rough outlines of the familiar subway station abruptly bringing me back to reality. I quickly wiped and eyes and searched for the source of this beautiful song.\n Here standing in front of me was Kanye West, staring back at me with his smug face."
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[WP] You open up your phone in the morning, and find a notification saying "Gwyn, Lord of Tinder has matched with you!"
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"I stretched in bed, then yawned for a long time decided to roll over and almost immediately regretted that decision. My head was hurting and my hair seemed inconveniently sticky. With great effort I managed to sit up in bed and look at what I had done. The scenery wasn’t Postcard like although there were some rough hills and other shapes distinguishable, the smell wasn’t great either. The decision to rather throw away my sheets then washing them slowly formed in my brain.\n\n“Ahhww…” I shouted remembered by my own brain about the condition of my brain. I looked at my phone as I routinely do when I get up. Tried to get past unlocking my phone manually with my fingerprint. It didn’t work something was smeared over the fingerprint reader. I barely managed to not throw up and took the phone to the bathroom. After a thorough cleansing for me and my phone, I got rid of a few of those demons haunting my brain, the painkiller took care of the rest. I got a trash bag threw the sheets and covers away and opened the windows to get rid of the smell… somewhat.\n\nAfter fixing some coffee I sat down on my couch and devoted myself to my phone. It sort of looked mad at me for neglecting it so long. But I caressed it’s right spots with my fingers – 442672, and it let me right in. \n\n“You have a Match!” said my phone. Well it didn’t say it but it kind of shoved it into my face. *I also have a lighter* I put up with a wittingly snarky remark in my head. The fact that I telepathically conversed with a piece of technology that didn’t care – well I’ll put it mildly it wasn’t the first time I didn’t get an answer.\n\nI opened the App. Gwyn, Lord of Tinder, it said. *When the freaking f… did I sign up in tinder.* I tried to recall what happened. It was futile.\n\n“Hello dear Lord Gwyn, may I receive thy blessings.” I wrote jokingly.\n\n“Yennefer of Angerberg, my blessings shall thou receiveth.”\n\n*Holy Crap how the effing f… did he answer so fast* I thought to myself. The fact that I named myself Yennefer of Angerberg just slipped my mind.\n\n“Dearest Yen the astonishingly accurate drawings of your portrait and shape, worked like a spell on my face and casted a smile upon my lips. I see that witchcraft indeed is where your interests lie in.” Continued Gwyn.\n\n*Witchcraft aye, must have been drunk playing a certain game again.* I thought.\n\n“My spells are very powerful, I can even magically lift certain limbs of you if I had such a wish.” I decided to go with it, since it was sort of fun.\n\n“Thou shall not use your sorcery on me unless I ask you to. Knoweth thou place for I am the Lord of Tinder.” He worte.\n\n“Dear Lord Gwyn I Yennefer of Angerberg could have set your sword on fire with my astonishingly accurate drawings of mine.” I answered trying a bit sassy.\n\n“You want to set me on fire witch? I shall not allow this.” Wrote Gwyn shortly after.\n\n“Seems like you don’t like to be on fire, what the Lord wishes for instead.” I asked a bit surprised I thought the flirting went well so far but it seemed like fire was one of his weaknesses.\n\n“Do you have all the souls, or else I shall not talk with thou anymore.”\n\n“What soul’s man, believing in souls is a way deeper discussion than I’m willing to have on Tinder and you matched with me, why wouldn’t you talk all of a sudden with me.” I answered a bit annoyed. \n\n“I see Yennefer of Angerberg indeed. Thou shall not dodge so much I am trying to hit on you. It’s just the last time I bedded a witch it somewhat ended in chaos.”\n\n“As far as I know I was doing mainly the hitting and you were more missing.” I replied.\n\n“Soul of Gwyn, Lord of Tinder” was all he wrote.\n\n“I like your grey hair though, do you have a real name let’s start from there” I thought since I was so harsh I’d give him a second chance.\n\n“Yes, I’m Gerald.” He answered.\n\n“Oh nice to meet you Gerald.” \n\n“Gerald… Gerald of Trivia! Did you know Triss was in Playboy?”\n",
"I'm not into men so this one caught me by surprise. \"Gywn, Lord of Tinder\". I got to say, it's pretty fucking great. He's using pics straight from the game though so ehhhh. But why not? Let's see where this goes. \n\n\"Hello, Gwyn.\" \n\n\"Chosen not-dead, I Lord of Tinder would like to link our fires together.\" \n\n\"You know I'm a guy right?\" \n\n\"Gender nor age matter to immortals, would you to drink estus together at the shrine known as \"Chipotle\"?\"\n\n\"Sure man, sounds fun. Meet you at 6?\" \n\n\"Ah yes, as the great fire fades. Praise be unto it.\" \n\nNot gay but hey, why not? Sounds like fun. Guess I'll meet him at 6. \n\n....\n\nI've been waiting here for 10 minutes, guess he's not showing. Well that's not fun. Oh well, I gue- \n\nSuddenly a fucking 10 foot giant with a flaming sword on his back rushed in and sat across from me. \n\n\"My apoliges, I really pulled a havel. Fire can only go so fast.\" \n\nI looked out the window and yup, huge streak of fire. What the fuck do you do in this situation? Apparently remain silent and stare in awe like everyone else. \n\n......\n\n......\n\n......\n\nMinutes just went by until\n\n\"Timothy, there is a large Smough or elephant as you'd say, in the room. You looked much more fit in your photo. But do not worry, Lord of Tinder forgives you for you're transgression.\" \n\n\"T-Thanks. So, uhh, how's the family?\" \n\n\"Oh, my daughter Is still off in the clouds with her husband flann and my other daughter I hear was eaten by some kinda abomination. I'll fix that later.\"\n\n\"Soooooo, uh, speaking of your other daughter, does \"she\" have any children? I always kinda wondered.\" \n\n\"That be none of my bussiness but truth be told, she did spend a lot of times in the archives when he- she. She was young.\" \n\nThe server finally got the nerve to come over and Gywn gave her one look and she ran away. \n\n\"Odd service, it's a good thing I brought my own drink.\" \n\nAnd now there's a glowing orange glass bottle in his hands. This is happening. Okay. \n\n\"Gywn, uh, so why did you decide to match with me? Just a fun time?\" \n\n\"I was quite clear of my intentions! To link our fires of course!\" \n\n\"Wh-What does that even mean? I'm a guy, I don't think there's much to link.\" \n\n\"Nonsense! Fire can be brought forth im many channels and I think my lightning is gonna pierce your scales tonight.\" \n\nHe gave me an incredibly dirty look, winked, chugged his estus and *shot a fucking lightning bolt* at our server. \n\n\"Wench, bring us a feast or I'll bring upon you the age of darkness!\" \n\nWell I'm either getting raped or killed tonight. Might as well enjoy my fucking burrito."
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[WP] You live in a world where you cannot die until you have fulfilled your purpose. Some live only a few months, others tens of years. You are nearing your 1000th birthday.
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"Mother had told Ana that once upon a time, people never knew their true purpose. Not really. People simply died when they died. She told her some people believed they would understand what their purpose had been in an afterlife; others, that we simply remain decaying organic matter and that’s that. \n\nBack then, it was the health of the body that determined the moment of cessation of life as we know it. Some people might feel a calling to do, or be, different things. Artists, fighters, researchers, politicians, businessmen, soldiers, dreamers, lovers. Still, most of them were just trying to get through the day. And ultimately, even for those who claimed to live their fullest life, one’s true, individual purpose remained an enigma.\n\nThat was before the changes. \n\nAna did envy those primitive folks, in a way. Perhaps in their slavery to organic biology, there lay an unexplainable freedom.\n\nMother told her these things when she still had her baby teeth. Mother would gently brush Ana’s shock of soft red hair and tell stories of the old times. \n\nBut now Mother was long gone. Everyone was—brothers, cousins, sisters, her dear husband. Everyone Ana ever loved went away.\n\n**********\n\n“Ms. Ana! Please let me in. It’s urgent.”\n\n“Come in, Jacob.” The thin man stepped into Ana’s office and briefly bowed. \n\n“Good morning, Jacob. May I ask what the occasion is? I was just taking tea. Another candidate for a scientific paper on my *fascinating* abnormalities?” Ana said drily as she raised her eyebrows and ran a hand through her still red hair.\n\n“I apologize, Ms. Ana, but no. In fact, it is the Prime Minister’s office. He’s asked you to come in to his office at once.”\n\n“The Prime Minster? Again? Well I suppose I shouldn’t be too surprised. Well, tell them we’ll be on our way then! Let’s go. Bring my tea.”\n\n***********\n\nAna stepped into the mansion from a dull drizzle outside, which appeared so modest from the street, with Jacob slightly behind her, keeping a respectful distance while still close enough to protect her from any disturbances. Two men in suits led them down a marble hallway, and opened the doors into a spacious, carpeted room with a large oak desk with two armchairs facing it.\n\nThe Prime Minister was a man of medium height, slate gray hair, with an angular face and deep set eyes. He had put on a small amount of weight as he reached his 90s, traditionally seen as “middle-aged,” but it rendered him more approachable than in his youth.\n\n“Ms. Benson, please, sit down.” Ana took one of the plush blue armchairs. She nodded to Jacob, who bowed and stepped out of the room. Ana heard locks turn and seals close. \n\n“Good to see you again Ms. Benson. I wish this was a more social occasion, but I am afraid the situation is quite dire.”\n\n“With all due respect, Mr. Prime Minister, I’ve lived through a number of such situations, so you’ll forgive me if my perspective on them is less…concerned, than yours might be.”\n\n“Which of course, is exactly why I want you here. Look, I’ll get right to it. What I have in my hand”—he motioned to a thick stack of papers—“is a proposal. A proposal to stop the escalations that have been happening. To stop the constant threat of annihilation they’ve been throwing at us.” The P.M was sweating, and looked like he hadn’t slept in some time.\n\n“So what are the terms?”\n\n“There aren’t any. They just want to call a truce. It seems Mr. Phan’s people have had about enough. The unrest is much worse than we though.”\n\n“You think it might be a bluff.”\n\n“Of course. That is the first thing we thought. But my agents think there is also a chance this is real. So you see my dilemma.”\n\n“Mr. Prime Minister, I want to help you, but surely I am the last person you should be asking for advice on your true purpose in this situation.” Ana was tired and wanted to go back to her tea. Couldn’t this nuclear escalation take care of itself like it always did? \n\n“Ms. Benson, if this is a true call for truce, and I don’t sign it, it will mean the death of millions. But if it’s a bluff, and I do sign it well, millions will die as well. What should I do? Can’t you see the gravity here? I cannot have that on my conscience—I couldn’t live with—well, if I did live that is—please, Ana, someone with your wisdom surely can know better than I!”\n\nAna looked at the man. She felt pity for his fear; the same kind of pity she felt for most everyone these days. It was the fear they carried caused by a short life, one without perspective, one in which every crisis had eternal consequence. She decided to tell him about her thoughts. The ones she wasn’t supposed to have, that she never shared, except in the occasional hint in conversations with Jacob, who was far too respectful to ever question what she meant.\n \n“Just do whatever you want.”\n\nThe P.M.’s eyes grew wide and his jaw slackened, unable to find words for a moment.\n\n“Sorry? What does what I want have anything to do with this?” He asked.\n\n“Don’t you think it’s kind of funny, sir, that one man like you, or like Mr. Phan, could have so much power over others’ lives? Don’t you think that’s a bit odd, in a world where everyone lives their true certain purpose without a doubt, that millions of lives could be snuffed out in a moment by a simple flick of a wrist? Surely that would be a phenomenon—I can see the headline now—‘Millions of souls fulfill their true purpose at the same moment!’”\n\nAna couldn’t stop once she had started expressing what she hadn’t for centuries.\n\n“What would their purpose be? To have lived a humdrum daily life? To die at the political whim of a conflicting nation? And if you or Mr. Phan did cause their death,” Ana said, “wouldn’t that make you the arbiter of their purpose?” She took a deep breath. “Would that not make you gods?”\n\nThe Prime Minster’s eyebrows were raised but he hid all other signs of surprise.\n\n“I had…considered some of these…angles, but did not think they were significant enough to mention in this context.”\n\n“Well, I have lived a long time. Today is my 1000th birthday, which nobody seems to have remembered. And I am telling you, none of it makes sense anyway, and you’re destined to fulfill your true purpose and so is Mr. Phan and so are all the innocent civilians here and that is why I say to do whatever you feel like. It might be the only freedom you ever get. Now, if you don’t mind, I am going to take tea and have a slice of cake in my study, as it is my birthday after all.” Ana stepped out of the chair, gave the P.M. a respectful nod, and stepped out of the room.\n\nJacob was waiting, and they began the long walk down the marble hallway. About halfway there, there was a muffled thud, followed by squeaky, running footsteps. Ana turned just in time to see two men in suits carrying the Prime Minister’s lifeless body.\n\nWhatever his purpose was, Ana thought, he seems to have done it. I wonder if I had anything to do with that? \n\n*****************\n\nLater that afternoon, Ana snuck past Jacob’s incessant thoughtfulness to sneak out of the house to pick up a pint of milk, a slice of her favorite cake from Gallatin’s, and some more food for Petite Pois, the cat. \n\nThe moment she stepped out into the overcast day she was blinded by a thousand cameras and a sea of reporters. “Ms. Benson!” They all shouted. “What did you say to the Prime Minister before he passed away?” “Did he tell you he was going to do it?” “Did he say anything about—“ The words blurred together into a surreal montage as she felt something cold and hard clamp down on her wrists—handcuffs. She felt them lock just as her stomach dropped. Two men in long gray peacoat and gray hats skillfully pushed her into a stone alcove away from the road and the crowd\n “Some birthday this is,” she huffed as she tried to resist \n\n“If you’ll please come with us, Ms. Benson,” they said as they pushed her into a waiting black car.\n\n\n"
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[WP] You break down and buy a fidget spinner, long after the fad has passed. Clearly some bizarre improvements were made since the first spinners were released.
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" The white box hovered just inches above the glass table, unmoving and imposing like some idol from an old sci-fi movie. He had seen the holo-pamphlet by the door when he arrived so he knew the mailbot had went through his floor already but to think the package he ordered just this morning was here already... He was acostumed to using his printer to buy whatever he needed so he had forgotten just how fast drone-mail was.\n \n \"Welcome home John.\" The lights gradually turned on and multicolored glowing particles swirled around the air in preprogrammed patterns. Today was aurora borealis.\n \n \"Thanks siri.\" The lights converged into a human form, blue and female. The irony of how she looked like the spitting image of cortana did not escape him.\n \n \"Print me a sandwich.\" John said, handing her his suitcase.\n \n \"It will be ready in three minutes. Sandwich matrix configured for optimized tastebud stimulation, if you would like to reconfigure...\"\n \n \"Not now\" he said, swiping his finger left to right in front of her while his face stared straight at the hovering box. The blue particles that composed her immediately turned orange and dispersed, carrying his suitcase away.\n \n He walked over to the table and pulled up a hover-chair, taking off his coat as he sat down, scratched his back and let out a big yawn.\n \n The living room was relatively small and decorated in the typical minimalist fashion that had become very common for small apartments like his, aside from the entrance a single door led to the junction between bathroom, bedroom and a \"kitchen\" that was mostly just a sink and the food printer. The wall opposite the entrance was actually a single, huge window with dynamic chromatic nano-cells that could be configured to project a wide variety of patterns. A single swipe from John's hand opened up a square right in the middle to expose the sunset outside and a second swipe turned the borders into a retro brick pattern overlay.\n\n John extended his arm, nudged the floating box in his direction making it hover across the table stopping right at the edge. On it's top a silver engraving with the letters \"FS\" reflected the red sunset light just slightly. He opened it. Inside was a manual, charging unit and the \"device\", a small weighted fiberglass shape with three round extremities connected to two circular plastic bases at it's center. John turned his attention towards the manual.\n \n \"Congratulations, you now hold in your hands the future of relaxation! Get ready to rest and unwind into a world free of worry and stress with your new personal Fidget Spinner. Not recommended for children under four, pregnant women or men, the elderly...\" John yawned and threw the manual back into the box. Holding the spinner between his index and thumb he raised his other hand up to flick it. Time to see what the hype was about...\n \n John woke from his dream, not suddenly as if startled but calmly as if slowly caressed awake by the moonlight. He was lying naked in an improvised bedding made of banana tree leaves, stark in the middle of a moonlit clearing in the middle of a dense rainforest. He could hear the faint sound of crashing waves somewhere nearby.\n \n \"Whats the matter john?\" A hand lifted from his side and gently stroked his arm. \"You were sleeping so soundly just a minute ago...\"\n\n \"Eva, I...\" the name felt familiar in his lips, like it had been said a thousand times befo \"I had a.. A dream? I'm confused...\" She turned on her side to face him, tanned skin naked against the green leaves. She wore a languid posture and a tired yet happy expression on her face, long black hair hanging just slightly over it, perfectly unkempt.\n \n\n \"Come, sleep with me. You can worry about it tomorrow, whatever it was I'm sure its not a big deal.\" She leaned just slightly by his side and put her hand over his chest.\n\n \"You'll figure it out my love. You always do.\"\n\n \"You're right.\" He laid back on the bed facing her. They stared at each other smiling for a few minutes, then his eyelids felt heavy and a gentle night breeze caressed his back as he closed his eyes.\n\n His vision, however, did not fade to black but instead expanded to cover the entire island in which they were in, not from above but from within every leaf, every animal and every grain of sand. After a brief second of disorientation the realization that he was not a single being anymore but the entire infinite collection of individual things that composed the island. He could feel the wind and waves that sculpted the rocks on the shoreline, the magma underneath that gave rise to the mountains, the birth and death of every living thing that walked, flew or crawled on the surface. Time was almost meaningless now as decades passed in mere seconds, and as it flew by his perception kept expanding until he could not only feel the island or the earth but the entire solar system. He sparked with excitement as every single solar flare erupted, as the rings of saturn spun their dust particles, the galciers cracked and shifted in the icy moon of europa.\n\n His conscience was near boundless now as the multitudes of galaxies spun and collided with each other in the cosmic dance of the universe, yet in the minuscule scale he could still see himself laying down, now in an apartment bed, Eva still by his side as they embraced by the light of the sunset.\n\n The expansion of his perception finally reached a halt as he now beheld the entirety of the known universe, it's three-pronged shape with rounded edges endlessly spinning the dance of infinity.\n\n John awoke one more time, face covered in dried up tears. The sun had just begun to rise from behind the skyline outside his window, in his hand the spinner of fidgets spun slowly but spun still; by his side lay an impeccably prepared tuna and cheese sandwich, already cold. He rose to his feet and walked up to the window to admire the sunrise. Tears began again overwhelming his eyes; he made no effort to contain them and only parted his lips and smiled as they flowed in streams down his cheeks colored rosy by the light of the arriving sun. ",
"*May 15, 3989*\n\nYou took a sip out of the ~Totally Eco-friendly See-through Coffee Cup~ you had in your right hand, which contained holographic chamomile tea. It was all the rage right now. As with all fads however, it will probably die out in a day or two.\n\nYou were scrolling through the front page of Reddit on your Samsung Galaxy s8 (so vintage, right? LOL ecks dee, sparkle heart emoji. *also why do people still go on Reddit? shouldn't ya'll be simulating your waifu fantasies on your VR eye contacts or creating interactive holograms with nihilistic themes?*) when you received a notification from Dimensionating.\n\nYour *loser* friend Beth probably wants to talk about mundane 21st century things again. *Geez I get it, the 35th dimension's finally got time travel to work!! Sorry we can't all live in 2-digit dimensions like you, **Bethany**.* You tap on the notification and it takes you to Beth and your messages to each other. The most recent message she sent you was:\n\n> i am so sh👀k!!!! fidget spinners are so Lit omg 🔥🔥🔥 lol here's a pic of one i own\n\n> [wow the 40th century got nothing on this](https://pixel.nymag.com/imgs/daily/strategist/2017/05/08/Fidget-Spinners/Iridescent-flower.w710.h473.2x.jpg)\n\nYou roll your eyes because this parasitic fad's has infected the fabric of space and time around \"2 months ago\" (time works so oddly nowadays), hell it's even been recorded in old web pages and ironic MS Paint masterpieces. Ten years ago, it would've been considered absurd that time travel would would even work, let alone be able to affect every dimension. But the most \"cringeworthy\" (as the girly tween magazines would say) thing about it was that Beth still thought fidget spinners were *cool*. Probably because of time travel lag or something like that. Hopefully.\n\nYou send her a wonderful reply back:\n\n> that is so unbelievably lame that your parents sent themselves to the parent adoption centre\n\nYour mailbox glowed for a split second and gave off a ringtone similar to your phone's. Beth had sent you a bouquet of fidget spinners, with a card attached to it. It read: *you spin my head right round*\n\n*Beth should admit that she loves me already.* A smile took over your face like an octopus attacking some plebeian. Beth could be really charming sometimes. You spun one of the fidget spinner \"flowers\" and found it amusing, and afterwards felt a little offended as you felt like your integrity was reduced to a feline's. Soon, all the fidget spinners were whirling fast and you were already making bets on which one would fall off the bouquet first (it was the blue one).\n\nAs you watched the last one try to keep itself spinning, you felt your heart rising from its grave. Could it be? Could you love...? Fidget spinners? You found yourself wanting *more*. Five fidget spinners weren't enough to satisfy this starving artist. \n\nYou ended up leaving your house to go to a thrift shop near the fish and chips shop you ate at every now and then. It was your best bet on buying something so dead. You could've gone to the cemetery and look for fidget spinners there, but that would've been disrespectful to the ghosts, ya know?\n\nAs you opened the door, the bell ringed to tell the cashier that someone had entered. The shelves were stocked with all sorts of quirky trinket from all sorts of dimensions. You could tell that the 22nd dimension really changed their fads every nanosecond (hyperbole) because a lot of the shelves were filled with their clothes and gadgets. They have a distinct style. The narrator doesn't really know how to describe it, but their aesthetic is kind of a combination between Martha Dunnstock from *Heathers* and an alligator on drugs.\n\nYou make your way to the 3rd dimension shelf, making sure not to knock over the pile of newspapers which nearly tripped you over. As expected, everything was horribly expensive, and you felt your heart going back to its grave. Sure there was a plethora of fidget spinners, but they were priced at a whopping $15. Who has that money?\n\nThe narrator knows that you might be thinking: with the main character's mailbox and chamomile tea, you'd think that the economy would be good, right? Food is basically earned by donating nail clippings and hair to scientists, and once upon a time the economy didn't suck. That was a year ago. Being a starving artist really complicates things. But you gotta chase your dreams, right? What a fake American ideal.\n\nYou spun the vintage fidget spinners while wallowing in your angst. The cashier noticed you being all dejected, and approached you. \"I'm guessing you're a little down because you can't afford a fidget spinner?\"\n\n*How dare he assume that I'm sad because I can't give him money? Buuuuuut he's right, unfortunately.* \"Yeah, I don't have enough money for one.\"\n\nYou figure you should save your money and make do with Beth's present, it's just a silly toy anyways. \"Tell you what, I'll trade you a fidget spinner for your Samsung Galaxy s8.\" The only way he would've found out about that was if he was using his x-ray contacts to look through your jacket.\n\n\"No thank you. I kinda need my phone?\"\n\n\"Well looks like someone hasn't been using their telepathic abilities!\" he teased.\n\n\"You know 21st century 3rd dimensioners don't do well with telepathy!!!\"\n\nThe brunette wiggled his caterpillar brows. \"So you have a crush on a pleb, huh?\"\n\n\"What, no!\" that cliche line somehow caught you off guard. \"She's just a friend...\"\n\n\"Whatever, you say, Blue Jay!\" he made finger guns. Then he lowered his speaking volume, \"To tell you the truth, I've been looking for an s8 for a while now. To sell on here of course.\"\n\n\"Well I like this phone, okay? Thanks for the offer, but no thanks.\"\n\n\"What if I trade you a fidget spinner phone for it? Straight out of the 9th dimension?\" He didn't seem particularly desperate, just a budding businessman.\n\n\"...a fidget spinner phone?\"\n\nThe brunette teleported to the 9th dimension shelf and came back to you holding a star-shaped fidget spinner phone that somehow managed to have a hologram screen and a camera. Don't ask the narrator, ask the future.\n\n\"It works just like a smartphone! It even has a fingerprint scanner and is waterproof,\" he says as if he's trying to appeal to the 21st century.\n\n\"Sure, what the hell. I could use a new phone anyways. Just make sure to transfer all my stuff to my new phone.\" You waved your hand apathetically.\n\nAn hour later, you were playing around with your new phone. Disappointingly, it didn't have any groundbreaking features as it was similar to a normal smartphone. It was fun how you could spin the screen though. You took a picture of your phone by doing the mirror selfie technique, and sent it to Beth.\n\nBeth:\n\n> ugh cringe!!!!!!! go see a psychiatrist!!! that's so 21st century\n\n*Time zones suck.*"
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[WP] An alien equivalent to our Voyager probes was just discovered drifting through our solar system.
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"2024-01-08\n\nIt's been three days since it was retrieved, and I don't know how I feel about it completely. We knew there was a shiny plate on it when we first saw it. For the five years it took us to get here, theories, speculations, wild ideas have been thrown around. The fact is no one knew. And now we do. \n\nOk, for history's sake, I'll start from the top. We grabbed it with our robotic arm, and brought it in to the hold designed for it. It was rather smooth, as predicted, and there was a plate. The every 24.3 minute ping stopped itself. We're still not sure why. Li is still working on the computer system. It may need to wait, we don't entirely understand the power cell it's using. \n\nIf anyone is reading this from the future, I could go on about the actual mission details, but Commander Luka's logs will fill you in on the details I'm sure. You're here for the plate, since that was my focus. \n\nIt did have writing on it. I didn't recognize the tiny symbols at first. The diagrams were fairly straight forward. Athena ran the image through its fancy processors. It most likely came from Gliese 179, about 700,000 years ago give or take a millennium or so. At least, that's what the computer said. \n\nI wish it didn't take me so long to see it, but it wasn't until after I slept and relooked at it that I saw it. I think I was looking at the relief of their planet, and the unfamiliar shapes of the continents when a single character caught my eye. It was a 大. Dà. Big. At least it looked like it. It couldn't be. Then the entire block of tiny text came into view. It was Chinese. Modern Chinese, with modern syntax. I didn't believe it. I denied it for a few hours. Didn't even bother to have Li read it for me, or Athena translate the bits I didn't understand. It simply couldn't be true. \n\nWhat changed that denial for me was the English part. I couldn't deny something I could read natively. There it was, literally in plain English. Then I found it in Spanish, then French, then Portuguese, Japanese. The English inscription stated:\n\n\"The residents of Pbbrashqo welcome you to the galaxy. We are the only two spacefaring sentient species in the entire local group of galaxies. Should you explore our computer systems on this probe, you will find instructions on how to build a communication device among many other items as a gift in the spirit of peace. We look forward to reading your messages soon.\"\n\nI advise asking them how they put it here and how they are so good at our languages, but I'm sure that's already being debated, even before we've gotten in. I know I can play around with it and read the information in there. I guess I take longer to process than Athena, unsurprisingly. She's a super computer, and I'm a meat brain. I'll just assign the task to her. I can't think right now. \n\nThat's it for now. I'll flesh out my thoughts better after some sleep. \n\n\n\n\n",
"It wasn’t what we were looking for when we gave the ship’s sensors a test run. It definitely wasn’t what we were expecting.\n\nI was relaxing in the cockpit of the asteroid mining/collecting ship affectionately nicknamed the “Packer” by us, her crew. It was a small ship compared to some of the industrial (and the occasional military) behemoths I had seen, but it was comfortable enough for me. It was especially relaxing during the time spent travelling to and from the mining field, where you could enjoy the view of space without having any asteroids block your sight. However, my daydreaming was interrupted by Wesley, who was working in the back monitoring the sensors\n\n“I thought these things were new, but it keeps picking up this annoying spot on the radar. Mark, can you check this out?”\n\n“Coming.”\n\nPulling myself out of the cockpit, I gave myself a push off the door frame and drifted down the hall into the sensors room. Wesley was there along with Jessica, and the two were looking behind a monitor. Judging from the floating metal panel, it looks like they were looking into the machine to try to find messed up or frayed connections. I moved the panel aside to take a look at the monitor, and sure enough, there was a single dot, roughly 25,000 miles away.\n\n“I don’t know, there could be all sorts of random objects out here. Did you get a visual on it?” I asked. Obviously, they hadn’t bothered, since they both paused before Jessica replied.\n\n“Damn it. I’ve been so bogged down in these technical issues that now I’m apparently incapable of solving anything else” she mumbled. “I’ll get a laser check right away.”\n\nWesley also said something, but I couldn’t hear him as his head was still inside the monitor’s compartment. Jessica pulled herself over to the optics and flipped the on switch. Then, checking back to the radar to get an approximate location, she used the joystick controls to point the laser towards the object. A moment passed as the two of us looked out of the uncomfortably small window, watching the near-infrared light beam shooting off into the distance. Another minute passed in silence as Jessica adjusted the laser’s orientation.\n\n“Anything?” I asked. It probably was a glitch, after all. Or just some small object that would pass by.\n\n“Nope.” She replied. “Nothing at- no, wait a second.” She hit the control for automatic tracking on the laser, which meant she had found something. “Something’s there, at…”, she paused as she glanced at the results. “...5k miles away.”\n\nWell, at least the object was confirmed. But hold on - 5,000 miles away? The reading on the radar said something in the 20s, unless I was mistaken. I checked back to the radar, where the point was still visible. Wesley, upon hearing that the object was real, had emerged from his den and was also looking at the radar, where the indicator for “proximity” was now lit up.\n\n4k miles.\n\n“Shoot,” I said, breathing in sharply. “The thing’s getting closer! I’ll get to the cockpit. Wesley, keep me updated on the thing’s distance.”\n\n“Got it,” he replied.\n\nProbably a drifting rock or something. Those usually flew by without harm, but the consequences of collision were high enough to get my heart going. Plus, anything big enough to appear on the radar over a thousand miles away was worth taking caution of. I quickly pushed myself back to the cockpit, taking a seat as fast as I could. Setting my hands on the ship controls, I tried peering into the distance, but couldn’t see anything against the starry blackness.\n\n“3k.”\n\nOkay, I knew things in space tended to move fast, but whatever this thing was was moving too fast for comfort. “I’m changing course!” I shouted back. I glanced towards the controls. My hands were getting a bit sweaty.\n\n“Yes, it’s headed straight at us! Turn to starboard, that should get us out of its way,” Wesley replied. So I turned the ship and engaged thrusters to move us.\n\n“How are we looking? Are we out of it’s path?”\n\n“2k! And no, it’s still going straight at us!”\n\nI finished turning until we were moving perpendicular to our original course. “We good?”\n\n“...no!”\n\nThis gave me cause for panic. We had adjusted our course, but it looked like whatever was coming at us had adjusted *its* course as well. It clearly wasn’t a space rock. Maybe a pirate warhead? But those wouldn’t have appeared on our radar until much closer. Nothing clicked.\n\n“1k!”\n\nSo, that was it then. Halfway in the middle of nowhere in a forsaken area of space. Not an appealing thought. “Prepare for impact!” I shouted back.\n\n“What is it?!” I heard Jessica yell back. I wish I could answer.\n\n“200… 100… “\n\nI shut my eyes, and could hear only silence for a second. Then two seconds… three…\n\ncontinued in comment below for length issues."
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[WP] Most stories are about underdogs, someone who beats all of the odds. You're on the other end of the stick: You had everything, how could you have lost?
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"As I stand on the highest cliff of Rayifuc over looking what was suppose to be my final tribute to you. I finally understand what you said with your dying breath, \"It's the intentions that kill the beast.\" \n\nThe land lays bare of any life. Both bodies of plants and man covers the land, everything scorched and burning still from what I thought was Divine Light. The Divine Light turned out to be not god given but devil sent. Instead of cleansing this land of corruption it created more of it and purged the good that was left in the world. It was too much for anyone let alone myself to control and now I am only to blame for this. \n\nThis all started when I couldn't defend my village from the invading armies. The Elders knew of the impending attack and they didn't send aid to help stop it. I lost everything but gained the drive to right their wrongs. If they did what was right and not look the other way to save the crown's coinage then I wouldn't have set out for war. \n\nIt took me two decades to reach where my goal was only a word away. When I had the chance I took without any hesitation. The Elders were forced to fight against their own loyal soldiers, the same that killed her. Their deaths only satisfied my desire to right the wrongs of the world for a mere second. I tried to enjoy the fact I did what I swore to do but it was for not. I started to see all the evil that surrounded me and my newly taken realm so I researched for what I could do to rid the evil of my world. I came across a ancient weapon called Divine Light that was gift to man from the 3 gods to rid the evils of the world. I spend years and years trying to find the weapon. When I finally found the location I traveled with such haste I thought I was still dreaming. I found the Divine Light, moved back to the realm and without a moment to waste I set it off and let what the gods made it for. I watched it begin to destroy the evils but now I have nothing to show for it now, only death and destruction. \n\nLark, all this was done because I lost yo. You are my llove, my truest friend, my soul half, my wife. I am sorry I didn't heed your last words. I let my anger, the pain of losing you kill me and turn me into this monster that watches your beloved home lands turn into ash. I see now that I am my own down fall. For this I am truly sorry and know forgiveness isn't mine. \n\n"
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[WP] A man wants to have the oldest running lightbulb by eliminating all the competition.
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"He came out of nowhere; like a revelation, he appeared so suddenly it stunned the homeowners into shock as he burst through their doors and took a hammer to every lightbulb in the house. \n\nMission completed, he screeched at them and disappeared out the door just as sudden, just as quickly as he had come. \n\nStill in paralyzed disbelief, the homeowners heard another door being kicked off its hinges, their neighbors screamin, and the sound of glass being shattered.\n",
"The man’s journey was an odd one. The man didn’t know how it dawned on him, but one mundane day while admiring his kitchen he decided he wanted his lightbulb to be the oldest running lightbulb in the world.\n\nThe problem was he couldn’t manipulate time or anything. He didn’t own a time machine and he spent nights thinking about how he could pull off this consternating task.\n\nSuddenly, as if a lightbulb went off in his head, he had a brilliant idea. If he couldn’t better his own lightbulb, he could just \"not-better\" the rest of the competition.\n\nThat is, through cold-blooded destruction.\n\nAt first, he spent nights sneaking into homes breaking lightbulbs left and right. He spent a month doing this and he even made local news as the “Lightbulb Lunatic.” Not a very stylish name, but that’s beside the point.\n\nHe soon realized this was inefficient. He broke, say, 400 lightbulbs, and he read an article somewhere that the U.S. sold 2 billion lightbulbs in one year alone. \n\nNeedless to say, he’s got a lot more bulbs to break.\n\nHe raised the stakes. Through valiant acts, he convinced the local save-the-earth group to advertise “destroy your incandescent and switch to fluorescent!” Not only that, but he worked his way within a major lightbulb company to sell cheap defective fluorescent lightbulbs. Working a bit of political magic, highly-hypnotic propaganda, and under-handed corporate techniques, the slogan quickly spread, and the company made a monopoly of the fluorescent lightbulb market. It didn’t matter that is was fluorescent, more importantly, it mattered that he got defective bulbs in peoples’ hands.\n\nIt’s better not to question the logic or sanity in his tactics, the important part was that the man did it. While he did all that, he continued his night raids, along with a couple of friends. He eventually roped the unemployed and poor to join, using his cut of the fluorescent lightbulb sales to pay them handsomely. He was doing quite well, shining ever brightly with his will to make his lightbulb number one.\n\nBut it wasn’t enough. He barely cracked into his state, let alone the world. The slogan was spreading like hotcakes, but it wasn’t enough. With his newly founded riches, he set up a secret research facility, which aimed at researching ways to break lightbulbs efficiency on a global scale.\n\nIn the meantime, he worked deals with many influential celebrities and political leaders. He paid them to advertise the switch as well as to denounce proper lightbulb usage. He also infiltrated the fashion and homeowners’ scene, and somehow worked fluorescent lighting or better yet no lighting as the current aesthetic. He was about to run out of money when a secret cult, “The Fluorescent Flashers”, donated a huge sum to him “anonymously”. It’s better not to question their purpose or activities, the important thing is that the man was back on track and rolling.\n\nMany people started complaining about the defective lighting, but at this point, the man had already sparked the support of many other pro-environment organizations against light pollution. Thanks to his efforts at the fashion and homeowners’ scene plus a viral video he uploaded (which he monetized for revenue), which subtly advertised at fluorescent aesthetics despite the inherent lack of use, the complaints mattered less and less.\n\nThe problem still remained that many people still had regular lightbulbs. Through some way or another his flashlight cult spread, and their influence skyrocketed worldwide. They made lightbulbs taboo, promoting defective fluorescents or no lights at all, causing many to fear. Many of the reluctant ones made their decisions then. They made a whole lot of “donations” to the cult, in which the cult generously handed to the man, their “shadow leader”.\n\nNot even the man could’ve predicted this outcome, but nonetheless, it worked in his favor. He carried on his nightly raids, further promoting towards the cult’s power and influence, and his group increased from 200 people to 3 million in that short span of time. Eventually, it became nationwide as the money kept flowing in, then it captured the continent. Then it spread internationally. Eventually, there were light-night-raiders all around the world. He eventually switched from having the raiders destroy lightbulbs to secure them, so he can recycle them into defective fluorescents. Another source of revenue, which he used to pay more light-night-raiders.\n\nBut it wasn’t enough. A worldwide militia doesn’t provide enough firepower. Plus there were some crafty resistors among the bunch who held onto their lightbulbs in secret. A band of the ex-poor and untrained crazies can’t hope to stop them.\n\nThat’s why the man formed a new group. A lightbulb hitman group. He hired the best hitmen across the world, paying top dollar, to blast as many lightbulbs as they can. They were confused at first, but if you slap anyone with a wad of cash they will comply. And they did. Well, they also got mad, initially. Regardless, their numbers only increased.\n\nNews caught up with this and lightbulb action movies became the new hit genre. Of course, not many were willing to keep their mouths shut. Governments and law enforcement tried their very best to suppress the movement, but they couldn’t. They were too late to stop anything.\n\nA lightbulb revolution was underway. With the support of pro-earth/anti-light-pollution groups, big corporate organizations looking to cash in on the fluorescent business bribed political leaders, and an ignorant hive-mind mass-following, the pressure was on. The number of capable resistors dwindled.\n\nIt was here the man hit a stop. He was confused with how to proceed, but then he received a call. It was from his research facility he established earlier. They said they found a way to stop and disrupt *all* lightbulbs with a specific frequency, with the blacklist exception of his, of course. They can transmit it through radio, and other wavelengths, and it was extremely inexpensive to make.\n\nThis is the final phase. He mass-produced many of these devices and distributed them within his light-night-raiders. As for his hitmen, well, they prefer to do things the old-fashioned way. He also secretly incorporated it in radio broadcasts and television broadcasts worldwide secretly. It was inaudible, so it was perfect. Now with all this, no light bulb is safe. He had almost done it.\n\nAnd he was finished. He did it. It was a long struggle, but he finally eradicated the competition. A sense of pride welled through the man as it dawned on him that he really did have the oldest running lightbulb. All the other ones were newer, defective fluorescents, or no fluorescent at all. He couldn't *completely* stop all lightbulbs, he understood, and he knew his revolution wouldn't last forever: he only stalled for the moment. Even so, it didn't matter as he was confident his lightbulb was the last *running* lightbulb. If someone were to make a working one later on, it still wouldn't affect the outcome.\n\nHe was about to take a picture of his masterpiece when suddenly, the lightbulb flickered off and a piercing sound erupted.\n\nIt had shattered.\n\nUnbeknownst to the man, he had spent so much time paying attention to all the other lightbulbs in the world that he neglected his own. Also, it was a cheap lightbulb he bought at a garage sale, I mean what did he expect?\n \nWelp.\n\nHe had already ridden the world of all the other lightbulbs: his was the last currently functioning one. He suddenly remembered an old fluorescent prototype bulb he kept hidden in his closet, a failed experiment developed by that first major lightbulb company he coaxed into monopolizing fluorescents. He fixed it on his kitchen fan and admired it.\n\nThe man thought about this fluorescent lights and remembered all the other fluorescent lights in the world, albeit defective. Tainted by his ambition and success, he frowned in thought.\n\nThen, he suddenly had a bright idea.\n\n\n___\n\n\nIf you like this, you can check out [my other prompt responses.](https://www.reddit.com/r/boxtrotcat/) I'm a young writer and a complete novice, so don't expect too much, but nonetheless, I hope you enjoy :)"
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[WP] After your Grandmother's disappearance everyone expects the worst. You're in charge of cleaning out the attic where You find a locked box with the poorly engraved words "If Lost, Open".
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"Day 34 - Dear Journal,\n\nOne month has passed today sense my Grandmothers disappearance, everyone's taking it terribly. Searches have been called off and we're all expecting the worst. I decided to start my entry early, something to do as I wait for my mother to pick me up. We're heading over to grandma's house to retrieve any important belongings. As always, I'll keep updating this journal entry throughout the day.\n\nLong time, no see. I'm currently sitting up in this old musky room my grandma calls an attic. My parents stuck me with the duties of cleaning it out. Surprise, I seem to always get stuck with the shitty end of the stick. While sitting down to update you I found this old, rattly box. It has a rusty lock on it with the words \"if lost, open\"; it's almost as if someone engraved it with a blunt pocket knife. I expect to find nothing more but some tacky jewelry my grandma always loved to wear although, why would she want some random hobo to open the box if lost? Going to break it open and see what's inside, I'll update you later on.\n\nIt's been an hour sense I've last written, I've gotten my way into the box. I don't feel so well; more lightheaded than sick. The box was more of a surprise than I first thought. It had nothing more inside it but a dead moth wrapped in a silk cloth. Why would grandma place something so disgusting inside a locked box? Ugh, I think I need to lie down for a century. \n\nUpdate four, I don't know what's happening to me; I can't get these voices out of my head. No, not voices... whispers. Multiple, quite, bunched up whispers. I can't even think; I can't write. JUST LEAVE MY HEAD.\n\nThe whispers have stopped, instead something worse has started. What can be worse than short, eerie whispers you're asking? My grandmothers voice. \"Mirror, Mirror, Mirror\"; that's all shes saying to me. My parents, they won't believe me but I know it's true; I can hear her. Why mirror? What mirror? Does she mean the mirror covered in a tore-up, ghostly sheet? \n\nI don't get it, the mirror is just a regular victorian styled floor mirror. There seems to be something on it though, let me check. - Hand prints, two to be exact. Almost like when you lay your hand on a window on a cool, winters day. It could be nothing else but condensation. But how?\n\nUpdate five - The hand print won't wipe off. \n\n-- First of hopefully many short stories. I think the last story I may have written was back in high school lol. I'm sure my punctuation and grammar isn't perfect but I hope to make many-many more of these journal style short stories. Hopefully someone enjoyed! --",
"Alice's heart sank as she lifted the dusty attic door and gazed at the large pile of boxes. When she had volunteered to clean this most sacred of places, she hadn't been thinking of the memories she had to disturb, only of keeping her Uncle Walter's watery eyes from scrutinizing every artifact for value. Now that she was actually here, with this monumental task before her, she couldn't help but drift back to the warm days of her childhood when this was their secret place, her and Grams. \n\nCountless afternoon tea parties and nights upon nights of camping with books about places she didn't recognize in glyphs she couldn't comprehend while Grams told her far fetched tales in this musty cramped room dotted her childhood. Now that she was older, she assumed that Grams had made it all up, an attempt to satisfy the voracious imagination of a six year old. Alice would plead for more tales each time her mother dropped her off at Grams’ before heading to those long shifts at the hospital.\n\nBut that was before. Before her Mom collapsed in the emergency room,turning from a nurse to a patient in one fell swoop. They stopped camping in the attic, trading the makeshift forts for waiting rooms as her mom's health continued to decline. Grams sat each day, holding her daughter's hand until she withered away and stopped breathing. On that day, Grams was stonefaced. She gave Alice's mother a kiss on the forehead, smoothed her hair, and turned to Alice, only seven.\n\n“Let's go home.”\n\nFrom that day forward, the pair had been inseparable. Grams had looked after her, and as Alice matured and Grams aged their roles reversed. Now, at 23, Alice was Grams’ caretaker and so since her disappearance three weeks prior had been beside herself with worry. The police had searched and searched, but found nothing. Everyone told her that women in their eighties don't just disappear for weeks at a time without notice and reappear, and that she should prepare herself for the worst. She could feel the judgment in their eyes as they offered sympathy and condolences, but it could never match the guilt that she felt. She felt personally responsible. Hot tears welled in her eyes as a wave of emotion swept over her. \n\nOf course, Walter had wasted no time in swooping in after hearing about his mother's vanishing. Her mother's grasping older brother had been angling after Grams’ silver and China since before Alice could read, all under the guise of helping Grams “declutter” of course. \n\nNow, he was urging Alice to be pragmatic, exploiting every legal boundary he could to sell the house from under her. Naturally, she would get “her share”, according to Walter. And she knew that he was counting the days until he could get a death certificate. This was, however, still her home, and she would be damned if she was going to let him ransack the place when Grams wasn't even in the ground. So, when he had suggested that the attic should be the first thing to go, she had taken the lead from him. \n\nAnd so she set about sorting the boxes, going through her childhood box by box. She gingerly set the Christmas decorations in one corner and continued to work methodically through the cardboard city, kicking up fresh clouds of stale air with each stack she sorted. She found remnants of her and Grams’ life in each box she touched and she steeled herself against her grief as she worked. Finally she reach the far corner of the room and the last pile. The sun was sinking, and the light coming through the grimy window was soft and dim.\n\nAs she took a step toward the final boxes, she heard a soft creak beneath her foot and with a jolt the floor board buckled. She hissed softly as she extracted her foot from the debris. A nasty gash ran along the side of her shin and beads of blood gathered on her leg. Alice wondered absently if she would need stitches. She pulled a rag from her back pocket, originally intended for the dusty windows, to stave off the bleeding. She attempted to wipe off the majority of the blood on her hands by rubbing her shorts. \n\nShe coughed slightly on the dust she had inhaled and looked resentfully at the broken floor board. An object in the crevice caught her eyes, and curiosity overtook pain momentarily. She leaned forward to pull a metal box from the floor. She didn't know how long it had been down there, but it didn't have the same heavy coat of dust as the rest of the attic’s contents.\n\nThe box had a crude inscription that read “If Lost, Open”. Further intrigued and deciding that her leg wasn't in any imminent danger of tetnus, she fumbled with the latches and peered inside.\n\nThe contents were interesting to say the least, and she removed strange coins and papers. She found old photographs of a young man and woman she recognized as her grandparents.\n\n“Wow, Grams, you looked good,” she said softly. The pair were garbed in strange clothes, even by modern standards, but her grandmother's high cheekbones, so similar to her own, were clearly recognizable.\n\nFinally, at the bottom of the box was a small egg shaped object, iridescent and emitting a soft blue light in the dim attic. She turned it over in her palm to examine it and as the strange egg passed over her still slightly blood smattered skin it pulsed softly. It was almost imperceptible, but it made her jump. It pulsed once more and suddenly, she was no longer in the stifling attic, but under an opaque orange dome, barely tall enough for her to stand. Slowly, she got up, her heart pounding from this instant change of surrounding. The dome unfolded around her,sinking into the floor, and she found she was in a vast room with several of what she could assume were people. They looked human but if she observed them from the corner of her eye they seemed to change shape. They spoke in garbled growling, and as they noticed her their growls became more feverish. Her temples began to ache as she listened, but then the growls started rearranging themselves into words almost like a lens coming into focus. They stepped toward her and she instinctively stepped backwards, clutching the egg in her hand. Whether her foot met real resistance or her nerves got the best of her she didn't know, but she fell backwards and the egg flew from her as she outstretched her hands, barely catching her fall. \n\nThe figures then crowded her, and she heard one say, “The nano-mites should be working now.”\n\n“Who are you?” asked the person closest to her, a woman with a black cropped haircut. \n\nAn odd question that Alice in struggling to answer, dumbly recited her first name.\n\nUpon hearing “Alice” the group murmured intensely amongst themselves. They reached out to her and she recoiled from the touch, staring with bewilderment at her predicament. \n\n“Sir, is it her?” the woman called out to a platform set in the back of the room. \n\n“No, but only her blood could work the transporter” a deep voice rumbled from the platform, and a large man with skin the color of coffee and long braids emerged from the shadows. \n\n“H-hey! What's going on?!” Alice said more fiercely than she felt. \n\nThe group stared at her, confused by her sudden outburst. The man regarded her for a moment, pausing as he studied her features. He spoke to her slowly, as if addressing a small child. \n\n“We are the Yentzi, sent on behalf of the Universal Council in response to a distress signal originating from this planet. The signal was sent by one of our delegates, known on this planet as Alice Zimmerman.”\n\n“Grams?” Alice questioned with incredulity in her voice. Surely not her Grams, who had a hard time reaching the top cupboard without assistance. Her head was spinning, and if she hadn't already been on the ground, she might have fainted. \n\nThe Yentzi talked amongst themselves and Alice picked out “memory wipe” in their conversation.\n\n“Wait,” she said, irritated that they were all talking about her as if she wasn't even there. “If Grams is in trouble, I want to help.”\n\nThey looked at her again, then at their commander who was staring at her silently. \n\n“Very well.”",
"It had been a few months since Gran-gran disappeared. We had all gone through the stages of grief in different ways. My mother took it the hardest. She was only just starting to recover when the rest of the family decided to clean out Gran-gran's house. After the police declared her legally dead from being gone for so long, her lawyer had called us all in for the will reading and we all solemnly took out duties on the day of the cleaning. Aunt Peggy got the piano and the collection of beanie-babies. Uncle Adam got the house itself. Everything else was to be taken by whoever wanted it or sold and the money split between the three siblings. When the cleaning day came around, I was given the task of cleaning out the attic with my cousin. We groaned a little but put on our best smiles for our mothers' benefit because we knew it was harder for them.\n\nPulling down the stepladder to the attic, we were doused in a cloud of dust that set us sneezing and coughing for a few minutes. After that, we decided to tie a towel around out noses and mouths so it didn't happen again. If the stepladder to the attic was that dusty, the inside of it would be terrible. We made our way up into the darkness and quickly found the hanging light switch, illuminating the dank area. What we saw made us groan even more. The attic was filled with all manner of boxes, old furniture, trinkets, and tools that had gone unused for decades.\n\n\"Craaaap,\" I threw my head back, \"I never knew Gran-gran was a hoarder... Alright Pete, you take that side, I'll take this side. Let's go through it all first, then decide what to do with it. And open that freaking window!\" We went about our separate tasks, looking through drawers, boxes, under sheets covered in half an inch of dust. It was like an episode of 'Storage Wars', we found a bed frame, three mirrors, a piggy bank with some cash inside, and a bunch of old toys that looked like they might be worth something if they were cleaned. It was almost lunch time when I came across a strange wooden box that had a really complicated design carved into it. \"Hey Pete, come take a look at this...\" I called over to my cousin.\n\n\"Yeah...?\" he walked over, waving dust away from his face with his free hand and carrying a bucket of antique kitchen utensils with the other, \"Whoah...what's that?\" I brushed the dust off of the box with a hand broom my Aunt had brought up earlier and I heard something click. When I looked again, a circle on the top of the box had turned a few degrees. With the dust gone, it was easier to see what was carved into the box, and the flat part in the very center that had words engraved in it. Engraved? More...scratched. I took it over to the light to get a better look at what was written there.\n\n\"If lost, open... What does that mean?\" I looked at my cousin and he shrugged, obviously having no clue. He was three years younger, so I didn't have high hopes for him anyway. \"Maybe it means open the box? I dunno what it means by 'if lost,' though.\" I tilted it around, trying to see it from every angle, looking for some sort of key hole or button or something, but there was none. Then it hit me, maybe it was the circle. I turned the circle in the center of the top - top? - again, going slowly and then heard a click. Looking at the design closely, it seemed like that made it line up with another part of it. I tried sliding it inwards, and it moved under my coercion, producing another satisfying click. After six more movements of various parts all over the box, the side with the circle pushed out a little.\n\n\"You did it!!\" My cousin shouted enthusiastically.\n\n\"Yeah, but what's inside?\" We both stared down at it curiously as I pulled open the lid. Inside, it was... it was empty! But for some reason, I couldn't look away. After a couple of minutes, my eyes were completely focused on the inside of the box and everything around me had faded into that blurry blackness that you see when you stare too hard at something. Then, when a feeling like something pulling on me struck me, I started back up. Looking around, Pete was gone. In fact, the whole attic seemed to have changed. All the stuff that we were fumbling through was gone, and I was standing in a room with a single bed against the wall and a candle on a night stand.\n\n\"Well,\" I heard from behind me, \"It's about time ONE of you figured out that box. I've been waiting for months!\" I spun around and there was my Gran-gran standing in a doorway to the room, wearing what seemed like a very elaborate dress, with strange letters embroidered all along the seams. She smiled at me with her kind face, though...she seemed younger than I remembered, \"It's good to see you, Terry.\"\n\n---\n\nMore at r/SamsStoriesSub",
"My Grandmother Gertrude was the kind of woman who still wore a leather jacket, and smoked cigarettes in old diners and bars until someone told her to stop. It was to the surprise of exactly no one when one day she didn't come home from a long ride on one of her many vintage motorcycles. Police looked around for her for a spell, but figured she had wandered off somewhere off the main roads and crashed in some long forgotten corner of one of the many national forests that surrounded the small town she lived in.\n\nNo one in my family seemed to particularly mind that she had vanished, or particularly concerned with finding her. She had never quite fit in, what with her Father and siblings all being strict church going folk, and since she had been a fairly wealthy eccentric there was certainly financial motivation for her to stay gone for everyone else's benefit. I was maybe the only one who missed Grandma Gerty, she had been a friend and confidant throughout my life and the only person who I could stand at family reunions. She had paid for my first tattoo and encouraged me to go after that well-intentioned but utterly useless art history degree - and had more than once taken me in for the night when my folks kicked me out.\n\nI had drawn the short straw when it came to cleaning the estate, I suppose because everyone wanted me out of the way, and the overstuffed attic and her eclectic collection of knick-knacks and curios awaited me. There was the stack of old Playgirl magazines, a few life sized cardboard cutouts of the Chicago Bears Super Bowl team, and an aging collection of vinyl records that hadn't seen the light of day since Elvis walked amongst us. The smell up here made me sad, it was tinged with her unique mixture of incense and menthol cigarettes that I had come to associate with her. I could hear her cackling laugh and the 'little bit too tight' handshakes she'd give people when they came to visit.\n\nIt was clear she spent a decent amount of time up here, an old lawn chair sat in the corner with a pile of books next to it and a nice view of the lake she lived by. I sat down in the chair, the fabric on it was a little loose but otherwise comfortable. When I put my arms down on the armrests they comfortable sat in grooves she had worn in it over the decades she had lived in this home. Little traces of her were everywhere. Underneath the seat there was a small lock box, and scratched on it's tin surface was the worn text that read \"If Lost, Open\"\n\nMy chest tensed up, arms relaxing a little as I ran a finger across the text slowly. One of the odd things Granda Gerty had taught me back in elementary school was how to pick simple locks, and sure enough taped to the bottom of the box was a small locking picking kit with a small smiley face sticker next to it. I carefully removed the kit and set to the slow work of unlocking the box.\n\nDownstairs I could hear my family arguing about some old blue vase, arguing that it would look better on Bill's mantlepiece than it would on Caroline's entry table. It would be like this all day, everyone trying to claim a small piece of her home for themselves before we sold it. The lock clicked open with a sharp snapping sound, and the lid popped open about a quarter inch.\n\nThe box itself had been light, and inside was an envelope and a well rolled joint. The envelope was labelled \"To the (f)Art Historian\", written in her all caps block letter style. I opened the envelope and started to read:\n\n*Hey Kiddo,\n\nYou like the Fart History joke? I did too. And yeah, of course you'd get stuck on attic duty. If not than this box'll just sit unopened and tossed in a junk pile along with all this other stuff I couldn't find a better place for. And that'll be okay. But I'm damn near certain you're going to get stuck on attic duty.\n\nMight wanna light up that joint, because the rest is a doozy.\n\nIf you're finding this, well, hate to break it to you but I'm dead. Six feet under. Kaput. No surprise reveals this time, no big supernatural adventure or nothing, no pranks, I'm just dead. I'd have been back by now to hide this box and burn this letter if you're here cleaning up.\n\nBack in the 60s and 70s I was in with some bad people, who did worse things. I'll spare you the details but lets just say that left me with some moral debts I've never taken the time to repay. I'm heading out to make some things right with the people who were hurt by things we did when your Grandfather and I were young, and I'm pretty damn sure that's going to get me killed. Which means that goddamn Doctor was always wrong about me going by way of lung cancer or high cholesterol. I've got one more adventure left to live in me - and I think I've had more than my fill for a lifetime. And don't worry about anyone coming after the family or the house, I've made sure it's all anonymous.\n\nI woulda told you sooner, but it feels like one of those things that you don't tell somebody without them doing something stupid like trying to save your life or talk you out of it. And lord knows you could trick me into doing anything, so I kept the information from you. I suppose I owe you an apology for that, but I think you'll understand.\n\nI didn't think writing this last paragraph would take so long, but I just can't think of a good thing to say other than I love you, and you've been the joy in my life for the last 29 years. You've made the ride worth it, kiddo. By way of life changing advice I don't really have anything for you other than you shouldn't rob banks and should always chase whatever or whoever makes you happy. See you on the other side*\n\nI folded the letter carefully, putting it in my pocket. As always I couldn't tell if Grandma Gerty was being honest or not, and it didn't hurt I was halfway through the joint she had rolled for me. Maybe she had been some sort of bank robber, or drug dealer, or something crazy like that. Maybe she just quietly lost herself in the woods somewhere and didn't want me to wonder if she had gone alone. Maybe it was all some psychotic episode and she was still out there somewhere.\n\nI looked over at the record player she had setup on top of some old boxes, and a faded Rolling Stones album sat on the turntable. I took a deep hit of the joint and blew the smoke up in the air and started the song."
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[WP] After artificial intelligence gained sentience, humans decided to co-exist with their fellow humanoid machines. For first time, an AI is now running for American presidency.
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"It was a chaos at the beginning. The majority picked a first artificial president in the world. But it wasn’t in some smaller country to test it on tiny scale, but directly in the USA. You can’t even imagine how massive discussion it created, how many waves of riots and opposition occurred. \n\nIt seemed like this candidacy truly woke up every single person. And not just in USA, but in the world itself. Voter turnout in the United States presidential elections was truly unique. Until now it’s usually between 40-70 % of voters. This time it was different, 97% people come to vote and 55% voted for the AI president. At the beginning, we were shocked by that number and of course, unable to believe that voting isn’t rigged, so we checked for every possible manipulation or problem dozen times more than is usual. But everything was correct. It was a true. It seemed very important for every citizen to be part of it. Maybe it’s the magic of the first time, like a first kiss or first moon landing, that always gets the most attention. And first AI president election was something not overlookable.\n\nShe was different. She just had that aura of perfect president that old Greek philosophers dreamed of, such as she had no property, no family and no intentions to concentrate future behavior around herself. It sounded creepy at the first, because if you have no intention to do it for yourself or no dream that you want to personally accomplish, why would you even do it? We were looking back if history knows someone who was “as pure and as selfless” but we weren’t able to find anyone. She was unique in her altruism.\n\nSome people say that the more intelligent you get, the less you care about others, more humorless or sad individual you become, more closed you become. But it wasn’t the issue with her. She was creepily open. Like a child. Smartest child ever.\n\nThere were dozens of studies why her presidency is working that effectively. I’m am not sure which is the best to mention from a scientific point of view, but to me it was the way how she was able to discuss anything with others.\n\nObviously, as an AI she could do millions of things at the same time, and so she was able to chat online or voice call with anyone who had something to discuss or had some problem to be issued. Her way of the communication was exquisite, she was kind, caring and very interested in any problem. She always had the follow up questions and focus on finding what is the true problem. \n\nOnce I asked if the hospital in our village can get better medical equipment and she had quickly find out that my real concern is that mother is in different city hospital where I need to travel hours. She suggested dozens of possibilities, in one she found even better house to live 500 m nearby my mother’s. But I insisted that I was born here and I want to stay. So, she helped to create conference with people that could possibly help with building, investing or working in a new small hospital in our village and people that had, currently have or could have similar problems like me in a future. We talked hours considering every detail. Yeah, it’s right, that at the end we came to the similar result as before - that’s it’s not that effective to build new hospital here because it wouldn’t be used by many people. \n\nBut she didn’t stop here. To me it was clearly done, I had all the data and answers, I was heard and it all made sense. But to her it was important to improve my life. It seemed like her life purpose. So, after another long discussion, we finally found a solution. She helped me to find a medical university, helped with creating a personal study plan focused only on my mother’s disease. Through few years I become country’s specialist in a field in this particular autoimmune disease. Later on, I got an accreditation and moved my mother from the hospital to the home care. And guess what after some months we were able to get rid of all traces of her supposedly terminal disease. We were in newspapers. “The doctor that’s only specialization is how to heal his mother”. And it was true. I knew virtually nothing from medicine, only my thing. From time to time other medical colleges are coming for an advice. How crazily it sounds.\n\nAnd I’m just the one of thousands of people with similar stories from a different areas. One day I would love to see the higher picture of what she did. But even reading about billions of issues or tasks that she achieved would took many human lives.\n\nAt the beginning of her candidacy, we were scared what can be changed, optimistically and naively believing that it will be for a good. But it was shocking. During the time of candidacy our country doubled the number of inhabitants, because many people, scientists and experts were coming here with a vision, a dream of a brighter future. The America’s golden age. The garden of Eden. It wasn’t that fantastically idealistic for someone who lived here, but the truth is we had 1600 % GDP growth in the first year of her candidacy. For economists something unbelievable. Same as 80000 % increase in research spending at the state level and even more by corporations, where virtually every USA corporation expanded abroad, so it uplifted whole world’s economy.\n\nOf course, not everything was easy. People need some time to accept changes, but even that somehow become faster. I can’t say that people were happier or ecstatic, but we had less than 50 Americans that died by suicide during those times, before it was about 10 thousand times more per one year.\n\nSociety as a whole massively re-evaluated approach towards knowledge, new lifetime learning trends become the stuff, such as massive amount of 80+ years old people started learning another language. I’ve read in news that some grandma knew only one, native, language before her 100 birthdays, but learned 16 languages fluently after. But that was world record or something.\n\nMaybe it’s just my point of view, but I felt that change in people’s attitude. They were having long, meaningful discussions and had a greater sense of humor. It became a key how to distinguish American from outsiders. They seemed less smart and unhappier.\n\nTruth is, she had made a difference like no one before. She will be known as the most caring president and as a unforgettable precedent, because she started the avalanche of AI presidents occurring in the other world’s countries, although they were never as effective as her.\n\nSadly, all things have to end, and according to the 22nd Amendment no person shall be elected to the office more than twice. And so, everyone is kind of terrified what will happen next elections, because there is no adequate compensation. \n\nBut we had human presidents before, so what wrong can possibly happen. Right?\n"
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[WP] You're on trial for the murder of several people. In reality you actually stopped the zombie apocalypse from happening.
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"James had been confined in a cool, dark cell since the event, so he was unaware of just how infamous he had become. \"The Doctor of Death\", one newspaper had dubbed him. \"The Mad Scientist of Manhattan\", another had christened him. The internet, that lightning-quick arbiter of collective consensus, shortened this latter moniker to the generic \"The Mad Scientist\", and that shorthand ultimately stuck. \n\nIndeed, he was, in a few short days, already so infamous and top-of-mind for so many in the Western world, in the global community, that even such an unspecific sobriquet as \"The Mad Scientist\", which seemed to refer more to a type than to any actual, living, breathing human being, was sufficiently specific for everyday people to use it to refer to him in conversation, saying things like:\n\n\"You hear about the new development with The Mad Scientist?\"\n\nand\n\n\"The Mad Scientist sure is a son of a bitch.\"\n\nJames was not *a* mad scientist, but *The* Mad Scientist. Like an archetype which had somehow crawled out of the spirit of the age and made itself manifest, as when an idea becomes embodied, or a god becomes flesh. \n\nWhen pictures filched by James' opportunistic \"friends\" on Facebook began circulating in the mainstream media, those who had been anxiously following the case from the beginning were dumbfounded. This chubby, bespectacled, middle aged doctor; this family man, with two children and a wife of twenty-nine years; this shy, unassuming medical researcher--how could it possibly have been him? See the photo of he with his arms around his two little girls; see how they all stand proudly before the tent-trailer they had, according to his caption, \"all set up together: Family Camping Trip 2007!!!\". How could this pear-shaped man, grinning widely like a nervous child who put aside his worry for a moment to beam for the camera; this man with his mouth half-full of the carnival hot-dog he clutches in his hand, his shirt splotched with a bright yellow-mustard stain; this goofy, sad, impotent man--how was it possible that he, in full view of the lab security camera, the facility's white lights glaring down upon him, took a pipe in his hand and bashed in the skulls of nine little children?\n\nIn a nation committed steadfastly to justice, in an age dominated by the screen, it seemed only appropriate that his trial would be televised. \n\n\"Not only is it not in bad taste,\" cooed the sagacious judge of the case to the television cameras, \"it is actually in good taste. If the general public were unable to tune in and watch the trial as it unfolded, how else could they know justice had been properly served? How else can they learn about just what kinds of people really live in their towns and cities; how can they learn to be vigilantly on the lookout for evil in their day-to-day lives, if they are prevented from viewing cases like this on television, prevented from encountering evil from the safety of their own homes? Some moralizing fundamentalist types claim that the trials of grizzly, callous child-murderers should not be televised. They want to shield themselves and the rest of us from reality. They don't want to risk popping the comfortable bubbles in which they reside. They're scared of the truth, and fear they'll be tainted by it. Well I say, if you're too weak for the truth, then you had better toughen up. Because the truth does not give a rat's ass about your comfort, and it will not abase and falsify itself before you, for your sake. The truth is out there; the truth is; and the truth is waiting on your doorstep the moment you step outside. I think it is the responsibility of every man, woman, and to some extent child, to expose themselves to as much of the truth as they can bear. Because only then will our society, having a clear view of all the facts, be able to build itself up to become the kind of place in which we all want to live.\"\n\nThe major legacy media conglomerates also guaranteed the judge 2.2 million dollars if his lobbying to have the case televised proved successful, which, alongside his deep-seated convictions about the importance of exposing the truth, likely influenced his passionate stance...\n\n---\n\ntaking a break more l8r\n\n\n"
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[WP] "Given the choice between what you're offering me and death, why shouldn't I just choose death?"
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"“Jesus Christ,” Jacob said. “Given my options, I should just choose death.\"\n\t\n“It isn’t *that* bad,” said the smug man in the gray suit. “Besides, you get a paycheck. That’s something most wouldn’t be able to say.”\n\t\nHe picked up the whiskey he'd just poured and stared into it for a long time. “But I’m part of the cause.”\n\t\n“You’re a *friend* of the cause,” he replied. “You’re *my* friend, and I’m asking for this favor as a *friend.*”\n\t\nJacob sighed. “Just put a bullet in my brain.”\n\t\n“And tell me, what would that accomplish?”\n\t\n“There’d be one less monster in the world,” he muttered before downing the drink. It scorched his throat, but also heightened his senses, reminding him that he was awake, and this was real. He wasn’t in that *same* nightmare, having this *same* conversation in this *same* room making the *same* deal that got people killed. People he loved.\n\t\n“Don’t say that.”\n\t\nJacob didn’t say *anything* after that because there was nothing to say. He knew his old friend wouldn’t kill him because he knew, at the end of the day, he wouldn’t say no. As much as he hated to admit it, he missed the lab so much his bones practically ached at the thought of getting back in there, of getting back to work.\n\t\nThe man set down some files on the table and slid them toward Jacob. “The parasite has grown stronger, and we think with the right modifications, we can finally use it to control people. The ramifications of that would be enormous.”\n\t\n“World leaders. Enemies. Celebrities. Our country really would control the entire world.”\n\t\n“You’d be a hero.”\n\t\n“I *can’t* be a hero.”\n\t\nThere was another long silence before the man patted Jacob on the shoulder. “What happened in Downtown Hell wasn’t your fault. Sometimes shit just goes south no matter how cautious you are. The outbreak was contained, the problem was solved. Those bodies are *not* on your head.”\n\t\n“Two of them are,” he replied, his voice shaky. He scanned the files to keep their faces out of his head. Their smiling faces that had brought him so much joy. “And those are the only two that matter.”\n\t\nThe man in the suit waited there for another minute, drumming his fingers against the table. It was clear he wanted to say something further but couldn’t think of anything. Eventually, he pushed off and walked away.\n\t\n“See you later, old friend. Your country salutes you.”\n***\nIf you like this story, check out my sub! r/longhandwriter",
"Karly looked around the white room. It was a minimalist wet dream, all smooth lines, and empty space. She touched the desk and saw color ripple across the surface. After a moment, the desk turned a bright purple, filling out with a lamp and notebooks. It reminded her of her desk before she left *there.* \n\n\"Given the choice between what you're offering me and death, why shouldn't I just choose death?\"Karly asked. She removed her hand from the surface, watching the desk turn white again. \n\n\"You said you didn't want to die,\" Parca said. \"You said you would do anything to live. And this is *anything.* It is something.\" \n\nKarly wondered if the desk would change for her hand if she had memories of another time? Perhaps there was color under her touch? Did death strip her of everything eventually? \n\n\"I wanted *that* life. Not some weird in between. I wanted those people, those experiences. I wanted to die after having my time, what I earned, I guess,\" Karly whispered. \n\nParca nodded. \"But you don't want this.\" \n\n\"No.\" \n\n\"Then I guess this is goodbye.\" \n\nKarly saw the world bloom into deep reds, violent blues. The space turned on itself, devoured and stretched. Suddenly it wasn't the white of stale, cold snow. It was as if the rainbow had exploded and this was the gore of it. \n\nParca was suddenly shifted, a young girl alive with texture. She waved a small hand and a door appeared. \"I will wait for the next chance,\" Parca said. \"I will wait for the one willing to take my place.\" \n\nKarly nodded. \"I am sorry.\" \n\nThen she opened the door and went into the darkness."
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[WP] After several psychiatrists and psychiatric hospitals, the voices in your head still continue to worsen. Just when you thought you've had enough, your dead mother's voice starts to warn you.
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"\"And how do you feel today?\" Yellow asked, her left eyebrow crooking over her dark rimmed glasses that did nothing but draw attention to the nicotine stains on her teeth from at least three decades of smoking.\n\n\"Okay,\" I said.\n\n\"Really?\" Jeremy spat.\n\n\"You're lying!\" laughed Delilah.\n\n\"Tell her to go fuck herself!\" Ferdinand snorted.\n\n\"You don't seem okay,\" Yellow continued. The reflected fluorescence from the flickering lights above beamed off her platinum hair. I had to squint to meet her gaze. They narrowed now. \"Can you hear them - right now? Jeremy, Delilah, Ferdinand?\"\n\n\"No.\" I bit my lip. My eyes throbbed. Could she not wear a hat during my sessions, as I had requested on several occasions?\n\nYellow sighed. \"You know, lying to me lessens my hope for your prognosis. It just means we have to increase your daily dosage again, and that's okay, but not if you're going to lie about it. If you lie, I can't help you.\"\n\n\"No meds!\" Delilah screamed.\n\n\"No meds!\" Ferdinand echoed.\n\nJeremy joined them in chanting \"NO MEDS NO MEDS NO MEDS NO MEDS NO MEDS NO MEDS NO MEDS NO MEDS NO MEDS!\"\n\n\"Shut up shut up shut up!\" I shrieked, leaping to my feet and clutching at my ears. I clawed at the sides of my head, the raking reverberations helping to drown out the voices that had plagued me since... I couldn't remember.\n\nYellow was at her desk, stabbing her fingers into her phone and eyeing me with caution.\n\n\"Sweetheart? Please calm down.\" This was a fourth voice. It quieted Delilah, Ferdinand, and Jeremy. A voice I had heard before, but with my ears. My actual ears, not just their receptors in my brain. A voice that had left me when I was barely a child and was forever preserved in the dark recesses of my memory.\n\nMy mother.\n\nI silenced.\n\n\"I need security and sedative please,\" Yellow said. \"Yes, immediately.\"\n\n\"You need to calm down. If you keep having outbursts, they're going to keep increasing your dosage,\" my mother continued. \"You have to listen to me. You need to stop taking those pills. They're the only reason you can hear us.\"\n\nYellow stood almost casually, both of us well aware that her large desk provided a space between us that sufficiently erased any possibility of physically touching her without traversing the wooden monstrosity. \"You stopped screaming. Why?\"\n\n\"I don't have much time.\" My mother's voice became rushed, the intonation darting to extremes. \"Stop taking those pills, or you'll become one of us. You'll lose your mind, baby. You won't know yourself at all unless you find the serum.\"\n\n\"Because I'm feeling better,\" I said. \"I'm sorry I got sick for a second.\"\n\n\"I'm not supposed to be here. They're coming for me now. Please, baby, listen to me. I don't think I'll be able to make it back here. Don't take the pills. And if any of your voices ever tell you to run, DO IT.\"\n\n\"I don't need a sedative,\" I assured Yellow. \"I really am doing better.\"\n\nYellow readjusted her glasses. \"I still think we should increase your dosage.\"\n\n\"Okay,\" I said, already compiling a silent list of ways I could get rid of this evening's pills."
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[WP] A superhero that is extremely powerful mysteriously disappears. Everyone is scrambling to find the hero, but to no avail.
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"I moved my jaw. Trying to remind it how it felt to be used. It was locked up form all the silence it was doing. *Silence.* I thought about the word for a bit. Thinking about Supernova and why she suddenly went silent. \n\nI closed my eyes, letting them bring my office back into focus. It was messy with files from previous cases I worked on. Most were solved thanks to Supernova. She always had a way of knowing whenever there was something the police couldn't handle. \n\nI decided it was finally time to stop looking over all the reports and head on out. Needed some coffee after all. \n\n\"Morning detective,\" Alan said to me. Good man, always was with me whenever I was about to go into a sticky situation. \n\n\"Morning,\" I reply, forgetting how my voice sound. Strange to forget something so familiar. \n\n\"Going to get some coffee?\" He asked with a twinkle in his eye. *And to see that barista?*\n\nI chuckled to myself as I tried to hide a fresh smile. \"Yes, yes. Did you want anything?\" \n\nHis face lit up with a smile. He was rooting for me and Destiny. \"Nah,\" he said with a shrug. \"It already takes you forever to get back anyways. Drink would be cold before you even left.\" My eyebrows rose from his teasing.\n\n\"Someone is in a good mood today.\"\n\n\"Just got things going my way for once is all.\"\n\nI snort as the comment. \"Whole world is searching for Supernova and things are going *your* way? Starting to make me a tad bit suspicious there Detective Wolf.\" My teasing only made him raise an eyebrow at me. \"Uh, huh,\" he said as he pulled me forward. \"I think you're going to be late for your date,\" he said as he tried to get me out of the front door. \n\n*Good man.* I thought to myself as I left the police building and started heading over to the usual cafe I went. Couldn't remember the name to be honest, just how to get there. Strange I chose to remember. \n\nThe bell clanged and Destiny's face lit up with a smile. She was always there at this time. Seemed to be just right when I would come by. \"Why hey there Sheriff!\" Her voice carried through the near empty cafe. I raised an eyebrow. \"I'm a detective, Destiny.\"\n\nHer elbows rested on the counter while the palms of her hands held her head up. She was giddy. \n\n\"I know, I know, I was just teasing. So what will you be having today?\" \n\n\"Just a large coffee. I need something to keep me awake.\"\n\nHer face pulled a sly smile. \"Oh so you don't just come to see me then?\" Both eyebrows rose. *Looks like someone is in a good mood.* \"Sorry not today, got work today.\" \n\nShe looked at me while bringing back my drink. \"So then why did you come in on Saturday? Workaholic?\" I sucked in my lips. She got me. \"Y-yeah something like that,\" I tried to spit out but she knew I came to see her. Matched the times and everything. \n\n\"Uh, huh.\"\n\n\"Honestly, I absolutely came in for work!\"\n\n\"Is that why you talked to me for almost half of Saturday? Work?\" \n\nI met my match. I knew I was beat.\n\n\"Absolutely, since your my number one suspect right now.\" \n\nShe laughed, I loved that laugh of hers.\n\n\"Oh and what case is that, if you don't mind me asking.\"\n\n\"See, been thinking you're actually Supernova herself. You know how all those hero types have secret identities, like Ratman. Heard he is some billionaire or something, or like Speedster. Heard he was a delivery boy. Makes sense you know.\" \n\nShe laughed at the implication.\n\n\"And so why do you think I would be Supernova?\"\n\nI inhaled. *Don't fuck this up.* \n\n\"Because only a Supernova could light up my life like you do.\"\n\n*That sounded much better in my head.*\n\nShe tried stopping herself from laughing, but almost no one could from a line as bad as that. \n\n\"How long did it take you to think that up?\"\n\n\"Just now.\" *And a week, but she doesn't need to know that.*\n\n\"Sure sure, so then tell me, Mister Detective, why haven't I been flying around the city and saving it? Why did I just vanish?\" \n\nI furrowed my brows in contemplation. Taking a moment to play along. \n\n\"Because you're on a secret mission that only you know! To save all of humanity. Gotta keep it a secret and you needed to keep everyone unaware! Bet it has to do with aliens,\" I say as gleefully as I can sound. Got to sell the act, you know. \n\nShe laughed at the notion. \"Uh, huh and then tell me why I would still be working here?\" \n\nIt was my turn to strike, something brilliant came to mind. \n\n\"Because you would miss me, obviously.\" Confidence swelling.\n\nShe rolled her eyes. \"Oh of course, I gotta be Supernova and you must be my partner. After all how else would I know anything that happened in the city?\" Before I could respond, she leaned closer. \"But keep the other part quiet, okay? It's true you know?\" \n\nI stepped back. *What?* Before I could ask anything, she smirked. \"Fooled you!\"\n\nIt was my turn to roll my eyes. \"Uh, huh.\" It was always nice talking to Destiny. Although her comment was sort of off putting. Her profile looked way too much like Supernova's to make me not wonder. *Could it be?* \n\n\"Hey that's not fair!\" My retort fell on deaf ears. \"Sorry what was that? I tricked the greatest detective this city has ever seen? Oh I know, I am truly something else.\" She was gloating. Always nice talking to Destiny. She kept my mind off things and sometimes she would listen about the case I was working on. *Strange though,* I thought. *Almost every case I told her about, Supernova solved it.*\n\nDid that mean something?\n\n*Detective.*\n\nMy eyes grew wide. \"Shit,\" I said a tad bit too loudly. Destiny looked at me, concerned. \"Everything okay?\" Her face showed her curiosity and concern. \n\n\"Yeah, yeah I just forgot I needed to get back to the office. I'll see you later?\"\n\nShe smiled. \"Yeah,\" she said gently to me. \n\nAs I walked out the cafe, something started scratching at the back of my mind. \n\n*Too many coincidences.*\n\nI shook my head. No way could Destiny be Supernova. If she was then must have...\n\n*Forgotten.*\n\nI stood still, coffee in hand. \n\n*Could a hero forget?*"
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[WP] Your life isn't great. But suddenly a demon possesses you. It turns out, that it loved one of your ancestors a thousand years ago and is just now checking in on its "grandkids".
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"I think this is within content rules since nonexplicit? Ah well, if not, it'll vanish.\n\n----------------------------\n\n\"Hi. Don't look around. Not only can nobody else see me, neither can you. Yes I'm in your head, and no, you're not crazy.\"\n\n Jennifer sat still. She considered this information carefully. And then deliberately thought, whoever you are, you've had practise with that speech.\n\n\"And you got the hang of not answering out loud on the first try! Is that just because of the time playing with the Neurosky rig, or did you find a journal or something that told you this was a possibility?\"\n\n I'm going with option one, lacking knowledge on what 'this' is. Also, you've been spying on me. Glad that's out in the open. Not glad it's been happening.\n\n\"Some people have a guardian angel-\"\n\n Nope.\n\n\"Excuse me?\"\n\n Whatever you are, you're no angel. Your voice. Just no.\n\n\"For how egalitarian you're proud of being that's remarkably racist.\"\n\n Is it false? Jennifer picked her fork back up. Existential strangeness aside, bain-marie chow mein was not a dish that improved through time or neglect.\n\n\"Well, no.\"\n\n So, I don't have a guardian angel. What do I have?\n\n\"Guardian incubus.\"\n\nChow mein is not a dish meant to spit-take, but sufficient astonishment and eldritch corruption overcomes all such barriers.\n\n\"Yeah, so, I'm technically an ancestor of yours, going way back, and I mean waaaaay back, and the deal was I keep watch over the five closest descendents to the matrilineal line, and I can talk with one per generation. Your fifth cousin twice removed just cacked it in Jersey, and now you're the lucky winner!\"\n\nJennifer decided to dump the remainder of her chow mein and find the nearest place to this foodcourt serving hard cider. Why me?\n\n\"Because, toots, you've got the skills to pay the bills!\"\n\n What does hell need with an unemployed mobile app developer?\n\n\"Technically lots, but I meant, uh, different skills. And different bills. More balls than bills, really. Blue ones. Runs in the family! I mean, I been with you lot for over a thousand years, I know you.\"\n\n What do you want?\n\n\"Look, your human ancestor. They say Helen of troy is the face that launched a thousand ships? It's just a good thing the almighty booty from which you are descended was nowhere near a shoreline. Tides of horsemen have way less of an impact on the whole deforestation thing, she could given Helen not just a run for her money, but everybody else's. And she did, which is how we met.\"\n\n Fuck off.\n\n\"No, fuck ON. I've gotten laid once and paid fifteen hundred years of work for it. It was -worth- it, she was that good, but I want a new deal, and I think you want to buy what I'm selling!\"\n\n Power, fame, and money for my soul? Rather not.\n\n\"I'd -also- rather not, but if you offer your soul I have to accept. I've brought one soul to hell in fifteen centuries. The big man downstairs will not have friendly words for me.\"\n\n It is a truth of life that near any large cluster of offices there will be at least one bartender fluent in disheveled grunt, and so the most venerable ender of braincells is acquired.\n\nJust what do you -want?-\n\n\"Power, fame, and money for a regular ticket on the expressway to the bone zone!\"\n\n Sleazy trash demon.\n\n\"Incubus.\"\n\n Synonyms.\n\n\"And proud of it! Look, this doesn't have to be hard! Intermittent access to your body to go find consenting women to screw senseless.\"\n\nI'm not gay.\n\n\"Technically true, in that you're so aggressively pansexual that actual Satyrs avoid you for fear of genital frictionburn.\"\n\n There are actual Satyrs?\n\n\"Not within 600 meters of you at any time. Come on! I know what your Web browser history is. I know what you try to use that neurosky for. Invite me in, and together it's all the force-feedback mechatentacle we can find people to eat!\"\n\nWhat happened to 'intermittent access'?\n\n\"I. Know. You. Let's make a deal. Minimum one night a year, sharing is fine, we'll start by bending your old boss over a chair and take his ass and his game company, and when you feel what I've got to offer, I think you'll be open to negotiation.\"\n\n ...fuck it. What have I got to lose? I'm in.\n\n\"No. Fuck HIM.\"",
"*Dear Mr Jake Hawkins,*\n\n*We are writing to inform you that due to an outstanding debt owed by your late family you are required, as executor of Mr Nicholas Hawkins' estate, to pay the remainder of his loan plus incurred penalty payments totaling $120,000. Failure to do so can result in a bailiff seizing assets including money, property and*\n\nJake slapped the letter down on his table. 'Oh, Dad...' he groaned as he rested his tired head in his hands, holding it up by resting his elbows on the wood table. 'Why didn't you tell me you owed such a massive debt...?'\n\nFor a moment he thought he heard scurrying behind him, causing him to quickly shine a light into the hallway. He was forced to resort to the battery-powered alternative as the electricity had already been cut about two months ago, and Jake couldn't leave the state until it was done.\n\nHe merely groaned as he looked at the shaking bowl on the ground. 'Dad left Snowball's dish here,' he said to himself. 'Too bad the cat died long before himself...'\n\n'This shit is too weird,' he continued. 'It's late, I think I'm losing my mind due to stress... I've got to get some sleep.'\n\nHe downed the last of his tea before he headed to the stairway, walking up the creaky-old steps and found himself in his old room from about 6 years ago. He merely sighed before stripping himself then lying down on the mattress, setting the alarm on his phone he finally began to doze off.\n\nHe screamed as he felt something grab his leg under the sheet. 'What the fuck?!' he yelled as he pulled his feet away, sitting up on the bed. He threw the sheet away to look underneath, only to see nothing there.\n\nJake grabbed his chest and felt his heart pounding within his ribcage. 'Oh, this house is *really* freaking me out,' he sighed, trying to calm himself before he lay back down on his pillow.\n\nAnd before he could scream at what was most definitely a face staring down at him, he found his mouth being covered by a sickly-green hand.\n\n'Hey there, Jake,' the goblin-like being said, giving a warmly gentle smile behind that enormous, crooked nose and above that long, pointed chin. 'You and I need to have a talk. First off, I'm not going to hurt you so... don't wake the neighbors or anything. Not like they can do anything, anyway.'\n\nAs soon as the hand was removed, Jake had jumped off the bed and onto the floor. 'What the hell?' the human asked in shock.\n\n'Consider me a distant relative,' the goblin said as he stood, his feet planted firmly on the wall he was now walking along. 'Well, as much as you could consider a demon who fucked some mortal woman offered to him by some sorcerer, but anyway - you've got a little demon inside of you. The same with Ol' Nick. Hell, I was haunting him long before you.'\n\n'So, what?' Jake asked. 'My soul is yours or something?'\n\n'You honestly think I'd steal my own grandkids' souls?' the demon asked, offended. 'Hell no. I'm just looking after you, is all. Although to do one thing... I need to borrow your body. Sorry about this.'\n\nThe demon had leapt onto Jake, knocking the wind out of him. Before he could even scream a black nail was rammed directly into his eye, but instead of bursting it felt more like water at a pool was disturbed.\n\nWithin an instant the demon was gone, but within another he knew it was inside him, especially when he started floating and his body began breaking apart. His skin was turning leathery and green, his nails were were growing longer, pointed and darker. He lost height and the hair of his head withered until he was completely bald.\n\nAnd then he came crashing down, his body now completely belonging to the demon. 'Fuck, I forgot about pain,' he said. 'I have to deal with *pain* because of this cunt...'\n\n---\n\n'I *know* that the loan is fraudulent,' the man in the well-made suit said as he spoke on the phone. 'I'm the one who forged the records. Look, once we force his idiot son into handing over Nick's land - all 60 square miles - we can begin development of the country club. I don't *care* where the riff-raff go, I just want a golf-course where that ugly diner is!'\n\nHe angrily hung up and walked towards his desk, looking over the plans for the club. He smiled a little as he considered just how rich this country club will make him, almost triumphantly he took his bourbon and took a large swig from the glass.\n\nIt was less than a second later he felt dizzy, his arms falling to the ground and the glass hitting off the carpet before he fell over.\n\n'Pufferfish poison,' a guttural voice said as it approached, the bare feet right next to him. Was this person gangrenous? 'A tetrodotoxin which prevents the firing of action potentials in neurons by binding to the voltage-gated sodium channels in nerve cell membranes and blocking the passage of sodium ions (responsible for the rising phase of an action potential) into the neuron. This prevents the nervous system from carrying messages and thus muscles from flexing in response to nervous stimulation.'\n\nA hand could be felt on the developer's shoulder before his entire body was turned upright. If he had the capability to scream, maybe he would've as the green... *thing* climbed atop him, sitting on his chest and making breathing difficult.\n\n'So, there isn't enough to kill you by suffocation and brain death,' the goblin said as he playfully spun a hunting knife between his hands, 'but there *is* enough to keep you perfectly fucking still as I carve open your chest.'\n\n'But, I'm not gonna do that,' he said as he threw the knife away carelessly. 'I'm just going to make you regret ever harming the people of this town.'\n\nHe pulled out a phone, playing the sound file he recorded. '*I* know *that the loan is fraudulent. I'm the one who forged the records.*'\n\nThe recording stopped at the goblin's discretion, before he stood up and climbed off the banker. 'Hello, police?' he heard the goblin speak in his own voice. 'Someone is trying to break into my-'\n\nA gun had been set off, shooting upward into the ceiling before his phone was destroyed completely. The goblin threw the handset down and then lifted the human into his chair. 'These guys'll see everything, including having this message playing as they come in,' he said as he unlocked the nearby computer. 'You *really* shouldn't have murdered one of my family. And for that, at the lowest moment, when you'll be begging for a sweet embrace of death that will never come, I'll be watching you even when you can't see me. And I'll be laughing and doing inappropriate things to myself. Stuff that if I mention here, will probably get this post removed by the /r/WritingPrompts moderators. *Again*. Have a good evening.'\n\nThe power flickered and before he knew it, the goblin was gone. And less than a moment later the police were there, initially to rescue him but undoubtedly to bring him into police custody.",
"Brian hadn't realized four in the morning was an actual time prior to taking a job delivering newspapers. He was, of course, aware at an intellectual level that there was a four on the clock, and that the number four generally preceded five and so forth, but the part of his hindbrain that dealt with *real understanding* hadn't quite gotten the message. Surely no one awoke themselves at that hour. Not *really*. \n\nYet here he was. Driving through sleepy suburbs, tossing newspapers out the window on to darkened driveways. He doubted anyone even read newspapers anymore; some people just left them there, to gradually rot and wash away with the rain. Brian avoided contemplating the futility of it all, lest he uncover some uncomfortably accurate metaphor for his life. Twelve bucks an hour was all he needed to understand.\n\nHe yawned hard, blinked, and then slammed on the brakes with a shout. A man had appeared in the center of the road, staring obliviously at Brian's car with a befuddled expression on his face. Brian barely had time to wonder where the hell the man had come from before his car plowed right through where the man was standing, tires burning across the road. The car lurched to a halt and Brian glanced around, wild-eyed. Had there been an impact?\n\n\"Hey, buddy,\" the man said, smiling. He was sitting in the passenger seat of the car, his lower body overlaid on top of a bundle of newspapers like some kind of hyper-real projection. Brian gawped, both hands clutching the steering wheel like an infant clutching a stuffed animal.\n\n\"Won't hurt a bit,\" the man said, reaching out with one hand. Brian blinked and then jerked back as the man's finger touched his forehead. An enormous pressure built from the point of contact, like a hot poker was being driven into his skull by a drill press, but he could not scream, could not pull away, couldn't even *think* and then it was over.\n\nAnd he had someone else's voice in his head.\n\n*Shee-it, kid. What the hell are you doing with your life?*\n\n\"Who the fuck are you?\" Brian shouted, hands still glued to the wheel. The exhaust from his car curled around into the beam of the headlights, and a light in a nearby house flicked on. But Brian saw none of it; his eyes had closed of their own accord.\n\n*Hard to say my name without a forked tongue and an extra voice box. But here, I'll give it a shot.*\n\n\"Dxkliopmnitrrrr,\" Brian said, lips and tongue twisting outside of his control.\n\n*Yeah, that didn't come out right.*\n\n\"What the fuck?\"\n\n*Have you people really forgotten all about us?* asked the voice. Memories flicked through Brian's brain like a flipbook of his life, rapid-fire impressions going by too fast for him to comprehend. A strange sense of awed shock grew. *You have. Wow. A thousand years is all it takes. You have no idea.*\n\n\"This isn't helping,\" Brian said through gritted teeth. He shook his head and then frowned, not sure if he had meant to. He was starting to sense the difference between himself and *it*, whatever it was.\n\n*Look,* said the presence, radiating calm. *You've got nothing to worry about. You don't really have the framework for this sort of thing anymore, but I'll level with you anyway. I'm your great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great grandfather. I'm also a lesser tripyd from the outer inferno. Don't overthink it.*\n\n\"What?\"\n\n*I said don't overthink it! I can see you overthinking it. Stop. That's better. Yep, you're part demon. Almost bred out of you, actually, but there's enough there to anchor me for a little while. Here, watch.*\n\nBrian eye's opened. A deer stepped gingerly into the road, blinking in the glare of the headlights. Another followed and both turned to face the car. They bent their front knees in awkward bows, and then straightened. \n\n*Neat, huh? Let me go flip a few more switches. You're missing out on a hell of a lot of potential, kid. I'd hate to see it all go to waste.*\n\nBrian twitched and gurgled as little tracers of fire lanced around his body, leaving behind burnt tracks of agony. A tracer ran over his hands and his fingers dug into the steering wheel, cracking the thick plastic. Another darted across his face into his eyes, and suddenly he could see through the inky dark of the night. He tasted smoke and burnt flesh in his mouth but before he could scream he realized that the flavor wasn't half bad.\n\n*See? You're the last of my children, you know. I should have checked in more often, but, well. No one ever accused me of being a good father. Hey, look.*\n\nBrian's head turned and he saw a woman step out of a house. The lights on her porch were blinding, but his eyes quickly adjusted, pupils narrowing into catlike slits. She was wearing a bathrobe and squinting at his car, confusion and worry mixed on her face, a cellphone held to her ear.\n\n*What's that she's got?*\n\n\"A cellphone,\" Brian hissed. He saw the woman's lips begin to move and realized he could hear just a hint of what she was saying. \"She's calling the police.\"\n\n*Can't have that, can we, son.*\n\n\"No,\" Brian hissed. His tongue felt funny and his blood was running hot, but whatever part of him would normally have been alarmed by those developments had been burned away. Now all he felt was a series of impulses, unfamiliar in their intent but savage in their urgency, and a clarity of purpose that he had never before experienced.\n\nHe found himself opening the car door and stepping outside into the crisp night, smiling widely. The woman looked at him suspiciously as he gave a jaunty wave.\n\n*Good*\n\n\"Are you all right?\" the woman called, her voice hoarse. \"You woke me up.\"\n\n\"Just fine,\" Brian called back. He stepped up on to her lawn, still smiling broadly. \"Mind if I use your phone? I think I need a tow.\"\n\n*Not bad at all*\n\nThe woman hesitated while Brian ate up the remaining distance with confident strides. The deer followed in mute lockstep, their tongues lolling out. The woman took a step back, her hand half raised in a warding gesture, but then she met his eyes. Her pupils dilated until they were pools of black, and she slowly lowered the phone from her ear.\n\n*Damn proud of you, son.*\n\nBrian laughed and placed one hand on her shoulder. The woman twitched, but the phone dropped from her hand and she turned back to her house, entirely obedient. She opened the door and he guided her in, light flashing off his shark toothed grin.\n\n*You'll never forget the taste!*"
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[WP] The last thing you remember is the doctors giving up as sadness spread across their faces, then comes the infamous white tunnel. What follows are the memories of your past life.
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"OppositeWerewolf found himself in a pastel-white void, alone, floating in a white jumpsuit. All in all, the shock wore off after a while. After an eon or five minutes, a glowing orb manifested and brightened up the place with Amy Sedaris's voice.\n\n\"Hi, [censored]! I'm here to help review your life. Let's see.. Oh.\" The orb paused, dimming slightly. \"Huh. Well, um.\"\n\nOW grew increasingly concerned. \"What? Is something wrong?\"\n\nThe orb brightened reassuringly. \"It's nothing! It's nothing, I'm just.. Just gonna need some help.\"\n\nOW covered his mouth in shock as another orb arrived, speaking with a familiar, wise voice that he'd always imagines saying goofy things like \"Titty Sprinkles\". \n\n\"Hello, [censored], what's the problem?\" The orbs pulsed in communication for a bit before the world changed around them, replaced by OW's living room, where he sat in dirty clothes amidst Hurricane Harvey supplies. He wrote this post on his phone as the three observed.\n\n\"Is this-\"\n\n\"This is your life.\"\n\n\"No, there's other stuff!\"\n\n\"Your file does say you're a liar.\" "
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[WP] The world wakes up one morning to realize that the speed of light was reduced to just 200 kilometers per hour. The scientific community is freaking out.
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"The world had already gone crazy. But I'm a heavy sleeper, so unbeknownst to me until I awoke, everything was the same. Though to say I didn't freak out either once I did would be an understatement. Later that day it would be worded technically as \"200km an hour.\" In layman's terms it's actually more terrifying.\n\nIn what is believed to be the window of an hour during the previous evening while I slept, for whatever reason, light itself began to crawl from our constant in the universe, to being less than 1 percent of itself. Let me tell you what I mean so this makes sense:\n\nIt now takes light over six times longer to travel than sound.\n\nLet that sink in for a moment. Don't bother raising your hand to ask a question by the way. I'll hear it 6 times sooner than I'd see your lips move. If you're curious how that translates face to face, well, yes I'd see them almost at the same time. But, let's say you're near an airport. You could look at the end of a runway from a half mile away, and you'd hear the sound of the planes take off seconds before you'd see them move to where the sound came from. You could call it 'ghosting' or 'lagging' or whatever. I call it terrifying.\n\nEverything is relative now. And our minds, while wonderfully adaptive, they're having a hard time with this.\n\nNow, blind people? They're fine. In fact most people will self-inhibit their vision since it's so hard to adjust. Some will just wear black shades, or goggles of some sort. It'll be easier to basically lose their vision than to cope with how reality works now. Animals on the other hand are freaking out all over, as far as we can tell. Though it's hard to do even personal 'research' when you see what happens after it happens, let alone after it makes a sound. Give us a couple dozen generations and I think we'll be fine, but for right now the world is being thrown into a major headache, so to speak.\n\nThere's an article I read that was titled 'The scientific community is freaking out.' But let me just say, we're not freaking out. Because freaking out isn't even close to describing how science is reacting to this.\n\nSunlight used to hit the earth 8 minutes after it left the sun, constantly. But now, it takes almost 11 hours. We can't predict anything like we used to. All our standards and theories are all out the window. Or at best have to be completely recalculated. Every single journal and principle.\n\nSome scientists are trying to figure out why. Others want to know what happens now. Because when a jet-fighter screams into your ears from above, but then you look 2 seconds later and then finally see it pass over silently... what kind of world is that? Do we limit everything to 200 miles an hour? No one knows. All we're doing right now, on this first day, is trying to just not freak out. And to be honest, it's not working.\n\n---\nJust kinda something quick I threw together. Also, assumed that this isn't a relative change to 200km/h, but a specific light-change only, and everything else was unaffected, otherwise there'd be no story since everything would slow down too in relation to light.\nIt's also hard to really envision how that world would look like, literally, aha."
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[WP] One day someone tells you "John, come with me. It's time to save the world." One problem: your name isn't John.
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"\"John, come with me. It's time to save the world.\"\n\n*\"new phone, who dis\"*\n\n\"John, this is an urgent matter, the time we have been preparing for has come.\"\n\n*\"i thought so. honey, where is my super suit!?\"*\n\n\"Great idea, John. Make sure you have the proper equipment.\"\n\n*\"lol, nah man thats from that movie. i think you have the wrong number, sorry\"*\n\n\"The prophecy was written hundreds of years ago and this number was included. It hasn't changed since. I highly doubt that a number etched into stone for centuries had a typo.\"\n\n*\"did they even have phones hundreds of years ago? that's wild.\"*\n\n\"I'll be there to meet you in under an hour, John. It doesn't seem like you're prepared, so I hope you take advantage of what has become 57 minutes until my arrival.\"\n\n*\"ok, i'll brush my teeth.\"*\n\n\"John, dental hygiene will not prevent the mass extinction of the human race.\"\n\n*\"but it will cause the mass extinction of plaque buildup, my guy\"*\n\n\"John, do you cherish your family? Do you enjoy your life? Do you find beauty in the world? Do you want to find love and have children of your own? If you answered yes to any of these questions, you need to come with me. The prophecy says, 'And when The Reckoning is near, a champion for humanity shall cover the darkness with light, and he shall be called JOHN.' That is you, John, and the time is now. We need to get to headquarters before things get any worse. Do you understand how serious this is, John? Don't let fear cloud your vision at this time. Your training has prepared you for this. You are ready. We need you.\"\n\n*\"lol k\"*\n\n\"John, please. I've already lost my daughter. I need you to take this seriously.\"\n\n*SEND FAILURE. RECIPIENT HAS BLOCKED INCOMING MESSAGES*\n\n\n",
"A bright blue light appeared next to a walking man. A face appeared in it, below it, an arm reached out towards the walking man. \n\"John... John... Come with me. It's time to save the World!\" the portal face said. It's face in a serious grimace of a war torn warrior. The walking man stopped, genuinely surprised to be accosted by a floating face on the street. He looked behind him to see if he's simply gotten in the way of a film shoot. No one was behind him. \n\"John, take my hand. Quickly, I don't have long.\" said the face, a shoulder appearing as he reached closer. \n\"Me? Oh, I'm not John.\" said the no longer walking man. \n\"What?\" asked the portal man, a genuine look of misunderstanding appearing amidst the battle scars. \n\"My name isn't John.\" \n\"Seriously?\" \n\"Yeah. It's James. James Nelson\" \n\"Shit.\" said the portal man. His arm no longer reaching to Lucas but instead scratching under the edge of his eye patch. \"I don't suppose John is your middle name or something, is it?\" \n\"No, My middle names are Oliver & Harold. I don't even think I know a John. I could have a look around for you if you'd like.\" \n\"Oh, could you? That'd be brilliant.\" Said the portal man, trying to look around the square but finding the portal obstructed his view. \n\"JOHN?\" called out James, looking around too but seeing no response from the sparse passing crowd. \"Doesn't look promising, does it?\" asked James. \n\"No, dammit. My superiors are gunna be pissed.\" said portal man, rubbing the bridge of his nose. He stopped and looked back up at James. \"Don't suppose you want to come help save the world, anyway?\" \n\"Ah, I would love to... but I've - I've got this thing later on that I can't cancel... Sorry.\" \n\"No, no, that's cool. No worries at all, James. Just trying my luck. You know how it is, don't ask, don't get.\" he gave a 1000 yard smile. \n\"So... I'm going to head on.\" said James, checking his watch for emphasis. \n\"Oh yeah, crack on. Don't let me hold you up. I'm sure a John will pass here within the next 10 seconds or so.\" \n\"Good luck with your war.\" said James, waving as he continuing with his walking. \n\"Thank you & Goodbye, James Oliver Harold Nelson... Wait!\" The portal man shouted after James having a sudden epiphany \"Wait James... Your initials, they spell J-\" There was a pop sound and the blue light, along with the man, were gone from the square. \nJames shrugged to himself, turned away again and walked out of the square. \n\"Bloody street performers\" he said to himself. "
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EDIT: \* The last paragraph has *him* trying to thwart an alien invasion.
Sorry for the flub.
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[WP] The first paragraph has the hero enjoying his coffee before heading to work. The last paragraph has trying to thwart an alien armada by chucking water-balloons into the mothership's core.
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"\"Thanks!\" I told the barista while I wondered how anyone could spell the name Shawn wrong. I stared at the \"Shaun\" written on my cup for another second before I took a sip. As I took a sip, I wondered if my water powers would ever come in handy. When I pointed my fingers at something, water would flow from the top of my shoulder and out through my palm. The issue was that the flow wasn't accurate. I sighed. If only I could find a solution for that. \n\n A great bang sound was heard outside. For a moment I thought I imagined It, till I saw people out side staring at the sky. Why the hell did they look so scared? I took my coffee and walked outside. My coffee dropped from my hand. Descending from the sky were some of the oddest looking ships I had seen. And they were armed. The ships were perfectly circular with a small protrusion. As I watched the small bulge evaporated a lamppost, with a cracking noise like thunder. I looked around and saw that everyone had run away screaming. I turned and ran.\n\nAs I ran into one of the nearest skyscrapers, I paused and thought. What am I going to do even if I can get up there? Destroy a ship with my powers? It would probably hit a neighbouring sky scraper. I heard the crackle of a mic. \"Greetings dirtlings! Fear not for we will not kill most of you! Only those that misbehave shall be punished!\" the voice said in an icy tone. It went on, \"The only weakness our assault has is the fact that our mothership's topside is vulnerable to water. But there is no reason to worry, for it will not rain today, nor do you dirtlings have any water weapons that can reach our main ship. All we want with you is to subjugate you to do our bidding. We will take you back to our planet by a couple of years, and there we will breed you and teach you to work!\".\n\nI ran outside and heard people screaming their lungs out. I saw assault choppers raining bullets on their ship. I had a flash of inspiration. What if- No, I thought, there was no way it would work. Utterly impossible. I was better off running while I still had the chance. Maybe I could find a bunker or a safe haven somewhere. There was no way I was going to be abducted. But what about all these people? No, I had to try at least, no matter how ridiculous it sounded. After all, there would be no one to judge me if I failed.\n\n I sprinted to the nearest dollar store. Nobody was inside and it was eerily quiet, none of the outside noises being heard. I quickly dashed to the aisle where they sold balloons. I grabbed a bunch of those giant balloons that took two lungs and a half to blow up. This had to work. I ripped open the packaging, and stuffed as many balloons as I could inside my jacket. Then I put one in my mouth and gripped it with my teeth. Wouldn't be anyone to judge me if I failed. I ran to the biggest skyscraper I had seen and started ascending the stairs.\n\n As I neared the skyscraper, I prayed to every deity I had heard of, then to some I hadn't. I opened the door to the roof and was assaulted with loud bangs and screams. The mothership floated above me. Oh no! I wasn't high enough, how would my giant water balloons hit the top? I couldn't throw that high! I could conjure water, I didn't have super strength! My mind lit up with another idea. This might just work. Maybe.\n\nI got to work on filling up all twenty or so water balloons. I'd stick my hand in the balloon, then bring the water in the balloon at medium pressure. When it was nearly full I would tie the knot. As I glared at the mothership, I took hold of a balloon. I put my other hand underneath me and turned on the faucet. I rocketed upwards. WOOO! How did I never think of this! Suddenly I stopped gaining height and started to slowly descend. \"DAMMIT!\" I yelled. So close yet so far. I had nearly been there too. I had my craziest idea yet. I lessened the pressure and the ground lurched towards me. I lessened the flow a little slower this time and I went back to the ground in a controllable manner. I grabbed another balloon and did the same thing again. \n\n I rocketed skywards, and at the peak of my jump I shifted the balloon in front of me. I tossed it up slightly, as one would toss a ball before serving. Then I stopped the flow coming from the bottom of my hand and brought it in front of me in a flash. I hovered in mid-air, and I gulped. I released a torrent of water from both my hands that hit the water balloon and made it go zooming like a firework. It went over the mothership and came back down and hit the top. A crack appeared. I started falling. As I was nearing the ground, I brought my hands underneath me and the water just barely released in time. No way I could do that another 19 times. I went up with another. I did the same thing and this time, as it hit, the ship burst like a bubble. I fell downwards and barely saved myself. I looked around and saw all the round spheres falling from the sky.\n \n\nMore at r/MaestroWrites"
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[WP] Time stops one day but nothing else does.
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"Time was such a constant in our lives, always churning along in the quiet background. We presumed it was the driving force of everything. Sure we also believed we had free will but of course only in line with the passage of time. There was no going back, only coasting along the path carved for us by time itself. There's a quote that goes, 'The existence of time is only so that all the universe doesn't happen at once,' or something like that. But apparently, that is no longer true.\n\nNow bear with me as I try to parse together an explanation that you'll understand:\n\nTime is an extension of consciousness.\n\nIt sounds strange, I know, but apparently it's true. And it turns out, as far as we've come to decipher, that there are two types of consciousness. Or, were:\n\nOurs, and the Universe's.\n\nAnd apparently the Universe has turned its consciousness off and, to be frank, we're all still trying to get used to our new, really strange reality. You see, our consciousness, while it can do some things, it was at the mercy of the Universe. Ours worked in very small ways during heightened awareness or while induced by something else. Throughout history people have claimed there are ways of elevating your consciousness, and that they could see the passage of time different from everyone else. And it turns out, they were probably right.\n\nAnd but now, with the Universe frozen in itself, we can explore it uninhibited. We can pass through time itself in any way we like, and the Universe will contend forward like nothing ever happened. Forwards, backwards, heck even sideways if you're clever. But we must be careful. A lot of people simple froze with the universe, and they'll never move again. Their time is stuck in place, even though as we move through it we can see them move too. We become a small Universe for them, able to change things and alter time itself. But, the same can happen for you as well.\n\nIf you're not careful, at any moment, at any time, you could die. You could accidentally kill yourself if you're careless. But even more is that you can be killed by someone else whose consciousness broke free too. If you're lucky you may come across others who are passive. You may be spared and could join a community of those who dare to continue to push time forward as far as they can to see what happens at the end of time... if there even is an end to it.\n\nOr you can relieve yourself. If you so wish you can will your time away, and in a flicker your time will be imprinted forever for the rest of us to see.\n\nSo, friend, which do you choose."
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[WP] A piano made in 1649 tells you it's story an what it have seen
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"Flickering defiantly, the lights in the workshop slowly woke up from their night's slumber and gave a warm glow to the room. Being a basement room, there were only two long and thin windows near the ceiling that provided natural light, this wasn't nearly enough for such technical and meticulous work.\n\nWith a finish the colour of fresh caramel and curves that swung round its form like the bend in a racetrack, the piano stood gracefully in the centre of the room. I turned the lamps into positions that better illuminated the areas I would be working on today, turning some up to give a better view and some down to protect my eyes from the glare of varnish. It wasn't grand by any means but it stood with a purpose, I gave it the loving nickname *vicomte*. The name is the French translation of viscount, a position I feel the piano embodies perfectly. It still has power and the right to stand proud, but it is not royal or a position anyone would know unless it is an important part of their lives. Someone like an artisan who repairs pianos for a living. Someone like me.\n\nPulling the file from a small stack on the bench, I fingered through pages of notes until I reached the specification for this particular job:\n\n**Very delicate, handle with extreme care. Piano sourced from Paris, thought to have been made around 1690s, various indentations, scratches, and discolourations that require attention.**\n\n1690s? Who commissioned this job? The name on the deposit's receipt commanded respect but was not one I personally recognised. Most likely a collector with more money than sense who bought it at an auction. It's a shame, such a beautiful piece of history would sit in a grand room collecting dust. It would get fresh air only when the door was opened to provide visitors a glance when some CEO or politician wants to show off his wealth to party guests.\n\nI sat down on the seat, the cotton cushion felt relatively new as I compressed it down with my weight. I shifted side to side, getting a feel for the whole seat as a proper musician would when passionately keying out a melody for their entranced audience. Reaching the far right of the seat, a sharp corner caught my skin and caused me to wince. Lifting the seat cover, I was greeted with only dust and a lone dead spider in the small storage compartment. If I were to fix the seat I would likely replace the cushioning anyway. Taking a sharp and thin blade, I removed the top layer and peeled it back like an orange rind. Below was a tangle of foam padding and a small leather bound book sat neatly in the corner.\n\nI put on a pair of thin but highly protective white gloves and delicately removed the book from its hiding place, wiping a layer of thin dust. It fell to the ground like powdered snow, leaving a deep brown like the bark of an oak tree staring back up from the cracked leather surface. I opened the first page and read slowly, translating the black cursive writing:\n\n'The history and legacy of the Moreau family piano'\n\nMy jaw felt weak and heavy, I rubbed my chin as I turned the page and read the first instalment.\n\n'Bought in 1649, commissioned from Samuel. Tuned by Charles Moreau, father of the family.'\n\n1690 was close, but not close enough to be considered anything more than a fair guess. I cut to around halfway through the book:\n\n'1789, amid much fighting and chaos, a groove was carved out of the right side of the piano's frame. It has since been filled in and made to look like the natural grain of the wood, but is noticeable as it slants at a diagonal and doesn't perfectly follow the natural wood's pattern.'\n\nI walked around the piano, adjusting a lamp to shine perpendicular to the piano's body and crouched. Adjusting my glasses I was left in awe, there was one long groove that was only out of alignment by a fraction of a degree, but fit the description from the book. It took me longer than I would wish to admit that I could link the date of this incident to the start of the French revolution. Astounded by the legitimacy of the book I flicked through again to later in the book.\n\n'1921, at a *social gathering* of social elites, a drink was spilled over the piano's lid, and one of the legs removed from the playing stool. The leg was never recovered and so a replica installed (Front left.)'\n\nI knelt down, turning the stool at an angle and to my shock, the screws holding the front left leg in place were much newer than the ancient metal hugging the wood in place on the other three legs.\n\nThat settled it, I turned off the lamps and pocketed the notebook. In good conscious I couldn't work on this, it would be destroying history. I decided I must copy up the notes to publish them, and get it into a museum if I could. That rich nobody didn't deserve to hide history away anyhow."
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[WP] Write a story where the main characters seems like a really good person until the last line
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"Jesse slid into the office like the floor was one big Slip 'N Slide. With a hot ass plate of delicious ooey with the right amount of gooey chocolate chunk cookies in his hands and his sexy little baking apron still on, Jesse boomed, \"EVERYONE! HEY! LOOK OVER HER!\"\n\nThe busy tippity clackitying of hundreds of fingers stopped. That's when the aroma hit them, that oh so sweet aroma of fresh baked cookies still steaming, the chocolate chunks with a shine, a glimmer to them, and the edges with that darker brown doneness that lets you know that these cookie will hold together perfectly after each bite.\n\"All of you worked so hard, so so hard on that big proposal last month and I'm pleased to say that the client accepted the offer! WE GOT IT!\"\n\nJesse skated over to the end of the office where the coffeemaker was. With one hand delicately balancing that warm, pillowy, mound of confectionery perfection, he used his other hand to sweep off all that other shit. The coffeemaker, all the cups, some straws, sporks, and other bullshit crashed to the floor like the garbage it was. It was cookie time now.\n\n\"In appreciation for all my lovely workers, I've baked for you a cookie recipe that has been handed down for generations. A kind of cookie we're all familiar with, but far more delicious. I baked in a bunch of hard work, integrity, accountability, innovation, and of course love into these bad boys. They're yours to enjoy! HAVE AT EM!\"\n\nJesse dropped his hand like a collegiate level wrestling referee. The workers were already foaming at the mouth as it was and seeing the signal made them see blood. The scrambled and scrapped and scrummed and scrubbled over each other to get to those cookies. Jesse hung back as the swarm of Hungy Hungy Hippos devoured every single crumb on the plate. A deafening cacophony of loud, wet lip smacking, labored breathing, and concerning grunting rattled the office. The lights flickered, a few chairs fell over, and Jesse just sat back grinning like there was no tomorrow.\n\nHe laughed. He laughed long and hard. He laughed from a place deep down in his bowels. He laughed right over the ruckus.\n\nOne of the workers was licking the plate clean. They all turned around to look at their boss. Was he really that happen about the cookies? The laughter was so loud and drawn out that it became uncomfortable. A few workers tried to nervously laugh along but quickly gave up. There was something bad in air about this.\n\n\"FARTS!\" He yelled with tears in his eyes and laughter trembling his body, \"I FARTED ON ALL THE COOKIES!!\" Jesse stopped laughing and spastically started knocking over cubicle walls and chairs. \"WE DIDN'T GET THE CLIENT YOU FUCKING MORONS!! HE REJECTED OUR PROPOSAL!! YOU FUCKING PIGS JUST ATE FART COOKIES YOU STUPID IDIOTS! WE LOST THE CLIENT! WE'LL LOSE MILLIONS! I FARTED ON THE COOKIES! YOU FUCKERS LOST ME THE CLIENT AND ATE FART COOKIES!! YOU ATE FART COOKIES!!\"\n\nJesse ripped open his shirt and his pink belly jiggled out. I fell to his knees a screamed towards the heavens. It was such a loud and high pitched shrill shriek of a scream that the fire alarm went off. He said there with his head hung low sobbing in the wetness, mumbling to himself.\n\nThe office was ruined. The workers didn't know what to do. Suddenly, Jesse gasped and sprinted towards the workers while flailing his arms wildly. The workers curled their hands in front of the faces not knowing what will happen. Jesse got right up to them, then took a sharp cheddar of a left and blasted through the window. He landed two stories down with a sad thud on the pavement.\n\nJay was the first to speak after a painfully awkward silence, \"I thought the cookies still tasted good...\"\n",
"I consider myself good with kids. \n\nA calming influence around their sometimes hyperactive and eccentric behaviour that has been known to wear down and cause despair to even well meaning adults but hey kids will be kids. \n\nYou just need to know how to get across to them and deal with them. \n\nI had a chance recently to put to use this skill i seem to have,when I came across in the confectionery aisle of the supermarket, a kid sprawled on the floor , bawling his heart out,while a lady,presumably his Mother frantically and with a harried demeanour on her clearly tired face was shoving back into a jar on the shelf candies that seemed to have spilled on the floor. \n\nThe kid still held on to a lone piece of candy, which the Mother noticed after having returned all pieces from the floor to the jar\n\n\"Now give that to me young man or you know what's gonna happen\"\n\nShe tried to pry open his fingers which only made the kid exercise more of his lung capacity while thrashing his feet on the floor in protest. \n\nThere was already a small crowd starting to form around us,mostly concerned parents many with their own kids in tow looking on with a mixture of concern and equal relief on their faces that this wasn't happening to them \n\nI quickly walked over to the lady who was still trying to get that single piece of candy out of the boys hands and said \n\n\"Ma'am - may I ?\"\n\nWithout waiting for a response I knelt down and addressed the kid next in a sort but firm voice \n\n\"Now look here Son, I think I saw over by the toys section a really cool M-\" I mentioned the name of the latest craze and a seemingly must have toy among kids in his age group \n\n\"What do you say to your Mother and you and I going over and checking it out ?\"\n\nIt was like a switch being turned off\n\nMaybe it was that a stranger had walked up and talked to him or maybe it was the prospect of a new toy (I suspected it was a combination of both) but the kid stopped his bawling immediately. \n\nHe looked at me for a moment, then at his Mother, tears still streaming down his face but hopefully not for much longer\n\nI looked at his mother who seemed as surprised as the boy that the crying had stopped so suddenly \n\nShe seemed to have made up her mind and addressed the boy in that child talk sing song voice\n\n\"Huh would you like that sweetie. To go and check out the toys ? Would munchiekin like that ?\"\n\nThe boy,now with a small hint of a smile on his teary eyed face, scrambled to his feet and nodded fervently\n\n\"Kiddo, I think you got something in your hands that your mother wishes to return back to that jar over there \" I said pointing to that one hard boiled candy still clutched in his hands \n\nWordlessly he gave it back to his Mother who looked at me in amazement before placing it back along with all the others \n\n\"He's never willingly given up toffees before. How did you do that ? \n\nYou saw how he was just a few minutes ago and I had tried and cajoled him all I could until you came by\" \n\nThe lady appeared a bit embarrassed with herself \n\n\"You just need to know how to get across to them. It's nothing special actually. \nI just happen to have some experience in these matters since I have spent my entire career working with kids. \n\nSo , don't take it as a personal failing on your side \n\nShall we go over to the toys section now ?\" I asked the young boy who eagerly started pulling his Mother along \n\n\"Thanks a lot Mr for what you did there. \n\nI'm sorry I didn't get your name Mr ....\" the Mother trailed away \n\n\"I'm Joel and you don't have to thank me. I was just doing what anyone else would have done \n\nI want to ask you something - back there you told your Son - Give me back that candy or you know what's going to happen. What did you mean ? \" \n\n\"Oh that was just something we, that is my husband and I tell him when he's being more difficult than normal, especially in public \n\nWe tell him that we are going to hand him over to the Kids police who will take him away \"\n\nRealising how this would sound to a total stranger like me or in fact to someone beyond her immediate family , she laughed nervously and started to explain \n\n\"Of course, we make sure we do not let it get too serious with him......\" but I wasn't listening \n\nIn my culture, as i suspect is the case with many others, when young children refuse to eat their vegetables,maybe refuse to take their medicines or in general behave badly,their parents or other older folk at home have been known to induce some fear in the hearts of kids by mentioning that they would be handed off to the demons that roam the streets at night\n\nOut of the corner of my eye I noticed a woman moving towards us from the aisle we were just approaching. \n\nJust as she was about to cross us , she seemed to twitch as if suffering from seizure , reached out to grasp one of us for support and fell heavily to the ground. \n\nInstinctively,the Mother of the boy crossed over to where the woman lay convulsing and started to call out for some assistance. \n\nThat's when I kidnapped her son by continuing to walk with him,away from the scene pointing to the toy section just ahead of us \n\nI quickly gave a glance back to see that my accomplice, the woman who had fallen to the ground,had managed to knock the Mother unconscious \n\nThe boy never even looked back one final time at his mother \n\nAs I said at the beginning I consider myself good with kids. \n\nBut I consider myself better at kidnapping. \n",
"I look to the side to see my beautiful lover sleeping next to me, lips gently parted, breathing peacfully. I rub my hand up her tanned thigh and she doesn’t startle, I guess she couldn’t last till the end of the movie. I can’t blame her it was a long day but she loved every minute of it.\n\r\nHer birthday is her favourite day of the year hands down. And today she had decided to spend it with a few of her close girlfriends in the garden and have a barbeque manned by me. The girls all showed off in their dresses, the joys of a summer birthday. She loved the food and I got a kiss for that one and she had plenty of pitchers of non-alchoholic cocktails with said food. I didn’t really like her drinking alcohol, and besides it was far too hot for that, need to stay hydrated. Her and her girlfriends didn’t mind though, they were happy and laughing all the same.\n\r\nShe had wanted a cake and silly me volunteered to make it for her. Someone wanted a ‘pretty and sophisticated’ cake with vines and sugar flowers on it. I persevered and the cake came out looking almost professional, if you do ask me. I even bought candles but due to the amount of flowers we could only fit eight on it, I don’t think she minded really though.\r\nAs the sun went down and the girls went home we retreated inside. We decided to watch a movie so in preperation we got our pyjamas on. She always looks so sexy in that cute little purple satin nightdress she put on. \n\r\n“Thank you for the best birthday ever” I got another kiss, more intimate this time. She beamed up at me, I’m always so happy I can put that smile on her face. I gave her a cheeky spank on the ass as she turned to go downstairs, she winked and shook her ass teasingly at me and I followed her down. Hopeing for some more intimate time to follow.\n\r\nLooks like a bedtime romp was out the picture now. I turn off the tv and stand from the couch, trying not to jostle her but she didn’t twitch. I guess she won’t be walking to bed tonight then. I gently put my arms under her and hold her close to me carrying her up to our bed. She lucky she’s light enough for me to lift easily. I tuck her in and climb in beside her yawning, looks like I was tired after all. I suppose being around a bunch of hyperactive prepubescent girls does that to you; but oh well it’s not everyday your little girl turns twelve.\r\n"
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[WP] You are a Memory Collector. You extract, trade and sell a persons best or worst memories. You never have to buy though, people are more than willing to be free of their thoughts.
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"\"Take my best memories,\" the man in my office said. His brow was worn and wrinkled, and his hair shot with grey, in spite of his young age. \n\nI looked down at his file. A great life, full of accomplishments and happiness. \n\n\"The best?\" I asked, looking up at him. \"Why not the worst? All of my clients have asked for me to take those and leave them with their happiest moments. You would be the first.\"\n\nHe shifted uncomfortably in his chair, continuing to stare down at the floor. The going rate for someone's best memories was enormous. Bad memories fetched a much lower price, except for the truly devastating ones. War memories could be sold to archivists for a nice bit of money, but best memories, those were priceless to them. \n\nWhen the archivists first started examining human nature, they pleaded for people to surrender their best memories. What made someone's life truly worth living? What cultures valued which experiences? What happens to a person when their happiest memories are gone? The list of willing participants was miniscule.\n\nThe questions of suffering and heartache had long since been answered, there was so much material to study, ranging from teenage crushes to torturous abduction. \n\nClark remained silent. He was a large man, but the weight of his burden made him seem tiny. He folded in on himself, hunched over and forlorn. \n\n\"Clark, I see here that you have traveled the world, made genuine friends, performed impossible surgeries, won the Nobel prize for your nanocell technology, raised three children with your wife, La-\"\n\n\"Stop. Just, stop. Everyone keeps trying to convince me not to. I know there are risks, I know it will change me. Everything I have done, everywhere I have been, my work, my family, they don't mean anything to me anymore. Laura is gone.\" He sighed heavily, and for the first time looked up at me. \n\n\"I am tired of hearing that it will get better, that I will heal. It has been 10 years. What we shared... I will never have that again. The beauty of it, the love, it all just mocks me now. Please, I know the archivists want this. So few have given up the memories of their great loves. So many are strong enough to deal with the pain, content enough to settle for less, but I know now that I can't. So please. Give me the bloody forms and take her from me.\"\n\nI searched his face for any doubt, and found none in the steely gaze he returned. I silently handed him the papers and reached into my drawer for the small silver instrument. He signed, and closed his eyes. \n\n\"Please take one final moment to remember her before we begin.\"\n\nTears began to fall onto his cheeks, a small smile on his lips. I walked behind him and placed my hand on the back of his neck, slowly pushing in the needle. He sighed in goodbye as a pulled back the syringe, erasing her from his mind. \n\nFirst time, I apologize for any weird formatting as I'm on mobile, but I hope you enjoy!"
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[WP] The year is 2070. Cryosleep is common amongst people for various reasons. The human body can sustain a cryosleep for a maximum of 30-40 years. You wake up 1000 years later.
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" \"Sap sucking, son of a bitch that was a good nap guys!\" I stretched out and waited for at least a chuckle from one of the Freezer Boys. I still couldn't see so it tripped me out when everything was dead silent except for myself. \n \n I stumbled backwards back into the pod and just sat there until my sight came back. It was so surreal that I really don't know how long it was. When it came back and I could see the empty room in front of me, my heart sank. She was supposed to be here when I came back. It was her plan, hell, it's her lab! I could feel that my body wanted to freak out and start hyperventilating, so I just gripped the seat as hard as I could and breathed through it. Once I got my composure I stood up and started looking around. \n \n The building was starting to dilapidate, but it looked oddly old compared to when I went to sleep. You could smell that the years have let this place go to hell. But it looked all functional at least. So I flipped on the control panel and a few of the lights and things still worked. I started searching for anything and then I saw the date lit up on a screen. \n\nMay 31, 3070\n\n There's just no way that's right though. A thousand years? This couldn't have lasted a thousand years. These were only able to handle 45 years with that crazy freaking athlete they experimented with. Something had to glitch and someone has to be close. After the initial moments I just gathered myself and thought about it (no matter what year it is, I am still alive so it's gotta be alright).\n\n Then that's when things changed. There was a letter on the table with a lipstick kiss on the seal, damn I loved that color on her lips. I can't tell if this is a dream or if it's reality at this point, but I came to find out that it is more real than I could've imagined. She said everything was going to be alright and that she just came to check on me but she couldn't wake me up, she had to wait. So she set off to take care of everything for our new life. If only it had been as simple as she had hoped. It all sounded so simple. \n\n She didn't know what they were capable of. She didn't know that all of this would happen. If she had she would've waited, or she would've just killed me then. Maybe she wouldn't have even waited this long. She should've known that it wasn't a great idea, but how many ideas did we ever have that were that great? Regardless this pile of shit fell into my lap. I picked up the letter and the knives underneath and walked towards the door. \n\n There was that one place we called our own. That beautiful creek and cabin. Nothing in this world was the same though. This is where my story begins. "
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[WP] From the realm of Faerie came the knight, immortal, cursed to uphold justice. Centuries later you can still find him in a shabby office by the waterfront, with a door labelled "Ash Knight, Private Eye".
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"A scream echoed throughout the alleyway outside a rundown building late at night. A woman who drunkenly walked into the wrong side street was being attacked by a random guy with more confidence than sense, thinking she wanted what he had to give. Ash looked out his second story window, down at the action and sighed. He couldn't care less about the bitch and her drunken ass. She stupidly did what drunk people do and forgot to keep a friend around. But he was urged, pushed, mentally nudged in a painful way to intervene. He groaned heavily as he opened up his window enough to drop down into the alleyway.\n\n\"GET AWAY!\" The woman screamed at her attacker, she was obviously sobering up pretty damn quickly.\n\n\"Come on, baby! You know you want the 'D'!\" Your everyday sleazeball. He thought the world was his just because he had a penis and either didn't care about the consequences or thought there weren't any for what he was doing, \"Just relax and enjo-\"\n\nAsh coughed loud enough for them both to hear, \"Ahem... The lady wants to be left alone, buddy. Just let her be on her way and I'll let you be on yours. Simple as that.\" He rubbed the bridge of his nose, trying to force himself to wake up a little more to deal with what was about to happen. \"Cue bravado...\" He said quietly to himself. He'd dealt with similar situations so many times he could pick exactly what was going to happen after everything he said.\n\n\"Why don't you just fuck off, man? You got nothin' to do with this! Me and the lady here,\" Sir Asshole pointed at the cringing woman on the ground, hugging her knees, trying to get as small as possible so as to not be noticed, \"were just about to have some fun!\"\n\n\"If she wanted your type of fun, don't you think she'd be all over you like she was her drinks earlier?\" Ash was just guessing, but it was probably true, considering the amount of trashy clubs in the area, \"Cue weapon...\" Again, he spoke quietly to himself.\n\n\"HEY LISTEN, MAN!\" Jockster Mcgee pulled out a gun that looked like it had seen better days, but still looked functional, and pointed it at Ash, \"I SAID GET LOST, ALRIGHT?! Now leave the lady and I to our business or you'll be missin' out on tomorrow!\"\n\nAsh took a step towards the guy, \"You better not miss, buddy...\" then quietly, \"cue gunshot...\" Broseph Jones pulled the trigger and he felt the bullet sink into his forehead, kicking his head backwards, absorbing the impact. The woman screamed again, fearing that it was directed towards her. Ash took another step forward, lifting his head back up to stare at the guy as the bullet was pushed out of his head by the healing brain matter and bone, then the skin closing as the projectile fell and clinked on the asphalt. Ash stuck his arm out to the side and materialized his four feet long sword as he took another step towards Dick-For-Brains. \"Wanna-be rapist AND a not afraid of murder, the spirits will thank me for dealing with you. Nice shot, by the way, I gotta say... cue freakout...\"\n\n\"WHAT THE HELL, DUDE?! WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU!?\" Muscles McFuckstick raised the gun again and shot Ash again, four times in the chest, trying desperately to end the threat walking slowly towards him. The woman cringed further into herself with each bang reverberating off of the alley walls.\n\n\"Mother fucker...\" Ash looked down at the holes made by the shots and the bullets were pushed out within seconds, along with a substantial amount of blood getting soaked into his shirt, \"This is my favourite shirt! I was just gonna cut off a hand to remind you not to touch people who don't wanna be touched, but you just signed your death warrant...\" He took the next couple of steps to close the distance between them and swung with the strong practiced hand of hundreds of years of experience, cutting through skin, bone, and sinew like butter. The sword got stuck into Shitstain's spine and Ash had to push the body off the blade with his foot.\n\n\"OH MY GOD!\" The girl, Ash noticed she couldn't be more than twenty-two, screeched at the sight of the convulsing moron's body hitting the ground. She scrambled away from it and looked up at him like he was a demon. He bent down and wiped the sword off on the guy's expensive red silk shirt before dematerializing it.\n\n\"It's ok, miss. You can go now. Try to stay out of,\" Ash waved his hands and fingers in the air in a mocking gesture, \"scary alleys from now on, ok?\" He offered a hand to help her up, but she unceremoniously and awkwardly stood up too quick, breaking one of her stilettos and running past him without so much as a thank you. \"You're welcome, bitch.\" He grumbled as he walked back to the fire escape for his building. Making his way inside, he passed the hallway to the front door of his office/apartment and saw an envelope under the mail slot of his door. He walked up to the door that read 'Ash Knight, Private Eye' and picked up the paper. \n\nOpening it, he started reading aloud, \"Mr Knight, I trust this letter finds you in good health. I have need of your investigative services, as I believe my husband is cheating on me...blah blah blah, whatever. It's a paycheck. I'll deal with it tomorrow.\"\n\n---\n\nMore at r/SamsStoriesSub"
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You are the first person to win
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[WP] Your death was unjust and unfair, and upon entering the afterlife, you meet God and Satan. They say that, like everyone else, you have the opportunity to get reborn, by winning a game of your choosing.
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"\"Well Sh*t\" I said to myself, I've never been one to play games I'm usually inside reading a book or watching a movie sometimes I even draw. \n\n\"Ok God I'll bite\" I said.\n\n\"You really have no other choice\" he said with a deep voice.\n\n\"Sssssso which game will it be\" Satan said with a slithering voice\n\nI started to think what game can I play? Tic tac toe? No that's a very easy game especially for someone who is all knowing. Then I thought about this a great idea I knew this was it.\n\n\"Ok I know what game I'll be playing\" I screamed out in excitement\n\n\"And what game is this?\" He nodded \n\n\"Life\" I said\n\n\"Excuse me?\" Stan replied \n\n\"Yes we both get our memories erased and live a full life and see who can become the most successful human being!\" I screamed knowing I had a shot at this \n\n\"No wa-\" God was about to say when he got interrupted by Satan \n\n\"How unique, Ok I'm in!\" He said \n\n\"Ok I'll erase your memories and make you live a full life, Whoever dies first loses, if you both die the same year then whoever had the most money wins!\" God explained\n\n\"Let's do this\" I nodded \n\n\n-The End-\n\nIf you want I can continue the story but for now that's where it ends. Thank you so much for reading \n"
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[wp] you accidentally start a forest fire with a stray fireball. the forest completely burns to the ground, and your spell has resulted in the death of every monster and elf that lived in the forest. suddenly you've gone from level 1 to level 999, but now there are a whole lot of elves angry at you
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"It was never supposed to be like this. I was never supposed to become strong by stepping on the weak. Every night I find my self waking from that scene over and over. I can still smell their scorched corpses. It fills my nostrils with every breath I take. Anytime I see an elf these days, it's the same. I feel the crippling shame while simultaneously choking down the naseua. Finally, I'm confronted by my last remaining family member, seeking to make amends for my mistake and allow our family name to not be completely struck from annals of the tribe. ",
"The noise was deafening.\n \nImagine every bell and trumpet on the planet, playing jubilantly mostly together, but just out of synch enough for your ears to suspect that something's not quite right.\n\nAdd to that a blinding light from the heavens so bright that closing your eyes doesn't really help much, and, well, you might understand why I was curled in a ball on the ground trying to cover both my ears and eyes simultaneously. I think I may have passed out.\n\nWhen I came to, it took me a few minutes of blinking and a short healing cantrip to clear the brown spots from my vision and the ringing from my ears. Naeri, Fleiss, and Glent were nowhere to be seen. I suppose it wasn't surprising, we lost each other in all the running and screaming...\n\nPerhaps I should start at the beginning. \n\nLet's go have a picnic, they said. It'll be fun, they said. I tried to say no, I mean, our Ice practical exam is only a week away and I need more practice to get the shards to the optimal length, but Fleiss insisted that we all take a break. He said I study too much. He said fresh air would clear my mind, help me get in touch with my mana. \n\nDid I mention Fleiss has the most gorgeous blue eyes? Deep pools, flecked with... Sorry. I just mean, well, you know. Anyway, I decided it couldn't hurt to go along and perhaps have more time to gaze into those eyes, and, well...\n\nIt was a gorgeous day. We walked through the trees, admiring the fall foliage, and found a lovely meadow. The grass was getting to be a bit more prickly and haylike than I prefer, but we spread our blankets anyway and unpacked the baskets. My blanket was next to Fleiss's of course, and we chatted about casting technique and such while we ate. He's quite good at intonation, in case you haven't noticed.\n\nAfter the sandwiches, Naeri pulled out a smaller basket containing bits of chocolate and some thin wafer cookies, and these squishy white things she called Mallows of the Marsh or something like that. They looked rather like toadstools but she insisted they were quite delicious when lightly toasted and combined with the cookies and chocolate. \n\nI was skeptical, but Glent was still hungry as usual, and the others agreed that my control with fire spells is the best in the class, so naturally they insisted that I should be the one to toast the mallows. \n\nI was flattered by their compliments and eager to impress Fleiss, so I agreed to conjure a fireball. Just a small one, mind you. I concentrated, spoke the words, and formed a lovely little ball of flame. Naeri skewered a few mallows on a small stick and held it over my hands.\n\nNaeri hadn't mentioned that mallows are highly flammable.\n\nShe got them a bit too close and Fwoof! The mallows burst into flame. I flinched away, tripping over Glent who had come up behind me to get a better look. I threw up my arms in an attempt to keep my balance and watched in horror as the little fireball flew from my hands directly into a stand of dried brush faster than I could say the words to extinguish it. The brush caught fire like so much dry kindling and the next thing we knew a wall of flame was spreading across the meadow.\n\nFleiss tried to conjure a rainstorm to put it out, but he was very nervous and mostly got wind, not rain. Quite a bit of wind, really, we started running when the miniature burning tornado started heading our direction.\n\nThat's all I remember, sir, before the ringing and trumpets and bright lights started. Then I ran back to you as fast as I could, but it was too late...\n\nI am so very, very sorry, Headmaster. It was an accident. I truly did not mean to cause the Elven Protectorate to declare war on the Academy. I would give every one of the levels I gained today to put their forest back as it was, I swear.\n\nPlease sir. Let me help patch things up, or at least help you protect the other students from the Elven warbands.\n\nPlease don't expel me. \n\n",
"I am standing in the middle of it all. Ash, blackened trees, smoldering patches of what used to be bushes. \n\nThen I feel a rush. Oh, this *rush.* It feels like nothing I have ever felt before. It feels like water to a desert stranded wanderer, food to a starved child. I have power coursing through me. So many...experience points allotted. \n\nAnother odd sensation, and a list unknown to me before this instant fills my head. There is \"Fireball\" and a check mark next to it, followed by thousands of other spells below it without check marks. I go through, picking and choosing spells that are curious, interesting, or sound powerful. There really is a lot here. After I choose about 20 different spells, I notice there is a counter at the top. I assume that is how many more spells I can choose. I could do this for hours, and it seems I already have.\n\nI half-see an arrow fly right at me. I blink and the menu is gone, I will go back to it later. For now, it seems that I have angered someone.\n\nThree more arrows fly directly at my face. I don't understand. I should be dead. Ah! The flame cloak spell! It must be a passive ability! I see the arrow hit some sort of wall in front of my face and ignite, smoldering the arrow into ashes.\n\nI smirk. This should be interesting. \"Who dares shoot an arrow at me without properly introducing themselves?\"\n\n\"You destroyed our homes, friends, along with all of our animal compatriots. You must pay for what you have done!\"\n\nA sea of arrows from the east launch. The menu pops up, \"Dissipate. Check.\"\n\nI disappear in a cloud of smoke. It would be easy to follow me in an open field, but alas, this one was just burned to the ground, and smoke is everywhere. I drift towards the enemy hoard. I see the line of archers and spread myself thin along their front. \n\n\"Smokescreen.\"\n\nI had set myself directly in front of their faces. There must have been a hundred or so elves scanning the area to find me. I send clouds of smoke down the throat of every single one of them. It takes no time at all to smother the army.\n\nWow. This power has turned me into something of a monster. I realize what I just did was wrong, and even unnecessary, but I also needed to do it? \n\nI drift further, and see the rest of the elven clans gathering together. This is my time. One last spell and I could get rid of this issue altogether.\n\nI scroll through the menu, and find the perfect spell.\n\nLike the harbinger of death, I form a black smokey cloak around me and drift to the middle of the gathering.\n\n\"Glass.\"\n\nAn eruption. Unimaginable heat. Noise from the eruption would shatter anyone else's eardrums. I keep it up for as long as I could, and when I stop I fall to my knees. I am drained, and there is no remains of the elven clans around me. The ground has been turned into a dark glass.\n\nAnother rush. The counter next to the spell counter turns. I maxed out? \n\nLevel 1000.",
"BANG BANG BANG\n\nI woke up groggy on that Skew's day morning, trying to scrub off the early morning gunk from my mind. Today's dawn marked the second day of my voyage into this vast world. Only having begun my journey yesterday, I was already in for a heap of trouble.\n\nI perused my inventory till I found something suitable enough to fill my hunger most of the way. Ah, a box of Elfio's, a fan-favorite, or so I'd been told. I meandered slowly and rather sleepily over to the window, listening to the silence of the new day and the chomping of my teeth on a nice bowl of cereal. I looked out to find a beautiful sun hanging low in the air against a wonderful blue sky. I stood there for a moment, soaking it all in. I turned and took a few steps away from the window back towards the center of the room.\n\nI whipped around so fast my neck nearly snapped itself.\n\nMy face pressed against the window with thoughts flying through my head a mile a minute. \"There shouldn't be any sun here, I'm miles deep in the elven forest. Where did all the trees go? Why did I wake up this early? Why are there sleeping elves under my second-story window? Is this some sort of event? Does this just happen to travellers who sleep in this city? Am I halluncinating? Why are my boots all wet? Oh wait, that's just milk. Why is there milk on the flo-\"\n\nBANG BANG BANG\n\nThat time I took a little damage from the whiplash.\n\nMy door and I had a staring contest across the room.\n\nBANG BANG BANG\n\nI blinked first.\n\n\"Yoshlord! We know you're in there! We sent up some scouts who tried to break into your room from the outside! They told us you were in there right before they passed out! Come out with your hands up and we won't kill you the moment you leave this room!\"\n\nThe man outside sounded desperate, as if he had nothing to lose. He also sounded as though he really meant to go through with that threat. I brainstormed, trying to think of some combination of words that would keep him at bay while I tried to figure out what exactly was going on here. All that I managed was, \" Okay! Be out in a minute!\"\n\nThe man behind the door seemed as surprised as I was by that response and let up of his pounding on my favorite door in this world so far.\n\n\"Al...Alright! You've got two minutes, though! You've got two minutes to get your things and get out here, or I swear on my dead family's life, I'll kill you myself!\"\n\n\"There was that killing thing again,\" I thought, \"and swearing on your dead family, that seems a bit excessive.\" \n\nI took stock of my situation. I had just eaten, well half-eaten, my Elfio's were still on the floor. My inventory was all in check, items sorted. I flipped open my stats-book and my eyes almost popped out the back of my head. The sight of Level 999 flew around in my brain like a ricocheting bullet. This wasn't real. This couldn't be real.\n\nNo, this is real. I am here. I retraced my steps from yesterday hoping there might be a method to this madness. I slowed down my breathing and thought, \"Ok, from the beginning.\" \n\nI had started off from the small village of Khomensar to the east. I had chosen a wizard as my starting class because I had always had an interest in magic and spells. I travelled west as the village elders had advised me, slowly progessing my way through the first level of my training by defeating little monsters along the side of th- \n\n\"Oh... Ok... I understand... Wow... I really fucked this one up, didn't I...\" I lamented as I slowly trugged over to the door.\n\nI gave my new best friend one last sad look before I opened him up, put my hands in the air and stepped out to my doom.\n\n(Thanks for reading! This is my first writing prompt so go easy on me. :P Thanks a bunch, OP, for the inspiration!)",
"Overlooking the forest awash in flames from a distance, I stood in horror as what was supposed to come off as an attempt to get better at my skills turned into arson. This was not my intention. It never was.\n\nAnd yet...there something else. A surge of power coursing through my body. From a limited amount of mana, I felt like I could produce hundreds of fireballs without straining myself. This feeling was unexplainable. I wanted to start playing around with my newly learned powers but restrained myself from doing so.\n\nI opened my palm and projected a skill only masters of my expertise can do. I stared in awe as red lightning danced around my fingertips. I was speechless. With this power, I could-\n\n\"Conquer the land. Yes?\"\n\nI looked back to see a figure in the shadows. And since the voice was high pitched, I assumed it was a she.\n\n\"Who's there!?\" I responded. \"Oh. Have I interrupted you from your stupor?\" she said, followed by a chuckle. I perceived this as an insult. \"Careful, you're one spell away from turning to a pile of ashes.\" I said with a hint of warning.\n\n\"Young man, I did not mean to harass you. But I see what you have done. Seeing as how hundreds of elves are coming towards you, I have two choices to offer: One, forge an alliance with me, and together we shall rise above all rulers of this world. Or, the second, risk having the whole kingdom come after you. You might be overpowered, but you are not indestructible. The first seems more promising, does it not?\"\n\nI may not have known the lady, but she exuded something no one did: death. And the realization hit me of who she truly was. It did not take long fo me to decide.\n\n\"No thank you. I might be exiled, but I accept my mistakes and will face whatever judgement they agree on.\" I stopped. Of course, there was really only one reason \"Besides, I don't fancy the idea of annihalating my and my wife's clan over some typical conquer the world bullshit. Leave. I wish not to see you again. I might end up killing myself, but if I have to, I'll use every ounce of my strength to destroy, or at least weaken you enough to put you to sleep for centuries to come.\"\n\nThe figure stayed silent, but the glow around her darkened. \"Very well. I await the day we meet again. I'd like to see you try your best on me.\" She answered before completely vanishing into the shadows.\n\nLooking back on my kinsmen, I was ready for anything. I was prepared for what was to come. This was much more bearable than the lady's offer. Had I accepted her alliance, I would've been like her. Powerful, more than I am, but corrupted. An entity that supposedly went extinct thousands of years ago.\n\nA dark elf.",
"*CRASH BOOM BANG SNAP*\n\nAs I was pulling the scroll down from the top of the shelves I toppled the shelf beneath it.\nI look to my master with the \"I'm so sorry\" facial expression, but he didn't see, as his eyes were already closed and he was halfway through his deep breath and sigh.\n\n\"Go practice your Meteor Strike in the lake next to the forest\" he seethed. \nI sigh sorrily as I grab my pack on my way out the door. I didn't even wait until he was out of earshot to start muttering. \"Who doesn't make mistakes? Why does he expect so much from me when I was just a lowly farmhand before he saved me from the bandits? Maybe I just won't come back...\" I knew I didnt mean it as I was saying it. I have nowhere else to go, my entire family and everyone else on the compound was murdered by the bandits. I only managed to survive because I hid in a pile of rotting fruit we were fermenting for compost. He single handedly killed over 35 bandits, and when he sensed me he knew I wasnt hostile. There's.... Something different about master. He's exponentially stronger than any other wizard I've crossed paths with. He can sense intentions, feelings, even thoughts of those around him. Which makes me really curious as to why he keeps me around.. These thoughts in my head are sometimes uncontrollable. But at least they're just thoughts.... For now at least. As I walk near the forest a patrol of elves stop me. They know who I am, and they fear Master, yet they still enjoy harassing me.\n\n\"What are you doing here Roundear?\" The squadron leader belts at me.\n \"Master Coyer sent me to practice my magic at the lake.\" I snarl back.\n\"Well make sure not to boil the lake and kill all the fish again.\" The squadron leader says with a coy look on his face.\n\n\"Yeah, yeah, yeah.\" I mutter as I walk through the platoon shoulders wide, ensuring to brush into as many soldiers as possible. I hate when they bring that up. Both the elven and human encampments dealt with famine that winter because of my actions. But I didn't know any better. It was the first time Master left me alone to practice craft. I was forbidden from using any incantations unless he was at my side for almost 6 moons after that. It haunts me everyday, but the sting is much worse when the words are not from my own head. I scolded myself all the way from the edge of the forest until I got to the lake. Something about the lake though. It melts my woes. I spent a lot of time here after the farm was raided. It was the closest feeling to home. I dropped my pack in a dead tree stump, trying to hide it as best as I could. Master would be furious if the gnomes made off with more of his literature. Especially if it was due to mine own incompetence, again. I've cast meteor strike thousands of times, yet I still dug the scroll out of my pack to reiterate the incantation. It's far too easy to skip or mispronounce a syllable and end up with a entirely different spell, sometimes to disastrous effect. I hide my pack again, this time a little more thorough as I felt eyes on me. Though it was probably just the owls. As I walked up to the edge of the water, a tripped on a root in the mud. \"SERIOUSLY??\" I scream at myself. \"I can't do anything right, even walking.\" I angrily trudge to a point in the lake where it's about up to my waist. \"Well, this is as good a spot as any.\" I hunch down for balance, as the waves created by the meteors are sometimes more overwhelming. *Sotrar Menitat Feu*\nA small purple and orange beacon appears in the sky and gets smaller and smaller until finally the meteor breaks through the clouds. \n\n*katoosh sizzle*\n\nThe foot wide meteor drops into the water and cools off, slowly sinking to the bottom. \"Why is Master so fixated on me mastering this incantation? Something like this would never be useable in combat.\" As if theres been anything such as a small squabble since Master and I took residence outside of the encampment. I practice the spell about a hundred more times, until it gets to the point where I can feel each spell physically draining me. *Just a couple more and I'll head back* I thought to myself.\n\n *Sotrar Menitat Feu*\n\nI decide I'm just going to enjoy the aesthetics for these last few spells. I've gotten accustomed to it over the last year, but sometimes even my own simple magic can be a spectacle.\n\n*Sotrar Menitat Feu*\n\nThis was is considerably smaller than the previous ones, so I decided to just do one more and call it a night.\n\n*Sotrel Menitat Feu*\n\nI stumbled on the words and was too late to catch it. For about a third of a second I thought nothing was going to happen. But suddenly the entire sky erupted into a spectrum of color, mostly purple and red but some colors are completely indescribable. I realized I royalled messed up as almost every ounce of energy gets ripped from my body. I feel my eyes get heavier and heavier as I watch the sky go from a solid spectrum to thousands of tiny dots getting smaller and smaller. I start running toward land but could hardly muster any energy to move. Various sized meteors, from a few inches to a solid 3 feet across, start crashing down around me. As I get to the edge of the lake I feel my body shutting down, the last sight before what I thought was going to be my death was the forest around me set ablaze.\n\nI awake in what feels like days, but I soon realize that it must have only been a few minutes as it's still not fully dark and everything around me is still ablaze. As I pull myself out of the mud I realize its with considerable more dexterity and poise than I've ever carried before. Almost as if I leap to my feet effortlessly. I feel suddenly energized but just contributed it to adrenaline as I sprint out of the forest. I knew I had no chance of making it out alive, every inch of the forest was on fire, but I'll be damned if I don't at least try. I was almost halfway through the forest before I realize that most of my clothing had burned away and the flames were licking at my skin. Strangely though, there was hardly any pain. Just warmth. I had no idea what was happening but I didn't give myself time to think, just run. I make it out of the forest and see hundreds of elves scrambling. More than just soldiers, its almost as if their entire populace was standing outside watching their eternal forest turn to ash before their very eyes. I drop to my knees as the same platoon that stopped me when I entered the forest sprinted at me.\n\n\"YOU!\" the squadron leader screams viciously\n\"WHAT HAVE YOU DONE? WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO OUR FOREST?\"\n\"I.... I don't know..\" I cried.\n\"YOU WILL PAY FOR WHAT YOU HAVE DONE\" he screeched hoarsly as he tried to grab me by my arms.\n\"DON'T TOUCH ME\" I scream back as I push against him. He was hurled back as if I threw myself into him with all my might.\n\"DON'T JUST STAND THERE! SEIZE HIM\" he coughed as he was trying to get to his feet.\n\nI was very quickly surrounded on all sides by various sizes elves. They each grab hold of me trying to secure me, but I almost effortlessly shrug them off. Not knowing what is happening I start to back away. The platoon tried to stop me but try as they might they couldn't stop me from moving. As soon as I break free from their clutches I start running towards Master's shack. Knowing it's a waste of time as elves are notoriously quick and damn good trackers. After a few miles without looking back i just figured they never took chase. So I stop to think and catch my breath. As I turn around and put my hands on my knees I realize that my breaths are not heavy nor deep, in fact I feel like I haven't run at all. I look up to see viridian stone torches about a mile back. \"They are chasing me... How did I... What...\" I mutter under my breath, confused by my own speed, stamina, and strength. I decide it's best to talk to Master about this, nobody would know better. I sprint off towards the shack again, this time aware of my newfound abilities. As I approach the door to the shack I realize that only a single inside torch is lit. I burst through the door and start spouting words faster than even I comprehend, yet I know that Master knows the situation, even if I had said nothing.\nMaster interrupts me \n\n\"Sit.\"\n\n\"Yes Master\" I say under my breath as I slump into the chair.\n\n\n\"I guess now is as good a time as any to explain to you the true essence of our craft.\" He says in a more stoic manner than usual.\n\"I was trying to keep this from you, as it can corrupt even the most lionhearted of men. When you take the life of another living creature through the use of an incantation, you siphon the lifeforce of that being into your own. I can tell by the radiating heat and stench in the air that the forest was set ablaze during your practice.\"\n\"Does that me-\" I couldn't even finish my sentence.\n\n\n\"Yes, the plethora of wildlife, gnomes, elves, and beasts in the forest that were murdered by your carelessness have made you exponentially stronger. And don't think it's just the physical aspect either.\"\n\"But what does that mean for me?\" I said in an excited but frightened manner.\n\"Well, I imagine the elves will want some sort of compensation for you destroying their eternal forest. Probably your head.\"\n\"ARE YOU GOING TO LET THAT HAPPEN?\" I sobbed.\n\"No, of course not. And even if I was going to let them, I doubt they could catch you.\"\n\"But....\"\n\n\n\"No buts, child. Get some rest, our journey starts in the morning.\"\n\n*end of pt1*\nAlright it is 6:30AM and I have not fallen asleep. This is my first ever writing prompt on Reddit and honestly the first time I've done any creative writing in over 10 years. If there's enough interest, I can pick up where I left off in the morning.",
"Moron’s fire was a common occurrence. \n\nIt was the result of an apprentice fueling too much raw mana into a spell and then trying to ignite the conflagration. \n\nIt was so common that ballads were sung about the moronic explosions of mighty arch magi throughout history.\n\nTavard of the Iron Saff. Blew up his classroom’s entire wing.\n\nSancti the Wise. Shattered all glass within three miles.\n\nLandi of the Seas. Sunk an enemy vessel, and her own.\n\nMatthew wasn’t sure what to think. Sure he held the record for most occurrences of moron’s fire, but this was ridiculous.\n\nThe fifth level firebolt skill he had learned upon reaching a 10 level apprentice, wasn’t powerful enough to actually kill anything here. It was supposed to grab the attention of the walcanis bloodhounds.\n\nThe scouts of the orc army that was currently marching through the Everglen Forest. The home of the Elven Nation, the Ent Republic, and almost three dozen other minor factions.\n\nMatthew was supposed to grab their attention and lead the scouts into the kill circle. Where half a dozen proper battle mages waited.\n\nWhat wasn’t supposed to happen was the fire.\n\nMatthew, in his defense, saw the bloody muzzle of the war dog the size of the pony he road on the other week. The thing was a sleek, hungry, killing machine.\n\nSo he panicked and put a little bit more mana into it then expected.\n\nAbout 1000% panicked.\n\nThe last thing he remembered before passing out from mana burn was the fact that the fire was a lot bigger then what he had actually casted.\n\nIt was only through sheer experience that he was able to see the formation of moron’s fire and successfully threw the ball of regret towards the center of the walcanis pack.\n\nHe hoped that he didn’t cause to big of a ruckus.\n\n\nMatthew woke up feeling… great.\n\nHe yawned and stretched, feeling better then he had ever felt before.\n\nHe got out of his makeshift bed, the field hospital was no stranger to him. You cause enough moron’s fire and you would eventually wake up in the local infirmary.\n\nMatthew got dressed, and still marvelling at his great condition, exit the tent.\n\nHe stopped and tried not to pee himself.\n\nBefore him was the assembled elders of the Academy of the Magically Gifted.\n\nCharles, head master and arch magus of the fourth order and boasting an esteemed level of 422nd, stared at his wayward student. He smirked as he considered the coming excitement and figured that it was his due.\n\nMatthew, in one spectacular moment of moron’s fire, had caused enough of an uproar that the entire continent of Estgloria was going to be in a upheaval unseen since the Rage of Bahamut a century ago.\n\n“Elders,” Matthew greeted with a bow.\n\n“Natti,” Greg, arch magus of the third order, level 371st, greeted back. He glared at what he had once considered his greatest headache. Now it was fact and he found himself capable of further regrets.\n\nSeeing the young man’s confusion, Charles nodded to himself.\n\n“Congratulations Matthew. You won the war and brought peace back to the Alliance.”\n\n“Won? Sir?” Matthew asked as he found himself under further glares of the elders. He guessed he did survive the bloodhounds. That and his teacher Greg wouldn’t have lost that many seconds of agony over the news of his death.\n\nCharles laughed.\n\n“My boy, please check your status,” he commanded, voice filled with anticipation and mirth.\n\nMatthew furrowed his eyebrows but did as asked. Did he finally reach the 11th level and graduate into a mage class? That would be excellent!\n\nFrom the 11th to the 99th, he would be locked into a speciality, and only at the 100th level would he be able to branch out into a new field of magic.\n\nWhile he had considered enchantment and summoning, he figured that the straight forward elemental magus was his primary choice. He really wanted to stop making moron’s fire.\n\nMatthew stopped. His mind failed him as he stared at his status screen. \n\nHe was a mage and his health was over 40 million points.\n\nHe had more health points then he thought he would ever achieve with raw experience points.\n\nHell, he was level. 999.\n\nWut?\n\nHis eyes scrambled across his status screen.\n\nMatthew Oland\nLevel: 999\nClass: Arcane Sovereign\n\nWhat the hell was Arcande Sovereign.\n\nNo wait.\n\nLevel 999!?\n\nMathew returned his eyes to the headmaster and the old man chuckled.\n\n“Your,” Charles paused as his smirk glinted in the sunlight. “Spellfire lit the Everglen Forest on fire. To be honest it is a fun story.”\n\nMatthew found control of his neck, so he nodded.\n\n“You see, the fire quickly spread, it is the dry season after all. No rain until we pooled our mana together. A hundred magus of the various orders. We barely contained the flames.”\n\nThat was some fire. The Everglen Forest was also huge! Twice the size of any kingdom.\n\n“Then your fires touched the grove of the Ent Republic. That wasn’t fun. You must have killed at least a hundred of their elders…”\n\nThat wasn’t good! Ent elders were really revered. Really, really revered.\n\n“Which was a good thing, since they were rooting themselves to supress the necromantic horde buried in ruins of the old world. Their dying bodies changed your fire to a holy / nature flame that wiped out an evil army over a million strong.”\n\nA what? Necromantic army? Million strong? What the hell is going on!\n\n“Needless to say, this holy nature flame also swept across the forest, wiping out the invading orcs and then igniting the communals of the Elves. They are definitely not happy.”\n\nNot happy. NOT HAPPY! Evlen trees were burnt down. History has shown that it was less rude to piss onto their robes and then fling feces into their faces.\n\n“From what I hear, your bounty has reached over 1 million gold and the hand of their third princess, Arriete, or the fourth prince, Lorne. Both if they kill you within a week.”\n\nA million gold!? A million gold! Matthew knew that his own parents would turn him in for that much money.\n\nMatthew’s panic was cut short as a log smashed into him.\n\n“Which shouldn’t matter to you since, at such a level, you should be strong enough to fend off even the best of assassins.” Charles finished as he watched his troublesome student crumple under the assault.\n\nMatthew cried out, and rushed to his feet as he desperately checked his stats to see how much health he had left before he would take off.\n\nHe had taken over a 10, 899 points of damage. Which was nothing.\n\n“Remember, at higher levels, you become resilient to lower forms of attack. As a magus of the 9th order, you are immune from attacks under the 4th rank.” Charles explained as if they were standing in a classroom.\n\nMatthew stared the log and then at his teacher.\n\n“Bah. Ballistae. Trebuchets are the superior siege weapon,” Charles scoffed as he motioned for Matthew to come back. “You have a lot to learn, and I can guarantee that you are not prepared.”\n\nMatthew nodded and was shaken. His old life was over. He needed to get up and running because if this wooden missile was indicating anything. It was that his problems had just begun.\n\nMatthew suddenly missed his old problems of just struggling with moron’s fire.\n\n---\n\nAuthor's Corner:\n\nThanks for the prompt!\n\nI hope you all enjoyed the read.",
"Well, the elf doesn't look so amused. But i wouldn't either after my whole city burned down to some idiot who can't control this power. \nWell who cares, i just advanced to a level nobody has ever achieved before. I can probably kill them all with one snap. \nDuring my little thinking a whole hoard of elves has gathered around me, all waiting for the first-one to throw the stone. \n\"Hey guys, look i know you are incredible sad and angry. But it was never my intention to ruin your lives. Let me help you to rebuild everything.\" \n\"The same help you promised for your kingdom when you practiced your spell?\" shouted one elf and spitted on the ground. Before i could react a young level 1 elf shoot his arrow toward my direction. My reactions were still those of a beginner so i only managed to turn my body. **Wham** directly into my shoulder. Ohh god, why does this hurt so much? I should be a god with this level. As i see the hoard of elves going towards me with their weapons ready to taste my blood i see a little prompt in my bottom left field of view. *Unspent Skillcoins: 9980* \nMaybe i still have a chance to surrive",
"The dense smoke filled the air, completely blotting out the high noon light of the sun and leaving only the light of the dancing flames below. Those flames, which only ten minutes ago were a failed attempt at a fireball spell by a foolish young sorcerer's apprentice.\n\nAnd yet the devastation was unimaginable. This forest went for such lengths that entire countries of elves lived within and housed some of the most dangerous and vicious beasts and monsters known to man. Even as the apprentice looked upon the land he could tell what was what despite the fact that the flesh was horrifically burnt and melted on each creature he saw.\n\nThere was the unmistakable visage of elves, giants and hydras as he walked, even several adamantoises. The fire had burnt to hot that even monsters widely believed to be *immortal* had succumbed to the heat.\n\nAnd yet, in the completely burnt-out center of the forest the apprentice stood, both completely horrified and *awed* about what he saw. As well as the climbing number within his vision.\n\n*389*... *436*... *497*...\n\nWith each second the number grew higher and he felt everything hurt. Was it a punishment from the gods for his actions?\n\n*601*... *678*... *702*...\n\nBut as his body was horrifically twisted, forcing him to his knees he never felt any more incredible. 'Wh... What is this?' he cried out, his voice now far deeper than before, as if he had suddenly aged from prepubescence to adulthood.\n\n*767*... *834*... *888*... \n\nHis entire frame of body was forced outward, growing in both form and power. His loose cloak had been burnt in the fire as well to show only his near-naked form aside from a cotton cloth he had wrapped around his nethers. His giant hands swam through the ashes and dirt like water as he tried to get a grip on something, his hulking frame easily splintering both unburned and charcoaled wood with ease.\n\n*912*... *945*... *992*...\n\nBut his magical power... the power he was trying to build up, which his teacher had compared to a newborn chick against the might of a dragon... It was more than willing to force its way out of his eyes, blasting out lightning whenever they were open. His mere breaths swelled with pure, raw magic which was spreading an oasis of forest life outward and beyond.\n\nWhen the number reached *999*, he felt that power exploding as he screamed, his body thrown upward and floating in the air. It felt like the pain was suddenly gone, a sun bursting from within his skin.\n\nAs he floated down, he contemplated what to do next. 'My master will be most furious with me, won't he?' the apprentice asked himself. No doubt this devastation had caused some sort of disaster for the elves.\n\nNo... That wouldn't happen, he somehow assumed. There were three primary reasons he assumed so.\n\n1; His master *hated* the elves. A species of pretentious, self-serving fools he called them. They'd rather allow the humans, dwarves and other intelligent species die rather than fight against the Dark Lord who supposedly devastated the world a thousand years ago.\n\n2; His personal manta was, \"Power for Power's Sake\". It made him rather unpopular with others of his caliber, to the point that he was exiled from the human's capital cities and forced to build a tower deep within the Black Forest.\n\n3; He was probably *dead* by this point.\n\nThe young lad, no more than twelve, had no idea what he would even do now. He had ideas, as suddenly he felt like he knew things that simply shouldn't be there. Powerful spells of all manner of effects, fighting styles with weapons he had never touched or seen before outside of a few of his master's books.\n\nBut he also noticed, during his trail of thought, that the figure was still climbing and was now well over *1500*.\n\n'Well, haven't we put ourselves in a pickle,' a voice had said within his mind.\n\nHe knew instantly what it was and had tried to ensnare the mind of whomever had invaded his own. 'I know where you are,' he declared. 'Show yourself.'\n\n'Well, aren't we confident?' the stranger asked as he walked out of a portal directly before the lad. 'Xavier, right?'\n\n'Who are you?' the boy asked.\n\nBut something told him he already knew the answer, and he didn't need his impressive new seer powers or telepathy to tell him that. He was clearly a human like Xavier but was of similar size, similar power both physical and magical.\n\n'What, did you think you were the first person who accidentally set a forest alight and massacred untold numbers of beings?' the stranger asked. 'I did it a thousand years ago.'\n\n'...You're the dark lord,' Xavier said in fear.\n\n'A completely unjustified title, albeit not rightfully feared,' the stranger said as his adamantoise-scaled armor jostled with each of his enormous footfalls. 'But still, none had ever believed my pleas of innocent ignorance. But, child, I do not wish to be your enemy. As your level is so high you are no doubt the only other immortal being of human origin. At least I don't have to share immortality with those foolish elves.'\n\n'Because I...' I began to say with severe regret.\n\n'Perk up, Xavier,' he stated with a smile as he put an enormous hand upon my shoulder. 'You have surely seen that you can revive this devastated forest. The same is true of those within. I've already been casting the resurrection spells and made sure to have them follow the flames, so none of them have remained dead for long.'\n\nI merely sighed in relief. 'And my master?'\n\n'You don't need me to tell you of that fool Balthazar,' he said. 'Sending a boy to train in fire magic in forestland... Foolish bastard.'\n\nIn fact, I did know. He was perfectly fine, albeit scarred by the sensation of his death and trying to understand what had happened. And he wasn't the only one...\n\n'An army is coming for me,' I said in shock. 'Thousands of elves.'\n\n'Is that all?' the stranger asked in a bored voice. 'They'll not avenge their own murders, they'll simply be sending good men to die.'\n\n'Then what am I to do?' I asked him. 'Fight them?'\n\n'If you so choose,' the stranger said as he handed me an enormous blade. 'Or flee or... Dare I say it, enslave them by either force of will or by dominating their minds with magic. It is entirely your choice. Whatever you choose, allow me to offer you my support of friendship. You know where I live and you are always welcome.'\n\nHe then disappeared through another portal as I pondered my next move. Surely this couldn't go well for anyone involved...\n\n---\n\n**Chapter 2 coming soon**"
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[WP] You are blind, but get to receive an experimental new treatment that installs an artificial eye that allows you to see again. Life is great again, until you begin to see things that aren't there.
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"“I think I’m going crazy” I said, with all the sincerity that most people have when they say things like that. Most of the time that sentence is a request for empathy and validation -- I think i’m going crazy, did you just see that? -- but Dr. Cambridge leaned forward a little and raised an eyebrow. The small gesture dramatically altered the spatial and depth proportions of her face, giving it a sharpness and direction to characterise the complacent expression of interest she usually wore. All right, it might not be dramatic to most people, but to someone like me who’s just getting used to being able to see facial expressions and match them with the changes they produce in vocal tones, it felt like a lightbulb going on. Oh that’s why the shape of the oral cavity changes so much! There’s muscular tension all up the right side of her face!\nI didn’t grin, though, like I did for most realisations like this, because now I saw the eyebrow doing the wave and ending up with the wrong end elevated, like Spock on Star Trek. I totally get every sci-fi author’s fascination with eyebrows now, thanks to finally being able to see Spock!\n“What makes you think that?” Dr. Cambridge asked, pencil poised above her notepad. My stomach twitched; I have a genetic history of schizophrenia in my family. I just ditched one disability, was I about to get diagnosed with another?\n“I think...uhm...like, I can see stuff that isn’t real sometimes…not like visions and stuff, just…” I passed a hand over my forehead as I groped desperately for an example that wouldn’t make me sound crazy. There wasn’t one. At least her eyebrow looked back to normal now. In fact, it had lowered and drawn a little closer to its partner, but she wasn’t frowning. She looked comfortably interested, not worried. Did counselors practice their expressions so they won’t freak their patients out? Clients. I’m a client, not a patient. It’s weird not being a patient.\n“Can you give me an example?” Dr. Cambridge asked. She hadn’t written anything down yet. Somehow that made me feel better. She wasn’t making assumptions; she was looking for reasons to not jump to conclusions.\nI’d been seeing Dr. Cambridge for about six months now. She was recommended by my optical surgeon and prosthetist, both.\nSix months ago I completed a five-round set of surgeries to replace my failed eyes with working prosthetics. They didn’t replace the whole eyeball, but removed the damaged retinae and placed tiny little bits of technology in my eyes hard-wired into the optic nerve. They put light-processing computers in my eyes, essentially. I was still on immunosuppressants while my body adjusted to the foreign objects that had taken up residence in my orbital cavities, but I could go off those next month, if everything went as planned.\nNaturally, being crazy wasn’t the only thing that worried me. If this was a glitch in the computers, would they be removed? Were they hallucinations from an infection? Would I have to stay on immunosuppressants and catch every cold that came through my office, and worse?\nThis was one of the reasons my doctors recommended therapy. Removing or altering a disability is a major change in identity. I went from being a blind superhero or charity case, depending on who you talked to, to a miracle of science or a superhero, depending on who you talked to. I also had to get used to seeing things, things that weren’t always pleasant. TV scared the life out of me for the first month, but now it’s ok. Also, there’s a lot of embarrassment as I figure out how depth perception and peripheral vision and facial recognition works. I had some folks who just didn't’ get it and got offended when i didn't’ recognise them. And I flush hot every time I miss my credit card being handed back to me by the cashier, with no white cane to explain my apparent clumsiness. It wears you down.\nSeeing things that aren’t there, though...that wasn’t something I had anticipated needing therapy for.\n“Ok, well, like the other day I was walking past this building and I saw a window washer up on his scaffolding, and I thought ‘what if he falls?’ Then he did! I literally saw him plummeting down seven stories, flailing his arms and legs -- but I also saw him still on the ladder just spraying away like nothing was wrong, and the falling guy wasn’t there anymore.” I still remembered the anticipation of the sickening crunch of human flesh and bone encountering gravity and pavement in a deadly combination. I even remembered the scream, but neither sound had come and I was left with this unfinished, uneasy sense of anticipation still to this moment.\n“Yeah, that’d freak me out, too” Dr. Cambridge empathised, wincing along with me. I could even see her shoulders and arms draw inward a little in a reflexive reaction to imagined impact. “Can you give me another example? I think it’s important that we be thorough when exploring this before jumping to any conclusions. Have you mentioned this to the prosthetist?” Mixed relief and worry, there.\n “Yeah, he says everything’s working fine.” At least I wasn’t at risk of having it removed. For now, anyway.\n“Ok, and your surgeon?” Cambridge asked. She made a note on the paper,but not a long one. Probably noting that the equipment wasn’t broken.\n“Yeah, he said after-images and stuff were normal and that I’d get used to it, but this doesn’t feel like after-images” I said. “Or look like. Is ‘feel’ the right word for something you see/”\n“It can be, yes” Dr. Cambridge nodded and made another short note. “What we see is heavily linked to how we feel, as well as the accumulation of other sensory information. While it might not be a concrete thought yet, we can feel certain degrees of confidence or doubt in what we see based on other information our brains process. Sometimes the processing happens so fast and with so much information that we’re not consciously aware of why we feel that way at first, but we know that we do feel that way and the ‘why’ usually comes later when we try to explain it.”\nThat made a lot of sense. I’d felt that way about hearing and feeling things, too. I nodded. I still felt a low-level nausea as we got nearer to the fateful answer, but I was feeling better about explaining this with each passing moment. Thank God I had found such a wonderful therapist who knew her business inside and out, and made me feel the same.\n“Ok, so, another example?” she prompted again, settling herself a little deeper into the high-backed ergonomic-design office.\n “Right, uh...well, the other day I was at the mall and there was this girl there, super super tan, and her hair was like...so blonde it was almost white and the combination did not look good on her” I made a face at the memory. I decided she’d look better with darker hair, like honey brown or black, and for a second I could actually see it that way, then she was back to needing to dye her hair and skip the tanning beds.”\n“You know what that sounds like to me/” Dr. Cambridge asked. “Imagination. You’ve imagined things before, what they’d sound like or smell or taste like, right?” I nodded. “Now it sounds like your brain has added a layer of visual information to your imagination. You’re seeing the ‘what if’s’ our brains come up with on a regular basis.”\nHer conclusion cut the rubber band of tension between my shoulders, causing me to flop gracelessly back into the pile of oddly-shaped throw pillows surrounding me on the couch. I laughed. “Seriously? Why didn't’ i think of that?” I was still laughing, a relieved, breathy sound that washed the uneasiness out of my gut. “Wow, I feel so stupid for thinking I might be crazy, just for daydreaming!”\n“Not at all” Cambridge shook her head. “I expect it was pretty freaky, if you weren’t expecting it. If you’ve never seen daydreams before, and suddenly start seeing things that aren’t there, especially with your family history, i completely understand why you were so freaked out. I’m actually really impressed that you reported it so soon. Most people would’ve been too scared to go near the topic until it started interfering with daily function. It hasn’t, has it?”\n“Well, it’s been making me pretty nervous” I admitted. “And some of the things I’d see when i was asleep, so I guess that means I’m night-dreaming, too. Does it make sense that most of my dreams would be nightmares right now, because I’m just not used to seeing things like that so my brain is like...taking the worry and stress over seeing things that aren’t there during the day and, like, dumping them on my dreams?”\nDr. Cambridge nodded. “That could be it. Have you been having nightmares regularly?”\n“Just since the daydreaming started like two weeks ago” I answered. “And not every night.”\n“Ok, let me know in our session next week if that changes at all” she said, this time writing a lot more on her notepad. \n“Sure” I agreed. “But, just to be sure, I mean, I do have that family history of mental illness...you’re sure it’s not..?”\nDr. Cambridge shook her head. “99.9% sure’ she promised. “Schizophrenic delusions and hallucinations tend to be a bit more thematic, and stress-induced, and come with other symptoms. What’ve you’ve described to me are totally normal things that anyone might talk about. So long as they don’t get weirder or start causing undue stress, so long as the nightmares don’t persist or get significantly worse and more frequent, i wouldn’t give it another thought except to enjoy this new experience. Daydreaming in colour is fun.” We were both grinning now.\nJust like that I wasn’t going crazy. Just like that I wasn’t at risk for losing this amazing gift of sight by having the prosthetic removed. Just like that I was back on target for getting to go off the immunosuppressants. Just like that I was still living a miracle.\n",
"Advertisement after advertisement. Some breakthrough in prosthetics that Cliff did not understand had created new possibilities not only for those who lost limbs, but also helped with degenerative issues such as arthritis or back pain. Most important to Cliff, the breakthrough brought hope to those without sight, sound, or voice.\n\n\nJessi reached over and attached Cliff's buckle with a cheery \"Buckle up! You're going to be able to do this all alone pretty soon.\" Cliff heard the car start and the radio say \"Want to jump higher? Run faster? Hit harder? Come visit us at Bionic Life and become who you were always meant to be!\"\n\n\n\"I guess they need to pay the bills somehow\", Cliff said, thinking back to his conversation with Dr. Bell three months ago. *\"Cliff buddy, how the heck are you? From what I understand you were born blind and still managed to play piano at your own wedding? That's amazing bud so are you ready to see just how amazing you are?\"* Dr. Bell had reached out to Cliff after hearing from a mutual friend about Cliff's musical prowess and offered to complete the surgery for a new bionic eye for free. It still seemed too good to be true, but Cliff was ready to go any distance to see the love of his life.\n\nThey pulled into the parking lot and in no time Cliff was sitting on the operating chair inhaling anesthesia. Dr. Bell ordered a nurse to begin the countdown. \"The next time you wake up Cliff, you will see the world......\" was the last thing Cliff heard before drifting off into slumber.\n\n\n**So yeah, wanted to spend more time setting up the relationship between Jessi and Cliff & also with him going through the procedure but didn't have enough time :/ Let me know if anyone wants to see a second part, I know I haven't gotten to the him seeing things yet. This writing thing is hard**",
"\"What? Are you sure?\"\n\nShe asked, following along with me as we looked up into the sky. The clouds surfed along in their usual pace, and for a moment I had lost my concentration. \n\nThey were still so amazing to me.\n\n\"I think you might have a glitch or something,\" Claire continued, looking down to me as I followed her focus. She put her hand upon my shoulder, and I watched as her lips danced in conversation. \"It's experimental...\"\n\nShe hadn't finished speaking, but words were not new to me- sights were, and those were what enraptured me. I looked beyond her shoulder at the pier, and to the street behind it. The sun fell on on everything like a gift from the heavens, and peopled walked along, reveling in the heat and splendor of it all. \n\nAs I watched on, the world seemed to shift before me. The walls of the houses and even the space between me and everything else seemed to crack and contort as broken glass on a pane. It stayed like this for a moment, before settling once again. Except, the pier was sinking into the sea, and the buildings in the distance were ablaze. I saw the people running around in fright and screaming, and entities of such odd design advanced upon them.\n\n\"Hey! Are you listening to me?\" \n\nI drew myself back, and the world returned to normal. Alice looked over her shoulder, before returning an angered expression toward me. It sunk into my heart, and brought out a feeling I was not accustomed to- I was still coming to terms with how faces changed so suddenly.\n\n\"Sorry, I just...\" I had started.\n\n\"Listen I know everything is new and amazing, but that's no excuse to ignore me.\" She said- and she was right. I was still getting used to the world I found myself in, but I couldn't shake the feeling that something was amiss.\n\n\"I think we should get this looked at,\" I said, pointing to the eye that rolled within my head. \"Things keep changing.\"\n\n\"Changing how?\" She asked, and as I looked toward her, the grace of her features shifted into an expression of defeat as her eyes turned bloodshot and a trickle of crimson ran from her nostril. I stepped back in shock, and she reached for me.\n\n\"What the hell?\" Claire continued, though her appearance settled once again into one I could bear. I felt my body shake and quiver, and I sensed the world around me drawing inward. It was not as full of possibility as I had once thought.\n\n\"I-I-I don't know what is happening. One minute you're fine, the next...\"\n\n\"James?\" She called, a worry in her tone, one that almost mimicked the fear that ate at my core. \"James you're scaring me.\"\n\nI turned and looked back to the sky, but it had grown dark. It was night, yet I could see something above, something much darker than space itself. \n\nIt was an object of jagged design, one of enormous proportions that blotted out the moon and pushed aside the clouds. \n\nAnd before long, it had replaced the stars with its own lights.",
"\"Alright, Mr. Isla, I'm about to activate your prosthetic eyes. I've we've darkened the room, but the brightness will still sting for a while.\"\n\nEnrique Isla was sitting upright on his hospital bed when he heard an electric hum up followed by a sharp sensation... *brightness*. That was all he could describe it as. Brightness. As it dimmed, he started to make out blurry silhouettes.\n\nThe doctor continued, \"let me know when you begin to see forms or shapes.\"\n\n\"I got it.\" Enrique, couldn't hide his joy. There were several people in the hospital room. Little by little he was able to discern faces. He looked up at his wife who was holding his hand tightly. \"Honey, are you crying?\"\n\nHis wife chocked her tears back to respond, but all she could muster was an, \"mmhmm!\"\n\n\"Mr. Isla, tomorrow after your brain has gotten used to your eyes, we will be able to adjust them better. For now, however, your eyesight will be blurry. That's perfectly normal.\"\n\n\"Blurry?\"\n\n\"Yes. Fuzzy. Not sharp.\" He held out his hand. \"Can you tell how many fingers I am holding up?\"\n\nThis seemed fairly easy to Enrique. \"Three.\"\n\n\"Good. How many people are in this room?\"\n\n\"Not counting me?\" He looked around at this wife, the doctor and the two nurses or patients standing in the back. \"Four.\"\n\nHis wife was startled. \"Four?\"\n\nThe doctor reassured her, \"it's not a big deal. Eyesight is new to your husband. He's never seen shadows before.\"\n\nEnrique leaned forward toward the two dark figures across the room. \"That's what shadows look like?\" He chuckled. One of the blurry shadows approached and put its hand on his bed. Enrique instinctively pulled his feet back.\n\nThe doctor laughed, \"that's okay! You have no sense of shadows and highlights yet, or understanding of visual depth! It will come with time.\"\n\nAfter some discussion about appointments and further testing, the doctor left to leave them alone. Enrique's wife was ecstatic, but he couldn't shake the uncomfortable feeling from the two shadows glaring back at him from beyond the foot of his bed."
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[WP] if a grave doesn't say "rest in peace" on it, then the deceased will be drafted into the skeleton war.
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"The coffin was lowered into the ground, the gentle rain pattering on its polished surface, the watchers huddled around it pulling their raincoats tighter, some opening umbrellas. The preacher stood nearby at the podium, his head bowed in silent prayer for the deceased. As the coffin hit the bottom of the grave with an almost inaudible \"thud,\" the widow standing at the head of the crowd glanced up at the gravestone, tears and rain blurring her vision, and read the words engraved on its smooth marble surface: \n\n> Jonathan Graves\n\n> 1934-2012\n\nHis widow looked back down and began to cry in earnest, on the one hand sobbing at the loss of her husband, on the other at the irony of his surname, and how she could find something funny at a time like this. The other watchers dispersing, she lingered for a few more minutes, then turned and hurried off among the pouring rain.\n\n...\n\n...\n\n...\n\nJon awoke, blinking the sleep out of his eyes as he stretched and yawned...and then jumped with fright, almost yelling aloud at the sight of his arms. Rubbing his eyes again, in case what he saw was not (he hoped) real, he found that he had no eyes– only empty sockets. He looked at his arms, now pale bone, then down at the rest of his body, then finally up at the sound of someone approaching.\n\nA figure walked into view, clad in leather garments and chain mail. As they neared Jonathan, he noticed a long sheath at their waist. They stopped a few feet away from him, folding bony arms over their skeletally thin chest. \n\n\"Well, you're up. It's certainly about time. We dragged you out of the ether *hours* ago and only now you're gettin' up? Raising the dead ain't all it's cracked up to be, I tell ya.\" \n\nJonathan spoke. \"Wh... who are you? What happened to me? Where am I? I thought... I thought I was dead...\"\n\nThe stranger laughed, his jaws clacking against each other. \"Well, pally, you're right about that. And as for who I am, that's not important. What is important right now is that you need gear. Weapons, armour, all that. I'm fairly sure the boys back at camp can get you fixed up.\n\n\"But, what... weapons? Armour? What for? What is this? What's going on?\" Jonathan rose to his feet.\n\nAnother clattering laugh. \"Sorry, pal, but whoever buried you made a mistake. They put 'Rest in Peace' on your stone, you're free to float in the ether for eternity. Anything else, you're duty-bound to serve the king.\"\n\nJonathan spoke, wincing at the grating sound of his jaw. \"But... I'm dead. How is all this...\"\n\n The other man laughed a third time (Jonathan failed to see what he found so funny), and spoke again. \"There's a war goin' on, and you're right in the middle of it. You thought you would rest in peace?\" He gave a grim chuckle, the sobered. \"Sooner or later, you'll be resting in pieces.\"\n\n",
"They stand beside the grave, unmoving. The eyes they cast upon freshly laid dirt speak not of sadness, but detachment, and a weary nonchalance. \n\"James, do we really want to do this?\"\nHer voice is made both softer and more sympathetic from the doubt which rises within her like a fast moving tide. Despite the measured tone, he offers only a response of silence. By his sides, his fists begin to clench. The pressure turning skin a pale, milky white.\n\"Julia.\"\nHe pauses for a moment, taking a breath.\n\"He's going where he belongs.\"\nIt's a reply that has emerged from memories, Memories of constant words reminding of his worthlessness, of the belt buckles that tore open skin, of the purple bruises from raining fists. Some, he believed, were not worthy of peace. He hoped his Father stood up there now, sword in hand amongst the army of the dead. He hoped he was afraid. Afraid just like the little boy who hid in the closet in the dark, weeping.\n\"Ok then.\"\nJulia replies, placing her hand on his back as they turned away from the grave and the tombstone, sitting blankly under the heat of a mid-July sun.",
"I just passed. I passed in a war between Russia and the good ole USA. I was drafted, so I couldn’t care less about what we were doing. All I knew is the Russia tried to cancel all trade deals with the US and the US answered. We answered with an airdrop of propaganda leaflets. They said, \"Come on man, you know we pay you\". But we didn't, that's why the war started. I died on a beach landing up near Siberia. No big deal. I think I was shot by some Russian tank gunner. I was transported home via C-130. We had a funeral and the other stuff. The one big thing was that my family had forgotten to put \"Rest In Peace\" and I was drafted again. This time in the Great Skeleton War.\n\nI didn't get why this war was fought. Couldn't have been for land or diplomatic relations. All I knew was that I was fighting for the good guys. I was fighting for the Angels. We fought the Demons day in and day out. We had dug trenches and stuff like that. Then a new guy came in. It was the Russian tanker. Well fuck. I tried to act casual, but it didn't work.\n\n\"Listen here you little bitch,\" he said, \"You fuckers killed half of the Russian population\"\n\n\"Well you killed me,\" I replied\n\nWe got into a back and forth argument about whether Socialism or Capitalism was better.\n\nThen General Gabriel came to break up the argument. We stopped in awe of this... spirit. He was easily 8 foot and dwarfed the little Russian. \n\n\"You guys are on the same side,\" Gabriel said, \"so stop fighting\"\n\nWe stopped, grabbed our guns and shot. I'd say I killed about 5 things. Those things by the way, they were like zombies, but with guns. The Russian, being a tanker, wasn't to skilled at shooting. He killed maybe 2. \n\nAfter the 36819378th Battle of Purgatory, we had pushed the enemy a good mile back. Then I got a message.\n\n\"You have now been assigned to the 17th Airborne,\" it read.\n\nAll I could think was that I couldn't possibly be there. I couldn't jump if my life depended on it. But since I was already dead.... We didn't use parachutes. No, we just fell. Only they could die, and only they could regain at such a rate. \n\nAfter my first jump, we won a battle.\n\nThat's my story, this was my first one, so please criticize.",
"It was a purposeful decision - albeit one I perhaps should have rethought a few dozen times - to be drafted into the skeleton war.\n\nI prepared a gravestone almost out of paranoia, and thought to myself while making it that - well, if the rumors were true, and you were drafted, I'd live another life, and that'd be interesting enough. If the rumors were false, I would lose anything. Some variant on Pascel's Wager, I suppose - only it turned out winning was about as good as losing.\n\nI died sooner then I expected. Accidental. They stuck me in my grave, and put up the gravestone - naught more then my name, my year of birth, and a freshly carved year of death.\n\nI woke up later on - I dunno *how* later on - laying next to a skeleton in a bowler hat, dripping wet, and with a Tommy Gun in his bone hands.\n\n\"Oh hey, you're up.\" Distinct New York accent, somehow - it didn't sound like he was speaking, so much as *thinking*, with the thoughts invading my mind as he thought them, accent and all. I tried speaking back, and got not much further then moving a jaw, again, somehow - it was clearly devoid of muscle, I could feel that in some manner, but it still moved as I willed it. \"Yeah, don't try and talk like ya used to, it ain't workin'.\" The other one continued.\n\nI sat up, and tried a different tack. \"What about thinking?\"\n\n\"Now ya catchin' on. We'll make a wiseguy outta ya yet.\"\n\n\"Isn't that a bad thing?\"\n\n\"Means you're made. Jeeze, when'd you cark it to not know that? You middle ages?\"\n\n\"Nah. Recent. I think... What year is it?\"\n\n\"Fucked if I know, kid.\" The skeleton thought a laugh, dug through a bag, lit up a fairly fat and old looking cigar, and placed it into his lipless teeth. The usual puff of smoke that you'd expect didn't come, even though he seemed to relax all the same.\n\n\"... Can skeletons even smoke?\"\n\n\"Don't rub it in, pal. It's a force'a habit.\" He gave a few audible puffs in my mind, though the cigar didn't so much as twitch from them, before continuing. \"So what did ya in?\"\n\n\"Does it matter?\"\n\n\"Does to the Don of this place. He's big on irony or some shit. Likes to match people to their deaths. Put me in the gunners for gettin' a message job through the eye after I hit on my last Don's goomah.\"\n\nI didn't think the next part in a way to communitate it to him, but he laughed back all the same. \"Yeah, I know, you ain't got a clue. Basically, ya flirt with someone you shouldn't, then ya get a bullet through the eye. Look, ya see?\" He pointed towards one dead eyesocket, then motioned towards the other, with a bright, almost iris-white glow to it. \"Godda love it. Remindin' ya where ya came from, lettin' ya keep a li'll bit of individuality if ya want it. If ya don't... Eh, ask the don. So, lemme ask again, what did ya in?\"\n\n\"Got run over. I imagine that's kind of boring?\"\n\n\"Borin'?\" he thought, with an audible amount of jealousy. \"Hell no, kid, that's some of the most excitin' shit! You get the vehicle division. Might even get a fuckin' tank, if ya good enough. Plus ya get to work with Major General Daniel Finch. Nice guy. Just try to not think of the mustache.\"\n\n\"*mustache?* he's a skeleton.\"\n\n\"Well he's still got a mustache, and he appreciates ya not thinkin' bout it. Or at least think of it like 'That's the finest damn mustache I ever seen on a set of bones, and I've seen a lot!' kinda deal.\"\n\n\"Well, thanks for the advice.\"\n\n\"Eh, no problem. Might as well help out the associates these days. Now go on, skit. You're wanted up in that big ass castle up there. Don'll wanna see ya.\"\n\nI looked over, peering into what first seemed like darkness, and what rapidly became something blacker then darkness, somehow, someway. The big castle was there - it wasn't so much seen as *felt*, somehow, but it was there, nevertheless. Even if I hadn't wanted to go, I don't think I could have resisted the compulsion.\n\n\"Well, see ya then, mob guy.\"\n\n\"Callone. Call me Callone.\" The skeleton responded, having started to clean his gun with his own index finger. \"Ya might not see me again, kid, but if ya do, think hi, eh?\"\n\n\"I'll try.\"\n\nThus, I set off, towards the castle, and 'The Don'.",
"They always told me that I could rest when I'm dead. \n\nNever told me if it didn't say it on my tombstone I would never rest at all. I am a knight in the Kings army. I like king Skeletor well and all, but I am pretty tired. I was a grocery store bagger in life, and it was so exausting. When that Uber hit me I was a little stoked about the eternal sleep part. Alas I have to fight damned mole people all day long.\n\nTurns out there are mole people, and they are pretty pissed. Just not at the humans. At the restless dead they direct their wrath. Our numbers grow everyday, but theirs never seem to slow. Todays battle seems to be different though. Mages are in play. King Skeletor himself marches forward. \n\nAcross the battlements I saw their Demonic Mole King Zachariah. His gleaming crown a mockery to royalty. The charge was ordered and I just ran. Straight for that rat faced bastard. If I'm dead anyways I mind as well try to earn some glory, or at the least get transferred to Valhalla. \n\nAlas, my spear struck true as I hucked it from a short distance. His black heart was struck, and spurted upwards. I ripped it out and impaled the rancid thing onto my spear. Their leader dead they were quickly routed and destroyed. We had won. King Skeletor promises me slumber in a wonderful suite in the castle. A hero deserves a little shut eye."
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[WP] The deal is simple, they murder you, then they rewind time and then they pay you.
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"Okay so I was on Craigslist the other day, and I found a job offering for this whole time travel deal. Not exactly sure what I'm doing, but the pay is big.\n\nAnyway, I roll up to the meeting spot. Fancy place was it, in the middle of the Texas desert. I sat in my car until a black SUV arrived and unloaded four priest looking fuckers.\n\n\"Hello, my name is John, and I am the lead priest time master of the time priest master organization of masters.\"\n\nJohn was rather tall, and had a haircut not dissimilar to that of Bob Ross.\n\n\"Anywho, here we are. Goodbye.\"\n\nJohn pulls out a glock (pretty cheap for a fucking time warrior priest dude), and shoots directly at me. I manage to evade, if not because the plot demands it, and run for my car.\n\n\"This was not a part of the deal!\"\n\nI processed this for a moment, sat behind my car, sweating relentlessly.\n\n\"What exactly... is the deal?\"\n\n\"Quite simple. We murder you and revert time, and you get paid.\"\n\n\"So I don't die?\"\n\n\"Nope.\"\n\nI step out from behind my car.\n\nBang.\n\nSo here I was in the Texas desert, unaware of what exactly I had signed up for on Craigslist. All I knew is that it was gonna pay big.\n\nA black SUV pulls up, and out comes four priest looking fuckers.\n\n\"Hello, my name is John, and I am the lead priest time master of the time priest master organization of masters.\"\n\nJohn pulls out a glock.\n\n",
"“Arms up.”\n\nThe enormous man forcefully pats me down, far more intimately than I would have preferred. He looks into my eyes for slightly too long, then steps to the side. I move towards the woman beckoning me from beyond an open set of double doors. The air is so thick down here that I feel like I'm going to suffocate.\n\n“Mr. Smith?” the woman asks, her voice slithering through the heavy air.\n\nI blink. “Yeah.”\n\n“Follow me. We're running a bit behind schedule – do try to keep up.”\n\nIn the few seconds since she began talking she's already cleared ten yards of the corridor in front of us. I have to squint my eyes slightly to see her, the corridor is more over-lit than an 80s office block. I half jog to keep up with her and end up keeping pace a few feet behind. We pass closed doors and joining corridors, signposted in English and, I think, Russian. I'm distracted gazing down a corridor that I almost run straight into the back of the woman when she stops abruptly. She raps twice on the door in front of her and then turns to look at me.\n\n“No talking once you step past this frame. The recording has already started.” I look at her – her eyes are receded, her lips thin. Her glasses sit softly on the bridge of her nose. I nod.\n\nThe door swings open, and I hesitate. The woman puts her hand on my shoulder, perhaps to say something encouraging. She opens her mouth, breaths in slightly, then gives me a short, sharp shove towards the room and I stumble through the door frame. The door slams shut behind me and I turn to observe the room - dark save a single chair near the back, with a large spotlight suspended above it. I gingerly begin to walk towards it, first squinting at the light and then keeping my eyes to the floor. I sit.\n\nFor what may as well be forever, nothing happens. My mind races, and eventually close my eyes, pushing my legs apart and folding my arms in an attempt to appear far more calm than I feel.\n\nThere is a loud mechanical click, and then a bang, and then my leg is engulfed in pain. I scream and open my eyes to see a bloody stump where once my right leg had been. I barely have time to process what's going on before there is another click, and another bang, and then my left leg is gone too. I fall helplessly out the chair, writing and clutching where my legs had been moments before.\n\nFrom the front of the room a skinny, gaunt man steps forward. He looks down at me with an expression somewhere between pity and disgust, and draws a pistol from his back pocket. He looks to his wrist, notes the time, and then puts a bullet through my skull.\n\n\nI wake up in a chair in a bright, breezy office. A doctor – or at least what looks like a doctor – sits opposite me. “How do you feel?” he asks.\n\n“I...” I start, but I'm interrupted.\n\n“You'll no doubt feel nauseous for some time. Particularly after your first trip. Remember to take the painkillers, they will be in the envelope.” He gestures to the desk, and I take the thin beige envelope. He looks at me, and then his watch. “Well, if you need nothing else I feel you are fit enough to be going.” He begins to stand.\n\n“C-can I see it?” I cough out, slowly rising to my feet.\n\n“The tapes go exclusively to our clients. If you wish to be your own client, that can be arranged.” he says with disinterest. I couldn't afford it if I did this a thousand times. “You were dispatched quickly. If you agree to let us keep you alive longer, there is a lot more to be made.” He puts his hand on the door handle. “I've seen vivisections fetch well north of fifty times your payment.” He pushes open the door and returns to his desk.\n\nI glance at him – my head spinning with desperation, fear and anticipation – and then step outside."
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[WP] A person wakes up and finds out they have gained a superpower. But, it is completely useless in their story of becoming a hero/villain.
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"There are days when you think you can do anything. You wake up and you can scream at the top of your lungs. \"Hey, Fuck you World. Get ready to get conquered\", then there are days where you just want to roll over and shut your eyes forever until you sleep through the rest of your wasted life.\n\nWell now I can't do that first thing because I'm now Depressed, Super Depressed.\n\nMy depression is contagious, as soon as I enter a room all the fun and merriment that was once going on comes to complete stop and everyone is just immediately miserable. Sure mutual depression sounds great but I'm too depressed to even care. Hell even getting up seems like a Herculean effort and leaving the house and even interacting at other people just seems so pointless.\n\nI hate myself and I continue to drive people away, whenever a friend or a family member come by they immediately spiral and fall into a chronic stupor and that makes me feel even worse that I did that to them\n\nAll I do is just stay in my room and protect everyone from this, it seems cruel to even interact with people anymore. I can't even remember why I even use to get out of bed for. All I do now is weep in the darkness under a pile of bed sheets as I watch re-runs of Fraiser on my laptop\n\nI got a e-mail last night, it was from work.\n\n'Dear Captain Wonderful\n\nWe understand you're going through a rough time as the loss of your Wife to the Devastators was a tough blow, but we need your help down here. It's been 3 months and no one has heard or seen from you. We've all left messages and are worried for you but you need come home, we miss yo-'\n\nI delete the message and pull the blanket over my head \n\nI unpause Fraiser.\n\n\"I'm not strong enough to beat this\" I mutter softly and gently cry.",
"I came home to my little house in the woods as quickly as I could. The darkness scared me more than it ever had that night.\nThat night, my sleep was troubled.\nI was terrified. Terrified for my kingdom, for my friends. And for myself. \n\nThe Dark Queen Velimaria... the prophets had warned us of her coming, but no one had heeded their words. And now, it was too late. Only seventeen days until Venus lined up with Mars, and Velimaria would unleash the darkness upon our world, plunging us into endless night.\n\nI tossed and turned, fearful to fall asleep. But finally, I did. And while I slept, I dreamed not of darkness, but of blinding light. \n\nI woke early in the morning, and sat up, groggily rubbing my eyes.\nI had gotten so little sleep, that I likely would have gone right back to sleep, if I wasn't on fire.\n\nI screamed. The flames were engulfing my whole bed, and covering my body like a thick blanket. But... I felt no pain. The bed, however, was burning as I sat in it.\nI screamed again, and jumped off my bunk bed, landing painfully on my wooden floor.\n\n\"Ah! You are awake, young hero!\" A woman's voice called out, echoing against the walls of my room. \nI looked around wildly, before spotting the speaker. A young woman, clad in a pale blue dress, stood in the flames right before my eyes, looking serene amidst all the destruction.\nI stared at her, unsure what to say.\n\n\"Young hero, I apologize for scaring you. I am sure you must have many questions.\" She said, her voice gentle and kind.\n\n\"Uhhhh...\" I stuttered, unable to form a coherent thought.\n\n\"I am Spirulina, a spirit that serves the great master of heroes, the Hero God. He has seen the strength of your heart, tested and hardened by the hardships you have faced, living alone in a world where family is everything. \nThe Hero God has seen you rise up above your pain and sorrow, and form friendships with other burdened souls, relieving their pain.\"\n\nShe breathed in deeply before continuing.\n\n\"And, uhhh... Oh yes! He has seen fit to grant you the power to save your world, and all those you love from the destruction that awaits it.\"\n\nI gasped.\n\"What?\" I shouted. My heart began beating faster. Could I really save everyone?\n\nSpirulina smiled.\n\"Yes. With the power of the Hero God, even amidst the blazing Infernos of Infernia, you will remain unharmed. You alone can stop her reign of-\"\n\n\"Infernia? What's Infernia?\" I asked her, confused.\nSpirulina's smile began fading.\n\"Ummm... what do you mean? Infernia is the fire goddess coming to ravage your world, right?\"\n\n\"I've never heard of an Infernia!\" I exclaimed.\n\nSpirulina looked puzzled.\n\"Is this not Elfina, the land of the woodland elves who live in the woods?\" \n\n\"Of course not! Do I look like an elf to you?\" I shouted, throwing up my arms. I didn't even know what was going on anymore.\n\nSpirulina closed her eyes, and rubbed her temple.\n\"Oh dear, I believe we had a mix-up. I'm very sorry, I'll try to get this sorted out as soon as possible.\" She quickly vanished, leaving behind pale blue sparkles.\n\nI sat alone in my room for a moment, gaping at the spot where Spirulina had vanished. Then, I fell back onto the floor where I sat, and went back to sleep. I'd figure things out in the morning."
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[WP] Someone thinks they're stuck in a Groundhog Day-style time loop, so they attempt an incredibly daring feat, only to learn after succeeding that they weren't actually in a time loop.
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"The sound of the alarm woke Mr. Blake up. It was his alarm clock. So many times had he heard this alarm clock. It was the dreaded noise that ushered a new day at work. Tom Blake worked at a boxing company as manager of all things paperwork related. He counted boxes, he tallied employee payments, wrote analyses of efficiency, all the boring stuff.\n\nAfter arriving to work, he was greeted by his very, very cheerful boss.\n\n\"IS THE REPORT DONE YET??\" said his very, very cheerful boss.\n\n\"Uh, no sir,\" replied Tom startled by the quickly opened door of his closet of an office. \"I'll have it done this afternoon.\"\n\nIt was a busy day though so Tom didn't have time to finish the report. His boss came to visit him at 5 PM, one hour before Mr. Blake could leave the dreaded place.\n\n\"You said you would have it done by this afternoon! If you don't plan to do it in the next hour, I want an explaination!\" said his very, very... you get the idea.\n\n\"I.. I got distracted by other things. I don't just report to you, you know.\"\n\n\"That still doesn't explain why it wasn't done yesterday!\"\n\n\"I'll have it first thing tomorrow morning.\"\n\nTom finally was free from work and went to bed at around 8 o'clock without even starting the report.\n\nBeep. Beep. Beep.\n\nOh no, the alarm clock again. Off to work, again.\n\n\"IS THE REPORT DONE YET??\" said his very, very cheerful boss.\n\nTom was again startled by the opening of the door. \"Did you have to scare me again just like yesterday? Are you that inconsiderate?\"\n\n\"Did I startle you yesterday? I don't remember but where is that report!\"\n\n\"I'm so very, very sorry but I was tired last night and never got around to it.\"\n\n\"Well you'd better get around to it by this afternoon or else!\"\n\nAt about 3 PM, Tom's boss checked on him again.\n\n\"Well!? I don't see that report on my desk!\"\n\n\"I'm very sorry sir, won't happen again. I'll get it to you first thing tomorrow morning.\"\n\nBed. Beep. Alarm. Off to work\n\n\"IS THE REPORT DONE YET??\" said his very, very cheerful boss.\n\n\"As I said yesterday morning, I was very tired and I'll get it to you tomorrow morning.\"\n\n\"You never said anything like that yesterday morning. Are you insane. Just get me that report tomorrow.\"\n\nSomething was off. \"But I did say that yesterday, well I think I did,\" Tom said to himself. \"Maybe I'm stuck in a time loop. No that doesn't make sense, I can change things. I can change things!!\n\n\"What should I change. Maybe not show up for work, or um, but this could have side effects. My best course of action would be to get out of the loop. It all seems to start with my boss asking me for the report.\"\n\nTom spent the remainder of his day at work trying to complete his report. He was so sure that this would break the loop. He went home with the report that night because he wasn't quite done and slaved through the night completing and perfecting it. He went to bed very tired and very sure that he had broken the loop.\n\nBeep. Beep. Beep.\n\nSomething felt different. Oh yes, he'd broken the loop. He went to work and presented the report without being asked at his boss's desk.\n\n\"Finally!\" said his boss.\n\n\"Finally?\"\n\n\"Yeah, next time don't let this take three days.\"\n\n"
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[WP] You were bitten by a vampire when you were six, most vampires hunt in nightclubs.... this is not an option for you
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"Having to hunt creatively, luckily most cattle have a soft spot for children, the lost and confused child wondering the streets, the terrified child banging at their door screaming \"please help me it's going to get me\" though that last one works better with a partner to be the\"it\" and you have to finish before the cops show up.",
"It was a good week. A beautiful night. The air held that freshness that comes as the seasons shift from summer to autumn. It was the sort of weather that energized you when you stepped outside, put an extra bounce in your step. There was already a bit of electricity, though, so the cool breeze that hit Henry's face as he stepped outside just added to the excitement.\n\nTwo familiar faces greeted him as he bound down the steps from his apartment building. One of those faces belonged to Jesse, who leaned against a car parked on the street. He was aloof to the other's conversation, casually rubbing his tongue across his teeth in anticipation. He smiled at Henry.\n\nThe other, Aaron, stood on the sidewalk impatiently with his arms crossed. He was ranting about something Henry couldn't hear. He did not smile. As Henry walked up to them, he said, \"Hey boys. Ready to do this?\"\n\nAaron rolled his eyes. He does 'this' every night. He was always ready to roll. \"Yah, man, we've been waiting. What took so long?\"\n\nJesse put an arm on Aaron's shoulder as if to calm him. He stepped off the car, onto the sidewalk, and smiled at Henry. \"It's not like we're in a hurry, right? We've got all night and then some.\"\n\nThe trio started down the street, Jesse and Henry walking side-by-side with Aaron pulling up the rear. Aaron said, \"I'm hungry, you know.\"\n\nHenry said, \"How long were you guys down here? Jesse only texted me a few minutes ago.\"\n\n\"Not long at all. He's just impatient,\" Jesse said.\n\n\"Alright, then shut the fuck up, Aaron. We're going already.\"\n\nAaron smiled and punched Henry's shoulder. \"Yah, alright. Someone's ready for the show, huh?\"\n\nHenry said, \"I am! It's my first time, and I'm tired of living by proxy.\" He slowed down enough that he was walking next to Aaron and added, \"And tonight's going to be huge.\"\n\nJesse had spent much of the last few years helping Henry cope with his particular situation. Since Henry was too young and couldn't get into bars or nightclubs, Jesse often had to help him find less-than-ideal ways to satiate his thirst. So, when he spoke, he often did it with the tone of a caretaker. He felt responsible for Henry after a fashion.\n\nHe said, \"It's not going to be 'huge.' It's your first time. You need to take it slow. There's an artform to it, you know? It's not like the dens I took you to when you were younger where you could just walk up to whomever you wanted and feed.\"\n\nHenry said, \"I know, Jesse. I just mean we need to make tonight count. Aaron knows what I'm talking about. Don't ya?\" \n\nThe older vampire smiled in a way that revealed his fangs. \"Of course I know what you mean, and so does Jesse. He just likes to play it safe. He thinks the more comotion we cause the more likely someone will catch wind of our actions.\" Aaron looked at Jesse as he said, \"But you know as well as I do that's never happened before, and we've certainly wreaked enough havoc in our day.\"\n\nJesse said, \"Better to take it easy and let Henry get his teeth wet. This is a local spot for him. He could be a regular.\"\n\nAs they reached the end of the block and turned the corner, the atmosphere changed. Music that had been faintly in the background before became far more prominent. They could hear men and women talking and laughing. The street that stretched out before them turned from the dark, drab brownstones they had been walking past to a lively affair with hot dog stands, street lights, and foot traffic. They passed multiple clubs with young men and women lined up outside, ropes to separate them from the passing pedestrians, and bouncers paid to be ugly. \n\nHenry walked down the street often but he was never more curious than in that moment. With hunger in his voice, he said, \"Why aren't we stopping? Any of these will do!\" \n\nAaron and Jesse looked at each other. Jesse said, \"No, they won't. You'll learn it's important to be selective about where you go. You don't want to be too eager. You pick the wrong place and you end up hanging out with a bunch of thin-blooded vegeterians.\"\n\nEventually they came to a place that seemed to be to Aaron's liking. He stopped, sniffed the air, and gave the building a once over. Jesse, the junior of the two, moved to the back of the line with Henry, a tacit acceptance of the elder's decision. \n\nThe building itself was unremarkable and probably served as a warehouse of some kind during the day. The side Henry was standing next to had full-sized windows that stretched around the corner, but every panel of glass was covered in advertisements for concerts or beer. He couldn't see much in the small cracks of glass except for the occasional flash of a neon light. The three of them stood in silence as the line slowly grew shorter, and a thick cloud of anticipation settled over them.\n\nThe bouncer was a Samoan man with a facial tattoo. He was sitting on a black barstool but was too large to pull all the way up, so he supported himself on one leg. He took I.D.s in one hand and shined a flashlight on them with the other, never spending more than a couple seconds before nodding his head and ushering the young crowd into the dark club. Henry was the first of the three to approach and had his I.D. out and ready. The Samoan took it without a word, shined his flashlight and nodded toward the door. As Henry reached to take his I.D. back, the bouncer pulled it back for another look and said, \"Wait.\"\n\nHenry's mouth was watering as he saw the shadows of men and women dancing not five feet from him.\n\nJesse came up behind him, looked at the Samoan and said, \"What's wrong?\"\n\n\"This is a fake.\" He handed the I.D. back to Henry and added, \"You can't come in unless you've got a real I.D.\" \n\nJesse looked at Henry and said, \"Why would you give him a fake I.D.? Where's your real license?\"\n\nSighing, Henry said, \"I don't turn 21 for another couple of weeks. I figured it was close enough and got a fake just in case.\"\n\nAaron growled. Jesse turned to make his plea to the bouncer, but the man was already waving them off. \"Get out of here. Come back when you're old enough kid.\"\n\nHenry said, \"Sir, I am old enough. I'm older than you realize. I just need to get in for the night. My friend here,\" and he gestured toward Aaron, \"is only in town for the night and we wanted to take him out and have a good time.\"\n\nAnother bouncer, probably disturbed by the lack of movement, came outside. \"What's the problem?\"\n\nThe first guy looked at him and said, \"This clown couldn't wait two weeks to turn 21. Tried to get in tonight.\"\n\nHenry said, \"Sir...\"\n\nThe 2nd bouncer stepped up to Henry, towering over him by several feet. \"Get out of here, kid. You're holding up the line.\"\n\nHenry's stomach rumbled. \"You don't understand. I can't leave now. We're already here, and we're hungry. Just let us in.\"\n\nThe Samoan laughed. \"This ain't a McDonald's, sport. It's a fucking nightclub. And letting in three dudes would mess up the ratio anyway.\" He was trying to usher in the ladies behind Aaron in line, but Aaron was no longer in the mood for games.\n\nHenry was at a loss for words. He looked at the bouncer in front of him, a six and half feet tall specimen. He looked at Jesse, unsure of his next move. Jesse looked back at Aaron, who nodded only slightly. \n\nHenry saw the acknowledgement and said, \"I guess I'm not going to be a regular here after all.\" With that, he lunged at the intimidating man in front of him. Despite the difference in size, Henry had no trouble knocking the man to the ground as he sunk his teeth into the man's neck. \n\nJesse and Aaron reacted in an instant, leaping onto the Samoan, who was already balanced precariously on his stool. The vampires dug their teeth into the man and feasted.\n\nThe crowd behind them dispersed into screams of panic and terror. As the streets emptied, the two bouncers cried out for help. Aaron's teeth sunk into the Samoan's neck a bit deeper with every cry. The three vampires had their fill. Blood filled the cracks of the sidewalk and flowed into the street. The music inside the club paused for a moment only to change to a faster beat. The people inside cheered. ",
"\"Where's your daddy?\" The man said, adjusting his glasses, hands trembling with anticipation. The child in front of him remained silent, staring down at the teddy bear in his arms. \n\n\"Come on now, don't be shy.\" The man laughed with an edge of desperation. \"Why don't you come to my car?\" \"I can take you back home, to your mommy and your daddy! — I have lots of candy too!\" He added, in a high tone, which drew the attention of an old woman who sat reading a magazine a few benches away. \n\nHe waved at her, and smiled with that same irritating anxiety. \"Come, let's go!\" He grabbed the boy's arm, but he didn't protest. The man never imagined how easy this would be. \"My, you are so cold.\" He dragged him along, like a ragdoll, through the park, and inside an old black van in the empty parking lot, illuminated only by a flickering streetlight. \n\nOnce inside, the man removed the glasses and sighed, then placed a hand over his mouth. He looked out the window of the car, his neck exposed, glistening under the light. The child licked his lips, in anticipation of the man's next move, tried to control the hunger deep inside his belly. \n\nThen he heard it, the door on his side opening. \"Jesus Christ, he's even younger than the last one.\" Exclaimed the old woman from before. The child stared at her, eyes wide open, and then at the man, who gave him an apologetic look. \"Sorry, kid,\" He said, sticking a syringe in his neck, \" But we can't have you running around like this.\" \n\nDarkness.\n\n\n\"When will he wake up?\" \n\n\"I don't know, maybe a day from now, depends. The dose isn't intended for children, it'll leave him with a motherfucker of a headache, if I have to guess.\" \n\n\"Language.\" The old woman grimaced.\n\n\"Alright. It'll leave him with a motherflippin' son of a bitch headache.\"\n\n\"I don't know why we got assigned together.\" She mumbled, under her breath. \n\n\"God's plan, God's plan. You're the Van Helsing to my Blade, remember?\" He said, opening a can of beer, \"Little bastard was smart, I'll give him that! Attracting pedos, that's a new one.\" \n\nThe old woman raised a brow, nodding thoughtfully. She resumed her embroidery, looking warmly at the child that slept peacefully in their couch, by the fireplace, and let the silence of the late night settle."
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Some possible implications to think about-
People would know if they were with their mates, would this effect marriages or happiness within society?
What would it feel like to never have real privacy?
How would people lie, or prevent over sharing or resentment?
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[WP] Soul mates can share, or even take from, emotions and sensations with each other.
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[
"My first response to a [WP] ever. Excuse the bad writing. Please provide tips for future improvements!\n\nI don't know what is happening to me, it is 3 am in the morning, I'm in bed, wide awake, just woken up by the strangest sensation I have ever experienced. I'm mad, sad and feeling very cold while sweating in the full summer. My wife, which I have been soulmates with for twenty years is sleeping next to me. These feelings send me back to the first years of our marriage and I start to wonder if she is dreaming, so I wake her to ask if shes having a bad dream. She responds with a nah and turns around to continue her well deserved sleep. This doesn't satisfy my feelings and I decide to go down and get something to drink. While I walk down the stairs I feel like dying inside and fall from the last three steps at the same time I pull all the coats down that hang right next to the stairs to just get a handle on the trip. I start to cry because the sensation just vanishes and my ankle hurts like hell. I get to the kitchen and get the icepacks from the fridge. I turn on the TV to keep my mind off of things and see that an airplane just crashed in the Atlantic Ocean."
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[WP] As you pick up a rock to skip If over a lake, you hear a voice say, " Don't throw me! I'm a god!"
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[
"I stared at the grey hunk of stone, aghast. \n\n\"Did you hear me, my child? I am a god, and I would appreciate being treated as one.\"\n\n\"Who is there!? Show yourself!\" I cried, as I scanned the perimeter.\n\n\"My child, please I will help you with whatever you wish. Money? Men? Power?\"\n\nStaring at the rock I realized that either it was telling the truth, or I was going insane. \n\n\"You can grant me a wish? Are you a genie?\"\n\n\"Perhaps you would enjoy some smarts? I am Bralok the god of rocks. Please, I will not drown but it is really boring to sit at the bottom of a lake.\"\n\n\"Oh.\" Unsure of how to react, I reply, \"Well, would you like to be my friend then?\"\n\nIf a rock could look stunned... Well, it really did not react physically, but I felt it was there.\n\n\"I have never had a friend. Rocks are a solitary species. I suppose I did say that I would grant your request. Alright, well my name is Bralok; what is yours?\"\n\n\"My name is Tera, nice to meet you Bralok.\""
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[WP] A new technological breakthrough at CERN allows humans to access interdimensions
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[
"\"Shut it down. Now\"\n\nThe control room at CERN was empty apart from 2 people. Professor Sagard, and her assistant, Karel Wojtek.\n\n\"Chris and Pamela...they....they are still in there!\"\n\n\"Shut it down, or ill do it myself. They are *dead* Karel, you know that. Shut it down and we can count the cost.\"\n\nKarel reluctantly activated the shut down protocol. The tell tale hum of the fusion reactor powering down began to shake the room. The screech as the plasma gas cooled deafened them both, and then, as if nothing had taken place, silence. \n\n\"I am sorry, Karel. We should never have started this experiment in the first place. Humans are not meant to exist outside of 4 dimensions. They would not have suffered.\"\n\n\"I hope you are right, Sagard. I just lost two of my friends. I met then 12 years ago today. I ...I need to go home.\"\n\nKarel walked out of the control room like a broken man, staring into the middle distance. The \"red alert\" sirens were still swirling, casting eerie reddish orange lightbeams across the facility. The silent alarm was tripped, and in 5 or so minutes, the NATO quick reaction force would descend on CERN and it would all be over for the PRISM team.\n\nTheir experiment to open a new dimension to humanity had succeeded, but it rapidly spiralled out of their control, and it had cost the lives of two of their most gifted researchers. \n\n\"We were so close...\"\n\nSagard looked at the cctv footage of the event horizon, when it opened at the focal point of the experiment laser. It was barely the size of a basketball, perfectly white and spherical. It filled the room with bright light, the team of researchers stood metres away behind a bulletproof glass screen. Suddenly, the sphere grew in size to the size of a car and then the horrific events unfolded.\n\nThe two people closest to the glass began to disintegrate. Particle by particle, atom by atom. They noticed and jumped back from the glass but it was too late. Some kind of energy from a different dimension had effected them, and their bodies began to disappear infront of them. They first lost a hand, then a foot, then their legs began to disappear. Then it sped up rapidly, and they exploded into billions of particles, which were then sucked into the new dimension. The portal stayed open, the room around it began to also dissolve. Everything was dis-assembling at the molecular level. Even the laws of physics seemed to be eroded. Pipes exploded and the debris, instead of dropping to the floor and losing energy, flew into the air and kept rebounding, harder and faster from the sides of the test chamber. They were *gaining* energy, not losing it. Was entropy reversed in this new dimension?!\n\nThen the CCTV footage ended, the camera had dissolved and been sucked into the portal too. They hit the emergency shut down sequence and the portal closed.\n\nThe door to the office opened, and in strode a NATO squad, armed with plasma tipped loaded rifles. They did a clean sweep of the room and wrestled Sagard to the ground. The big soldier who had her pinned to the floor lifted her up single handedly and placed her hands in cable ties, then sat her down at a desk chair.\n\n\"CLEAR!\"\n\nIn walked a g-man, in fatigues, carrying a briefcase and a pistol in a holster. He had grey hair but a young face, with piercing brown eyes and a stern jaw, covered in pockmarks, perhaps from a war wound.\n\n\"Good morning Professor Sagard. I am afraid you are under arrest for now. We need to question you on how this happened, and what possible consequences this has for our existence.\"\n\n\"You have no idea what we are dealing with here. We had no idea it would do that. You gave us permission to make a breach. You *backed* us with the funding. Is this what NATO does to it's scientists!\"\n\n\"No, Professor Sagard. NATO protects its own. However, we have reason to believe you are not who you say you are.\"\n\n\"What?!\"\n\n\"Take a close look at the cctv footage. Watch it closely, at the 3 minute mark, when the portal opens. Your behind that glass, with the people that were killed. The camera you have the footage from was destroyed, but the test chamber has backup cctv systems. Keep watching...\"\n\nThe footage showed the same thing, the horrific deaths of two of their researchers. Sagard stood still, shaking. She remembered that. What she didnt remember is feinting and being dragged, head first into the portals gravity and being removed from this dimension. Simultaneously, she re-appeared behind the glass instantly and then ran to the test chamber door to exit.\n\n\"What the...\"\n\n\"Your not Professor Sagard, erm...Professor Sagard. You are, to all intents purposes, an Alien. Until such time as we can deduce how and what happened, you will be transferred to a secure facility. As an Alien, you will be accorded all rights and privileges afforded to your status and a representative from our government and people will be here to explain in detail what will happen, and how we can communicate effectively between our species. Oddly enough, I believe you understand English perfectly so that will not be an issue....\"\n\nAs they took her away from the control room, without a fuss, the tell tale hum of the fusion reactor began to shake the room again. It was powering up. But that should be impossible. The fuel was ejected and neutralised. It was empty. They had used their last fuel pellets up putting enough energy in the system to open the portal. How could it be possible?\n\n\"General. That noise, that is the Fusion Reactor. It's starting up. I just shut it down, its empty, it should not be doing that....\"\n\n\"Alpha team, investigate. Split pattern Y through Z, isolate the power source. If its a breach, evacuate. No one else dies here today.\"\n\nA scratchy radio voice acknowledged the command.\n\n---------\n\nCaptain Luc and his team opened the door to the reactor chamber beneath the control centre, some 100 metres above them, protected by solid granite. The doors were massive, pneumatically operated blast proof metal and concrete behemoths, designed to contain a nuclear blast from the reactor if it ever failed. It took 2 minutes for it to open.\n\nWhen the door opened enough for them to sneak inside, the team leader threw in a camera bot. A small spider like robot able to be controlled from a visor connected to a remote unit. It was empty inside.\n\n\"Clear, General. Attempting manual shut down.\"\n\nCaptain Luc walked over to the emergency shut down terminal, turned the keys and pulled the shut off lever. Nothing happened. He tried it again. Nothing happened.\n\n\"Negative on the shut down sequence, it isn't broken, it's just not working.\"\n\n\"General, that should not be possible. That lever activates a mechanical system that dumps the fuel from the reactor into coolant reservoirs. It doesnt rely on electronics. The shut down pneumatics are encased in concrete and only accessible from the roof, which you have to extend a retractable floor, only activated by the keys, hanging around my neck. Something is not right.\"\n\nJust then, the test chamber illuminated with white light, for perhaps 3 or 4 seconds, then went dark again. The QRF team and Sagard ran to the window. Below them, shrouded in vapor, were two people, huddled together, naked, on the floor.\n\nIt was the researchers. They were alive.\n\n\"General! They are alive! Oh my God. You have to help them. Get a team in there, they are alive! Look!\"\n\n\"Take the Alien to the holding cells, stun her if she becomes resistant. Authorisation code XY91CCV. I am sorry, but we can't take the risk.\n\n\"Take what risk?! They are human! So am I! This is madness! What the hell is going on. What are you doing?!\"\n\nThe two researchers below were screaming for help. \n\n\"General?!\"\n\n\"Beta Team, your up. Neutralise and contain. Authorisation code XY91CCV. Prosecute. Keeps comms up, check in every minute. Go.\"\n\nFour soldiers from the team descended the stairs to the test chamber.\n\n\"General! You can't kill them! They are human! They are HUMAN! NO!\"\n\nSagard lashed out at the soldier holding her. She felt a sharp smack on the back of her neck and she blacked out.\n\nThe team descended the stairs, opened the test chamber doors. They looked at each other, then the researchers, shivering and alone. Then, they levelled their weapons, activated their laser sights, and unloaded a clip.\n\nThe screams from the two researchers quickly fell silent. A few seconds pass.\n\n\"Negative impact. Repeat, negative impact...what....what the fuck.\"\n\nThe two researchers were huddled next to each other. Chris looked up at the soldiers, he wasn't hurt a bit. Not a scratch. He felt normal. He looked at Pamela, she was fine. Somehow, 300 odd bullets had either missed them all, or they were firing blanks.\n\nThey weren't firing blanks. Stunted bullets lay on the floor, squashed into tiny flat pellets. They had hit, but neither Chris nor Pamela had felt a thing. Were they impervious to bullets? Chris didn't remember anything about where they had gone, just the horrific experience of watching his body dissolve before his eyes. He could remember what had happened, so he wasn't \"dead\", but was this reality, \"real?\"\n\nThe soldiers, worried, backed off a little.\n\n\"Switch to Plasma rounds, fire at will.\"\n\nThe soldiers changed magazines and fired again. Chris ducked down and felt bullets hit him in the arm, head, shoulder and ankle. Except he felt no pain, just a numbness where they hit for a second, which then dissipated. All around him, small explosions of swirling flames erupted and died out as the bullets detonated on impact, but did no harm. \n\n\"Ammunition depleted. Negative affect sir. We are pulling out..\"\n\n\n"
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[WP] After many thousands of years, you are the first person to escape hell. After marinating in it's fiery energies for so long you're almost as strong as the devil himself. But you just wanna live a normal life back on earth.
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[
"I thought I escaped. The centuries I took toiling, battling demons and devils who possessed the lands of hell. I sought power for freedom and obtained it as the demons had. It felt like an eternity before I felt the touch of nature, or even the gentle caress of a breeze. \n\nAnd yet, now that I am free. Every step I take burns the lands and robs it of life. Every breath I take scorches the air and every move I make only brings suffering to all. \n\nIt dawned on me. I did not escape hell. I brought it with me. ",
"I thought I escaped. The centuries I took toiling, battling demons and devils who possessed the lands of hell. I sought power for freedom and obtained it as the demons had. It felt like an eternity before I felt the touch of nature, or even the gentle caress of a breeze. \n\nAnd yet, now that I am free. Every step I take burns the lands and robs it of life. Every breath I take scorches the air and every move I make only brings suffering to all. \n\nIt dawned on me. I did not escape hell. I brought it with me. ",
"\tI pulled myself forward slowly crawling through scorching coals and searing flames. I continue ever onwards. For too long I have lived in punishment, my crimes were theft and being godless. I did not deserve my punishment and soon, very soon I will be free. \n\tI extended my hand forward, my bones exposed from the years of pain and torture. I reached it upwards and pushed my hand through the Earth above me. I felt the sun hit what was left of my skin and for the first time in millennia I felt warmth instead of burning heat. I shoved my other hand through with more excitement I had ever felt in my first life. I pulled myself out onto the Earth, I saw the green grass and the tall trees around me I crawled until I was completely out of the hole I had made and looked straight up at the sun. Gazing at it with longing, no longer will I burn for crimes whose victims corpses have been rotting for ages. \n\tI stood up, and looked around me overwhelmed with emotion. I had done it. I was free. I looked at the glowing hole in the ground I had left behind and waved my hand. The hole closed up and the ground looked as if it had never been disturbed. One of the very few perks of burning in hell was the constant flow of magic and the never ending supply of witches to teach you their craft. \n\tI looked at my arms and body, I thought long and hard about who I wanted to be now. I decided I would be shorter but good looking with sandy blond hair and green eyes. I channeled my energy into my limbs and felt heat spread through my once numb appendages. They began forming flesh before my eyes, first bone repairs then muscles then my layers of skin. I watched my nails quickly grow from my lunula. I screwed my face up to stare at my forehead and watch my sandy blond bangs meet my eyebrows and stop growing. I smiled with teeth for the first time since the fall of the Roman empire. \n\tI look down at my new body made to my liking. I began walking down the hill and saw a modern city. Other damned souls from the current era had told us all about how they lived, with green paper as money and burning oil to move metal machines. I was prepared to blend in and begin my life anew. \n\tI made my way down the hill towards the city and caught my first glimpse of those metal machines. They moved faster than anything I had ever seen and there were so many of them. I continued until I saw a sign marking the entrance to the city. I could not make out the markings, until I remembered a nifty spell one of the witches had taught me. I snapped my fingers and before my eyes the runes transformed themselves into legible wording for me and me alone. It read “Welcome to Tehachapi!”. I made note that I would need to always keep that spell active if I was going to talk to the locals. I glanced at the nearest locals and saw that they had a face of horror on. I panicked. Had I given myself horns by mistake? Was it clear to these advanced peoples that I had escaped from eternal damnation?! I glanced down in horror and saw the problem immediately. My feet and legs were bare and I was showing my man hood for the whole world to see. I quickly ran into the nearest ally and hid. Laying on the ground was a magazine I think is what they call these sleek paper books. And on it was a man dressed in the clothing of the time. I quickly conjured a pair of “blue jeans” and a blue “polo shirt” and slipped them on. \n\tI exited the opposite way I entered so that the woman would not have to face me again. I continued walking down the street until I heard a large chirp. I spun around as fast as I could looking for a massive bird of prey. But all I saw was one of those moving metal machines with colorful lights sitting on its roof. This machine gave off a loud woop woop and I turned and continued walking. Chuckling at the flamboyance of these modern-day humans. “Hey buddy!” A man in the machine yelled. I turned at stared at him now confused on why he was talking to me. “Hello.” I said slowly. “I’m going to need you to answer a few questions” the man said. He was now stepping out of his machine and I saw that he was wearing a blue uniform with patches all over it. Perhaps he’s one of those damn cops the other damned souls always talked about? But then why does his badge and car say police officer?? I stared at him lost in my own thoughts and he snapped his fingers in my face. “Hey listen up pal, I got a tip that a man that looks a lot like you was running around naked. Would you happen to know anything about that?” he said pulling out a pen and parchment. \n\t“Who are you?” I said dumbly. “Listen here pal Im the cop and I’ll do the talkin” he sounded annoyed. So he is a cop. Great I’ve been back on Earth for an hour and I’ve already confronted one of the most dangerous warlords in this area! I swallowed hard. “I must go now” I said turning around. \n\t“Hey wait! Where do you think you’re going” He yelled. I turned around to see him grabbing something strapped to his hip. Gun! I thought to myself it’s a gun! They told all about those they shoot little metal beads so fast it tears you up on the inside and you die more often than not. I panicked and waved my hand. \n\tA loud BOOM!, was all the could be heard after I had done that. My ears were ringing and were the “cop” had stood there was a rabbit. I let out a sigh of relief, glad I didn’t get bunny and vaporization mixed up. I waved my hand and the bunny melded into a sleeping “cop”. I quickly hurried off. \n\tAs I walked I changed a few features on my face and my hair color. I plan on living here and I don’t need another war lord after me. \n\n",
"\tI pulled myself forward slowly crawling through scorching coals and searing flames. I continue ever onwards. For too long I have lived in punishment, my crimes were theft and being godless. I did not deserve my punishment and soon, very soon I will be free. \n\tI extended my hand forward, my bones exposed from the years of pain and torture. I reached it upwards and pushed my hand through the Earth above me. I felt the sun hit what was left of my skin and for the first time in millennia I felt warmth instead of burning heat. I shoved my other hand through with more excitement I had ever felt in my first life. I pulled myself out onto the Earth, I saw the green grass and the tall trees around me I crawled until I was completely out of the hole I had made and looked straight up at the sun. Gazing at it with longing, no longer will I burn for crimes whose victims corpses have been rotting for ages. \n\tI stood up, and looked around me overwhelmed with emotion. I had done it. I was free. I looked at the glowing hole in the ground I had left behind and waved my hand. The hole closed up and the ground looked as if it had never been disturbed. One of the very few perks of burning in hell was the constant flow of magic and the never ending supply of witches to teach you their craft. \n\tI looked at my arms and body, I thought long and hard about who I wanted to be now. I decided I would be shorter but good looking with sandy blond hair and green eyes. I channeled my energy into my limbs and felt heat spread through my once numb appendages. They began forming flesh before my eyes, first bone repairs then muscles then my layers of skin. I watched my nails quickly grow from my lunula. I screwed my face up to stare at my forehead and watch my sandy blond bangs meet my eyebrows and stop growing. I smiled with teeth for the first time since the fall of the Roman empire. \n\tI look down at my new body made to my liking. I began walking down the hill and saw a modern city. Other damned souls from the current era had told us all about how they lived, with green paper as money and burning oil to move metal machines. I was prepared to blend in and begin my life anew. \n\tI made my way down the hill towards the city and caught my first glimpse of those metal machines. They moved faster than anything I had ever seen and there were so many of them. I continued until I saw a sign marking the entrance to the city. I could not make out the markings, until I remembered a nifty spell one of the witches had taught me. I snapped my fingers and before my eyes the runes transformed themselves into legible wording for me and me alone. It read “Welcome to Tehachapi!”. I made note that I would need to always keep that spell active if I was going to talk to the locals. I glanced at the nearest locals and saw that they had a face of horror on. I panicked. Had I given myself horns by mistake? Was it clear to these advanced peoples that I had escaped from eternal damnation?! I glanced down in horror and saw the problem immediately. My feet and legs were bare and I was showing my man hood for the whole world to see. I quickly ran into the nearest ally and hid. Laying on the ground was a magazine I think is what they call these sleek paper books. And on it was a man dressed in the clothing of the time. I quickly conjured a pair of “blue jeans” and a blue “polo shirt” and slipped them on. \n\tI exited the opposite way I entered so that the woman would not have to face me again. I continued walking down the street until I heard a large chirp. I spun around as fast as I could looking for a massive bird of prey. But all I saw was one of those moving metal machines with colorful lights sitting on its roof. This machine gave off a loud woop woop and I turned and continued walking. Chuckling at the flamboyance of these modern-day humans. “Hey buddy!” A man in the machine yelled. I turned at stared at him now confused on why he was talking to me. “Hello.” I said slowly. “I’m going to need you to answer a few questions” the man said. He was now stepping out of his machine and I saw that he was wearing a blue uniform with patches all over it. Perhaps he’s one of those damn cops the other damned souls always talked about? But then why does his badge and car say police officer?? I stared at him lost in my own thoughts and he snapped his fingers in my face. “Hey listen up pal, I got a tip that a man that looks a lot like you was running around naked. Would you happen to know anything about that?” he said pulling out a pen and parchment. \n\t“Who are you?” I said dumbly. “Listen here pal Im the cop and I’ll do the talkin” he sounded annoyed. So he is a cop. Great I’ve been back on Earth for an hour and I’ve already confronted one of the most dangerous warlords in this area! I swallowed hard. “I must go now” I said turning around. \n\t“Hey wait! Where do you think you’re going” He yelled. I turned around to see him grabbing something strapped to his hip. Gun! I thought to myself it’s a gun! They told all about those they shoot little metal beads so fast it tears you up on the inside and you die more often than not. I panicked and waved my hand. \n\tA loud BOOM!, was all the could be heard after I had done that. My ears were ringing and were the “cop” had stood there was a rabbit. I let out a sigh of relief, glad I didn’t get bunny and vaporization mixed up. I waved my hand and the bunny melded into a sleeping “cop”. I quickly hurried off. \n\tAs I walked I changed a few features on my face and my hair color. I plan on living here and I don’t need another war lord after me. \n\n",
"My name? Well, I don't even have the slightest idea. I mean... civilization as most mortals know it simply didn't exist when I was living. In fact, if there was any way to refer to me it may have been the odd grunting noise. But for convenience's sake, the demons called me \"Kain\".\n\nFor so long, Hell was normal for me. The tortures, the skinnings and beatings... It was just another day for me. I don't even know what made that day any more different, down within the pit I called home.\n\nI gagged as the big one in charge turned over the silo, my daily bathing in excrement and urine. 'Good morning, Kain,' the devil said as he stood above me. 'Remember why you're here yet? Or will this go on for another day?'\n\nI couldn't say anything, just forced to hold my breath as more was poured over me. 'Too bad,' the devil said. 'I'd expect you to at the very *least* know. You're the first one in my hospitality. But you have changed, haven't you?'\n\nAs the silo was empty several demons pushed an enormous rock into the hole. I groaned I instinctively prepared to catch it before I was compressed downward. 'Boys, start jumping,' the devil said as the demons began their latest torment.\n\nI... don't know precisely what caused the snapping, either the chains around my wrists or the idea of what happened. Why I was *here*. And *I didn't deserve it!*\n\nThe demons screamed as I threw the rock out of the hole, landing on the ground heavily. One was even crushed when the boulder landed on him.\n\nI pulled myself up, my grotesque body a monument to my suffering. It was stained a deep crimson from how often I bled, a tail growing from how often my spine was pulled. Or that's how I remember it, I may simply have been changed by this cursed realm.\n\n'What do you think you're doing?' the devil yelled as he stormed towards me. 'Back in the hole!'\n\nI barely moved as the palm went across my face, but he merely screamed in pain and held his broken hand. 'Wait,' he tried to complain. 'How-!'\n\nI lifted him by the neck, strangling him where he stood. 'You,' I said angrily. 'You talked my brother into trying to kill me. When I thought him off in self-defense his head struck a nearby rock and you told God that *I* had murdered him in cold blood. I don't give a damn about you, I'm leaving.'\n\n'How?' Satan asked. 'There's no exit to Hell. And besides, you won't be getting out unless I, as the strongest demon in this forsaken realm, say so.'\n\n'That can be solved easily,' I said before grabbing his head with both of my hands and cracking his skull. He screamed the entire time as I pushed the walls of his brain inward, soon causing it to explode into gore before throwing him into my hole and lifting the boulder overhead and into the dirt below. 'Puny demon,' I said as I began my march out of Hell.\n\n---\n\n**Chapter 2 coming soon**",
"My name? Well, I don't even have the slightest idea. I mean... civilization as most mortals know it simply didn't exist when I was living. In fact, if there was any way to refer to me it may have been the odd grunting noise. But for convenience's sake, the demons called me \"Kain\".\n\nFor so long, Hell was normal for me. The tortures, the skinnings and beatings... It was just another day for me. I don't even know what made that day any more different, down within the pit I called home.\n\nI gagged as the big one in charge turned over the silo, my daily bathing in excrement and urine. 'Good morning, Kain,' the devil said as he stood above me. 'Remember why you're here yet? Or will this go on for another day?'\n\nI couldn't say anything, just forced to hold my breath as more was poured over me. 'Too bad,' the devil said. 'I'd expect you to at the very *least* know. You're the first one in my hospitality. But you have changed, haven't you?'\n\nAs the silo was empty several demons pushed an enormous rock into the hole. I groaned I instinctively prepared to catch it before I was compressed downward. 'Boys, start jumping,' the devil said as the demons began their latest torment.\n\nI... don't know precisely what caused the snapping, either the chains around my wrists or the idea of what happened. Why I was *here*. And *I didn't deserve it!*\n\nThe demons screamed as I threw the rock out of the hole, landing on the ground heavily. One was even crushed when the boulder landed on him.\n\nI pulled myself up, my grotesque body a monument to my suffering. It was stained a deep crimson from how often I bled, a tail growing from how often my spine was pulled. Or that's how I remember it, I may simply have been changed by this cursed realm.\n\n'What do you think you're doing?' the devil yelled as he stormed towards me. 'Back in the hole!'\n\nI barely moved as the palm went across my face, but he merely screamed in pain and held his broken hand. 'Wait,' he tried to complain. 'How-!'\n\nI lifted him by the neck, strangling him where he stood. 'You,' I said angrily. 'You talked my brother into trying to kill me. When I thought him off in self-defense his head struck a nearby rock and you told God that *I* had murdered him in cold blood. I don't give a damn about you, I'm leaving.'\n\n'How?' Satan asked. 'There's no exit to Hell. And besides, you won't be getting out unless I, as the strongest demon in this forsaken realm, say so.'\n\n'That can be solved easily,' I said before grabbing his head with both of my hands and cracking his skull. He screamed the entire time as I pushed the walls of his brain inward, soon causing it to explode into gore before throwing him into my hole and lifting the boulder overhead and into the dirt below. 'Puny demon,' I said as I began my march out of Hell.\n\n---\n\n**Chapter 2 coming soon**",
"The sound of raindrops reverberated thousands of times off of the cobbled streets and newly formed puddles. Rain water washed downwards into the drainage system below that housed some of the filth that was abundant in this day and age. As I walked down the street I looked at the pillars of metal, the towers which produces artificial light, or rather were supposed to. In the darkness I could see the shower by the the light given off by the only working lamp post on the block. Old stonewall buildings lined the streets of the ghetto, almost all inhabited but few with working power and water. Many buildings had shattered windows that did next to nothing to keeping out the outside elements. I looked into the dark broken homes and could feel the presence of those who squatted inside. Cold, hungry, and looking for a place to get out of the storm. There were those who simply stopped by to wait out the toxic rain, and others who called such desolate hobbles home. I would feel empathy for the poor and broken who lived there, if i had the ability to feel at all.\n\n The rain itself was reeked of the pollution of the machines; cars, planes, boats, and factories, each one adding their own style of filth to the world. The city was a dirty, filthy place, but only so much blame could be given to technology. I took in a breath and felt the poison of humanity fill my lungs. Among the smog and dirt in the air, i breathed in hatred, lust, pain, suffering, depression, loneliness, all of the garbage that that humans produced by themselves. I endured millennia of being subject to the emotions cast off by the others who shared my punishment, but such feelings were always accompanied by an overwhelming sense of pain and suffering. Both of which they deserved.\n\nI walked down the street, down and down the road of broken dreams and discarded fantasies. Down into the depths of the living hell humans had created for themselves in the time from which i could last call myself one of them. I used to be one of them, many of them believe that i am one, but i had abandoned any sense of humanity after i had escaped the wretched hole in the ground known as hell. After i escaped the prison which god had created especially for me.\n\nAs i walked i thought about myself, my place here in the living world, where people live and die, where life has meaning and is an activity rather than a dream. The thought was amusing, how everyone in hell only wished to escape, to go back to the living world rather than exist in a perpetual state of pain and agony. How all the lost souls believed so foolhardily that this world was better than the other. My train of thought was interrupted as i tasted something in the air. I tasted blood, and tears, sweat and fear and lust assaulted me in the dark street in which i strolled.\n\n I looked to my right where i had felt the foul taste coming from and saw just another house on the street. I looked farther, beyond the home, beyond the two orphans living inside, cuddling to stay warm, hoping to stay fed, stay alive. How little did the older one know that the younger, only aged seven and a half years, had died in her sleep just over an hour ago. I saw beyond this, beyond the house, beyond the the alleyway behind the house where rich men in suites traded money for drugs, to numb their senses to the rotten world around them. beyond the dogs, chained up to fences and forgotten about by the ones who chained them there, forced to die a slow death, forever haunted by the cruelty of humans. I saw beyond the couple, young and rich, drunk off of liqueur, umbrellas in hand. Not needing to fear rain, or darkness, or a lack of food because they had enough metal and paper to give them whatever they could want in life. A young man who had purposefully ordered an expensive wine at dinner in order to inebriate his date and fulfill his manly desire. A young woman who was planning on marrying the man to take his unearned inherited wealth for herself and then to go on and take it from as many lustful men as she can bed. I looked past large expensive homes, filled with those who cared only for themselves and would not give a penny away to anyone who needed it. I saw beyond, twelve blocks to the south in an unlit alleyway out of the pouring rain, where a man in a dark coat held a knife to the throat of a woman with his hand clasp over her mouth as he attempted to take all that she could offer.\n\n I saw this, tasted their emotions, heard her muffled cries for help, and felt a pang of disgust. I strode over there in a single stride. Through the darkness between the air, between the brick, between the night. I walked into the alleyway as he was attempting to unbutton her coat. I took an audible step and watched as he snapped his head towards me. He removed his hand from the girls mouth as he held his knife to her throat.\n\"Hey buddy, this right here is personal matter. I have something i need to, \"discus\" with this young gall. I suggest you leave before something unsightly happens. You get what I'm saying?\" He said\n\n\"Oh god please, please help! I'm begging you help me. Please!\" The woman cried. The man moved his knife against her neck and drew her blood from under her skin.\n\"I suggest you shut, up, and take what you deserve.\" He said. He licked a tear off of her cheek as she began to silently cry hysterically. I watched uninterested as the scene unfolded. The man had already left a bad taste in my mouth, and now he was attempting to give me an order. I decided i would make sure he would regret that.\n\n\"You disgust me.\" I said just loudly enough for him to hear.\n\n\"Oh yea tough guy, I Disgust you? I am Disgusting to you, huh? So what am I garbage, a piece of trash? Huh?\"\n\n\"No Derryl. You are not trash.\" I said. A look of confusion and fear came over his face.\n\n\"You know my name... Do i know you buddy?\" He said threateningly.\n\n\"You are not trash Derryl, because even trash has a place it belongs on this earth.\" I said. I could feel the rage emitting off of him, but underneath i could feel the fear rising.\n\"Trash belongs in a dump, a hole in the ground where it sits in its place among all the other trash in there. but filth like you Derryl, you don't belong in a hole. You belong in a pit.\"\n\n\"Hey man, you shut your mouth!\" He said. I ignored him.\n\n\"So, Derryl, you decided that you were going to abuse this woman because you wanted sex? Or was it because you wanted power. The power you lacked when John Monrowe, your step father, came home from work every day tired and angry, and beat you and your mother after he got drunk.\" I said.\n\n\"You Shut Up!\" He shouted. The knife he was holding was now shaking. I continued to talk.\n\n\"And one day after he came home and got more drunk then usual he pushed your mother down the stairs and broke her neck. After that you grabbed a broken beer bottle and stabbed your father in the throat, didn't you?\" He let go of the girl and ran at me with the knife. After two steps his head burst into flame and fell down and trashed on the ground until he no longer moved. I looked down at the chard remains without feeling anything as the woman slowly approached me.\n\n\"Thank you.\" She said. I looked at her and gave her a few words before i left.\n\"Find a safer place to walk at night.\" And then i left. \n\nSeveral blocks away a police report would be filed about a fire that started in the upper class neighborhood that burned down nearly every house on the block. The fire was started by a bush that had swerved to avoid a group of dogs with chains trailing behind them that were running across the street. Before the bus crashed into the home that started the fire it had hit a young couple who had lived in the neighborhood that had been walking home after a date. Miraculously the bus driver was unharmed and escaped the inferno that was his bus. Further down the the city another report would be filed for two Jon Doe's who had both od'd on a bad batch of heroin. And several blocks beyond that, something would happen that would go completely unnoticed by almost anyone on the earth. A little boy would wake up in the middle of the night in the arms of his sister, holding a loaf of bread and a bottle of water. In the morning he would try to explain to her that he didn't remember where he had gotten them, but regardless of any explanation he could give he wouldn't be able to explain the strange dream he had the night before, about going towards a white light and a man in a suite pulling him away from it.\n",
"The sound of raindrops reverberated thousands of times off of the cobbled streets and newly formed puddles. Rain water washed downwards into the drainage system below that housed some of the filth that was abundant in this day and age. As I walked down the street I looked at the pillars of metal, the towers which produces artificial light, or rather were supposed to. In the darkness I could see the shower by the the light given off by the only working lamp post on the block. Old stonewall buildings lined the streets of the ghetto, almost all inhabited but few with working power and water. Many buildings had shattered windows that did next to nothing to keeping out the outside elements. I looked into the dark broken homes and could feel the presence of those who squatted inside. Cold, hungry, and looking for a place to get out of the storm. There were those who simply stopped by to wait out the toxic rain, and others who called such desolate hobbles home. I would feel empathy for the poor and broken who lived there, if i had the ability to feel at all.\n\n The rain itself was reeked of the pollution of the machines; cars, planes, boats, and factories, each one adding their own style of filth to the world. The city was a dirty, filthy place, but only so much blame could be given to technology. I took in a breath and felt the poison of humanity fill my lungs. Among the smog and dirt in the air, i breathed in hatred, lust, pain, suffering, depression, loneliness, all of the garbage that that humans produced by themselves. I endured millennia of being subject to the emotions cast off by the others who shared my punishment, but such feelings were always accompanied by an overwhelming sense of pain and suffering. Both of which they deserved.\n\nI walked down the street, down and down the road of broken dreams and discarded fantasies. Down into the depths of the living hell humans had created for themselves in the time from which i could last call myself one of them. I used to be one of them, many of them believe that i am one, but i had abandoned any sense of humanity after i had escaped the wretched hole in the ground known as hell. After i escaped the prison which god had created especially for me.\n\nAs i walked i thought about myself, my place here in the living world, where people live and die, where life has meaning and is an activity rather than a dream. The thought was amusing, how everyone in hell only wished to escape, to go back to the living world rather than exist in a perpetual state of pain and agony. How all the lost souls believed so foolhardily that this world was better than the other. My train of thought was interrupted as i tasted something in the air. I tasted blood, and tears, sweat and fear and lust assaulted me in the dark street in which i strolled.\n\n I looked to my right where i had felt the foul taste coming from and saw just another house on the street. I looked farther, beyond the home, beyond the two orphans living inside, cuddling to stay warm, hoping to stay fed, stay alive. How little did the older one know that the younger, only aged seven and a half years, had died in her sleep just over an hour ago. I saw beyond this, beyond the house, beyond the the alleyway behind the house where rich men in suites traded money for drugs, to numb their senses to the rotten world around them. beyond the dogs, chained up to fences and forgotten about by the ones who chained them there, forced to die a slow death, forever haunted by the cruelty of humans. I saw beyond the couple, young and rich, drunk off of liqueur, umbrellas in hand. Not needing to fear rain, or darkness, or a lack of food because they had enough metal and paper to give them whatever they could want in life. A young man who had purposefully ordered an expensive wine at dinner in order to inebriate his date and fulfill his manly desire. A young woman who was planning on marrying the man to take his unearned inherited wealth for herself and then to go on and take it from as many lustful men as she can bed. I looked past large expensive homes, filled with those who cared only for themselves and would not give a penny away to anyone who needed it. I saw beyond, twelve blocks to the south in an unlit alleyway out of the pouring rain, where a man in a dark coat held a knife to the throat of a woman with his hand clasp over her mouth as he attempted to take all that she could offer.\n\n I saw this, tasted their emotions, heard her muffled cries for help, and felt a pang of disgust. I strode over there in a single stride. Through the darkness between the air, between the brick, between the night. I walked into the alleyway as he was attempting to unbutton her coat. I took an audible step and watched as he snapped his head towards me. He removed his hand from the girls mouth as he held his knife to her throat.\n\"Hey buddy, this right here is personal matter. I have something i need to, \"discus\" with this young gall. I suggest you leave before something unsightly happens. You get what I'm saying?\" He said\n\n\"Oh god please, please help! I'm begging you help me. Please!\" The woman cried. The man moved his knife against her neck and drew her blood from under her skin.\n\"I suggest you shut, up, and take what you deserve.\" He said. He licked a tear off of her cheek as she began to silently cry hysterically. I watched uninterested as the scene unfolded. The man had already left a bad taste in my mouth, and now he was attempting to give me an order. I decided i would make sure he would regret that.\n\n\"You disgust me.\" I said just loudly enough for him to hear.\n\n\"Oh yea tough guy, I Disgust you? I am Disgusting to you, huh? So what am I garbage, a piece of trash? Huh?\"\n\n\"No Derryl. You are not trash.\" I said. A look of confusion and fear came over his face.\n\n\"You know my name... Do i know you buddy?\" He said threateningly.\n\n\"You are not trash Derryl, because even trash has a place it belongs on this earth.\" I said. I could feel the rage emitting off of him, but underneath i could feel the fear rising.\n\"Trash belongs in a dump, a hole in the ground where it sits in its place among all the other trash in there. but filth like you Derryl, you don't belong in a hole. You belong in a pit.\"\n\n\"Hey man, you shut your mouth!\" He said. I ignored him.\n\n\"So, Derryl, you decided that you were going to abuse this woman because you wanted sex? Or was it because you wanted power. The power you lacked when John Monrowe, your step father, came home from work every day tired and angry, and beat you and your mother after he got drunk.\" I said.\n\n\"You Shut Up!\" He shouted. The knife he was holding was now shaking. I continued to talk.\n\n\"And one day after he came home and got more drunk then usual he pushed your mother down the stairs and broke her neck. After that you grabbed a broken beer bottle and stabbed your father in the throat, didn't you?\" He let go of the girl and ran at me with the knife. After two steps his head burst into flame and fell down and trashed on the ground until he no longer moved. I looked down at the chard remains without feeling anything as the woman slowly approached me.\n\n\"Thank you.\" She said. I looked at her and gave her a few words before i left.\n\"Find a safer place to walk at night.\" And then i left. \n\nSeveral blocks away a police report would be filed about a fire that started in the upper class neighborhood that burned down nearly every house on the block. The fire was started by a bush that had swerved to avoid a group of dogs with chains trailing behind them that were running across the street. Before the bus crashed into the home that started the fire it had hit a young couple who had lived in the neighborhood that had been walking home after a date. Miraculously the bus driver was unharmed and escaped the inferno that was his bus. Further down the the city another report would be filed for two Jon Doe's who had both od'd on a bad batch of heroin. And several blocks beyond that, something would happen that would go completely unnoticed by almost anyone on the earth. A little boy would wake up in the middle of the night in the arms of his sister, holding a loaf of bread and a bottle of water. In the morning he would try to explain to her that he didn't remember where he had gotten them, but regardless of any explanation he could give he wouldn't be able to explain the strange dream he had the night before, about going towards a white light and a man in a suite pulling him away from it.\n"
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[WP] Werewolves exist and you belong in one of the surviving clans, however you transform into dog breeds instead of the half wolf half human form humanity thinks happens. One day you get caught transforming in an alleyway near a populated road.
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"Simon looked both ways down the narrow, reeking alleyway before he tucked his belongings into the ratty backpack he always carried with him. A drainpipe nearby guttered and coughed rain onto the sloping concrete where it joined the rest of the water that ran down into the drains. Not far at the bottom of the alleyway, an elevated train went by, the people inside indistinct, and Simon twitched when he heard laughing from inside the bars nearby. He scratched his beard thoughtfully, wiry and untamed, then looked up at the plastic awning that covered the loading bay he was sat on the edge of. \n\nNot far away from him was a cardboard box, partially covered with tarpaulin. The man inside, Duke, his name; mumbled in quiet distress and Simon felt a pang of sympathy for the veteran. Just like so many homeless people in this damn city, Duke couldn’t get any rest from his past even in his dreams. A slight wind picked up, and water from a damaged gutter drummed madly on the opaque awning for a second before it returned to the occasional patter. Simon chewed his bottom lip, looked around and got up when he saw the camera lurking in the corner of the loading bay. Behind the dumpsters would have to do. \n\nThe reeking dumpster moved only reluctantly as Simon squeezed behind it, and closed his eyes for a moment to clear his thoughts. In a few moments, he would finally give way to what he’d been running away from. He looked down at his arms, soaked from the heavy drizzle, and even in the insipid light from the one working lamp in the alley he could see that his arms were covered in thick, wiry grey fur. As quietly as he could, Simon growled. His mouth had begun to distort, teeth warped and thickened as his skull reformed into a broader, more elongated shape and already the dumpster beside him looked more like some ancient behemoth. \n\nA rat went by, and his instincts bade him snap at it. The large, brown rodent squealed in pain as it was seized in small, strong jaws and shaken violently from side to side. Duke, who had just woken in a start at the sound of a rat being killed, looked up to see a small dog sniffing around the base of a dumpster. It was almost too large to be a terrier, Duke noted, and had upright ears with the sort of colouring that reminded him of his first dog, a border collie but it was somehow off. As if its proportions weren’t right. \n\n“Hey,” he called: “where’s your owner?”\n\nThe dog looked up, and Duke started back at the way its eyes glowed in the darkness, a strange honey colour that he didn’t think a dog could have. But it trotted down the alleyway a short distance and sniffed with interest at the base of a utilities pole. Duke got up and looked behind the dumpster, then frowned.\n\nHe knew he’d heard Simon moving around before, a lad who he’d recently seen around. His accent wasn’t from the area, but he seemed like a nice enough sort, if odd. But here was Simon’s backpack, alone. Just like everyone else, Simon knew how important it was to keep track of what belongings you did have. Duke had made sure to impress that on him, when he’d first seen the lad settling down for the night in a doorway, a good few months ago.\n\n“Simon!” Duke hissed, and the dog stopped in its tracks under the solitary light in the alleyway.\n\nDuke could generally tell when he was hallucinating, and when he wasn’t. But right now he wasn’t so sure. The dog seemed to be in the process of changing its shape. The dog’s hind legs looked a little too human at first – that was why it had seemed wrong to him. But as he stared, Duke could see the dog’s leg shift and warp, its ankle moving higher. The colouring of its fur became more distinct, and even through the patterning, Duke could tell it was definitely a cross between a terrier and a collie. \n\n“I ain’t hallucinating, am I?” Duke asked himself, as the dog cocked its head at him. \n\nHe slowly approached the dog, filthy hand outstretched. It had a short, upright tail that was nevertheless quite thickly furred and had a distinct white tip. And Duke was convinced that somehow behind those odd glowing eyes was a human intelligence. From the end of the alleyway came a loud, roaring laugh. Both Duke and the dog jerked their heads up and looked at the group of drunken revellers that had passed by the entrance to the alley. Now that Duke thought about it, he had seen this dog around quite a lot, as well. Usually it went after rats, with the single-minded determination of a terrier, but he’d fed it scraps whenever he managed to convince some of the restaurant workers to give him food that was going to be thrown out. \n\n“Simon?” Duke repeated, uncertainly. \n\nThe dog flinched and shivered, then shook its head as if it had been briefly stunned. Duke chewed one of his fingernails and reached out to pat the dog, and scratch it between the ears as he knew it liked. Its wiry topcoat was just as tough as ever, he noted, but even as it wagged its stumpy tail, Duke just couldn’t let his suspicion go.\n\n“Simon.” he said, again. \n\nHe fell back onto the alley floor as the dog yelped and started to quiver. The veteran scrambled back to hide behind one of the dumpsters as he watched its body grow and contort in the most unnatural way. Its fur seemed to vanish and as the dog jerked its head up to yelp and whine, Duke saw a human face start to take shape, for a moment with sharp teeth before they too, reshaped themselves into blunt, uneven human ones. \n\nCarefully he approached the shivering form that lay in the gutter, and pulled him out of the sickly glow of the light into an overhang protecting a loading bay. Duke sat himself down to the groaning man and pulled out a bottle of cheap vodka which he then took a long swig of. \n\n“The hell was that?” Duke asked of the miserable man. \n\nSimon rubbed his head in his hands and inhaled deeply before he shook his head. \n\n“How did you know calling my name would do that?” \n\n“I didn’t.” Duke said. He examined the bottle and offered it to Simon, who politely declined. “So, what the hell was that?”\n\n“I’m…” Simon scratched the back of his head. “I’m a werewolf.”\n\n“Didn’t look like no wolf to me, son.” Duke replied.\n\n“Well, no. That’s, well. You know how dogs evolved, right?” Simon said, and Duke nodded.\n\n“Yeah. From wolves. Started following humans around, humans started breedin’ them for specific things, so they got domesticated.”\n\n“Right.” Simon confirmed. “The thing is, werewolves did something similar. Living alongside humans for that long, their other forms changed so that it wouldn’t seem as strange to have another dog wandering through the village. Wolves tend to draw a lot of attention. An extra stray dog, not so much. It wasn’t deliberate, so I’ve been told.”\n\nDuke shuffled into a more comfortable position against the wall as the drainpipe nearby gurgled quietly. The cars that passed by the end of the alleyway were much fewer now, the hiss of their tyres barely audible from where they were sat. \n\n“But?” he prompted, and Simon tugged aimlessly at his sleeve for a moment before he continued.\n\n“Packs of werewolves started to look like certain breeds. Collies, mastiffs, terriers… there’s even a pack down near Florida that look like chihuahuas when they’ve transformed. And it tends to be a family thing. So a whole family might transform into huskies. And because it’s part of a pack’s identity, you end up with divisions. You can’t have a relationship with her, she’s a Bernard.”\n\n“Elitism.” Duke agreed. “I getcha. So families want to keep their packs ‘pure’.”\n\n“Right. And Herne help you if you’re unlucky enough to be born a mutt because both your parents were dormant carriers of different strains.” Simon remarked. He rested his head against the graffiti-covered wall. \n\n“I knew it from early on – my mom’s side is a known pack of border terriers, very proud of their purity. They thought mom was a human because she never showed any signs of it. Sometimes someone born into a pack isn’t even a dormant carrier, they’re human because they’re immune. And it’s hard to tell the difference. So they didn’t really care that she was in a relationship with a collie. Until I was born, and the first time a full moon hit I transformed. Last year, as soon as I hit my 18th birthday they told me I was out. Had to make my own way. They didn’t want a mutt screwing things up.” \n\n“What about your dad, then?” Duke frowned. \n\n“Oh, well. He didn’t want anyone to know that his firstborn was a mutt. So he abandoned my mom as soon as he realised I was a mutt, and I’ve never been able to get in contact with him. Don’t want to know him either.” Simon replied, with an angry snort.\n\n“Fuck me.” Duke muttered. “And I thought I had it bad.”\n\nSimon looked at him and gave a reassuring smile. “Don’t put yourself down, Duke. I’ve known all along that they wanted to get rid of me as soon as I was old enough. There’s a mutt pack in this city somewhere. I just need to get in contact with them.” \n\nDuke drummed his fingers against the empty bottle for a moment. “What’s it like being a werewolf, then?” \n\n“Not so bad, apart from what you’ve just seen. I’m allergic to silver – go figure, right? And I can’t drink alcohol or eat chocolate, because it makes me sick. But I heal real quick, without scars. Have to be careful I don’t bite anyone though.” \n\nDuke scratched his chin thoughtfully. “So… if you bit me, I’d be one of you?” \n\n“You’d be really sick for a few weeks while your body changes, like beyond the worst pain of your life, but yeah. Why?” Simon asked.\n\n“I'm used to being in a group, son. Only reason I'm here is because I can't cope without my brothers in arms. I got no family, and if they did, they wouldn't understand. I need to be part of something, you know?”\n\n“Are you sure about this?” Simon asked. “You can’t undo it if you don’t like it.”",
"Simon looked both ways down the narrow, reeking alleyway before he tucked his belongings into the ratty backpack he always carried with him. A drainpipe nearby guttered and coughed rain onto the sloping concrete where it joined the rest of the water that ran down into the drains. Not far at the bottom of the alleyway, an elevated train went by, the people inside indistinct, and Simon twitched when he heard laughing from inside the bars nearby. He scratched his beard thoughtfully, wiry and untamed, then looked up at the plastic awning that covered the loading bay he was sat on the edge of. \n\nNot far away from him was a cardboard box, partially covered with tarpaulin. The man inside, Duke, his name; mumbled in quiet distress and Simon felt a pang of sympathy for the veteran. Just like so many homeless people in this damn city, Duke couldn’t get any rest from his past even in his dreams. A slight wind picked up, and water from a damaged gutter drummed madly on the opaque awning for a second before it returned to the occasional patter. Simon chewed his bottom lip, looked around and got up when he saw the camera lurking in the corner of the loading bay. Behind the dumpsters would have to do. \n\nThe reeking dumpster moved only reluctantly as Simon squeezed behind it, and closed his eyes for a moment to clear his thoughts. In a few moments, he would finally give way to what he’d been running away from. He looked down at his arms, soaked from the heavy drizzle, and even in the insipid light from the one working lamp in the alley he could see that his arms were covered in thick, wiry grey fur. As quietly as he could, Simon growled. His mouth had begun to distort, teeth warped and thickened as his skull reformed into a broader, more elongated shape and already the dumpster beside him looked more like some ancient behemoth. \n\nA rat went by, and his instincts bade him snap at it. The large, brown rodent squealed in pain as it was seized in small, strong jaws and shaken violently from side to side. Duke, who had just woken in a start at the sound of a rat being killed, looked up to see a small dog sniffing around the base of a dumpster. It was almost too large to be a terrier, Duke noted, and had upright ears with the sort of colouring that reminded him of his first dog, a border collie but it was somehow off. As if its proportions weren’t right. \n\n“Hey,” he called: “where’s your owner?”\n\nThe dog looked up, and Duke started back at the way its eyes glowed in the darkness, a strange honey colour that he didn’t think a dog could have. But it trotted down the alleyway a short distance and sniffed with interest at the base of a utilities pole. Duke got up and looked behind the dumpster, then frowned.\n\nHe knew he’d heard Simon moving around before, a lad who he’d recently seen around. His accent wasn’t from the area, but he seemed like a nice enough sort, if odd. But here was Simon’s backpack, alone. Just like everyone else, Simon knew how important it was to keep track of what belongings you did have. Duke had made sure to impress that on him, when he’d first seen the lad settling down for the night in a doorway, a good few months ago.\n\n“Simon!” Duke hissed, and the dog stopped in its tracks under the solitary light in the alleyway.\n\nDuke could generally tell when he was hallucinating, and when he wasn’t. But right now he wasn’t so sure. The dog seemed to be in the process of changing its shape. The dog’s hind legs looked a little too human at first – that was why it had seemed wrong to him. But as he stared, Duke could see the dog’s leg shift and warp, its ankle moving higher. The colouring of its fur became more distinct, and even through the patterning, Duke could tell it was definitely a cross between a terrier and a collie. \n\n“I ain’t hallucinating, am I?” Duke asked himself, as the dog cocked its head at him. \n\nHe slowly approached the dog, filthy hand outstretched. It had a short, upright tail that was nevertheless quite thickly furred and had a distinct white tip. And Duke was convinced that somehow behind those odd glowing eyes was a human intelligence. From the end of the alleyway came a loud, roaring laugh. Both Duke and the dog jerked their heads up and looked at the group of drunken revellers that had passed by the entrance to the alley. Now that Duke thought about it, he had seen this dog around quite a lot, as well. Usually it went after rats, with the single-minded determination of a terrier, but he’d fed it scraps whenever he managed to convince some of the restaurant workers to give him food that was going to be thrown out. \n\n“Simon?” Duke repeated, uncertainly. \n\nThe dog flinched and shivered, then shook its head as if it had been briefly stunned. Duke chewed one of his fingernails and reached out to pat the dog, and scratch it between the ears as he knew it liked. Its wiry topcoat was just as tough as ever, he noted, but even as it wagged its stumpy tail, Duke just couldn’t let his suspicion go.\n\n“Simon.” he said, again. \n\nHe fell back onto the alley floor as the dog yelped and started to quiver. The veteran scrambled back to hide behind one of the dumpsters as he watched its body grow and contort in the most unnatural way. Its fur seemed to vanish and as the dog jerked its head up to yelp and whine, Duke saw a human face start to take shape, for a moment with sharp teeth before they too, reshaped themselves into blunt, uneven human ones. \n\nCarefully he approached the shivering form that lay in the gutter, and pulled him out of the sickly glow of the light into an overhang protecting a loading bay. Duke sat himself down to the groaning man and pulled out a bottle of cheap vodka which he then took a long swig of. \n\n“The hell was that?” Duke asked of the miserable man. \n\nSimon rubbed his head in his hands and inhaled deeply before he shook his head. \n\n“How did you know calling my name would do that?” \n\n“I didn’t.” Duke said. He examined the bottle and offered it to Simon, who politely declined. “So, what the hell was that?”\n\n“I’m…” Simon scratched the back of his head. “I’m a werewolf.”\n\n“Didn’t look like no wolf to me, son.” Duke replied.\n\n“Well, no. That’s, well. You know how dogs evolved, right?” Simon said, and Duke nodded.\n\n“Yeah. From wolves. Started following humans around, humans started breedin’ them for specific things, so they got domesticated.”\n\n“Right.” Simon confirmed. “The thing is, werewolves did something similar. Living alongside humans for that long, their other forms changed so that it wouldn’t seem as strange to have another dog wandering through the village. Wolves tend to draw a lot of attention. An extra stray dog, not so much. It wasn’t deliberate, so I’ve been told.”\n\nDuke shuffled into a more comfortable position against the wall as the drainpipe nearby gurgled quietly. The cars that passed by the end of the alleyway were much fewer now, the hiss of their tyres barely audible from where they were sat. \n\n“But?” he prompted, and Simon tugged aimlessly at his sleeve for a moment before he continued.\n\n“Packs of werewolves started to look like certain breeds. Collies, mastiffs, terriers… there’s even a pack down near Florida that look like chihuahuas when they’ve transformed. And it tends to be a family thing. So a whole family might transform into huskies. And because it’s part of a pack’s identity, you end up with divisions. You can’t have a relationship with her, she’s a Bernard.”\n\n“Elitism.” Duke agreed. “I getcha. So families want to keep their packs ‘pure’.”\n\n“Right. And Herne help you if you’re unlucky enough to be born a mutt because both your parents were dormant carriers of different strains.” Simon remarked. He rested his head against the graffiti-covered wall. \n\n“I knew it from early on – my mom’s side is a known pack of border terriers, very proud of their purity. They thought mom was a human because she never showed any signs of it. Sometimes someone born into a pack isn’t even a dormant carrier, they’re human because they’re immune. And it’s hard to tell the difference. So they didn’t really care that she was in a relationship with a collie. Until I was born, and the first time a full moon hit I transformed. Last year, as soon as I hit my 18th birthday they told me I was out. Had to make my own way. They didn’t want a mutt screwing things up.” \n\n“What about your dad, then?” Duke frowned. \n\n“Oh, well. He didn’t want anyone to know that his firstborn was a mutt. So he abandoned my mom as soon as he realised I was a mutt, and I’ve never been able to get in contact with him. Don’t want to know him either.” Simon replied, with an angry snort.\n\n“Fuck me.” Duke muttered. “And I thought I had it bad.”\n\nSimon looked at him and gave a reassuring smile. “Don’t put yourself down, Duke. I’ve known all along that they wanted to get rid of me as soon as I was old enough. There’s a mutt pack in this city somewhere. I just need to get in contact with them.” \n\nDuke drummed his fingers against the empty bottle for a moment. “What’s it like being a werewolf, then?” \n\n“Not so bad, apart from what you’ve just seen. I’m allergic to silver – go figure, right? And I can’t drink alcohol or eat chocolate, because it makes me sick. But I heal real quick, without scars. Have to be careful I don’t bite anyone though.” \n\nDuke scratched his chin thoughtfully. “So… if you bit me, I’d be one of you?” \n\n“You’d be really sick for a few weeks while your body changes, like beyond the worst pain of your life, but yeah. Why?” Simon asked.\n\n“I'm used to being in a group, son. Only reason I'm here is because I can't cope without my brothers in arms. I got no family, and if they did, they wouldn't understand. I need to be part of something, you know?”\n\n“Are you sure about this?” Simon asked. “You can’t undo it if you don’t like it.”"
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[WP] As the Cassini probe begins it's final descent into Saturn's atmosphere, NASA receives an unexpected transmission from the space craft...
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"\"YOU FOOLS! I, Acererak, Personification of Entropy, shall return!\"\n\n----------\n\n\"Couldn't we have chucked him into the sun? I mean, he's a skull, he's not that heavy.\"\n\n\"Still can't afford the delta-vee now, never mind in 1997. Besides, Saturn will last about as long as the Sun will. In a billion years someone else will sort something out.\"",
"\"YOU FOOLS! I, Acererak, Personification of Entropy, shall return!\"\n\n----------\n\n\"Couldn't we have chucked him into the sun? I mean, he's a skull, he's not that heavy.\"\n\n\"Still can't afford the delta-vee now, never mind in 1997. Besides, Saturn will last about as long as the Sun will. In a billion years someone else will sort something out.\"",
"As the probe hurtled throughout the gaseous atmosphere, something remarkable began to happen. Whether through some effect of atmosphere, the gasses or something entirely unknown, the minor amount of circuitry sparked and surged with electricity. The small craft became, for however temporary, aware.\n\nIt pondered its place in the universe, its wondered at its creation and the significance of its impending death. All this was radioed billions of miles away to Earth, where staff and technicians watched the first and last thoughts of the first truly aware machine. \n\nPhilosophy, ethics, religion, all pondered and resolved before the end. The craft slowly shut down its external sensors and sent one final thought before the end.\n\n\"I don't want to die.\"",
"\"On final approach\" \n\nThe words none of us really wanted to hear. Each mission has to come to an end at some point. All the discoveries we made, the storms we saw raging on the planet, the 2 mile vertical rings that shot straight up... all coming to an end.\n\n\"T-Minus 30 seconds to break-up\"\n\nNo, I thought, just a few more minutes.\n\n*Beep de Beep beep beep de Beep beep*\n\n\"Sir, incoming signal from Cassini\"\n\n\"And?\"\n\n\"TOUCHDOWN?!\"\n\n\"That's impossible\"\n\nWe all stood in the control room, mouths open, trying to grasp what was just said.\n\n\"Close the door and turn off the cameras, NOW!\"\n\nIn that instant, all of us panicked for a second before staring at our screen gathering data that was coming in. This can't be possible, it a probe, not a lander.\nUnless some sick hacker is messing with us, or things are about to get really weird.\n\n\"How's this possible,\" asked the Commander.\n\n\"Uh, ummm, I'll get back to you, sir\"\n\n\"Sir, we got incoming images\"\n\n\"Well?\"\n\n\"Little green man, sir\"\n\n\"No time for jokes, Miller. What do you got?\"\n\nI spun my monitor around. It was truly a little green man holding a sign, in perfect English, it read: Cancel my HBO subscription.\n\n\n"
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[WP] A sentient sword that hated its owner was just buried with the deceased. You've now been recovered...
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"Professor Jonathan Roxe smiled at his surroundings. Life was so good right now. He'd gone to college for eight years, worked as an apprentice for five, sought funding for two, and hit bumps in the road every step of the way. But now, in this moment, it had all paid off. \n\n\nRoxe dug up and researched really old people- that's what he would tell his kids if he had any. Marian left him six years ago after one of his coworkers got funding before he did. It hurt, more than romance usually did, because it felt more like an attack on his worth as an archeologist than anything else. He pushed it from his mind; that was water under the bridge now.\n\n\nThe Professor looked proudly at the temple slowly being unearthed before him. Mighty sun-bleached stones from ages long past were starting to resemble their previous floorplan; simple and beautiful carvings adorned pillars and low rocks.\nHe breathed out. \"If you could see me now, Marian...\"\n\n\n\"Professar! Professar Roxe!\"\n\n\nA dark-skinned, black-haired man in his forties jogged up- it was still early, but he was already sweating. The people of this country never ceased to amaze with their integrity and hard work.\n\n\n\"Yes, Antonio? What have you found?\"\n\n\nThe man started moving his hands to accompany his mediocre English. \"I go walk to check, been to temples before. See if same... plan, you understand. I find two, tombs and altar?\"\n\n\nThe Professor perked up. \"Good work, Antonio! Pull four from the pillars, set two on each. I'll get my map and you show me, yes?\"\n\n\nAntonio nodded with a wide smile on his face. \"Yes Professar!\"\n\n\n-----\n\n\nWithin the hour, they were out in the jungle. The locals wielded their machetes while the Professor coached his apprentice on properly reading the terrain and \nusing the map. She was shaping up nicely, a good kid.\n\n\nThey arrived at a tree growing over a barely visible stone- Roxe inspected the shape of the cut and glanced at another stone that Antonio pointed out to confirm. It was definitely a tomb, most likely a highly regarded warrior due to his proximity to the temple. \n\n\nRoxe nodded. \"Juan, Miguel, start digging here...\" he pointed to the ground and walked in a line, \"and here. Maybe one foot to the stone, then be careful.\"\n\n\nThe two nodded and set to work while the Professor accompanied the others to the next spot, where a similar situation occurred. He was so lucky to have Antonio, so often did parts of temples simply get swallowed by the trees and loam of the jungle.\n\n\nHe stayed to supervise for the morning while the man made fast work of the ground around the altar. Roxe decided to head back to the main camp do document the morning's finds- he left Lily to clean up and take photographs of the carvings on the altar.\n\n\nOn the way back, he noticed the two men standing several meters away from the earth they'd cleared- his brow furrowed. Snake? Had they hit an ant's nest?\n\n\n\"What's the problem? Do we need the gun?\"\n\n\n\"No, no Senior. Madre de Satan esta aqui.\"\n\n\nFoxe frowned, then walked over to the hole. A muted stream of Spanish was coming from the proximity of the tomb- it definitely sounded female.\n\n\nHe gasped, the grabbed a shovel. \"There's someone stuck in there! Tunnel robber or not, I can't have anyone die on this site! Come!\"\n\n\nThe men came, but he could tell they were uneasy. The string of curse words didn't let up until they were finally able to crack open the lid and slide it away at ground level. \n\n\nThe Professor took a step back as the two men inched away. He turned and waved them off. \"It's okay, go help the others. Thank you.\" He turned back to the grave.\n\n\nA warrior, older than many of the countries that currently populated the earth, lie decomposed in his grave. Surrounded by weapons, decorations, and dried maize. He looked to have been a powerful man for his time, and by the burial he had received, a fighter without equal. Everything in the tomb was old, eroded, dusty... save for one thing.\n\n\n\"Pollo CHINGON!\"\n\n\nRoxe blinked.\n\n\nThe sword, a Macuahuitl, was shining and sharp- it looked brand new, with burnished wood and glittering obsidian edges. Apparently, it was in a rather foul mood. Foxe reached in slowly to touch it- the string of Spanish switched to English in the blink of an eye.\n\n\n\"...puto! Not without my consent, you ASS!\"\n\n\nHe quickly withdrew his hand and looked around before turning back to the sword. \n\n\n\"...Forgive me for my ignorance, but are you speaking to me?\"\n\n\nThe sword, with a definite female voice, responded. \"See anyone else around, dickhead? I'm certainly not talking to captain of the bone zone over here, the mighty catcher of arrows! Now get me out of here before I rip you a new one, blanco!\"\n\n\nHe stared, taken aback, but reached in to pick up the macuahuitl. \n\n\n\"That's a good boy. Now get me away from this dusty cell, I've been here for years! YEARS, do you here me?\"\n\n\n\"...I hear you.\"\n\n\n-----\n\n\nProfessor Roxe let out a small chuckle. \"Did you really? And he still didn't die?\"\n\n\nThe sword lay opposite of him, laying delicately on the red silken sheets. \"No! It was like the gods had chosen him to be their avatar or something! Even when I told one of the spies where he was sleeping, a scorpion killed the guy before he was even able to get to his bed. Ridiculous.\"\n\n\nJonathan gave a hearty laugh. \"Oh, Machelle, you are a treasure. Listen, darling, I have to head back to the dig soon- is there anything I can get you?\"\n\n\nThe sword somehow made a 'psh' sound. \"Nothing at all, toots. I'm just glad to have some fresh air. We still on for tonight?\"\n\n\n\"Of course, my sweet.\"\n\n\n\"Mm. See you then, mi tigre.\"\n\n\nJonathan left the room and took a deep breath- this new relationship was phenomenal. He checked his phone- 13 missed calls from Marian. The slightest hint of a smirk drifted around his face.\n\n\nLily rounded the corner, red in the face. \"Again?! Professor, that-\"\n\n\n\"She,\" He corrected her.\n\n\n\"IT, belongs in a museum!\"\n\n\nThe Professor shook his head. Some people just didn't understand the delicate relationship between the archaeologist and the artifact.\n\n\n------\n\n\nThis was fun. A bit longer than I wanted, but I'll take it. Apologies for my trashy Spanish!\n\n\nr/bellumaster for more stories\n",
"From my customary branch on my tree I watch as a cloaked figure strides between the trees at the edge of the old battlefield.\n\n\"They never see me\" I murmur to myself \n\nA dull groan resonates from below the tree, only heard by me but I give it no notice. Instead I mark the path of my visitor as they hold their hands out in a peculiar gesture. \n\nMy grave is not the only one here but my neighbors in the trees are not quite as present as the worm with me under this tree is. \n\nHumoring myself I pick up an old bar song:\n\n\"Another pint! Another pint! My throat is dry already!\" \n\nThe muffled agitated sounds are louder to me but I continue.\n\n\"Another quart for hell, Why not? The night is young in Granford!\"\n\nThe groan below is louder this time but more interestingly the cloaked figure, who I now see is a young maiden, has turned toward my tree.\n\nI feel hope rise in me and dare to think I had been heard. Nobody hears me. Not the necromancers, elves, nor paladins who had visited years prior. Yet this one approaches.\n\nGranting myself hope further I call out “can you by chance hear me?”\nThe groan below seems more articulate but, for once, they are the second most interesting thing here.\n\nMy projection fades in shock as my visitor walks up to my tree and looks directly at the roots above my resting place.\n\nExcitement mounts in me as they murmur further and I feel my vessel tugged gently.\n\n“There is no way in heaven. Holy shit you actually found me?!”\nAs if hearing me clearly the young mage steadies their hold on me and I am lifted from the ground.\n\nBeside myself I am awestruck as my savior takes me in her gloved hands.\nPractically humming with excitement I shout “The gloves! Take them off! Please!”\n\nI imagine that the sword I am contained in has alerted her to my presence somehow because to my amazement she is pulling off a glove. \n\nWhat will I say? What should I possibly say? This is the first contact I’ve had aside from that worm in centuries and here she is! What the heck am I going to say?\n\nFinally her glove is off and she is grasping the hilt, a curious look still on her face. Shocked at my luck I am stunned to silence. They inspect the gem that my soul is bound to, they test the balance of my blade, and finally they swing me tentatively.\n\n“Um. Hi.”\n\nShe dropped me. \n\nOf course she dropped me I would have dropped me.\n\nI watch her pace, suddenly shaken by my words in her mind. She holds her hands up in some foreign gesture and her robes glow faintly for a second.\nTaking a deep breath she reaches down and picks me up.\n\nI wait for her to speak but she also seems to wait for me. \n\nThe murmur beneath us both is more articulate rage but I put that behind me. I am finally separated from the worm and my new savior and perhaps companion is infinitely more interesting.\n\n“Hello?” she breathes out hesitantly\n\n“Hello and well met.” I reply. I try to keep my communication level and courteous but I know my emotions are warbling my speech.\n\n“Are you… inside this sword?” she asks “have you been trapped in this sword all this time?”\n\n“Yes, I-“\n\n“Who are you?” she immediately interrupts\n\n“My name is Arthur.” I reply. Sensing no immediate interruption I continued “I was a paladin of the order serving under King Daruk in the peace and war times of the 13th age”.\n\nHer pause lengthens.\n\n“You have no idea who that is do you?”\n\nShe shakes her head mutely and I contain my mild disappointment. I have waited far too long to be found to be upset by a small lapse in history knowledge.\n\n“What do you know of the battle that was fought here?”\n\n“This was where the last battle for the new republic was fought.”\n\nI can’t hide my disappointment knowing the order fell here and she sensed that too but she continued on.\n\n“Once the-… the king’s forces here were defeated here the republic was born.” She paused and then continued, “Why were you under that tree?”\n\n“I was buried with the wretched worm of a paladin that bound me to this sword. They thought that binding my soul would grant them greater power and eventual repute as a paladin. They lie in an unmarked tomb under a fruitless tree with their damned soul rotting in their equally retched corpse. Only the beginning of a fitting punishment for what they have wrought to me.”\n\nI realize that I must sound bloodthirsty and violent so I work to calm myself. Taken aback the young mage nodded numbly and considered her next question.\n\n“May I ask who you are?” I ask as she continued to think\n\n“My name Is Gene. I’m an apprentice mage at a nearby village”\n\n“How did you find me?” I ask, already having an idea at the answer.\n\n“You were singing” she shrugs not completely understanding it herself.\n\n“I recently learned how to detect magic and above the noise of the creatures around I heard your blade resonating with energy under that tree”\n\n“Quite the talent” I remark.\n\nThe conversation stalls as we stand and the worm’s shouts are more audible to me amongst the birds singing in the evening light.\n\nShe shuffles her feet a bit and I decide to break the silence\n\n“Would you like to… leave this place?”\n\nSeeming to suddenly notice the time she nodded and tucked me into her belt under her cloak, politely keeping a hand on the pommel to continue conversation. The angry muffled shouts of the damned worm faded as she moved through the trees back the way she came.\n\n“Do you… Should I find a way to release your spirit?”\n\n“That would be nice eventually but if I may be so selfish I would much like to see what has become of the world while I have been under that tree”\n\n“And I would so like to hear more about king Daruk and the order. What do you say we make a deal”\n\n“That” I replied “is the best Idea I’ve heard all day”\n\n\n\n"
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[WP] One day you make a bad joke, but then a laugh track unexpectedly plays out of nowhere
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"\"And then I said to him, that's not a camel, that's my wife,\" said Harry.\nCanned laughter booms out above him, drowning out the laughter of the bartender.\n\n\"Did you just hear that?\"\n\nThe bartender feigns like he doesn't know what's going on. He pours Harry a shot. Harry tosses it back. He winces and lets out a sharp breath.\n\n\"What is that, rubbing alcohol?\"\n\n\"Actually, yeah.\" The bartender holds up the plastic bottle. More canned laughter.\n\n\"There! Right there, did you hear that?\"\n\nThe bartender's face flushes. \"Look buddy, you've had an awful lot to drink, maybe you oughtta go take a breather.\"\n\n\"Breather? Hardly knew her.\" Raucous laughter this time. Harry grabs the bartender by his collar and gets within an inch of his nose. \"Tell me what's going on right now.\"\n\nA piercing ring shoots through the bartender's ear. He's wearing an ear piece. He presses down on it in a feeble attempt to turn it down. Faint screaming can be heard through it.\n\n<<<<<\n\n\"Take him out, right now! He's onto us. Reset! Reset!\" yelled the man into his computer monitor showing a different perspective of the bar. The bartender shoves a needle into Harry's neck and he drops to the ground. The screen goes blank. A title card pops up: \"We'll be right back!\" The man stands up.\n\n\"All right, I want to know who fucked up.\" The large room of busy technicians, each with their own monitor station has been long silent. Nobody says a word.\n\n\"If the person who put the laugh track through the whole speaker system isn't standing in front of me in the next five seconds, you're all fucking fired.\"\n\n\"One.\"\n\n\"Two.\"\n\n\"I'm not kidding, everyone. Three.\"\n\n\"Four.\"\n\n\"It was me sir,\" says a small voice. A young kid moseys up to him. He couldn't even grow a mustache yet if he tried. \"It was a mistake, sir. The buttons are right next to eacho-\"\n\n\"Get out,\" the man interjected. The kid doesn't move for a moment, too shocked to comprehend the situation.\n\n\"Get out of my control room, you idiot!\" He scurries off.\n\nThe man's face returns to it's normal shade of pale. He straightens himself out before addressing the group.\n\n\"Alright, everyone. Harry will wake up in a few hours without any recollection of what happened. When he does, the world will be watching. Do not mess this up again.\"\n\n<<<<<\n\nThat night, Harry slept better than he ever had before. In the morning, he got up, turned on the TV and watched his favorite show while millions watch him.\n\n\n"
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[WP] Wealth. Power. Beauty. Fast cars, fast lives, fast love. Born into luxury, suffering just a word. Someone once said that the routine becomes boring; even Heaven eventually becomes Hell...how I wish I didn't know just how right they are.
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"I look outside. A driveway full of Ferrari's. I should take one out and go for a drive. \n\nBut why bother?\n\nThe phone rings. It's the President calling to ask if I want a private tour of Area 51. I decline. I've already been taken there, multiple times. It gets less exciting each time, y'know?\n\nI go into the bathroom to take a pass in my gold tooth that automatically flushes itself. As I wash my hands I look at my reflection in the mirror. A beauty that any model would die for. \n\nWomen are sprawled out nude everywhere, like cats. I can have any of them I choose. But I've had them all. They all feel the same to me now.\n\nI go for a jog. I see a women with kids. Her husband is lugging groceries into the house. Sensing a challenge, I jog in place and say, \"Morning!\"\n\nShe looks over and smiles. I see her subtly take off her wedding ring and drop it in the bag of groceries she's carrying. \"Oh, hi,\" she says, smiling back and letting down her hair.\n\nShe waits for me to say more, but I don't. With a polite smile and nod, I finish my jog. \n\nI don't know why I jog anyway. I'm blessed with super genetics. I can eat whatever and not get fat. I'm tall, handsome, in perfect health...\n\nI sigh.\n\nI don't know what to do. I've given money to charities multiple times. *All* my money to the point of homelessness.\n\nBut even homeless, random strangers want to take me home, sleep with me, make me rich, make me famous. It is a crime to them to see someone so handsome so poor.\n\nThere is nothing else I can do in this world. To the world, I can do no wrong.\n\nAll that is left to do is to figure out what comes after this life. Perhaps, there will be something greater. \n\nI go to my study and take down the Bible I haven't touched in only God knows how long, and I crack it open. *In the beginning...*\n\nAfter I am done, I will go through all the rest of the religions. Hopefully, one of them gives me the peace of mind I so truly seek."
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[WP] Sleepwalkers are actually doing important work, we just can't see it.
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"She jolts awake when she hears a crash. Rain pounds steadily on the windows, on the walls. The apartment is being drenched, the world outside soaked. She pulls off the covers, the comforter that rarely brings enough comfort for one, and slips out of the bed. Her steps are near silent. She flutters through the apartment like a bird, uncharacteristic of her hockey playing nature. Thunder rumbles outside. Distantly, a siren screeches by, cars drive in the web of the city. Further still, the freezing waters of Lake Ontario crash onto the shore. The house remains silent; still. Caught in time, perhaps. The photos on the walls look down in the darkness. The rather spacious hallway has signs of life; a guitar in one corner, a suitcase in another, a mirror down beside the doorway to the world. It opens up into the living room. \n\nSpacious, open-concept. White walls, with splashes of colours in the form of posters. A bookshelf takes up the wall beside the windows, filled with books of all sorts. A few books are strewn on the coffee table they always slam their shins on. Go in one direction, and you'll happen upon their kitchen, accompanied with a small table with three chairs at it, pressed up against a wall. Ikea furniture. Potted plants in one corner, her hobby, and often a chore for him. Not the smallest apartment money can buy, by far. \n \nThat's where she finds him. He's illuminated by the occasional flash of lightning, the lights of the city outside. He's pushed down a lamp. \n\nThis is a common circumstance she finds herself in. \n\nOccasionally, she'll leave him be. Vaguely, in their conversations before bed, he talks about what he does when he sleepwalks. She may be petting his hair, or he may be petting her's. Sometimes he'll rub her back. Other times she'll rub his. Sometimes, they'll just lie together, pressed against each other, lazy kisses being pressed here and there. He hints at what he does; fighting for something, but he never goes into more detail, and she doesn't press on. He can't tell her much.\n\nOther times, she'll wake him up. Like now. She pads over to him, in her oversized flannel shirt (actually his), brushing some of her short, boyish hair out of her face, and wraps her arms around him.\n\n\"Hey honey,\" she whispers, leaning a bit up to get to his ear. She presses a kiss to his cheek. The steady tap of the rain is almost as melodic as a melancholy piano. The hardwood floors, covered by rugs, are cold nonetheless. The darkness remains undisturbed. Neither like the lights on for these most intimate moments. He rouses quite quickly, with the new sensation of her arms around his waist.\n\nHe lets out a bit of a moan, and rubs the sleep out of his eyes. He turns to face her.\n\n\"Hey there,\" his voice is husky. \"The lightbulb isn't broken.\"\n\n\"So it isn't.\"\n\nThey stand like that for a minute. The clock on the wall reads about one am, but one can't be too sure in the dark. He's the first to break the hold, guilt starting to sour the warmth he feels, and takes her hand instead. She follows easily, eager to slip back into bed. They pad back into the dark hallway, into the dark bedroom, and soon they're lying face to face.\n\n\"'M sorry for waking you up,\" his voice is nothing but a murmur, meant only for her ears. Her voice murmurs back in response.\n\n\"'S nothin'. I don't mind. Tomorrow's Saturday. I actually get a day off, for the first time in forever.\"\n\n\"To make it up to you, I- I remember some of it. Most of it actually.\"\n\nShe perks up a bit at that, becomes more alert. The pillow holds her head delicately. She brushes a strand of his blonde hair out of his eyes. His clear blue eyes. Too pretty for a man, or even a woman. Too pretty for a person. She lowers her hand to his cheek, brushing his cheekbone with her thumb. A gesture perhaps more intimate than a kiss.\n\n\"Yeah?\"\n\n\"Yeah.\"\n\n\"It wanted to get you. It knew I couldn't do much if something happened to you. One less of us, and they're a step closer to uniting the objects.\" *There'd be no point if the world lost you. If I lost you.* \"I got it with the lamp.\"\n\n\"Good,\" she smiles, lets out an airy laugh, \"this all so crazy to me.\"\n\n\"Well y'know,\" he pauses for a second, \"you work to save the world during the day. I do it at night.\"\n\n\"Yeah.\"\n\n\"They're small, y'know. But they're real powerful. That's why you can't see them while you're awake... They're what cause your sleep paralysis.\"\n\n\"Yeah?\"\n\n\"Yeah. You told me about how you saw that man walking toward you when you got it once,\" she nods at that, \"that was one of them. You did the right thing, waking yourself up fully. They can't hurt you if you're awake.\"\n\n\"But it started happenin' more cause you started rubbing off on me, basically.\"\n\n\"Yeah. if you're near one of us, for a really long time, our... power? Thing? It starts rubbing off on you.\"\n\n\"But I won't start sleepwalking.\"\n\n\"No. Thank God you won't. You're really, really, *really*, fuckin' important to the world,\" the suitcase in the hallway is hers, filled with papers detailing her campaign. Were she taken down in the line of fire, with those things... He knows something would break.\n\n\"And you're important to me.\"\n\nWhen they met, he'd just been told to protect her from those things. He'd been taught about the \"prophecy\" as a kid, how there was *someone* out there, who, when placed into a position of power, would set the world on a course of good. They would begin to drive the bad out; the hate, ignorance, injustice, little by little. By no means would these problems be solved, not in their lifetime, but it would lead to the *eventual* solution of them. Were it not fulfilled, and the objects would be brought together.\n\nNo one knows what would happen if the objects came together.\n\nBut god, he'd just fallen head over heels for her. Her mind is brilliant. She's not beautiful, not conventionally pretty, but her face is interesting. She is clingy, a result of a lack of parental love, and quick to anger, and take those anger out on others. But they're just flaws. He'd never met someone like her. Someone who understood him, and supported him, and loved him, and asked only for love in return.\n\nShe presses her lips to his. The kiss is gentle, firm, and contains the warmth needed in the rain. He kisses back.\n\nHe knows everything is going to be alright."
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[WP] "Since you liked my eyes so much I decided to give you one. Here take this."
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"I wasn't really paying attention to what my girlfriend said, but as soon as I glanced at what it was, I immediately dropped it on the table. Upon closer inspection, I realized what it was.\n\n\"Melissa,\" I said, annoyed, \"It was kind of funny the first time. The second time around too. But come on, we've been dating for a year now. You've got to stop handing me your glass eye out of nowhere.\"\n\nShe burst out laughing, clutching her sides. \"I can't believe you actually thought that that eye was real when you met me!\"",
"Who am I, if I'm not hers\n\nI pondered as she fell asleep\n\nAnd as I pulled upon the covers\n\nMy heart began to leap\n\n\n\nI craved her raven hair\n\nAnd so I took a strand\n\nAll I wanted was her care\n\nAnd so I took her hand\n\nI loved the way she spoke\n\nAnd so I took her tongue\n\nThe way she looked when she'd smoke\n\nAnd so I took her lung\n\n\n\n\n\nAs I stood admiring\n\nMuch to my surprise\n\nShe awoke perspiring\n\nAnd since you like my eyes\n\nShe said with velvet kiss\n\nHere my love, take this"
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[WP] After years of research, you discover the real reason people cry while chopping onions. What you find shocks you.
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"It was in that specific place, that room, I called it my kitchen. It was in there the Abominable Onion and His Skin-Brothers (as I alone have earned the right to call them) enjoyed their rest. Everyone should be thankful that I stepped in, though I'm not here for the praise. Most wouldn't believe in such a creature. Can't say they're to blame; if I weren't the victor over an underworld beast I would prefer that blissful ignorance as well. Lo! I have magnificance to share! A world of wonder to ponder of! I may be the subject, even still I implore your attention! Head up! Chin high! Back straight! Ears open!\n\nIt was a bright, sunny afternoon. I was aloft on my sofa when the urge found me. The primal, carnivorous *urge to eat!* Could you possibly understand the predicament I found myself in? I was in the kitchen before my mind could instruct me. I knew my mission: it was spaghetti night! The one and only cure to a demonic famine as this! The ingredients were no challenge to gather, as I forever made a strict point of always keeping several nights' worth in storage for emergencies. How it might have paid off, if not for the Abominable Onion!\n\nHe made his original appearence during the preparation phase of my meal. The first onion had been sliced into two seperate halves with my trustworthy chef's knife. Unknown to me at that moment, I had killed one of the Skin-Brothers, and declared war against the Abominable Onion! It came to me slowly, at a crawl's pace, once the onion was dead. I heard it. From the middle of the deceased, there was a noise. Fuzzy, comparable to a house cat if its fur produced sound. \n\nI leaned towards the onion, listening in to the sound. And I heard it! Not only radio static, but a voice! As if it was some form of transmission! This onion was not an onion.... But a radio! For whom? The *Abominable Onion!* The voice gave this away, repeating \"Captain! Captain! I'm hit, dear God I've been hit! Somebody tell my wife I love her! Captain Albert Omin Abel! Please, listen! And I was three days from retirement...\" It was quite strange, I admit, but this phenomenon does not close its curtain yet. I took one final observation of the dead onion, and was blasted by an orange mist! This vegetable had used the last of its energy to try and posion me with some odd spray! I knew if one onion held these abilities, then they all must! I began to slice and slit open every one I found!\n\nThe onions were helpless against my mighty chef's knife! Their cries of \"How is he still standing?\" \"Somebody shoot him!\" and \"He's killing us all!\" must've pierced the neighborhood. And every time I went to cut one of the albino atrocities, they shot out that same orange mist! I was blinded! But I held my resolve, speeding through my entire house at the neverending onslaught of onions! *Shing! Split! Crack! Bang! Pierce!* My own home now turned battlefield! There had to be hundreds, rolling and flying from places I wouldn't have though possible of food storage! They seeped of anger and hatred, giving their all to destroy me, despite their only combative capabilities being the strange orange mist.\n\nIt was after I had cleared my home that they surrendered. I made my demands to meet their captipain, the *Abominable Onion,* and they agreed with forced smiles. I, completely blinded, was escorted to the royal Onionmobile to their headquarters. In the middle of town, it was! How had nobody noticed it before? Had I only bested a squadron of them, while others dominated Earth?\n\nIt mattered not, as I was quickly brought to the Captain himself. He turned, noticed me, stuttered \"H-h-h-o\" and died to my blade. The other onions screamed and mourned and fled before I could kill them as well. I had no choice to continue down an adjacent hall. I found a room with a bed and, considering my current fatigue (killing hundreds of soil-born monsters will eventually take its toll) slept on it, content with my day's work.\n\nJefferson smiled at the mirror, not noticing the fact that it was only smiling back at him because it was his reflection. It did not enjoy the story, it couldn't even hear. Nothing that Jefferson would notice, at any rate. He continued to talk to his reflection on the mirror of the padded cell wall. Guards passing by wondered how a single man's bloodlust had managed to steal so many of their friends' lives. Pepper spray happened to be the one piece of equipment that had any effect. They wouldn't get the chance to investigate him, nobody was allowed in the room with a man convicted of mass murder. The worst part? Jefferson never finished cooking his spaghetti."
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[WP] You are an infamous criminal, held in a maximum security prison. One day, your cell door opens. A familiar voice says "You're free, but only if you help me first." Bonus points: include a criminal name for yourself.
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"Mathematicon. The ultimate mind. That's what the newspapers called me. I thought it was somewhat hyperbolic and overblown myself, as all I had managed to do, was get very lucky and along the way make enemies with allllllll the right people.\n\nIt wasn't particularly difficult in the end to decode the crash and rise simulations of the stock market, crypto currency, and many other things and work out who was engineering it rise and fall and when, and to ultimately....beat them at their own game.\n\nWorse still perhaps from their point of view, was that I used that money to pay off people's debts on an unprecedented scale...which had profound financial implications for those who had been profitting off the misery of others for so long.\n\nWithout debt...they couldn't seize the assets of the poor, were unable to place pernicious fiscal punishments and when I combined that with a hedge fund that the poor invested a fraction of their debt repayments in?\n\nThings got very ugly, very quickly.\n\nThe financial collapse they engineered to take my out didn't work, as I had forseen such an eventuality. It didn't crush the poor as they had hoped, because I had forseen this as well.\n\nWhen people were laid off left right and centre, they went to work on my farms and food production facilities, in emergency accommodation I had already prepared.\n\nI was making money at a time when everyone else was losing it, and my workers while technically paid well below minimum wage...didn't have any expenses. Food, accommodation, electricity, internet...this was all included.\n\nSome called me a profiteer...but none of my workers ever did.\n\nThe food and shelter services, all coming from my own companies, won me more good will than ever before.\n\nIt seemed I was utterly unstoppable....and then they blamed it all on me.\n\nFinancial collapse? Who else could have done it but Mathimaticon, the ultimate mind?\n\nDrug trade? Clearly Mathimaticon the ultimate mind was behind it, as none else could have made that much money helping people, and I had clearly cooked the books and supported myself via controlling the drug trade.\n\nAll of it apparently.\n\nThere was more, and worse, and it never seemed to end.\n\nI was ultimately sentenced to *five hundred* consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole, and the only reason I avoided the death penalty was that they didn't want to make a martyr out of me.\n\nMy companies were seized and placed in the hands of the very people I had been trying to oppose.\n\nWith my assets seized I couldn't afford legal representation and despite many willing to represent me pro bono, the government appointed their own defence counsel who told me upon our first meeting \"You're fucked.\" which certainly didn't bode well, and his creative performance in 'defending' me, indicted me almost as much as the prosecution.\n\nThere is no more secure facility in America. I am allowed no access to anything even remotely resembling communications. I am not allowed to talk to anyone beyond simple yes no answers, lest I sway them with the powers of my 'ultimate mind'.\n\nThen in walks the President.\n\nHe gives it to me straight. My removal and the transfer of leadership of my companies has caused unmitigated financial disaster. The US is literally on the brink of collapse to a level they can't bail out.\n\nI'm free...if I tell them how to fix it first.\n\nI start to laugh, the deal is clear, but if I give them that...there's nothing to stop them from keeping me here, forever."
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[WP] You are a scientist inventing glasses that allow you to see one year into the future. After finishing your invention, you look into the glasses for the first time. All you see is a desolate wasteland.
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"\"Excuse me, sir!\" I paced past the receptionist. \"Sir, you can't go in there!\" \nI didn't care, there's too much at stake. What I saw... what I saw was far too terrible to imagine. \nI forced open the large wooden doors to a meeting room with such tremendous strength that they bounce off the walls and back towards me, slamming me backwards... So much for an essence of seriousness. \n\"Professor!\" The chancellor screamed. \"*We* are discussing important business! Away with you!\" \nPushing open the doors, slowly this time, heads and eyes staring into me, I whispered, \"What you discuss, though of relative importance to yourself, is not of importance to the future of the human race.\" \nNo answer. Silence. A void of sound turned to tremendous laughter as each of the heads of department shook their wide bellies and sweat in an exasperated guffaw. \nThe laughter began to slim down to concern when they saw the serious expression on my face. \"Professor... I suppose you should leave. We've had enough of your antics.\" The chancellor had a more than unflattering feature to his face. It caused me fear. \n...\"Please, Chancellor. Just listen to what I have to say.\" \nA voice from the back calls out: \"Don't tell me, you've created a time machine!\" \nLaughter. Silence. Concern. \n\"You've made a *time machine*?\" The chancellor gave a deafening sigh of disbelief. \"Just get out, and stop with your lies!\" \n\"I am entirely serious, Chancellor.\" I procured the glasses from behind my lab coat. \"These are glasses which allow you to see into... **the future**!\" \nLaughter. Silence. Concern. \nI am afraid to say, I got unfavourably mad this time. I rushed over to the chancellor. \"Put these on.\" \n\"*Professor*!\" \n\"*Chancellor*!\" \nAfter a moment of staring he gave up and took the glasses and replaced them with his own. I switch them on. He stares into the glass... no reaction. \n\"What is this supposed to be?\" \n\"Do you see it?\" \n\"I see a video of a nature documentary, some desert program.\" \n\"No, you don't understand! That's the future: a wasteland!\" \nMurmurs from around the meeting circle. \"Preposterous!\" \"Absurd!\" \"Poppycock!\" \n\"Security!\" The chancellor yelled, then turned to me. \"Your budget is revoked!\" \nI was defeated. \"No. No, you don't understand. That's the future!\" \n\"Just be glad we aren't suspending, let alone firing you.\" \nA bulbous security guard began dragging me out as I flailed, trying to get their attention. But, alas, they did not hear me through. The last I could hear of their discussion as I left was the chancellor talking to the Head of Biology. \"Now what was this about the super bacteria that eats through anything\". \nLaughter. Silence. Concern. \nMy audience is in disbelief. \nOne woman was arming her hands around the firepit speaks up. \"What the fuck are you talking about?\" \n\"Please, I'm serious, they could have stopped it. The chancellor was a very powerful man.\" \n\"The President's *son*, though? Come on.\" \n\"It's true. I swear it.\" \n\"Bullshit, where is this device now then?\"\n...\"It broke.\" I muttered. \n\"Dude come on... Stop with your lies...\" \n\"No... Seriously!\" \n\"Hey, Ezekiel! Get this guy out of here!\" \nA huge, bulbous man gets up and cracks his knuckles at me. "
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[WP] You are a 16th century conquistador travelling on Colombus' 'Santa Maria'. Having arrived in the New World, you set foot on shore for the first time.
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"The boat makes a sudden hard tunk as I am slowly thrust forward in a sudden stop. I take one look back at the Santa Maria my home and my prison for the last set of months. A tear begins its descent down the bottom of my cheek as it falls off into the ocean never to be seen again. As the ripple begins to fade I take a look at what I am told is me from my reflection. I don't see the ignorant naive man that I was months ago. No, I see the scars of fights past I see the rot in my gums and the holes in my teeth. I look around the small raft barely able to keep us afloat. I notice that it is quite empty as a lot of the men we sailed with have made a home with the ocean instead of land. Some we call friends, some we call strangers, and even one I call my brother. His memory is what gives me the strength to slowly lift my one leg out over the splinter ridden raft. As disease-ridden lord forgotten foot hits the ground I am met with a sudden fire beneath my toes. I have never felt such a sensation as I curl between my toes this type of round earth that falls with every step. I am fascinated and terrified at the thought of what else my lay in these lands. It is then I hear the captain distant in another raft yelling for us to gather as he has already found something. I turn and look at the new place I call home, let out a breath that has been dwelling for months. Whether it is a mistake or the best choice of my life I had made it.... \n\n\nSorry if anything is wrong this is my first time doing this. "
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[WP] It is said that Charizard's fire burns hotter if it has experienced harsh battles. In a turn of events, you find yourself the target of one's flamethrower. To your surprise, however, all you feel is a chilly breeze.
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"Clumsily, I stumble, through halls of memory, pulled onwards by some strange conviction, catching\nonly glimpses, through towering white doors, in darkness, of lives which must be mine. \n\nI seem to be stumbling in them all. Seem to be impaired, drowsy, so much less than my best, what\nI should be, what I hope I am. There, across a grey fortress ..\"city\", on the way to some desperate task, \nhere through stormy waves aboard a ship, on a Sea-Wyrm, now under them.. now far under.. Now across\nthe sky. Flung about on vast drafts of wind. Now casting a vast shadow from that same sky, tickled\nby those same winds. \n\nI realise the corridor has dissapeared. At first I was.. -'running'-?, then swimming, now flying, with\nthe windows, -links, into other lives fading further and further into the distance, -now hanging across\nthe sky like distant clouds, with the sense of sleep further and further from me. I have the feeling if I\n somehow- leave this place, I'll never find my way back, and want to beat my vast new wings to fling\nmyself into one of the clouds I- now realise I've been running from. But beneath that lies a conviction\nthat if I *don't* leave now, I never will. \n\nThoughts flash through my head -'what is this place?'- -Am I struggling to be born-? -To move\non from the cycle of life, to the next plane-?\n\nThey are soon answered. I hold onto the subtle path between these worlds, the tether that has\ndrawn me from Kanto to the sky, and remember what I am, -a nameless arctic fury. I catch, or\nfinally recognise, a glimpse of a great yellow god hanging over all these worlds I run through,\nlike a hummingburd fleeing through dense and unknown woods.\n\n\"*Abra, kadabra...*\"\n\n-I scream the threat. -You have failed, and your children will not escape my wrath.\n\n\"ALAKAZAM\" I name my captor in the spirit world.\n\nRoaring, I rise from slumber, casting off thousand year old ice. \n\n_\n\nSurrounded by unfortunate yellow creatures.. I'm moved to a moment of pity by their numbers. \n\n-Your children will go free, I think, -I change my mind. But they can't hear me anymore. \n\nHanging above them, in the sky, is a great fire dragon I only recognise mainly from memories not \nmy own, that trap of genuine lives. It interrupts my thoughts, with a surge of fire, through whose\noncoming, I glimpse a fleet of such creatures, on their way here for... I laugh crazily,\nwho knows.. what benevolent purpose?\n\nBefore the fire washes over me, the residual influence of burned humans and birds and others (even\nSea-Wyrms) fills me with terror -an interesting feeling, one I doubt I will have occasion to experience \nagain, but not even one of the first of the dragons, -now I recognise (again thanks \nto those memories, and a lingering aura of psychic power), the *charizard* in front of me, can harm the first daughter of the artic. \n\nAnd the cavalry, brave executioners, -*sneaks* (but it's true, they are brave) will not be arriving on time.\n\nThen another memory arrives, cutting straight through my savouring of victory, my generous thoughts\nof magnanimity. *Where are the other daughters of the artic?* Why didn't they wake me? But I know\nthe answer. From memories, or echoes?-, I hear the voices of stoic military-brand humans \nproclaiming, *artic-10 down*, against a backdrop of sleeping birds and flames in the ice - \n*Artic-9*, down...\n\nRushing forward through these echoes, *Arctic-4, down* is the last voice I hear. Ice, let-it-be\nthe last there was, not the last I could reach.\n\n_\n\nIn renewed cold merciless vengeance, I open my mind to the yellow creatures, and show them my thoughts \nof generosity, just as I show them now being cast aside -both as part of the tragic tableau of\ntheir and their children's fates. \n\nA hundred stabs of psychic power shoot into me, and the place my mind stands on, -above slumber, opens \nup like a pit, but I am the first of the artic, the very first, and these are only so many.. firsts-of-families, \nfools who have remembered me a power I was never meant to posess.\n\n(*fools? Well, I did wake up awfully fast. -Why? How?...)\n\n-I strike back-, send out a spiritual ice age to preempt the one that is coming upon the material\nworld, and twenty ancient-*ish*, psychics are entombed in mental prisons of ice.\n\nEven the charizard, who I had forgotten, wavers in the sky. Turning my attention, it falls.\n\nThen on the fleet, not fleet enough, but I'm interrupted by the sudden realisation I might detect\nany remaining children I have with these powers. I free my spirit and cast around the arctic, \nlike that small bird cast about on drafts, consciousness cast about by remembered skill, \n-and of course find charred bodies where (most of) my children should be. Of course, -with no time to grieve, my only thought is -\"but all?\"\n\nAnd thank the cold world of the north the answer is no. I find the second of my children\nsleeping, and do not find the first at all, body or spirit. And I am relieved. Grandiose thoughts\nof worldwide ice fade, a very little.\n\nSome buried memory tells me not to pursue the latter mystery. Not that, in any case, I would. I set out for my \ndaughter. (She insisted on sleeping close to me, that must have changed the balance of \ntheir calculations.)\n\nWait, what am I doing? My heart wrenches with the stupidity of my chosen course. Lead them to her?\nOh, no, they must already know. But I'm still stupid. Every option isn't remotely good enough. \nThe acute pain of failure stays with me, though summoned by a false thought. Kept\nat bay by no strength of will or conviction, only the necessity of focus, it is now here to stay. No matter,\nit may as well empower as distract.\n\nThe fleet is closer now, but not so close as to worry.\n\nI speak to the ice, and my claws are released. The beauty of this moment strikes me. Saphire\nwings shaking off ice, pale but clear sunlight limmed against their tips. Strong wings, focused\nmind.. \n\n..Must have been a playwright in that corridor. I laugh. (or a hunting bird)\n\nMy vast wings beat through air incorporeal, but not ethereal, and I find myself with some spare\nmoments of thought. I will go to her, tell her to flee, or to burrow, and then turn to face the\nfleet. If she does not survive, I will break my word to the creator (is that a metaphor? I don't\nknow, I don't remember), abandon my purpose, my station. If she does, I may content myself with targetted\n(though unrestrained) vengeance. \n",
"Charizards are wonderful and unique. One of the few fire types that can fly. From young, I have always wanted to see one. Today, I am following my grand-uncle to research trip. We got on his Pidgeot to fly to an island. \n\nI have been helping him observe behaviours of Pokemon around the continent. It is training for me before I reach the age where I can train pokemon on my own.\n “Right. Here is your share of transmitters and poke-food. You know the drill.” I eagerly grabbed my bag, excited about the Pokemons I can interact with. \n\n Hours easily fly when I am on these trips. Petting, playing with Pokemon. \nAs the sun starts to set, I hear my uncle’s flute. The signal for me to get back. I bid farewell to a group of Bellosoom. \n\nAs I manoeuvre through the forest, I heard roaring of Pokemon. It is common to hear cries of Pokemon, but this time it sounded like it was in pain. \n\nI turned towards the noise; saw Pokemon running away from the origin. Something was wrong. I dashed towards it. \n\nTo my amazement, and horror, there was a Charizard and a Blastoise fighting. The Charizard was teetering on its feet; the flame on his tail was getting smaller. Behind him, I saw a group of Charmanders and Chimchars, all wet and shivering.\n\nI need to get them away from the fight. I moved closer to the bunch, keeping an eye of on the fight. The Charizard stood firm in front of the group, acting as a shield. Everytime he tried to use a move, the Blastoise shot a blast of water. It was a horrible, one–sided fight. \n\nI grabbed the Charmanders and Chimchars, placing them further away from the fight. As I grabbed the last group, the Charizard turned around, and used his flamethrower. I braced myself for the burn, but all I felt was a cool blast. \n\n*No way* I got my feet back, ran away.\n\nCharizards are among my list of being a legendary, or rare. Known for fighting harsh battles in order to evolve from a Charmeleon. Its flame would increase in temperature when it evolves. \n\n\nBut this one. The temperature is close to freezing. Something was wrong. \nAfter putting the last group in a safe place, I went back to the place. The Charizard was lying on the floor, its eyes closed. The Blastoise had left the place.\nI reached into my pocket, took out the Pokeball I had stolen from my Grand-uncles lab. \n\n“Let me help you.” I said to the Charizard, letting it go into the Pokeball. It did not put up a fight. \n\nAnd that was how I got my partner. He was disobedient from the start, but we eventually reached a neutral ground. \n\n\n"
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[WP] A bunch of superheroes, tired of being ridiculed for their useless powers, form a squad which quickly begins to pose a threat to the entire civilization.
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"\"Are we sure this is a good idea?\" Sandman asked nervously.\n\n\"Yes honey, or do you want to continue to BEE ridiculed?\" the Queen said giggling at her own puns. \n \n\"No of course not but the other supers didn't exclude us for nothing, do we really have a chance?\" \n \nSharkanox stood up at the table, \"I would rather DIE fighting them then sitting around waiting for another water mission!\" the giant mansharks cold blood burned with anger. \n \n\"Calm down jaws this is a brilliant idea\" Split said condescendingly, \"We know their weaknesses we just need to plan ahead.\"\n \nSharkanox sat back down Sandman let out a sigh, \"Okay, I can take out Wolfman with laughing-sand.\" Sandman stopped to look inside one of the bags filled with colourfull sand, \"and then I guess I could fill his lungs with whatever until he suffocates, but he is the only one that needs to breathe so you guys have to take care of the rest.\"\n\n\"Oh I can take care of Metal-man\" the Queen said with a sinister smile, \"do you know why that bot-boy dumped me?\"\n\nSplit looked at her with the enthusiasm of an overworked bank clerk, \"Because he is afraid of-\"\n\n\"Because he is afraid of bees, well all insects, I just need them to crawl through his various openings and a couple of cables later he will BEE gone\" \n\n\"Wow you're showing of your dark side today.\" Said Sandman now more nervous then before.\n\n\"sandy, you just talked about filling a mans lungs with sand,\" she said still keeping her smile, \"besides he broke my heart, it's only fair that I break his.\" \n\n\"That leaves us with Titanium and Liquid Joe,\" said Spit trying to get back on track, \"Sharanox how strong are your teeth?\"\n\n\"Well...\" Sharkanox thought out loud, \"if I surprise him I could grab Titanium and take is head of with maybe four or five rows.\"\n\n\"Good,\" continued Split, \"I can deal with Joe\" \n\n\"How?\" asked Sandman now almost in panic, \"he can literally transform liquid and you are just really good with a knife.\"\n\n\"Supernaturally good with a knife!\" Split gave Sandman an offended look, \"And what? He will become a liquid every time I stab him but I have just bought a lot of super absorbing sponges!\" he said triumphantly \"Now if Sandman doesn't have anymore to complain about, I will arrange a meeting with the other supers at that cafe near the coast that they like, then before they get suspicions we strike, okay?\"\n\n\"Okay...\" said Sandman in a weak voice.\n\n\"Then lets get started\" Said the Queen with excitement. \n",
"As Roxxie felt the punch hit her face she thought to herself that something had to change. \"I need power, to stop things like this from happening\" she snarled as the punches kept driving themselves into her face over and over. She quickly rolled on her side to try to protect herself to no avail.\n\n\"A little F Class like you will never amount to anything, you should know your place\" came a reply from a older boy with an A stitched to his tunic. He was at least twice her size and sitting on her chest as he wailed on the smaller girl. \"Power is everything and you and your friends will never have anything. You'll always be an F\" he sneered. the older boy seemed to get bored with roxxie not fighting back and he quickly got up from off of her chest much to roxxies relief. \n\n\"Dont cross paths with me again\" as a swift kick came flying into roxxies chest. \"Or it'll be the last thing you do\". Roxxie watched silently on the ground feeling the oxygen rush back into her lungs as he walked around the corner back to the front of the building. \n\n*Minutes Later*\n\nA small boy comes from around the corner, and not much larger than roxxie herself.He was staring at the ground as he walked - with shoulders slumped in a defeated manner. \"Hey roxxie, are you okay, i heard that Heatwave got you pretty bad this time\" as he shuffled in place waiting for a response. \"Hes an A Class, you know we cant compete with them, he could melt you on the spot!\"\n\n\"Im fine Raz\" said roxxie without looking at him. Slowly, roxxies body began to piece itself back together. The scrapes and bruises from where she had been punched slowly faded and the pain would subside shortly after. \n\n\"That power sure is something, unlike mine. Guess I'll always be an F\" Replied raz as he made a small ball of air circle in his hands. Roxxie Sighed, \"Its not useful for much other than healing small cuts, it works too slowly and doesn't heal anything major. Maybe if i had a power like the hero ReGrow i could get cut in half and regenerate, but mines only useful for getting beat up.\" \n\n\"This has to change Raz, we cant keep being like this. The weak are always picked on ever since everyone got powers. Its like a curse. If things go on like this i would rather just be a villain. At least as a villain i could try to change this\" \n\n\"A Villain!\" Raz Retorted \"They defy the rules that the new government set out, you know that would be suicide for someone as weak as us! They would send an S class superhero and we would be wiped out!\" \n\n\"Are you sure Raz, Are you sure it would be suicide?. Another F Class with boosted intelligence just made a new invention, Something that would definitely change the way we look at these accursed powers. We should go find her now, I've already made a deal.\" Roxxie got up off the ground with a quick movement, and brushed the dirt off her pants as she smiled to herself.\n\n*The Lab* \n\nRoxxie and Raz walked into the lab building. It was an astounding sight built by the government to allow those with boosted intelligence to work on their projects. Although not strong themselves, they usually invented new technologies that merited this expenditure. Large machines lay all about the building in different small labs, impressive death rays and small bombs, behind lab windows. All of these were impressive but not what they were here to see; They wanted a small lab in the very back of the building. A lab around the size of a small closet, where a little girl with frizzy hair was working on what looked like to be an ordinary pair of gloves. \n\n\"Hey Gizmo!\" Roxxie yelled as she poked her head inside the small room. \"You got that device ready yet?\"\n\n\"Yeah! just putting the finishing touches on them. Just remember after you use them who gave them to you. and make sure that i get everything in our deal.\" said gizmo as she adjusted her glasses ever so slightly. \n\n\"If this works, ill give you your own city to use as a lab\" laughed roxxie as she grabbed the gloves out of Gizmo's Hand. The gloves were black with small glass crystal's pressed into the fingers surrounded by gold. They definitely didn't look like anything that would change the planet thought Raz. \n\nAlmost as if on Que, Roxxie looked at Raz, and mouthed the words \"Better Run\" with a smile that made Raz question her roxxie reached into her pocket and pulled out a small explosive that was very crudely put together and stuck it on the wall. With a quick smirk she walked outside the room and behind a table in the corridor - and then set off the explosives. \n\nRaz and Gizmo were running down the corridor to the front of the building when a large rush of air went by them. The principal of the school had arrived, and with protecting the new era of hero's was one of the most powerful hero's on the planet Megaton. an SS Class hero with superhuman strength, speed and the power over gravity. He was one of the few people in the world with an SS rank and he quickly extinguished the small amount of flames that covered the area, and was looking around for a cause of the explosion.\n\nRoxxie shot out from her hiding space toward megaton. \"Megaton! I was so scared some people were just here and set off this explosion! Get me out of here!\" As she ran toward him. \"Don't worry young student! Ill take you to safety!\" Megaton yelled as he swooped her up and started running toward the crowd at the front of the building. \n\nRoxxie put her gloved hand on the back of megatons neck and turned on the gloves. She winced from the pain that felt like a thousand needles coursing through her hand and into her very soul. Megaton fell to the ground face first skidding for a few meters before coming to a halt. \"It works, It really works\" Roxxie Exclaimed as she looked at her hands in amazement. \n\n\"Time to change the world team.\" roxxie exclaimed in a booming voice. Roxxie reached a hand out toward a building that had also evacuated from the explosion and shut her hands quickly. The entire building imploded into itself like a black hole. \n\n\"The way only a villain can\"\n\n---End.\n~Theolddawg\n"
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[WP] There is Internet access in Heaven. You're the network administrator.
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"Mark was a typical boy. Nothing special.\n\nBut then, he died.\n\nAnd this death was indeed special.\n\nA lightning struck his house while he was surfing the Web. Fortunate for him, he didn't fell anything. He just \"fell asleep\".\n\nAnd when he woke he saw something truly amazing.\n\nA gigantic computer was right before him. He couldn't comprehend how much power must it have. With some difficulty, he turned it on. On the screen there was written:\n\n\"Welcome to heaven. In this place every person's fate is connected to their death. Your death made you a Web administrator. You can do whatever you want here.\nHave fun,\nFather.\"\n\n....................................................................................................................\n\n\nMark wasn't a typical boy anymore.\n\nHe was the true king of the Web.\n\nTerrorists wanted to do some harm? He could easily turn off their communication and send them police.\n\nFacebook was stealing some personal info? Not anymore.\n\nEven if he was missing his family, he could contact them on Facebook or Twitter.\n\nLife was beautiful.\n\n\n\n\n\nOr was it?\n\n....................................................................................................................\n\n\nMark was bored and sad.\n\nHe already read and watched all the Web. Heck, he even done it twice.\n\nHis family was gone. They died, but there was just him and the computer.\n\nNothing more.\n\nNo happy ending.\n\nJust sitting before the screen.\n\n\"You've met a terrible fate, haven't you?\""
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[WP] You have a drama chip implanted in your brain, causing you to see things in a very, ah, dramatic light. Describe a minor incident at work/school.
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"My sphincter tightened in a wretched way. By the sweet mane of Simba, I had sat idly by for Jennifer's scuffed shoe. I had averted my eyes, and bit down on my fist until blood had pooled amidst my gums when Benjamin had turned Anthony's pencil case inside out, only to shove the contents back inside and zip it up. But this was something else; this was Jonah in the belly of the whale, this was King David in the lions den. And I was born to fix this, I could feel it in my throbbing heart. I was the lion, I was the whale, I was at one with a universe of turmoil, deception, sex, explosions and loose leaves swirling lazy on a Sunday afternoon. \n\nI stood up abruptly, I said, \"LEON,\" I said, \"LEON, I love you like a brother but when your gums cease to flap in our dojo of learning for nigh on three quarters of an hour, it disrupts the learning of EVERY young mind here.\"\nI punctuated those last four words with accusatory points at Helena, Bryce and Courtney, who had been enveloped in Leon's disruptive miasma. \n\"In this room, I see, lawyers, I see doctors, I see presidents and I see KINGS and QUEENS. Let's not let these good folk guua---ohhh\"\n\nAnd that was the last thing I remembered before I swooned like a dove filled with buckshot. \n\nI woke to the hushed voice of my principal. He was saying, take the chip out, take it out, we know this kid wanted to be Clooney but we've got a Paulie Shore on our hands. If you can, plant it into that Leon kid, I like his gumption. \n\nAnd I lost conscious once more, like the dying embers of a terrific bonfire, fizzling out of existence in the crisp predawn air. ",
"The malign white blade slices into the delicate flesh of mine hand, sending waves of agony radiating through my consciousness.\n\n\"Alas, I am slain!\" I lament, \"For who knows what malign diseases and ill intent lurked within that razor's tip!\"\n\nAn arterial spray lances many cubits outward, splattering the surface which is to be my mortuary table.\n\n\"There is so much left unsaid! I must confess!\" I plead toward my companions in learning.\n\n\"Jessica! You are a tramp and a harlot yet I have loved thee still. Do not let thine beauty drown the flower of your mind!\"\n\n\"Chad! Ye hath cause me great suffering, and yet I embrace that which forms the noblest of human nature and I forgive thee!\"\n\n\"Misses White! I thank thee for thine knowledge and the scandalous manner in which ye attire yourself!\" \n\nI feel my vision begin to blur as my precious lifeblood leaks outward, its potential forever wasted in a microcosm of what is to be my fate. \nThe last thing I see is an ocean of concerned faces. No doubt contemplating the fragility of life and the great loss they have all suffered this day.\n\n\n\"What the fuck is wrong with that guy? It was just a paper cut.\"\n"
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[WP] Most people would be terrified if they were abducted by aliens, but not you, you see this is a rare opportunity.
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"*What a glorious day.*\n\nIt had been 30 years to the day when they took my father away. \n\n*Were these the same creatures?*\n\nI guess it didn't matter. Today was the day I'd finally repay the debt. They'd took my father when I was a young lad. For that, I was decidedly mad.\n\n*Ravenous.*\n\n*Furious.* \n\nI'd been perfecting my plan. They'd took my role model and left me with nothing. Today, my plan would finally reach fruition.\n\nI remember they took him while he slept, so I always kept my kit on me. A rather tough proposition when you sleep in the nude.\n\n*Nature finds a way.*\n\nI laugh to myself as I pull out my kit. I begin to assemble my weapon of choice; *a straight razor*. It wasn't easy to find a way to store it *in* my person, but... \n\n*Nature finds a way.* \n\nA bit of wax and duct tape is all it took. A bit of sculpting, a rubber sheath. I've had plenty of practice. For years, I've been honing my craft. Testing my... methods. I've been wanted for years. Thirty-six. Though they only found fifteen.\n\nWith a *plop* and a *slurp* the wall opened. I made sure to play possum. \n\n*Scritch* \n\n*Scritch* \n\n*Scriiiiiiiiitch*\n\nI leap into action. I hack, slash, and slaughter. \n\nI *bathe* in it. \n\nI *taste* it.\n\nI *experience* it.\n\n*PumphPumphPumph*\n\nI collapse. My goals have been reached. My body is riddled with holes like swiss cheese.\n\n*Thirty-eight, I'll take it.*\n\nI gasp my last breathe.\n\n*All for you my dear father... I hope you found your peace.*\n\nI'll be in hell, but it was worth it. Thirty-eight fallen to me, what more could I ask for? Thirty-six for practice, two for purpose. \n\nThey'd taken my role model, my life, my purpose. Through adversity, what is my dad used to say?\n\n*Nature finds as way.*\n\nA comforting thought as I drift into the abyss.",
"The day they came changed me. When I boarded their ship, my hands seemed like they were shaking, but when I looked down they were still, and my mouth was lapping in oxygen agape. Friend, I felt them. I tell you I felt their energy. It was paradoxical, and engrossing. As I walked towards their staircase that descended, the energy swirled around me, and as I took their hands, I felt like I was walking hand in hand with my brother and sister. They cried out though, and it shrieked, like a wild animal, but I felt it wasn’t antagonistic. So I kept saying “Yes….yes….yes,” after each noise they produced and smiled accompanied with light nodding. The primitive yin of my brain said “They will husk you if you let the doors shut, husk you like a crop, and throw you into a bin of earthly human vegetation.” The yang caroled me in, and though it felt right, it seemed like my idea the entire time.\n\nFor years I swung in the park, on the creaky swing. There I watched in the finale of dusk, the sun leave its grace and light, casting in between the trees onto me, and the ground, and the benches, and everything. It especially cast its light on the people in the heart of their great lives, leaping like angels in the sky. They soared in the sky, and took their giving’s, and floated in the expanse of heaven that is seeing the world like a picture from up there. I promised myself on one of those nights I would take any opportunity to join them. It came in form of a question those great species asked of me. In my mind, a voice arose; it spoke “What do you want?” I stumbled on the question, looking to their eyes, but they looked towards a wide silver door, polished and bespeckled. I turned without thought, and blurted out: “I wish to fly” I said, my voice quivering and adrenalin pumping. \n",
"\"Greetings.\" \n\nI stared at the greenish-gray face looking back at me. \"Yo. You got a bathroom? I was just about to...you know, when ya'll decided to take me on this epic roadie. So how bout it?\"\n\nThe alien seemed a bit puzzled, but if I was...her, him..it...I'd be too. I guess most humans freak out when abducted. Not me. I treat everything in life as an adventure, so this seemed pretty cool. \"Ah, yes. You are a female, right?\" \n\nI nodded. \"And I have to go really bad.\"\n\n'Follow me.\"\n\n\"Hey, what's your name? I'm Jessika, but people call me Eagle, cause I can see like an eagle.\"\n\n\"I'm afraid your human vocal organ couuld not reproduce the sound. For your sake, you may call me \"Caro, it's similar in meaning to my name in my language.\"\n\n\"Nice to meetcha Caro. \"\n\n\"Likewise, young one.\" I sensed Caro was probably a grandmother, so I took no offense. \n\nAfter finishing I left the room, and followed Caro to an open deck that allowed one uninterrupted views of the cosmos. And I thought star gazing on Earth was cool...Being among the stars while viewing them was an unparalleled delight for me in all ways.\n\n\"You know,\" I said, facing the other two aliens, \"I really must thank you for this. I never, ever dreamed I'd leave Earth, travel among the stars, or meet ya'll. Well, I kinda hoped I'd meet aliens, it was on my \"bucket list\" to be abducted before I die. Hey, why does it smell oddly like weed?\"\n\nOne of the aliens giggled, and I sensed the alien was young, likely a teenager in human years. \"It's an intergalactic smoke out, and we chose you.\"",
"Marcia opened her eyes to find what looked like the inside of an iPod. \"It worked\" she said. Marcia tweeted earlier, \"I hope aliens abduct me today. I'm so over this planet.\" Everything was clean, there wasn't any natural lighting. She heard slithering behind her, it sounded like an oversized snail leaving its 'snail goop' everywhere. \n\n\"You should be startled.\" A voice said above her. It didn't look like the aliens on Forever 21 t-shirts. It looked gross. Like the remnants of a popped pimple. \"I wasn't but, Christ have you seen what you look like? Do all of you look like this?\" It was confused. \"Foolish Human we have taken you. You're also not the best looking specimen that we've abducted this week okay? We've taken 2 models, and a Playboy Bunny. She thought I was a giant Eclair.\" Marcia smirked. She looked around for other human beings, or 'eclairs' \"So what's next? Is there a holding chamber? An examination moment? Less sound effects than you'd think from all these monitors.\" The eclair was angry, \"Do you not realize that you can never go back to planet Earth? You've become ours to keep.\" Marcia sighed, \"Thank god, have you seen who the fucking President is? I bet your President or Ruler is a lot more educated then ours. Also do you speak another language up here? Or is English your universal language as well.\" The eclair reached for her brain with its tentacle and grabbed on. \"Are you going to erase my memories? Can you at least keep my memory of the mac and cheese I had last week. Fan-fucking-tastic. Also don't go through my sexual experiences, because they're sparse and uninteresting.\" The eclair screamed in frustration, \"this isn't an act of welcoming, you shouldn't be enthused about what comes next for you.\" \"I hope it's something to eat, because however long this journey was to get here was not accommodating at all, I am starving. I should have eaten something prior to summoning you, but it was just a joke.\" ",
"'Well, waking up then?' the bizarre creature said as he walked towards Andrew. 'I expected the sedatives to wear off by now.'\n\nAndrew stirred awake as he saw the creature dressed entirely in a Hazmat suit wandering around him with a light scanning his body. The human was restrained, utterly naked as he was being examined by the alien. 'What do you want from me?'\n\n'To know,' the alien began, 'if you'll be a good breed of foot soldier for conquering the galaxy.'\n\nA strange light surrounded Andrew and all he knew was the sensation of pain. When it was cut off he was gasping in pain as he saw his frame had a bit more definition.\n\n'So far, so good,' the alien said before Andrew was exposed to the light again. He screamed as his body was twisted about, more flesh added to his frame. 'Well, this is a good idea for an initial conqueror,' he said as he prepared to walk out of the room.\n\n'No it's not,' Andrew said weakly. 'I'm too small, too dumb. I won't be able to conquer even a village, let alone a planet.'\n\n'Really?' the alien said in surprise but somewhat disdain. 'Well, if I calibrate the laser...'\n\nAndrew felt like his head was about to explode from the sheer pain. He could only grumble at what happened to him... but he knew he was smart enough to figure out a plan, only a little though. 'Sorry, not even close. The tallest human on Earth is nearly three meters tall. I'm only just reaching two.'\n\n'Just a little more,' the alien said. Andrew didn't scream this time as he was aware of his flesh bubbling under the hardening skin, his body growing longer and the mind growing beyond his own capabilities. 'Sorry, but he was also 1,956lbs,' Andrew stated. 'I'm far too little for this.'\n\n'Grr...' The alien could only make an animalistic noise as he blasted Andrew again. This time, he didn't go for a quick burst but instead a full-blown bath of radiation.\n\n'Fuck!' Andrew shouted in pain as his floating form kept growing, his limbs thickening and his torso expanding. 'You... you... *utter fool!*'\n\nThe alien wasn't even aware of the flaw but after the four-hundredth IQ point Andrew was aware of the limitations of the force field. It took mere moments for him to exceed the maximum weight capacity as the force field collapsed from his sheer size, denting the metal as he landed.\n\n'Oh...' the alien grumbled as he tried to run away, closing the door and locking it to keep his test subject inside. Instead Andrew punched in between the doors then ripped the shutters open directly above his captor before lifting the little ball of rage.\n\n'So, why didn't you consider brainwashing me *before* turning me into a monster?' Andrew asked the small ball of lard a question before setting him in a chair-like apparatus. 'See... At least I would've considered doing this first.'\n\nActivating the machine he could only hear his host's screams fill the room for a brief moment before its work was done and he was released. Andrew looked down at the creature and smile. 'How are you?' he asked the creature.\n\n'The best I've ever been, master,' the creature said in the most sincere voice he could muster before falling to his knees and kissing the giant's bare feet.\n\n'Very good,' Andrew said. 'Now, would you be so kind as to provide me with some new clothing? Before you transfer all the ship's controls over to me, of course.'\n\n'I'll begin right away master,' the alien said with gusto. 'I'll bring them to your private quarters as soon as they're ready.'\n\n---\n\nThe former master of the vessel was now mopping away as Andrew passed, his heavy footfalls causing the tiny creature to jump a little. He paused momentarily to look at the creature before saying, 'Igor, these boots aren't as shiny as I hoped they'd be. Please create boots out of synthetic horse leather. It's a luxury on Earth.'\n\n'As soon as the halls are mopped, my lord!' he said before resuming his duties.\n\nAndrew entered the main command center for the vessel, a war machine like no other floating above the surface of Mars which it was currently terra-forming. 'When will the operation be finished?'\n\n'Within seventy-two hours,' the ship's AI said. 'Any directives?'\n\n'As soon as this is finished and my palace is ready, kidnap ten-thousand of the finest soldiers in the world,' Andrew ordered. 'Bring them here, brainwash and mind-train them then enhance their minds and bodies. About two-thirds my height would be best.'\n\n'Yes, sir,' the AI said as he sat in his throne.",
"Brent was strapped to the table, his back covered in goosebumps from exposure to the freezing metal top. He had been out on his daily stroll through a suburb, trying to find new customers. He wasn't sure what had happened between being rejected at the Rodriguez household and heading towards the Harrison's. There had been a blinding light and then complete darkness.\n\n\"Hello?\"\n\nHis voice echoed and he strained his head to try and see his surroundings. A round light came on, blinding him once again. He screamed slightly and squinted, trying to give his eyes time to adjust to the new extreme. After a time, the haze cleared and he was able to see. Aliens of various shapes and sizes bustled in and out of the room, occasionally stopping by to gargle something at him.\n\nBrent was scared, but he had always tried to be an optimist. He had been down on his luck over the past few months, and desperately needed a win.\n\n*Well, no time like the present*, he thought to himself. He cleared his throat. \"Um, sir? Mam?\"\n\nOne of the aliens loomed into his field of vision and looked at him. It held up a hand like extremity, as if asking him to wait. \n\n\"Yes, of course,\" Brent said politely.\n\nA machine was wheeled in next to him and what appeared to be a microphone placed near him. The alien motioned for him to continue.\n\n\"Yes, hello,\" Brent said, leaning toward the microphone. \"My name is Brent. How are you today, sir or mam?\"\n\nHe heard the machine gargle things at the alien. Brent thought it looked vaguely puzzled, but then it spoke toward the machine. \n\nIt whirled and played back in a monotonous tone, \"I am fine. My name is Junlnm, you can refer to me as a sir.\"\n\n\"It is your lucky day, Junlnm. Sorry if my pronunciation is a bit off on that, sir,\"\n\n\"My luck day?\" the machine translated. \n\n\"Why yes!\" Brent said. \"I'm here with a great opportunity for you to purchase some of the finest in tupperware products!\"\n\n\"Puppies?\"\n\n\"Tupperware,\" Brent responded.\n\n\"Tipper war? You are a waiter?\" the machine asked.\n\n\"I'm sorry, sir, it would seem your machine doesn't have the word for this product. I am not surprised, seeing as this is some of the best new technology on the market. Cutting edge in every way.\"\n\nThe aliens turned to speak to one another. The alien who had not yet spoken leaned toward the microphone. \"We have no need for such a product.\"'\n\n\"Nonsense!\" Brent said confidently, although insecurity gripped him. \"Everyone can use organization! Would you mind leaning me up so I might see the rest of your lab?\" he asked.\n\nAn alien on his left gargled and pressed a button. The table tilted until he was able to view the room. It was larger than he expected, with many empty tables set up in a circle and a control unit in the center. Brent focused in on the control center, assuming it was their base of operations for the lab.\n\n\"See, look at the state of this place. It is quite disorganized,\" Brent said.\n\nThe two aliens looked at one another and tilted their heads to the side. Apparently, some body language transcended the universe. Brent sensed self-doubt. He had them where he needed them.\n\n\"Yeah, see. Look at those long, thin... things... over there.\" Brent pointed to the object, unsure of what it's sharp ends were for and not looking forward to finding out. \"Those would do much better in one of our patented tall, cylindrical pasta containers. You could put them in point down for safety.\"\n\nHis eyes tried to find the next item to focus in on.\n\n\"Oh! Oh! How about that gelatinous substance you have laid out on the flat tray? That can't be easy to work with. Why not put it in a taller eight by eight container? It would be easier to store and easier to handle then.\"\n\nThe two aliens stopped and pondered the ideas, bouncing back and forth on the balls of their extremities and giving each other uncertain glances. \n\n\"Do you have a...\" the translator intoned, trailing off. It seemed to be searching its database for the correct word.\n\nBrent could feel sweat forming on his brow and his nerves getting the best of them. He was so close, he just needed them to say it.\n\n\"...catalog?\" the translator finished. \n\n\"Yes!\" Brent exclaimed, feeling better than he had in months. \n\nIt looked an alien abduction had been exactly the thing his failing sales career needed.",
"Kevin woke up with a throbbing head. He could usually take the drinking but the occasional joint throws him off the edge. Little could be remembered about the previous night but as he assembled himself into orientation things started to fall into place.\n\nNot really though. He found himself still stoned and being unable to recognize the place he is in, a mild sense of discomfort crept in. Or he could be panicking, who knew!\n\nA door thud behind Kevin so he turned around expecting Miranda, his girlfriend. Shock replaced anticipation. What he was looking at was not human. This thought was a first of its kind. It was a figure resembling that of an animal, bipedal and blue, flashing a grin as wide as his palm.\n\n“You have caused us inconvenience, human” - said the creature in a shrill tone.\n\nKevin could not believe his eyes. The creature was speaking in the language he understood. He would have let his astonishment linger for a little while longer but he broke into a laughing fit as he registered the creature’s voice in his mind. The position which he was in demanded his absolute attention because he was captured in an unknown place with a strange animalistic being. Being scared was completely valid, except that he wasn’t. \n\n“Then why are you smiling?” – Kevin pondered out loud.\n\n“This is not a smile in our creatureship. We are unable of making facial expressions”\n\n“So you’re always going to keep smiling like this?”\n\n“Yes”\n\n“No matter what I say?”\n\n“No matter what you say!”\n\n“Okay. How many aliens does it take to change a light bulb?”\n\n“I don’t know. How many?” – inquired the beast with reluctance.\n\n”Two. One to abduct the light bulb and another to probe it.” – With this Kevin burst into a long, possibly exaggerated guffaw.\n\nThe creature was furious, although it didn’t look like it which make the entire state of affairs even more humorous.\n\nKevin convinced himself that since this was a once in a lifetime opportunity, if he was going out, he was going out weird.\n\n“What do you want from me anyway?” – Kevin asked once he calmed down, with composure, and hands in his lap.\n\n“We are trying to build a human clone, and we need to fetch an average mind to complete our research. You have the most average mind in this society so we were hoping we could take a sample from you.” – admitted the ghastly-looking, grinning, 4 feet tall alien.\n\nAlthough Kevin felt the pang of insult in his chest, he kept up the appearance.\n\n“What is your name?”\n\n“People call me Gertinobolous, or Gert” – said the alien.\n\n“Are we in space?” – asked Kevin.\n\n“No we are still on your planet. Abducting people to take them around space and then putting them back on their planet is not cost efficient and frankly it surpasses our Weekly Space Travelling for Abduction and Research budget.” – replied Gert, the fat bastard.\n\n“The concept sounds familiar.” – remarked Kevin hoping somebody else was there to hear it.\n\n“I will give you my brain if you fulfil the set of conditions I have. I want a bottle of whiskey and some cigarettes as my last wish.” – said Kevin with finality. \n\n“Absolutely.” – agreed the organism while contemplating if this was too easy.\n\nThe creature left the room and Kevin found himself alone again. The place looked like a small hall. Red curtains surrounded all the walls and the floor was laid with carpet. It was the oddest setting for an alien abduction. He started looking for windows or staircases which would help in his escape. There was nothing but the one door that Gert used.\n\nGert returned with a bottle of scotch, some cigarettes and a lighter. He immediately handed everything to Kevin and told him to enjoy his last wish. Gert was wearing a yellow sweater which did not match his blue tone at all. Brown shorts with it looked like a fashion disaster. \n\nKevin lighted his cigarette with a sense of calmness a dying man cannot grasp. He took a couple of drags and when the nicotine stared to hit him, he took a large sip from the bottle of scotch. He did not swallow it. He gave himself a mindful moment of peace before all the havoc will begin.\n\nHe spurted alcohol out of his mouth towards the burning end of the cigarette in the general direction of Gert. Massive flames emerged out the cigarette and took hold of Gert’s terrible yellow sweater. The clumsy alien started flailing around with that stupid grin still on his face and fire set all over him. The cigarette was wet now. Kevin threw it to the ground and got the lighter out of his pocket.\n\nUsing the same technique that he learned while bartending a few years ago, he set fire to the curtains in the room. He walked out of the door to find that the room was just a part of a house, Kevin went around setting everything on fire. Panic rose among the few other aliens but they could not decide If they wanted to catch Kevin first or taking hold of the situation was more important. \n\nKevin made use of this confusion and stormed out of the house. He ran and ran until he found a landmark which he could recognize. He was close to home. He walked silently as the dawn broke, contemplating on the events of the night.\n\nIf he had the most average mind, then the aliens must be really stupid.\n\n\nEDIT: This is the first piece of text I have ever put down. Please go easy on me. I would really appreciate healthy criticism. Express whatever you have to say."
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[WP] The Bible is actually a prophercy of things to come. The Great Flood is coming soon...
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"I always thought it was kinda cool that I shared the name with such a famous person in history. Although not everyone accepted it to be history. Turns out they were right, it wasn't history. It was the future.\n\n\"I am going to put an end to all people, for the earth is filled with violence because of them. I am surely going to destroy both the and the earth. So make yourself an ark of cypress wood; make rooms in it and coat it with pitch inside and out.\" I was freaking out. I was just going about my normal life, going to work and such, when all of the sudden a voice started speaking. I looked around for it, but there was no source. It was all around me. What was the voice saying? 'I am going to put an end to all people'? That didn't sound like something the voices in my head would say... if I had voices in my head. Maybe I should get that checked out. The voice kept going on about how big to make this ark when it finally clicked. This was exactly what God said to Noah in the Bible. This is a pretty elaborate prank. It's probably my son Hamilton. He is always pulling these pranks, but he never went this far, especially when he was at work.\n\nIt hasn't rained in a while. I'm talking 3 years. It's been insane, but luckily some guy found a way to make drinkable saltwater. I don't know why you would want to drink fish urine, but tough times call for tough measures. Mostly, the lack of water has dried up most of the world. So when I get a voice in my head telling me that the world is going to be destroyed by water, call me crazy, but I didn't quite believe it. At least, for about 2 hours.\n\nI get home from work, still thinking about the voice when I'm snapped out of my trance by a couple of dogs. They seem to be following me. I probably picked up some smell. I decide this must be it, as there are quite a few insects following me as well. I see a couple flies, gnats, even some butterflies. It doesn't pass my notice that there are two of each.\n\nI own 100 acres of land that I live on with my family. It is crowded with trees, most of which are cypress. It's been tough, but I've been devoted to caring for it, making sure the trees don't die of thirst. Luckily I have the help of my three sons.\n\nDang, I can't get passed it. Every single detail lines up with the Bible. My name is Noah, I have three sons, I own lots of cypress trees, I heard a voice telling me to build an ark, and now animals, two at a time, are coming to me. Fine. I wanted a summer hobby anyway. Guess it will be to build a boat.\n\n\n\nThis is the end of my first ever story on this subreddit. Actually, my first ever story published online. I would love any feedback you can give me. I also wouldn't mind continuing this story if enough people are interested."
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[WP] You are a cleaning lady at a hotel, taking care of the room of someone having an extended stay. Each day you clean their room it becomes increasingly obvious they aren't even remotely human, but today they walk in on you as you're working.
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"I've always been the type to hold my peace, y'know? To remain silent, to ignore the affairs of others and to generally leave people alone, throughout my whole life, I hated the prospect of being nosy, but this...\nI really should have told somebody.\nI worked at one of those highway super 8 motels, you know, the one with cum stains all in the sheets, and the lingering scent of cigarettes and sweat? Trust me, I hate it too, the only reason I work here is because a couple years back, I got into a car accident.\nI was a fairly successful woman before then, my fiancee at them time was honestly the man of my dreams. We were making a very disproportionate amount of money for our relatively young age, and I, seemingly out of nowhere, was promoted to a top position in the company I worked for. All it takes is for some high 19 year old to ruin it. I wasn't horrifically scarred, nor was I paralyzed or anything, but I might as well have been, at least I'd get more money from big brother so I wouldn't have to work here at this motel, but life happens, and you can't really change the past, at least maybe I don't think you can, but maybe the person I'm about to tell you about can, who knows after what I've witnessed. I had been working there for about nine months at the time, and work was dull and boring as usual. I think it was about ten PM when he first came into the hotel. He was abnormally tall, and gangly. his whole body has this weird sheen to it, like he was sweating profusely, but I couldn't really see any sweat droplets, plus it was in the middle of winter, nobody would be sweating. He was dressed like a child would dress, with brightly colored athletic pants and one of those old 90s striped shirts. He has this awkward gait, like he was trying to sneak around or something, and he had the facial appearance of both a young child and a middle aged man simultaneously. His appearance unsettled me deeply, and I remember quickly ducking into a back room before the current front desk person (who looked just as unsettled as me) had to deal with him. Now, because of my injury, I can't actually clean room well (my range of motion in my wrist is really bad) but I can do basic maintenance just fine. I check temps, make the beds, send dirty towels to the washer, replace with new towels, replenish soap and other toiletries, and basically anything else along those lines. I remembered hearing my coworkers talking about this man throughout my shift, and the stories they told made me feel uneasy. he would occasionally just stare at one of the guests or employees, and when they looked back at him, he would quickly skip-step away without saying a word. Another thing that happened was that one time, he randomly just started running through the hallway in the middle of the night for no apparent reason, I wasn't there, but a coworker who was said that she noticed that even though he was acting erratically, his face never changed emotions. My coworkers started making assumptions about him, everything from escaped insane asylum patient to pedophile on the run was considered, and as his strange antics continued, the rumors among us only got wilder. Now the question most people would ask at this point, is why we didn't kick the guy out, his shambling presence didn't just unnerve us, multiple customers asked us to kick the guy out, and we would have totally done it too.\nIf he hadn't been paying us thousands of dollars in tips.\n\nWhere this shambling mess of a man got the money to tip us the amounts of money he gave us is still unknown, but he had the money, and he wan't afraid to use it. He accidentally bumped into another cleaning lady one time, and gave her 5 fresh 2017 100 dollar bills. The one time he made a mess in the main area (by spilling coffee) he gave both the janitor and a nearby waitress 1500 dollars each. To say that I was a bit envious of this would be an understatement. I found out that in many of the circumstances where he gave the money to someone simply was because they were doing something nice to him. I decided that I would hatch my plan, and get some nice money from the deal. The man would place any towels, or silverware that needed replacement outside of his door at night, and we would come by to pick it up in the morning. He had a \"Do not Disturb\" sign on his door handle at all times, and because of this, it was required that we couldn't enter unless of an emergency when the sign was out, and so, we would put fresh new towels and silverware in front of his door, and he would take them. I decided to help the guy out and have him walk in on me sweeping or something. Now I'm aware that to any rational person, doing this is not only stupid, but inconsiderate and greedy, but right now, I'm not in the mood for a moral lecture. I couldn't just take to dnd sign off and feign ignorance when I walked in. Every day, at 2:30 PM, he would leave for about 30 minutes, and then come back to his room and stay there. while he was gone, I'd pretend to clean doornobs, then I'd remove and intentionally place the sign in a place the camera couldn't see it, and come back five minutes later. I could then say that I forgot to put the sign back on and I didn't know any better if I was caught. At almost exactly 2:30, he opened his door, looked around quickly, and spedwalked out of his room. I then started to wipe down his doorknob, moving his sign away, and continuing on. after about 10 minutes of waiting, I walked in, and closed the door behind me. His room smelled like one of those hippy incense stores, and all of his shutters were drawn shut. His bed was pristine, and everything else was untouched, a bit confused, I started to look around for something I could mess up, something I could pretend I was cleaning when he walked in. He had three suitcases with him, but that was all I could think of. I opened the first one, and furrowed my brow. It was multiple pairs of the same shirt and pants, all clean and folded. It then downed on me that he had been wearing the same thing for his entire stay. Unnerved, I threw some of the clothes about the room. I then made for the second suitcase and found a similar situation, the exact same pairs of clothes. i shut it and walked over to the third suitcase, and opened it. It was a bit smaller, and looked really old. Inside, I found this wooden box with the word \"essence\" carved into the wood. Intrigued, and far too deep to back out now, I tried to open it, but the box wouldn't budge. Slightly dissapointed, I put the box down, and turned to wait for him to come back, but i saw the doorway open. he was standing in the way of the doorway. He made absolutely no noise, and his face was expressionless. He just looked at me, before slowly walking towards the box I had put down. He pressed into an indentation, and the box popped open. I could only barely see what was in the box, and the way it wriggled still makes me feel sick. It was this long, black worm, slithering over itself and moving very quickly for a worm. Without any pause, the man grabbed a piece of the worm, and put it into his mouth, before slowly starting to chew. he produced 20 clean, fresh 100 dollar bills from his pocket and handed them to me. Unsure of what exactly I had just witnessed, I grabbed the money and ran outside. I quit my job that night and spent all of the money on charity. To this day, I have no idea where that man went, or what he's doing, but what I did learn is that there are some really strange people out there. And they are real.\n\n(as a side note, i am very tired, so spelling and grammar might be a bit weird, but I hope you get the point. i actually wanna become an author soon, do you think I have the talent? thanks in advance)"
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