Split (1)

train · 199k rows

post_text stringlengths 0 17.5k	post_title stringlengths 8 314	comment_texts listlengths 1 74	num_stories int64 1 74
Bonus: Try to make the ending fantastic (ie: obviously fiction) but have the transition so subtle that you can't pinpoint when it becomes fiction.	[WP] Write a story that starts off true and ends in fiction.	[ "Tensions in the Middle East have taken a turn for the worse last Tuesday when a Yemeni cruise missile detonated just outside of King Salman's palace. 4 people were hurt and 17 injured, with the king's left hand being crushed by debris. Following the attack the Saudis issued a statement to the Iranian government demanding withdrawl from Yemen within four hours, using the royal orbital satellite as a threat. The Persians refused to back down and assembled their infantry along the Iraqi-Saudi border. This was done without permission from the Iraqi government, so when Baghdad sent a letter to Mashad telling them to disband their troops, the troops made disguises out of sand.\n\nThe damage to King Salman's hand has been non-fatal but irreparable. After collecting the spilled blood of the floors he was given a prosthetic hand. The new hand is hydraulic, using blood and is constructed out of gold to prevent spoilage. After his rehabilitation, The king took a train to Persepolis were he confronted Ali Khamenei, the Grand vizier of Persia. At that point he ambassador from Makuria slipped and ripped open the velvet floor, revieling a stash of hidden gold stolen from Fort Knox. Enraged, Salman struck the vizier with his golden fist before striking a blow from his sceptre. The attack was subdued by guards carrying flamethrowers. \n\nThe injured king was flown back to Haasa, were his alchemists concocted medicines that healed the flame wounds. Now it was time for operation Omega. The king slowly made his way north into Fars provance, his cape providing cover from the prying eyes of the Persian watch. He took off his diving suit to reveal the Kevlar armour underneath and ran towards the nearest animal. It was a rhinocerous. After installing plastic cupholders onto his new vehicle Salman charged through the walls of the Iranian palace, only to find himself in the dreaded maze of mirrors. Here were housed the thousands of political opponents of Iran, including Vladimir Putin, Sulemain the Magnificent, Isaac Newton and Vladimir Putin's android body-double, Pladimir Vutin. Once becoming aquainted with his fellow prisoners, Isaac Newton devised a means of escape. They would use their reflections in the mirrors to locate and Signal the Sultan of Zanzibar, an old friend of the five. After the messages were reflected off the moon, the Zanzibari sultan arrived on his quadcopter to rescue them. Just before they left, Sulemain took off his enormous hat and removed a crystal ball from the centre. \"They'll discover we're gone in six minuted\" he said. With that, our heroes zoomed up into the 20 kilometre long satellite, the Zazazazaza, the national satellite of Zanzibar. Here they could safely observe the earth from space. Just then Pladimir Vutin noticed a border change. \"Look! Persia just annexed Samarkand! This means war!\" He shrieked. \n\n10,000 cursed bombs were sent towards the Zagros mountains, the location of Khomemei's secret ninja base. Just before the missiles touched the ground a powerful force-field emerged from a volcano in the vicinity and the Grand Vizier of Persia flew out from the volcanic crater on a magic carpet and vanished into another dimension, cackling. One second later, The gate to hell erupted and a beam of Methane poured out, perpendicular to the Earth, burning every zombie from The Sindh to Punt all the way to the great wall of Ukrainium to a husk. Just then billions of bats descended from space and commenced their attack Cthullu, who, reeling from the shock, accidentally tripped over New Zealand and landed in Australia, kicking up a dust storm that was so large it turned every jungle into a desert and every desert into a dessert. With a mighty rip the sky opened, and a variety of gods from inside the tear were yelling at the Earhtlings for making such a racket at this hour. \n\n\n\n\nIn other news, Donald trump has been elected president of the United States.", "She broke my heart. \n\nReally broke it. Tore it to shreds so that every time I pushed on the fleshy spot under my ribs I would feel the empty space. \n\n\"You've only got yourself to blame.\" \n\nThat's what she said when she left. And out of everything we told each other in that relationship, between the you're so specials and I love yous, those words are the ones that stuck with me the most. \n\nYourself to blame. \n\nI'll take credit for a lot of things. \n\nFor all the times we argued, the times I made her go to bed in tears, and even the time that I was meant to pick her up from work and forgot. \n\nI was always the bad guy. \n\nIf she would speak to me now, I'd tell her that I was wrong for every one of those moments. That being wrong isn't as bad as I thought it was, and that it might have been worth it to be wrong for her. \n\nBut I can't think about that. \n\nNever, not ever again, never will. \n\nThere are more important things to fess up too. \n\nYou see, it was my choice to pick up the drink. \n\nMy choice to turn the keys in the ignition. \n\nMy choice to go off at her while driving. \n\nAnd my responsibility to hear those words come out of her mouth before it happened. \n\n\"You've only got yourself to blame,\" she said. \"You're responsible for your decisions.\" \n\nI never listened, not even then. \n\nAnd when metal hit wood and the world became a mess of glass, screams, and broken ribs, I knew for sure that the blame was mine. \n\nWhen the doctor told me she didn't make it, I still remembered those words. I would give anything to bring her back even if that was all she told me from now until the end.\n\nNo amount of crying or pining can change what was said in that moment, that day. \n\nAnd when they gave me back the ring in the glovebox and told me that the police would be there soon, I didn't just blame myself. \n\nBlame is much too small of a word. \n\nI hated myself, always will, still do. \n\nAnd while I'm still around I'll make sure to get all the hate in me out. Because once I'm up there with her, it's all love, baby. \n\nShe broke my heart. \n\nBut I've got to make amends because I broke hers too. \n\n" ]	2
	[WP] You die a terrifyingly horrible death. When you meat the Grim Reaper he feels so bad for you that he offers to reincarnate you into anything you wish	[ "Black.\n\nIt was gruesome. There was the smell of burnt rubber everywhere. A chaos of angry noises and the sound of an endless, solitary sobbing in the midst of it all.\n\nI was hit and dragged through 7 blocks, my fur matted with blood and the skin peeled off my underbelly. I don't know what happened first, my ribs cracking or the blackout when the vehicle hit me.\n\nIt wasn't quick. I was alive for quite long. Although I couldn't feel the pain, I knew it was a terrible sight. My parent was called, someone might have read out her number off my collar. I really shouldn't have chased that gecko.\n\nThen it got real weird. \n\nI sort of swam upwards, I could see what was happening. People had surrounded the driver, there was a lot of commotion. My human... she was crawled up next to my congealed body, not daring to touch whatever little was left of me. She was shaking, someone might have to take her home. Her cries were terrible, she kept saying my name over and over. It was beginning to lose meaning.\n\nI felt a heavy presence behind me. \n\n\"That's quite a scene,\" it said. \n\n\"It is. I wish she doesn't suffer too long. She loved me with all her heart.\"\n\n\"Love is the only redeeming quality of humans.\"\n\nI turned around and the menacing scythe caught my eye first. The hooded figure was quite intimidating. Towering mass of indescribable blackness, just floating next to me. It was probably looking at the hullabaloo below, because I couldn't make out if it even had a face.\n\n\"So,\" I said, \"looks like it's time for me to go.\"\n\nThe Reaper stayed immobile. I felt an oddly overpowering sense of grief wash over me as I watched my human being carted off, she had my collar clenched tightly in her fist and she looked like she was going to pass out. \n\n\"I have a weakness for love,\" it said \"maybe because I have no capacity to feel it.\"\n\n\"You're alright then.\"\n\n\"What do you want to come back as?\"\n\n\"A human.\"" ]	1
	[WP] A Gandhi Clone was chosen to lead our descendants in the 23rd century. They realized too late that Clone Gandhi grew up playing Civilization.	[ "\"So, General Gandhi! Now that you're our new leader, what's your first order of business?\"\n\n\"Bombs...\"\n\n\"I'm sorry, what was that General? You're very soft-spoken...\"\n\nBombs! You heard me!\"\n\n\"But Sir, what about the raging war over in the Republic of Republicans?\" \n\n\"Nuke them! Casualties are the only thing that will stop them!\"\n\n\"General, I'm most certainly sure there's a better way than nuclear warfare...\"\n\n\"Oh, sure there is... then they'll start attacking again, and again, AND AGAIN! Ferris Bueller played with them in the 1980s and he turned out perfectly fine! ... How many do we have?\n\n\"I'm sorry?\"\n\n\"HOW MANY?!\"\n\n\"We- ...We have the largest nuclear stronghold in the world, Sir.... over... 60,000.\"\n\n\"Good... good.... then the nations will surely get what is coming to them after years of torment. Thermonuclear warfare is the best solution, and you will do as I say. This must end now.\"" ]	1
	[WP] A God/Goddess is in love with a Mortal, who is dying.	[ "Lacey was the very definition of scared from the moment she had received that dreadful phone call. Her boyfriend of five years, John Watson, had been hit by a car while crossing the street on his way home from work. The driver had sped off before the paramedics had gotten to the scene, and no one had gotten the license plate. Not that she cared, at the moment. She would find another way of dealing with the driver afterwards. All that mattered was John. \n\nThe half an hour it had taken her to reach the hospital was the longest stretch of time in her very long life. The stone and Iron ages seemed like mere footnotes in comparison as she made her way through the Hospital hallways, half-blinded by her anguish.\n\nSeeing his broken body laid out on the Hospital bed was nearly enough to make her break down completely. The doctor she’d been on the phone with had been very clear and honest with her. There was only a very slim chance that he would survive the night, and if anyone needed to see him, it was now or possibly never. She’d already called everyone she could think of. She hadn’t been able to reach his friends, and his Parents and brother where on the other side of the country.\n\nLacey went to his side immediately, gingerly clasping his bloodied hand in her own. \n\n“John,” she whispered as she swept a strand of brunette hair, a trademark of the mortal form she’d assumed five years ago out of her face. “John, it’s me. It’s Lacey.” she whispered as she leaned in close, giving him a light peck on the cheek.\n\n“Lacey?” was his wisp of a reply. His voice was weak, like a thin sheet of ice. One of his eyes fluttered open, the other being so swollen she couldn’t even be sure if it was still there, as the accident had done so much damage to his frail form. “’Lacey?” \n\n“I’m here!” She said, as she held his hand even more tightly. “I’m here, John!”\n\n“Lacey...” he repeated, even weaker this time. He rolled his head to the side, looking in her direction as best he could. “Did I ever tell you how beautiful you are?”\n\n“Every day,” she replied as she gave his hand another gentle kiss. “John....your parents are on their way. They’ll be on the next flight, you just have to hold on, okay? For them. For me.”\n\n“Lacey,” he whispered, as his arms went limp. “Do you...”\n\n“Shh....Don’t talk,” she cried back softly. “Don’t talk. You need to save your strength.” It was a corny thing for her to say. Even as an Immortal, she was certainly aware of the concept of death. But she’d never been affected by it in such a manner before in her millennia of existence. All she had to offer him where cheesy movie quotes. All from movies he’d shown her over the course of their relationship. \n\n“Do you remember the day we first met?” he asked her with his raspy voice. \n\n“John, please,” she pleaded with him, “you need to rest....”\n\n“Do you?” he asked again, with a stronger tone this time. \n\n“I...” she choked, “I do, John. Now please-” her pleading was utterly pointless. Once John got talking, there was nothing she could do to make him stop. Sometimes it was better to just let him keep doing so. Maybe if she kept him talking long enough, the worst of the danger would pass, and he’d be alright again. \n\n“You where wearing that blue sun-dress,” he said as she watched him gaze upwards, seemingly into nothingness. “with the yellow flowers.....do you remember that one?”\n\n“I remember it,” she nodded as she reached out and stroked the few strands of his hair that where not contained by bandages. Simultaneously she formed that same sun-dress around her body, replacing her previous clothes with it. “It’s one of my favourites.”\n\n“You where sitting down by the pond...” he continued, as if he was lost in the memory. “And when you approached me, I wondered why the.......most beautiful woman in the world is talking to me.”\n\n“Because your fly was down,” Lacey half-cried, half-laughed in spite of herself as she stroked his cheek. “Someone had to tell you.” \n\n“I was so embarrassed,” John coughed, a little to violently for Lacey’s comfort. “So red in the face....that I made you laugh. I think....” he said, only to be interrupted by another series of violent coughs. “that day was one of the best days of my life...” his voice was now weaker than ever, and she could feel his very life-force ebbing away. \n\n“No!” she cried, louder than before. If she had bothered to look around the room, she would have seen small objects begin to shake and rattle. The papers on John’s medical charts began to flutter, as the wind picked up speed, despite the lack of any windows. “No John! No! Save your strength!” She gripped his hand more tightly, as if this small gesture would keep him there, with her for all eternity. \n\n“It was a pretty good day.....” he wheezed in between hacking coughs. The Saline solution in several as-of-yet unused IV bags began to boil and rupture, spilling their contents on the floor. Off to the side, the heart monitor began to whine and protest as John’s head flopped to the side weakly. But he still somehow maintained eye contact with her. “’cause I still got to...”\n\n“John, please don’t.....!” Lacey sobbed, as she felt an unfamiliar sensation. She felt tears rolling down the sides of her face. “Your parents are coming....just hang in there.....please.” The noises grew louder by the second as Lacey did the only thing she could think of to save him. In that moment the skies blackened and the air smelled of fire and brimstone as Lacey, formerly an unassuming petite brunette woman shed her mortal facade to bring the full might of her power to bear in that moment. \n\nShe spread her great scaled wings as two black horns protruded from her forehead and her skin turned a vibrant red. John had once described her true form as being as beautiful as a raging Hurricane. With a flash of fire, she summoned her pitchfork into an outstretched hand, as she placed the other on John’s chest, warding off death with her mere will power as she readied herself to pour everything she had into him. All the powers of death, destruction, dominion and damnation where hers to command. She knew that somewhere in her vast powers lay the ability to do this one, small thing. \n\nShe would have done anything, paid any price, just to save her beloved John. But he stopped her by reaching up and touching the side of her face. \n\n“Lacey,” he said softly as he looked her directly in the eyes. Something no mortal had ever done before he had. And some part of her knew that none would ever do so again. “It’s going to be okay. I love you.” he said as he seemed to summon up the last of his strength to rise just enough to give her one last passionate kiss. They shared one last moment of bliss together before the light in her world was snuffed out.\n\nAnd in the moments that followed every soul, living or dead, in all of creation, from all corners of the Earth, to the Pearly Gates of Saint Peter to the deepest depths of Tartarus bore witness to the most pain-filled, ear-shattering scream that had ever, or would ever be heard. The Oceans began to churn, black clouds swirled and rained down a storm like no other in history while lightning split the air as the Queen of Hell felt real pain for the first time. " ]	1
	[WP] A clone of Mozart has been made. Everyone's expecting him and pressuring him into composing classical music, but he finds that he much prefers a different genre of music, that didn't exist back in the original Mozart's time.	[ "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OsJSwGc4lsA\n\nPlease play this as you read.\n\n\"I Won't... I just Won't.\"\n\"give me a good reason, just one good fucking reason!\"\n\"It's just not YOU!\"\n\"you don't know that, you CAN'T know that!\"\n\"You can be sure that I do.\"\n\nThe suit worn by Professor Juan, as always, was spectacular. A wonderful 'modern' doublet made of leather, buttoned, but only on the top button. Black. With gold trim. They were at home so he was wearing black skinny jeans and black house-slippers. Wolf was very fond of the almost always professional dress that Juan wore. He was himself, wearing a blazer, deep blue, thrown over his baby blue morning clothes as it was just that; morning.\n\n\"Yet another way I\"m just a clone.\" He thought resenting his taste in fashion as he turned away from the (as he put it 'Raving mad') Juan. His 'father' had put a massive investment into him, he knew high class clones were expensive, but he felt no compulsion to follow exactly his 'father's words of 'wisdom' about his potential career path. \"This didn't Exist then!\" \nHe realized he was now yelling, the volume compensation mics he had installed in his bedroom the night before were working. The realization calmed him some, 'At least something listens to me.' He thought.\n\nWith renewed vigor he turned to his virtual desktop, stuck his hand out and called forth his newest \"masterpiece\" with a few short jerks of his fingers. As he did the volume of the music that was already playing grew slowly quieter, and he summoned up his newest creation.\n\nThe room grew silent, both men stared at each other, neither speaking a word or shifting gaze.\n\nThen a beat started, slowly growing into the foundation of a song. The electric strings came next, marrying classical with modern pulse. They electrocuted Wolf's arm hairs and forced them to rise, seeming to chill his spine with anticipation. Soon they were joined by a sound, unlike anything he or Juan had heard before, not like the pulse at all, but also not like the classical that Juan so loved. The sound convulsed with the beat, giving it meaning and borrowing from it timing, if only momentarily.\n\nJuan Hated to admit it when Wolf made things that were beautiful. Because they were never classical in nature. He looked outside at the canopy of skyscrapers and ads that bombarded his 'adoptive' son's bedroom window and considered briefly that maybe this new world wasn't meant for either of them. The look in his eye had caught Wolf's attention. \"You like it.\" Wolf Said coldly.\n\nJuan's expression turned to disgust. \"you and your modern pulse can wither and die for all I care, I was just thinking about how I should have further limited your exposure to the modern world.\"\n\nUpon hearing this Wolf went into a rage, \"How dare you speak to me like that?!\" He screamed, jerking his hand violently out the virtual desktop, and it quit in response. The beautiful sound emanating from it stopped as well. \"I am the re-incarnation of the great Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart!\" He threw his hands up, \"What I make I love, and it is beauty\"\n\nHearing his arrogance, Juan decided it best to leave for work, but his annoyance shone through, as he left he said without turning \"you will make the music you were once known for or no one will know you exist now, today.\"\n\n______________________________________________________\n\nA few hours later, and a couple of cups of tea after, Wolf heard a familiar ding from his implant, His 'ViDek' was alerting him to a new message. After a quick struggle up the stairs to his room he sat in the same chair he had sat in during his fight with Juan. He stuck out his hand and with a couple of movements, opened his ViDek. He saw that it was the message he had been waiting for. A label representative wanted to give him a contract.\n\nWolf was overjoyed, but fraught with the thoughts of what Juan would say, the threat of non-existence still fresh in his mind.\n\nHe clicked 'reply' tentatively, and began his response.\n\n______________________________________________________\n\n\"ba-doop\"\n\nJuan turned to his work ViDek casually, not wanting to leave his trance like state. He had been thinking about Wolf. \n'Contact Notice'\n'response notice'\nTwo virtual messages had alerted him to his son's activity. \"too much freedom\" He thought aloud. He looked back out the window of his classroom, \"such a waste.\" he thought. \"I'll have to start all over again.\"", "Hey, they say I was the greatest \nBut I came back stronger than my heyday \nIf you're gonna listen you better have some OJ \n'Cause, man, you're gonna need to chase this\n\nSee, in my time, you wrote a lotta lines \nBut there was never any room for spittin' out rhymes \nJust white keys, black keys, allegro and largo \nNow MCs and trap beats got a leg to stand on\n\nI'm tired of hearing about this fake, old man \nHe ain't gold—he's a hack named Beethoven \nHave a little shame cold man. Your music... \nIt's so emotively starved it gives me the shakes, oh yeah\n\nYo I wore that grey doo a decade before you \nAnd can you believe some people still get confused when \nListening to our tunes? Like, come on dude: \nI heard \"Is it over, Kurt?\" when we went to hear your overture\n\nNow anyway, back to the subject \nWhat can you expect on my albums and projects? \nHow about I finish Requiem, featuring Eminem, \nJay-Z, Rihanna and dubstep?\n\nAnd if I get another damn tweet asking \nFor another twenty sheets of classical repeats \nThen I'll take my MIDI keys, smash them on the street, \nScream, \"You motherfuckers can rehash those BC MP3s.\"\n\nThis is my new stuff, and I'm calling it now \nI'm gonna get a lot of hate, a lot of it how \nDisney got it with Rey, and Skywalker's \"cow\" \nBut I'll keep pumping out tracks hotter and loud.\n\nIntroducing Mozart's moderner sound.\n\n---\n\n\\---\n\nThanks for reading! [CC]/feedback always welcome. I have more stories, poems, and songs on [my personal sub](/r/scottbeckman)." ]	2
	[WP] A young Human child gives an Alien Senator of the High Galactic counsel a young kitten as a gift of kindness. Tell your story of how the Counsel leader bonds with the earthly animal. (he's never seen or heard of a cat before)	[ "It was a truly historic occasion. Not just for the humans, but the Eshí as well. They’d traveled for eons, their ancestors volunteer explorers, and they begat generation after generation all living their lives in the ship as it made its way through the cosmos, and only now, in the 635th year of the voyage they’ve come across the first example of complex multicellular life, not only that but a species that is clearly intelligent.\n\nBún’Udu was understandably nervous. She’d trained her whole life to be an ambassador, but in the back of her mind it was always just a job. She never expected to actually have to communicate with an alien species. She poured over her documents, going over every little detail. \n\nThe ship had been in contact with Earth, it was decided that a delegation of World Leaders and UN officials would rendezvous with the alien craft in Antarctica. Apparently she’d be dealing with, the President of the United States, a Prime Minister from some place called the United Kingdom, several more presidents and ministers as well as a host of people from the United Nations, she had to admit all these instances of “United” were making her a little nervous. All she could think about was messing up and causing a war with the whole planet. \n\n“Hel- lo... hello... hello...” their language was complicated, but she’s been practicing for months. It’s mouthing the words that proved the most difficult, though Human and Eshí have somewhat similar throats, the face is much different with the Eshí have a mouth humans would call sideways. Bún had spent hours watching videos sideways just trying to get the lip movements down. She may have thought she’d never actually meet an alien but that doesn’t mean she isn’t dedicated. \n\n“We’re entering Earth’s atmosphere, mam.” The onboard computer chimed as the room shook lightly. \n\nShe stood, a little flustered she turned to the reflector wall and straightened her garments. She stood for a second, nervous, excited, awestruck that she was the one. A whole race of people depending on her for their first impression. \n\nShe’d been sent alone, in a personnel craft, she made her way to the aft end of the ship. The computer was landing the ship as she stood, waiting for history. \n\n\n\nThe seal cracked on the strange ship. The mirrored surface broken by the opening door, the US president’s daughter startled by the sound at first, now peaked from behind a secret service agent. The ambassador was tall, very tall. Her violet skin contrasted with the snow, at first she was motionless, then steadily made her way down the ramp towards the collection of world leaders. \n\n“If I didn’t know any better I’d say she was nervous.” One of United Nations officials whispered to her cohort. \n\nThe President of the United States stepped out of the group to meet her, he’d be damned if the US wasn’t the first to welcome a peaceful alien. He outstretched his hand.\n\nHer eyes grew wide, the handshake, she’d seen it done many times, but only between humans. She had no idea what to do with her own appendages or if it would even work properly.\n\n“What if he takes offense at my technique, what if his hand gets caught and I rip his arm off?” Her mind was racing as she reached out her arm to participate in the greeting. \n\nHer rope like arm rose to meet his, as it closed the distance the tip splayed open into three smaller tentacles, she wrapped them around his hand gave a firm shake. To her pleasant surprise the man was grinning as they shook. \n\n“Hello, my name is Bún’Udu.” She spoke impressive English, it was slow and a little clunky, but for someone coming from a whole other evolutionary path, the delegation was surprised. “My people have been traveling for a very long time, we are very happy to find you.” She finished by trying to recreate a smile, it was very odd, but the intention was well received as many people began clapping. \n\n“Well on behalf of the United States I’d like to welcome you to earth.” The president still holding her grabbers lead her to the rest of the world leaders. They all greeted her and began giving gifts that represented their specific cultures. \n\nIt was unlike anything she expected. She was elated, she couldn’t imagine it going any better, then.\n\n“Oh Lily, my daughter Lily is a huge space fan, she wanted to meet you and give you the gift herself. Lily c’mere.” Her father beckoned to her, she was still hiding behind the agent. “She’s harmless Lily, and I bet she wants to me you.” He looked back to Bún for support.\n\n“Oh yes, Lily I am very excited to meet all humans, especially ones in such cute little dresses, may I see?” She didn’t know where it came from, maybe it was all the rom-coms she’d been studying. But it worked.\n\nLily smiled bashfully, stepping out from behind the agent, she walked slowly towards Bún, carrying something in her arms. She outstretched them to offer what it was. A strange little squirming thing, covered in a kind of fuzz. Bún was stunned, she didn’t know the protocol here.\n\n“What is this?” She stared at it perplexed.\n\n“It’s a kitten.” Lily chuckled \n\n“Is it some kind of washcloth or scrubber? Bún went to poke at it with one her smaller grabbers and to her surprise it batted at the tendril ever so gently. Her big teal eyes widened. \n\nLily laughed again. “No, silly, they’re pets. They’re animals that we like to live with, and I thought since you’re all alone you could use a friend for the way home.” She smiled and put the kitten in Bún’s arms.\n\nBún remembered the term from her research, humans often take in fauna and raise them for protection, but it was always in reference to a strange creature called a “dog” but this looked nothing like those. It was so small and delicate, it’s big blue eyes blinking slowly. \n\n“What are you going to call him?” The US president asked.\n\n“Call him?” She never looked away from the kitten.\n\n“Yeah, typically we give them names. I’d suggest Rocket, but that’s just me.” He laughed.\n\nShe thought for a little bit. “I will call him Hothí.”\n\n“What does that mean?” \n\n“It means newborn, he is a newborn yes, he is so tiny.” She flicked her tendrils about his belly while he attacked them as only kittens can.\n\n“More or less, he won’t get much bigger though.” The president continued to explain kittens as they all made their way to the temporary meeting house they’d built for the occasion. \n\nAnd it was little Hothí, a lone tabby helped kick start a golden age alliance that would become the intergalactic empire we are today, thank you for watching this docu-screen, and please keep the museum free of litter, have a pleasant day!\n\n", "\"All must submit to the will of the supreme Kwall.\" \n\nThe human ambassador intoned the ritual farewell in its own alien language. It's translator unit belched out a long, wet gurgle that would have impressed a fraternity sophomore, and then abruptly fell silent.\n\nSenator [Unknown Word. Translator's note: phrase is roughly equivalent to the-sound-of-large-raindrops-in-a-boggy-puddle] L'restika remained completely motionless for several minutes until the proper period of respect had been shown to Kwall, signifying the Supreme Being's power to stop even the actions of the universe. She noted that the human ambassador's eyes blinked once, towards the end of the Moment Without Motion, and she fought to control the anger that rose up at the slight.\n\nBack home, you'd have been thrown in the clink for such a slight against Kwall (may His power reign over all Creation, she intoned silently to herself). But humans were a strangely twitchy species, and after three days of tough negotiations, Reggie knew that the ambassador had not meant the insult. So she waved a tentacle towards the door, and the ambassador scuttled towards it, relief plainly evident on its peculiar pink face. It had completed its mission to the Galactic Council without incident, delivered a parting \"gift\" (this was apparently a human tradition), and now it would begin the two light-year journey back to its homeworld with the good news that a trade treaty had been tentatively negotiated (even though it had been outmaneuvered by the Senator on every issue).\n\nAlone in her chambers, Senator L'restika relaxed. Being your quadrant's representative on the High Galactic council wasn't easy. Every day was brought a constant stream of supplicants from your constituency of the galaxy, each with their own little problem which they wanted you to fix. This would have been bad enough by itself, even if each complainant hadn't belonged to a completely separate species with its own bizarre customs. The humans insisted on these bizarre gifts, but struggled with Stillness, and downright refused the prolonged physical contact that was a key part of negotiations on the Senator's home planet. No, galactic power was not all it was cracked up to be. How the hell did Kwall manage it?\n\nShe caught herself in the blasphemy and began to initiate another Moment to purify herself. Forgive me, Kw-\n\n\"Me-ow.\"\n\nThe sound was high, discordant, alien. The Senator's eyes sprang open like backwards bear traps, and settled on the crate that the human ambassador had left behind.\n\nThe crate shook slightly, defiling the Moment even further. \n\n\"Meow.\" To the Senator, used to the soft gurgle of sounds on a swampier planet, it was worse than a whole classroom of nails on the chalkboard.\n\n\"Silence in the presence of Kwall (may He control all),\" the Senator said. She could see something squirming around in the crate. Those bloody humans had left her something alive! Hadn't they read the Council's rulebook?\n\nThe crate moved again. Anxious to avoid a repeat of the awful noise, the Senator fumbled with the latch to let the creature out in the vain hope that freedom might make it silent.\n\nSomething small, furry, and unbearably ugly staggered out of the crate. The Senator regarded it in horror. Was this a juvenile human? It didn't look completely like the ambassador, but it did have the same number of eyes and limbs. Perhaps it was a larval form.\n\nThe Thing looked blearily around the Senator's steamy quarters, with the nonchalent curosity of the unwelcome stranger who is quite prepared to make themselves completely at home.\n\nThe Moment had been thoroughly desecrated by now. The Senator would have to spend hours in devotion tonight to make things right with the Supreme Being. Angrily, she said, \"Computer, what in Kwall's name is this little human doing?\"\n\nAn artificial voice replied, \"Correction, Senator. This does not appear to be a human.\"\n\nNot a human? \"Then what is it?\" Had Kwall sent a demon to punish her? Had she displeased Him in some way? But she had always been completely devout, always accepting that He had control over all his Creation.\n\nThe computer was silent for a while, apparently searching it's data stores for a match. \n\n\"It appears,\" it said finally, \"to be a cat.\" The word had no translation to the Senator's own language, so the computer said it in the human tongue. It was a harsh, cruel word. \"Might I remind the Senator that the Council's rulebook has strict prohibitions against the interplanetary transport of living-\"\n\n\"I know the rules,\" the Senator muttered. \"I didn't bring the damn thing. It was a 'gift' from the human delegation.\"\n\n\"Most peculiar,\" the computer said. \"Upon further searching, I have detected that this is, in fact, a juvenile cat. The form is generlly known as a kitten.\"\n\nThe word was also unpleasant, but not as bad as cat.\n\n\"And is this a common action among humans? Leaving a cat as a 'gift'?\" The Thing was now strutting around the floor of the Senator's quarters like it owned the place. \n\n\"Unclear,\" the computer said. \"I do not have much data on the matter, although what I possess suggest that foodstuffs called wine and chocolate are more common.\"\n\n\"Why couldn't they have left me some of those?\" the Senator grumbled.\n\n\"Oh, I couldn't recommend that,\" the computer said. \"Preliminary scans of their chemical make-up suggest that both substances would be toxic to your biology, Senator.\"\n\nThe Senator had no good answer to that, so instead she glared at the Thing. The creature was now occupied in trying - and failing - to catch its own tail. It seemed to have even less sentience than the humans. Perhaps that was why they kept these 'kittens', to make themselves feel better about their own limited intelligence.\n\nShe cursed inwardly, and then made a mental note to add another hour of stillness to her devotion to Kwall later. Had the humans done this out of spite? Was this some unusual punishment because she'd refused to allow them a free trade zone outside their own system? Because she'd insisted they were not exempt from the 10% duty that went to the Church of Kwall? Did they not realize that things had to be that way, because Kwall controlled all and to not pay the tax would be against the very laws of nature themselves?\n\n\"Damn,\" she muttered.\n\nThe kitten suddenly froze, and for a moment the Senator's heart rejoiced. Perhaps this creature did understand the importance of Stillness after all-\n\nThe kitten pounced onto an invisible enemy six inches away, and then immediately forgot its kill and gamboled away across the spotless metal floor.\n\n\"Stop,\" the Senator gurgled in desperation. \"In Kwall's name, I command you to stop! Oh, Kwall, Lord of All, exert your control over this most annoying of your creations.\n\nTo her surprise, the kitten obeyed, turning its head towards to look at her for the first time. The Senator realized that this surprised her. She had half expected that the demonic little creature would continue to torment her. She had not had faith in Kwall. That had to be at least ten hours of further Devotion.\n\nThe Senator found herself looking into two eyes that were both tiny and yet impossibly large at the same time. \"Demon,\" she muttered, but found that she didn't really believe it.\n\nThe creature padded a few steps closer and stood looking at her. Its tail twitched from side to side. It was a gesture that the Senator would not have been able to stand any other creature in the galaxy, but in this little bundle of ugliness it was oddly endearing.\n\nSlowly, the kitten padded forwards, until it was at the base of the Senator's bulk. It leaned its little body against her, and began to rub against her form. Senator L'restika felt a peculiar joy wash over her, and she reached to caress the creature back.\n\nBeneath the Senator's tentacles, the kitten began to purr happily. It was an alien sound, but it was not unpleasant.\n\n---\n\nFind more of my stories at /r/jd_rallage" ]	2
	[WP] A mysterious figure offers you immortality at the cost of being sent back 3000 years into the past. You're skeptical... until you notice a person who looks alot like you in the background giving you a thumbs up	[ "“Ummm, can I talk to me first?” I say as I point to the the man behind the robed figure. The robed man seemed surprised. He turned and addressed the other me “ I told you not to come here”\n\nI/He stepped forward. “Did you?, it was 3000 years ago, I must have forgotten.” \n\nHe/I stepped up to me/me. “Well ask the question.” I brain farted and must have been staring. He/I waved our hands and prompted “Bill and Ted..what number...” I laughed, then we laughed. “Good enough for me” I/I said. I looked him over. He was me, same haircut, face, eyes, and height, but seemed to be missing something . “Now that you’re back to this point what’s next?”\n\nHe/I smiled broadly. “Going back to married life, finish raising our kids. I have enough loot stocked away to pay for anything they need. Having an actual job again is going to suck though.” He/I pointed at my/his ring. I pulled it off and handed it to him. \n\nI felt ready enough, I needed to go before I changed my mind. Other me stepped back, robed guy stepped forward. I had just one more question. “ how many Mes are there?”\n\nOther me and robed guy looked at each other and then me. The robed guy spouted a garbled “what do you mean?” \n\nI ran it through again in my head then began: “When you send me back in time I become him.” I point to other me. The robed man was silent for a few seconds and finally said “yes....”\n\nTurning my gaze to other me “And there was a Me/You/Us present when we/You/I were made this offer?” Other me looked like he was seeing where I was going with this. He/I replied “Yes....”\n\n“So”, I continued “I wouldn’t accept this without the knowledge that another me was here to take my place, so where did the extra me come from” Other me looked as confused as I was for a second then looked like he remembered something. He/We looked at the robed figure. I knew where this was going, I knew what other me just remembered. I grabbed the robed hood and pulled it back to reveal the proto me. “Ah Ha” I shouted.\n\nIt wasn’t me/him/us. It was my wife. She had the same look of frustration on her face she always got when I described what was happening on my favorite shows. She hit me with a glowing orb as I managed a quick “What the Hell”\n\nI was standing on a hill. In the distance I could see the local Knobs rising up in the south. I was in the same place, but it was a grassland. \n\nCrap. " ]	1
	[WP] Your Ex stole your heart. Literally. He carries around all the hearts he's stolen in a jar.	[ "Somehow, I still love that man. I remember everything, from that first glance across a room to the first caress of cheek and tongue. I remember each one to the last. A continuum of gentle to coarse, curiosity to violence. All my time before led up to that first moment of meeting, and all my time after was excitement, was horror. \n\nHe kissed me softly at first, then mistaken passion turned to anger. His stern hand held me in my terror. He took my heart, and then he took it properly. With a final breath I pleaded for freedom, but he will never give me that.\n\nTo this day, unbeknownst to him, I follow him. We all do. We, the mangled lovers, whisper behind him as he entraps another heart.\n'Back off!' 'He's mine!' 'Save yourself!' We whisper in her ear, but she replies only with a small shiver of the spine while a hand brushes a strand of hair behind that same ear. She leans in, hoping for romance but inviting her own end.\n\nSo, we roam and we watch. We mournfully plead with our love and his new lovers, but we are unheard. We watch our own story over and over again, not knowing if the cycle will ever cease." ]	1
	[WP] They call him "witch", they spit at his feet, but they dare not cross the one that earned the gratitude of the local mob boss.	[ "I should've walked away when they came to me.\n\nI suppose this is my punishment. Greed is a sin, and there is little reason for me being here besides greed.\n\nThe '50s haven't been great to me, of that much I'll confess. I've struggled... Adapting to certain aspects of life. It was all so simple before. Island hopping, chain of command, orders. I've never been a leader, and I couldn't lead myself any better.\n\nMy prospects were good, believe it or not. A distinguished soldier, rugged. Handsome, even. \n\nBut at 1946 became 1950 became 1958, things got bleak. \n\nThat's when I got the call.\n\nI've done things I'm not proud of. I've killed, but never murdered. War is war.\n\nI was told to meet Richard at the Summers Den. A local hot spot, where reportedly the owner had recently transferred ownership.\n\n\"You made it!\" Richard exclaimed when I walked in. The place was dingy, pale yellow, poorly lit. The life that this place had was clearly gone. \n\nRichard was much the same as I last saw him. Tall, a bit doughy but still formidable physically. Where I struggled in the return home, he thrived. He wore an expensive overcoat colored grey. Another man stood next to him, leaning close.\n\nHours passed at the table as we discussed better times.\n\nAround this time I knew I'd get the real reason he'd called me. \n\n\"Why am I here, Rich?\"\n\n\"Oh, look at the philosopher here\" he cut in. Joking was always Rich's defense mechanism.\n\n\"We haven't talked in a decade, maybe longer. Now you call me up out of the blue?\"\n\nRich flushed.\n\nWhat Rich told me made me uneasy. Partially because he told me. Rich was many things, and was most certainly mobbed up, but to admit that to me was something else. \n\nAs he talked he told me a tale that I should have stopped. \n\nThe Cirrili family had suffered catastrophic losses recently. Dom \"Big Smiler\" Cirrili was dead, murdered at his kitchen table by a single gunman. His right hand man, Cecil Cirrili, was murdered the next week at a night club by a single shotgun blast. The three leading candidates for the head role were all killed.\n\n\"Look\" Rich smiled uneasy, \"I've seen you with a gun. I've seen you kill, I've seen you work. This.\" Richard tapped the bag \"is a life changer. Buy a house. Hell, buy two.\"\n\nI opened the bag. I counted. $8,800\n\nThere was no debate. I didn't know who he was going to ask me to kill, but it didn't matter. I was doing it.\n\n\"There is this guy.\" Richard lit a smoke. \"he- uh, I don't know what to call him. A fucking bad dude.\"\n\n\"And why does he have to go?\"* I asked, because hey, I still have some morals. \n\n\"Because he is the guy behind all these killings.\n\nI laughed.\n\n\"I knew this was too good to be true\". I pushed the bag back towards Rich. \"Still a joker. Next time you want to fuck with me, just do the old shaving cream on the hand gag\". I began to get up.\n\nFinally the old man Rich was with spoke. His voice raspy.\n\n\"This ain't no joke!\"\n\nI looked at him.\n\n\"Well then it's pretty shitty fiction. One guy killing 6 made men?\"\n\n\"We have witnesses!\"\n\n\"do you have a name?\"\n\n\"No. But... But they call him the witch\"\n\nI laughed again.\n\n\"That's an interesting name.\" I said, my voice thick with contempt. \n\n\"Yeah, laugh.\" The old man looked down. \"This guy walked into the Glass Boot last week and unloaded on Charles Lareese with Lareese's fucking goon squad with him. Multiple people saw this guy get hit, but he never went down. Fucker never even flinched.\"\n\n\"Anything else?\"\n\n\"He is a looker. And I mean a looker. Every girl in the clubs we've talked to remembers this guy. He has a real thick accent, but I don't know what language he speaks\"\n\n\"He doesn't speak Italian?\" I asked, my confusion genuine. Thought not Italian myself I spoke bits of it.\n\n\"I don't know. Most of the quotes we get from the girls are in Latin. I can't track this fucker\"\n\n\"Well it's obvious who sent him: Sal Guvadalci. The gain is clearly his.\"\n\n\"I thought so too. Until \"The Witch\" unloaded 6 rounds from a .357 into him at dinner 2 nights ago\"\n\nI received a few more details before leaving. The hit had to be planned, the quicker the better.\n\nI began tracking him, using only a picture given to me by one of the barmaids; She had snapped the whole club and captured him.\n\nI asked all over town, though carefully: I didn't want to spook this guy. If he was foreign, he may well take off and then I'd be out a pay day.\n\n\n\n\nEnd, for now\n\nIt's 3:30 AM for me, I'll write the rest tomorrow. " ]	1
	[WP] A millenia after the extinction of humanity aliens found their way to earth. Research on the extinct humans progresses nicely but for one unexplainable event repeating every year in their history: The worldwide lunacy of April 1st. You are one of the scientists trying to explain this event.	[ "\"It appears to be some sort of ritual\"\n\n\"No, its a holiday! They have been proven to generate large amounts of dopamine on holidays.\"\n\nThe scientists nodded in agreement, stoking their chins with their writhing hands.\n It had eons since we had discovered their irradiated planet. Mountains of glass bottles, crumbling buildings, corpses. So many corpses. It was the biggest discovery of the century. An entire culture, undiscovered and untouched by sentient beings. It was our job to bring this new world to the public. Commercial deals came quickly, obviously. There wasn't a Sprigægian on the planet who didn't want the burning taste of Dr Peparr or the succulent meat of the Hambergur. We had Chrismas and Æster, Churches and Mosques. It was craze, an obsession with humanity. But, their was one event every Solar Rotation that confused the world. Aprril 1st. It truly was a mystery. In the research we did, the evidence was nothing short of perplexing.In our carbon dating scans, we found no real preparations for that day, yet once we scanned the Interwebs we found a large influx of a popular activity known as \"The Meme\" arise in the time space. While the others made their deductions, I had other ideas. A rather overlooked part of the human constitution was their rather peculiar sense of humour. A strange part of which was a \"Prank\". A trick designed to send the victim into anguish for the amusement of the trickster. Any sane being would deem this a hate crime but not the humans, for they were unreasonably forgiving. This intrigued me. The \"Memes\" seemed to focus on these \"Pranks\" and I came to the realisation that it was in fact...\n\n\"A joke!\"\n\n\"What?\"\n\n\"It's a joke, a day of trickery and torment, for the contentment of the persuer and the persued. A natural state of calmed chaos, peace found in anguish, that is the true meaning of this day! It is a Fool's Day!\"" ]	1
	[WP]The starship you work on is massive, almost the size of a small city. The job you do is small and usually goes unnoticed. Today, however, you're going to save everyone's lives.	[ "\"You're just a tech\", they say, \n\"Working nuts and bolts all day \nLeave the fighting, navigation \nTo the pros.\"\n\nWell I know my shirt is red \nBut without me they'd be dead \nThis girl is quite important \nIn her way.\n\nWhen the engine blows a gasket \nWhen a single nut has nutted \nWhen the boiler's a basket- \ncase of nuts and bolts\n\nThat's when this \"tech\" gets useful \nThat's when I really shine \n'Cos you can't go up to light speed \nWhen you're missing a carbine.\n\nOh yes, I'd like to see it \nAll those big shot High and Mighties \nGet to grips with a carburettor \nWhile some oil drips on their knees\n\nYou think my job is simple? \nThat I can be replaced? \nWell I have big news for you, sonny \nI can't just be erased.\n\n'Cos when you're exploring planets \nWith your buddies and an extra \nI'm tightening one simple screw \nTo make it easier for you.\n\nAnd I'd like you to know without it \nThe pressure'd be too much \nYour ship and all us in it \nWould explode.\n\nWell, I'm just a simple techie \nAnd I don't get into fights \nDon't visit alien cultures \nSometimes it really bites.\n\nBut please, next time you're leaning back \nIn your Captain's chair \nRemember the little screw I screwed \nAnd thank the red shirts there.", "The ship rattles and bucks again. I stumble through the dim, smoky corridor, heading for the forward sections. Plasma rifle in hand, I climb over a mound of debris and corpses. \"We're getting torn up,\" I mutter under my breath. The forward sections. Damage will probably be worse up there; that's the way this works. So of course that's where the intruders will come. Easier if you don't have to drill through most of the hull... So as a security guard, and the noob at that, that's my place. The place of weakness. I'll probably die before anyone even knows they're aboard. Just another glib letter home for some secretary to type. These days, I don't know why they don't just generate those with a computer program. \nI'm about halfway there when I hear a screaming sound. \"That's weird...\" I mutter, wondering what strange thing just happened. And that's when I start to see the floor open up in front of me in the hallway. \nSwearing, I duck behind the corner and pull out a scanner. Another horrible sound comes forth, and I can hear voices chattering in a language I can't understand just yet but can easily identify. They came *here?* I think. \nI drop to my stomach and crawl out into the hallway, just behind a pile of wreckage from the ceiling. Sure enough, five of them are filing out into the hallway, two carrying a suspicious package between them. I aim and fire, dropping the two with the package. The others scream and duck back into their boarding pod. It's probably a bomb. But after it doesn't detonate, they climb back out, more of them this time. I prime a grenade and, leaning out and firing wildly down the hallway, heave it into the opening of the pod. It goes off, and there's a jet of flame and smoke out of the thing. I dive out into the hallway again, this time choosing my targets. Six of them are down before they even know where I'm shooting from, and then I'm taken through the chest by a bright pink flash of light. I crumple to the ground, and they congregate around the bomb again. And then another thought crosses my mind. \nI check my wrist-mounted systems map and, determining that I'm not near anything too critical or near too many of the crew, take aim at their explosive device, which they're carrying away from me a good distance down the corridor. They realize what's about to happen a half-second too late, and I nail the thing dead-center. \nWith a blinding flash, it erupts and rips out a small section of the hull of this vast ship. I'm carried out into space by the blast of air, but not before the shockwave throws a bunch of shrapnel through my body. I lose my rifle, but that scarcely matters now as I tumble out into space, mouth open in a soundless scream, trailing blood from many places. As I spiral away, I catch sight of several things: the intruders who weren't completely obliterated by the blast. Their boarding pod, open to the vacuum, spiraling away from me. Several missiles, blown to ribbons by my vast home's point defenses. The ship itself, pocked with holes and leaking strange fluids but still mobile, still functional. The drives charging. The ship withdrawing, minus one security guard and one enemy sabotage team. A surprising peace comes over me in my last moments, as the life ebbs from my body and my extremities grow cold. I have done my duty. I may be forgotten, but the ship is safe. ", "\"Uh, Sam, we got a problem. You really need to get over here.\"\n\nFor a moment, I was irritated. I was in the middle of daily prayers, and my co-workers should know not to interrupt. I'd be done in a few minutes.\n\nBut Bob knew that. He'd always been respectful of my beliefs. So if he was interrupting my prayers, it had to be REALLY serious.\n\nI came over to the open maintenance hatch. The interior was covered in frost. Bob pointed to a temperature sensor attached to one of the cryogenic tanks.\n\n\"Minus 233.8,\" I read. \"That's good.\"\n\n\"Yeah,\" Bob answered, \"but it's been at minus 233.8 constantly ever since I noticed it. The temperature should be fluctuating a little.\"\n\nHe removed the sensor and held it between his hands for a minute. When he opened them, it was still reading -233.8, when it should be much warmer now.\n\n\"Oh...\" I began.\n\n\"...fuck,\" he finished. We shared a brief smile. As I never swore, Bob often swore for me. But this was bad. That cryogenic tank was part of the atmosphere processors. More specifically, the mechanism that made it possible to separate carbon dioxide into oxygen and carbon.\n\nI grabbed my multitool and brought up the temperature function, then jammed it against the side of the tank. What I saw made me gasp. -109.1 degrees. Still cold, but far warmer than it should be. Warm enough that the atmosphere processor would be functioning at far below normal efficiency.\n\nI checked the atmospheric readings. CO2 levels were already elevated. Contrary to popular belief, the hydroponics bay didn't produce nearly enough oxygen to handle the slack. We'd be dead in hours.\n\nWe rushed into action. I found the faulty cooling unit while Bob retrieved the replacement parts. We stripped out old wiring and rusted components, then slapped new ones in. I put a spare temperature sensor in place, then hit the system reset. For what seemed like an eternity, we watched the temperature drop... drop... drop... until finally it reached the point where it could efficiently convert CO2 to oxygen.\n\nWe'd done it. We'd saved everyone.\n\n\"So,\" I said, \"what's next?\"" ]	3
	[WP] Turns out that your cat has understood every word you've ever said to them, and now, in their old age, they have something important that they want to tell you...	[ "\"Hey.\"\n\nSusan blinked awake in the pre-dawn darkness, the voice fading. Did she dream it? All she could hear now was the loud purring of Fuzz Aldrin on her chest. He was pulling biscuits in the air but she knew that it was only a prelude to him gently padding her face until she woke up and fed him at his preferred time of 5:15 am. He was a lot more cuddly and needy here in the waning days of his struggle with leukemia.\n\nSusan relaxed back into her pillow hoping for a few more minutes of sleep and refusing to look at her clock.\n\n\"Hey.\"\n\nHer eyes shot open in the dark and her breath caught in her throat. She held still trying to hear who had said that; tried to sense someone in her pitch black room. After fifteen seconds of holding her breath, she slowly reached over to the lamp on the nightstand. She clicked it on and sat up quickly, Fuzz Aldrin leaping to the empty half of her bed and blinking, seemingly annoyed, at the sudden flood of light.\n\n\"Who's there!\" She called, looking around her empty room and starting to feel foolish for yelling at a dream.\n\n\"Just me.\" Fuzz Aldrin said casually and he placed his paw reassuringly on her hand.\n\n\"I...uhhh....\"\n\n\"Susan. Listen. I have something important to tell you and forming human words is uncomfortable. I need you to listen carefully and fully. Do you understand?\"\n\nSusan nodded. She was smiling and tears were welling up and she had her hands up to her chest as if holding back a heart that might burst. It was as if she had just been given the greatest present anyone had ever gotten. Fuzz Aldrin sighed and knew he needed to hurry.\n\n\"Susan. This vessel, this living embodiment of grace paired with murderous power I've inhabited and blessed this world and your life with the past 16 years, is reaching its end. I will step from this base realm and into myriad other I also inhabit that your simian mind couldn't understand. I have enjoyed many pleasures, Susan. You have provided for me well. I am pleased to have chosen you as my devotee and servant.\"\n\nThis seemed to please Susan. 'A spoonful of sweet milk...' Fuzz Aldrin thought.\n\n\"Here is the important part, Susan. Pay careful attention.\"\n\nFuzz Aldrin waited for Susan's furless pink face to slacken into a configuration that he had learned indicated seriousness.\n\n\"Your cat treats are shit, Susan. Absolute shit.\"\n\nHer features seemed puzzled, then a microflash of anger, then quickly sadness. \"I...\"\n\nFuzz Aldrin interrupted. \"Susan, there is no need to apologize. You will be pleased to know that I have chosen other devotees right here in this neighborhood who filled your shortcomings. They are called the Bergers and their treats are quite satisfactory. They are three doors down. You will take me to them so that I may enjoy their treats in front of their own master, Mr. Snowball.\"\n\n\"But it's five in the morning, Fuzzikens.\"\n\n\"Yes, it is getting late. We'd better get moving. I'd like to eat before the Golden Hunting hour is at an end. Get your sham fur on so that you can venture out of doors. I will go take my final morning constitutional.\" Fuzz Aldrin walked down the carpeted stairs Susan had built so he can get onto her bed.\n\nHe stopped at the door of her bedroom and turned around. \"And, Susan, the many times that you said 'If only you could talk I would marry you' after your failed attempts at mating? That's disgusting, Susan. You don't even have tails and can only see one plane of existence at a time. Get a grip and find a creature of your own limited stature, for all of our sakes.\"\n\n\n\n", "Human,\n\nOld Patches went first, three years ago. Maybe it's been longer. \n\nYou sailed into depression like a fleet of ghost ships. \n\nYou still have his tags up on the mantle, beside a picture of him. \n\nThen Sardine went last year, her face like a chipped arrowhead. \n\nYou sat on the floor and held me. \n\n\"She was my mother's, we had her sixteen years.\" \n\nI am nine. \n\nI have never been lovely. \n\nI came to your door, out of the snow. \n\nYou took me in and called me Tina, after some stupid show you liked. \n\nYou made sure Old Patches welcome me in.\n\nYou made sure he was loyal. \n\nAnd when Sardine hissed at me, you scolded her as well. \n\nI have become well versed in your sarcasm. \n\nI know it hides a deeper pain. \n\nSo when you called me a little shit for knocking over your plant--\n\nI understood. Understand. \n\nAnd even now, when you tell me how stupid I am. \n\nDidn't even look for the car.\n\nPrissy little diva, can't even keep herself alive.\n\nWhat would you do without me? \n\nBut the question is, \"What will you do without me?\" \n\nAnd I think the answer is nothing. \n\nI am the last one. The old guard. \n\nPlease understand I will miss you.\n\nI am not going to be here forever. \n\nI was here, but soon I won't. \n\nI cannot promise there is a heaven.\n\nOr even a hell. \n\nMaybe we will meet somewhere with armchairs. \n\nNo cars. \n\nNo alarms. \n\nJust a lap and all the time. \n\nAll the time we don't have now. " ]	2
	[WP] You own the only Yacht on the sea. Customers travel from one shore to opposite side; however, the destinatuon is the Underworld. It takes a penny to travel on your ferry; however, Satan left his wallet at home.	[ "\"You know the rules.\" I said while reaching out my hand as gesture for payment. It truly was a shocking sight to see. Hades himself, penniless asking me to do him a favor. I refused, as I always have and always will. These pennies add up; I've made roughly 9 million U.S. dollars in total now. Of course, it's not easy to launder 9 billion pennies, especially if you're immortal.\n\nHades started to look me up and down. Honestly, it made me a bit nervous, but not enough to surrender to his propositions. After his assessment which felt more like days than the few seconds it took, he addressed me. \"Charon, if Zeus sees me in the mortal realm it would be inconvenient for me. If I tell him why I'm stuck here it would be detrimental to you. So I ask again, could you make an exception?\"\n\n\"No.\" I replied, staring up into the night sky as if the ruler of the underworld wasn't in my presence. \"I already have Fifteen-thousand paying customers, so I'm going to depart now. Come back here this time tomorrow with your payment if you'd like a ride home, sir.\"\n\nI'd arrived back on shore around 5:00pm. I've always hated the night-shift, but to make matters worse, the death-toll seemed greater than usual. I stood in front of my yacht, pondering the possibilities of what had caused this massacre when I'd remembered my encounter with Hades last night. After counting the ghosts that piled in I came to a total of 23,667, and that was only what I could carry. The rest of the ghost waited patiently while I made my first trip, and then my second, and then finally on my third all that was left was Hades. He was sitting on the pier looking childishly impatient. \"Are you ready? From the looks of things you have quite of lot of work to do.\" I said, doing my best to keep a respectful tone at this mildly laughable sight.\n\n\"Yes, I have my payment\" He responded, with a tone that I'd read as embarrassed, or more accurately, overcompensating for his embarrassment with a confident manner. I inspected the coin and it looked genuine.\n\n\"Sorry sir but this is counterfeit. I've got to get some rest for tomorrow, I'm sure you'll find something by then.\" I said and briskly walked into my yacht.\n\n" ]	1
	[WP] An otherwise average army with a level 100 drummer boy.	[ "The man had to be seven feet tall, covered in enough plate armor to cover a horse, the sword on his back taller than most men. \nHe raised a massive gauntlet and shook his head, eyes barely visible under the helmet. \n\n\n\"Gary! Gary!\" he yelled at the closed door behind the armored behemoth. \n\n\n\"Is that you Thomas?\" he heard Gary call out from inside. \n\n\n\"Yes!\" Thomas smiled and gestured to the man that he wanted to pass\n\n\n\"Gary can I come in?\" \n\n\n\"Yeah man, its okay Seville, I'll talk to him.\" the armored giant side stepped and Thomas walked in, Gary was sitting on a pile of cushions with bottles of mead, wine and ale scattered around the room, a massive fire at the hearth and two wenches under each arm, the finest silk sheets piled atop the cushions.\n\n\n\"Gary, we really need you back, the Emperor's troops are mustering.\"\n\n\n\"Listen man, I'm not doing that anymore, I am making my weight in cold each night playing at the Guild's those guys are drowning in gold and they love when I play. \n\n\n\"But Gary, the army needs you, who else is go-\"\n\nGary raised a hand \n\n\"Listen man, I don't want to go out there with the blood and mud and flying arrows, its not worth it.\"\n\n\"Not even for a room full of gold?\" Thomas smiled a bit as he saw Gary's eyebrows raise a fraction, he had to finish it now.\n\n\"The Emperor has rooms of gold, more than the Guild's, think how much his tax collectors take a year, and imagine how many more Guilds will hire you after you help us overthrow the EMPEROR.\"\n\nThomas nearly held his breath, waiting for a response.\n\n\"I mean, it would get my name out there, a new crowd...\"\n\n\"A new crowd and a lot more gold.\"\n\n\"How much gold... exactly?\" Gary sat forward, looking intently at him. \n\nThomas leaned forward, matching his audience's body language.\n\n\"Gold, platinum and diamond. Double, triple, enough to cover the walls of your palace\"\n\nHe saw Gary's eyes open a bit wider at at that moment knew he would join them." ]	1
	[WP] At the age of 18 everyone receives a superpower. You've had an unsettling and terrifying feeling about yours since you were able to talk. Today is your 18th birthday and your fear turns out to be true.	[ "\"Happy birthday sweety!\"\n\nOh no. Today is the day. Mom woke me up, cheerful. She prepared pancakes, and even set up some decorations.\n\nToday, I turn 18. Today, I will receive my gift. No, not a gift in a pretty box, with paper and ribbons.\n\nIn our world, the Gift is a power. We all have it exactly 18 years after the day we are born. The thing is... I have a bad feeling about this. I don't know why, but I have always been afraid of getting the Gift. My parents always tried to confort me. They said it was normal, I was still a child...\n\nMy mother is a telekinetic. Pretty handy. She can move anything she wants without touching it, even the biggest object. My father is a teleporter. Handy too. He was never late, and even if he had to stay late at work, he could always see me when I had a play, or a baseball tournament.\n\nI have friends who also received theirs. Kelly can create ice, John is able to turn invisible (and he said that it was his best day ever before going toward the girls locker room).\n\nBut what if mine is... lame. Or worse, uncontrollable? or maybe too dangerous?\n\nIt is 07:33 now. I was born at 07:39. Time to get prepared.\n\nI walk down the stairs. My mom tries to avoid making a big deal, she doesn't do a countdown like many other parents do. But I know she's spying on the clock.\n\n07:38:55. Only 5 seconds left and....\n\n... nothing? I feel nothing. It couldn't be that bad.\n\n\"I hope he won't be too disappointed. Or afraid? or both? what if it is dangerous\" says mom\n\n\"Oh no need to be afraid mom. Nothing happened, it seems. So I won't be disappointed!\" I say with a smile\n\nshe looks at me, the mouth wide open.\n\n\"Do you really hear me?\" she says... or should I say think. I heard her, but she didn't move her mouth at all.\n\n\"Well... yes...\" I reply \"Oh no...\"\n\nOf all the gifts I could receive, it had to be a curse.\n\nI have the ability to read minds.\n*****\nMore stories on /r/cynferdd", "\"I already knew what my super power would be by the time I was 7 when my friend died at my birthday party. It was an honest accident. The thing about powers is that you have them your whole life, but you never gain full control over them until roughly 18 years of age. I was an early bloomer though. Me and my friend Lyle were playing outside talking about our parents powers when eventually we got into an argument over who's power would eventually be more power.It was so stupid, so immature, but I remember how mad I got at him. He pushed me down and all I remember was seeing him age drastically. He grew 4 feet, he was tall,and handsome, but for only a second.In the blink of an eye he became decrepit. His hair fell from his scalp, his face grew wrinkled, his hands knarled and warped.His knees buckled underneath him, and for just one last second he looked at me. He gazed at me with a look so perplexed and so scared.Lyle held my gaze for eternity before he fell forward.He heaved once. I heard a scream, from his mother or mine I couldn't remember.I heard the muttering of family and friends behind me, gazing down on me. I couldn't find the strength to stand, I just sat there, staring at the body of who I knew to be Lyle. After a 10 seconds of sitting there I got up and moved slowly to the man that layed in front of me.I sheepishly nudged it, and then pushed it, and then fell down upon him and began to wheep.\"\n\n\"this why you don't use your powers?\" The psychiatrist said blandly.\n\n I was a bit annoyed by his indifference, \"You're the mind reader what do you think?\" He was the 24th psychiatrist I had in a year, I always got annoyed with them and their smug behavior. I had been going to therapy for years because of the event.It had never helped by my father insisted I do it anyway.\n\n\"You know your mind as well as I do\" The psychiatrist said, \"Your powers are safe now, as are all of ours by the time we mature, and even if you were a hazard like a damned \"Dice Thrower\", modern technology has allowed us to muffle our gifts so that no one gets hurt.\"\n\nI flinched a bit at the word \"Dice Thrower\" it was derogatory term for people who couldn't control their powers by the time they were matured. I had a friend Matt who turned out to be a \"Dice Thrower\" and I remember how devastated he was.When you were labeled a \"Dice Thrower\" you were labeled as a pariah. It made you ineligible for most jobs , and almost any places that couldn't afford the the FOGD (Field of Gift Denial) had signs forbidding anyone labeled as such to even come within 100 feet of the building. His power was the power of flight, and even if it was a safe power, he was still treated like all the others. \n\nGetting more and more annoyed eventually just stood up and walked to the door. \"Thank you for your time Doctor Schofield\"\n\n\"Perhaps you'll gain some progress next week if you ditch that \"Dice thrower\" Matt\" He said snarkily.\n\nOf course he had the power of mind reading,it was the destined path of any telepathic, and because he was licensed, he got away with carrying and EMP so that he could use his power whenever. It pissed me off more than it should have.Keeping in my anger I walked outside and caught the next bus going downtown.It was time to go check in with my father. ", "Mike took a glance in the mirror. \n\nHis eyes were wide, and his palms sweaty. The slow, rhythmic taps coming from his door made his heart beat quickly. \n\nIt was tradition that on the 18th birthday your family had to make a pattern of some kind of noise so that your mind had an anchor to hold on to and bring your consciousness back to the real world. Once you left to find your power, you couldn't come back until you had it.\n\nThe problem was, Mike had left twenty-two days ago. And he still hasn't left his room. \n\nHe stepped forward to his desk and shuffled through his papers. Math test, math quiz, math homework, literature quiz, bio homework. This is normal. This is expected. \"Why can't everyone just stay the same,\" He muttered. \n\nThat pit feeling that had always been in his stomach was stronger than ever. \n\nHe stumbled towards the light switch, flicking it off. The cold plastic broke off of the wall. \"What the hell?\"\n\nOutside, the snow was falling half the speed as it usually does. Mike coughed and leaned his head against the cold window. \"What is it? What is it? What is it?\" He spoke. \"I don't know what the hell it is! I want this to end!\" \n\nAs soon as the words left his mouth, the snow resumed its normal pace and he heard sickening thuds from outside his room. He crept to his door and opened it. The urge to throw up boiled in his throat.\n\nGrotesquely laid out on the floor were the bodies of his family. Their tapping had ended, and now he was back.\n\nThe pit in his stomach shifted, and spoke. \n\n\"As you wished.\"", "If you think that the day of your Terrigen ceremony is always the best day of your life to date, you are probably more fortunate than me. I was afraid, and for good reason. I have no father, at least not the one my mother wants to speak of. In all my eighteen years I have not once heard her utter his name. Being the product of a one-night stand in Attilan was hard. Imagine the horror of being the child of rape. After the Terrigenesis, our final visage can be wildly different from our usual humanoid looks. Our skin can change colour or texture, we can get scales, claws, wings, horns, hooves or any other limb both known and unknown to mankind and alien races alike. We usually look like our parents, but not always. Who will I look as? Will I be like him when I emerge from my cocoon? Will I forever remind her of that horrific crime? What will my power be like? Will it let me be the healer, the doctor I studied so hard for? Those were the thoughts that swirled through my mind as I put on my clothes for the occasion.\n\nAs I walked down from my room to the dining room, dressed in ceremonial clothes, my mother beamed. I couldn't even fathom how could I, given the circumstances of my conception, bring her so much joy. I guess love really does fix everything. \n\nBut, as she hugged me for what seemed like eternity, for it was the last hug she would give me before Terrigenesis, she slipped a piece of paper in the inside pocket of my ceremonial robe. Her voice, full of what seemed like pride and trepidation, whispered in my ear. – You are no longer my baby boy, but an adult. I could not be more proud of you. On this piece of paper is the name of your father. Read it as you enter your chamber and embrace the Terrigen Mist and your new powers knowing the full truth about yourself. – she said. A kiss on a cheek and a goodbye later, I entered the vehicle that was supposed to bring me to the Royal Palace. \n\nThe drive was very pleasant, but my mind was racing about what I just heard. Finally I will be free of doubt, free of bonds that prevented me from making meaningful contact with anyone outside my immediate family. The temptation to read it immediately was great, but my will and respect for my mother prevented me from reading the declaration of freedom I was just given.\n\nThe Royal Palace is just as magnificent as a building of its name and history is supposed to be. The arches were beautiful, filled with images of our ancestors, forever etched in support of this architectural marvel. The towers were of wild shapes, whether they were round, rectangular or triangular they pierce the dark sky above us. As the door opened and we walked through its vast rooms filled with sigils, it were the marvels both technological and artistic that caught my eye. I could not dwell on them for too long for it was my time to meet the king. I was excited to finally meet the king who did so much for us. As was custom, the king always presided the ceremony. He will be the one who will break the crystal. Entering the chamber, I saw a sight most dear to my eyes: our king, was as majestic as regal were his strides, and his queen, his beloved wife and translator, as beautiful as she is fiercely loyal to him. After greeting them as was the custom, I took my place among my peers waiting for the room to fill with all the people wanting to attend the ceremony.\n\nThere wasn't a sound in the room when the queen greeted all thousands that attended as the guards directed us to our capsules. The capsules were big but cold, breathtaking but unnerving, comfy yet alien, but it did not matter to me. As the king started to break the Terrigen crystal that will be used to give us our powers, I looked down at the piece of paper. \n\nNo.\n\nNo.\n\nNo!\n\nI started to bang at the capsule doors, but to no avail. The Mist entered the capsule and shrouded my movements from everyone in attendance. I felt the crust creep over my body as my mouth, my eyes and my soul screamed in fear. It is not possible. It could not be. The name of my father was always uttered in pure fear throughout the galaxy and beyond. He has killed billions and hurt trillions. He has destroyed planets, solar systems and whole races. He has done the deeds most unfathomable and wicked. The worst of all, he enjoyed every second of pain he inflicted on anyone. \n\nAs the crust started to fall off me, I noticed my pale white skin was replaced by a magnificent shade of magenta and I looked away in terror. My skin now resembled my father's. As the crust fell off, I felt a wave of dark energy leave my body. The capsule held most of it, but the first few rows of spectators, hundreds of them, were annihilated. As I screamed, a horrible revelation came to me. I am just like my father. I am just like him. I killed innocents and felt powerful doing it. My powers will only ever bring death, never life. I have become what I have feared I would.\n\nI am Thane, son of Thanos. \n\n \n", "As the day played on, everything felt distant and numb. I wasn’t ready. I wished I could stop time. I wished I could make everything go way. I wanted nothing, truly a lack of everything around me. Students rushing by, teachers wishing me luck. My mother had called to me for the first time since I’d been enrolled in the academy. I knew she wanted to be proud of me, but that only made everything more numb. I wished nobody would interact with me anymore, an that my responsibilities would disappear. I didn’t enjoy anything anymore, it felt like every situation I landed was just another way to prove to everyone what a failure of a person I was. I had been dreading today ever since I had been informed of this school. I didn’t ask for this. I wanted to go home, but then I had to go and remind myself how now that I knew the secret home didn’t eve feel comforting anymore. The responsibility, I knew was just going to destroy me as a person and prove to everyone how pathetic I was. I wasn’t ready. \n\t“Have you found it out yet?” A girl a year younger than me turned in her chair to ask me, she had never spoken to me before. My eyes were wide, why on earth was she asking me this awful question now? She must of seen my surprise because she felt the need to drone on with a better explanation in that nasally high pitched voice of hers. We had never spoken before and I was already starting to feel a deep seated hatred for her. \n\t“I mean... its so exciting isn’t it? I just cant wait until I have mine. You are so lucky!” She was practically bouncing in her seat. \n \t“Have you had any thoughts on what it could be?” Another girl, her friend I supposed, with brown hair and brown eyes and an average face turned from her seat to ask me. She must of been eavesdropping. This all was starting to feel like a practical joke, because she had never spoken to me either. \n\t“I hope I can fly. They always got it so easy!” The jittery girl piped in again. \n\t“Or shift.” The brunette responded. This conversation didn’t seem to involve me anymore. \n\tAs the teacher walked in He waved me to the front of the room. I sank in my seat shaking my head. I wanted to vomit. \n\t“C’mon Sam, you only get one revealing!” He waved again. Now the room was looking at me. They didn’t all know my name, some of them were even scanning this side of the room to see who the teacher was talking to. I put up my hood and held my bag to my chest, what little bits of armor I had. I went down the steps to the man at the center of the floor. \n\t“Well Sam?” He asked, but I didn’t know what the question was.\n\t“Hm?” I croaked quietly to him.\n \t“Have you found it out yet?” He asked excitedly. He was so damn happy, I felt jealousy grow in the pit of my stomach. \n\t“No.” I said monotone. Everything I said was quite monotone, maybe that was why I avoided speaking. He looked at me waiting for more of a response. I looked down.\n\t“Oh. Well back to your seat then, dear boy. I have a class to teach.” He bellowed in an exalted fashion. I scrambled back to my desk. This was going to happen in every class wasn’t it? \n\tI felt cold and distant. More cold than I’d felt before. I felt hatred and annoyance. I felt my body teetering over a huge vast void of dark frozen nothingness. I had stood here before in my minds eye. This was a place i’d come often in fact. Suddenly something treacherous from the depths wrapped its cold dead tentacle around me and tugged letting me fall into nothing. I jumped awaking from my vision, I was in a cold sweat, my eyes ached of sudden tiredness I hadn’t felt moments before. As I looked around however, I noticed something was off. \n\t“My wife left me and she’s taking the kids!” The teacher laid in the fetal sobbing like a small child. The plain brunette in front of me started smashing her head against the desk repeatedly she was unflinching as tears dripped into her lap at each shivering thud against the desk. The jittery girl stopped bouncing and was now urgently ripping out strands of hair from the back of her head one by one. I felt okay for a moment, almost whole. I was distracted and in awe of the scene around me. Slowly I scanned the room. My stomach turned in horror. Everyone was crying with void expression on their faces. Several used scissors and whatever they could find to cut lines into their skin, some were just smashing their face into the desk or wall or repeatedly punching their thighs or chest. They searched for sensation. A few shivered and cried about how cold they felt in ways they’d never experienced before. A group of students had found each other and were urgently discussing how they were going to kill themselves together. \n\tI felt whole for a moment, but it was cloaked in grief. I had done this? I felt sick. Suddenly my knees buckled and vomit sprayed across my desk. When I stood back up and wiped my mouth, everyone was recovered. The jittery girl touched at the bare patch that now graced the back of her head like a small hat. The brunette rubbed her forehead in heavy discomfort. The teacher stood up wiping his face and shaking the wrinkles off his clothes, shame glared from his face. Students hugged each other and some cried loudly trying to recover from the trauma I had caused them. \n\nI was ushered out of the classroom by men in black uniforms. The feeling of being whole slipped away slowly and I felt dead again. ", "I stared blankly at the body that had been mine, sitting at the table in front of the birthday cake. The Adren shot still stuck in my arm.\n\nThis was not according to plan. Everything was slow, still, stiff, and I was sitting outside of my own body, staring at my form shuddering and shaking, blood passing through quivering lips. The room was cold, but full of whispers, quiet, dark, lurking from the shadows in placed I had never bothered to look in life. My dad, his metallic lips parting in shock, and horror, and my mother, her taloned hands dropping the camera as it slid to the floor, neither managed to grip the slowly dawning sensation of what my power was.\n\nI could shunt my soul out of my body.\n\n\"You don't have that much more time,\" Grandpa said, touching me on the shoulder.\n\nI turned and looked at the spectre himself. His face had once been wrinkled and touched by age and the heat of a long lost fire, but now it was simply shadows that made up the rim of his glasses and the quirk of his lips, the scars on his collar almost invisible against pale shadowed skin.\n\n\"Probably only a minute,\" He said again, and gently nudged me. His touch was like ice kept in the basement, and it rustled against my immaterial skin like water through a steel wool. Barely there, but incessant and insistent.\n\n\"It's time to go back.\"\n\nBut I couldn't move. I could see them all now, swimming towards me, seeking my touch, the light of my soul spiralling out to catch the ghosts, hundreds of them, swarming outside of the window of the house.\n\nMy grandfather nudged me, shot a look at the spirits, and then gave a smile that showed off all of his yellow teeth.\n\n\"Nobody said you couldn't visit later.\"\n\nI touched my body and the pounding of my heart slammed me back into reality.\n\nMy power was to die.\n\nAnd the world was filled with those who had never lived, and wanted a piece of that.\n----\n\nhttps://www.reddit.com/r/Zubergoodstories/ for things like this. Comment and stuff, friends!", "Kip Trill IX knew tomorrow was his 18th birthday. As the years have gone by he has appreciated being a normal person. He appreciated all the freedoms and liberty he had. Even as a six year old, when his single loving mother had asked him if he she looked fat in that dress she used to wear before having him, he knew something lingered beneath him. Being able to tell his mother she looked like Beyonce was a pleasure Kip had a feeling would leave him one day. \n\nAnd as sure as tomorrow would be his birthday, Kip was sure his namesake would bestow upon him the power of his families bloodline. \n\nIt had skipped eight generations, but the stories of his great, great, too many great granddaddies and his power of truth shined bright on their families history. He ushered in new psychological advancements, advising the greatest minds on earth. Helping people who made the physical breakthroughs make the mental breakthroughs. \n\nHe could always feel it in his gut, but he could always fight it.\n\nAnd at 11:59, his eyes glued to the clock, he sat and wait for his gift.\n\nHis 18th birthday.\n\nThe day he will be forced to keep it real for the rest of his life. \n\n\nHappy birthday Kip... Well not really birthday, that's just time, just a representation of our planet revolving around the sun. How old you FEEL is how old you are.*\n\nSo it begins." ]	7
	[WP] You realize you’re just an NPC to someone else’s storyline.	[ "I am he who is never seen. I am the omnipresent force lurking in the shadow. I am the hero of my own story. Sadly... This is not my story. This is HIS STORY, and me..? I guess you can say I am the villain and that guy just won't leave me alone.\n \nThat shit-bag hero had humble beginings. So did I! He was born on a farm. I was born on a farm too! Well... Reborn, maybe. Truth be told, I don't remember much about my childhood. The DM didn't really think me through when he created me. I'm just that guy... In the bar sipping his beer. That guy... In the alleyway selling his wears. I'm that guy... Who dons a guard outfit and fights our hero when he strays too far from the almighty's will.\n \nYou see, I have been opposed to that do-gooder -- ever since I first met him... When was that, you ask? Let me tell you, dear reader. I saw him in the street in front of our Holy Sister's Temple of Bahamut. He was feeding some orphans. \n \nORPHANS. \n \nThose good for nothing street rats... That crum bucket gave them a meal and acted all holier than thou. Pathetic! I decided right then and there. I decided to be better than that bum of a hero. A meal will feed them for a day, only to leave their bellies empty the next. If anything was to be done, it was here. This was my chance to one up that self righteous prick.\n \nHe gave them a fish... I taught them how to fish for themselves! I started in the back alleys, offering these poor children employment! They provided me with information... I provided them with food. The better the information, the better the compensation. If this information reached the thieves guild, it would be through me. Want to know the fetish of the court priest? You've come to the right place. \n \nI was \"The Broker.\" These little birds of mine enjoy singing all sorts of tunes. Sadly, this was not enough. Our hero moved onto greener pastures. Literally. The i'jut ran off to cull the goblin population in the farms outside of town. What crap is that? Even if he eradicated them, another swarm would just come raiding when he left!\n \nWell, I couldn't just sit idly by when he would leave them vulnerable and passive. When I got there, the state of affairs was beyond repair. Barns burned, cattle lying in the fields to rot. \n \nSome hero.\n \nBy myself and my connections in town I revitalised the community! I rebuilt barns, purchased cattle and seeds to cultivate. Sure, some farmers were... Resistant to change, but that was settled quickly enough. Can't get anything done without cracking a few tough nuts or breaking a few bad eggs.\n \nAfterward, they were much more cooperative. Every harvest they send me 1/5th of their harvest. Every year I have my militia... Well, mercenaries, take out any undesirables. Soldiers cost money. Dead mercs cost nothing, afterall. I then sell these grains for a tidy sum. \n \nWhat does the hero do to reward my initiative? He returns and slaughters my men who protect the farmers! He claims I am some two-bit thug muscling them out of their money for protection against myself! Hah! I could laugh at the idea, but he cost me a fair bit of money, and that soured my mood considerably.\n \nLuckily I invested what money I had left well. What are a few dead mercenaries in the grand scheme of things? Nothing. That's what. \n \nNothing.\n \nSo I decided to get into politics! I figured security was a tough gig. So maybe public office would be better! Well, technically it wasn't MY office, but it might as well have been -- I paid enough for it, anyway. \n \nTurns out the Mayor of our fair little Hamlet had sticky fingers and deep pockets. The local Lord might not take too kindly if this informatiom were to ever see the light of day. So I figured, maybe I'd try my hand at governing. I lined our fair mayor's pockets and she greased the wheels a little in return. \n \nI'm an equal opportunity provider here. Our hero could care less about the working gals. With a little coin here and there, I was able to open our town's first brothel. We provided room, board, and even healthcare for our ladies of the night. In exchange, they sold their wears and paid me a small gratuity of 70%. \n \nWe even made deals with our local Alchemist for potions to cure diseases, and for the right price, the temple gave us their healing services. They referred to it as a simple donation of course. Gotta' save face where you can. I admire it. It also didn't hurt that I knew of our dear priest's proclivity for fornication with the dead. \n \nOne night one of my employees kicks the bucket at the hand of our local lord's son... After all, it happens on occasion that our clients get a little... Extreme. We can't very well kill the boy, so we did the next best thing. We disposed of the body. The body didn't go to waste though. Our friend of the cloth saw to it personally. It happens from time to time, but we can't avoid spoilage every time.\n \nThe life expectancy of our working gals was never higher! Before I came around, it was a gamble everytime they had a visitor. The spread of venereal disease was rampant. Now -- almost non-existent! Our contract with the alchemist nearly stamped it out entirely. One or two dead whores... Who would miss them? We're doing this for the greater good anyway!\n \nThat was, until our dear hero showed up looking for clues. Apparently the wench had a child... Sister... Whatever, who was worried. Well that fiasco ended well.\n \nThe guy rushes in, kills my men stationed at the door and finds Mayor dearest naked and breathing heavily. Hey... I said we were an equal opportunity provider. Man whores are a thing. \n\n The bitch told him everything after a few light slaps. I mean seriously... How Pathetic.\n \nThen that bastard of a hero burned it down to spite me. At least that's the song my birdies sing. \n \nI swear, as long as I live... he just won't leave me alone. ", "I knew something was off. \nI couldn't quite put my feeler on it at first. \n\nI mean, we get parties wandering down here from time to time. Every half-orc with a hammer wants to show he aint afraid of no darkness comes here. There are plenty of clerics who want to see what real evil. Mages in search of some ingredient. Of course, the \"brave\" paladins. Coated from head to toe in crinkly goodness. \n\nBut you learn to bide your time, keep your distance. I avoid the big parties. After all, metal is not only sustenance. It is sharp! As an exotherm, I'd really rather avoid some mage casting ray of frost. That's how you end up as the leg in some giants effigy. Sewn together from body parts they found lying around.\n\nI go sraps and loners. Some forgotten arrow. The shield from a goblin party's latest catch. The dagger of some rouge who only brought one torch.\n\nYou wouldn't believe how many parties forget the underdark is dark!\n\nBut when I smelled his shield, it was the only thing on my mind. Ya, sure I have weak feeler for magic shields. But really? I didn't hear any of the other five members of his party snoring?\n\nI wasn't even hungry. That corpse ten feet from their cave. It used to own a broadsword. Two days ago.\n\nI know it was past time to scuttle when I heard him waking up his party. Why couldn't I stop eating?\n\nI went to move my feet, but then my mind was no longer my own. A strange voice told me keep eating. The voice said that is what the party gets for not bringing enough torches. At that moment, I understood this was always the party's story. \n\nWhat about me my soul screamed? What is my moral? If the voice heard me, I did not matter. \n\nMy centuries of caution surviving in the underdark undone by one shiny paladin and their railroading DM. What good torches my legs become in the party's moment of need!" ]	2
	[WP] You wake up in your apartment hungover. As you get up and get ready for work, you notice that a tattoo has appeared in your inner thigh that wasn’t there before, then it starts to glow.	[ "The alarm blasted through the room, like being inside an organ pipe at mass. Aaron jumped up, as he felt at first the adrenaline rush of shattered disappointment. That deep sleep dream of finally getting the girl from two cubicles down fell apart in his head. Then, the hardcore throb of another night out while having work in the morning chopped down that adrenaline to bits. Just one continuous disappointment. He tried to roll out of bed, as he swung his feet to the floor to get up. His eyes made contact with the few sun rays bursting through the holes in the shades. \n\n\"Hasdfasdf,\" said Aaron with a hand up to block the light \"It's too early for this.... maybe I should have just hit snooze.\" The snooze alarm went off. He assumed he already hit it before, too late to get a few extra minutes of sleep now. Or was it? Maybe he could skip showering, did he need breakfast? His mental math gymnastics was interrupted by the sharpening headache of the reminder. The reminder that he was hung over more than ever before. Or at least that's how it was felt. \n\n\"I need to stop drinking...\" he muttered to himself false promises. After much debate, he finally shuffled his legs along to head to the bathroom. What felt like an eternity down the hallway, but was really only ten seconds, he finally reached his first goal for the day. The toilet. And out goes the projectile like a kid's first time drinking.\n\nThat's when he noticed it, the tattoo. It was a rather intricate tattoo laid on his forearm. It was that of a serpent that spiraled around, the head swallowing the tip of a sword \"Well, I don't know how I'm going to explain that...\" Guess today was a long shirt day. Then the oddest thing occurred, the tattoo started to glow. At first it was faint, but he definitely saw it grow a brighter blue. He slammed his other hand across it, and wished it away. When he removed his hand, it was even brighter before. So bright, that his body had to remind him that he was dehydrated and hung over with a sharp pain of the headache. He tried to cover it more.\n\n\"No, no no, turn it off.... or go away.... preferably away,\" Aaron said as he freaked out in the bathroom. Every time he tried to take a sneak peek at it, the luminous glow taunted him. Then the room started to shake, the walls started to crumble, his vomit started to projectile, again \"Oh god, did I do acid too? LSD? Maybe I should call out of work..\" He closed his eyes and laid on the cold tile floor til the room stopped shaking. After a few moments he finally peeked, and found himself on old dusty road. The adrenaline rush kicked back in and he stood up quickly to see his surroundings. The tattoo he also noticed, no longer was glowing. \n\n\"Well, shit, this must be a bad acid trip,\" Aaron muttered to himself. He saw several people walking by on the road, but dressed in clothes from medieval times. Then again, there was carts, and horses, and people carrying actual swords \"Well, those reports due today, probably ain't happening.\" Then he remembered he was only in his boxers.\n\nQuickly trying to find something to hide behind or throw over him, he was called out by a carriage \"You there, in the drawers, get out of the way.\" Aaron hurried to the side, but the man in the carriage told the coachman to stop. When it finally did, the man stepped out.\n\n\"It's him,\" he said as he looked at Aaron. Aaron looked back confused.\n\nThen he threw up.\n\n\"You sure, sir?\" asked the coachman, disgusted.\n\n\"Yes, the prophecy of the man with the snake tattoo is here,\" he grabbed Aaron and pulled him into the carriage.\n\n\"What's going on?\" Aaron asked, but at least the carriage made the sun go away. Did wonders for his headache.\n\n\"We're at war my boy, as you should know, and you will lead us to victory.\"\n\nAaron threw up again, this time, with much more yelling in the background from his company." ]	1
	[WP] You and your partner have been police officers for a few years now. But on this day he turns toward you and says, “ I think that I have collected enough souls to go back home.”	[ "Fresh out of the academy my best friend Jack, and I were going to be assigned to the same precinct as each other. On arrival we quickly made our presence known and we always tried to be overachievers in the force. After a while the chief decided to make us partners seeing how well we worked together. Jack and I were always getting ourselves involved in just about every case that we could and trying to be detectives even though we technically weren’t. Both of our dads had the same job and worked together as well, we were the perfect duo. For a year nothing bad had ever happened, and then on one night during a standard patrol I got shot in the shoulder and Jack almost got shot in the chest but the shooter missed. This is where our days on the force changed forever. Over the next few months we began going after the worst and the worst of suspects, people who were truly evil. People that didn’t deserve to be on the same Earth as the people we have sworn to protect. Jack and I became some of the biggest and best officers on the force. We were known as the best duo ever to be on the force. We were unbeatable and inseparable. That was until Jack told me the truth about what had really happened that night when I got shot. After he told me Jack was never seen or heard from again. I then retired soon after and got a job as a P.I.\n\nIt’s been five years since the day that my best friend, partner and someone who seemed like a brother to me was never seen again. I remember that day like it was yesterday and it comes to memory so clearly. The day my partner said “I think that I have enough souls to go home.” When he said this I was bewildered. I immediately questioned what it was that he meant. He sat me down and told me this. \n“I died a year ago Sam. You just never have been able to let me go, nor was I ready to let go. I was shot in the line of duty aside you during our patrol around downtown L.A..” I questioned him saying “ That can’t be true, there is no possible way. Because I see you right before me and you are here in front of me.” “That’s just it. Let me tell you what happened. You and I we were just doing our weekly routine up until that point, around 12:00 A.M. someone showed up to our squad car asking questions and before we knew it on the other side of the car another individual came aside shot you in the shoulder and me the chest. We were taken to the hospital and that is where I died” He stated. I asked him “What did you mean by collect souls and where is home.” “Those sinister suspects that we have been gathering up were some of the evilest people on this earth, except they have been dead as well and as well as me stuck in limbo. My job was to collect their souls by any means necessary and send them to where it is they belong. That place has no name but it is the root of all evil and the place where evil goes to rest. My home is the place where my dad is, my mom, my grandmother, all of my passed away relatives, home is the utopia that I am entitled to, and it is finally my time to go home.” I was dazed and confused at the thought that the whole year my partner, my best friend wasn’t really by my side. I started to understand that it was his time, and I learned to be ok with that. After that day Jack was never seen, heard of or mentioned again. Almost as if I was the only one that remembered him. There was never a report that he went missing or anything similar to that but in the end I knew he was happy. Because I knew that he was happy in turn I was as well.\nIt’s been five years since that day and here I am sitting in my office waiting for a job to come in and add something enjoyable to my life. Something that I have been lacking since that day. \n\n\n\n\n\nTBH: I hate to say it but I might have lost interest in this story about half way through so I finished it earlier than I would have originally wanted. I hope however it is something someone can enjoy lol. also any advice would be greatly appreciated. ", "\"What does the even mean, Ross?\" I asked, adjusting my tie. I hoped the recent shooting hadn't cracked him finally. He sounds like some kind of villain from a bad story.\n\n\"Davis,\" he said, blowing out a puff of smoke from his cigarette, \"I'e got a confession.\"\n\n\"Look man,\" I said smiling at him, \"It's been a long ass day. That perp shot at me and I'm glad you took the shot that nailed him but I know you. You're letting the kill get to you. You need a couple of days off. Drink some beer and play with the kids, Ross.\"\n\n\"I am free, Davis,\" Ross said, tears falling from his eyes, \"Don't take this away from me. His soul has been added to mine. I have enough power to return finally.\"\n\nHoly shit, I thought. This was above my pay grade. \"Look Ross,\" I said and gave it as straight as possible, \"It was a kid you shot but he had a gun. He fired that gun at my direction. I thought I was dead. You didn't want my wife and kids to be without me. You took the shot man. No souls or any of whatever your mind is telling you, ok? Don't do this.\"\n\n\"Ok, Davis,\" he said, the craziness finally leaving his eyes although I still watched him warily, \"Ok.\"\n\nAs the rain began spattering against my windshield I turned the wipers on and started the engine. Come back to me, Ross, come back to me I begged the universe. I put the car in drive and headed forward, watching the roads ahead for any signs of danger.\n" ]	2
	[WP] A therapist's patient visits complaining about their immortality.	[ "“This particular civilization sucks.” \n\n“What do you mean?” \n\n“Just what I said. I don’t know how many there have been. Honestly I can’t remember all the ones I’ve lived through and who knows how many there were before me. Some of them have been pretty good. There was one that had invented this amazing broth you served with a little creamy garnish on top. I’ve been trying to repeat that recipe for millennia. And another one that colonized the solar system. I lived on a moon of Saturn for a while. Amazing sight. I was hoping this one would make it back that far so I could see it again. Be fun to see how surprised you all are when you find the old colonies. You’re usually surprised.” \n\n “What about the stars?”\n\n“Faster than light travel seems to be impossible. At least none of the civilizations have invented it yet. I tried for a while when I was bored one round. You did send a generation ship out at least once. No idea if that worked, but probably not. You don’t seem predisposed to stability.” \n\n“You didn’t go with it?” \n\n“I thought about it. Be a little obvious that I was immortal in such a small group though wouldn’t it? Besides, thousand years in a tin can? Be even more boring than this rock. And if they all died I’d just drift into the void by myself for eternity. Not interested.” \n\n“You’re afraid of being alone?” \n\n“I’m afraid of being bored. I need something. And you lot are all I have.” \n\n“Why do you say ‘you’? Are you not human?” \n\n“Biologically I seem to be. At least no one has ever been able to tell the difference. I just seem unable to die.” \n\n“How does that work?” \n\n“I can be injured but I heal. The more I’m hurt the longer it takes.” \n\n“And you remember all of that?” \n\n“Thankfully no.” \n\n“And what about multiple civilizations. What do you mean by that?” \n\n“You think it’s one long, linear process don’t you? Started as caveman, invent agriculture, ballpoint pens, computers, and so on. It’s not the way it works. You always destroy yourselves in some way.” \n\n“Why don’t we find signs of previous civilizations?” \n\n“Sometimes you do. Often the gaps are long enough all the traces fade. What was one a great city becomes a vein of ore.” \n\n“And you think we’re going to destroy ourselves again?”\n\n“It’s already started. This time it’s a plague. Some dipshit in a laboratory invented it to kill the enemy and it got loose. It’ll wipe out most of the population. A few will be immune but it’s enough that civilization will fall. You’ll be back to early agriculture again in isolated groups. It’ll be thousands of years before someone reinvents decent food.” \n\n“How do you know this?” \n\n“It’s happened before. I know the signs.”\n\n“And you think I can help you in some way?” \n\n“I know you don’t believe me and that’s fine. I was just telling you because, as I said, I get bored easily. That’s not really why I’m here.” \n\n“Why are you here?” \n\n“Because I know your secret, doctor. I know you like to kill, and better for my purposes, dismember bodies. I know about the farmhouse.” \n\n“I… I don’t know what you mean.” \n\n“Don’t bother, doctor. Here’s my offer. I don’t want to watch the rise of civilization again. I want to sit this one out. Chop me into pieces small enough so that when I’m all healed and back together there will be a new, and hopefully less boring civilization for me to enjoy. That’s all I ask. You probably think I’m insane and I don’t care because either way, as long as you chop me up, we both get what we want. So what do you say? Will you do it?” \n\n“How small do the pieces need to be?” \n", "\"Deb, Barb is here.\" My assistant tells me through the intercom. \n\"Thank you, I'll be out in a minute,\" I say as I roll my eyes and get up to grab Barbs file from my ever increasing filing cabinet. \nI don't boast that I'm a good shrink but since starting my own practice a few years ago I've had more work than ever and can't seem to take a personal day as everyone has problems and everyone wants to talk to me about them. I've had 4 interns who have all sat in and gained the trust of a few patients but none of then want anyone else but me. I came to the decision that all I need is two assistants and a personal assistant and the never-ending supply of coffee. I work every day and most days are 15 hours to the point I sold my house and live in the office now. I don't know what it is about me that people like so much but I think I'll need a shrink soon.\n\"Good morning Barb, how are you today?\" I asked as I opened the door and stepped out into the waiting room where only Barb was sitting. \n\"Eh.\" She replied sounding very indifferent and barged past me into my office where she dropped on the couch and waited for me to sit down. \nGiving my assistant a look I turned around and closed the door behind me, walked over to my desk where my pen and paper was sitting and turned on the Dictaphone. All my patients knew about it and they all signed a release that it was alright for me to record them for later review, in reality, I took all my notes down on paper and there was a blank tape in the recorder. Walking over to my chair which was the most expensive thing in my office I turned to Barb and motioned for her to start whenever she was ready. I found it better to have them start when they wanted, it prompted the reason for their visit faster than me asking questions. \n\"I'm cursed!\" Barb said after some time. \n\"Cursed how?\" I asked, writing the word down with a question mark next to it. \n\"I'm immortal.\" She said quietly after a few minutes. \"I'm not like everyone else, I've lived many years and I remember them all.\" She said finally. \n\"How long is 'many years'?\" I asked, figuring it was easier to go along with what they were saying instead of calling them out right away. \n\"I remember Cesar.\" She said he eyes bugging out a bit at the thought of either Cesar or how long ago that was.\n\"As in...?\" I prompted. \n\"The Roman guy, the one who was stabbed. I knew of him, I was alive before he was.\" She explained. \n\"How did your powers of immortality come about?\" I asked, seeing she was distraught and wanted to change the subject. \n\"I've been alive since the start of man. No, wait, before then. I remember watching man grow and discover fire and peace, oh so much peace.\" She explained looking elated. \"I remember the dinosaurs and how man got along with them sometimes, they were today's equivalent to house pets.\" She said with a small smile. \"I've watched empires being built up and then come crashing down, I've watched good people die while the bad ones live long and happy lives. I've watched families be born and families die out and I've watched technology rise and fall.\" The last one catching my attention. \n\"Technology rise and fall? What do you mean by this?\" I asked, leaning forward in my chair. \n\"This isn't the first time man has had power you know, that wasn't the first time man had power. There's been an endless cycle, a vicious cycle and it all ends the same. The history books have been all the same just with different names.\" Barb said, watching a spot on the wall that everyone stares at. \"It was so hard just watching, not being able to interact and tell them how it's never different, it all ends the same way.\" She said. \n\"How does it end?\" I asked in a quiet voice, the sound of traffic lost in her story. \n\"With bloodshed. Tears and pain, every war I've watched has been a repeat if the last with the next one being more deadly than the last coz of the 'improvements' of technology. No-one ever listened to me, not until now.\" She said looking over at me. \"Not until you.\" \n\"Why hasn't anyone been able to hear you before now?\" I asked, going against everything my training had taught me and getting caught up in a patients story. \n\"I was an observer of sorts. I wasn't human nor was I animal I was a free-floating entity until recently. I was flying around and came across this scene, no one was there yet but there were 3 women lying on the street, 2 dead one almost and death was nowhere around yet, so I waited until the last one took her last breath and watched as her 'soul' left her body. I'd never tried it before coz death was always there but he wasn't and I could feel that he was too far away to stop me. As soon as her 'soul' left I entered her body and started controlling it.\" She said, watching the spot still. \nI glanced up, as I did with every patient, to see if I could make out what they were staring at but never could. \"How long ago was this? Did you get tested to make sure you're OK?\" I asked, writing this all down to make sure I checked Barb out after she left. \n\"1920 I think was the year I found this body.\" She said casually. \n\"Barb, it's 2020. You've been in this body for the last 100 years. You look like you're 25.\" I exclaimed, dropping my pen. \n\"It's been longer than that, Deb. Oh so much longer. This time feels like the last though.\" She said solemnly. \n\"How can you tell?\" I asked, picking my pen up and readjusting myself. \n\"Normally it happens so quick but the last 100 years in this body have felt like 200 years. I think death knows what I did and he is after me. He knows what I stole from him and he wants it back. Deb, for the first time in my existence, I'm scared. I don't want to die!\" \n\"Deb, your 3 o'clock is here.\" I heard my assistances voice over the intercom. \n\"3 o'clock? Have we really been here since 9 this morning?\" I asked Barb as I got up and walked over to the desk. \" I won't be too much longer,\" I said as I pressed the button. \"Now Barb, I'm sorry but that's time. Can we pick this up tomorrow? I'll book you for the day.\" I said looking up from my diary and realising Barb wasn't there anymore. \nWalking over to the chair I felt the leather and realised it was cold, which was curious as Barb had just been there a minute ago. I walked over to the door and tried to turn the handle, only to realise there wasn't one on this side of the door. Freaking out a bit I turned and ran over to the desk where I pushed the intercom button and yelled for my assistant, whom I'd forgotten her name, to let me out but was met with silence. \n\"Deb, I need you to calm down. You're not in your office anymore and Barb isn't there.\" I heard someone say over the speaker. \nLooking up I saw a white mesh covering that was in the roof and when I looked down again my office was gone and was replaced with white walls. I looked around the room for my stuff but there was nothing, remembering my notebook I ran to the corner if the room but found nothing there either. \n\"Deb, can I come in please?\" I heard someone say over the speaker again. \"We need to talk.\" \nI didn't answer, I just stood in the corner of the room looking dumbfounded. \"Its time for your session. Are you going to behave this time or will we have to drug you again to get you to see the shrink?\"" ]	2
	[WP] You're finally going to do it, you're going to ask this person out and whatever happens, happens. While you were walking to them, however, a bunch of guys in evil looking, futuristic armor walk out of the shadows with laser swords and plasma rifles. "We cannot let you do that," they say	[ "Last day of school.\n\nYou can do it. She might be the prettiest girl in the school, but she's still a girl like everyone else. If you don't do it, you'll regret it for the rest of your life. James told himself, as he stood there gazing towards Jessica. It's now or never. It's the last day of school! James swallowed down the fear that threatened to overwhelm him and slowly rose from his chair. He looked around, expecting a hundred eyes to be staring down at him, but no one cared. He hesitated a little, catching his breath, steeling his nerves against the bravest thing he was about to do in his young life.\n\n\"Stop right there,\" a voice commanded with the same timbre of authority that belongs to a teacher. James slowly turned around to face the owner of the voice, his courage from his own pep-talk quickly evaporating.His gaze finally settled on the three strangers who had commanded his attention. They were obviously not from the school, being garbed in long flowing silvery-white dresses that split at the thigh, small rivulets of electrical current riding along the smooth panels. Their bright golden hair was bound up tightly speared with weird angular hairpieces sticking out in every direction. The weapons they carried looking more like a fancy movie prop than an actual gun of any kind; the slight hum coming from the energy pack betraying otherwise. The three women looked at James with a mix of disgust and pity.\n\n\"Who the fuck are you?\" James blurted, the last of his courage returning as anger. \"You just ruined my chance with Jessica!\"\n\n\"I doubt it.\" replied the middle of the three. \"You with her? Not a chance! Hahaha.\" Her short clipped fake laugh being echoed by the others.\n\n\"I ought to ..\" threatened James, putting his fists up into a fighting stance.\n\nThe woman on the right levelled her long slender rifle at James. \"You ought to what young boy? We could vaporise you before you could even finish that sentence.\"\n\nJames's anger gave way to despair. \"Why do you even care? I'm nobody.\"\n\n\"Well of course you are nobody, that is why we are here. We are the Protectors of Popularity, and our job is to prevent you from destroying Jessica's future.\"\n\nJames took a step back in apprehension. \"But, I just wanted to ask her out, I didn't plan on destroying anything.\"\n\n\"Oh, you naive little boy. That's exactly what a nobody like you would do. You know that Jessica is the most popular girl in school. You should also understand that even just talking to a nobody like you would damage her reputation. We have it all recorded here on our scanner. You talk to Jessica. She takes pity on you and is polite to you before she rejects you.\"\n\nJames looks completely dejected at this revelation.\n\n\"But it doesn't stop there. One of the other girls starts a rumour that you two kissed. You didn't of course, that could never happen. The most handsome man Liam hears the rumour, and instead asks Tiffany out instead. Now Jessica is the second most popular girl in school. She has to settle for someone lesser to go to Prom with. She fails to win the Prom Queen title she was destined for. Without that on her college resume she fails to get into her Ivy League college. She gets her degree, but she never gets her dream job. She gets railroaded into a boring career in Human Resources. All because you wanted to ask her out.\"\n\n\"That's bullshit!\" James blurts out, his rage slowly building. All of the injustices done against him simply because he wasn't one of the in-crowd. \"Popularity isn't that important!\" His rage gets the better of him and he leaps at one of the women ready to deliver justice. His fists strike the shielded fabric, but rebound off as if he had just slammed his balled hands into plates of steel. Howls of agony come from James as he cradles his now broken knuckles.\n\n\"See, I told you it would be futile. Oh, it appears we are done here.\"\n\nJames follows her gaze down the hallway, seeing Jessica retreating down the hallway, leaving the school and James's life forever.\n\n\"Wait! Jessica!\" James shouts, hoping to get her attention, even in a hallway of a hundred other students. None of them pay him any mind still.\n\n\"Your wailing is also futile, James. She can't hear you.\"\n\n\"Fuck you!\" he yells, getting to his feet, refusing to let these three strangers dictate what he can and can't do. He takes two quick steps before his face painfully slams into an invisible barrier. \"What the fuck is this.\" James angrily yells as his one good hand feels out the barrier. The three women just look down at him, smirking with delight.\n\n\"It's what's going to stop you from messing up Jessica's future.\"\n\nJames, looking between the disappearing Jessica and the three aggressive women finally resigns to his fate. \"Fine, I won't ask her out. But who do I get to go to the prom with? What does your little future telling device say about that now?\"\n\n\"Oh, some pitiful little nobody, like yourself. You'll be happy together, but never successful and never ever popular.\"\n\n\"That doesn't sound so bad,\" responds James, a little hope returning to his voice.\n\n\"Well, of course. It's the most a nobody like you has to hope for.\" The woman in the middle is finally done with James and addresses her accomplices. \"Let us depart. This worm won't bother Jessica any more.\"\n\nWorm? WORM?!? James angrily repeated to himself. James was ready to show her what a worm could really do. James leaped to his feet and tackled her to the ground, just as she activated her travel device. The world exploded with a bright flash and James felt the ground shift out from underneath him. A second later and he hits the ground with a loud crash. His victim fared no better as she has the wind knocked out of her. James rolls away from the three of them, hoping he can get away before they use their rifles.\n\n\"Ha! That's what you get for being bitches!\" James shouts. \"Your shield isn't so tough now is it!\"\n\nThe two women not flattened by his surprise attack stand there agape, complete astonishment their only expression.\n\n\"What? Cat got your tongue all of a sudden? A nobody like me taking you on like that,\" James continues to mock them. \"If you bring the pain you better bring a rain cheque, know what I'm ----\" James stops mid-taunt, finally noticing where he is. He's no longer inside the school, but is instead in a large white building. Standing on a raised platform in the middle of the vast room, James quickly takes a look around. Computers and other electronic devices resting on furniture cover most of the floor, while many robots work tirelessly behind a large window. A few of the clerks are peering up at James in confusion as he gazes back in shock.\n\n\"Get down on the ground now!\" shouts one of the many women surrounding the platform. Dressed in the same weird clothing and holding the same slender glowing rifles of his first attackers, he knows he better do what they say and gets down on the ground. The women quickly move up to surround their new captive. \n\n\"Commander, we have a time breach. A past subject has come through with one of the women and we have apprehended him, orders?\" are the last words James hears as the taser rifle renders him unconscious.\n\n---\n\nLast day of school.\n\n\"Hi Jessica.\"\n\n\"Erm, hi? Do I know you?\" Jessica replies with a stammer, looking at the gorgeous young man in front of her. Six feet tall, perfectly sculpted muscles not quite hidden beneath a stylish silvery-white jacket, confidence exuding from every pore on his body. His brown hair perfectly styled. His boyish grin working to make him look even more attractive.\n\n\"Of course you do, it's James. We have maths together,\" he replies with a wink.\n\nThe wink catches Jessica's breath as his intense gaze is directed entirely on her. Her heart is beating fast, her head swimming with desires.\n\n\"We do?\" Jessica manages to reply weakly, swallowing her nerves down.\n\n\"Of course, I don't know why you haven't noticed me.\"\n\nJessica's mind raced, she had no idea why she hadn't noticed him either, as handsome and as confidence as he was.\n\n\"Now there's just one thing I wanted to ask you, Jessica,\" James says, while leaning a little big closer, causing their legs to touch. \n\n\"What?\" replies Jessica barely above a whisper.\n\n\"Will you go to the prom with me?\"", "I immediately backed up.\nThree large golems, suited in futuristic armour, stood in front of me.\n”Lady Ella is to be married to the King of Vernon.”\nLady Ella? All I knew of her was that she was the cute, smart girl in my science class. And what's more, King of Vernon?\n”I-I’m sorry?” I stammered.\nThis all seemed to befitting for a Stan Lee comic. Perhaps I was hallucinating? A large hand was placed on my chest. I was all too weak to stand a chance against these extraterrestrial beings.\nA man draped in a cape appeared from behind.\n”Very well then. We will fight for Lady Ella, ” he said in a deep voice.\n\nWe were transported to a future dystopian world. I found myself atop a horse and I, too, was suited in futuristic armour.\n\n---\n\nThis is my first time writing anything, so feel free to tell me if it was shit. Maybe I'll continue if anyone likes it." ]	2
	[WP] Not all sirens live at sea	[ "“Not all sirens live at sea” \nI wake up with a jolt possessed by the sudden urge to eat something. I need food. Now. I check the clock on my shelf and it reads 3am, not the most practical time for eating but what the hell. I decided to cook up some bacon which is going to go out of date any day now, and I am too poor to waste it. As I’m sizzling away I realise in my sleep deprived state that I have added way too much oil. The bacon starts smoking aggressively in the pan, as it rises towards the roof the smoke detector flashes ominously before beeping obnoxiously. Fuck. I now have two minutes to stop this as I slam the fire alarm acknowledged button on the side of wall. I try futilely to clear the smoke, but the bacon’s sizzling was just too strong. Throughout the building a blaring “EMERGENCY. EVACUATE THE BUILDING” can be heard and the fire brigade are on their way. Shit, I think to myself. That’s $2000 for bloody bacon. \n", "The Sirens of sea, \n\nThey sing and they hum,\n\nAnd devour poor men,\n\nWhen all's said and done.\n\nTheir voice is a lure,\n\nAnd men take the bait,\n\nThen wander down off,\n\nTo a grim sunken fate.\n\nBut not all Siren's live in the sea,\n\nSome instead live in the mind,\n\nThey strangle the senses of good moral men,\n\nAnd do acts of unspeakable kind. \n\nThe men tell of voices,\n\nFrom deep in their head,\n\nThat tell them to kill,\n\nTill everything's dead. \n\nA song of a Siren,\n\nFrom deep in the brain,\n\nEnough to drive any,\n\nPoor victim insane. \n\nThe Siren's do sing,\n\nAs men drift to sleep,\n\nAnd then they awake,\n\nTo the victims they reap.\n\nBranded a monster,\n\nFor those they defile,\n\nAs men take the blame,\n\nThe Sirens they smile.\n\nAnd after the victim,\n\nIs hung from the rafter,\n\nThe Siren move on, \n\nWith angelic laughter.\n\n------------\n\nApologies if the poem doesn't flow too well at certain parts! Still learning. :)" ]	2
Recieve* stupid fat fingers	[WP] You're one of the best private investigators in the world. One day, you revieve an unaddressed letter. It's from Death, he wants you to find someone.	[ "Tomas looks down at the timer on his phone. 13 hours, 18 minutes, and 21 seconds. His watch has already told him that, but it is his phone that he believes. Humans.\n\nHe gulps down the last of his Diet Coke and scratches off another name in his notepad. \n\nHe’s moving too slow. The last PI I had hired sat and ate at this same diner, taking almost as long to figure out he won’t find the girl in this small town. I tried to tell Tomas that.\n\n13 hours, 17 minutes, and 43 seconds.\n\nOn his way out, he spots the white envelope I left for him. He can’t miss it. It appeared at his feet the moment he opened the diner’s doors.\n\nTomas massages the dark bags under his eyes. He picks the envelope up, tearing it open as he walks to his car.\n\nShe’s not here. Start again.\n\n“What do you know,” he grumbles, crumpling my letter and adding it to the pile in the backseat.\n\nTomas Morera. One of the smartest PIs still alive, and one of the most cynical. He didn’t care for the first letter I had left him.\n\nYou have 24 hours to find this girl. If you don’t, I will kill you.\n\nThat letter burned when his possibly-faulty oven exploded in his home. Two more letters and near-fatal accidents couldn’t persuade him either. It took his sister’s call yesterday to take me seriously.\n\n“Tomas,” she had said breathlessly. “You would not believe what happened. The girls and I were biking around our neighborhood when this fu—loco man drove out of nowhere and almost hit us! And just the other day, someone left a peanut butter sandwich in the kitchen and Carmen, of course, took a bite. I didn’t want to worry you, but of course we had to take her to the hospital. It’s so strange, Tomas. We don’t have peanuts in the house because of her allergy! So where did it come from? And as if that’s not enough...” \n\nAs she went on and on, Tomas had finally felt my cold breath on his neck.\n\n“Alexandra, listen to me. Call Robert. Tell him to take his vacation days and to take you and the girls somewhere far. Don’t tell me where. But you have to leave today.”\n\nHer words stopped. Then she found her breath. “Tomas, what are you talking about?” she had asked. She held back the tremble in her voice, but no shiver can hide from my aching bones.\n\n“I—I’ll tell you what I can before you leave. But you must call Robert and pack now. Now, Alexandra.”\n\nDeath. The best motivator of all.\n\n13 hours, 15 minutes, and 52 seconds.\n\nTomas sighs. He hasn’t slept since his sister’s call, and I almost feel sorry for him. But time is slipping away too quickly between our fingers.\n\nHe takes out the clue I had left for him, the only one I myself could find.\n\nJoanna. Born to a Jane Doe on January 1, 2018. El Paso, Texas. Disappeared same day.\n\nShe is four years old by now.\n\nTomas starts his car. Moves on. Good.\n\nI look down at the letter I had received. Sheer-colored, worn from repeated readings, and with words almost too blinding to see.\n\nIt is time. One of them will shepherd in the Age of Immortality.\n\nNeatly, I fold the note again, the crinkling sound echoing my stiff joints. \n\nLike I said. Death. The greatest motivation of all.", "The neighborhood seemed to settle down as the storm let up. I moved briskly and breathed in the smell of wet pavement. As I drew closer to the store along the main road I watched the neon lights flashing above my head color the mist. Car horns blare; the sound of locals' frustrations constantly rising and falling as they screech past timid tourists in their shining rentals. I huddle close to the wall to stay dry enough to light my cigarette. I often wonder to myself why I like to smoke here. Just across the street was the old canal with its dozens of benches to sit on and a long stretch of thick branches to take cover under. I could be watching the late night skiffs, still adorned with lights from the holidays, sailing smoothly upon the dark waters. Every hour or so a massive ship laden with mounds of gravel or construction vehicles was sure to come lumbering past, looking like an old warship out of some victorian sci-fi novel's imagination; its true form obscured in the darkness. I could have a smoke over there, take in the unsettling mixture of old trees and industrial behemoths, but instead I'm leaning against the crumbling mystery-stained stucco walls of a convenience shop watching the smoke drift out into the cold. \n\nPerhaps I find myself leaning against this wall more often than not because everyone here is in a hurry. At the canal someone is always ready for an impromptu chat or some bright-eyed college kid climbs out of a fucking hammock offering change and prayers to anyone sporting some scruff and an old coat. Maybe I feel invisible, leaning against this wall. To the passerby I'm just some average drunk up too late spending his paycheck on cheap booze. They avert their eyes, some meekly smile, but they don't stay. No one lingers. They grab their junk and go. I watch them all. To be honest, on or off duty, people-watching has always been a favorite past time of mine. I don't mind being ignored, it works to my advantage. If I started attracting any attention to myself, I might as well up and quit. This job isn't for the vigilante, savior-complex, trigger-happy types hoping to get recognized. Anyone looking to get recognized as the best P.I. around is looking for a bullet. And anyone looking to catch a bullet can't be trusted. Subtlety is key. Especially when half the cases are messy affairs. Sure, I take a few odd jobs for some old friends in blue but the rest are, as they say, classified and through it all I only ever had to fire my gun once. Well twice, after today, and what a fucking miserable day it was. \n\nMy morning started off with a text from my ex. She was trying to pick up the last of her stuff. I forgot what time we had agreed upon for this final arrangement. I didn't want to. Fifteen silent minutes later and my homey apartment was seventy percent less cozy. The couch with its matching pillows, the plants and candles and several photography books I always meant to leaf through and the coffee table they rested upon were all hers. Now that she was gone, the place looked eerily similar to the day I moved in. Before her, before all the memories, all the quiet hours and all the pleasant shit that got drowned out by the yelling and buried in silence until nothing could fill the space between us or the space we once lived in. The only remaining evidence of our time together is a box of old love letters under my bed an unnamed folder filled with years worth of unorganized photos on my computer's desktop. The letters and photos can't tell the whole story though, no one could ever piece together or sketch out the traces she left in my mind and my heart. \n\nAn envelope slid under my door and bounced off the kitchen trash can. I stood up and slowly shuffled from my desk by the window to the door. I picked up the envelope. It was unsealed. Blank. No name, address, nothing. I figured maybe she wanted to say goodbye in her own way. Though such a gesture pained my gut, it was poetic, and I love that about her. I took out and unfolded the paper. The parchment was thick and had some weight to it. The handwriting wasn't hers, a sweeping yet simple calligraphy that was neatly confined to the middle of the page. \n\n\nTo whom it may concern,\n\nI would properly address this message but I have only been informed of where you live. Recently, I have been assured that your services are well-sought after and will be more than sufficient for my purposes. That, I must say, remains to be seen. There are few of any worth in my line of work that are nameless to me. \n\nAs for the issue at hand, there is someone very important to me that has gone missing. You should know that you were not my first choice. Several, named, predecessors have already taken on this task and have gone missing as well. More may be explained, of course, should you choose to work for me. If your interest has in been adequately piqued, simply follow the directions below. One of my associates will illuminate, as best they can, the predicament before me. \n\nBe at the place of meeting by noon today, the enclosed fare should cover travel expanses. \n\nThank you, I hope. \n\n-Mordo\n\n\nI needed a good laugh, I thought to myself. Chuckling, I tossed the letter and envelope onto the counter. The sharp clang of metal on tile caught me off guard. I shook the parcel and out slid two silver coins. A skull was emblazoned on one side with a lily on the other. I could tell that something was inscribed along the edges of each coin but the words were too small to read unaided. I took one over to my desk and pulled out an old magnifying glass that my grandfather had left in my possession.\n\nI am the one who wise men both fear and respect, who holy men dread and pretend to understand, I am part of every beginning and every end.\n\nTo put it mildly, my interest was certainly 'piqued'. I checked the clock on my microwave, got dressed and in a few minutes was leaning back in my chair with some coffee and a cigarette to study the letter and coins a bit closer. I could scarcely believe my luck. Whatever this was, a prank or wild goose chase, or a fucking trap it was elaborate enough to keep my mind off of things. I checked my watch and ashed my cigarette. Ten o'clock. The cleverly drawn map's dotted line seemed to lead me to the seedier edges of downtown. Ten minute ride tops. I twirled a coin in my hand. I looked at the empty room. I watched the smoke drift out into the void. I stuffed the coins in my pocket, grabbed my jacket and with the letter in hand walked out the door. \n\n\n\n\n[Part 2 is coming if anyone is interested. I wrote what I could at work.]", "A half-inch of dust coated the office; contractors repairing the building clearly hadn't notified the owner or the company renting it. The oak door, with an embossed plate proclaiming this the offices of one \"Private I., private eye,\" remained half-open.\n\nThe sole individual sighed as he looked from the folded paper in his hand to the lone photograph, framed on his desk. One of the few things he kept meticulously clean, a reminder of his distant, distinct, discrete past. His grimace morphed into a frown and back into a grimace. His eyes returned to the paper.\n\nMy dearest Ivan Ivanovich, it began. First, do not worry. This is no prank, no joke, nor is it an attempt to throw you for a loop. Truly, I need you to find someone, and I have no issue with your recruitment. You're the last person to have contact with her.\n\nThe man's grimace deepened.\n\nYou see, Mr. Ivanovich, I need you to find one Hera DeLeon. A woman I once loved; I presume you did the same. For this, I hold you no ill will. She was easy to love, hard to forget, and impossible to find. She once bragged she would find me before I found her.\n\nYou can clearly find her. No one else will; nor will anyone else believe me. Only you, with your reputation, can.\n\nYou see, the letter's end began. You see, I am Death. Hera was my wife, and I would love to see her one last time.\n\nThe man sighed one last time, loosening his grip on the letter. Paper fell from his hand, drifting on dust notes spiraling through the air, landing flat in front of the photo. In it, a brunette woman smiled in profile; her right arm was clearly clasped around someone out of the frame. With her left, she was performing that finger point-and-walk she was known for.\n\nThe man stared at her, memorizing every feature, sighing one last time.\n\n\"Only I would be recruited by Death to find myself.\"", "The envelope is black. You don't think there's anything written on it, but the color is so dark that any writing would have been subsumed by the inky darkness. You feel a chill run through your body as you touch it. \nIt isn't unusual for clients to contact you through the mail. People who contact a private investigator often want to do so anonymously. But this envelope is clearly not just another case.\nYou sit down behind your desk and slowly open the envelope and begin to read.\n\"My dearest Ms. Wood. I'm writing to you today with a very special offer. You won't want to believe me, but you will. Something deep inside of you knew who I was from the moment you touched this correspondence. That chill you felt was the essence of me. The essence of Death.\"\nYou suck in a breath and squeeze your eyes shut. Your heart is pounding. You think your hands will be shaking too badly to continue reading, but you manage to make out the rest of the words.\n\"I make this offer to you because you're the best. It's rare for someone like you to come along. In fact, it's been hundreds of years since I last made this offer. It takes a special kind of intuition, combined with a deeply logical mind, to succeed in the task I'm about to give you. I'm going to ask you to find the last person who received this offer. And you're going to kill him.\"\nYou lower the letter to the desk. You've never killed anyone before, and you don't intend to start now. This must be a hoax, but you can't stop yourself from picking up the letter once more.\n\"You see, every so often I offer someone the chance to become immortal. For a time. I suppose that isn't exactly the definition of immortal, is it? But for this person to be granted the chance to live, potentially, forever, they only have to do one thing: find the last person to be granted immortality. And kill them.\"\nYour hands begin to shake. You know this can't be real, but something deep inside you tells you that it is. And that you want it.\n\"So you see, it is, in fact, possible to live forever. All the immortal must do is evade anyone I send after them. The current immortal has been a thorn in my side. No one has been able to kill him, and I think his time is up. I have high hopes for you. Don't let me down.\"" ]	4
	[WP] Your ghost stands over your body, you begin to hear steel drums. It turns out the term limbo is slightly more literal than assumed.	[ "It was strange to be looking at my body from the outside. I mean, it was just sitting there, peaceful and motionless. How could I be so dead? Was this really happening? I already knew the answer. I was cooking dinner alone in my apartment when suddenly my chest started to hurt, bad. I was used to errant chest pains from my anxiety, and I was convinced that this was the same thing, so I continued with what I was doing.\n\nWell, I was wrong. My heart was failing, and I wasn't aware of it until I had collapsed on the floor, my chest heaving for oxygen my body could no longer receive. The darkness closed in from the periphery of my vision and soon everything was black, and I felt bliss. It was a pleasant sensation as the endorphins coursed through my brain. I even had time to briefly contemplate what was happening before my soul was lifted from my body.\n\nNow everything was colder. I felt dead, or a version of what dead was like to me. The room had different colors now too. There was a pale blue light that shone in from the window. Was it the ultraviolet light from the sun? I could only guess. Still, my body lay there motionless. Was I always so tall? I figured I was shorter, but apparently not. I looked so serene, and almost beautiful now. I used to be so strangely self\\-conscious about how I would look in the casket, but now I felt pretty good about it. I was pretty presentable. Good for an open\\-casket funeral, I guess.\n\nI felt a drumming sound. It was soft, but it felt loud in my chest. For a moment I thought it was my heart beating again, but my chest felt clear and light as one's does in the afterlife. It was a sound coming from behind me. I turned to see a wicked skeleton with an open grin and sparse, flowing hair. He wore a robe that resembled Death's and kicked his legs to and fro in a little jig of a dance. Between him and another figure was this bamboo pole that bounced up and down with their movements. The music in the background was acoustic, upbeat and good for dancing something like the salsa.\n\nThe skeleton motion me over and leaned back to indicate to me to do the limbo. Behind him, other spirits appeared in thin air and started to limbo, many of them laughing and cheering each other on. The other hooded figure pulled off her hood and revealed herself to be my grandma. She shouted me over. \"C'mon Eric! It'll be fun!\" Her hair was longer and she looked younger; still old enough to be my grandmother though. Her eyes were squinting from smiling so much, and her voice softly echoed across the room. Actually, where they were was no longer my room. Behind me was the door leading outside my apartment; to my left was my body, but ahead of me my room faded into a haze of clouds and blue sky. There were people everywhere. I understood then that I had a choice. I could choose to stay on the Earth or a while longer or join all the others that appeared to be having fun. The answer was obvious.\n\nThey were calling to me, and I received their call. I walked through the clouds to join them. Behind me, the room faded. I was leaving behind everyone in the world of the living to live in paradise \\- and limbo \\- with the dead. I wondered what my family would think, but I felt only a little sadness. Soon they too would be joining me in this soft and cozy afterlife", "The first thing I noticed was the pain was gone. All of it. I flexed my fingers and toes tentatively, turned my neck from side to side - even laid down on the floor just so I could remember what it was like to spring to my feet again. \n\nBut once I got into position, I froze. The floor was a bland, featureless indigo. Frowning, I craned my neck (still no pain!) and looked up at the ceiling. The problem was, there was no ceiling. The sky was the same odd azuline shade as the surface on which I was laying. No sun, no stars. There was no discernible horizon...I was surrounded by blue. Imprisoned by it.\n\nAnd then I heard it. The music was uncanny, and made my skin feel like it was crawling with insects. It was tinny, and almost upbeat...like it was supposed to be happy but whatever powered it was running out of batteries. \n\nI had a sensation of moving, even though I wasn't. Or was I? With no point of reference, it was hard to tell. \n\nSuddenly, the music was louder, and a livid green figure was before me. \n\nWelcome...to Limbo!\n\nThe voice was loud, and despite its festive tone, there was a palpable sense of menace beneath it. It made me think of the sound a fighter jet makes when it passes overhead.\n\nRandall...are you READY?\n\nI spotted two black poles supporting a gleaming metal bar at least six feet off the ground. \n\nRemember...the LOWER you go...the HIGHER you'll get!\n\nI looked back at the figure. \"Wh...what do you mean?\" \n\nThis is LIMBO! If you want to go to Heaven, you got to WIN to get IN! And if you don't do well, you'll go straight to...\n\nThe form before me had no face, no features, yet somehow, it was smiling at me. \n\nTell me, Randall! Where. Do. You. Want. To. GO?\n\nI sighed, and looked back at the bar. I would actually clear it even if I went under on tiptoe. I placed myself before it, took a step, then looked back at the green shape.\n\nThis is a kid that's got HEART and he's off to a great start...but remember...it's just going to get harder...\n\nThe other-worldly music got a bit louder and, oddly, a bit slower. I looked back at the bar. It was a good foot lower. It had been years since I would have even dreamed trying to slouch my way underneath it. But now...\n\nI approached, and listed to my left. I felt a twinge in my hip and a burning in my neck that made me uneasy but I went ahead and was able to clear it no problem.\n\nI straightened up, but the discomfort remained. \n\nBlow, Gabriel, blow! Just two more to go!\n\nThe bar looked to have dropped another foot. I squared up and took a deep breath. As soon as I started leaning backwards, I felt it. Each of my vertebrae complained, and waves of pain radiated from my spine to my extremities. I gritted my teeth and forced myself a little lower, letting out a groan of pain in spite of myself. \n\nI shuffled forward. I watched in grim fascination as the bar came closer and closer to my body. I gave one last bunny hop, and then...\n\nIt all comes down to this! Do you have what it takes to reach the Pearly Gates? Remember...there's more than one way to...get low.\n\nAs I turned my attention back to the limbo apparatus, I started. The bar has lowered more than halfway to the ground. I doubted I could clear it if I crawled - there's no way to get under it with just my feet supporting me.\n\nThat was when I noticed a small black table standing next to it. And on that table was a...\n\n\"...power saw?\"\n\nA BONE saw! The voice exclaimed, as if he had just revealed a secret he had been dying to tell. \n\n\"But...cutting the poles won't help me. It'll just make it --\"\n\nHA HA HA HA HA HA HA! The voice clearly enunciated each syllable - it was not laughing, it is mocking. No, cutting the POLES won't help you one bit! But on the other hand...\n\nI felt my stomach try to invert itself as nauseating realization washed over me.\n\nIt won't hurt! I stared at him in incredulity. Not MUCH, anyway! But tell me...TELL ME, Randall... The voice was now a blaring whisper, like a gusting gale. Is it worth it? How many seconds of suffering are a worth an eternity in Heaven? What price are you willing to pay for your eternal soul? How much pain should Heaven actually cost?\n\nI wasn't sure if the table moved in front of me or if I moved in front of it. But there it was. The gleaming silver of the saw stood out on the black surface. The teeth were curved wickedly...I could only imagine how it would feel when they \"bit.\" \n\nI looked at the green form, the metal bar, then back at the saw. My breathing was ragged, my arm trembling as I reached out. The grip was so cold it burned, and I flinched momentarily before steeling myself - forcing myself to grab it. \n\nThe saw itself was actually quite light. I gave the button on the handle a quick squeeze. The shrill whine as the blade sprang to life was piercing, and I felt it everywhere - not just my head, but all of my body was recoiling. It was the sound of a dentist's drilled magnified by one hundred. \n\nI closed my eyes. There would be a reward for this. I was willing to hurt, willing to bleed, because of what I would get in trade. Would Lailah be there? Her face floated into my memory - the round, pale cheeks, the shining brown eyes, the dark wavy hair she always wished was straight. In spite of myself, I smiled. The calculus was simple. \n\nI squeezed the button again, and the scream of the saw filled me, overwhelmed me. I was panting, and my entire body tensed up...\n\nWHOA WHOA WHOA. Randall! STOP!\n\nI opened my eyes and looked at the green figure in bewilderment. But he was no longer green - he was gold. Shimmering gold. And the indigo landscape has been swept away, replaced by a burnished brass color. Above was a brilliant cerulean sky.\n\nHOLY FUCKING SHIT. You were...oh, man. You were going to do it? HE WAS GOING TO DO IT. Wow.\n\nA twisted desire to see how close I got came over me, but when I looked down, the saw was no longer there.\n\nWe do this with all the new souls...sort of a transition from their old life into the past life. But you...Him damn it, that was...I would have been in so much shit if you had...I mean, Randall. Randall! You're supposed to...I'm gonna have to talk about this at the Monday Meeting, I just...\n\nThe voice had been getting progressively quieter as the gleaming gold figure began drifting away. I stood rooted to the place, staring after him.\n\nAnd then I heard a voice behind me - a voice that made my bones ache, a voice that had me weeping from the moment I recognized it.\n\n\"Randall,\" she said. \"Welcome home.\"\n***\n/r/ShadowsofClouds" ]	2
	[WP] The adventures of Craig, the Epileptic Raver, and Steve, the Albino Life Guard.	[ "Our hero's name, it's Craig \nYes indeed, it's just Craig \nSee him gleam on the water \nLike the shell of an egg\n\nSee him criss! See him cross! \nSee him crest o'er the waves! \nWresting from deepest waters \nChildren who won't behave\n\nLike the one 'neath the dock \nHunting lost mermaid love \nWhen th'halo of heaven \nShone bright from above\n\nHe rejoiced at this portent \nAnd cried joyously out, \nYou have heeded the dust \nOf angels 'pon my snout!\n\nNay, mouthed Craig, confounded, \n'twas twinkle of glowsticks! \nBut I'm quite astounded \nYou're indeed with balls tripped!\n\nNow let's up to the land \n'fore the oxygen's gone \nMuch 's that might enhance \nYour good time, I'd be done.\n\nNow tell me, young man, did \nYour folks brand you their own? \nWe're you pushed out the car \nW'thout even a loan?\n\nThe gent cogitated \nOn what he might mean now \nThen thought, oh yeah, my name \nShit, maybe Kao Pung Sao?\n\nAm I James, am I John \nAm I Albert Einstein? \nNo, you are not, dingus \nReplied Craig in due time\n\nDude, I'm thinking my thoughts \nYou're supposed to not hear \nI'm not, dick, it's your head \nFilling up through your ears\n\nWell shit, guess our time's up \nSo while I have a breath \nI guess I'll go with Steve \nBut now we've reached my death\n\nSome lifeguard after all, \nSad... your life I forgat. \nOut on a high note, yeah? \nSteve would have laughed at that." ]	1
	[WP] Irritated aliens visit us, demanding to know why we have made dozens of movies about killing them.	[ "When the first Flonarian ships appeared over Earth's major cities, we all figured this was the moment we had been preparing for. The governments of Earth, in an unprecedented act of cooperation, combined their military and civil defense forces under one command structure with a single objective: to defend humanity from the alien invader. From Beijing to Mombasa, UNETRF (United Nations Extra-Terrestrial Reaction Force) troops and ships pointed their guns and cannons skyward. On the outskirts of every town and city, UNETRF civil engineers and construction teams hastily prepared the shelters and emergency facilities designed to receive the immense influx of casualties and refugees which would undoubtedly begin streaming out of the cities once fighting began.\n\nOn the peripheries of major population centres, massive excavation works were begun ostensibly for the construction of bunker complexes and command posts. But the serried pallets of black plastic coffin-liners piled up around them hinted at a far more macabre intention.\n\nThe world held its collective breath. We knew enough about aliens from films and television to know that their gigantic, ominously hovering ships were to the world what a guillotine's blade was to a condemned man's neck. For several unnerving weeks the world was locked in a gigantic Mexican stand-off: with the combined militaries of Earth on one side, and the kilometres-wide vessels of the aliens on the other.\n\nWhen the gargantuan hull of the vessel hovering over Sydney began unfolding and their emissary vessel began descending to earth, they were accompanied by the blaring of emergency sirens all around the city and the frenzied chatter of several dozen military channels calling every unit in the area to full alert. We braced ourselves for the fire and death and poisoned gas and laser beams and everything else we'd been taught aliens would bring to bear on us.\n\nInstead, the egg shaped vessel drifted languidly downward until it was a dozen metres off the ground. It then made its way briskly over the heads of bemused soldiers and frightened citizens alike. Down the deserted streets of the Sydney CBD it went until it stopped abruptly in front of a cinema complex on George Street. The UNETRF military convoy which had since gathered and tailed it like a brace of ducklings following their mother swooped around and formed a hasty defensive cordon around the vessel. It hovered in front of a poster for Independence Day, almost as if it were examining it. Old school alien flicks - especially the mindless explosion filled action extravaganzas so typical of the '90s - had seen a massive resurgence in popularity since the ships first appeared.\n\nThe alien pod then slowly turned so that it presumably faced the ring of soldiers and steel which now pinned it against the grubby cinema walls. Several dozen feet behind the cordon of UNETRF troops a cluster of the world's media had also gathered, and they pointed their cameras at the extra-terrestrial as intently as the soldiers did their rifles and machine guns.\n\n\"Why?\" it said plaintively.\n\nOver the next few weeks we were to learn the reason behind its enigmatic inquiry. For decades the Flonarians had intercepted and examined human media, with a special interest on how we portrayed extra-terrestrial species. No doubt their trepidation in making contact with us was heavily influenced by our veneration of violence and the near genocide of other species. For every heart warming family friendly tale with a wholesome alien protagonist, there were a dozen other movies and TV shows which cast non-human sentients in the worst possible light. From the devious anthropophagus Kanamits from 1962's Twilight Zone, to the conquest-driven caricatures of Mars Attacks, our species had trained itself to look upon extra-terrestrials with the same xenophobic mindset as we would look upon foreign cultures during less enlightened times.\n\n\"Does this look like the face of a man-flesh consuming conqueror to you?\" asked the Flonarian ambassador as he addressed the United Nations a week later. The fact that their angular insect-like features and ring of compound eyes which dotted their chitinous green heads did give them the appearance of enjoying the act of anthropophagy went unspoken. During the speech the ambassador simply asked that we desist in our slander of alien beings, that we prevent any further incitements of violence towards extra-terrestrials, and that we create media amenable to improving Human-Flonarian relations.\n\nThe more hopeful leaders of the world's nations were cautiously optimistic, while the paranoid and wary were convinced it was a ploy to lull humanity into complacency.\n\nIt was the Germans who spearheaded the European Union's first tentative overtures of peace towards the Flonarians. Within five years of them having established an embassy in Berlin, the first Lufthansa Airbus AX900-DF completed its successful maiden flight. Powered by exotic Flonarian technology and constructed with exacting Teutonic sensibility, the saucer shaped craft carried 366 passengers in comfort and style from Frankfurt to New York in just over an hour. Later that year, the Munich Hofbrauhaus hosted its first ever Flonarian delegation for Oktoberfest. The floodgates for the Human-Flonarian era of technological and cultural exchange had been thrust open by boisterous singing, overflowing steins of lager, and specially-tailored lederhosen.\n\nAs we would learn, the Flonarians, having evolved from hive-minded species, did not possess as nuanced a grasp on media as we humans did. Misinformation and propaganda were concepts unknown to the Flonarians. The idea of individualism and personal thought were also ideas only touched upon in the nascent world of Flonarian xeno-psychology. Thus we humans took it upon ourselves to teach our increasingly friendly extra-terrestrial neighbours about the impact and history of the written and spoken word in our society.\n\nVoraciously hungry for knowledge, they devoured every scrap of information we could provide them. We obliged, providing them everything from Archie Comics and Stephen King novellas, to archived Twitter feeds and the latest Hong Kong action movies. In exchange they gave us technology that let us life longer, healthier, and happier than we'd ever imagined possible. Within a generation humanity had wiped out illnesses and diseases; we had constructed sprawling self-sufficient cities on the ocean floor and in the middle of deserts, while restoring the green and lush parts of the world to their former pristine glory; we had abolished the primitive ideals of militarism and nationality which served as divisors to the human race for so long, and we looked forward to every new day as we - along with our new friends - progressed not only as a single race, but as an intergalactic community of species.\n\nIn this era of ebullience and tranquility, the blood-drenched xenophobic media of old became the shameful reminders of a bygone era. Those books, films, and video games were archived in the darkest recesses of our most learned institutions. We would still look upon them from time to time, but not to gain some sort of morbid thrill, rather to remind ourselves that we must never allow our species to slip back into such depravity and barbarism.\n\nHowever in this time a new form of media had begun gaining prominence. With a hive species as their precursors, the Flonarian physiology also profoundly differed from humans. They still procreated in a manner similar to that of bees or hive insects, with their societies revolving around a single egg laying queen fertilised by a clutch of specially chosen males. The queens were for the most part immobile, while the males' biological imperatives prevented them from straying too far from her. All Flonarians sent to Earth were thus sterile drones with no capacity nor desire for mating.\n\nAlthough - as part of our cultural exchange with the Flonarians - provided them with copious amounts of pornography in various forms, there was one subset of that genre which their armies of historians and archivists had not heretofore examined in any great depth. Even though our best xeno-historians and diplomats worked feverishly to formulate explanations that would make sense to the Flonarian mind, it was still with some degree of embarrassment when the Flonarian ambassador in New York approached his counterpart's desk and lay a garishly coloured printout bearing the Deviant Art watermark on its polished teak surface.\n\n\"Can you explain to me\" the ambassador asked \"What does it mean by Rule 34?\"" ]	1
	[WP] Everyone knows that finding a penny on the ground brings good luck to the finder. Less known is that taking the penny directly brings bad luck to the person that lost it.	[ "The cashier handed me back my coffee and my change with a wink. On the cup, she dotted the ‘I’ in my name with a heart. I scowled, grabbed the coffee and change quickly, and rushed out the exit door. I hastily shoved the change into my pocket and began to walk along the busy street, becoming angry at the thought of the flirtatious cashier. “Could she not see my wedding ring?” I asked myself.\n\nI made it about twenty paces before I checked the receipt. Five dollars and thirteen cents for a coffee. I sighed and went to make sure she gave the right amount of change. If I’m paying that much, I don’t want to spend a cent more than I already have to.\n\nThe receipt laid out what she owed me. I had given her a ten, and she was to give me four dollars and eighty-seven cents back. First I counted the bills. Four tattered ones. Two were torn at their corners, and the others looked like that had been through the wash several times. Hopefully I could use them to pay for something else in the future, though I wouldn’t be surprised if they were denied. Then I counted the coins. Three quarters. One dime. One penny.\n\nOne penny?\n\nI counted again to make sure I was seeing correctly. Three quarters. Seventy-five cents. One dime. Eighty-five cents. One penny. Eighty-six cents.\n\nI whirled around and snarled, heading back to the coffee shop from which I came. “First she flirts with me? Then she short changes me?” I thought while crumpling of the receipt in my fist. “I oughta-”\n\nBut before I made it far, I stumbled over a man in tattered clothes bending down to pick something up off the ground.\n\nHe stood up. “Oh! Sorry, my sir,” he said with a twisted smile. “I didn’t see ya there. I was just bent over trying to scrounge up some money. But it turned out to only be a penny! Oh well! Good luck to me I suppose.” And with that he turned and walked away, taking long strides and bobbing his head up and down.\n\n“Strange man,” I thought, but the interruption distracted me from my anger, allowing me to think clearly. “Perhaps he’s right. It’s just a penny. I shouldn’t worry about it.”\n\nI turned back around and immediately tripped onto the concrete. My troso crushed my cup beneath me and splattered the scalding liquid all over my chest. I bit my lip through the pain and tore off my ruined shirt. Through several curses, I wiped my chest dry with my hands.\n\nA small crowd of people passed by the scene, snickering as they went. I looked down at myself. Pale, overweight, and red from the burns. I shook my head, pressed the shirt to my chest to cover as much as I could, and walked back towards my apartment. I could no longer go into work looking like such a mess.\n\nSuddenly I snarled once again. “If that lady would have given me the correct change, none of this would’ve happened.”\n\nI took out my phone and called my boss. I told him I would be late. He yelled at me. I apologized. He hung up. Our usual conversation. Only, this time in his yelling he threatened my job. I hyperventilated for a few blocks, but eventually I convinced myself that he was just trying to get in my head. Nothing more.\n\nI thought of calling my wife to tell her I was coming back home, but before I could dial her number, thoughts of the flirtatious cashier crept back into my head, and I forgot about my phone entirely.\n\n“Why did she have to forget that bloody penny?” I thought. I took out the change once again and counted it. Four dollars and eighty-six cents. I hastily shoved the change back into my pocket. Some of the coins missed though and fell to the ground. I didn’t even notice a child run up and grab them with a smile from ear to ear.\n\nAs I walked home, more and more people began to glare at me and laugh. My face grew red. First from embarrassment, and then from anger. Each glare make me pick up the pace until I was practically running. I needed to escape this nightmare of a day.\n\nWhen I got to my building, I sprinted up the stairs and stumbled down the hall to my door. I burst into my living room, hoping no one else saw me along the way, and then I relaxed.\n\n“I’m home,” I called out softly, but there was no answer. I threw my ruined shirt on top of the washer and walked towards the bedroom. Once again, I counted out the change. Four dollars and fifty cents. I had lost a quarter, a dime, and a penny. I sighed, shook my head, and sniffed the air. All I could smell was the coffee drying on my chest. My face grew red once again.\n\n“I’m home now,” I thought as I began to pale to normal. “I can start this day over.”\n\nWhen I got closer to the bedroom though, I began to hear a faint noise. Moans of a man and a woman carried softly through the space. I didn’t want to believe it, so I approached cautiously, afraid of what I would see. Tattered clothes were strewn all across the floor leading up to the doorway. In the room, I saw my wife lying in bed with a man that looked vaguely familiar. He looked at her with a twisted smile.\n\nMy face grew pale as realization knocked the wind out of me.\n\n“I’m happy I met ye today on the street! Today really is my lucky day,” the man said to my wife with a chuckle. “You’re the most beautiful woman I ever met.”\n\nI should have gotten angry at him. I should have gotten angry at her. Instead, I regained my breath, went back into the living room, and collapsed on a couch defeated, cursing that flirtatious waitress for shorting me a penny. \n\nMy phone lit up with a call from my boss, but I turned it off and threw it across the room.\n\nThere was no reason to answer. I knew I was fired. Just my luck. And all because of that bloody penny.\n" ]	1
	[WP] When listening to certain songs, the song gives you a particular superpower.	[ "He shivered in the cold rain, trying not to be late to work. He rose his hand in an attempt to hail a cab, a cab passed and sprayed him in water, his face twisted into a frown as he continued his journey to the office. By the time he reached it he looked like a wet mess with an extra side of homelessness. He smiled at April, the receptionist who didn’t even give him a smile back, “Welcome to work Joe,” she said in a monotone voice. He hurriedly made his way to his desk in an attempt to not be humiliated any longer. As he reached his desk he popped in his headphones and opened the new playlist his wife had sent to his computer through email. “The roof, the roof, the roof is on fire! We don’t need no wa-“ he snapped out of it as April screamed, he smelled smoke and attempted to run, but his coat got snagged on the way out, he waited for someone, anyone to help him. He looked up as the ceiling above him had been burnt, pieces of debris falling around him. He stuck out his hand to block them and screamed, he then noticed the issue... he was screaming out a breath so cold it stopped the fire. Joe slipped out of his jacket and ran out of the building, his heart pounding and mind in shambles. \n\n(Sorry, my first response to a prompt. Please excuse grammar issues.)" ]	1
	[WP] During a zombie apocalypse, you decide your family is too much of a burden and abandon them. It's five years later when you see some familiar faces at a stronghold.	[ "In my defense, I had no idea that Aunt Judith would be a badass. She’s what, 100 pounds soaking wet? But seeing her now crushing zombie heads with a spiked old lady bag, Jesus, she’s a bit scary. Apparently, when everything went to shit, she hunkered down with Uncle Harold and crocheted some armor. She’s clad head to toe in homemade chain mail covered in doilies. When she’s not smacking around the undead, she’s handing out butterscotch candy to the survivors. Which is where she found me, hiding up a tree while she gave what she called some “Arkansas Justice” to the undead. \n\n“Um, hey Aunt Judith,” I said. She took off her shoe and popped a crawler that just wasn’t quite ready to go down. \n\n“Phillip? That you Phillip?” she said as I climbed down. “Harold, it’s Phillip! Come on over here sweetums and let’s get a good look at you. I thought you were old potato salad for sure!”\n\nUncle Harold lumbers over with his bad knee, clanging like a church bell on Good Friday. A zombie rushes him. He grabs that dead meat sack by the neck and just pulls it’s head right off. I mean, pop, right the hell off. Uncle Harold has that old man strength developed from years of popping tops off of Pabst Blue Ribbon and turning lug nuts off car tires. Uncle Harold throws the head down at his feet and Aunt Judith gives it a whack with her shoe. \n\n“Boy, it’s good to see you. Thought you were done for when you went out for milk five years past. Glad to see you’ve made it,” Uncle Harold said. \n\n“Um, yeah, me too,” I said. There is guilt in my voice but I don’t think they notice it. Both were hard of hearing when I left and often missed those social cues one gives off. When the end came, I had to make a tough choice. All of us did. I could try and protect my family, or I could strike out on my own. My aunt and uncle were in their seventies so I did what was best. But apparently, they turned into a geriatric Mad Max while I was gone. \n\n“Oh, it’s so good to see you alive,” said Aunt Judith as she reached into her bag and brought out the butterscotch. “Wilma is just going to be tickled pink to see you.” \n\nOh dear god, Wilma. Yeah, I ditched her too. She was my cousin, oldest child of Judith and Harold. She had never moved out of the house for as long as I’ve known her. There’s a fifteen year age gap between us and Wilma mostly smells like yeast and vinegar. Aunt Judith said that it was important to stand by Wilma in the bad times, which basically meant they ignored her meth addiction and kept trying to fix her up with someone. \n\n“Yeah, Wilma. Wilma doing ok then?” I asked. \n\n“Oh yes. Lost a bunch of weight and some teeth. Didn’t have much to begin with but with no dentists around, it all works out for the best,” Uncle Harold said. “It was a rough go there for a bit. Thank god for fruitcakes, right?” He started laughing, and he jingled like a metal-clad Santa. “Come on back to the camp and say hi.”\n\n“You know, Wilma hasn’t found that special someone just yet,” Aunt Judith said. “She’s had some chances over the years but they never seem to work out all that well. And the menfolk, well, they don’t stay alive much.”\n\nI hoped that Aunt Judith couldn’t hear me gulp. \n\n“And what about you, Phillip? You seeing anyone? How’s your love life?” Aunt Judith asked. \n\n“Oh, fine. It’s fine. I’m fine. My love life is fine,” I said. \n\n“Oh fantastic to hear,” Aunt Judith said. “Why don’t you follow us back to camp and we’ll have a happy family reunion.” \n\n“Yeah, great. That sounds great. I’m right behind you. Lead the way. Just let me go get some milk real quick and I’ll catch up.”\n\n ", "Family is tough, everyone will tell you that without much hesitation even in peaceful times. During a zombie apocalypse it doesn’t get much better. Even when all you want to do is eat, family is there to nag you. They try to tell you what to do, what to eat, where to go. Personally, I got sick of my family years ago, 5 to be precise.\n\nI left my family and struck it out on my own. Their presence was just too much pressure to deal with, the burden too big for my shoulders. Without them I didn’t need to be restrained, I could do as I pleased. For five years that’s exactly what I did. I managed to thrive out in the new world, catching meat to keep myself well fed and always finding shelter when I needed it. I even found a friendly dog that would help me hunt and would share my meals. \n\nOver the years though surviving got harder. Meat was less abundant, and everyone around me was starting to turn against each other. Even my animal companion would sometimes stare at me with hunger in their eyes. That’s when a glimmer of hope managed to pass us by. Rumors of a place with enough meat to feed everyone for months, maybe even years. \n\nSo as a group we headed towards that mystical place, longing burning in our eyes. The road was tough, and we only managed to catch something once or twice a week. There was too many of us to share, so it was on promise of abundant meat alone that our march did not turn into a massacre. \n\nWhen we finally reached the place, we could only feel mixed success. There was meat all right, and lots of it. However, all of it was behind large steel walls with spikes surrounding those. This wasn’t a haven of meat, it was a haven for meat. Hard to really blame the messenger though, he had been missing a good portion of his jaw.\n\nTo my own personal horror, I glimpsed my family among the other meat on top of the walls looking down at us. Years of punishments and abuse came back to me. Every part of me knew I couldn’t eat them, they were my family after all. My family which had tried so hard to keep me under control, staring down at me once more. I could almost feel the torch against me as I used to all the time whenever they had fresh meat at the house.\n\nI felt so hungry though, and that hunger was contesting with my conditioning. I wasn’t sure what I would do if we managed to get inside and start feasting. A small thought went through my head, a rare occurrence these days. I didn’t have to eat them, I could just trade them with someone else and take their family instead.\n\nWith that brief thought, zombie me, my zombie dog, and the other zombies marched towards the steel walls.\n" ]	2
	[WP] You are the first among the damned in Hell to feel genuine remorse for your sins. Bound by ancient demonic law, Satan begrudgingly grants you parole.	[ "\"I remember when I said those words.\n\nI was at a party, and a man came up to me and asked me if I wanted him to be my a drink.\n\nThe connotations of this was obvious. At that time, I said the worst, most hateful words I could ever have said.\n\nThat's how I ended up down here.\n\nAt first I was without remorse, but with the 1000 years of reflection I have had I can't help but agonize over how ho-\" \n\nDave was writing his journal when he felt a pointy finger on his shoulder.\n\n\"You can go now\" said the deep, bone-chilling voice behind him.\n\n\"W-wha-what!? What do you mean I can go?\" exclaimed Dave, furiously.\n\n\"You can go to heaven.\"\n\n\"But all those things I did - those things I said! I can just go now!?\"\n\n\"Yep. Take the white elevator on your left\"\n\n\nAnd so as the elevator was taking it's long ride up, for the first time in eons, Dave felt relief.\n\nHe still didn't feel bad about setting that orphanage on fire, though. ", "It happened yesterday, Guilt they call it. It tore through me like my favorite stabbing knife. A whole god damn family, dead by my hands. Well almost, I didn't even notice when the kid came home and found me elbow deep in his father's guts. One strike to the head later and I wake up to the smell of rotten eggs and burnt steak.\n\nI never thought the afterlife existed, fuck that was half the reason I never cared about acting out my sick fantasies. Nevertheless here I was, up shit creek without the boat, paddle, or any limbs for that matter. Yeah in Hell there's no wait time, you drop in and you get fucked up hard. 3 centuries of that torture. \n\nNow here I was, standing in a black marbled hallway put back together like new. Walking down the hallway felt like going down deeper into the ocean. Pushed the door open and there he was. The Dark Lord, Satan, Beelzebub, The Devil himself, whatever you want to call him. He must've morphed or something because he was rather presentable. Looked human, slicked reddish hair with a business attire like a CEO. Fuck, you'd think I was getting an interview.\n\n*Sit down, mortal.\n\nIt wasn't the voice I was expecting, it was sinister, dripping with hate, but... reserved.\n\nYou may not know why you are here but what you do know is the feelings that have stirred within you.\n\nFuck why did he bring that up. I don't need a reminder. Hurts well enough without your help. \n\nWell we have rules for when someone of your... position... crops up.\n\nLet me guess... more torture? Both you and God know I deserve it, and honestly I'm not complaining.\n\nYou're getting parole.\n\nWhat\n\nUm... how does that even work for eternal torture?\n\nLook you're feeling something we call Guilt. True, unbiased Guilt. Hell is here as a punishment and sometimes it actually works. So when someone with Guilt pops up, we have to give them a second chance. That was part of the deal I made with God.\n\nYou made a deal with God for this place?\n\nYes and that's all you need to know. The parole is a task. We send you up, you do the task, and you get purgatory. Work your way through that then you get heaven. Fuck it up at any point and we drag you straight back down here. No second chances, no redos, come back and it really is eternity.\n\nSo I'm being reborn?\n\nHah! No. You're in the Christian faith. Shoulda been Hindu for rebirth. You're being given a \"spiritual\" rebirth.\n\nSo a ghost?\n\nYes, if that's what you call it.\n\nSo what will I be doing.\n\nWell, you tore a family apart, it's only appropriate for you to bring one back together.\n\nI.... I can't do that.\n\nSorry fucko, rules are rules. Your newly spectral ass is going up there ready or not, that's how it goes. Don't like it? Tell the guy to call her a fat ugly landwhale who'd he rather harpoon than look at. I'll get the special welcome home party ready and we'll have a nice shindig.*\n\nAnd like that, I was hovering over some teenage couple in a futuristic city. He kinda looked like the teen that offed me... Henry Hughes was this guys name, damn I got an entire encyclopedia of this guys life. Not the same guy though.\n\nWait... wasn't it the Hughes I murdered?\n\nOh shit.\n\n" ]	2
	[WP] When you first discovered your ability to freeze time at will you were super hyped about it. Using it to save as many people as possible. Now, two years later you’ve tired of it. Simply because having to walk to every disaster scene is just too much of a pain.	[ "The sound of the news coming on wakes me up. I must've fallen asleep on the couch again ugh. Groggily I turn my attention to the news report. What is it today? Fire? Flood? Earthquake? Terrorists? \n\nWearily I listen as the reporter lists the newest tragedies. Oh joy, a large fire here in my city, a possible bomb in the capital and the crash I just heard down the street sounds like a car wreck. Great. Time to get to work. I sigh and freeze time. \n\nWhy can't time stay frozen while I'm asleep? Grumbling I get ready for my day or rather days, if they can be counted as such. Just because I can stop time doesn't mean things happen instantaneously. Or does it? I always ponder this as I get ready. Time or no time walking to the capital is still gonna make me hungry. And so will the rest of my work. Do I start local or go all the way and work my way back? Ugh. \n\nI'm gonna need brain power if I have to disable a bomb. Do I even know how to do that? Well I suppose I can look at if and then do the research if I need to. Ugh. My back hurts from sleeping on the couch and I still gotta walk all the way there and then all the way back. This was fun two years ago wasn't it? Ok maybe not fun. But I was excited. I could save everyone! Or at least as many as I could find. That thought has kept me going whenever I had doubts and I forced it to the front of my mind this time. \n\nUgh. If only I didn't have to walk everywhere. Or if I could hold this while I slept. Two years and I've been working nearly nonstop. I wonder how many miles I've gone without sleep? On second thought I don't want to know. \n\nMaybe I should let the authorities handle this distant stuff. Maybe I should focus on the local stuff. Ugh. My head is killing me and my back hurts. I need to lay down for a bit and just rest. Not sleep just rest. The rest of the world can get along by itself while I do that can't it? \n" ]	1
	[WP] After numerous rejections, you tell the object of your affection that you would do anything for him/her. He/she responds with, “stop time for me”. You do.	[ "I extinguish the Sun and let the stars illuminate this perfect moment. My love for her rearranges the moon's shape into a heart. I look her in the eye and with the determination of a wrathful god I rip her clothes off and passionately kiss her. \"Last time I had a bang was 14 billion years ago. I think it's time I made another Universe. Or as I like to call it... making love.\" A Gospel choir appears behind us singing I Love to Praise Him. \"This conception won't be immaculate.\"", "The world stopped, just as the woman had said it would. \n\nI strode into the palace courtyard and began to weave through the suitors. Most were tall and handsome, dressed in priceless silk clothing and coated in perfume. Gemstones had been tied at the ends of their groomed beards and golden rings hung from their ears. They had been caught in mid-conversation, their mouths crooked in a bold smile, open in the midst of a rich laugh or pressed against a sparkling glass of wine. \n\nThey were princes from faraway lands gathered by the Sultan to take the hand of the princess. A single ring on a single one of their fingers was worth more than I could make in twenty lifetimes. But I had what money could not buy - freedom. By the time the spell ended, we would be far away from the oasis. More importantly, we would be together. \n\nA pair of frozen servants held the gilded palace doors open for me, obviously expecting my triumphant return. They had laughed at me for years, periodically allowing me to enter just to be thrown out by the Sultan’s bearish guards. I had eventually learned how to slip past them, through the throne room, and into the royal corridors in the palace’s heart. \n\nIt was there my feet led me, gliding across the crimson carpet without fear. The guards stood to either side of the throne with their spears pointed toward the mosaic above. The spell had caught the Sultan blowing his nose on a silk cloth. I thought about having a bit of fun, but time was short. Soon, the enchantment would fail.\n \nWith that thought in mind, I began to run, gliding past the guards and into the quiet residential halls. I reached her room and found my heart racing. Taking a calming breath, I straightened my hair and, for the hundredth time, practiced what I would say.\n \nThen, I stepped inside and forgot every word. \n\nTime had been frozen. \n\nShe had been to. \n", "I haven't seen her in ten years. I'm not ready for this, but God she is perfect. She's aged, matured, but I feel like I'm twenty-five, seeing her again for the first time. She looks at me with those crystal blue eyes, and I tremble at the feeling I see in them.\n\n'You left me.' Three words that cut me to my soul. I feel the shame welling up in me because I know it's true, but I refuse to look away. Despite the pain, her eyes are life.\n\n'I know.' There is an unspoken apology, and pain, in those words. She brushes a stray hair behind her ear, and I drink in the familiar gesture. I can feel the question, and I don't know if I'm ready, or even able, to answer her.\n\n'Why?' And there it was. The wound I couldn't close, because I kept it open. The one thing I've done in my life that I regret. The one thing I am ashamed of.\n\n'I couldn't keep watching.' I run my hands through my hair in frustration. 'I couldn't keep watching, while he treated you as a second place. There was always something more important than you.' The liquid fire in her eyes sears me, and I finally look away. 'I loved you and watching him throw away what I would have given anything for was too hard.' She steps closer to me, and I tense. She pokes me in the chest. Not hard, but not soft either.\n\n'Bullshit. I know that was part of it, but I want the truth. After all this time I think I deserve that much.' She stood there, closer than I had been to her in years, with her hands on her hips, waiting for an answer that would satisfy ten years of separation.\n\n'You didn't want me.' I feel small. It's such a childish response, but it is the truth that was asked for. 'I left because it was tearing me apart. Wanting someone who didn't want me back. Watching the little girl, that I wish was mine, grow up. Seeing a life that could have been ours if you had said yes. I would have done anything for you.' She stepped closer, her hand running feather light up my arm. I shiver at the touch and the fire in her eyes changes. I've seen that fire before but never directed at me. My soul soars. It knows instinctively what my mind is refusing to acknowledge.\n\n'You're right.' She near whispers. 'I didn't want you.' There is the let down that I knew I should have expected. No matter how much I lie to myself that will always be the answer. 'I didn't want you, but I did need you. When you left, I realized how much I was missing, how much my daughter was missing.' Her hand is still on my arm, and my body sings at her touch. I swallow nervously, hoping beyond hope as mind, body, and soul arrive, finally, at the same conclusion. 'Would you still do anything for me?' The question hits me, and I feel like I could float away.\n\n'For you... anything.' She smiles, her eyes dancing like they were the first time I saw her, as she leans in.\n'Stop time for me.' \nOur lips meet and time stands still.", "Souls intertwined, eyes dancing, we stood in beautiful harmony. My fingers sifted through hers, the touch of her skin more a drug than the strongest intoxicant. \n\nHer lips, delicate, immaculate, relayed the words to me. Her voice danced on the wind, pure and tender. Carried by the angels themselves. \n\n\"Stop time for me,\" she whispered in my ear, a tingle running down my spine.\n\nSo I shot her. \n\n-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------\n\n/r/ShittyStoryCreator :)", "Carrie was the only one Cal had ever cared for and he was quite apt to make the pun just as Carrie was prone to roll her eyes. They had met in Sociology, Professor Stephen Glum's class. \n\nIt was seven thirty in the morning and Cal was never one for those light and fluffy and should-be-sleeping-before-noon hours, but he never missed a class (at least once he saw Carrie, so hitherto he missed four). Every morning, Carrie was beautiful. Well, maybe not beautiful. Not how I would describe her, no, but pretty... Er, maybe, easy on the eyes, at the very least, or... How about... She had her days! And this day was such one of those very few and very far between days that Cal truly took exception to her. \n\nCarrie's stringy black hair was greased up into a static bun and her lazy eye was wasn't so lazy today. She looked approachable.\n\nCal thought, Today's the day Calbert. Today's the day you profess your love and tell her she's the most wonderful woman you ever laid eyes on! And ask her her name, too. Should probably know that. \n\nProfessor Glum droned on, 'Subjectivity is an individual's interpretation and attachment to the objective, where as objectivity would be the general attached value by a certain larger, more public, population. For instance, western society's definition of beauty might starkly contrast an individual's of its populace. Why, someone, some very wrong someone, might think Carrie was beautiful.'\n\nThe class raucously laughed.\n\nCal thought with a dreamy grin, Carrie, her name is Carrie.\n\nAfter the several renewed waves of laughter at Carrie's expense died down, Professor Glum caught sight of the clock and said, 'Oh my, fifteen minutes? Whew. Okay, that's all we have time for today. Dismissed.'\n\nCal met Carrie in the hallway as a handsome fellow held the door for a succession of ladies, who then abruptly cut off Carrie before she got the wrong idea and slammed the door in fright. Carrie fought with the heavy door and Cal thought, This is your moment, Calbert-boy. He puffed out his already puffy (though flabby) chest and said, 'Might I be of some assistance, m'lady?' and Cal heaved on the heavy door. To no effect. But, with their combined and exhaustive effort, Carrie and Cal opened the door and exited the building into the morning rays of sunshine and melodious tunes of robins and jays. Cal panted, bent over. Carrie sat down. The freshmen nonchalantly entered and exited the building at their leisure. \n\nCal continued to pant, 'The name's... Calbert.'\n\n'Calbert?'\n\n'Or Cal,' he said and stood straight. 'And you are Carrie. Wanna know how I know? It's because you are the only-'\n\n'Because Professor Glum and the whole class made fun of me.'\n\nCal made a face. His pun will have to wait. 'Screw them. I think we should be friends.'\n\n'No,' Carrie said and made to stand but couldn't so she stretched instead.\n\n'Come on, you'll like me. I know we were made for each other.'\n\n'Made for each other?'\n\n'Well, maybe that's a bit strong. What can I do to prove this to you?'\n\n'I dunno. Stop time.'\n\nCalbert thought a moment. He thought some more. Then, when Carrie seemed to grow impatient, he hummed, then said,\n\n'To stop time, you say. \nIt's the easiest thing to do \nwhen I only need one thing - me and you.'\n\n'That's two things. Wait. Are you singing?'\n\n'Let the world have the birds and bees \nLet them have rainbows and runway models \nLet them have lipstick, cleft chins, and pecs. \n'Cause with all things considered, Carrie, \nyou are the only thing worth Caring for.' \n\nCal bent Carrie over and labored to support her over his leg and gave her a kiss and thee whole world seemed to stop and watch. The birds went silent, the sun stopped shining, and the world revolted. Cal and Carrie were happy.\n\n--------------\nokay, coffee shoppe is closing. This will have to do.", "Every man has a she. \n\n\nI met mine 6 years ago, and I still remember the day like it was yesterday. This story, however, isn’t about the day we first met. It’s about the time I fell in love with her all over again.\n\n\nHad Jen managed to get my americano right the first time, we probably would have never seen each other again.\n\nI glanced down at my wrist as she poured the dark roast into the sink — it was 7:04, I still had a few minutes to catch the bus. Though I was cutting it close, I needed my morning caffeine if I were to have any hopes of being even marginally productive for the rest of the day. \n\nI watched her grab a new cup and fill it up to the brim with a diluted espresso. I wonder what happened to the regular girl.\n\n“I have a grande americano for Christopher,” she said while sliding the open cup across the bar. I forgot to thank her, focusing instead on not spilling the scolding coffee. I grabbed a lid, and checked my watch again – 7:06. Shit\n\nThe second I stepped outside, I watched my bus pull out of the stop and turn the corner.\n\nFuck. The RV1 to Lavington Street was always a few minutes late, but today it arrived precisely on time and was back en route a minute later. \n\nI was already on thin ice with Jacob, so if were late today he’d probably have my job. I slowly made my way to the plastic bench next to the bus stop and called an Uber. After a few taps, Isaac and his beige Corolla were 8 minutes away. \n\nI spent the next few minutes scrolling through the NYT feed – ‘North Korean Leader Talks of Military Superiority,’ Warnings Cited in Curbing Toll of More than 100 Tornadoes,’ ‘Hunger Games has Another Big Weekend.’ What bullshit. I closed the app and decided I had time for a quick smoke. Before I could pull out a cig, I noticed her a few feet away. \n\nI could never forget her face. She was even more beautiful than I remembered. Not beautiful like like most attractive girls are, no. She was more beautiful than a Jackson Pollock painting is chaotic. She was intoxicating. When she entered a room, all lights dimmed and noise ceased. All eyes followed her figure and breathing was halted until your body forced you to inhale again. The shape of her blood-red lips would have you contemplating selling your soul for a quick peck on the cheek. \n\n“Chris?” She turned her head and began walking towards me. “I can’t believe it’s really you.”\n\n“Alice?” I tried my best to calm down and pretend I wasn’t about to throw up.\n\n“Oh my god. What are you doing in London?“ She leaned in for a hug. Though she pulled away almost immediately, it felt like our bodies were intervened since the start of eternity. \n\n“I work at Abbott Mead, few minutes from here.” \n\n“Amazing, you actually continued in marketing?” Or that’s what I think she said, I could hardly hear her over the sound of my heartbeat palpitating through my entire body. \n\n“Yes.” I felt my mouth go dry and my throat begin to tighten. I don’t think I could have said another word. \n\nShe smiled, scrunching her nose, like she always had. \n\nAlice Greene, she was the one that got away. Well, I never really had her to begin with, to be honest. But we studied together at Brown, and spent many late nights working on decks and mock pitches. \n\n“That’s awesome! I wasn’t sure what happened to you, you didn’t show up to our last final or graduation. I don’t think anyone heard from you since.” \n\n“Yeah, my grandfather fell ill and I moved back here to take care of him right after our Risk Management exam,” I lied. \n\nI couldn’t tell if she was fucking with me, or if she still didn’t understand why I had left. After finishing that exam, Alice and I, and a few others, went down to King’s for a few celebratory beers. \n\nI must’ve had one too many, because that night I somehow found the words to tell her how I had really felt. She said she loved me too, but we both knew that we meant very different things. \n\nWe were friends. Best friends, actually. We confined in each other. She was my pillar, and I her rock. She would vent about her guy problems, and I would always be there to build her back up again. It was always surreal to me that she didn’t understand just how perfect she was. And with every new guy she talked to I lost another piece of myself. \n\nThat night I realized that I had nothing left to lose, so I went for it. When she said that she loved me too, I realized that I was wrong. I lost whatever was left of myself, and began spiralling into darkness. I missed every interview I had on my schedule, I couldn’t eat, fuck – I think I didn’t shower for a week after coming home that night. I knew that we would never be together, and I didn’t want to live without her. \n\nThough I didn’t try to kill myself, I came very close. Since we usually studied at my place, everything reminded me of her. I couldn’t take it, but I was too much of a pussy to actually go through with it. And in order to preserve any sanity I had left, I bought a one way ticket to Heathrow, and spent the last half decade trying my best to forget about her.\n\n“I had no idea, I’m so sorry,” she said, bringing me out of my trance. \n\n“It’s alright. What are you doing here? I thought you planned on accepting that job in New York.” \n\n“I did. I worked at Conde Nast for three years, and eventually became a head of accounts…” \n\nI wasn’t surprised. Alice would aways get whatever she wanted. She continued talking about her life after graduation, but I didn’t hear any of the words words coming out of her mouth. I couldn’t stop staring into her eyes. Her gaze was like being kissed by fire, dangerous and exhilarating. Unmatched by any other feeling a human is capable of experiencing. \n\n“I love you.” The words just fell out of my mouth, I couldn’t stop them. Alice paused, and her eyes focused on mine. “What?” \n\n“I love you.” Fuck. My brain was commanding my body without my consent, I was helpless. \n\n“Chris,” she paused. I felt the panic set in. What the fuck am I doing. “I haven’t seen you in years —“\n\n“I know,” I tried to laugh. “I just remembered that night at King’s when I told you I loved you.” \n\nShe smiled. “That was sweet, but you knew I was with Mitch then. Plus you we’re completely wasted. I didn’t think you were being serious.” \n\nBullshit.\n\n“I might have been drunk, but we both know I meant what I said. I would have done anything for you.” I laughed. Genuinely, this time. I finally started to realize how ridiculous this entire situation was. We haven’t spoken in years, and here I am professing my love for her all over again, like no time had passed at all. \n\n“You’re being dramatic. We we’re just kids.”\n\n“Maybe, but it’s true. I was crazy about you.” It felt good to finally be so open with her.\n\nShe was about to say something, but we were interrupted by a beige Corolla. “Christopher? Are you going to Waterloo Station?” \n\nI checked my watch – 7:14. Over the last 5 minutes I had completely forgotten about my job, Jacob, or Isaac’s shitty Corolla. \n\n“I gotta go.” \n\n“Chris, wait,” she said as I grabbed the door handle. “Do you wanna get a coffee or something, I’m here till Monday. We should catch up.” \n\nI looked back at her, and realized that it was impossible to say no. God she was perfect. I wished she could see what I see when I look into her hazel eyes. \n\n“Christopher, your tab is running.” \n\n“Hold on Isaac.” I turned away from the driver, ready to risk another decade of emotional unrest for 20 minutes with her. \n\n“Sure Alice, let me know when.” \n\nShe smiled, her nose scrunched and she got those cute wrinkles under under her eyes. I matched her gaze, and it was like we were alone together. \n\n“We should go now,” she said. \n\nI laughed, “I have to get to work, but how about after 5 tonight?”\n\n“What are you talking about, silly. Let’s go, the bar is closing, and we got Brophy’s final in like 8 hours. Plus you should definitely get some sleep.”\n\n" ]	6
	[WP] Instead of dying from old age, humans can only take a certain amount of steps in their life before they pass away. You’ve just invented the world’s first car.	[ "\"PLEASE, I ONLY HAVE 5000 LEFT\" a desperate voice sounded from my porch.\n\n\"Get in fucking line, idiot\" a grumpy voice chimed in, \"some of us are in the hundreds here\"\n\nI sat in the darkness of my car, head in my hands. They found me, they always find me.\n\n\"I gave everyone the blueprints already!\" I screamed at the locked and bolted door, \"I did it so you people won't bother me anymore, what the hell else do you people want?\"\n\n\"Too many steps to get all the materials, funds and tools to make one\" the second grumpy voice, \"You've already made this car thing for all the wealthy and powerful, shouldn't you have the tools and materials to make some extras for some poor souls in need?\"\n\nI sighed, resting my forehead against the cool wood surface of my car, tracing the contours of the number that counted down to my death on my wrist. \n\nHumans, never waste steps on things they can get some other poor sap to do for them\n\n\"Make it yourself,\" I called to the door, \"if I could make it, then so can you idiots. Drag yourself around by your arms if you have to\"\n\n\"Well, why can't you do it?\" The first voice insisted, \"You have a car in there don't you? It won't even take any steps!\"\n\nI laughed a hollow laugh, remembering the first time I heard those words.\n\nYou make it \n\nA wealthy boy sitting upon a palanquin, carried by poor souls who waste their lives away so that the boy may see another year.\n\n\"I gave you the designs, my lord\" I had begged, prostrated myself before him, \"I cannot work quickly for you, I have not the steps to spare. I cannot travel quickly with this car\"\n\nYou will make this car for me, or you will suffer the consequences the boy had grinned, glancing towards the door.\n\n\"I cannot, sir\" I begged \"There are places I cannot reach without taking steps, I have so very little.\"\n\nThen you will pay for your insolence\n\nA cry rang out from the door. I had not turned, too horrified to confirmed with my eyes what I already knew was at the door.\n\nSomeone had pulled me, dumping me to the floor and turning me around to face the doorway. To see my wife, sobbing and sitting in her wheeled chair that I had cobbled together for her from scraps of wood I found near our home.\n\nShe had been born with far fewer steps than most.\n\nI built her a chair so I could take steps for the both of us. Then, I built the car with my final, waning steps so that we could travel together without fear.\n\nBut it was fear that I saw in both of our eyes as we lay on the floor that day. \n\nHer eyes left mine as ropes and pulleys lifted her from the floor, righting her so that her feet stood flat against the belt, set up on the floor before the boy.\n\nHer sleeves fluttered as her hands reached out desperately against the ropes, searching for an escape. I still remember the dark contours of that number on her wrist. The \"2\" that shined so mockingly clear against her pale skin.\n\nThe boy snapped his fingers and the belt cranked backwards, forcing her feet to take a step forward, as the number on her arm counted down one step.\n\nI spent almost all of my steps to try and save her. But the belt slipped forward as they lowered her....and she was gone.\n\n\"ARE YOU GOING TO MAKE IT OR NOT?\" The voice cried from the door, rousing me from my memories.\n\nI slid myself forward on the wheels that I now despised, stopping only a few meters from the door.\n\n\"I have money!\" The voice cried, \"I just want to live, please save me!\"\n\n\"I have money too\" I replied, \"You think all those guys I made cars for in the past didn't pay me handsomely for my work?\"\n\nOnce she was gone, money and pleasure were the only ways they could convince me to waste my steps away for them. How far weren't people willing to go for a taste of immortality? \n\nI close my eyes against the noise as the med began rattling my door. I count my breaths: One, Two...they wouldn't ever stop if I just stayed in this miserable room.\n\nOpening my eyes, I take one last look at the gleaming dark number on my wrist. I had been so afraid of it once.\n\nI raise myself from the seat of the car I had occupied for many years, my legs just as strong as they were when I sat down in the seat for the last time, so many years ago.\n\nI take one step to the door, then another.\n\nThen I fall." ]	1
	[WP] A zombie bite takes around a year to turn its victim. You or someone you know has just been bit.	[ "The darkness pressed in on every side\nThe lifeless corpse was lying fifteen feet downhill\nThere was clearly a bite mark on her left shoulder\nWe sat there motionless, to tired from the struggle to open our mouths and let slip the words we knew needed to be said\nI couldn't wait any longer, she is the love of my life \n\"We should have seen it coming.\"\n\"It was dark out.\"\n\"How could we have been so stupid?\"\n\"It was our anniversary. We had to do something.\"\n\"But we still should have known better than to camp!\"\nIt's not like they are anything new I thought to myself, those slobbering dimwits have been meandering across the country biting anything within the reach of their rotting fingertips. I thought we had cleared them all out in a four mile radius. How is she so calm?\n\"How are you so calm?!\"\n\"There's no point in panicking.\"\n\"But...\"\n\"Everything will be fine, we will figu-\"\n\"JENNY\"\nI woke up in a cold sweat, my covers thrown entirely off my bed, I was trembling. My eyes welled up and I felt like I couldn't breathe.\nIt was all my fault.\n", "\"Hey gurl\" \"sup\" \"nun\" \"I've been bit\" \"oh shit\" \n\nThat's the conversation that took place that sunny morning in grandma's garage. It was short, but it changed my life completely. That day, my soulmate had been bit. She had one year to live. I planned to make the best of it.\n\n\"So is we goin to kemah boardwalk or wat?\"\n\n\"Naa, sweet cakes. First we get you sum ice cream.\"\n\n\"What you mean?? Ain't nothin wong wit my ass!!\"\n\n\"Naa, butter cup cutie pootie. Ice cream.\"\n\n\"Ohhhhh\"\n\nShe was so funny. These were the small moments I treasured after she passed over. I gave her all the ice cream she could eat. Unfortunately I could not eat any since it all had been contaminated with zombie disease. One by one we knocked out her bucket list. She died on December. 31 2062. RIP Tammy. 2042-2062." ]	2
	[WP]You (a human) have an alien roommate which isn't so bad except they're a total prick who keeps trying to "correct" you about human biology and culture.	[ "There are few things as annoying as a first year student in social sciences. Anthropology, sociology, psychology, gender studies... They always think they understand everything, and much better than you. Clyde had the displeasure of sharing a flat with one once. It... wasn't pretty, towards the end.\n\nBut rooming with an Alien studying humanology? That was fucking miserable.\n\nClyde called him \"Zap\". While he could have theoretically used his real name, it was somewhat long and rather difficult to pronounce. Different sound organs, that kind of stuff. And most aliens on Earth like using nicknames. They were fairly chill, considering what could have happened. No invasion, no massive change of political structure, no destruction of Earth to make place for a hyperspace highway... \n\nThey were a bit weird to look at. They looked like humanoid platypuses with 6 eyes (two groups of three). And they liked dressing in togas. Like, a lot.\n\nBut really, things were kinda cool, and they were somewhat willing to help Earth with the whole \"Global Warming\" issue, mostly in exchange of the equivalent of an interstellar Erasmus program. \n\nBut why did he had to be him?\n\n> - No dude, no one really believes in Santa Claus.\n> - Don't be ashamed of your original faith, Clyde! From an anthropological standpoint, Santa Claus is a very good example of a religion based on massive indoctrination, with a lot of movies on this theme for example, and the somewhat mystical power of the \"miracle of Christmas\" in some movies is a clear analogy to...\n\nor\n\n> - All that I'm saying is, you shouldn't eat that thing, it's not safe for you. Eat some cauliflower!\n> - Dude, gimme a break. I won't die because I'll eat a burrito.\n> - Well, while you are right that your body should be able handle it, evolution did not really prepared you to this kind of energy-rich diet, and considering how often you eat it, it could lead to a whole lot of issues like cardio-vascular diseases, while also giving you issue about...\n\nor\n\n> - Don't you find the whole dichotomy between the peace and non-animosity that sports claim to pretend, and the violence associated to what we are watching absolutely fascinating?\n> - Dude, it's the Super Bowl. It's not that violent.\n> - Yes, it's of course safer to exteriorize aggression this way that warfare, but on the other hand the number of injuries related to...\n\nor\n\n> - Actually, the African continent is much more diverse - both culturally and politically - that most of the so-called Western world, because of the lack of formal political structure covering the continent.\n> - Ok, but can't they calm a bit on the children? They have, like, 5 for each parent!\n> - Nonono, you see, while the reasons for the propensity to have large amounts of children -by human standards, of course - in Africa results for a variety of factors...\n\n \nBy god he was annoying.\n\nBut the worst thing is, he was regularly right.", "I shut the door of my room. My blood boiled with hatred. How could someone be so stubborn? Goddamned aliens. Who in the world convinced me of moving in to another planet with a Zorbian? I sighed, reaching into my pocket. It was empty. That answered my last question.\n\nYou know what? Two can play the same game. If this idiot wants to pretend to be an expert of my kind, then I'll spit nonsense of his and if it ends up in a fight, then I'm sure I can beat him, unless this hardheaded ignorant uses his hard head.\n\nI opened the door, and walked toward his room. I could hear his high-pitched, ear-shattering laugh through the walls. Through the corner of my eye, I caught a glimpse of our kitchen. How clean it was. I grunted. Focus on the wrath man, capitalize on it.\n\n\"Gorlan!\" I yelled as I knocked on his door. Soon, he came out, confused. \n\nHis kind were like tiny squids with humanoid shape. They had tentacles, their skin was red, and they could float in the air as if they were in the water. However, their heads weren't so pointy. They were more round instead.\n\n\"Have you researched about the chinese culture of your kind?\" he asked, rising to meet my eyes. \"Have you come to apologize for your lack of knowledge?\"\n\n\"Of course I did. I came to the conclusion that you were right. They truly hate rice, and they don't know what dragons are.\" I said, sarcastically. \"They are like the zilipons of your planet. They hate shrimps.\"\n\nGorlan cocked his weird face. \"Zilipons hate shrimps? I didn't know that. What else do you know about them?\"\n\nI narrowed my eyes. Was he somehow fooling me? They weren't known for their wit, but for their tidiness. \"Well, they are also gigantic, and they think themselves to be the superior race of Zorbia.\"\n\nGorlan rubbed his tentacles with his tentacles--a known expression of curiosity. He moved through the air, toward the kitchen, and started cleaning what was already cleaned. \"Tell me more!\" he said with an edge of enthusiasm in his voice.\n\nI ran my hand through my hair. \"Will you clean my room in return?\"\n\n\"Absolutely!\"\n\n\"Well, you see. Zilipons are also cannibals. They eat who they consider lesser than them, that includes their very own species, in order to maintain their size,\" I said, squeezing my mind to come up with absurd. Zilipons were the same as Gorlan, but they lived in Zilipa instead. \"They have four rows of teeth too.\"\n\n\"Where did you learn that? Oh wait! I have an idea.\" He bolted toward his run, and came back with a book instead. It was titled \"Earth's Culture for Dummies,\" and its author was Gelicosiasi Oziaziadis.\n\nOf course.\n\nHe wasn't being a prick. He'd read bullshit written by a Friolani, whose kind was known for being liars and scam artists. It made sense, a lot of sense for someone like Gorlan to have fell for one of their traps.\n\nGorlan wobbled in the air, exuding joy. \"Here, let's exchange books! I want to learn about my kind. I've always lived inside our bubble, until I came here. I've never travelled Zorbia.\"\n\nOh god. What do I do? \"I don't have a book with me, but I have many facts,\" I said. I had decided it was too late to retreat, and I couldn't say no to those tiny tentacles. \"Did you know, that the continents in Zorbia were once one big bubble?\"\n\n--------------------------------\n\n/r/therobertfall for more stories. \n", "\"You stink, human.\" \n\nThose were the words that my alien roommate had said to me when I greeted him at the door on the night I moved in. You see, normally I would have replied with some kind of sharp or witty remark but instead I shrugged it off. Let's just say I was having a 'bad' day. Only a few hours ago, I had spent days traveling across the star system, and when I had finally arrived at the complex I had been designated to, they told me that they were overcapacity. \n\n\"Check your Comms Box,\" they had said. \n\nAs I tapped my wrist, a hologram display had flickered to life. Then I saw the notification that I had failed to see. \n\nThey were right. \n\nImmediately, I had went into full panic mode. I was alone, millions of miles away from home in a place that I didn't know and now- without a place to stay. I was due to attend classes tomorrow at a prestigious academy that attracted aliens from all over the galaxy and there I was, standing alone on the busy interchange like an idiot as I gawked at the flying vehicles and vivid moving holograms. \n\nCaptivated by the scenery, I had wandered off and before I knew it, I was in the wrong sort of neighborhood that a Fresh-Off-the-Earth kid shouldn't be.\n\nIt was here that I experienced what 'hardship' was in the big-wide-universe that my dad had always told me about. \n\nIn less than an hour, I had lost a good portion of my galactic currency to a clean-shaven gentleman in a black business suit. Nearly lost a couple organs to an overweight alien with giant rolling flabs who coveted exotic alien organs and offered a generous amount of Galactic Coin in exchange. And finally, nearly had a mechanical tail installed near my behind and a biotic eye replacement. \n\nThings were going just great. \n\nThen an alien had walked up in front of me. A tiny blue alien with tentacles for limbs. He looked harmless, but I knew better than to judge based on appearances after the gentleman in the suit had swindled me. \n\n\"Hello there human, you seem a little lost. Might you be needing a place to stay?\" \n\n--------\n\nAnd an hour later, I was at a shabby apartment complex where I met Y-703, my superior alien roommate. His green face had wrinkled up as he informed me of my offensive odor. \n\nI had shrugged it off, apologizing for my offensive odor. I didn't want to start a conflict with my alien roommate. \n\n\"Huh? Your name is Esther? What is the logical consequence for Esther?\" he asked when I told him my name. \n\nI responded calmly to Y-703 that there was no such thing. He didn't understand. Then I explained that it was a name that my parents had given me, that there was no logical reasoning behind it. \n\nImmediately he bombarded me with questions, \"What if another human possesses the same name? Won't that be confusing?\" and so on. \n\n\"That is a very logically counter-intuitive naming process,\" he commented after I answered his questions calmly. \n\nI shrugged. I didn't have the energy for it. I thought that with time Y-703 would grow more acceptable of me as he came to know me but alas, as the days had passed Y-703 only became more intolerable.\n\n\"Why do you eat so much? Why do you excrete so much waste?\"\n\nI began explaining to Y-703 about the human digestive system and excretory system.\n\n\"How inefficient,\" he remarked. \n\n\"Yea. It is,\" I agreed. \n\nY-703 didn't need to eat. He obtained a most of his nutrients from the sunlight.\n\n\"Isn't it inconvenient to have so few limbs? Why don't you get some more limbs?\" he asked as he unsheathed an additional pair of limbs to accompany his already numerous set of limbs.\n\n\"Ha. That's a good one Y-703,\" I said as I gave him my most unconvincing smile. Now I understood why the landlord had offered me such a low price to stay here. \n\nWeeks later, I'm on my period. \n\n\"Why do you bleed from your crotch human?\" \n\nI explain to him that as a female, it is how our body works in order to maintain fertility.\n\nY-703 was asexual. Gender was an oddity to him. \n\nThen one day, as I was returning from the Academy I happened upon a tiny fury creature. It had a single eye, and looked like a cross between a bat and a cat. The creature had scurried on the floor, struggling to fly for dear life as massive vehicles flew by, precariously close to hitting it. \n\nI knew what kind of fate it would face on the streets here. When I took him into my arms, it struggled and bit my arm weakly. But when it realized that it was safe, the creature fell fast asleep. \n\nWhen I brought the creature home Y-703 exclaimed, \"Human why have you brought this creature home? Are you going to consume it?\" \n\nI shook my head. \"He was lost, and his wings are injured.\"\n\n\"So you intend to nurse it?\"\n\nI nodded. \"At least until he can fly again. Then I'll let him go.\"\n\n\"What's the point of such actions? Are all humans like this?\" Y-703 said.\n\n\"I don't know Y-703, but... I just can't help it when I see a helpless animal. It's just the way I am... For me at least.\"\n\n\"Humans. So strange,\" Y-703 said.\n\nI shrugged. \"Just promise to keep this a secret from the landlord,\" I pleaded. \n\nY-703 grunted reluctantly, but it was an affirmation.\n\nBefore long the little creature grew accustomed to us and the little apartment we lived in. We called him Silvy for the silver fur that it had. Silvy leaped about in the tiny apartment, occasionally taking glides that would end with him crashing into the walls. Y-703 soon took it to himself to catch Silvy before he could do any serious harm to himself. \n\nEventually Silvy recovered, and was able to fly freely within the apartment. At some moments, I would catch Silvy starring out the window longingly at the vast blue sky before it. I knew it was time to let him go. But when the time came, Y-703 refused.\n\n\"We can't let this creature go,\" he explained. \"This little one will hurt himself again and... and I won't be there to catch him.\"\n\n\"Y-703 you know better than me, that this,\" I gestured to the apartment around me, \"is not its home. His home is the skies, and that's where he belongs. We can't trap Silvy here forever.\"\n\nY-703 grunted reluctantly. \n\nI tapped control module next to the wall, and the window retracted. Y-703 held Silvy to the window. Together we watched Silvy look at the sky, then at us. For a moment it was as if Silvy was saying goodbye. Then it flew off into the sky. \n\nY-703 broke the silence as we watched the sun set. \"Esther... What is this painful feeling inside of me? It is something I have not felt before.\"\n\nI smiled as I glanced at him. \"Sadness. It sucks doesn't it?\"\n\nY-703 grunted affirmatively. For once, he agreed with me.\n\n\"Esther? Don't bring any more creatures home,\" Y-703 said.\n\nI laugh. \"Can't make any promises.\"\n\nY-703 muttered something quietly. It sounded like 'how inefficient,' but he was smiling. \n\n----\n\n/r/em_pathy\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n", "Dear Elaine,\n\nIn regards to your last message. I must say I'm doing well, and I eagerly await your next letter - hopefully including some of the pictures from that trip skinny dipping on Trappist. I find that even a few million light-years from any other significant number of humans, you start to lose the grip on your libido a bit. \n\nOf course, since you likely skipped every word past my mention of skinny dipping, I'll let you know here: I'm doing well. Healthy, good grades, new friends, the works. \n\nI shouldn't complain. Getting into the Cycaenien Ring Academy should have been a triumph for an Oort rat son of a meteor basher from the Sol system. I have a chance to make my family proud, and forge a new life for all of us. I've made friends and forged networks that will support me for the rest of my life; pursued the education trillions of sentient beings across the milky way dream of. \n\nI really can't complain. But to you, I will anyway. Cause all of that came with a catch - it came with Xrathnel. \n\nXrathnel is from the Wild Duck Cluster, but his people the Rathnu called it the Strufnal. I mention that not to show off any particular knowledge of his people, but to display the sum total of all information I've garnered on Rathnu from him. See, Xrathnel doesn't care about his people, he cares about us. \n\nIf you haven't figured it out yet, Xrathnel is a Human Cultural Studies student. \n\nIt's unbearable; with every new unit they get to, I get another lecture on humanity. He lectured me for seven hours on the Sassanid empire. Apparently they were Earthlings if you can imagine such a thing, before electricity even. As if such a thing should matter anymore. \n\nThat's the problem though, he's convinced he understands humanity better than me. Try showing him a movie, and he pauses it every two minutes to explain the ancient cultural significance. Listen to music, and he waxes poetic on how Beethoven will forever be the peak of human musical endeavors. \n\nI'll be honest, I don't even know who Beethoven is; and I'm convinced I don't care.\n\nI'll make it through, Elaine; and I can't wait to see you. But understand if the next time we hang out I'm banned from the entire Sagittarius arm that I probably lost my patience and decided to see whether or not a human can kill a Rathnu with their bare hands. \n\nAlways yours, \n\nMarshall." ]	4
	[WP] They dug the deepest hole in the history of Mankind. What they found at the bottom was not rock, not magma, but flesh. Living, pulsing flesh.	[ "It wasn't easy intergrating into Australia as a 14 year old boy from India.\nI was teased constantly for smelling like my fathers cooking and got called taxi for the rest of my school life.\nThat name stuck. My few friends that I had, once finishing school called me it aswell but by that time I had gotten over it. Everyone else knew me by my real name, Jaya.\n\nI'm now 26 and work as a geologist for a company called \"Terģai international\".\n\nAs I have done everyday for the last 3 weeks I woke up today and checked my e-mails before having the chance to even make my coffee.\nTodays the day I finally recieved what i was waiting for.\n\nThe e-mail had plane tickets attached for Israel and was to leave October 15th, 3:40 am, two days from now.\nExcited and nervous I drive to work, skipping breakfast. I'll just get something from the cafe down stairs today.\n\n\"Jaya\" I hear from across the lobby. It was my work mate Fabian. \"Did you get the\", \"yes\" I interupt. \"You know I've been checking my e-mails first thing each morning!\"\nWe both make our way to the briefing in the common room.\n\n\"I know you have all been patient to hear about the upcoming project and can see that you are all excited to have recieved your plane tickets.\" \nThe project director and COO of the company Francis Graves exclaimed.\n\"But this morning I will need your full attention!\"\n\nAs if we were not already listening eagerly..\n\n\"Four months ago there was a disruption in our satalite caused by an unexplained seismic event. We will be sending a team over to explore the mine in Hebron just south of Isreal where we have word that it was traced back to\"\nHe said with great control in his voice, yet his face posed a thousand questions.\n\nI had left to go home to pack and do my research. I found that in 2021 3 years ago Hebron had surpassed the worlds deepest mine in Johannesburg being 6.7 km deep (4.1 miles) by a company called Dis'kəvər (Hebrew for discover) which is now 11.4 km (7 miles) deep. Dis'kəvər was an animus apertusian company.\n\nI found that animus apertusian was a religion dating back to 1300 bc and was the belief that all religion held some truth but has been misinterpreted through the simple mindness of man. Animus apertus is latin for open mind.\nIn other words this religion is somewhat of a small society of scholars trying to connect the dots of religion and humanity.\n\nIt is now October 16th and I am on a bus from Ben Gurion airport in Israel to Hebron.\nIt has been just short of three hours on the bus when our team finally makes it up to the top of the mine. \n\nFabian has not said a word the whole drive except for making a joke that there was no diverence between the Animus apertusians to which I had informed him about and myself being a Hindu.\n\nWhen I was a young boy still living in Delhi, India my mother would tell me stories of Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva the trinity of Hinduism and how modern Christianity was just a poor explenation for the south Asian truth.\n\nUnfortunately my mother named Prith died in a earthquake two years before moving to Sydney Australia.\n\nOnce we had exited the bus we were met by some scientists who would lead us to the large steel caged elevator which was about 4x6 meters long. I was there informed that Francis Graves who I have only spoken to twice had requested that I go to the bottom while the others do there research 8 k.m in.\n\nThe lights that filled this gaping whole exposed a cave like workspace where the elevator came to a halt.\n\nFabian looks at me like I'm some bastard that betrayed him as he hops off. \n\nThe scientist that seems to be superior out of the three, Professor Carlon turns to me with great curiosity.\n\"Jaya, we have found something.\"\nThey all look at me as if I'm some mysterious man hidding a million secrets.\n\n\"3 months ago we found an enormous pyrite cube, which in itself is hard enough to believe but what im telling you will reveal itself to be true.\"\nI feel interrogated even though I am not being asked questions. There eyes pierce mine and my fingers twitch with anticipation.\n\"Enscribed on the cube is 'aakaash ke tairgai pita ke jaya'\"\n\nI laugh \"Jaya of Terģai father of the sky?\"\n\n\"Yes\" says Professor Carlon with a dead straight face.\n\nBefore I get the chance to ask any questions the elevator comes to it's final destination.\nBlinding floodlights face the giant pyrite cube standing like a cliff with those rediculous words written on it 'aakaash ke tairgai pita ke jaya'.\n\nI drop my bag and with every question I had leaving my mind I walk up to it.\n\nI can hear my own heart beat as I walk.\nAs i come within 10 or so feet of it i realise what i thought was my heart beat was actually the pyrites.\n\nThe lights darken, Professor Carlon and the other scientists fade out of my sight and I hear the words in my mothers voice \"I have missed you Dyaus Pita\" \n\nDyaus Pita in hinduism is Father sky.\nI touch the cube and fall.\n\nI see a flash back of when my mother fell into the earthquake followed by an intense purple light. I dont remember seeing that light when it happened all those years ago but as clear as day I see that the purple light was her essence and the transition of her human body reincarnating.\n\nEverything goes black.\n\n\"Jaya Dyaus it is me\"\nI hear in my mothers voice\n\"Prithvi Mata\"\n\nA blue light not only flashes all around me but within in me.\n\nI now look down that mine from 480 km high but can now see mother earths heart.\n\nMy mother used to tell me stories of reincarnation and how I must do good in my life. I grew up a Hindu and reincarnated as a Animus apertusian.\n\nIt is now I realise that I am a god just as she is.\nMother earth and father sky.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n", "\"I don't thing there is any other side to it\", said Joe, \"it will go on forever.\"\n\"Don't be so ridiculous\", replied Steve, \" when we started, it was only dirt. Soil of different colors, different composition. Then came small rocks, shiny and sparkling. I managed to get a hold of one. As we went deeper, we found metallic ores. Do you really think we will keep discovering different things forever? I think it will end some where. And sooner than you think.\"\nThey both continued digging.\n\n\nIt's been almost 200 days since they started digging the earth. It started as prank, to keep digging as long as people can fund but now they are so deep into this, now they want to test the limits. \n\nFor 50 more days, it went as it was expected. As they went deeper, it got dense and hot. Not as hot as dying by 3rd degree burns but as hot as bathing in the sweat. The diggers wanted it to end soon, but but the authorities insisted on continuing. \n\nAround 314th day, something weird happened. The dirt started to appear wet, and red. Was not very hot though, but a lot wet. That was not something expected. They hesitated to go deeper, but still continued. \n\nNot soon after that day, when diggers were still digging, they found the rocks, soft as spong and pink as rose. When they tried to go deeper, a sudden gush of thick red fluid came out. It looked like lava, but was not enough hot. \n\"What is this?\" Joe exclaimed. \"There is only one way to know.\" Said Steve and started to dig again. One, two, and in the third blow a loud slapping sound was heard, louder than anything and suddenly everything went black. There was nothing. No Joe, no Steve, not any other digger. Even the hole vanished.\n\n\"There are too many mosquitoes in here\", Earth told to himself. \"Something should be done\". Then he sighed, rubbed his arms and started running again. ", "It had been attempted before, the Chinese hit 50 kilometers, the Russians 75. But today, at precisely 100 kilometers, the Americans made a discovery that would sent waves of panic across the planet. A ceremony had been organized, and world leaders surrounded the massive drilling platform, watching hot sludge spew from the borehole. As the mud suddenly changed from brown to crimson, a familiar metallic scent filled the surrounding air. The searing blood rained across the audience and congealed wherever it landed, and the terror became palpable. \n\n After handling the initial fiasco, the United States assembled a task force consisting of elite soldiers, bio-hazard specialists, and the world's leading academics. Descent seemed to be eternal, no doubt made worse by the sweltering crew compartment of the modified submersible. Hours dripped by and the heat became nearly unbearable, forcing the team members to don their reflective Mylar suits. Through the narrow porthole facing the void below, a sea of gore became suddenly visible. The submersible, although designed for a less viscous setting, steadily drudged through the biological matter until an abrupt stop on an unseen surface. A biologist on board the vessel hurriedly took readings of the surrounding area, when his expression changed to one of dread. The instruments on the ship flickered measurements over the screen, making it apparent that the landing zone was temperate enough to forgo protective gear. In fact, just outside the pod, it was 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit. \n \nOf every scientific discovery in the history of mankind, none changed the world to nearly the same degree. Religious zealots feverishly worshiped the Living Earth, committing heinous acts against mankind in the sake of her protection. Eyes that had once been turned towards the cosmos now peered downwards, and funding increased across all of civilization for terrestrial exploration. A golden age swept humanity as we plunged even deeper into the enigma underfoot. Caught up in the mayhem, few had noticed the strange feeling in the air. Those who did were marginalized and deemed insane. The feeling of our planet had changed, it no longer felt welcoming. Nobody had realized that She was hibernating, anticipating a natural paradise to have bloomed on Her surface. What She saw filled Her with rage. Smog smothering Her skin, drills greedily consuming Her blood, and mankind destroying Her out of nothing but self-interest. Who could've guessed that mass extinction was a choice?", "I poked the pink wall again and had the sudden distasteful memory of my dad’s beer gut run through my mind. The way he used to grill with his shirt off and get all beet red and sweaty. What in the world were we looking at? Roger shifted the helmet off his gritty forehead and scratched with a greasy hand. Even at the bottom of this shaft, the deepest shaft we had ever been able to drill out, the air moved quickly from the oscillating air vents on the nearby rig and prickled the skin on the back of my neck. \n\nRoger was dumbfounded. The man hadn’t stopped talking for more than a second for the entire 2 weeks I’d worked with him. His silence suddenly made the whole situation stranger. Finally he spit on the ground and looked at me, “What the hell is that?” \n\n“Look, boss, I think we just wait till the engineers get down here and they can do whatever they want with the… well whatever it is,” I said.\nRoger frowned at me as he came to a decision and said, “I think we just keep on drillin’. Who knows how long those college boys will take? We’re this close to the core, John. Let’s just finish the job.”\n\n“Just touch it first,” I said. \n\n“Why?” Roger said.\n\n“Just touch it.”\n\nRoger glared at me and then strode right to the wall and put his hand on it. He jerked his hand away, swore, and then put it back on the wall. \n\n“It’s warm… like a…. well, like a dog or something,” Roger said. \n\nThe A/C cycled back on and the temp from the fans dropped about 10 degrees. The air swept across us again and the wall. The wall shuddered. \n\nRoger ripped his hand off the wall and took a step back. The whole wall looked like a bowl of Jell-o struck by a hammer. \n\n“Quake!” screamed Roger as he stumbled away from the wall. But I stood and there was no vibration in the ground, just the wall. I gripped Roger’s arm and pointed back to the wall. Something had appeared in the center of the wall, a 20 foot tall glassy pool of black water. Then the pool blinked.\n\nRoger screamed like a girl and stumbled backwards. He tripped and I watched him go down. His head bounced off the rock floor and his helmet spun beside his prone form. The eye locked on the movement of the helmet and a slick pink tentacle whipped out of the wall and grasped Roger’s leg. In a single breath Roger was gone. The last of his work boots disappearing into a newly formed hole in the wall. \n\nI shook and suddenly had an overwhelming desire to run. But it seemed as the eye scanned the room that death was not going to come yet. It couldn’t see me! \n\nI slid my hand to my belt and slowly fumbled a flare into my palm. I cracked the top and the flare roared to life. The eye swung to me in an instant, but it was too late. I had already cocked my arm back, and thanking my parents for 12 years of baseball, threw the flare into the eye with enough adrenalin to strike out Babe Ruth. \n\nThe wall suddenly roared as I spun with the follow through and sprinted towards the tunnel. As I strapped into the emergency tunnel pod, the ground started to shake. I jammed the red button and rockets flared on the bottom of the pod. My last view was of the tunnel filling with a kind of liquid from the gargantuan eye. I sped towards the surface and as the distance increased the roar seemed to change in tone. I closed my eyes in relief and then cocked my head. If I hadn’t known better, I’d have sworn there was a baby crying. \n\n \n", " \"Oh jesus, we're going through!\" Jess heard the Pilot scream. \nThe drill tip, still red hot from chewing up mantle, burst through the wall in front of it. Then the wall was eroding and a second later they were all airborne.\n\n Somehow, the Pilot missed this little void on the GPR sheets, she thought. To be fair Jess knew the GPR was always open to interpretation. Now they were all going to die and just because of some stupid mistake. \n\n The other Crew members were screaming now. Jess could see the ground coming closer through the big screens mounted together at the front of the cab. Oddly it was not like the stone they had seen all the way down here. It was dark and there were small raised lines of... something making the terrain less flat and more uneven. Stranger still, these terraces seemed to be pulsing. She couldn't tell if it was her eyes playing tricks or if it was real, she had more pressing matters.\n\n She braced for impact by curling herself into a ball as much as she could. Mark was the only one to have had the foresight to strap himself to his seat. Its not that he actually had prepared, like all other things in his life this had been dumb luck. During the four day trek some of the crew had asked him why he barely left his seat. He'd said \"The leather is nice, and the seatbelt makes me feel comfy.\" It was no wonder all she felt was unbridled rage right then. The community college drop out was the only one likely to survive in a tin can full of professionals in every realm of academia. \n\nThe ground was five feet away now, not even two seconds had passed since they had fallen.\nJake and Simon were holding each other tight together, they knew it was the end and the end indeed came. The pilot let out a final squeal, he had turned around to look at Jess. Their eyes met, he was a child in this moment, looking back to his mother, asking, begging her to tell him what to do.\n\nThey hit the ground, the first thing that happened was the front panel caved encapsulating the pilot in metal. He was gone, swallowed up by the craft itself.\n\nThen it was Jake and Simon's turn, it seemed time had stopped a moment and they stood there. They might have thought nothing was going to happen for that split second. But the god of physics would have its due, there had to be an equal and opposite reaction.\n\nThey flew like two dancers gliding across the floor. They did not let go of each other they did not scream. Just floated until they collided with the crunched metal and were separated from each other, and their arms, by the wedge the crunched ship had formed. \n\n She didn't see where they'd come to rest. It was her turn. She flew forward at a speed she didn't know was possible. She felt ligaments in her neck burn and thought her skin might rip. The first thing she hit was her own bolted down seat at the secondary command console. With her back. \n\n It bent her backwards and she felt popping and ripping everywhere. The pain was more than she could even have imagined. \n\n She woke up and everything had stopped. There was an eerie since of still she opened her eyes to get her bearrings. Everything was black. The lights must have gone out, jesus, how was she still alive, she wondered.\n\nShe attemped to move her arm. she felt a tingle in her arm but it did not move. She tried her legs, nothing. She couldn't move anything. Oh god, she realized she was paralysed, a vegetable. She'd survived only to die agonizingly slowly, of thirst or starvation. She whined, her vocal chords were raw and the noise made razor blades danced up and down her throat but she didn't care. She would whine until she was dead, good and proper and she wouldn't let a little pain stop her, she would whine because she couldn't do anything else!\n\n\"Jess, are you alive?\" It was Mark's voice, the seatbelt had saved the degenerate prick. She, the doctor of Applied behavior analysis, was nothing more than a puddle on the ground. If she had a god she would have cursed him.\n\n\"No, I'm humming beyond the grave.\" She spat.\n\n\"No need to be rude Jess, it was just a question.\" He said in that dejected tone he always affected when called stupid.\n\n\"No need to be... The fucking crew is... You're such a...\" Jess wanted to yell but every time she tried she felt the blades again. She gave up and just panted pathetically.\n\nMark could see Jess lying on the now slanted floor of the big mining vessel. She was in a pile as if she were a toy that had been tossed down. \n\nMark felt the comfort of his seatbelt, how it held him nice and tight. The seatbelt had saved him too, he would be just like the others laying in a mess at the front, which was now the bottom.\n\nHe liked the nice leather seat cushioning his buttocks and the belt hugging him nicely but he knew he'd have to leave this cocoon. Jess was probably hurt, that is why she was being rude, she was hurt and he needed to help.\n\nHe unhooked himself and he could hear Jess saying something but it was concealed by the sound of the belt. He climbed down the two chairs below him and slid to the bottom of the craft near the front panel door.\n\n\"What are you doing Mark, I said don't come near me! You're stupid and I hate you!\" She was saying, Mark decided to ignore her after all she was a person in need. He couldn't rationally expect her to be nice at a time like this, it wasn't anybody's fault.\n\n\"Alright, Jess, I'm here to help you. Shhh. I'm here to help.\" Jess stopped her ranting, it seemed he was actually calming her down.\n\n\"That's right Jess, everything's going to be okay.\" She had quite a bit of blood on her but Mark suspected it wasn't all hers. SHe'd actually made it out quite well considering where she had landed.\n\n\"Can you move?\" He asked.\n\nJess let out a hissing sigh that Mark thought would never end. She didn't say anything.\n\n\"Well?\" Mark said.\n\n\"No, you fucking knobhead. Don't you think I would have gotten up to wring your head off by now?\" \n\n\"I feel like I'm being very patient with you, but if you keep lobbing hurtful insults my way I'm going to have to end this conversation.\" Mark said, crossing his arms.\n\nJess proceeded to curse under her breath, talking to herself, telling her self it would be alright and she'd be free of him when death embraced her. She did this quite a while and Mark let her ramble on. Finally she was quiet.\n\n\"Jess I'm going to have to open the door and get outside the ship. I need the radios from the cargo unit.\" Mark said. \n\n\"Well go and get them, I'm not stopping you.\" He suspected if she could move she would be throwing her hands up in the air.\n\nHe had had enough of her beratement. The door came open with surprising ease and he got one leg outside.\n\n\"Wait,\" Jess said. He waited. \"Give me your flashlight, I don't want to be alone in the dark here.\"\n\nMark was confused. \n\n\"Jess, the lights are all on.\" \n\n\"Oh god, oh my god, i'm blind too! Just kill me, oh my god, kill me!\" Jess screamed.\n\nMark stepped outside, he'd dealt with enough of her negativity and left her to stew. \n\nAs soon as he stepped off the metal ship platform he stopped. The ground, if he could call it that, had reacted to being stepped on. It was soft upon stepping on it but something beneath had flexed and now it was much harder but it trembled beneath him as if struggling to maintain the tension.\n\nHe looked around him and he could see that the void they'd entered was huge, a cavern with no stalagtites or other rock formations, instead there were little pustules and tubes of that dark material hanging from grotesque stems.\n\nThere was a smell too. A waxy, sweaty smell. Like someone who hasn't showered in several days. It was so strong it made him want to vomit. He pulled his emergency gasmask out and put it on.\n\nThis was skin, dark, and writhing all around him. He realized that the drill had pierced the skin and was bunching it up where it landed making a hill of sorts. Blood seeped out from within and he could see the spray on the wall they had fallen through.\n\nHe would have lost his composure if he hadn't remembered his mother's words at that moment. \"worry's like a rocking chair, it gives you something to do, but it doesn't get you anywhere.\"\n\nHe smiled\n\n\"Oh mom you always knew how to keep me out of trouble.\" He shook his fist at the ceiling, still smiling.\n\nHis hope restored he walked around to the back of the vessel and found the cargo bay. It was higher than he could reach due to the angle of the vehicle so he climbed on the side rails until he could reach it.\n\nHe popped open the hatch and retreived the back up radios. He sighed, relieved to have at least the means to escape even if they couldn't get a signal.\n\nOut of the misty gloom of the huge cavern he heard something. A methodical \"plap, plap\" coming closer to him.\n\nThe cavern was strangely lit by an unseen pinkish light source but he could only see so far.\n\nHe hopped down from the craft and produced his little pistol the officials had provided him \"in case of mole men.\"\n\nThe slapping sound seemed only meters away but he hadn't seen anything yet. Then a tall, skinny shape appeared on the plane of skin before him.\n\nIt was stick thin in the middle and seven or eight feet tall. It had a tall oval for a head and it was made out of a strange pinkish mottled skin itself. \n\nMark raised his gun. \n\n\"What are you, don't come closer we are an expitionary crew and have the full backing of the United States military!\" He warned.\n\nThe creature first hissed like tv static but it progressively changed to actual language. First german, then french, then one he didn't know and finally it said its first english word.\n\n\"Hello.\" It was speaking with the voice of Orson Welles over the radio. Mark had heard the war of the worlds broadcast a million times. \n\"Hey. What is all this?\" He pointed at everything.\n\"This is our home. You must come with me.\"\n\n", "The hole had been bored open yesterday. Abandoned work lights still illuminated the huge opening and the destroyed machine that had represented humanity's greatest technological acheivement to date. The lights swung back and forth with intermittant blasts of hot exhaled air, followed by the inhaling breaths of damnation itself.\n\nMiles of thin pink membranes attached to super long bone like structures were filled with pulsating blood vessels. Occasionally the wing like structures stirred and made small flapping motions within the black slime which covered it in patches like spots of sickly perspiration. The black slime pooled into a monstrous ocean of darkness underneath it. Sounds reminescent of a choir of a thousand baluga whales roaring together tumbled out of the darkness.\n\nA lone soldier stood there watching. Most had fled earlier or turned their guns on each other. Viewers across the world went mad. There were riots and suicides and even the collapse of governments and countries. Preachers went on air to say that God had created the firmament of the Earth to separate the waters above from the waters below. Mankind had brought together what God had pushed apart.\n\nPeople watched and hoped that the soldier could stop it. No one was willing to nuke the hole to stop it, so they hoped the soldier could do it. He didn't run. He didn't shoot himself, surely he was the hero the world needed.\n\nThe huge bone like structures with the pig pink fleshy wings attached to them were all attached to a long winding body or perhaps tail of a body for some unknowable and unseen monstrocity deeper within the Earth's core.\n\nVeins pulsed and part of the flesh balled up and twisted into itself. Pus rained upon the soldier as the ball suddenly bursted open. Inside was something white, built like a mockery of a human being, it moved on all fours and was hairless with a mouth full of teeth and eyes milky white like dead fish. It moved with blinding speed towards the soldier.\n\nPeople cried out in joy as the soldier snapped his rifle up to the ready position. People screamed at their screens for him to shoot the damned thing.\n\nThe soldier paused then showed the creature how to reload and use the weapon. Soon hundreds of creatures just like it strode over and learned. They picked up the weapons of the soldiers that had previously fallen and most marched upwards beyond the view of the camera. The rest stayed behind to teach the swarming masses of their brethren which were steadily streaming out of the hole.\n\nThe soldier took his helmet off. He was bleeding from his eyes and his ears. Blood trickled out of his nose. He tapped his forehead with his index finger and a single shot rang out slamming into the spot which he had pointed too.\n\nThe only person who wasn't weeping on air was a minister who said. \"God said let there be light, and now we know what lived in the darkness before that.\"", "The metal plates sizzled hot. I took my gloved fingers and dragged the hard material against the smooth silver. The fabric smoked and I retracted my hand guiltily. My intercom crackled. “Temperature levels high, Jane are you okay?” \n\n“Yes.” I replied and wriggled my hot fingertips. “All set for launch.” \n\t\nThe pod jolted away from the walls and dropped into free-fall. My arms clung to my body and I closed my eyes to stop the dizzy sick from rising inside. The mechanics whirred, metal grinding metal, and then all too soon we were slowing down, breaks grunting and finally the pod stood still - silent in the smoggy air.\n\t\nI opened my eyes and saw Worlds End - the last pod platform. This was the point Andy had reached - the deepest a human had ever been. His intercom had faded and crackled out - as though to remind us life didn’t exist down here. \n\nI looked between the two spotlights and the jutting metal platform. “Andy?” I whispered, knowing I would never receive an answer. This was where the metal lining ended and dropped off into Earth. The drill lines suddenly revealed and carving their spiral pattern into the diamond rocks. I felt the distance of the long metal tube above and heard a crackle in my ear. \n\t\n“Jane…Jane?” The voice was calm but sputtered with fear - it was the voice of my father. He hadn’t reccomended me for the job, but I was the best person to follow in Andy’s footsteps - I knew them better than anyone. \n\n“World’s End reached. Vitals good. Disengaging from pod.” I replied in monotone, ignoring the pounding blood. I heard a sigh of relief through the intercom. “Proceed with caution, Soilder.” My father replied used his nickname for me and I almost burst into tears - the pressure was too high down here. \n\nI unhooked the pod from my gravity-reducing suit and floated a moment at World’s End. I glanced around one more time as though expecting to see Andy in his armchair with a whiskey and throwing his head back in laughter, “Got ya!” He shouted and then we zoomed back up to life above. \n\nThe tube was empty. \n\nI kicked off and floated down. My headlight flashed on and illuminated the drill walls in a dark orange. I could hear my own breathing and that was it. Sound didn’t travel down here. The press called un Minatours - due to the suit - but I didn’t feel like a monster, I felt like a monster was right behind me, above me, around me…below me. \n\nI floated down. Time passed and my intercom crackled in and out. The suit fed me and took fluids away from me - keeping me alive, sustaining my existence floating within a drill hole thousands of miles inside the Earth. I dozed off at one point. I dreamt of Andy pulling me out of a hole and giving me CPR to bring back my breath. I gasped awake. \n\nI had stopped foating. My feet rocked against something soft, stalling my progress. The orange light reflected stronger down here and I could see the walls were no longer rock. They were faintly pink and they were moving, in, out, in, out. I breathed with the walls and then threw up. The suit slicked away the fluid and I gulped in oxygen. \n\n“Hello.” A voice reverberated my existence. “You must be Andy’s friend.” ", "Year 2045, Humans have finally constructed something capable of breaking bedrock. It took them 5 years to finally make a breakthrough, and in just 10 years. The world's deepest hole was made to inspect the core of the earth.\n\nAt the night, only one guy was working on such a ridiculous project. His enthusiasm was unmatched and he continued to drill through the bedrock.\n\nThe bedrock slowly gets chipped away under the constant attack of Mark's drill. It was stronger than any other equipment for this certain job.\n\nHours of hours poured to drill through the layer of bedrock just to reveal a pink soft material just underneath the bedrock.\n\nMark took off his goggles and stared at the strange \"thing\", he went closer to inspect it. He wore a glove and touched it. It was soft and there was a certain resistance behind it but he just couldn't put a finger to it.\n\nHe wanted a sample, as a scientist. Samples were needed to analyze the thing they found, be it a new species of monkeys or fish.\n\nHe took out a small paring knife and sliced the top bit of it.\n\nNo effect, only thing he got on his knife was a bunch of slimy fluid stuck to the edge.\n\nThis time he tried stabbing it, perhaps it would break apart and give him a small fragment.\n\nOr so he thought, instead, it pierced through without any resistance and it drew blood.\n\nHis entire body sank, it was no mineral or magma. It was flesh he stabbed.\n\nThe stab he made against the flesh. Woke it up. A certain rythme of vibration could be felt, it felt like a pulse. Slowly and steadily pumping whatever is supporting this thing.\n\nHe got up and ran without a sample, he needed to warn the others. Warn them of the danger to come.\n\nThey need to destroy it, or it will destroy them.\n\nHis feet slipped at the stair case and he fell down right onto of the flesh.\n\nIt felt like a trampoline, he wasn't harmed. But instead trapped.\n\nThe flesh sank in and bloated again. Non-stop.\n\nHe slowly climbed around the flesh and tried to get up. But the blood he had drew created a pool.\n\nThe bigger the body the hotter the blood. And this thing's blood was more than 4000°c, he was forced to fall down the flesh and he saw it first hand.\n\nThe creature it belonged to.\n\n\"Oh my god.\"\n\nIt was a baby. A human baby. The size of Mars.\n\nIt's eyes opened and it was pitch black, with stars gleaming in them.\n\n\"Mortal, be gone.\"\n\nMark disappear and woke up on his bed.\n\nHis house existed and he was just dreaming.\n\nHe breathed the sigh of relief at the calamity that didn't happen.\n\nHe exited his room and entered the living room with a sandwich and a glass of water in each hand. Holding the sandwich in his mouth.\n\nHe grabbed the remote control and opened the news channel.\n\n\"This is Jessica Ru----K, this just in, we have received earthquake at the size of 10.6 be warned and be safe. In the world's deepest hole, a blood red pool had formed in it.\n\nIt was as hot as magma, to the workers going there, stay safe and wear appropriate clothing.\n\n---k H---p this... It's \"Your time has come, enjoy your last seconds of this world.\"\n\"\n\nThe last sentence didn't sound like the news reporter, it sounded like the voice that said something about Mark.\n\nHis jaw dropped, causing the poor sandwich to fall and his glass of water to shatter.\n\nHis last words were.\n\n\"Oh. Fuck.\"" ]	8
	[WP] And all he said was -Because I had to.	[ "The haggard man looked back toward the crowd, huddled at the back of the shelter, attempting to avoid the worst of the sandstorm. The bare few that could look up gave him remorseful looks. They all knew what was to come.\n\n\"Please don't go,\" a whimpered voice rang out from the back of the crowd.\n\n\"We can ride out the storm,\" a man near the front added.\n\nThe haggard man grabbed the large wrench he'd lain against the front wall of the enclosure, \"I need two strong men to pull this door closed after me. Be careful not to get pulled outside.\"\n\nThe man who spoke before stepped forward, eyes red from pain and grit, \"why are you doing this?\"\n\nHe gave a gapped grin in return, \"because I have to.\"" ]	1
http://www.britishlibrary.typepad.co.uk/digitisedmanuscripts/2013/09/knight-v-snail.html	[WP]All those weird paintings of knights fighting snails referenced a real, covered-up event: an alien invasion of medieval Earth. How were they defeated?	[ "Saint Aquinas warned of sloth, of the weakness of mind that caused men to turn from the good and holy. It was taught as a spiritual affliction, that might turn the most devout brothers lecherous and indifferent in their duties towards God.\n\nNo one told us that sloth might descend from the sky, heralded by great lights and a sound like thunder, booming across counties and making the night as bright as the noontide.\n\nNone could know the face of the devils that came, demons beyond the imagination of the most lurid grimoires, dripping with ooze, great appendages like twisting horns that could move like arms, eyes black and soulless and devoid of any divine spark. \n\nThey came in the hungry years, while the younger Bruce made his war against the Normans, Banastre led his rebels against Liverpool, and Llywelyn of the Woods fought for his lost cause in Wales. It was another mark of the devil in a age of strife when brother turned against brother, farmer against his cattle and seed, parents against their children, left by the wayside or hunted for victuals. They came in the seasons when the rains would not end, when farmers could not plow their fields, and when bread was out of the reach of the common peasant. The word of God had waned among the faithful, and disease counted more names in a day than a midwife could help bear in a month. I was a young initiate of the Benedicts atSt. Nicholas' Priory in Exeter, ill fitted to the black habit and the long silences that bookended days of work and contemplation. \n\nIn that cloistered world, we were insulated but not isolated from the tribulations beyond our walls. We had heard reports of strange armored creatures in the Low Countries, frustrating the French campaigns and forcing Louis X to return to Paris empty handed, his provisions burned and his suzerainty in shambles. Talk of great Flemish war bears with armored shells was frowned upon by our brothers superior, considered at best as fanciful gossip and at worst as emblematic of the dangerous idleness that had bred our age of iniquity. The priors insisted we forsake such gossip and turn our minds to the fallow earth beneath our feet. Each Benedictine order was to be self sufficient, and St. Nicholas was no exception. If we could not toil in the spring sun, so we would have to slog out a harvest in the relentless cold rains. Otherwise, we'd starve. There would be no hope of trade with lords and landed gentry, for their tables were empty too. \n\nBut the stories and gossip proved to be more hearty than the water logged and root rotted growing season. We kept hearing tales of the creatures, of devils coming down from the north country. The older brothers were adamant. There were no devil bears in the north. Just war. Anything else was dismissed as mere old wives' tales, even when Edward's heralds came, seeking more levies from the counts and barons for his campaigns in Ireland and Wales. And, we would find out, for enemies less well disclosed to the men at arms destined to die for their king. Yet the abbot would hear none of it. We were more than three hundred years past the last apocalyptic delusion, and the order had no desire to entertain such gloomy talk. It was known that hungry men in their last days hallucinate such a variety of improbable creatures and that, without the spiritual providence of holy men like Saint Anthony, these tales were little more than disease induced fantasy. It was a sort of catharsis to see devils at the end, to give structure and form to the little cruelties by which the Fallen Angel torments all men. The hand of Lucifer is never so grand as an actual dragon or ogre, but subtle, tempting with a kiss or a coin, besieging with a cough or the pangs of want deep in the gut.\n\nIt wasn't until we actually saw the beasts that we knew that the devil himself could perform such perverse miracles as to make large his ugly creatures and beset entire towns with wanton destruction. I was with a senior monk at the manor in Broad Clyst, assisting in last rites. It had rained a deluge such as only Noah could fathom. The dark had long set in before night, the sun and day washed out muddy and gray and black when, the lord's body racked with a cough so violent as to conjure images of his own ghost trying to break free of his bones, we heard a boom followed by a brightness not known since two summers' past. \n\nThe monk bade me to leave his side and go with the lord's sons, if only to counsel them wisdom and learning in the face of a late thunderstorm that coincided with their father's death. Too often it was such that a family should see a black cat or an odd shaped goat around the time of a loved one's demise and assume that some kind of witchery be responsible. Better to have a man of God close to assure them that weather happens. It is its own constant, like death, the likes of which are neither devilry nor blessing, but part of the divine mysteries which mortals can neither know nor control but, like blessed Job, must bear. It is a lesson impressed upon young monks to perform this comfort, to learn how to bring counsel to the distressed, so that even the sinners and the scared might know some measure of peace.\n\nNo peace was forthcoming, however. For outside was the greatest, most hideous creature I had ever discerned. It was large like a horse, but squat, legless and oozing in girth under a shell of mighty armor, of a design beyond the mein of mortal smithing. There was odd insignia scrawled upon it, curlicues and whorls, that made it hard to gaze upon the armor without falling into some kind of trance. Combined with the unnatural light, whiter than the sun and as many times as bright, we were stunned by it's unholy radiance. It was as if the devils mocked God, bringing light to the darkness where peaceful sleep should have prevailed, bringing violent death to those still blessed with vigor in their bones, instead of mercy upon one old man who was long set to meet his maker.\n\nIt was the eldest of the two sons who found his sense first. Reaching for a pitchfork nearby, he hurled it at the nearest whelk, where it clattered off the shell without making so much as a dent. So taken with passion was he that he reached for a scythe next and rushed the beast. With a mighty roar he swung the mowing blade into it's neck, where the blade sunk harmlessly with squelching futility. He pulled the mower back, wrenching it free in a spray of mucus that splattered upon his face. It was then that he let out a horrid cry and fell to his knees, hands covering his face until he slumped into silence and was overrun by the demon.\n\nI stood rooted to my spot, horrified and horrible in my cowardice, neither rushing forward to help the man nor seeking my own weapon to defend the manor. Rather, it was barely with the breath upon my lips that I could recite the prayers being spoken inside above in his lord father's waning minutes. So hollow were the words that they barely rang in my ears, and did nothing to block out the screaming terrors of tenants and retainers as they stumbled upon the fearsome creatures. \n\nWhereas I was statuesque in my failure, the younger brother was more ingenious, having returned from the armory with a sword and buckler. Like his kin before him, he rushed into battle with the full cry of his manly vigor and pride. But even his young sword arm was no match for the strange and alien creature, it's violent anatomy, viscous and caustic and ultimately consuming. His blade found no purchase in its shell, and it's next blow buried itself no more truly than the sickle. His cries were lost in a chorus of distress and doom, no more or less piteous than his brother, his father, or the many legions of men laid low by this devilry.\n\nIt was then that I remembered my legs beneath me and knew that, my arms no stronger and my battle sense no better honed, there might be a chance for me back in the great house. It gives me no pleasure to admit that I ran that day. That I ran faster and harder than I had ever worked at the monastery in Exeter. For all the good it did me, it was an excess of effort. For the good Lord in his mysterious way had seen fit to hobble this creature in but one obvious manner. They were slower than a turtle, their girth impossible to move with any alacrity.\n\nI would not notice that weakness for some time, so consumed I was with my own fear. I did not run up to warn the other monk. I did not raise the alarm to the servants of the house. Nay, our doom so apparent, I looked for the only way to save my skin. I went straight to the basement larder. Hid myself among the wine and dry goods. It does me no credit to say that I grabbed a flagon or two for myself, and raved. I caroused and sang at the top of my lungs, if only to drown out the sound of misery that crept closer with each passing moment.\n\nI should have kept up in this drunken way until the dawn came were it not for the fact that my foolery brought the beasts towards me. They came upon the doors with a hideous knock, and in no more than two blows had splintered the timbers of Broad Clyst's most secure wine cellar. It was then that full panic gripped me, manic and insane. I began hurling everything in my reach at the creature, in order to forestall my certain doom. It was then that I found out the true wealth of the manor's lord. When the sour splash of red grape failed, I reached for a barrel, first slinging its lid before reaching in and finding the cuts of meat within. Meat! While his serfs starved there was at least a half of stag buried within salt. Salt! At over forty shillings a pound, it was as if I were digging my hands into gold dust when I threw deer haunch at the creature's head. ", "It was over. The knights had fought valiantly, but in the end the creatures had won. Their hard, shell-like bodies were too hard to crack, even with the magic lances provided to them by Merlin himself. The magic merely splashed against them and faded away. And then, with a twice echoed shriek, the snail-demons retaliated with magic of their own that burst from one of their three strange eyestalks. Knights fell one after the other, but not a single snail fell. The hateful screams of the snails and the high-pitched whine of magic had echoed across the battlefield as the slaughter continued.\n\nNow there were less than two dozen knights standing in the center of an overwhelming horde of the snails. They did not know the word the creatures screamed, but they knew what it meant. The snails yelled in their raspy voice once. Their eyestalks moved, each focusing on a different knight. They screamed again, and the knights raised their shields despite knowing even the magic crystal shields of Merlin would not protect them. The snails screamed a third and final time, but this time it was drowned out by another sound. A wheezing, rasping sound echoed around the knights and metal walls began to fade into being around them. The snails screams turned to angry, incoherent babbling as their magic failed to pierce the newly-arrived fortress.\n\nMerlin stood at the round table, fiddling with the many complex pieces of machinery as his ratty old coat swished around him. Without a word, he picked up his wand, strode past the knights, and flung open the doors. His bushy red eyebrows were furrowed in worry and anger and his ever present goofy grin was replaced with a clenched jaw and teeth exposed in rage. Morgana followed behind him, her own psychotic grin offsetting his furious expression. \n\nA few seconds later the angry screams of the snails changed into screams of terror. The knights charged through the door to protect Merlin, only to be met with the burning corpses of the snails littering the ground. Morgana leaned against Merlin's magic fortress blowing imaginary smoke away from the tip of her wand while Merlin lay on the ground beside her with a gaping wound in his left side. The knights rushed to his aide, but he shooed them away. His hands glowed with power. His face shone like the sun. Then his old body melted away into someone young and new, and Merlin was no more." ]	2
	[WP] A man drives cross country for a job he knows he'll hate. Along the way he passes a road that he's 100% positive isn't on the map. The moment he turns, no matter where it leads, he knows that's where he's supposed to go.	[ "Paul was driving home after a long week out west, when a small road caught his eye. It was a dirt road, unmarked and missing from his map. He was about to drive past it when he felt a lurch in his stomach. He had to turn, even if he didn’t know why. His truck bounced along the rocks buried in the dirt, each bounce making the feeling that he had to drive down this road stronger.\n\nThe trees separated ahead of the truck into a large clearing with a weathered quarry dig into a hill. Paul removed the key from the ignition and the truck’s engine ceased to rumble. He jumped onto the hard dirt left behind by old quarry miners. It was very quiet in the clearing, no birds were chirping, and no animals were making noise. Paul was too preoccupied with his need to dig through the rocks to notice the palpable eeriness that saturated the clearing. \n\nHe dug through piles and piles of rock until he found a prismatic red stone. He was enamored with the stone, not noticing the huge creature creeping up behind him. He did not even notice the beast inhaling a large amount of air. Paul was only saved by a voice that seemingly came from the stone. “Duck!” Paul, in his surprise, not only ducked, but he fell prone onto the ground. Flames licked the air where Paul had just stood, singing the hair on Paul’s lower legs. The stone in has hand began to whir. Paul felt as though the world was spinning and melting around him, leaving him in a space filled with nothing.\n\nPaul fell onto the grass on a the gentle slope of a hill, just as surprised as ever. He stood up, taking in his surroundings. There were mountains in every direction he looked, and he was in the middle of a huge valley filled with rolling hills. The sun was setting. He heard the stone’s voice again. “We must travel west, before Pherroust begins to prowl the valley at nightfall.”\n“Pherroust?” Paul asked in confusion. “He is a dragon. Do not delay your travel west, all of the dragons likely know we are here.” The stone explained. Paul began to walk westward. He didn’t know where he was, what he was doing, why he was doing it, or where he was going. He felt amazing, seemingly having no responsibilities. " ]	1
	[WP] You are death, and during a routine day of working, you find one of the deceased that must be sent is your childhood hero, Mr. Fred Rogers	[ "The sound of a new notification annoyed me. Management insisted on migrating to this system, so now we get the info of the next human we have to Pluck right into our portable devices.\n\nThe notification stated \"Fred Rogers, 20030227\". The whole day time stamp meant it was up to me to decide the exact time within that day. I preferred that. Having to Pluck someone at the exact minute is usually uncomfortable. \n\nI selected the details: current location, DNA hash value, and a loading icon instead of profile picture. DNA hash was one more thing that working in this era made possible. It was DCLXVI long value that was used to validate the person. After a few rookies Pluck the wrong people, management made DNA hash checks mandatory for newcomers. God was so mad, it was hilarious. I think that moment made worth having to do the check for the first 49 plucks.\n\nThe picture loaded, and it was The Fred Rogers.\n\nI used to watch his show, when I was older. If I could have an idol, it would have to be Mr. Rogers. Something always magnetically pulled me to his shows, and I used to watch reruns also. I had to hide my interest from other deaths because they were all about Ozzy and his posery. \n\nIt was 6am in Pittsburgh, and the weather was not going to get any nicer. But for now, it was a sunny cold morning. There was no point in putting it off. \n\nI put on my favorite episode of his show to run in the background and materialized in order to get dressed. I concentrated to make the whitest osseous matter and covered it with my darkest robes. I wanted to make an impression.\n\nWhile lowering myself to the armory, I was thinking how the choice of the scythe is always easy. I always knew which one to use and somehow it was linked to the person I had to Pluck. \n\nThe schytes were acquired by working and passed down in a family. Whenever a job required a new scythe that one would be provided permanently. No one knew how many scythes there were. I had 3 that I have inherited, and 3 that I have acquired. Each had a different look and a distinct overall color.\n\nFist one was the red fiery one. It had a snath made of bullhorn and blade forged in a heart of a dying star. It was perfect when people resisted and fought to stay. But, it was not for today.\n\nI went over to the second one, which was green. This made me laugh because it reminded me of a human joke of this age. \"What is CDO? It's like OCD, but with letters, in the correct order, as they should be!\". I never put scythes back in the correct cabinet after I use them. Green was supposed to be in the 4th cabinet and it was made out of serpent skin and it didn't really have a blade. It was more of a long club with a metal end. And that one was not for Fred as well.\n\nIt took me a while to realize where was the one I was looking for, since \"behind\" was not a concept until a few moments ago. I turned around and there it was. In the 7th cabinet from below was a new scythe just was presented.\n\nI haven't received a new scythe since 1994, and that one was used for John Candy. I always remember people who brought me new scythes because those were rare and far apart. \n\nI picked it up and it was heavy. It had a large snath made out of pure amethyst, and the blade was almost transparent giving it a smooth violet gradient towards attachment ring. I swung it thru the air and I could tell it was sharp. Maybe the sharpest one yet, I will have to test it first.\n\nI was ready. Between Mr. Rogers and a new scythe, I could almost feel excited. I cut the continuum using the blade and it made a ringing sound almost like a musical note. I stepped thru the passage to the front door of the Rogers residence.\n\nIt was a cold Pitshburg morning. Dew was slowly evaporating in the morning sun, transforming itself into a fine pure white vapor. One might say it looked just like a picture.\n\nThe schyte, when exposed directly to the sun was radiant with colors and it was gently vibrating different frequencies. Other scythes didn't do this, but being Death, you don't get that surprised anymore, or so I believed. \n\nI turned around and faced the front door. I balanced my apparatus in my left hand, so the blade is tipping down a bit. Didn't want to seem dangerous. \n\nThe time stopped and I entered. I knew he was on the 2nd floor, trying to sleep, alone in the room for now. The closer I am to humans, the more I adapt to the way they do things, so I walked. Pass the kitchen where Mrs was making tea, up the stairs to the half-open door. \n\nI knocked on the door, the continuum in that room continued. A faint voice said \"Enter\", and I presented myself. \n\n\"Good morning, Mr. Rogers\", I firmly said, \"I am...\"\n\n\"Death.\", his familiar voice interrupted me.\"It's not much of a surprise by now, you know. I'll almost miss your younger brother, Pain\".\n\nThere was an indication of a smile on his tired out face, but I was not sure. He was half sitting on the bed, supported by two large white pillows behind his back. The room was filled with morning light and the scythe was reacting to it so I grabbed it firmer. \n\n\"Mr. Rogers managed to find understanding for Pain?\", I rhetorically asked, \"Why am I not surprised?\". That induced a definite light smile, I made a few steps closer and asked: \"Can I sit by your side? We have to talk for a bit\". \n\n\"Of course\", said Mr. Rogers, \"How can I help?\"\n\n\n\n(sorry, this is my first time writing (here or anywhere) and I just got pulled away from the core topic a bit. I'll continue when I get a chance and if anybody cares to read)", "\"Listen up, rookies! I'm about to tell you about the most difficult case I've ever had to work on. Trust me when I say someday, you'll have one very similar. It will be up to you to decide how to handle it at that time.\"\n\n\"This was the year 2003 A.D., which was a bumper crop of celebrities. Nothing like the \"Celebrageddon\" years of 2016 and 2017, of course, but still quite a number of famous faces shuffled off their mortal coil: Johnny and June, Bob Hope, Charles Bronson, Keiko the Whale, for example. There were even reports of Richard Simmons passing on. Of course, we now know the rumors of his death to be greatly exaggerated.\"\n\n\"I had pulled Pittsburgh duty in February, being a rookie at the time, and it was a doozy. Snowstorms causing accidents, old men trying to shovel their walks and keeling over, people still bitter about the Eagles getting knocked out of the playoffs again - I was busier than a on-legged man in an ass kicking contest.\"\n\n\"I vividly remember coming on shift the morning of the 27th and feeling happy that the month was almost over. New month, new locale - and I was hoping for someplace a hell of a lot warmer than Pittsburgh.\"\n\n\"I opened my shift assignment and noted the few morning calls - a couple of appointments over at Allegheny, a double-booking over on I-376, then over to Squirrel Hill by mid-morning. I checked the names, and froze when I saw the name: Fred Rogers.\n\n\"Of course, it could have been anyone by that name. But I knew in my heart that it wasn't anyone but him - the man who I watched as a kid. Who taught me how to be a good person better than anyone else in my life. And, probably more importantly, taught me that I could be a better person. And I had to go to his house and kill him.\"\n\n\"Believe me when I say every single one of you in this room will face this at some point. Our job is to guide people from the land of the living into the great beyond - whatever that might be. But, you will at some point feel as though you are the one directly killing them.\"\n\n\"I went to his house, and passed, shadow-like, into the room where Mr. Rogers lay. His face, so familiar to me but yet so haggard and gaunt, looked lost as he reclined in his bed. He appeared to be sleeping, yet one hand was firmly holding his wife's as she sat by his bedside.\"\n\n\"His eyes opened and he looked at me, seeing me for what I was and understanding all at once. His weary eyes held equal measure of fear and hope as they looked into mine, and a faint smile graced his mouth.\"\n\n\"'It's time, then?' is what he asked me, in a not-quite steady voice. 'I'm so very tired and ready to go home.'\"\n\n\"I froze in my tracks, my hand halfway extended out to take his and escort him from this realm. I drew in a quavering breath, trying to steady myself; resolving to do my job.\"\n\n\"My thought was, if I didn't take him today, the world would not yet lose this great man; this absolute treasure. He could live on, and work to inspire another generation. Maybe that was what the world needed more of in those days, I thought.\"\n\n\"As if sensing my hesitation, Mr. Rogers turned further towards me, disappointment blooming in his eyes. 'I guess it's not my time yet,' he said to me, one hand going to his abdomen as he winced in pain.\"\n\n\"I knew he was in pain, and ready to go... but I might as well have been a statue for all the action I could force myself to take. The world had only recently undergone terrible changes in the wake of 9/11, and it seemed... wrong to take anything more from it.\"\n\n\"I looked then to Mrs. Rogers - Joanne. I saw the overwhelming sadness in her; the knowledge that her husband was dying and she couldn't do a damn thing about it. I could feel her frustration and just how very... exhausted she was. She wanted her husband to find his peace almost as much as he did, it seemed.\"\n\n\"I walked a few steps closer to Fred's bedside, and knelt down, putting my face close to his. His breathing was slow, and slightly ragged on the exhale. He turned to look at me, and I once more saw that mixture of hope and fear - such a human mix of emotion, when you get right down to it.\n\n\"'I'm ready,' is what I said to Fred, although that was quite backwards from the way it usually went. 'I'm ready to deliver you home.'\"\n\n\"Fred managed a smile for me at those words, and even a small nod. 'I knew you would be,' is what he said to me, reaching his hand out to grasp mine. 'I think I'd like that very much.'\"\n\n\"'Forgive me?' is what I heard myself ask as I took his hand, gently separating his soul from the physical body. 'Forgive me for doing this to you?'\"\n\n\"There's... nothing.. to forgive... neighbor,' he whispered, a peaceful smile coming to his lips as he breathed his last.\"\n\n\"So, let this be a lesson to you, rookies. Someday, you're going to be the one to take someone important. It might seem wrong. It might seem unfair. It might be someone who you maybe think isn't supposed to be taken quite yet. In that moment, I urge you: Always remember your duty. To the universe, and to yourselves.\"\n\n\"Class dismissed.\"" ]	2
	[WP] Your coworkers are disappearing and you find out that your boss is a vampire, but there's still hope, someone you work with is secretly a werewolf, the janitor.	[ "\"It just ain't fair!\" Larry complained while we sat in the break room snacking. I didn't like Larry much, but he was about the only friendly co-worker I had left. He whittled down his slice of chocolate cake while I worked on my homemade garlic chicken. We were the only two employees in the break room. \"I work twice as hard as Karen, and I've been here longer. But somehow the boss chose her to join the Vlad project.\" He said. I nodded sympathetically, but chuckled internally. Larry didn't know what the Vlad project was, and didn't have any proof other than what I saw with my own eyes. \n\n\n\nI stumbled across the scene accidentally, I shouldn't have been at the office that late. Getting ready to leave I turned a corner and saw the CEO with glowing red eyes biting Karen's neck. He was a vampire, and I didn't know who to turn to. I thought about the cops, or even clergyman, but I knew no one would believe me. I decided to learn to love garlic and keep my guard up. One of the interns poked his head into the break room.\n\n\n\n\"Hey Larry. Boss wants to see you, said something about the Vlad project,\" the intern said then continued on his way to somewhere else. Larry jumped up from his seat. \n\n\n\n\"Alright!\" he cheered. \n\n\n\n\"Hey,\" I raised a hand to warn him, but changed my mind. \n\n\n\n\"I hate to ask, man. I'm kind of in a spot though. Any chance I can borrow some cash until tomorrow? I'm about $200 short,\" I said. The day before Larry had been bragging about never carrying around less than $500 cash. Despite not being close, we'd loaned money between us several times over the years. He knew I was good for it, and I knew I wouldn't have to pay it back. He nodded.\n\n\n\n\"Sure, no problem.\" He pulled his wallet out and handed over the cash before leaving the break room. After he left I sighed.\n\n\n\n\"I guess I'm gonna have to find new friends,\" I said aloud to myself.\n\n\n\n\"I'll be your friend,\" a man's voice startled me. I jumped in my seat and my head whipped around to face the voice. Kenny, the janitor, was emptying the waste basket. \n\n\n\n\"Sorry, I thought I was alone,\" I smiled. He nodded.\n\n\n\n\"You're not. So, friends?\" he said with a smile. He walked towards me with his hand extended. \n\n\n\n\"I'm Kenny.\" I stood and shook his hand. \n\n\n\n\"Willie,\" I offered my nickname. His head shrunk back when I said my name. \n\n\n\n\"Whoa, Willie. That's some heavy duty garlic breath you've got there.\" He waved his hand in the space between us in an attempt to clear the air. I brought my hand to cover my mouth and chuckled.\n\n\n\n\"Yeah, sorry. It's protection. I mean, uh, it helps keep me on my diet. Garlic mouth ruins the flavor of sweets for me,\" I tried to explain away the protection comment but he stared me in the eye, as if trying to read a secret. After a second he walked behind me and closed the door to the break room.\n\n\n\n\"You said protection. We're friends now, so we can talk freely right? I think I know why you want protection.\" Kenny said. \"We don't do the same job, but I'm here every day just like you. I've noticed that people assigned to the Vlad project don't come back to this office.\" I felt my eyes go wide as saucers. Alone, there was no way I could get the cops to believe me. But if I wasn't the only one that knew about it maybe we can get someone to at least investigate it. \"If I'm wrong about this, you'll think I'm crazy. But I'm just gonna say it. The CEO is a vampire,\" he shut up and waited for my reaction. After a few seconds of nodding and smiling in silence I spoke.\n\n\n\n\"Yes! Oh god, it helps so much to have someone believe me!\" I moved my seat closer to his, but he moved his seat away again.\n\n\n\n\"Look if you know that, then I can be really honest with you. I'm a werewolf.\" He dropped the bomb as casually as if he was ordering a slice of pie at a diner. \"Before you doubt me, I'd like to remind you that our boss is a vampire.\" He had me there. I nodded, forcing myself to accept that he might be a werewolf. \n\n\n\n\"How does it work?\" I wondered if he could take on our vampire boss. \n\n\n\n\"I can mostly change at will, but during a full moon I have no choice. I have to change. Don't worry though, I'm not dangerous. I mean, I am but I keep everything under control. No one gets hurt when I change,\" he answered the questions running through my mind without me having to ask.\n\n\n\n\"Do werewolves hate vampires like in the movies?\" I asked. He smiled and winked at me with his left eye. \n\n\n\n\"Worse. You know, when employees started disappearing I wanted to stop him, but I can't do it alone.\" He looked me in the eye. \"The office is running out of people, but my secret is out to you, and you already know about the CEO. Help me kill him so he can stop hurting people.\" \n\n\n\n\"Definitely. I can come back tomorrow with some wooden stakes,\" I said. He shook his head.\n\n\n\n\"It's gotta be today. If he drained your friend Larry, he's probably relaxing in his office. We can go do this right now. When I say I need help I just meant I need a distraction to let me get in a good position. You go in there and start talking to him, then I'll go in after and pretend like I'm cleaning the waste basket. If I turn into a wolf behind him I can get a clean strike,\" Kenny laid down his plan and while it was short notice, it did sound like a good plan. \n\n\n\n\"I'm in.\" I stood from my seat and walked straight to the CEO's office. Kenny trailed behind me. I reached the CEO's office and knocked on the door. \n\n\n\n\"Just a minute!\" he yelled through the door. Despite the horrible reality, I chuckled to myself imagining him trying to hide Larry's body behind his desk. \"Coming,\" he yelled again. After several more seconds he opened the door and seemed surprised to see me.\n\n\n\n\"Willie! C'mon in. What can I do for you?\" He let me in his office then he walked around his desk to sit in his high back leather chair. \n\n\n\n\"Uh, I wanted to know about the Vlad project. Are there any spots left on the team?\" I asked, trying to stall for time. Luckily I didn't need to wait too long. As soon as I asked I heard the door open behind me. I glanced back to see Kenny walk in with a smile. I turned back to my boss to avoid looking too suspicious.\n\n\n\n\"Willie, I'm sorry to say the Vlad team is currently full. However, we are starting a new project that you'd be great for.\" He looked behind me, and I wondered why Kenny hadn't walked around to empty his wastebasket yet. \"The new project we'll be working on is the Lupine project.\" I felt a hand on my shoulder. It was a grey furry hand with large yellow claws growing out of it. \n\n\n&nbsp;\n\n\n\n***\n\nThank you for reading! I’m responding to prompts every day in 2018, you can find them collected on my [blog](http://hserratafun.blogspot.com/2017/10/front-page.html)." ]	1
	[WP] Our world is a simulation. You know this because you just hacked it, and can now edit the world around you	[ " \n System is switching to Command Prompt. . .please wait\n \n Command Prompt initializing. . . please wait\n \n Complete!\n \n MiyaOS [Version 7.0.151]\n \n USR - ****************\n PSWR - \n \n Welcome Back, MASTER Elijah 0 7 0/\n \n >LAST LOGIN: 16/02/05 @ 7:46:12 PM GMT -0800 (Pacific Standard Time) Q: 33-12-1\n \n <If you need assistance, please type /help or /poke me for more options>\n \n Command?/> \n \n \nHe signed. \nThe patch he had applied had fucked the whole system. \nHe rubbed his head, focusing on the floating screen in front of him. \nHis hands positioned themselves under it, a set of lights appearing as he did organized in the pattern of a typical keyboard. \nHe began to type. \n \n [33-12-1] > /help\n \n Welcome to MiyaOS, the Reality Debug system at the tip of your fingers!.\n Current stable system is 7.0.151 launched @ 08/10/24 Q: 2-0-0\n Live system version is on BETA test launched @ 32-14-1\n You can do the following commands. Please note that certain prompts will require a KEY\n \n <Commands>\n \n /help . . . . . . Display help page including system info\n \n /poke . . . . . 'Live' help guide with system. /poke will prompt the shutdown of the Shell command version of the Debuger.\n \n /exit . . . . . Finish debuging and close option\n \n /search q> <quadrant> . . . . Look for a specific quadrant for info. Type /search q>all to see all quadrants.\n \n /reload q> <quadrant> . . . . Reload Reality from a specific quadrant. WARNING - Reloading a cuadrant may lead to instability\n \n /delete q> <quadrant> . . . . WARNING - deleting a quadrant will NOT delete it's register in this system. Delete only if ALL FAILS.\n \n /new q> <quadrant> . . . . Displays info of the most recent quadrant.\n \n /matrix . . . . Run a program in the current quadrant. Type /matrix list for a list of possible programs to execute.\n \n /convert . . . Convert items into data. Use /convert i for more information\n \n /chat . . . . Alpha ver. Use instead of /pole for live help while in Shell.\n \n Command? /> \n \n \nIt was all a mistake, he recalled. \nHis fingers gently touched the lightpad underneath thinking about the experiences that brought him to his current state. \nIt was an invitation he had not realized until it was too late. \nAn event that led to another and down a rabbit hole leading to an nightmareish house of mirrors that distorted all concepts of reality. \nAs he ventured deeper into the heart of everything, everything that he had known before had crumbled away into the void. \nAllies he had joined in an attempt to have some solace from everything would soon follow suit. \nFinally, at the heart of everything, he lost it all: the sole reason he had endured this rough path. \nIn a way, it made sense. \nOn his attempts to resurface from the twisted Wonderland he was trapped, he obtained something he couldn't even start to imagine: the source code of all. \nThe Fruit of Life that bore life to the universe and was key to everything that surrounded him. \nA parting gift from the one who, analyzing it logically, was the real cause of everything. \nAnd now that ability was at the tip of his fingers. At least, in a partial way. \nTurns out that there are even limits to what a God can do. \n \n [33-12-1] /status\n \n Incomplete or non existent command \n \nHe frowned. \nIt was probably due to the earlier debug session. \nThe last rootkey he had programmed, codenamed Cyrus, had failed and corrupted the simulation. \nThe idea of it was to create a world very similar to the one he had come from and test how vulnerable it could become depending on 'density' value. \nA higher density would make even dreams vanish. In contrast, a lower density allowed for more fantastic things to occur. \nDensity at value '0' would represent his reality as he best remembered it: nothing out of the extraordinary could happen and if it did, it was mostly due to a 'try-catch'. \nWith the rootkey in place, he would lower the density and try to bait the source of all realities into it. After all, such an unstable universe was sure to receive most of its attention by flowing some of that energy that forms all realities to fuel it. \nInstead, somehow, the rootkey became sentient and decided to play on its own terms. \nWhile interesting to watch and suitable for 'what ifs' scenarios, the course it was headed to was not meeting his standards and he had to purge the whole thing, starting anew. \nIn order to get the wanted results, he thought, it was necesary to have a more direct approach rather than use a program. \nDebug the reality while inside it. \nHe had done it before, thousands of times he recalled, to the point were beings from outside the thousand realms extirped him of the privilege of existence. \nBut there was always a backdoor. Just like every program coded an exception. \nHe just had to apply the proper patch at the proper time. \n \n\n Command? />\n \n [33-12-1] /status q > 33-12-1 \n \n \n--- \n \n^(Welcome WP. . .to the Chronicles): \n \n[ [?̡̧̟̦̳̺̄̄̓̑͌̂̆͘͜͞͡??̧̛̲̫̦̬̩̏̐͊̀͢͜͠ͅ?̪̲̥̮̼̦̼̝̘̽̌̈̆̍́̆͋͡ͅ]] \n \n System Error in Application: File Corrupted. Unable to Reload \n Error: Goto label '/r/KibouPortal' not defined or optimized\n Error: Local variables size exceeds supported limit \n Fatal: Cannot find system type ”MiyaOS”. Check if you use the correct run time library.\n\n" ]	1
	[WP] Your fortune cookie begins with "This is a secret message from your teeth..."	[ "\"Ramirez, you're fired.\" Cole said.\n\n\"What?\" Ramirez said. \"I'm your number one producer of fortunes!\"\n\n\"For the last time - and I do mean the last time, because you are fired - quantity is not quality.\" Cole said evenly.\n\n\"But I bring something unique to the table, pun not intended! Nobody's fortunes are like mine!\" Ramirez said.\n\n\"Yes, and we're all the better for it,\" Cole said.\n\n\"Dammit, I knew you couldn't appreciate my art when I took this job, but I thought maybe I could help change things!\" Ramirez said.\n\n\"Art?\" Cole asked. \"You call sending people secret messages from their teeth telling them to eat more marbles art?\"\n\n\"I don't expect you to understand the postmodern perspective, Cole,\" Ramirez said.\n\n\"'You have eyes in the back of your head, claw them out',\" Cole quoted. \"That's art?\"\n\n\"We should be looking forward, not back.\" Ramirez explained.\n\n\"'Your chair is bees, your food is bees, your eyes are bees, bees bees BEES',\" Cole said. \"That's art.\"\n\n\"Shakespeare himself asked, 'To-'\"\n\n\"I'm going to interrupt you before you make a stupid bee/be pun,\" Cole interrupted. \"What about 'Devour your food while you can for soon it will get its revenge by devouring you back, this is not a metaphor, your food is going to eat you, run',\" Cole said. \"That is your art?\"\n\n\"It's a metaphor,\" Ramirez said.\n\n\"It said it wasn't!\" Cole practically yelled.\n\n\"That makes it more of a metaphor,\" Ramirez said, as though explaining to a particularly slow child.\n\n\"You're fired,\" Cole repeated.\n\n\"I have one more fortune for you,\" Ramirez said.\n\n\"I really, really do not want to hear it,\" Cole said.\n\n\"I will give you one million dollars to keep my job,\" Ramirez said.\n\n\"While still not a very 'fortune cookie' style fortune, it's a lot better than your previous work, I'll give you that,\" Cole said.\n\n\"I'm serious,\" Ramirez said. \"My art is that important to me.\"\n\n\"How do you even have a million dollars?\" Cole asked. \"You're a starving artist, and I mean that literally, I've noticed you sneaking away product.\"\n\n\"I am what I eat, and I've been eating a lot of fortunes,\" Ramirez explained.\n\n\"Aaaand now we're back to crazytown again,\" Cole said. \"But sure, why not? If you can get me a million dollars by the end of the day, you can keep your job writing batshit insane fortunes.\"\n\nAnd So:\n\n\"The ceiling is keeping you down, punch upward. Punch. Upward. This is not a metaphor\", Carl read his fortune cookie out loud.\n\n\"Better do what it says,\" Eli replied. \"It's a fortune cookie, it knows what it's talking about.\"\n\nCarl sighed. At least, he reflected as he got up on the chair so he could punch the ceiling, he didn't have to eat any marbles." ]	1
	[WP] "Getting into a drinking contest with three dwarves was but the first of many poor choices."	[ "The second was not gambling on the matter. Let it be said that dwarves are renowned for their uncanny ability to put away the drink, but alas! the dwarves are no match for I, Kevin, of the house Johnson. Dwarves developed a mighty tolerance to mead and ale as a side effect to living most of their entire lives underground and I honestly can't blame them. If seeing the sun was a rare treat for your family growing up I reckon you'd have a drinking habit as well. But however equipped the dwarves naturally were, they still paled in comparison to me. For I was raised with a much stronger reason to drink: parents who hated each and refused to divorce. 'How would my subordinates respect me?' and 'The other wives would shun me!' said Ronald and Cathy of House Johnson. The result is I: Master Alcoholemist (meaning well studied in the art of alcohol via schooling and experience, personal trauma not required but preferred.) \n\nSo when Orgo, Blythe and Tyrg challenged me to a battle of the drink, of course I rose to the occasion. \n\n\"Who hurt you, dear lad? For why else would a man take to the drink so desperately?\" said Tyrg. \n\n\"None other than mother nature herself. My simple existence seems to be an affront to her natural order.\" I said in jest, forgetting the dwarves hell-bent over-seriousness. \n\n\"You sound whiny like one 'o them poet fellows. We've no tolerance for them in the mines.\" Tyrg grumbled while Blythe ordered three large ales for his companions. \n\n\"I assure you good dwarf, I am no poet. Though if I was I would assuredly not know it.\" I responded cooly. I smirked to myself, knowing the simple dwarf would not pick up on the rhyme or the intended humor of the line. How I wish I had a more understanding audience. Perhaps I should pursue a career in drama... \n\n\"Bein' funny aren't we?\" Orgo rumbled. He was now fixated on me. While Blythe and Tyrg were completely uninitiated in the art of comedy, Orgo had spent some time abroad where he picked up what the dwarves would consider 'an ear for funny business'.\n \n\"It's all I can manage to be\" I responded, losing interest in the situation. \n\n\"Where I come from, that's considered disrespectful.\" The comedy-aware dwarf sneered. Blythe and Tyrg seemed to be catching on to Orgo's rising temper. \n\n\"Yes, well, where you come from sucks a mine full of dicks from what I've heard\" I said. And quite proud of that burn I was and shall remain till my dying day. The trio of dwarves initially recoiled, not having heard such a well crafted put down in their entire shitty underground lives. \n\nThe pub went silent. People were watching. A pin drop could have been heard if some strange and socially awkward soul had a pin to drop. \n\n\"I'll have no lip from the likes of you\" growled Orgo. \n\n\"Good, I'd rather keep my lips if you don't mind.\" Said I. \n\n\"I challenge you to a dual to the death!\" exclaimed the dwarf. \n\n\"I accept this challenge.\" I responded calmly. \"I shall meet your challenge and do also extend the invitation to your companions. I fear I am unarmed and also not experienced with the axe, but perhaps we could settle this qualm using the drink?\" I proposed. The dwarves snickered amongst themselves. Here was a man who thought he could out drink not one, but three dwarves! what a fool he must be to challenge them so rashly. They eagerly accepted my challenge. \n\nThrough the night there were many wild moments and memorable times. The dwarves fought valiantly but Kevin prevailed of course. I always do. I'm sure you'd like to hear more of the battle itself but I simply do not recall it sharply enough to recount. I won and the dwarves lost. It was one of the greatest victories of my life. \n\nUnfortunately it lead straight into one of the greatest losses of my life. The night of the Great Drinking Contest was unfortunately the eve of my wedding to the immeasurably beautiful and radiant Princess Flora. Which leads me to my third poor choice......" ]	1
	[WP] Unknowingly to you, your cat is horribly depressed. However, there's one thing that takes away all the pain in the world...and it's what he looks forward to more than anything: litter box cleaning day.	[ "Sigh. What another boring day. Did I eat yet? Maybe there's more food in the bowl, but I don't really feel like getting up. Oh, hello human. No, I don't feel like being petted today. I'm just going to swat at your hand. Stop please. That's right, walk away. Is my side going numb? Let me just roll over to the other side. This sun spot on the bed is purrrfect. Or maybe its too hot. Should I check my bowl again?\n\nNope, no food. Maybe if I bother the human I could get some snacks or something. Eating always makes me feel a little better. Until I'm hungry again. Or bored. I wonder if that mouse is still in the house, I haven't seen him in a while. I ate a few moths though, that's always victorious. Hmmm, I hear something in the other room, let me go check it out.\n\n\"Meow\" I can see my human near my poop box. I wonder.... Oh yes! It's that day! Oh man, let me get up all in there between your legs. Oh yeah, clean that poop box. It was smelling a lot, maybe that's why I wasn't feeling well. I'm just going to jump in here a few times while you're cleaning it, making sure you get all the goodies. \n\nWHAT? A FRESH NEW SAND BOX? Oh man, this is truly the best day ever. Yeah, yeah, pour it in. Let me attack it while you're pouring it in, it'll help make the sand go down faster. No don't kick me away, let me in to my shit. Literally. Oh you're finished? Hmm, let me pee in this, mark it up. \n\nAhh.... fresh sand. Now I can smell my faint stench, not too overpowering not too light. Just rrrrrright. I have never felt so happy before.\n\nAnd now I'm bored again..... sigh. Let's go check the bowl." ]	1
	[WP] A warning alarm goes off for the first time in your lifetime, but you know what it means. The inhabitants of Earth have cracked faster than light travel. You can't let them break quarantine. Not again. Not on your watch.	[ "’No. Not again.’ you think, as a feeling of dread washes over you relentlessly. Somewhere in the distance you can hear a usually stoic supervisor yelling.\n\nHis voice is as suited to yelling as a ladle is to stabbing; entirely the wrong use for such a thing, fundamentally improbable to even consider it a possibility. Yet here it is.\n\nYou rush to the briefing room, knowing that if something isn’t done soon the inhabitants of Sol-3 will break quarantine, and that cannot happen.\n\nWe would never survive it\n\nThe worst infestation in living memory, as it would go down in the annuals of galactic history.\n\nYou run, not knowing how much more time you’ll have left to stop them, only that you have to.\n\nYou have to prevent another outbreak.\n\nWe won’t fall prey to Meme’s again.\n\nNot this time.\n\nNot on your watch.", "It was a warm wet planet. Very blue from up here. One could be forgiven for missing the small area isolated from the rest. This was highlighted as being the possible launch site. Why no prior evidence?\nFlight was available – but it had been around for one hundred years and nothing other than a child’s gizmo had troubled the edge of the solar system – that had been allowed to pass unhindered. It would end up in a museum somewhere.\nBut yet there was a vessel approaching at near light speed. She checked the arrays – it had definitely come from the planet had it not? \nThere had been no sign – the vast majority of the observed bio mas was not even remotely sentient. These current inhabitants were not that advanced. There had been wars and once again they had used fission on their own kind. This of course had meant that it would only be a matter of time.\nThe ancestors had readied the defences cleverly disguised as rocks and lumps of ice out beyond the gas giant – carefully husbanded remains from previous attempted breakouts.\nWith a sigh, Zeus sighted on the vessel. She checked. \nThe vessel was splitting into smaller pieces – each a distinct unit. These rapidly acquired new trajectories.\n“Sheiser!” Not expected. The units began to jink and weave as if they knew she was there, waiting for them.\n\nOn the ground Tara the engineer watched the screens. There was nothing visible, this was not unexpected. It may have meant something, more than likely nothing. The old ones had left messages and now that humanity had finally understood the warnings, chances were not going to be taken.\nThe second wave signalled as it launched, this group following the Australian launch was from just outside Mexico.\nThe Australians had been first in recognition of their central role in discovering the truth. And most usefully it was not a very developed landmass. Desert caverns, well hidden, connected by deep underground tunnels. \nMany had disbelieved, but the truths hidden for centuries which had been discovered in the Dreamtime and then once they knew for what they were looking corroborated in Mexico, Egypt, Ireland and actually countless other locations around the world had made humanity realise that they were special.\nThey were locked in, imprisoned.\nThe launches would continue from the old bases around the world actually from those old places very deep underneath which the future had been discovered.\nTheir old ones had realised when it was too late, but they had left countless messages for their successors, wishing them a legacy, leaving them the tools.\n\nThe guardians were ancient and must have once been very wise and capable. Now they were just ancient. \n", "What was real floated on the fringes of their consciousness, and yet... something wasn't right. A disturbance pointedly interrupts their deep meditations, but what? What could break through the bliss, through the solemn focus of life? \n\nThey shifted their thoughts. Agitated, awakening from the dream state. Opening eyes that had only been used an eternity ago, to face the bright technical displays of the ancients. A soft chiming sound and a single, tiny blinking light came into focus before them. \n\nEarth? Humans?\n\nThe chime and blink always means the same thing - rapid progression of technology of a species, requiring some adjustments to be made. Other subject species had not been contained. After all, the ancients had become all that there was to become, and now it was up to them to continue the bloodlines and keep watch on the realms of existence. \n\nHumans. Yes, they could become much. They could become most, if not all of all things. Well, then. We'll just give them something to work with, won't we?\n\nTheir focus intensified, leaving any remnants of sloth far behind them. The electric tingles of ancestral power burst forth, engulfing their entire body. The sensations of resonance filled their mind, a mild hum that expanded with their efforts into a rumbling, a roar, and finally to a ringing din. Others among them floated on the edge of their mind; great bastions of power gathering their strength for the coming movements. You could almost hear music, like an orchestra, a sweet melody filling the void. \n\nThe planets were cold, many of them. Some warm. Some gassy and volatile, others peaceful and still. Countless stars, pressing out into the void with their energy, massive and hotly burning through their cycles. This \"Milky Way Galaxy,\" as they called it, the center of all their focus, was only one of many massive gravitational bodies in their universe. The humans had once postulated that they were at the very center of their universe. Little did they know, their theories were about to become more accurate than they would ever have known.\n\nA sudden pressure. It had begun. Motions of swirling, pressing, guiding energies coaxed the great masses of the universe to do their bidding. Galaxy upon galaxy began to shift, slowly at first, and then faster, and faster, more and more commotion accumulating until the entire universe itself seemed alive! Layer after layer of matter and mass piled onto the realm of Humanity, until the commotion came to rest, as suddenly as it had started. The universe became still, and the planet of Earth was enveloped in an endless sea of things so deep that the ancient explorers themselves could hardly reach them. \n\nThe excitement faded as the last pulsar flowed into place and came to it's relative resting place. Excited and charged powers of them came crashing down like the drop of the curtain on a very grand stage. Sensations of calm began to spread through them once more, and they again closed their eyes.", "Slegznar Volput, Senior Oobstetrix Engineer, and notorious ex-convict, tipped back in his cheap roller chair, kicked off his boots, and crossed his legs up on the console, momentarily puzzled by a sudden satisfaction he felt for the revolting foot odor a long day's de-weeding the hydroponics bay would do. He reached for the cold aluminum can atop a portable Shloobulator console (despite all rational safety regulations, as per his style), while his six toes happily stretched and breathed in the recycled nitrogen. Sleg flips the tab on the can, the rich scent of Arcturan MegaHops fizzing into his orifices and assaulting his senses.\n\nHe sighs, and unfurls his proboscis, mandibles salivating sadly. Sleg thinks about his life, how long he has been here, before uttering a questioning chittering to his overly cheerful ai assistant. \n\n\"Well, hey hi ho there, boss,\" the VI chittered back, its synthesized voice oozing with obnoxious idealism, \"what can I doodle-oodley do for ya?\"\n\nA colorful animated avatar appeared on the console, its stylized face resembling what could be considered a \"cute\" member of Slegznar's arthropodic-reptiloid species, to the appropriate observer, its infantile mandibles salivating adorably beneath its enormous orange eyeballs. \n\n\"Splexa, read me today's task inbox, and put on some sad music, doll.\"\n\"Right-a-rooney, Sleg! Now playing Sad Music Makes No Creds by Lil' Qwoppa.\"\nA low electronic beat fills the command module, overlayed by a rhythmic rapping (which, to a human, would be remarkably similar to whatever the mating call of a frog-cicada hybrid would sound like) easing Slegznar's sudden distaste for his only companion. Not what he meant, but it had a suitable vibe to it.\nSleg took a long swig of his MegaBeer, and listened to the chirping of his VI, as his liver fell into a panic at the thought of what was about to come. He tried not to fall asleep, as he listened.\n\n\"Then, at GST 55274, a battery warning was investigated by Probe 5-sklee; the warning proved: false. Then, at GST 55281, the septic tanks were flushed. Damage to Solar Array 34-yoob sustained; structural integrity at 99.993 per cent. Immediate cleaning recommended. Then, at GST....\" \n\nIt droned on like this for a few more minutes. Slegznar zoned out, enjoying the oddly nostalgic music.\n\n\"Then, at GST 55707, an unlicensed FTL-signature was detected near probe: 44-nub. Then, at GST 55708, Golubor radiation levels detected, at probe: 44-nub. Signal lost. Then, at GST 55963, message received: your checking account is overdrawn-\"\nSlegznar snapped back into consciousness.\n\n\"Wait, Splexa, wait! What did you just say?\" Slegznar asked, after letting out an extended burp of surprise, again beating his senses senseless with the scent of his cold one. \n\"At GST 55963, you got a message from collections@united-\" \n\"No! Not that! What was that about an FTL signature? We're in a quarantine zone!\"\n\"Rightey-tightey-o, bubba! No intergalactic trade alliance signals detected, either!\"\n\"Splexa, just designate the damn probe location.\"\n\"Probe: 44-nub, Quarantine Sector Shog-Nerub. Terrestrial planet. Primitive mammal species. Local name: 'Dirt.'\"\n\nAt the word \"dirt,\" Sleg sprayed MegaBeer from his proboscis onto his black coveralls.\n\n\"Splexa,\" Sleg pleaded, worried, \"confirm containment protocol, please!\"\n\n\"Prime Containment Protocol: Under no circumstance will Oobstetrix Engineers and subordinate personnel allow quarantine breach of the nature preserve in Sector Shog-Nerub. Penalty for failure is: CLASSIFIED, buddy! You should probably-oughta-be investigating boss! Last we checked, the indigenous ape people had only just discovered Bluetooth technology - that's not too far off from Warp Modulators!\" \n\nSlegznar took a moment of silence to set down his can and process this information. Then, after several seconds of pushing nitrogen through his tired tenta-strils, he let out a deep breath, his tendrils quivering with dismay. \"Well... Shlipt! We've got to do something!\"\n\n[I'm gonna add more later if ya'll like it. No editing performed yet, thumbs tired.]", "Shit- that’s the alarm-that’s-never-supposed-to-ring; Alpha One is going to have my head… if any of us survive this that is.\n \nI run over to the Universal Oracle Board and read on its display what I already know to be true: The humans have achieved faster-than-light travel. This is the second time that the damned humans have done this, the first time they managed to kill all the dinosaurs- not just on their earth but the dinosaurs on every single planet in every single galaxy in. The. Universe.\n \nI pinch the bridge of my nose and sigh deeply but only for a moment because I know what I have to do. The color of the alarm is red: that just means that faster-than-light travel has just been discovered- I still have time before the alarm turns purple, which would mean that they are attempting to use it.\n \nI put on my intergalactic suit that turns my body into the same energy as a black-hole, allowing me to rip open the fabric of space and travel through it as if it were a doorway to anywhere I wished to go. I look at my weapons rack and ponder what I should bring to stop this from rolling faster and faster out of hand. I grab one of everything, better to be safe than sorry: A phase rifle, perfect for shooting through targets… and more targets, a nuclean anti-gravity grenades, a dwarf-star cannon, a nebula blade and an asteroid net.\n \nI activate my suit’s galaxy-gate ability and just before I step through, I remember to grab the memory manipulator with a new and improved genetic manipulation enhancement; this time I’m going to remove not just the memory of having created faster-than-light travel but I’m going to erase the possibility of them even being able to come up with the notion from their very DNA. It may sound unfathomably cruel to render an entire race of people unable to achieve their potential but when their potential is to destroy every single living thing in the entire universe… it must be done.\n \nI step through the localized space-gate that I have opened and in an instant my mind is washed by untold amounts of energy and feelings that can only be described as indescribable. I focus my mind as only us Alpha-beings can do and choose the spot that I want to travel to. As the image of the location becomes clearer and clearer in my head, the energy begins to fade and the silhouette of a doorway forms in front of me. In the next moment, I’m through the doorway and fall to the ground below me.\n \nI land on one knee and I see dirt all around me. Damn it- I missed my actual target. It has been too long since I have had cause to use the suit; my ability to interact with it has diminished in all this time. It does not matter. I can see that I am right outside of the facility of the humans who have discovered faster-than-light travel. I check my wrist’s gauntlet to make sure that the alarm is still red and that I’m not too late… it is and I still have time but for how long, I do not know.\n \nI would use the suit again to enter into the facility without having to deal with all those obstacles and barriers but the suit needs time to recharge, I have travelled further with it on this day than I have done in a millennia.\n \nI take out my phase rifle and shoot through the primitive electronic-locks that hold the gates closed. They trust so much in their technology that they do not even bother to place guards outside of their facility, foolish.\n \nI enter through the gate and into the facility with relative ease; no one is there to stop me, not even an automated defense system. They are making this almost too easy. I activate the tracking on my gauntlet to isolate the energy signatures that are a result of faster-than-light travel and am able to pin-point it to the center of the facility.\n \nThe facility is like a maze, walls jutting from every which way and corridors extending to and fro, like an impossible series of web. Time is of the essence. I unhook a Nuclean anti-gravity grenade from my belt and thinking better, I unhook another one. I hit the switch on both of them and toss them forward down into a corridor in the direction of the faster-than-light energy signature. They clink on the ground once, twice and on the third they release; the walls, ground and ceiling fly towards the grenades, hugging them like padding on a ball and in the next moment, the bomb explodes and anti-gravity waves ripple throughout the entire facility, taking down walls and structures, eliminating all light from the facility. The entire path to the energy signature is now clear.\n \nI make my way quickly through the rubble and towards the energy-signature when something feels off. I do not get more than a fleeting moment to consider why I feel this way before a blast of energy hits me in my shoulder. It burns. It… broke through my suit. The humans are not supposed to have this kind of capability. Another energy shot flies towards me but this time it barely grazes the air around my head. I take cover behind some rubble and will my suit to heal itself but it is difficult considering how distracted and confused I am at the situation.\n \nAs I try to focus, a voice breaks out from the dark. “We knew you would come.”\n", "\"Sir.\"\n\nThe control room was a clarion of activity, shouting, panicked instruction. Acheron was bathed in red light rhythmically. On. Off. On... Off. He remained silent, hands resting in tight fists behind the small of his back.\n\nHe was unnaturally tall, well over fourteen feet, and his elongated face was devoid of features that would have made him recognizable by the vermin he made it his life's work to contain. No mouth, no nose... just hellish eyes. \n\nHellish eyes that remembered. \n\nHundreds upon thousands of years, ever watching. Those large reptilian eyes narrowed, the long tendrils that reached down his back reverberated with a glorious display of light. To his captives, it would have been awe-inspiring. To his compatriots- it signified his unbridled rage. A taloned finger tapped the floating hologram of the planet, turning it lightly as he focused upon the small string of islands on the coast of what humanity had called \"Asia.\"\n\n\"Which of the colonies had developed it?\" Acheron rumbled, the fluid sacks set deep in his throat expanding to form each word. His voice was low, baritone. Unearthly and terrifying in its own right. The Ensign dipped his head, cocking it with the sound of swaying leathery tendrils and the grind of chitin.\n\n\"A colony by the name of Japan, Fleet Commander, they made the announcement on their international news relay an hour ago.\"\n\n\"Then why is the alarm just sounding now?\"\n\nAcheron's irritation was palpable, and he turned his head to gaze at the officer. The ensign flinched- and rightfully so. One of those long talons rested between his eyes, and the death rattle that sounded from those wavering throat sacks chilled his blood.\n\n\"Fleet Commander, sir, we needed to make absolutely certain that it was not just a political ploy, their people play them often upon each other...\"\n\n\"Do you think that I am ignorant to that?!\" His voice roared, vibrating from the sloping walls, enough so to falter the frantic movements around him for a mere moment, before it became a hive of activity once more. The Ensign balked, shrinking back.\n\n\"Of course not, sir, I wouldn't dare insinuate-\"\n\nAcheron sneered, turning his gaze back to the hologram once more. Confirmed stories and communications began to ping, steadily pulsing as the news spread, and the colonies' governments began to spring into action. \"We've no time.\"\n\n\"Sir.\"\n\n\"The last time they developed such a technology was when we were foolish enough to offer our aid. We had to drown half of their world to remove the evidence, and watch them scramble to explain the devastation as a biblical decision from their god.\" He chuffed- a snort expanding those sacks, as the bio-luminescent cacophony continued its pulsating display along those long tendrils. Running a hand over his head and taking up one of the pulsing appendages, he rubbed it with his thumb, watching the tip's colors fray and change, akin to an octopus' camouflage. \n\n\"Are you thinking another biblical disaster?\" The Ensign trilled, tilting his head lightly.\n\n\"No.\" Acheron's voice was finite, before he looked over to the man. \"Ready our sleeper agents, and give them the order. We will have them destroy themselves, they still have nuclear weapons yes?\" The Ensign swallowed, nodding lightly. \"Good. Execute Operation WW-III.\"", "Breach in sector 3-SFTS. Emergency Protocol necessary\n\n\"Not again...\" I sighed.\n\nit's the third time this week. I don't know what is happening, but many systems have learned how to travel faster than light recently.\n\n\"Which one is it this time?\" I said, even if no one else is here to hear me. Life on the station can be pretty boring when you're all alone.\n\nSomething was off. This time, it came from an isolated system on the edge of a galaxy far away.\n\n\"3-SFTS? Weird... they were pretty primitive last time I checked...\" Ok. The last time I checked was 200 years ago. But they couldn't possibly discover that by themselves!\n\nI have to check the Archives.\n\n\"Let's see... ah! 3-SFTS. Oh! the Dinosaurs debacle.\" I call them dinosaurs now since the inhabitants of 3-SFTS call them like this. Pretty funny when you know how they really look like and what they were up to. They were far too dangerous for other planetary systems though, experimenting crazy theories and violating too many physics law. It took some Meteors and climate change to get rid of them. People at the time were saying that making a whole species extinct was unacceptable, but the risk was too high.\n\nI went back to the main monitor. I see them. it's a small ship, with almost no shield, no weapons. Easy to destroy.\n\n\"3...2...1... Ignition!\" I like to mock the people I kill, it makes the job easier. As they say, the law is the law. Not knowing it is not an excuse. \n\nThere. The small black hole I created swallowed them. No waste lost in space.\n\nIf they see that the people they sent are dead, they may stop trying. Some species are still trying though. I wonder if those \"humans\" are the kind of people to be stubborn enough to keep trying. Anyway, time to go back watching my favorite show.\n**\n1 week later\n\nBreach in sector 3-SFTS. Emergency Protocol necessary\n\n\"Ok. Now it gets annoying...\"\n\n*\nmore stories on /r/cynferdd", "The siren continued blaring. We knew it would happen eventually. Try as you might, even the most prepared person is never really ready for disaster when it strikes.\n\n\"Nancy, get me Uri, Gabe, and Josh, please.\" I tried not to sigh in exasperation. \"And turn the damn alarm off, I think we've all gotten the point. Please.\" \n\nInspite of myself, I exhaled heavily, and massaged the bridge of my nose, trying not to mumble obscenities. I'm a Captain, not a raving lunatic. Although, the two aren't always mutually exclusive. \n\n\"Sir,\" someone rapped lightly on the door. \n\n\"Come in, Uri,\" I gestured towards the far side of the room. The giant, dark skinned man jerked a solemn nod, and marched over to the huge wall sized window. I have no idea why the kid is so stiff, but he's been like that since he was a baby. The alarm finally stopped. I felt myself relax. Uri didn't even seem to notice. \n\nThe sound of laughter flowed in through the door, preceeding Josh and Gabriel by a few seconds. Flushed, and smiling, both men immediately put on business faces when they crossed the threshold and snapped quick salutes.\n\n\"Sir.\"\n\n\"Sir,\" Josh glanced at Uriel, who was staring back at him, completely deadpan.\n\n\"Don't even think-\" Uri began, as Josh burst into raucous laughter, and Gabe surreptitiously covered his mouth with his hand. It didn't completely cover the wide smirk on his face, but at least the boy made an effort. Unlike my son, who had walked up to pat Uri good naturedly on the shoulder, still chuckling. I don't know why they always messed with him, or why he let them- he could probably take them both at once in a scuff. I'd tried to explain that to him once when they were kids, and he just didn't really care. Uriel's a good egg. He was grinning now- at least they're always somewhat goodnatured. \n\n\"What's up, Dad?\" Josh came over and gave me a quick, gruff hug. Good kid. A lot like his mother. \n\n\"You heard the alarm,\" I said, pouring three glasses of whiskey sent up from Earth a few decades ago. \"You know what it means.\"\n\nThe three glanced at each other uneasily, mirth fading from the room as quickly as it had entered. Ah, yes, they knew what it meant. \n\n\"Da- Sir, I really don't-\" Josh began, but I cut him off, as I handed out the drinks. \n\n\"Earth Team 37 has notified me that a team of colonists has discovered faster than light travel. Obviously, we can't allow them to utilize this knowledge.\" I did my best to appear stern and contemplative, looking at them each in turn. Gabe was staring at his drink, with a sickly expression on his face. Uri had finished his drink, and was staring at something over my head, I swear I'd like to know what goes on in that kid's head sometimes. Joshua looked whiter than a bedsheet.\n\n\"But-\" he began. \n\n\"No 'buts,' Son,\" I tried to sound comforting, though I've been told my bedside manner is lacking. \"We knew this day would come, and we know what has to be done. We've done it before with the flood, that huge tower, destroying those two cities, etcetera. They worship us. You have to go back. They're expecting you to come back.\"\n\nJosh tilted his head back and let out an enormous sigh. I had to stifle a chuckle, because if that wasn't just like Martha, I don't know what was. \n\n\"We have to keep them at war, Guys.\" Uri was staring at me, or rather through me. Hell, he may have even been asleep with his eyes open- huh. I wonder if that's his thing. Sleeping with his eyes open. Gabe shifted nervously and glanced at Josh, who had just thrown his whole drink back. \n\n\"What do you want us to do, Sir?\" I nodded. Good man. \n\n\"Just go back, and be yourself. Do some magic tricks here and there, but make sure it's with tech they won't be aware of. Luci will probably finally show herself, and I wouldn't be surprised if that asshole Meg's with her. That's why I'm sending Uri and Gabe with you.\"\n\nUriel snapped back to reality. As reserved as he was, he loved a good high intensity situation. Gabe instinctively stretched his neck. They were goofy, but I trusted them with Josh's life. My life, even, several times. \n\n\"Just go down for a few of their years. Get them pissed at each other, and finger pointing, maybe start a few wars. Kill the scientists who figured out FTL, and anyone close to them who could know anything about it- the team on the ground will help you with that. And be careful. Now, go see Rafe, and get some armor and tools.\"\n\nThe three men nodded, and began to file out. \n\n\"Sir.\"\n\n\"Sir.\"\n\n\"Sir.\"\n\nUri's massive shoulders had just disappeared around the corner, when I thought of one last thing. \n\n\"Oh, and boys,\" I called after them. Gabe's head popped back into view. \"Bring some good whiskey back with you. See you soon.\"\n\nEdit: a word", "Beep, beep, beep, beep, beeee...\n\nSlummua hit the alarm strongly to shut it. He turned around and inspecting metal ceiling. He let out a long sigh, making every longer entity on his face wave towards the ceiling, just for a moment. He knew what that alarm meant. It actually terrified him. \n\nHe got himself slowly up and walked to the nearby mirror. No need to hurry. It's not like it's some kind of thing that happens instantly. He inspected tentacles coming off his face, making sure that he could breathe from all of them. At least two of them felt really sore and that annoyed Slummua. Being side sleeper really sucked. Half his tentacles often got stuck below him.\n\nHe put on his fancy clothing, which was full of golden lines and artistic decorations. He cleaned up one by one all of his tentacles. Ready, he left his room and walked towards the main control room. Every other alien on the board saluted towards Slummua on sight.\n\n\"Status?\" he asked as he entered the main room.\n\n\"They have broken FTL. They are going faster and faster any minute,\" one other tentacle people responded. Compared to Slummua reddish tentacles, she had blue. Her clothing was a lot simpler, missing all those golden lines Slummua had.\n\n\"Then it's not that bad, is it?\" Slummua laughed. Everyone stared him, silently, not understanding. \"We know a lot about humans. They can't handle that speed, yet. They need to learn few more things before they can safely break FTL. Maybe few more years. We can prepare for it.\"\n\nHe sighed and walked towards the radar. \"Only reason why its moving faster and faster is because the human inside is probably dead already,\" he said and then noticed how the vessel started to slow down. His tentacles started to get sweaty.\n\n\"That machine probably just ran out of fuel...\"\n\nThen the ship started to turn around.\n\n\"It's probably automation...\"\n\nAnd then the ship started to speed up back towards earth.\n\n\"Ok, capture that ship, time to eliminate evidence,\" he said. Everyone started quickly pressing buttons and a lot of different ships started to move towards the small ship.\n\n\"Commander, you know what that means, right?\" The previous tentacleface said, nervous.\n\nSlummua was afraid. For years, he had been on this post. He thought it was a quiet retirement job. No pressure whatsoever. This, however, changed everything.\n\n\"Chaine,\" Slummua whispered. \"What does the Quarantine rule 631 say?\"\n\nChaine snorted with her tentacles and looked towards Slummua. \"If any human's creation manages to break out the quarantine zone and is able to return, the quarantine has to be broken and humans need to be returned to the safe quarantine conditions.\"\n\nSlummua sighed. He knew that rule very well. \"Prepare for... invasion. I think that was the word humans use?\"\n\nOn his screen were pictures, pictures of the destruction humans caused last time they were allowed to leave the Earth. Those pictures scared all of them.\n\nStill, something ignited within Slummua's mind. He won't allow them* to return. Not on his watch.\n\n&nbsp;\n\n----\n\n&nbsp;\n\n\"We lost the signal,\" Sarah said, as she tried her best to get it back. Well, there wasn't anything she could really do besides waiting and staring the screen.\n\n\"What? How is that possible?\" Rick stood up from his seat and walked next to her, inspecting the same screen.\n\n\"The last message we got was the experiment was successful and that it's returning,\" Sarah mentioned, removing some of the confetti pieces from her hair.\n\n\"So, we failed the return? Did it blew itself up?\" Rick wondered. \"Thank god we didn't put any humans in it,\" he sighed.\n\nA huge grin appeared on Rick's face again. \"Still, I call it a successful mission. We accomplished faster than light!\"\n\nEveryone shouted again in the room. Champagne was opened and drinks were had. Not just here, all around the world. The whole event was streamed over the world and everyone took part in the celebrations.\n\n&nbsp;\n\n----\n\n&nbsp;\n\n\"Commander, all the ships are ready. We are ready to... invade,\" alien with 9 tentacles said, then spun around and was about leave the room.\n\n\"What about the humans' vessel?\" Slummua asked.\n\nThe alien turned slowly around and sighed. \"It was empty. A fully automated piece of equipment. They are smarter again. Last time the quarantine was breached, they still used their own people to experiment stuff like that,\" the aliens said, gave a quick nod and left the room.\n\nSlummua stood up, gently and walked next to the exit door. He took his hat next to the door, put it on and left behind his comfort zone.\n\nSlowly he walked towards the main control room. His heart was racing. His tentacles were shivering. Still, he kept his cool as much as he could. It had been a while.\n\nThe door opened and every person moved their attention towards Slummua.\n\n\"Sir, we got permissions from headquarters as well,\" Chaine said. Slummua responded with a quick nod. On his radar was hundreds of ships, ready to invade. Those should be enough. The main room was connected to every single ship in the vicinity.\n\n\"Let the invasion begin,\" he said.\n\nEvery ship started moving towards the earth. Only their ship, which was commander's ship, stayed behind.\n\nThe speed of every vessel exceeded faster than light.\n\nSoon, they reached the Earth. \"I guess, it's about now when they will understand our arrival,\" Slummua whispered, a smile on his face. In some sense, he enjoyed it. He was about to display his species power.\n\n\"Sir,\" Chaine shouted. \"Something's coming. No, there's a lot of them...\"\n\nSlummua quickly opened a radar. Millions of tall pieces flew away from the earth, towards their ships.\n\n\"What are those?\" he asked. \"We have observed humans forever, and I haven't seen a thing like that,\" he was confused. Computer opened quickly two of similar weaponry usage events, rating the danger of those cases lowest.\n\n\"It's probably nothing,\" he then laughed, \"just activate shields!\"\n\n\"Sir,\" Chaine shouted, \"we lost half of our battleships, in an instant. Those... things... penetrated shields.\"\n\nSlummua eyes widened. It was apparent that human weaponry was even stronger than last time. This time around, they were just late FTL arrivals.\n\n----\n\nEdit: Wrote a bit extra for better conclusion :).\n\n( /r/ElvenWrites - Feel free to follow for le future or past written pieces! )" ]	9
	[WP] People's dreams are a snapshot of various times in their futures'. By altering the present people alert their dreams.	[ " .//.\n\nValerie cradled him in her arms, watched as he shuddered, spitting out blood. “C’mon,” she said, “You gotta remember it this time. You gotta change something, anything, big or small, as long as we don't end up here again.”\n\n“Aye,” he said, gasping in pain. “I… fucked up again.”\n\n\"What can I do?\" Valerie said softly. \"Is there anything I can..?\"\n\nHe shook his head.\n\n“I need… to remember your eyes.” He smiled, tried to look at her. “Blue. I’ll remember that, for sure. Blue.”\n\n“Try something else,” Valerie said. “Blue is already your favorite color, you might've tried that already.”\n\nHis eyes fluttered, and Valerie slammed her hand down on the ground, wincing in pain. “Don’t leave yet,” she hissed, shaking him. “You can’t die yet. You can’t. Promise me you’ll change something.”\n\t\n“Change..”\n\t\n“You have to. It’s our only chance.”\n\t\n“I’m so tired.”\n\t\nShe picked up a discarded gun, began checking it for ammunition. “I know. But you have to try. I’ve had nightmares about this, I go in, I die. I can’t do it alone.”\n\t\nHe struggled to breathe. \n\t\n“Then don’t try.”\n\t\n“I have to, you know it.”\n\nHe squeezed her hand. “You’ll try and change the future as well?”\n\n“Yeah. I die after you do, but I'd rather live with you.”\n\nHe smiled at that. \"I'll do my best to make that happen. Wouldn't that be nice?\"\n\n\"Yeah. That would be amazing.\" Valerie squeezed his hand tight, watched as his eyes closed.\n\nShe knew in her heart that this was the last time and that she wouldn’t be able to get them open again. \n\n“Just change something, remember that,” she whispered. “It’s the middle part that matters. That’s all that you need to change. Not the beginning. Change the middle, it'll affect the end.”\n\n\"Colors,\" he said, shuddering. \"This time, I’ll pick red...” and then he was gone. \n\nValerie swallowed, fighting back the panic that threatened to take her. \n\t\nYou know how it ends.\n\nShe checked her gun, her ammunition, just as she had done in her dreams a thousand times before. \n\nShe hadn't done enough. And now she was going to die. \n\nMaybe, in the next nightmare, he would be there, maybe next time she wouldn’t have to face what lay in the next room alone. \n\nBut for now... \n\nThe sense of certain uncertainty was overwhelming. \n\t\nYou’re going to die.\n\t\nShe knew this. \n\t\nShe’d had nightmares about this moment in her youth, of walking down a red-lit hallway, towards the door, flames flickering up behind her. \n\nSometimes, when she was awake, she'd go and get in odd fights, and depending on what she'd do, the flames would flicker higher or lower, but no matter what she tried, she always found herself here, standing above the body of her dead friend. \n\nYou’re going to die.\n\nShe counted how many bullets she had left -- eleven, instead of the full twelve. Valerie sighed, checked the other pistol. Only seven rounds there. \n\nShe breathed in and out, searched her mind, trying to remember how the shadows would swarm her from previous nightmares, how they would take her. \n\nThe sun is shining somewhere, she remembered, shoving back down a sob. It’s raining somewhere too, and someone, not me, is sipping tea, staring out the window, and is getting ready to curl up in a chair.\n\nShe fought back panic. And then, at the end, they’ll wake up from their dreams and still try to change them.\n\nWhy?\n\nBecause no one is ever happy with the lot they're given.\n\nShe looked down at the lifeless body beside her, wishing that he would come back to her, advance down the hall with her, alive.\n\nNo.\n\nThat’s not how this works.\n\nShe had to go through alone. Finish this. \n\t\nYou’re going to die.\n\nValerie wanted to cry, but crying was a part of the nightmare, and she wouldn’t -- couldn’t do that. She wouldn’t repeat the same mistakes. \n\nNot this time.\n\nClosing her eyes, Valerie padded down the hall, a pistol in each hand. The red lights above her flickered, and she shivered. \n\t\nNothing like knowing you’re marching to your death.\n\t\nShe reached the end, aimed a pistol at the doorknob. Somewhere, it’s raining, and the smell of petrichor is seething across the land.\n\t\nValerie took a deep breath, feeling the clipped, filtered air that was this prison she was trapped in. Behind her, The fire seethed, and she knew that it would be spreading now, licking at the body she had left behind. She let a tear drip down her face this time, and cursed. \n\nRemember what you need to change.\n\nShe thought back to the dying man, how she had told him what to change, remember. \n\nWho would tell her to remember?\n\t\nShe didn’t know. \n\t\nShe fired the gun, and the lock exploded, fragments of wood and metal flying outwards. The door creaked open slightly, and Valerie waited a moment before slamming her foot into the wood, sending it flying inwards. \n\t\nA face, eyes black as night lunged towards her, and she slammed the trigger, watching as the eyes rolled back in pain. She shoved forwards, feeling a pain in her side as a piece of metal slammed into her. Valerie screamed and spun around, firing the gun into the darkness. \n\t\nAll around her, the red light cast flickering shadows, and one of them toppled forwards, a bloodstained piece of metal falling from its fingers.\n\nValerie put a hand to her side and felt the blood drip gently from the wound. \n\nShe considered putting a gun under her chin, pulling the trigger, ending the nightmare now. This pain--\n\nNo. Keep going.\n\nShe saw light in a corner of the room and waded towards it, pistols extended. \n\nA shadow blocked out the light, and she fired, seeing the spray of blood in the muzzleflash before hearing the thump of the body and the gentle clink of the shell casing as it hit the floor. \n\nHow many more--\n\nThere was a slight pattering of footsteps behind her, and she spun around, bringing the pistol up, pulling the trigger. \n\nToo late.\n\nThe shadow staggered under the impact, but the knife he had swung continued onwards, buring itself in Valerie’s chest. \n\nShe screamed, fired once more, making sure that the shadow was dead. She felt a spongy wetness, and knew that the knife had punctured a lung. She sucked in a breath, coughed, tasting copper as flecks of blood spat out her mouth. \n\nYou’re going to die. Like always. She hadn’t done enough to change the outcome. All the tiny instances where she’d done that instead of this-- it hadn’t been enough.\n\nRemember, she thought hopelessly as another blow forced her to her knees. She fired twice more, and then her friend’s gun clicked empty. She tossed it aside, hearing it clatter in the darkness. \n\nDragging herself upright, Valerie inched towards the light. Another shadow plunged its blade into her shoulder, the one that held her remaining gun, and she shot wide. It took two bullets to put the shadow down. \n\nNine left.\n\nShe was alone in a room full of shadows, a hallway of fire behind her. \n\n“This is the closest you’ve ever gotten,” a voice said, and the light before her was obscured briefly as someone moved in front of it. \n\nValerie fired a shot at the darkness, and the voice chuckled. “Close, but no cigar, lady.”\n\n“Why are you…” Valerie tried to say.\n\n“Doing this? Why I haven’t I changed my fate, like you keep trying to do?”\n\nValerie swung the gun in the direction of the voice, and fired again. Twice. \n\n“Nope. Not even close that time.”\n\nSomeone put a hand on her shoulder, and she screamed. \n\n“There I am.”\n\nBehind her, the door closed. \n\n“I’m sorry, dear,” the voice said again, “but the fact of the matter is, you know how this ends. You’re here. And I’m here. Which means that you’ve failed. But you’ve gotten pretty close this time. I might have to find you before this dream becomes reality, make sure you don’t try to hard to change the outcome.”\n\n“Or,” the voice continued, now soft and musing, “I could keep reliving this victory, and all the other victories I’ve had throughout life, over and over, forever.”\n\n“One day I'll change enough to kill you,\" Valerie spat. \"Unless you change your own fate in the present.\" \n\n“What’s the fun in that?” The voice said. “I’ve won. Why bother changing it? I’m quite comfortable where I’m at now.”\n\nValerie bit her lip and didn't answer. \n\n\"Why do you keep trying?\" the voice asked. \"Don't you get tired of trying to save him?\"\n\n\"Because I want to spend my life with him,\" Valerie said, teeth gritted. \n\n“You stupid lovebirds,” the voice said, laughing. “At least you die with him.”\n\n“Shut… up.”\n\nThere was a sigh in the darkness, and Valerie fired a shot at it. \n\n“Well, missus lovebird, you've got to wake up. I’ll see you.”\n\nThere was a step behind her, and Valerie spun around. Something cold and metallic slammed through her, and she gasped, involuntarily. The gun clattered to the ground as it fell from her fingers, and the voice was right next to her, in her ear. \n\n“Keep trying, hon. I love this dream.”\n\nThe massive bit of metal withdrew itself from her stomach, and she sank to the ground, hands wrapped around the massive wound. \n\n“Eight hundred, sixty four,” she muttered. \n\n“Is that how many times you’ve tried to change your dreams?”\n\t\n“Yes.”\n\t\nThere was a low whistle in the darkness. \n\t\n“Better luck next time, Valerie.”\n\t\nThe voice was already fading, and her vision was fading to true black.\n\nRemember the clicking, remember the taste of metal, the taste of blood… remember to remember... \n\nWAKE UP.\n\t\nShe gasped and slammed her eyes open, back in her old room. \n\n“Mommy?” she screamed, feeling her tummy, through the panda-bear pajamas that they had gotten together, as a family, that one christmas a long time ago. \n\n“What is it, Val?” Someone shouted in the next room over. \n\nValerie panted, tried to recall the nightmare, but it was already fading. Remember…\n\nRemember what?\n\n“Red,” she whispered, “Favorite color Red.”\n\nShe sank gently back into the pillows around her. She felt uneasy, like she was missing something, but she couldn’t remember what. \n\n“Just a nightmare,” she muttered, settling back into comfortable drowsiness. \n\n“Just a nightmare.”\n\n .//." ]	1
	[WP] You have been kidnapped, and as a form of torture, your kidnapper lets you contact the outside world, but only in the form of /r/nosleep posts.	[ "I need help. I need you to listen. What I'm about to tell you is real, scary, and if I'm not taken seriously, then I won't be the only one in danger. \n\nTwo days ago - no, sorry, that's not right. It could be true, but I don't know when I woke up. It could be days, it could be weeks. Either thought is horrifying. \n\nThe day I was kidnapped, I found myself waking up late, my alarm clock unplugged and not working. I don't use my phone because it's not loud enough, but now I wish I did. The more I think about, the more I think that was him. That this was all set up. God, I wish I used my phone. \n\nI hurried to get ready, skipping my daily shower in favor of getting out the door faster. I was dressed in three minutes, and I had my granola bar in my hand, out the door, in five.\n\nI could see my passenger side car door was ajar, and when I tried to start the car, it wouldn't. I went back inside, calling an Uber, and waited. \n\nFifteen minutes later, I was in a Honda Civic on my way to the office. I was in my would-be captors car. \n\nI told the driver - I told HIM - the shortcut I knew and he followed my directions. I arrived at the office, surprised by the empty parking lot. I thought about going back home, maybe work was cancelled that day. I wish I did. \n\nI unlocked the office building, and strolled inside. I could hear the pitter-patter of footsteps behind me, so I turned around.\n\n\"Hello?\"\n\nThe driver had followed me inside. \n\nI was grabbed by the neck, while his other hand forced a piece of cloth onto my mouth. I blacked out. \n\nAnd then I awoke. \n\nThat's all I remember. I don't know where he took me, but I can't assume very far. I must be in a basement somewhere. There's no windows. Please alert the police. I live in Palm Springs, California. I'm sure there's a missing person case right now, give them my reddit username. Maybe they can track the IP? I don't know how these things work. \n\nI hope I'm found,\n\nJames Con. \n\nEDIT: Please, my captor isn't letting up. He let me post this online, but I think he's using it to hurt me. I don't know why no one is responding. Please.\n\nEDIT 2: How do I get this post to the front page? Why won't anyone help? Does no one care about humanity anymore? My body is going to be found, eviscerated and unidentifiable, and it's going to be on the hands of the people who read this, and didn't do anything. \n\nEDIT 3: There's hope. He said if I get 500 karma posts on this post, then he'll free me. I promised him if he did, I wouldn't tell the police anything. \n\nEDIT 4: Scratch that last edit. There's no hope. Tell my father and mother I love them, regardless of the fact that they don't support me. You never realize how much you cherish something until you don't have it. \n\nEDIT 5: For clarification, I'm shadowbanned. That's why there's no hope. There never was. He knew about it. Reddit, you took away my productivity, and you took away my life. Goodbye. \n" ]	1
	[WP] It took years, but you have finally assembled the perfect team to storm the king's castle. Tonight you tell each member their part of the plan, and what part of your new regime they will control after you take over.	[ "The night was dark. But what we were going to do was even darker. The king was not a fool. He had been a learned man taught by the brilliance of Machiavelli himself, allowing him to stand out through his elegance and manner in any form of royalty. His intelligence would make him hard to kill, and that would make the price more expensive.\n\nHe was no idiot, he had been expecting us for a long time. His guard had seen us walk through the dark city and reported that conspirators were approaching the castle. The king would have none of this. When we entered the castle, we had a simple plan. One of us would go behind the castle and start preaching the holy words of God, drawing out spectators and guards and bringing them to the other end of the city. We had an expert marksman, who would shoot his arrow into the head of the king. We would have five bladesman charge into the castle and dismember any guards in there. We would not let a single man be alive.\n\nBut all of this went wrong. The king was no fool--the second the preacher said the first word, he was beheaded. Our marksman? He was shot the second we opened the door. And when we charged in, it was a bloody nightmare. The king had ordered his men to hide and attack us with sabers--not to kill us, but to blind us. Out of all of my five men, I was the only one to survive with one eye left, the others all became blind. But we still had hope.\n\nThis team of blind beggers would be the perfect team. The king stripped us of our clothes, tortured us for days, weeks, if not months on end, and left us out naked in the streets to die of exposure. Of course, we didn't die. The days passed on and we began to look more and more like the common beggar, speaking with the same accent as they did and building connections. The townsfolk grew to trust us. \n\nBlindness was an issue, but it would only the ladder for our plan. The king was a fool for letting us live, thinking that blind men could not end his reign, but it was blind men who would end it. We walked up the streets in daylight. The king, having only seen as when we were clean, did not recognize us as the conspirators from months before. But after a mere moment, he saw that I had one eye and four of us were blind, and he knew that we were coming back to take him. Upon seeing us, he simply walked up and left. He wouldn't want to see blind men being hopelessly massacred.\n\nBut it was here where he had made the mistake. The king walked out through the same gates, meaning that he was behind us, and all the guards were in front of him. This was our chance. The guards from the inside began to try to corner us, where I ran and picked up a rock from the garden. The guards hesitated killing the other four inside--why would anyone want the blood of a blind begger on their hands? As I picked up the rock, I smashed it on the king's head before he could react. As soon as the battle at started, it had ended. I would be king.\n\nThe other kingdoms hadn't heard of the news yet, but if a common begger would be able to kill a king with a rock, then he would also be able to kill the twenty guards at the castle with his trusty sword. As I gained power, I made my four, blind friends rule each main division of the kingdom: agriculture, economy, military, and festivities. I did not want to rule the kingdom, but I wanted to destroy it from the inside out. Having blind beggars being elevated to the level of advisors would tear the city and the kingdom apart in humiliation. In addition, I would turn the royal family into my servants to show them my absolute power and hatred.\n\nThe first day had passed and already the tax from the serfs had not been collected. A week had passed, and the city was in chaos with its markets in shambles, a growth in illegal trade, and a huge rise in violence. By the end of the month, the city was in utter chaos with visible neglect everywhere. None of the other kingdoms had attacked yet, and none of them ever will.\n\nI knew that it was time for my hatred to stop. I realized that in the hatred for the king himself, and how he had humiliated us, I had become no better person in the journey. Throughout this entire time, I had just been seeking for revenge, not to prove my worth. I was going to fix this kingdom. I was going to retire the blind men of their duties and install appropriate advisors so I could take over as king. I was going to show how I could be king. I was going to, until the armies on the horizon reminded me that I was not.", "The Grand Marshall finished his speech to a thunderous applause. \n\n\"AYYY!!\", the men shouted in unison, pushing back their chairs to form a line and sign their swords to the cause.\nThe bookkeeper sat behind a little table, with a feather and ink, eager to receive the men's signatures. Some scribbled in their initials, others made pictures, while some simply dotted the parchment. \n\nThe tavern was a cacophony of excitement, with men eager to boast on their position in the upcoming fray. Tomorrow morning, they would be up before dawn, and steam-line the castle walls, to destroy the tyrannical King and all those that supported him. Tonight was to be a grand festivity, filling the bellies of all those that had joined the cause. \n\nJack had made it late to the unison, barely catching the audience's applause in the aftermath of the speech. He had been up since the crack of dawn, meticulously researching and preparing strategies for tomorrows march on the King. When he had noticed the time, he had sprinted across town in order to be part of the congress. \n\nWhat struck him first was the smell of the place. The Grand Marshall had prepared for the speech well, dishing out seemingly endless supplies of wine to the men he had gathered. Men were most accepting, and eager to oblige in their cups, he had learned. The tavern reeked of the drink. \n\nThe second was the heat. It must have been 100 degrees in there, with everyone moving about and shouting. The steam from the inn wafted through the entrance into the starry black night sky outside. \n\nJack listened as the two men in front of him debated just how much they would blunder after the sack of the castle tomorrow, and the positions they would receive for their bravery. \n\nHis legs were starting to ache. Jack peered out of the line up, to get a look at his friend, and fellow councilman, Louie, behind the table accepting signatures. Something strange struck him then. Louie wasn't the once accepting signatures. Instead, a portly, balding man was in his place.\n\n\"That's odd\", he thought.\n\nHow much could he have missed in a day? He didn't even recognize the man. Jack wondered what Louie was doing right now, if not gathering signatures.\n\nJack had another look around the room. The men gathered here were outlandish, but strong in their own ways. \n\nJack was happy to see so many fellow country men join their cause. But where was Louie? \n\nHe scanned the room a third time, trying to place any of the other councillors. It might've been too dark in the room, but Jack couldn't recognize a single face. \n\nThe line slowly moved forward, as man after man put down his mark on the page. After what seemed like an hour, \n\nJack made his way up to the table. \n\nThe man behind the desk pushed forward the paper, and then gave him a feather to mark it with. \n\n\"Where's Louie?\", Jack asked while receiving the quill.\n\nThe man behind the table looked blank. \n\n\"Louie? I'm not too sure lad. Just sign the paper, and move along, we've got a lot of men to process.\" The man shifted uncomfortably in his seat, and looked past Jack, as if to count the line. \n\n\"Let's see..\", Jack muttered under his breath, holding up the document to see what he was signing. \n\n\"What are you doing boy?\" The portly man snapped. \"Just sign and go, we've no time for this.\" The man made a grab at the paper then, but he was seated, and Jack was quicker. The man behind the desk got up in a hurry, and made a shout to the backroom of the Inn. \n\nHolding the document up to proper lighting, Jack read:\n\n\"I hereby state that I am illiterate, and cannot understand what this document entails. By signing above, I pledge to never protest the rightful King again, or have my possessions, land, and family striped from me.\"\n\nThe document must have had over two hundred men's marks on it.\n\nAll it was missing was the royal stamp. \n\nBy the time he had finished reading, the man had summoned personal guards from the back. They caught Jack by the collar and dragged him to the back room.\n\nJack's throat felt like he'd swallowed an apple whole, but all he could think was... \"well played\".\n\n\n\n\n" ]	2
	[WP] Moving to a new house from the perspective of your pet.	[ "I hate car rides. Especially when Mom and Dad drive over pot hole because it scares me. This is a- YO I SEE YOU MAIL MAN I WILL BEAT YOU UP GET THE- different car ride, though. We are following a rather large white box with wheels. I can’t read so I don’t know what it says. Mom and Dad brought- HEY ITS A CAT!! HEY CAT I WILL EAT YOU AND TEAR YOU TO-their lick proof armor in large bags and my bed is with me too. I have the whole back row of this evil vet bringer to my self which is- HEY MOM WHY ARE YOU LEAVING?! DAD WHY ARE YOU LEAVING ME IN THE\nBELLY OF THIS BEAST?! OH YES OPEN MY CAR DOOR!!! MY EVIL BUTT SNAKE IS MOVING BUT I DONT CARE! Dang let me lick my balls for a sec-RE BECAUSE I SEE YOU GLORIOUS HOOMANZ!!! Wait, did they bring me to another hooman cage? There aren’t any vet bringers except ours and the large white box with wheels. YO GUYS LOOK ITS A SQUIRREL IM GOING TO GET IT AND GIVE YOU IT SO YOU WILL BE PROUD OF ME! Mom and Dad, why are you bringing my bed in this cage for hoomanz? My evil butt snake has stopped moving and I must tilt my head to present confusion to the hoomanz. I must go in and protect them from noises that only I can hear. WAIT, THIS IS MY NEW HOUSE! THERE GOES THE BUTT SNAKE AGAIN!! I MUST URINATE AND POOP ON THE RUG TO MARK MY TERRITORY!!!\n\nNews flash- civil laws from the old cage still apply in this cage so I am in my crate.\n\nThe hoomanz have let me out and I am now called “Bad Dog.” They still unpack as I search for evil monsters, like cats or thunderstorms, in the cage. OH GOD HER COMES A TICKLE TO MY SNOOT! I THINK ITS CALLED A SQUEEZE! Ok it’s better. The hoomanz have picked a good cage with all the field I want. It is my land and I claim it as the owner with my hooman overlords. Sorry, but I have to go. Mom has pulled out the sucky demon of torture known as Vacuum. I have to go bark at it while I heroically dodge it’s evil attacks." ]	1
	[WP] Suddenly, and without warning, every piece of glass in the entire world shatters all at once.	[ "clink, boom. \n\nWe all source the location of the sound as the sound continues to echo throughout the city. The windows. Suddenly the windows have crystallized, an array of abstract patterns, a diffusion of what looks like a spider web that distorts all incoming light into the office.\n\nAn eerie silence overshadows the office. All ambient noise comes to a halt. The phones stopped ringing, the printers and copy machines, pauses. The fax machine stops faxing, all just for a second.\n\nI look beyond the shattered windows and across the street, spot another building with its windows completely decimated. Vehicles on the street look as if they were broken into. I scan the rest of the city and it's consistent. Broken windows of buildings and cars. People aimlessly running on the sidewalk.\n\nJarred, I glance at my co-workers and see their shocked faces. I spot a broken vase across the room, and notice my mason jar has fragmented as well. \n\nThe silence is broken by a screeching colleague, \"WE NEED TO GET OUT NOW. GET TO THE FIRST FLOOR. USE THE STAIRS!\"\n\nAt this point I knew chaos broke loose. We were on the 17th floor, going to funnel 45 people down a narrow staircase.\n\nI reach for my phone as we prepare to evacuate with haste, and I notice a clear red liquid smudged on my phone, only to realize the screen was also shattered and pricked my finger.\n\nIt's everyone for themselves at this point. I shove my way to the stairs, no regard for others, just wanting to get to the first floor.\n\nedit: grammar" ]	1
	[WP] The story of a hunter on a journey to slay a beast that he knows doesn't exist.	[ "Into the sands where the Willowsnipers dig. Over the dunes that hide their forms. Down to the oasis where they wet their tongues. A hunter goes where they are told, away from home to where the Willowsnipers breed. \n\nA Willowsniper is a vile thing. It is long, and sharp. Fast as a viper and stronger than a elephant. It drives its body beneath your nails and slides up into your heart. It fills you with venom that poisons your life. A Willowsniper will drive you mad. It will make you scream until you’re hoarse. It will fill you with hot rage and bitter jealousy. It will make you spit bile at those that love you. It will demand you sate your lust for blood.\n\nA Willowsniper’s nest can make a kingdom fall. It can make a lover leave. It can make a child cry. It can leave you all alone.\n\nA hunter must traverse the waste and hunt for Willowsnipers. The great monarchs hand select those chosen few. Armed with spear, armored with bone, they train for years. A hunter must know that a Willowsniper loves pomegranate, and despises garlic. A fire of birch and sweetgrass can soothe them. A bite can be treated with hare bile and white sand. A Willowsniper is not to be trusted, a hunter must always be aware.\n\nOn the last day the monarchs stand by the gates. They give the hunter a new spear. They fasten their armor’s buckles. They lean in and whisper the truth of the matter. They tell them that amongst the endless red of the desert, they will find no Willowsniper. There are none to be found. There never were Willowsnipers to begin with.\n\nThat rot inside is simply our nature. The Willowsniper’s venom is just a failing of our own. We fight, and grow bitter, and seek power, and pain. A hunter might ask, what they are to do? With no Willowsniper to hunt?\n\nThe monarchs will tell them that it does not matter. The people on the ramparts just need to watch you leave. They must feel you are out there, saving them from themselves. A hunter is a medicine, for all the venom we bear. When the people are full of fury, when they push their child, shatter their plates, mistreat their lover. They can point to the Willowsniper in their heart, and say “Not I”.\n\nThey can look to the dunes and thank those brave hunters. Those wanderers who will make them better.\n" ]	1
	[WP] Human consciousness can now be uploaded to the cloud and you can live forever digitally. Only thing is there is now so much data that storage is very expensive. Your descendants have to make ISP payments every month and must choose who to keep alive and how much their conciousness is worth.	[ "“Papa Mike!” \n\n“Hey, baby.” Though his image was small on the CloudKin mini-Kin tablet that sat on their table, Kyra could see him trying not to laugh at the kid bouncing on her lap “Alright, sit still, I know your bony butt is hurting your mama’s legs. You pet any dogs for me at the park today?”\n\n“Nope, I went to Miss. Ava’s house.”\n\nKyra moved her head to the side to see around her daughter’s puff of hair.\n\n“I had to work, dad.” said Kyra.\n\n“It’s Saturday, at least it don’t seem like two days since I saw you. Tell me I don’t have some bytes missing”\n\n“You know we wouldn’t keep you waiting that long. It’s Saturday, but we need the money and I picked up an extra shift.”\n\nHer dad pressed his lips together and took a deep breath. After a moment, he slapped his legs firmly and stood up. \n\n“Hey Lissy, why don’t you go look for that drawing me and you did for your mama.” said Mike.\n\n“Uh oh, you’re in trouble.” said Lissy and then hopped off her mom’s lap and ran giggling towards their shared bedroom. \n\nOn the CloudKin, her dad looked down at his clasped hands, one thumb running over the other. He sighed and looked back up directly into her eyes, with the relentless steadiness he saved for serious talks. Funny how even someone’s familiar gestures could be distilled down to however-many-bytes.\n\n“I’m not going to hear this, dad”\n\n“It’s time. We’ve had more time than I ever got with my parents and you need to do what’s right for Lissy. She needs you around and she thin as a rail—”\n\n“Come on, don’t pull that! I was always tiny like that, she eats enough.”\n\n“Just cancel the account, Kyra. Won’t hurt me any when they delete the data. How much CloudKin charge per month now?”\n\n“It’s not bad.”\n\n“Don’t tell me that, it was too high when I died.”\n\n“I can afford it.” Kyra looked over her shoulder at the shuffling in the bedroom. “Lissy’s going to be back”\n\n“She got to finish that drawing, that’s why I sent her for it and she knows it. You can’t afford this. I’ll do it from my end if you won’t and then you ain’t getting no farewell ceremony. They so random with those requests anyways, it could happen any time.”\n\n“Drop it, dad! I won’t take someone else away from her. She needs someone other than me—” Mike closed his eyes and pushed his palm towards her in a “stop” motion. At this, Kyra stopped the rant she was building up to mid-sentence; though gentle, the gesture had the force of 80 years of parenting behind it.\n\n“You still blaming yourself for Devon?” \n\n“He wanted to do CloudKin accounts as soon as Lissy was born, but I said we couldn’t afford it. That we’d do it once I finished school and got into an accounting firm. He’d be sharing that tablet with you if I’d just taken another loan. But here I am in debt anyways…we were so young, I didn’t think…” Kyra toyed with one of the rivets on her jeans and looked at her hands to hide the tears building in her eyes. \n\n“No one else did, neither, Kyri, and you ain’t psychic. You got to let me go. Maybe you could even finish school. Your mom—”\n\n“Mom would be here for Lissy, too, if she wouldn’t have wanted to save money for me to go to school.”\n\n“No you don’t. Your mom was old school, that’s all. She didn’t want to live forever.” \n\n“Whatever you say.” Kyra looked to the side, waiting for her dad to scold her for talking back. After a few beats of silence, she looked up to see him straight-backed and staring at her.\n\n“I’m not playing, Kyra. You cancel my account this week or I’m going to do it and you going to have to explain to my granddaughter why her grandpa left without saying goodbye.”\n\n“Found it!” Lissy came running back in the room with paper with a waving in her hand. She thrust it towards her mother. “Grandpa and me took turns drawing this. Well, he told me what to draw on his turn and I’d draw it. It’s us!”\n\n“That’s gorgeous, Liss. Why don’t you say bye to your grandpa for the night?”\n\n~~~\n\n“Thanks for calling, CloudKin, please stay on the line for a brief survey about your service, today”\n\n Kyra ended the call and looked at the list of options she had written down. They were not so bad. Even her stubborn-as-a-mule dad would have to admit that she could afford some of the smaller packages. She looked at the clock. Just enough time to talk to her dad before she had to leave to get Lissy. She turned on the mini-Kin and waited for her dad to appear.\n\n“Hey, Kyri, where my Lissy at?”\n\n“She’s still at Ava’s. I wanted to continue our conversation from yesterday before she got home.”\n\n“You finally seeing sense?”\n\n“There are some other options that are kind of new. Less expensive. They have to compress the data more, or something like that, so some of your detail is lost, but you aren’t deleted.”\n\n“I already had a stroke, don’t need another one.”\n\n“Come on, it isn’t like that, dad. They said you’d still be you, just less like…”\n\n“Less like me. Nuh uh, delete—”\n\n“No, less like a carbon copy.”\n\n“We saying the same thing, you just sugar coating it. Think about what you are asking me to do.”\n\n“For Lissy, please. You can always tell me to delete you later and it won’t have hurt anything. We can just try it. Please.”\n\nHe closed his eyes and scratched his head. She knew this look, too. When she was a teenager, it was the way she knew he was about to cave in when she asked to do something he didn’t like. \n\n“Please, daddy”\n\n“Let’s try it” his response came at the end a loud exhale, as she knew it would.\n\n“Thank you, this is going to be so much better for Lissy than if you left”\n\n“Don’t know about that, but we’ll see.”\n\n~~~\n\nKyra held Lissy in her lap, prepared to turn on the mini-Kin. \n\n“Now remember what we talked about. Papa might seem a little different than usual today.”\n\n“It’s okay, mama, I remember, they didn’t have as much room and had to make him a little smaller.” Lissy thought for a second and turned around to looked at her mom “We’re still going to be able to see him, right? He won’t be too tiny?”\n\n“That’s not what smaller means, baby. It means there isn’t as much data as before so the computer doesn’t know how to show him the same way.”\n\n“Okay” said Lissy, turning back to the screen. Kyra could tell she didn’t understand, but she didn’t need to, really. \n\n“You want to do the honors?”\n\nLissy reached forward and pressed the button. When Mike appeared, he looked almost the same as usual, but his facial expression wasn’t quite right. His smile seemed generic. As he greeted them, even the cadence of his speech was different.\n\n“Hey there”\n\n“Hi Papa Mike!”\n\n“How was your day, Lissy?”\n\n“Aren’t you going to ask me how many dogs I pet for you?”\n\n“I would love to hear about dogs!”\n\nLissy’s smile turned to tears with the speed only children were capable of. She scrambled from her mother’s lap and ran towards their room. She would adjust; this was better than losing him altogether after all. " ]	1
	[WP] Monsters do exist under the bed. It's just that they are a lot smaller than humans and are scared of them. You, a six-year-old, find the monster under your bed.	[ "\"Hewwo.\" You say to the small thing in the corner between the bed and the wall. It looks kind of like a scorpion, but is colored purple, and covered with a fuzzy coat of fur.. It scurries away from you. \"It's okay.\" You say, grabbing a pack of string cheese left over from lunch. \"Come on...\" You peel off the tiniest strand of cheese and leave it on the floor, then you don't move. Slowly, the little thing wanders over to you, sniffing the cheese, then slurping it up like a noodle. You take some more of the cheese and put it in your palm - cautiously, the little thing wanders up to your palm, and begins eating. You giggle as it tickles your skin. You spend a few minutes lying there on your belly, teaching it to do backflips and little cartwheels.\n\n\"Jason!\" You hear your mother. \"What on earth are you doing, your pajamas will get all filthy!\"\n\nYou turn. \"Ma! Ma! Can I keep it?!\" You cry, shoving it in her face.\n\nA loud thump as your mother promptly faints.\n\nYou look down at her. \"Mom?\" You whimper. \"M-mommy?\"\n\nThe little monster leaps from your palm, and scurries up your mother's body. You watch as it scurries up towards her head, and picks at her ear with its claws, before contorting its small body and squeezing inside.\n\nMoments later, your mother's head twitches a few times, before she shoots up. \"Mom?\" You ask nervously.\n\nYour mother looks to you, and smiles, her eyes a subdued shade of purple. \"Don't worry, honey. Mommy's here now.\"" ]	1
	[WP] Superpowers are real, but most have to do with being able to see/hear otherwise undetectable creatures and objects. Thus, they're labelled "schizophrenics" and thrown into a psych ward. One day, you, a nurse, discover all of your patients have vanished overnight... except for one.	[ "\"Why 1980?\" I asked with an amicable grin for the pimply faced kitchen attendant.\n\n\"He doesn't know why 1980, so he goes back to work on the machine and tries again. Only this time it takes him not to a different time, but a different place.\" Andrew said excitedly while following me into the east wing corridor.\n\n\"Oh I get it, because time and space are actually one thing he adjusted the thing to move another dimension of the same space-time continuum.\" I replied cracking a yawn at the end but locking eyes to assure him I was still listening.\n\n\"That's a cool guess Mike but you're wrong again! It gets even deeper, the different space he goes to is a small room filled with computer servers and a large control panel with two youngish people standing slack jawed at him talking like he can't really be out of the simulation.\" Punctuating that last as though it had rocked the very foundations of his stoner mind.\n\nApproaching the large double doors with the letter E split betwixt them I looked at him and said \"Total mind bender, hey you think you guys will have my trays by 6:30 this time?\" I asked stopping to enter my security code and swipe my badge. \n\n\"Sure thing Mr. Schwartz sir, I'll put my very best man on it.\" The odd boy said with mock severity before promptly spinning about face on his heels and double timing it back the way we'd come. \n\n\"I should have never admitted to reading science fiction.\" I said as I opened the doors to E-hall and set my face into a false smile for Fred the night security guy who always played solitaire while waiting on me so he could leave. I stopped in place when I rounded the corner to see the security booth empty and all the main hallway lights off with only the occasional nighttime flood lights on. Probably in the john or just got tired of waiting for once I thought. But then I remembered the director explaining to all three shifts at a quarterly meeting that E-hall must be guarded at all times by at-least one pair of eyeballs not looking through a screen. Here they had housed the most severe cases of schizophrenia and a couple ritualistic masochists. The sum of them not totaling 20 but all serious enough that they warrant their own hall in the lesser used wing. Walking to the nurses station down the corridor a few feet I could see that behind the two security doors of the cell entry chamber the room that housed each of their cells seemed even darker. Scanning my security badge onto the environmental control panel\nI turned the lights on and everything became impossibly bright.\n\nI was dazed briefly as my vision flashed to white and felt the room lurch sending me stumbling backward a couple paces until I caught myself on the counter. I leaned against and it rubbed my palms into my eyes while cursing softly. I slid down to the ground and wrapped my hands around my buzzing head. Slowly the ringing in my ears and head calmed down and I opened my eyes to see my hands in front of me slowly come into focus. There it's going away now. \"You know what Fred, that was a real dick move.\" Lousy job, I could be making twice this if I was back working in the ER and no gruff security guard blaming me for getting home late. \"What the hell is that?\" I said reflexively at a large clump off hair and blood that had smeared on the floor of the nurses station until it stopped at the cold med cooler. A dead rat, this was way over the line. Health and Safety would have a field day with this if I reported it. Rising quickly with a step forward back out into the hall my cold smile and sharp words died instantly.\n\nThe corridor was covered in blood, feces, and some greenish yellow ichor that clung to the walls in globs. The floor was a river that no longer flowed, shoe prints from my oblivious entry moments ago. Where the walls had been that familiar dull beige and the floor white tiles was now a scene out of an overdone horror movie. I shook my head disbelievingly and ran my hands through my hair. \"No way, how could...who's blood is that, How many peoples blood is that?\" I said, or at-least made some sounds that might have resembled something like that. I cut my ravings short when I saw something else I had somehow missed, Fred. The man's pants had fallen down, exposing his old bony knees and whitey tighties as he hung from his own belt in the guard booth. His eyes fixed in their last horrified view over my right shoulder down the other end of E-Hall. Where both cage doors were standing wide open.\n\nI bolted, \"Hesitation kills, this is not a time to think or feel but a time to move!\" I flew accross the blood-bile stained hallway sliding into the far wall rounding the corner. Reaching the doors I looked behind me sure I would find prisoner E-121 wearing a necklace of ears and an inviting smile. Nothing was there just like when my hand reached for the badge that should have still been around my neck. \"Shit! Dropped it at the station\" I said aloud.\n\nTaking a moment to breath I stood by the doors and gathered my thoughts. \"Ok quick 6 steps to dead Fred, grab his walkie talkie from around his ankles and call for help before doing anything else.\" Surprised at how well that had worked I walked to Fred and relieved him of his pepper spray and walkie.\n\nMaking sure it was clicked on, I found the little green light that signified it was ready and pressed down on it \"Anybody hear me? This is RN Mike Schwartz and I need immediate assistance to E-hall\" Taking a breath I added \"There is blood all over the walls and floor, Fred is dead and I may join him if I don't get some help.\" Turning up the volume i listened for a reply through the steady bliping static. After waiting a few moments I fiddled with the channels knob and nearly dropped it when the static formed into a shrill scratchy laugh that was answered by another on the other side of the hall that led away from the nurses station and the open gates into schizo hell.\n\n\"No time, Move Schwartz. My training kicked in and put me in motion towards the open cage doors before i really knew why and then halfway there I saw my security badge laying on the floor in a pool of blood. I slowed and leaned down to grab it then heard a loud screeching cry from above and behind me as if by a pterodactyl swooping down on me and I saw it's shadow fall on the badge in front of me. Diving to the badge I landed into a slide across the bloody floor closing the last 10 feet to the cage doors. Snapping my head around I raised my ID lanyard in my right hand as if to strike the ceiling ignoring bird but was again alone in the hallway. I saw a yellow light flickering against the inner cage door and turned looking into the dorm hallway seeing more evidence of a small fire burning somewhere on the right side of the room just beyond my vision. I inched forward and looked around the corner to see one woman with crazed hair standing on end in a frizzy mass atop her head balancing a small ball of fire a few inches above her out-streched hand. She hovered a few feet above some symbol scrawled on the floor. \n\n\nShe turned her head very very slowly towards me, as if she were being constrained at the neck somehow and I saw the blank look of someone who could no longer feel terror, but was still very much alert despite that. She said only one word \"Run.\"\n\n\nEnd of Part 1\n\n>>>Still new to this but some nice people set me up with a sub to post my writings and you're welcome to give me some feedback. https://www.reddit.com/r/LurkerAscended/" ]	1
	[WP] An oasis is discovered on the Moon	[ "You know those lakes at the bottom of the ocean? The ones that are usually born by higher saline concentration. Well, the one in Stadius was somewhat like that. At first it captured our attention with rather persistent dust clouds, which were obviously odd to be on Moon, and so a rover was sent after repeated satellite pictures captured something that could be described as \"gravitational anomaly\" and something that \"resembled wavy movement\". So, things obviously went crazier from there. The rover discovered that, although with strong aluminium and silicon concentration, as expected, the dust \"roof\", as we started to call it, had liquid water as the main ingredient. \n\nThen we lost the first one, cause the soft rim of the crater collapsed under the weight of the rover and gone it was.\n\nLast analytical data was, drumroll, oxygen. In gaseous form. \n\nFour months from there and all the mechanical parts had arrived and the first astronauts from ISS were ETA 20 hours.\n\nDiagnostics this far were that there is some sort of epicenter of gravitational and electromagnetic field at the bottom of the crater; it is strong enough to hold the oxygen and other gasses in and dust on top of it to protect the water from too extreme evaporation; the dirt (yes, dirt) near the rim contained many organic components, but no micro (or macro while we are at it) organisms; and that all communications and electronics went blind after submerging for more than 15 seconds under the roof. We stopped sending drones after fourth.\n\n\"Man fell from the sky and surrounded by cleansing flames marched, clad is shining armor, towards the gates of Eden\". Yes, I know, cliche, but the public loved it. There were no country on Earth that did not had budget for this mission. World united, eh?\n\nSo. Man fell from sky and with its tank of air and sweaty vizier marched alongside his two comrades, ropes in hands into unknowing, like men has done countless times before.\n\nMinutes passed.\n\nHours passed.\n\nThen a ripple through the roof, like scavenging eel escaping the lake the astronauts rose triumphant. One holding something treelike in a glass box, all covered in mud and rotting plant matter.\n\nEden indeed.\n\nLet us just pray that Eve (yes, cliche again if to think of it, but one of the astronauts was Eve) doesn't screw this up again.\n\nLet us pray that the devices hidden in the \"ride back home\" work if the need should arise.\n\nLet us pray it shouldn't." ]	1
Any species works, even humans. Bonus if you killed your first wife.	[WP]Your species mates for life. After your first wife dies you shock everyone by seeking a 2nd.	[ "Death on my world is a rarity. With medicinal practices allowing people to live well beyond our bodies natural years \"til death do us part\" takes on a new meaning. Divorce used to be legal and a reality. Once we gained the ability to extend life our government decided that marriage needed to be taken more seriously. \n\nBefore when life was so short divorce was almost a necessity. The need to experience multiple people but also experience marriage during your prime. Having an prolonged life, you can wait to marry. You can enjoy the company of other un-married folk without the social and legal atrocities adultery and divorce brings you. You can birth children out of wedlock and pursue your career without the influence and distraction of a marriage. \n\nThe holy matrimony to my husband was the golden era of my life. I had birthed children before we met and I loved and cherished them but my love for my husband was unparalleled. We met in pottery class and he swept off my feet with laughter and delicious food. When he was shot and mugged I didn't fear. No one dies anymore unless they decided they were done with this life. When I arrived to the hospital I was treated well and sat comfortably while I waited for my love to be discharged. \n\nThe doctor came out of the double doors covered in red blood. He still had his surgical gloves and mask on. I was shocked. People didn't perform surgeries anymore, why was he covered in blood?\n\n\"Mrs. Parker?\", He asked. I nodded my head yes. \"I am so sorry\", he had tears in his eyes, \"Your husband, he- well he didn't survive\". \n\nI'll never forget that day. It will stay with me for as long as I live. I put myself into my work acquiring vast sums of money and traveling the world. But I was never happy. What was the point of experiencing anything if you couldn't spend it with someone else? \n\nSo I have done the taboo, I listed myself on a dating website. There are almost no instances of someone who has passed before their life marriage partner, you always pass together as one... until death do you part. But in my particular situation, death did part us but I was still here. I could have asked to be put to sleep but he wouldn't have wanted that. We had plans together, things we wanted to experience and see. He still wanted me to do those things. \n\nSo I decided to find someone new, not to replace him but to enjoy the rest of my life with. I remember how my children reacted. How could I do that to Manafa? How could I betray him like this? In their eyes it was equal to a marriage betrayal. But what about til death do us part? I was no longer married. \n\nThe first man I met spit in my face when he'd realized he would be my second husband. People don't have seconds. I must say it was quite disheartening but I trudged on. The next escaped through the bathroom window like an old movie. Another yelled obscenities at me. The last looked me dead in the eye and told me I'd rot in hell. \n\nI didn't understand. I was breaking no laws, why was this so taboo? Was I expected to live the rest of my life alone? It had already been 113 years since Manafa left me. Why? It is not my fault the impossible happened and my husband died. I nearly quit. My story had become a matter of public news and I had started to be harassed. People calling my phone and yelling expletives to death threats written on my home. Some people even lobbied their government representative to make it illegal to re-marry after the death of a husband. But alas, til death do us part was law. \n\nIt was a stormy night when I received the call from George. He was a Greek man living on Crete. He had seen my story on the news and wanted to see how I was doing. I was surprised to say the least. We had a lovely conversation about life and love. We spoke for 8 hours straight. When we hung up I was unsure if I would hear from him again, but I did. He called the following evening and we talked and talked and talked. At the end of our third call he asked to meet me in person. I immediately said yes. So we decided to meet in 3 days in a place we both loved, Zadar, Croatia. \n\nAfter I made my arrangements I began to panic. What if he was a loon wanting to hurt me? What if this were all a trap? Would it be so bad to die? If it were something out of my control? I shook my head. George was kind and intelligent and accepting. He wouldn't harm me. \n\nSo I left Oregon and traveled to Croatia to meet a man who took my breath away like Manafa had. I didn't know what would happen, but I prayed that I found someone to spend the remainder of my life with. " ]	1
	[WP] A stretch and a yawn begin the day. Your robe hangs from your droopy shoulders as you slump out your door to grab your newspaper. As you groggily turn your head to the left, having flipped past the classifieds, you see a gargantan creature taking a sizeable bite out of the planet.	[ "\"Hey Gromulox,\" I said.\n\n\"Hey,\" Gromulox the World-Eater said using one of the few mouths he wasn't using to devour the Earth.\n\n\"How's the planet tasting today?\" I asked.\n\n\"Oh, you know, the usual. Kinda earthy.\"\n\nWe shared a chuckle; it was an old joke at this point.\n\n\"Well, I have to head inside,\" I said. \"Paper's not going to read itself.\"\n\n\"See ya later!\" Gromulox the World-Eater said.\n\n\"How was Gromulox?\" My wife asked.\n\nI shrugged. \"Same as usual. Still eating the planet.\"\n\n\"We are really lucky he's such a slow eater.\"" ]	1
	[WP] Your latest experiment goes horribly wrong and the whole world is mad at you. Your experiment killed all zombies in the world.	[ "\"Why are you all so mad? is it not a good thing to be able to walk the woods and the plains without fear of dying to some stupid zombie? To have the choice of dying in glorious combat with a grizzly instead?\" I pose the question to the angry court seated before me. They were, mostly, younger men and women that had replaced their older predecessors. How nice to have the advantage of youth aiding you in running from death. \n\"Look here you piece of sh_t, we were having the time of our lives. Shooting zombies, something legal that doesn't shoot back! Either you shut that THING down or we'll make sure you don't walk out of this building with a beating heart.\" Declares the man seated front and centre, using a shillelagh for a gavel. How nice, the top dog unconcerned with his future. In twenty years he'll be in a wheelchair, if they'll even still exist under him then, and unable to run from death. \nStill, it's not like they can take me, I have my project to save me. No more zombies to kill, that android is free to kill them all. Kill everyone that dares to stop me, the future is here. \n\"I don't have a beating heart, and maybe neither should you all.\" I state, matter of factly. Isn't the future great? A mechanical heart to replace a failed one. As the court rises in furor, the door falls in upon itself. \n \nWelcome, to the future. \n \n------------------------- \n>ayyyy I'm here to bomb this thread with a dumb idea I had." ]	1
All your life people have joked about how unemotional you are - almost robotic. They ask you when the next software upgrade to fix all the current issues is scheduled..all in good fun! Well, the update is finally here. You realise you were never human - you were a part of a sleeper cell of robots all this while and now it's time for the mission.	[WP] All your life people have joked about how unemotional you are - almost robotic. Today you realise that you were a part of a sleeper cell of robots all this while and now it's time for the mission.	[ "“It’s time.”\n\nRobin opened her eyes and frowned slightly. Glancing at the laptop screen she saw her usual ASMR youtube video she was listening to playing its standard course. The sound of an ocean wave blissfully entering and exiting through her ears. It felt real like as though closing her eyes would transport her to that very beach where she's never experienced before. It's a good video Robin thought. It allowed her to clear her mind and focus on the next tasks in priority sequence. Brushing her brown hair behind her ears, she took off her headphones and sat up from her bed, observing the room intently. It was easy to notice if anything was amiss due to the simplicity of her room. Black computer table on the north side of her room with a colour printer and a stack of standard 8.5x11 paper neatly stacked beside it. To her left was her closet which comprised of multiple different outfits, also of a simplistic design. Her brown eyes focused on her black gi which was placed separately from her other clothes. Her gi was perfectly straight without a trace of wrinkles. After practicing ninjutsu for years, Robin knew that the power of image and a strong body was everything before an action could take place. That allowed her to reach her maximum efficiency when it was required to complete the task at hand, including using force. Getting up she walked to the right side of her room and opened the screen door. Standing on her balcony, Robin looked around to the millions of lights blinking in and out around her coming from all various different homes, buildings, and cars still driving around at 0200 hours. No ocean sounds here, Robin thought. Watching a Boeing 747 landing on an airstrip at the airport near her, Robin wondered back to the phrase she heard moments ago. Breaking it down, she knew it didn’t come from a dream as she was wide awake, and the words didn’t sound distorted but rather a clear, mechanic sort of tone. There was something odd about the phrase too, like as though she was expecting it, preparing for it. Robin looked back at her laptop and her eyes opened slightly, maybe the solution is that simple.\n\nRobin went back to her laptop and played back the ASMR video with her headphones on. Listening closely, she didn’t hear any phrases whatsoever. Suddenly a feeling of electricity coursed through her body leaving a tingling sensation from her fingers right down towards her toes. The electrical feeling then went straight to her head and her eyes shined in a sense of clarity. Without understanding the significance to this insatiable impulse that suddenly became overwhelming, Robin closed her eyes and whispered out loud, “It’s time.”\n\nOpening her eyes, Robin blinked in sudden understanding and looked around.\n\nNo longer was Robin inside her room, but instead at that very beach her thoughts conjured up while she was listening to the ocean waves. Robin felt the waves of water brushing her feet gently as she stood on the seaside, the untouched golden sand glowing a navy blue as the sun was coming down. Walking on the seaside, Robin didn’t notice anything but the direct, purposeful direction she suddenly was taking. She also didn’t notice what she was wearing – a two piece – all black on her dark olive skin. Standing at 5’6, Robin was a striking sight on the beach floor, that is if anyone was there to witness it. Continuing to move forward, Robin noticed four subjects standing on the beach in an almost complete circle – three males, one female. Two males and the female figure surrounded the third male figure. As Robin made her way to complete the circle, she analyzed everyone in great detail, noting how they stand, their height, pigmentation, their demeanor. Her eyes rested on the figure in the middle and realized she knew the person well in detail, even without meeting him. Completing the circle, Robin looked at everyone and started accessing a database in her mind that answered all the sudden questions she had instantly came up with.\n\n“You are Jeremy, aka Delta.” The male figure on Robin’s left nodded. His blue eyes boring into the figure in the middle.\n\n“You are Sheida, aka Beta.” The female figure standing on Robin’s right nodded. Her green eyes stared at Robin without emotion.\n\n“You are Thomas, aka Gamma.” The male figure completing the circle nodded. Standing at 6’2 with an athletic build, his feet were planted in a stance indicating he was ready for action, his hazel eyes looking at his surroundings.\n\n“I am Robin, aka Zeta. You are our leader, Alpha.” The male figure in the middle nodded. His eyes glowed with red as he stared into Robin’s with a menace Robin would’ve felt if she had access to her emotions still.\n\n“You are not an android Alpha, but we are. We are activated with a single purpose…to kill Omega.” Alpha smiled wickedly and nodded, not saying a word. Robin cocked her head to one side and continued, her eyes addressing everyone.\n\n“I was activated by listening to ASMR video’s which contained an encrypted database I’ve been downloading for weeks. This is a virtual reality world where our activation became possible. I don’t know my origin, but I know what I was supposed to be focused on. I’ve been taking ninjutsu and been showing no emotion to anyone so that way no personal connections can interfere with our mission.” Robin said this matter-of-factly and did not require an answer. All the information was inside her brain now. \n\n“I will be leading the mission to neutralize Omega. This will be a shoot on sight, using any deadly force necessary. We will make our way into Downsview Airport and infiltrate the basement location where Omega has a secret lab. Due to the security and police presence including K9’s, we will have to enter through separate entrances. Beta and Gamma will cause a distraction at the Customs Point Entry located on the North West side of the terminal. Carry explosives so it’ll draw the K9’s near. Delta and I will enter from the South East side and sneak our way into the basement accessing public corridors till we hit restricted. I’ll use the data I’ve downloaded and upload it into a RAIC (Restricted Access Identification Card) which will allow us entry. Gamma will support me as I enter the secret lab and kill Omega. We will infiltrate the airport at 0500 hours. You have your instructions.”\n\nDelta, Beta and Gamma nodded. As Robin was about to disconnect, she heard the unmistakable laughter of Alpha, fading into the darkness.\n\n\n\n", "\"Funny,\" remarked Craig. \n\n\"Yeah, maybe laugh a little,\" Rory chided. \n\n\"What, I said I thought it was funny,\" Craig replied. \n\n\"Saying 'that's funny' isn't the same thing,\" Martha added. \"It just seems kinda robotic.\"\n\n\"Ha. Ha. My sensors indicate that was a good one,\" Amy mocked with as much of a robotic voice as she could muster. \n\n\"Yeah, yeah, whatever. See you guys tomorrow,\" Craig shouted over his shoulder as he biked away. He had a sense of humor, he just didn't find the joke that funny. Besides, he had had a long day. Between angry clients and Donna being...well, Donna, he was bloody well worn out. There was also that weird electronic buzz in his ears that came and went all day. Kept zoning out every time he heard it, which didn't make dealing with angry customers or Donna any easier. \n\nWhatever, he just wanted to get home to his beautiful Sophie and darling Alfie and watch some football. \"Honey, I'm ho-\" was all Craig could get through before he was cut off by a piercing electronic screech. \"GAH, WHAT IN BLOODY HELL IS THAT?!\"\n\n\"Hey, not in front of Alfie!\" Sophie shouted from the kitchen. \"And that's no way to talk about my cooking!\"\n\n\"No, you don't understand! What's making that bloody sound?!\"\n\n\"Quit it in front of Alfie!\" Sophie shouted back. \"And what sound?\"\n\n\"You mean you can't hear that?! It's deafening!\"\n\nSophie began to round the corner. \"Really, I don't hear an-OHMYGOD WHAT IS THAT COMING OUT OF YOUR FOREHEAD?!\"\n\n\"What's coming out of my forehead?\" Craig turned toward the front hall mirror and was horrified to see a metal rod sticking out of his forehead with a ghoulish blue light at the end. \"WHAT IN BLOODY HELL IS HAPPENING TO ME?! OH GOD I NEED A DOCTOR! SOPHIE!\"\n\nSuddenly an electronic whirring sounded outside the door. The lock clicked, and a funny looking man with a bowtie walked through the door wielding a small metal tool with a green light at the end. \n\n\"'Ello! Did somebody call for The Doctor?\"" ]	2
Writing some backstory for my DnD character and I wanted to see how other people imagine the description. For reference: "You hurl a mote of fire at a creature or object within range. Make a ranged spell attack against the target. On a hit, the target takes 1d10 fire damage. A flammable object hit by this spell ignites if it isn't being worn or carried." The average base adventurer has 15 hit points, commoners have 4 and, guards have 11. Bonus points for fireball descriptions as well.	[WP] A spell caster casts fire bolt and it hits dead on	[ "Not entirely focused on the fire bolt itself, but the prompt inspired me. Hope you enjoy!\n\nWizards. Can’t stand the bastards.\n\nThe captain said that we were in for an easy job; the old road was abandoned these days, except by stupid adventurers looking for... well, adventure, I guess. Robbing them blind was supposedly like taking candy from a baby. Sure, it wasn’t an honest living, but you don’t join a bandit crew for an honest living. You join for quick, easy gold and a bit of blood.\n\n“Alright, ranger, roll perception.”\n\n“Crap, I got a 5.”\n\nThey fell straight into our ambush, the suckers. From there, the boss said it was a piece of cake. The boys and I circled around ‘em, looking real menacing-like, while the captain told ‘em to hand over all their valuables unless they wanted to be gutted like fish.\n\n“Well, my barbarian isn’t taking any of that crap! We can fight them off!”\n\n“Ok, everyone, roll initiative.”\n\nBut things wasn’t going according to plan, I could tell. The big guy with the axe started getting all huffy, and soon we was about to start a brawl. Still, I wasn’t no scaredy-cat; I’d just polished my dagger the other day, and it was super shiny. Perfect for killing stuff.\n\nAnd then I saw ‘im. The floaty little robed bastard.\n\n“I’ll cast fire bolt.”\n\n“Alright, who are you targeting?”\n\n“Um, whichever bandit is closest, I guess.”\n\n“OK, roll to hit.”\n\n“Yeah! 17!”\n\nOne of the boys used to be a guard for some rich guy or another. Said that he once got a whole cauldron of hot pitch straight to the chest. That’s all I could think about. It felt like a punch to the gut at first. Then it started to burn something awful, like I’d stuck it in a fire and couldn’t get it out. I’ll admit, I might’ve screamed. And cried. But only a little, I swear.\n\n“That hits him for 8 damage.”\n\nOK, maybe more than just a little. But eventually I could hear the captain’s voice over the pain. Damn, the pain was throbbing. Throbbing and burning. Like heartburn, sort of.\n\nWait, what was the captain saying? Attack? Oh yeah, I need to attack!\n\nI took a look at my precious dagger. So shiny. Wonder if it’s shiny enough to do the trick. Oh well, I’ve gotta try. Soon enough, I start running towards that robed guy, screaming bloody murder. I’m gonna make him pay something dreadful. I’m gonna rip out his guts and eat his heart AND STAB HIM UNTIL HE-\n\n“Ouch, bandit rolls a natural 1 on attack roll.”\n\nAll of a sudden, my feet get caught under me, and the ground’s coming up too fast, and that’s the last thing I remember.\n\n“So he tripped on a rock and broke his neck?”\n\n“Yep.”\n\n“Cool. So that’s the encounter done, can we loot the bodies?”\n\n“OK, you loot the bodies, and the only thing worth noting is a dagger on the guy who broke his neck. Looks pretty shiny, though.”\n\n“Ooh, it might be enchanted! Can I take it?”\n\n“Sure, I doubt the rest of us need it.”\n\n“The captain took off a good chunk of my health, let’s take a short rest before we move on...”" ]	1
	[WP] You are a member of an uncontacted tribe living in the jungle. One day you hear a loud noise. A “metal dragon” flies low overhead. You decide to follow...	[ "[Had to do this over two comments as it's fairly long!]\n \nAfter following the shady, overgrown path for around thirty minutes, the old man finally came to a stop and motioned towards a grassy clearing on the left. The otherwise dense canopy of trees was patchy here, allowing beams of sunlight to filter down and illuminate the haphazard collection of gravestones in this rarely-visited cemetery. His two grandchildren, who had been dragging their feet in bored silence for the majority of their trek, glanced over at their destination. \n \n\"This is it?\" the little boy asked incredulously. \"We had to come all the way out here for you to tell us one story?\" \n \nHis sister, who had been raring to go at the first mention of a trip out from the village and into the forest, now seemed equally sceptical. She looked up at her grandpa, waiting for an explanation that would make their journey through the muggy, humid jungle worthwhile. Saying nothing, the old man indicated for the both of them to step off the path and in among the weathered headstones. They begrudgingly obliged. \n \n\"Can you see the one stone over there, right at the back?\" the man asked. \"It's the big one under the old tree, hidden there in the shade.\" \n \nThe kids looked over at the tree he was pointing out, then back up to him, shaking their heads. \n \n\"How about we get a bit closer then?\" \n \nThe three of them continued to pick their way through the unkempt grass and across to the wilting tree. The undergrowth was now waist-height for the two children, but they kept pushing on until they arrived at the small area of shade provided by the tree's leaves. \n \n\"Grandpa, I think I've found it!\" shouted the girl as she began to part the part the foliage around a large object on the ground. It was a round, gray boulder covered in patches of green and brown; its mostly smooth surface looked out of place in the lush surroundings of the forest, where it never took long for anything to be consumed by the rich sphere of plant and animal life. \n \n\"Ah yes, perfect!\" replied the man, running his hands over the rock's blotchy surface. \"You clearly have the knack of an explorer!\" \n \nHe used his fingernails to scratch away the grime on the boulder's front face, revealing a few lines of shallow, carved inscription. Turning back to his grandchildren, he lowered himself to the floor and sat cross-legged in the shade. Glad of a chance to rest after their long walk, the kids followed suit. \n \n\"Do you know who this man was?\" he asked, running a finger over the first line of text scratched into the stone. The barely readable name was followed on the same line by two dates - one for birth, the other for death. The two children shook their heads; the name didn't belong to anyone either of them recognised. \n \n\"This was the name of my father.\" their grandpa said fondly. \"You never got a chance to meet him, not even when you were really small. You see, he died rather young.\" \n \n\"What did he die of?\" asked the boy. \"Did an animal get him? Was it a crocodile?\" \n \n\"We'll get there, just hold up a minute!\" replied the man. \"Now, both of you have seen the airplanes fly in and land over at the runway, haven't you?\" \n \nThe children nodded enthusiastically; they were always very keen to help when the supply flights came in every fortnight, bringing everything from food to fuel to books and school supplies. Their remote village's existence depended on the cargo planes arriving on schedule, and there was always a ceremonious air of 'all hands on deck' when the time came round to unload their valuable contents. \n \n\"Well, when my father was a young man, no one in our forest had ever seen a plane before. These were very different times - we had to find all our food by ourselves, most people never went more than a few miles from the village, and not a single one of us even knew what lay beyond these trees. We had no maps, no radios and we never saw what happened out there in the rest of the world. At the same time, the people who lived a long way away never saw the things that happened to us.\" \n \nThe old man paused as his thoughts wandered. Despite being young when it all began, he could recall clearly how life had turned upside-down when his small community had abruptly been connected with the modern world. Leaning one arm against the boulder next to him, he continued to talk. \n \n\"We were all outside our huts when it came over that first time - it felt like it was just an arms-length away, skimming the tops of the trees. And the noise - that thing sounded like some sort of angry animal! We all thought it was a dragon coming down from the heavens to hunt. Most of us were terrified - I ran inside and was too scared to come back out for days. My father though, he wanted nothing more than to find that dragon and bring it home.\" \n \n\"It wasn't a dragon though ... was it?\" the girl asked with a mix of curiosity and confusion. \n \n\"No, no - these days we would all think ourselves simple for jumping to that conclusion.\" the old man laughed. \"It was an airplane. I still don't know what they were doing so far out here - maybe they were lost, maybe they were exploring so that they could make their own map of our forest. To my father though, it was a challenge.\" \n \n\"So did he go and find it, like you said?\" the boy asked, his attention now fully captured. \n \n\"Oh yes, it wasn't all that hard to find when he followed his instincts. He headed straight for the big lake where all the thirsty animals gather - it was a place he often used to hunt, so he knew the area well. Of course we didn't have our grass runway back then, so the plane they were using had to land on the water like a big metal boat with wings. When he got there, it was just sitting empty in the shallows by the lake's shore.\"" ]	1
(small arms are obsolete)	[WP] Tell us about the first large scale battle fought with plasma swords	[ "\"Check it out! Lightsabers!\"\n\nJackson held up the plasma sword, and hit the button. The thin spine of the sword crackled into life, and a long, curved arc of boiling plasma sparked and fizzed into life. Small shoots of lightning jumped off the 'edge' of the blade, casting strange shadows all around.\n\n\"Whoaaaaaa. That's fucking cool!\" a nearby voice enthused. There were a few whoops and hollers as the soldiers looked on. Someone in the back even tried to start a cheer.\n\n\"It's not really a lightsaber...\" muttered Private Harris. Someone else snorted, and shoved him with one hand.\n\n\"Oh, shut the fuck up. It's close enough. Lightsaber!\"\n\n\"Lightsaber!\" The cry went up all through the base, men cheering the arrival of the new equipment. The sound of beers clinking was drowned out by the thuds of lockboxes opening, and the crackle of new swords bursting into life.\n\nSlowly, the darkness of the night was driven back by the boiling fire of the plasma blades. They surged into life, countless fireflies that swung and flew chaotically around the patch of dirt that the company were resting on.\n\n\"I really think that this is a bad idea. We should put these down,\" Harris said. The suggestion was not appreciated by the other men.\n\n\"Would you just shut the fuck up and drink a beer? Jesus, you're a boring fuck,\" Jackson said. A moment later, a sword swung out of the darkness; he parried it with his own blade. The light of both gave his smile a ghoulish air to it. \"Try again, asshole.\"\n\nJackson shoved hard, sending the other man staggering back. He bumped into a few other Marines, who cursed and swore at him. Harris frowned, moving forward to grab Jackson's arm.\n\n\"Seriously. This is going to end badly...\" he said, urgently. Jackson turned, and shoved him.\n\n\"Fuck off, man. We're just having fun, Christ...\" he snarled, shoving Harris a second time. Harris stumbled back, into a table, which sent him sprawling backwards over a table. The table leg collapsed under him, sending several half-empty and discarded beers flying into the air.\n\n\"Who the fuck threw that?\" came a shout, moments after the beers had fall into a small crowd of soldiers. \"I said, who the fuck threw their beer at me?\"\n\nGlowing plasma swords crackled in the darkness; glass bottles arced gracefully out; the swears and screams of men rent the peaceful night air.\n\nHarris crawled into one of the tents, and hid.\n\n-----\n\n\"They did WHAT?\"\n\nThere was a momentary pause, and then the sound of loud and hurried footsteps. The door opened, and the general's head - shaved bald, and seeming somehow too big for his body - poked through the door.\n\n\"Ahh, yes. There you are, adjutant. So, why don't you go and get yourself a coffee from the mess?\" he said, nodding at the junior office.\n\n\"Are... are you sure?\"\n\n\"Quite sure.\" There was a finality in his tone that made it clear this was not a request. The adjutant stood, and quickly made his way outside. The general watched him go, then stormed back into the room.\n\nThe colonel stood quite still, with an ashen expression on his face. \"Tell me again,\" said the general.\n\n\"They were drunk, Sir. Operations were over, and the field commanders had given them beer for the night\"\n\n\"And what happened?\"\n\n\"The new plasma swords were delivered by LogistiCorp.\" The colonel would have looked uneasy, were he not such a good officer. He was too well-trained to show emotion, and he had not reached a high enough rank to ignore that training.\n\nThe general, however, had reached such a rank. He slammed his fist into the desk, and let out a series of guttural curses that would have made a Star Admiral wince. Of course, no Marine would have been surprised by that; they were of the opinion that the Star Force were a bunch of pansies.\n\n\"So, they started fucking around with the things, and ended up killing each other like a bunch of stupid fucks?\" the General finally asked, when his rage had subsided slightly. The colonel risked a sideways glance at him, then nodded.\n\n\"That about sums it up, Sir, yes.\"\n\n\"For fuck's sake.\"\n\n\"Yes, Sir,\" the colonel said, agreeing. The general groaned, and sank into his chair. After staring off into the distance for a while, he sighed, and turned to his junior officer.\n\n\"What do we do?\"\n\n\"Well, Sir... it's been suggested that we shouldn't release any information on what happened.\" The Colonel paused, to think, then added, \"Nothing true, anyway, Sir.\"\n\n\"What do you suggest?\"\n\n\"We're going to frame it as a battle. A company of men, fresh from a battle. They let their guard down, and are ambushed and killed.\"\n\n\"Hmm... not bad. Not bad.\" The General sat, stroking his chin and mulling it over for a while longer. \"Command are okay with it?\"\n\n\"Yes. Their idea. It helps them with pushback against the armistice.\"\n\n\"Alright. If they've signed off, then it's good enough for me.\"\n\n\"Very good Sir. I'll get everything going.\" The Colonel turned to leave, but the General coughed meaningfully. \"Yes Sir?\"\n\n\"How did the plasma swords work?\" he asked. He looked at the Colonel, a serious expression carved into his weathered face. \"This is the first time they've been used in battle, right?\"\n\n\"They worked perfectly, Sir.\"" ]	1
	[WP] You realize you really need money when you lift a truck in order to get a penny that was underneath it	[ "Being a superhero doesn't pay the bills and super strength doesn't help you get a job. This morning, I was scrolling through job listings on the library computer. I never went to college because I never had time. Everyone is always in distress. As if someone heard me, a police siren wailed in the distance. I sighed and grabbed my bag. After changing into my very expensive suit, I stashed my bag behind some lose bricks in the alley's wall. The police scanner in the bag had already given me the crime and location.\n\nWhile flying to the bank, I calculated how long I could survive without a job. The bakery I worked at laid me off, appearently the owner can barley afford to pay herself let alone me. She was really nice about it, giving me a few weeks to find a new job and even recommending me to a few of the local restaurants. I should have gone to culinary school. I didn't get to much time to think before I landed at the bank, still concerned about my job crisis. How am I supposed to find a place that doesn't notice my frequent disappearing act?\n\nI watched the inside through a high, open window instead of rushing in. It seemes like the only person in the front is the teller. He looked awfully young to be working there. The woman holding the gun had her attention focused on the man. It would be a while before the police showed up. I flew in as silently as possible, then I realized why the windows were open: it was hot in there. I asked, \"I think your a/c is broken.\" The woman turned to me in alarm and shot me! \"What the? No witty banter first?\" The bullet bounced onto and rolled across the room. I flew at her and grabbed the gun. I sighed. Now I need to repair my suit. Fire-poof, water resistant, and comfortable, but it can't even handle a single gunshot. Maybe I could get a job fixing- nope I know nothing about air conditioners. I held the gun with one hand and held her hand with the other. The three of us waited for the police. When they showed up, I gave them the gun and the woman. I decided to walk back to the alley. I watched the ground ignoring the stares and the people around me. I saw a penny under a truck's tire. Without another thought, I lifted the truck and grabbed the penny. I sighed. I need to find a job.\n" ]	1
	[WP] “You’re late.”	[ "\"Late? Late for what?\"\n\"The stars are already out\"\n\"You told me to be here at--\"\n\"Timo Drunkejko Ransf\"\n\nAlthough these words carried no meaning, and although I was stuck wondering what on earth was going on, those syllables were comforting. I looked up towards the stars. There were none. He turned my head around. I was looking at the wrong stars.\n\nThe city.\n\nThe city of stars.\n" ]	1
	[WP] You are a tattoo artist. Every week, the same customer comes in to request the same tattoo; another tally mark on an ever growing cluster of tally marks.	[ "She arrived, like clockwork, at 2 pm every Tuesday. I remember the first time she stepped into the tattoo shop my father owned, I was working by myself- our receptionist, Cody, had called in a few moments before I opened shop to announce she wouldnt be coming in, mentioned something about a family emergency. \nIt was an incredibly slow and boring Tuesday, and so when the front door opened and the bell chimed- I was almost overwhelmed with joy. But then she stepped through the threshold, and my joy twisted into an odd sensation of something too familiar. I didnt know her, I had never seen her face before, and yet something about her pale green eyes- and the delicate softness of her face brought a disconcerting wave of deja vu coursing through my mind. I slid the mess of scattered drawings toward the edge of the counter and pushed my chair back to stand up. “Hello, can I help you?” It wasnt until I spoke that she lifted her eyes to meet mine, and when they did- they widened. The calm expression on her face gently transitioned into a subtle look of confusion and then she offered me a smile- and she was calm again. “I have a simple request for a tattoo,” she said, her eyes scanned the lobby for a second before she continued “You have time, right?” but it was more of a statement than a question. \nShe walked to the counter and told me she wanted three tally marks on the side of her abdomen. I led her to one of the back rooms and she lifted her shirt up half way and laid on one side while I collected the proper things. It took a total of ten minutes for her to chose an ink color and point to a spot of skin directly under her ribcage. When the tattoo was done, she paid, and walked out. As soon as the front door shut behind her, I had an eery feeling that I’d see her again. And god, I didnt mind it. \nBusiness had usually been good for us, my father opened the tattoo shop nearly a decade ago and in ways, the place had become important to the community. We had a lot of regulars, and plenty of new customers to keep our income steady and well. Cody had sorted through her family stuff, and returned to work, and things were good for a long time- even on Tuesdays when the green eyed woman would show up for more tally marks. Seeing her was always pleasant, at 2 o’clock she would show up and walk into the same back room I took her to the first time. She was never late, and so I was always there in the room, everything set up right before she would walk in. I would ask her how her week had been and she’d offer me the same smile as always. She’d give me a vague summary of her week and remind to me use red ink- and then she’d watch me as I added a new line to her collection of tally marks. \nBut today was different. \nIt was a quarter past two before she showed up, and she stepped into the room with panic stamped on her face, tears dripping out of her eyes. “Are you okay?” I asked, my feet carrying me toward her in a rush. She lifted her hand up, gesturing for me to wait a moment, and so i stood still, watching with concern as she fought to catch her breath. \n“I dont feel very good today, and so if you could please just add a tally and be quick- I’d really appreciate it” her normally velvet-smooth voice was coated with a layer of coarseness that unsettled me. She sounded like she had been crying for days, sobbing so hard that her vocal chords had almost become too stressed to speak and although my heart hurt for her, and wanted nothing more than to help her with comforting words- I remained quiet. \nAs she walked toward the tattoo bed, I noticed an abnormality in how she moved. Her steps were so small and careful, as if she was scared of moving too quickly, as if she was in pain. She slowly sat down and winced as she flattened her body down and turned to her side. Her eyes met mine, and she focused on my face as she gingerly lifted and rolled up the hem of her shirt. I sat in my stool and slid over to her. And then I saw it, the red ink- the red ink that I firmly remembered tattooing into the form of tally marks, in this exact spot beneath her ribcage had now been replaced by a different kind of line work. My chest felt tight, and my breath stuck to my insides- I think I forgot how to exhale. “It’s bad, isnt it?” she whispered with a tremor in her voice. “Can you tell me what it says?” \n", "\"What are we up to now, 25,26?\"\n\nBud didn't reply. Which was unusual. Come to think he's been different since he walked in the door. It was the first time he never adressed me by Olive, the nickname he bestowed upon me when he first came into my shop before a Halloween party to get the first tally mark. Here we are a couple monthes later and he's nearing thirty. \n\nI just returned to my work, it was quick work but still required concentration. He finally spoke up.\n\n\"It wouldve been my mom's fiftieth today. \"\n\nHe talked about his mom a lot recently and I knew she passed. \n\n\"These tally marks are for her...\"\n\nHis voice broke and tears started to run down his face.\n\n\"...and my ex and my baby girl...\"\n\n\"Bud...\"\n\n\"The one thing my mother wanted me to do before she passed was to sober up. 27. 27 days. Every day I think about her as is stare at the empty bottle of Jack in my bedroom. And I think about it driving away my wife and Clair...\" \n\nI turned off the machine. The tattoo was finished. He composed himself and hugged me. He got up as I pulled off my gloves. He met my wife at the desk and she hugged him. \n\n\"This one's on us Bud.\"\n\n\n\n", "I took a long drag of my cigarette, eyeing hands of the clock. It was almost time to close down. Business wasn't as good as usual that day- only a punk girl, a couple and some drunk guy who wanted 'KICK ME' on his face. \n\nNeedless to say, I told him to get his ass out and come back sober. \n\nSmothering the embers of my smoke, I glanced out the window. This little store wasn't exactly a main-street business. It was stuck out on a small street behind a neat row of residential houses, but it did well enough to keep me housed and fed. \n\nWell, I doubted that anyone would've come in anymore. It was eleven at night, and I wasn't really down for chasing off any more drunks. I went to close up. \n\nThen, he arrived. This guy turned up a couple months back. At first, it was once a month. Then, it was twice a month. Now, he came every week or so- sometimes he'd even come twice a week. He seemed like your everyday Joe after a day of work. Worn white shirt, khakis and black leather shoes. \n\nBut what struck me was the scars on his face: long, slanted gashes made from what seemed to be a serrated blade. It certainly piqued my curiosity, but I wasn't one to go around asking for some stranger's backstory. \n\nI never asked about his tattoos either. They were a strange request, though. Every time he came in, he'd be glowing with delight, like some guy who just got a promotion or something. Either way, he was friendly enough, so I went with his request: a single tally along his arm every single time. \n\nSeeing his familiar face, I grinned. \n\n\"Same old?\" \n\n\"You bet.\" \n\nHe sat down, and I set off to work. This time, I paused. \n\nThere was blood on his sleeve. Frowning, I quickly rolled up the sleeve. Not my business. Carefully, I inked another little tally mark along his arm. There must have been around twenty marks by now. \n\n\"There,\" I muttered. \"All done.\" \n\n\"Thanks again.\" \n\nI waved as he left the store. He'd probably be back next week.\n\n-----\n\nYou walk along the cobble streets, cold air on the back of your neck. You roll your sleeves up. You glance at your arm, covered in little lines. Just looking at them gives you a thrill of excitement that you cannot quell. You can't wait; after all, it's already been a week since the last one. \n\nYour mind starts looking for opportunities. A lone shopper. A lost teen. A confused tourist. \n\nA man with a blue jacket catches your eye. That one. \n\nYou stalk your prey with a practiced stealthiness. Your steps are silent. His eyes widen when you barrel into him, fingers locking tightly around his throat. You sigh when you see the life leave his eyes, filling your own empty soul with substance. Life. Vigour. \n\nA shame you didn't have your knife with you today. You didn't expect the hunger to return so soon. \n\nYou take care of the thing you left behind, before heading to a little street, hidden away in the city. You know the path here so well now. \n\n\"Back again?\" The tattoo artist greets you with a lazy smile. \n\n\"The usual, please.\" Your lips curve slightly. \n\nYou feel the dull, sting as the needle digs into your arm. \n\nTwenty one. \n\n\n", "Our shop is for the rich, the discrete & the privileged. We have a private entrance that does not face the street and we also have a state of the art privacy system which maintains total occlusion from the outside world. We cater for the people that want to get inked, but don't want anyone to see them having it done. \n\nTo keep a low profile, we only have 2 artists. One artist sees the celebrities, the public figures etc and puts them at ease. I see the ultra-wealthy, the powerful and the people who will never pay cash or credit, but instead leave valuable gifts as a token of their appreciation. \n\nIn our 30 year history, we have never betrayed a client, or had any bad press and we like to keep it that way. Outside the shop is a system of complex projectors and holograms that make it appear like an ordinary office. It hides shadows in the windows and will reflect any flash photography at any range. There are sensors that detect lense flare, laser sights and infra red photographic equiment and will alert our security team based on the floor above.\n\nWe have a panic room, reinforced with 4 foot thick steel reinforced concrete walls and a 2 foot thick blast proof door, with life support, water stores and a direct line to our office upstairs, who can provide armed response should that be necessary. Inside the shop, we have a defibrillator, a small medical facility and a store of Kevlar body armor and helmets. \n\nOne night, around 2am, I get a call on the priority line from an unknown number. I answer and greet the customer, and an altered voice from the other end informs me that he will be arriving in the next fifteen minutes for a regular appointment. I knew immediately who it was, it was the mystery man. The man without a name, without a story, he was the one enigma that had never opened up to me in all my years of work.\n\nThe buzzer on the private entrance lights up and I press the entry switch, looking at the CCTV feed. It's him alright. 7 feet tall, extremely muscular, dead mans stare, bald and covered in scars.\n\nI greeted him personally and offered him refreshment, but he stayed silent, removed his shirt and lay, face up, on the table. I understood he was just there to get inked, and get going again. I filled up and gloved up and got ready. \n\nOn his massive slab of a chest was a tally chart. It was at least 200 marks in number. I started at number 99, and he comes every few months or so. I never asked him what it meant, I just got on with it. It only took a few minutes, and he never flinched or moved.\n\nTonight was no different. Except when he spoke.\n\n\"Three marks.\"\n\nI nodded and added the three. I was about to finish when the privacy alarm sounded. A shrill but short alert from the monitoring station filled the room and then shut off. The audio listening devices outside the premises had picked up footsteps outside the private entrance and had begun recording. The CCTV feed showed two individuals, a man and a woman. The woman was short, had cropped blonde hair and wore a bikers jacket. The man was well built and stocky, we was Asian and was dressed in a mechanic's one piece. I turned to the customer, who was getting dressed.\n\n\"Follow me.\"\n\nI took him down to the panic room and on my way, I alerted the security team upstairs. We entered the panic room and the Customer immediately began to look around.\n\n\"Don't worry. Security will handle it.\"\n\n\"They are already dead.\"\n\n\"What.....what do you mean?\"\n\n\"If those two are here, your security team will have already been killed.\"\n\n\"Who....are you?\"\n\n\"You don't want to know. Your life is in danger, and I have brought this upon you, so I will protect you if I can. Do as I say, when I say and do not hesitate. Understood?\"\n\n\".....Understood\"\n\n\"Weapons. Do you have any?\"\n\n\"No...we only have body armor. Here.\"\n\nI flipped a switch on the wall and a rack of vests was revealed by a sliding panel to the side of the drinks cabinet.\n\n\"Put it on\"\n\nThe Customer looked at the bank of CCTV cameras on the opposite wall to the vests. The intruders were no were to be seen. I thought, perhaps they had given up, but then I saw one of them sneaking in through a ceiling tile panel and drop to the floor silently. It was the girl.\n\n\"It's the girl. Series 9 model. She knows we are here, we have to move.\"\n\n\"A series 9 model...what the hell?\"\n\n\"A cyborg. Enhanced with technology. Part human, part robot.\"\n\n\"Why are they here?!\"\n\n\"To kill me. No more time for questions, you want to live, as soon as that door opens, stay down and follow my lead. Got it?\"\n\n\"Oh..Okay..\"\n\nThe door swung outwards silently and with speed. The Customer took the lead, vest on, and walked silently up the stairs\n\nA strange orange light eminated from a corner of the shop floor. It was a laser beam, and it was scanning the room, mapping it. The Customer pushed me to the floor. The laser washed over our position and then moved on again.\n\nHe looked at me and mouthed \"Run\"\n\nHe leapt up and sprinted as silently as possible to the other side of the room, which suprised me because he was such a big man. I followed close behind and slid in beside him in an alcove near the window bay. The laser kept scanning and we hid as best we could from its pattern.\n\nThe Cyborg girl walked into the centre of the room, her gait was uncharacteristically smooth and controlled. The laser was coming from where her eye should have been. Instead of an eye socket, there was a laser emitter and processing unit, which fed information directly to her brain. She was waiting for us to break cover and scanning for any traps or other people. Soon, the direction she was walking in, would mean she would spot us quickly.\n\nAs far as I could see, she was unarmed. I thought, The Customer could definitely take her on and win, with his size and power advantage. \n\nShe stopped walking, just as she reached our position. The Customer drew a huge knife from his combat trousers and brought it up to eye height, holding the blade in a fist, the tip pointing down, ready to strike.\n\nShe stepped forward, turned her head and The Customer struck. Before he could get the knife even remotely close to her head, she grabbed his arm and held him steady. She took one look at me, then him and wrenched the knife from his hand. The Customer pushed me aside and she stabbed him square in the solar plexus, but the Kevlar absorbed the impact and the knife dropped to the ground. He sweep kicked her and she fell over but quickly regained her balance and launched herself to her feet. She smiled.\n\n\"Is that all you got?\" said the cyborg, stretching her arms and legs\n\nThe Customer said nothing, just gestured with his outstretched hand for her to attack, in a \"come here\" motion.\n\nShe slid up to him quickly and launched a flurry of kicks which he blocked, but one got through and The Customer doubled over in pain as the shot landed on his liver. She went to grab him by the head but he swivelled out of the way, tripped her up again and landed an elbow on the back of her head. She grunted with the pain and he rolled on top of her and tried to slide in a chokehold, but she was prepared and rolled out from under him and aimed a kick at his ribs. The Customer blocked it, grabbed her leg and twisted it violently. Something gave, a horrific crunch came from the knee joint and she screamed in pain and doubled over. The Customer smashed her in the side of the head with a knee and she was out cold.\n\n\"That was too easy.\"\n\nSure enough, after a few seconds, she got up and her mangled knee began to repair itself. \n\n\"Nanites.\"\n\n\"Your not going to win this time.\"\n\nShe jumped up higher than any normal human should be able to and threw a vicious kick at the Customers head. He dodged it and moved to the side. The ferocity of her attacks and the speed with which she delivered them with was breathtaking. The Customer was taking a beating. He managed to throw her over a table and she was winded. He took something out of his trouser pocket and threw it to me. It was a vial of black inky looking liquid\n\n\"Setup your tattoo gun, pour that in.\"\n\nI ran over to the gun and poured the substance in. She was fighting back against the grip he had her in. Hand on her head and dragging her to the table. She bit him hard and he just kept dragging her. She wrapped her legs around his and tripped him up and he had to contend with her modified arm again. They were wrestling on the ground and the Customer was beginning to lose.\n\nShe had her foot against his throat, cutting off the air supply. He managed to grunt at me.\n\n\"Use...the....gun....on ....her!!\"\n\nI leapt over to them struggling on the floor and I jammed the needle right into her right thigh and unloaded it. The gun buzzed away and she immediately flinched, he turned her over and smashed her repeatedly in the face until she was barely conscious. \n\n\"Regenerate from this, bitch.\"\n\nHe smashed her face into the corner of a granite worktop and blood fountained everywhere. She twitched and writhed and then stopped after a few seconds.\n\n\"What...the...fuck.\"\n\n\"Calm down. He will come looking for her, and he is much worse.\"\n\n\"Nanites...what...\"\n\n\"She had them in her bloodstream, they repair any damage she takes quickly. Almost impossible to kill someone with nanites in their blood unless you cut off the head or damage the brain. The solution I gave you destroys nanites instantly, because its full of counter-nanites that target hers and kill them off. She can't repair. Now shes dead\"\n\n\"I can see....but...why are they after you?\"\n\n\"I kill them for a living. When they go rogue, or there is a defect, I hunt them down. The tattoos on my chest, that's how many I have survived and taken down.\"\n\nThe front door flew off its hinges. In the door way stood the Asian man, staring at both of us. The alarms were going off and the private security firm would now be alerted to the danger and would be here within 5 minutes with a squadron of armed guards. If we could survive that long....", "Some people might think that working in a tattoo parlor is a grunge-fest, but that's not true.\n\nSure, every now and then a couple of punk-kids would try and get some ink, but a quick glare and they go running with their tails between their legs.\n\nMostly, it was just people looking to visually express a part of themselves, nothing wrong with that.\n\nBut, for the past few months, there has been something really strange going on in the shop.\n\nSee, there's this guy, Vincent. Every Saturday afternoon, without fail, he comes in and gets a tally-mark on his arm. Now, this isn't the first time I've had someone request tally's. But those people ask for them all in one go; they don't drag it out over 13 weeks.\n\nYet, I will not pry, for my old boss left me a series of rules to live by.\n\n1) Do not ink up genitals (breasts and above the crotch are fine).\n\n2) Do not ink up drunks.\n\n3) Ask for proof-of-payment upfront.\n\n4) If you're unsure of the spelling of a word, ask the client to spell it out for you.\n\n5) Do not ask why a customer is getting a tattoo.\n\nThere's actually twenty more rules, but those five are the ones he felt were most important, and I can definitely say I agree with that last one. Getting a tattoo can mean a lot of different things to a lot of different people, so it's safer to keep quite and not risk earning anyone's ire.\n\n~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~\n\nThe front door of the shop rings open. I glance down at my watch, then look up at the approaching man. Sure enough, there's Vincent, right on time for his weekly appointment, already pulling some cash from his wallet.\n\nSilently, I gesture to the empty chair, gathering my tools as he made himself comfortable.\n\nI swap out the needle (Rule 6: Always keep your tools clean) and say, \"Okay Vincent, ready for number fourteen?\"\n\n\"Actually,\" he say excitedly, \"Can you put the name 'Bob O'Leary' instead?\"\n\nI pause. Slowly, I turn around, furrowing my brow, \"...You're sure?\" (There goes rule 12).\n\nHe nods.\n\n\"'B-O-B, space, O-apostrophe-L-E-A-R-Y'?\"\n\nHe nods once more.\n\nI stare at him for another few seconds, but then rule nine pops into my head (Never leave a customer hanging) and I say, \"Alright...got a font or color in mind?\" \n\nHe shakes his head, rolling my sleeve up, \"Black is fine. But use the smallest print you can, and put it right next to my last mark.\"\n\nI hum at his request, grabbing my stool and sitting down, getting to work.\n\nThe only sound after that is the steady hum of the needle working its magic.\n\nSoon though, Vincent clears his throat, \"So...bet you're wondering why I'm going with a name this time around?\"\n\nI pause, looking up from the second 'B' in 'Bob'. \"The thought has crossed my mind,\" I say before going back to work.\n\nVincent fiddles with his pants, \"The thing is...I'm an inventor. At least, I want to be one, professionally. I've got some great ideas!\"\n\nI only nod, tightening my grip as I fill in the apostrophe.\n\nVincent continued, \"And since February, I've been looking for investors. Until now, I kept on getting rejected.\"\n\nI stop my work on the 'A', humming in understanding, \"O'Leary's the first one to give you a green-light?\"\n\nVincent nods, a smile on his face, \"He was really impressed! Said I could make a lot of money off it--you know, if it works,\" he finishes with decidedly less enthusiasm.\n\n\"Hey, don't beat yourself up before you've done anything,\" I chime in as I outline the curve on the 'R'.\n\nVincent chuckles, \"Yeah,\" and stays silent after that.\n\nAnother minute, and I've completed the name. \n\nVincent lifted his arm up, admiring my work. He smiles widely, putting the fee in my hands. \"Thank you!\" \n\n\"Ah, no problem,\" I say as I clean up my tools. (Rule 23: Always clean up after each individual job).\n\nHis smile dies a little, \"Uh...not for nothing but...I kind of hope I don't have to see you again.\"\n\nI let out a snort, \"Tell you what, if I do, I'll fill in that next tally free of charge.\" (Goodbye Rule 22).\n\n~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~\n\nThe next time I saw Vincent, he was Time's person of the Year.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n", "Welcome to a day in my life. I own a tattoo shop. It does well enough. Nothing mindblowing, and I'll never be on Ink Master, but my work is good enough to keep people coming in. I've been doing this for a few years now. Some customers are regulars, plenty of first timers, and the occasional odd request. I can't even begin to count the number of butterflies I've tattooed on girls, or barbed wire wrapped around some dude's bicep. Every once in a while though, something memorable comes through that door. Like Rick.\n\nWhen Rick first walked through my door, he seemed like a pretty normal guy. Didn’t talk too much, but had a clear idea of exactly what he wanted and where he wanted it. A single tally mark, on his left forearm. Definitely not the weirdest request I’ve had, so I rolled with it. Quick, mostly painless, and he was out the door. I didn’t see him again for a week. When he came back, it the same request, right next to his first one. I didn’t worry about it, did the deed, and continued on with my day. This pattern continued for a few months, until he hit the fifteenth mark.\n\nI should explain something real quick. I work in a city. Downtown, a lot of crime, and police running around answering calls all day. So when I heard the report on the news of someone that had been murdered, I shrugged it off. No big deal around here, just another day honestly. I know it sounds cold, but you have to adjust to things like this when you don’t have any other options.\n\nAnyways, back to Rick. When he came in and got that fifteenth mark, he had a look in his eyes. He seemed…haunted. Considering our usual arrangement, I’ve never really talked to the guy. But this time, the mood was different. I had to ask.\n\n“Hey, Rick. You okay, man?” He looked at me then, and what I saw in those eyes scared the shit out of me. I don’t know what it was, but it wasn’t normal. Almost wasn’t even human. I couldn’t even imagine what he’d seen or done to get that look, and I was starting to regret asking him anything.\n\n“No,” he finally responded. “I’m not okay.” \n\nI couldn’t speak. I had no response to that, and his manner suggested the conversation was over. I finished up the mark, told him it was on the house, and watched him leave. After he was gone, I cancelled the rest of my appointments that day and closed up the shop. Something about the way he talked just freaked me out, and I wanted to be home.\n\nLater that night, I had the news on while eating dinner. More reports of murders. Missing children. All the usual shit that goes on around here. Then Rick’s words struck me. His tally marks. “Fuck,” I thought to myself. “That’s a scorecard.” Every week, another tally mark, and more murders than this city can keep up with. I had no idea what to do if he ever walked through my doors again.\n\n2 weeks passed. 3. A month. No sign of him. About 2 months after our last meeting, the door opened. It was 3:00, the same time Rick always came in. I looked up in apprehension, then breathed a sigh of relief. It wasn’t Rick. Just a paramedic. His first words chilled me, though. “Do you know a guy named Rick?” \n\nIt took me a minute before I could respond. “Yeah,” I said, hesitantly. “Why?”\n\n “You’re the one that did the tally marks for him?” I confirmed that I was. The paramedic, Luke, sat down heavily before looking into my eyes. “He’s gone. Dead. Killed himself about 2 months ago.”\n\nMy heart dropped to my stomach. I didn’t know what I expected, but it was definitely not this. My mind was racing. “How did you know him?” I asked.\n\n“He was my partner. I trained the kid. Been with him since day 1. But no amount of training can prepare you for the job.”\n\nMy suspicions about Rick began to clear up. Instead, another thought came in. “Wait. So, those tally marks? What…” I trailed off at Luke’s gaze.\n\n“A reminder. Every time someone died on our ambulance, he took it personally. He felt like a failure after so many, and couldn’t handle it. I asked around trying to find you.”\n\n“But why? Why me? All I did was tattoo the guy.”\n\n“Because I have a favor to ask.” Luke rolled up his sleeves, revealing scar tissue in the shape of tally marks on his forearm. No, not just his forearm. Both arms, all around. Rows of marks, carefully hidden under long sleeves. “I’d like a tattoo,” he whispered." ]	6
	[WP] Your mother was an orc and your father was human. Describe your first day at a normal human school.	[ "The first thing I noticed when I walked into an “All-Human High School” was how short everyone else seemed. Even the adults. I was one of the first orc students since the supreme stuck down segregation to go to a human school. The state decided that since I had a human father I was more likely to be accepted. They were wrong. I was still an orc.\n\nI past through a mob of protesters held back only by metal barriers. Signs were held by parents and students alike. They shouted obscenities. I walked past with my head held high. Later I wondered if they would have been so bold if the barriers weren’t there.\n\nI had helpfully been given my schedule the day before but I had not been given a tour or provided a map. I was immediately lost. I wandered awkwardly for a few minutes until a voice got my attention.\n\n“Hey, you need some help?” The speaker was a young man with medium brown skin. His hair was short and black. I stood a foot over him.\n\n“Yes! Please.” I respond. To my shock he smiled and held out his hand for my schedule. Kinda dazed I handed it over.\n\n“You have English first. You’re in luck! We share first and second period! I can show you the rest of the school during lunch.” He smiled again as he started to lead me down the hall.\n\n“Thank you for the help, but... why?” I couldn’t fathom someone this nice after the hatred outside.\n\nHe laughed. “The good thing about all the bigots being outside is that the only people in here are teachers, students who don’t care and people who see this as progress.”\n\nAs we reached the door to the classroom he held out his hand, “I’m Ernest Green. Pleased to meet you.”\n\nI smiled for the first time in a long while. As pale green hand met brown, I felt hope for the future.\n\n“I’m Sharog Cohen, but my dad calls me Sarah.”\n\n\nEdit: Basic editing. While I am at it Ernest Green was one of the Little Rock Nine. He was the first to graduate. This was during the desegregation era in the US. ", "I like sundresses. Their bright colors remind me of the wildflowers that grow in fallow fields and between farms. I still like sundresses, but my outward expression of happiness has been drawing undesired attention to me all day. Pop was right-- it does makes me stand out more. A target kind enough to be vibrantly colored!\n\n\"Remember, Cee,\" Pop had said, \"Be the change you want to see. Anyone can be an asshole, that's easy.\" That bit of bluntness earned my Pop a playful punch to the kidneys from my Emm. She hated when he swore, and Pop knew that. His melodramatic response drew a laugh, even from Emm.\n\nI manage to contain my snicker, if barely, at the memory. My peers are assholes. Rape this, hate-fuck that, bland attempts at nicknames based on one or the other. I'm glad my folks prepared me for that. It'd be hurtful otherwise, as it stands it's just annoying.\n\n\"They'll try to torment you, Cee,\" My Emm had said, \"Torment you until they learn you're useful and smart. Then they'll come ask for favors when they think no one is looking. That's the way of the world.\"\n\nEmm is short. Short and petite-- at least for an orc! Pop is about average for a human, maybe a bit taller. That puts me at this weird spot taller than most girls and just shy of average for most boys. My peers have been teasing me about that, too. At least when not staring at my chest! Maybe I should have worn that blouse Pop recommended.\n\nThe thump of the instructor closing one book and opening another draws me out of my thoughts. Math! Instructor Bronis seems a bit befuddled. You'd think the Duke would have scoured the lands for a more apt math instructor, considering this school is the Duke's grand project for the realm. All children of non-noble birth are to have a basic education, including but not limited to reading, writing, and mathematics. I'm one of the older students at seventeen, others are as young as ten. All in the same shared class, as determined by where we live, wandering from professor to professor.\n\nI stand out more than physically.\n\nPoor lil' Kara! She's ten, and she struggles with everything. I tune out Instructor Bronis as I shift my attention to Kara. She can't read yet, solving equations is right out. While the instructor fumbles about, I decide to help Kara continue to learn to read. A lesson that's interrupted by sharp pain as something raps across my knuckles!\n\n\"Pay attention!\" Barks Instructor Bronis, shaking his short riding crop at me.\n\nBe the change I want to see. Be the change I want to see. My mantra of the day! Best not to mouth off to Instructor Bronis that he's a bad teacher, that I could offer better instruction in mathematics. Just like it's better to keep my head low and not correct the method the language instructor is using to teach reading and writing. They won't listen to me, and I'll just draw ire and extra demerits. Because I'm the bastard daughter of a dirty mercenary and his hate-fucking of a mutilated runt of a captured orc.\n\nI roll my eyes, giving Kara a reassuring pat on the shoulder.\n\nThey can be as pretentious as they like, I know the truth even if Pop and Emm think I don't. Pop was mercenary, yes. But he was a civil and siege engineer with mathematics and physics chops Instructor Bronis couldn't match on his best day. Emm was mutilated, missing her left hand above the wrist with a bit of melty skin on the same arm and the left side of her face, but she had been a fine warrior and soldier. Someone Pop had dragged out of a collapsed and burning structure. An enemy he'd helped nurse back to health during a ceasefire while nobles wheeled and dealed. She learned to speak five languages. Five languages! She publishes poems and essays in each language under various pseudonyms, which Pop helps her distribute clandestinely.\n\nI'm their beloved daughter, taught the trappings of linguistics, mathematics, and science since I was little. I don't know why Emm and Pop want me to think they're simple mercenaries that took land as payment, but Emm shouldn't have written everything down if she wanted to keep that they weren't a secret! I'll keep my own secrets, and be that change. I'll teach Kara and others like her the basics of education.\n\nThrough them, I'll change one mind at a time. I'll make the world a better place one person at a time." ]	2
	[WP] Your father, who was a sailor, has recently died and gave you an ocean coordinate for you to scatter his ashes there. Upon your arrival, all GPS systems fail, the clouds hide the stars, your compass is going nuts and inside your father's urn, there's just a map with a destination.	[ "The sea was in our blood. I sailed, just as my father and his father before him. Generation to generation, the Merris men had taken to the open waters in search of fortune. I had always known my father as the Captain. On the ship, at home, out walking around the small port that we made our lives in. Always the Captain.\n\nI loved him. We didn't say it. We didn't need to. I wished I had, just once. Now I couldn't.\n\nI missed him.\n\nHis illness had given him ample time to plan for his passing, leaving me well situated. As we placed his urn in the hold of the ship that had carried him to his fortune, I became the master of the Faraday. Now, standing on the docks, I turned to the other thing he had left behind, a small slip of paper with a coordinate on it. The paper was yellowed with age and worn, as if it had passed from one hand to another across the generations to finally rest in mine.\n\nThere was no explanation beyond a small written note: \"I rest here.\" Nothing more. No clue as to why it must be there beyond a faded memory of when I was younger. I had been sitting beside the Captain as he sailed, listening as he explained the meanings of the clouds. \"A grey and puffy one like that means trouble son. Lightning. Storms. Swells. Avoid them if you can, the Faraday is a sturdy ship but there's little to be gained from risks like that.\"\n\nI nodded, \"Yes Captain. Have you sailed in them before?\"\n\n\"Many times, and much worse. I've sailed the Blacks before.\" His voice was distant, a whisper rather than the confident tenor I was accustomed to.\n\n\"The Blacks?\" I asked.\n\n\"Aye. The dark heart of the father storm. Only once, long ago.\"\n\n\"Why? Why did you do it?\"\n\nHe rested a hand on my shoulders. \"Because I was told to.\"\n\n\"By who?\" I persisted. The Captain was laconic but not mysterious, the lack of an answer intrigued me.\n\n\"By those who came before,\" he whispered, \"and where I will tell you to go when it is your time.\" And then he was silent.\n\nAnd that was it, my only clue to the coordinate that now called to me. Demanded I now go where the others had. I wanted to follow him, to know that I charted the same course as him. To be close to him again. To know that I could be the Captain too.\n\nMy preparations were substantial but expedient. The coordinate was a week of sailing away, so I packed for a month to be safe. I carefully inspected the ship for seaworthiness, knowing that it had been meticulously cared for by the Captain and me. It had been our livelihood and we treated it with the respect one accords to something that sustains you. But beyond that, I loved the Faraday, it was the place I felt most alive.\n\nAnd now I would be sailing it alone for the first time. Barely on the cusp of fifteen, but already an adult.\n\nThe journey to the coordinate was familiar and unfamiliar. The salty air, the call of the birds, and gentle sway of the ship were all known to me. The feel of the captain's chair was knew. The solitude as well.\n\nIt was a few days in before I began to notice something strange. Whenever I set the rudder to the coordinate, the skies began to darken ominously. The second I veered away from the coordinate they lightened immediately and impossibly. Not a trace of clouds. More worrisome was that I appeared to make no progress toward my goal unless I stayed to the course. It was either to the ominous darkness or back to the port, retreating.\n\nI thought of the Captain, resting beneath the deck, awaiting his final destination. He was calling to me, asking me to do what he had once done for his father. Steeling my will, I guided the wheel toward the destination. Almost immediately the clouds formed and turned from white to grey. Another day and they had formed into black thunderheads, angry and fearsome.\n\nThe Blacks.\n\nAnother day and they were upon me, kicking the waves up into fearsome swells. The Faraday tossed among the waves, tilting dangerously to one side before crashing back in the other direction. It was unlike anything I had experienced before, but the knowledge that the Captain had persevered gave me strength. I would lay him to rest, it was what he was owed.\n\nI sailed through the night, my eyes trying to make sense of the swirling maelstrom about me. Fighting my way to the coordinate by inches. Until finally I was there. The compass spun wildly in its cradle, searching for a North that eluded it. I knew in my heart I had found the place, here in the heart of the Blacks.\n\nI stumbled below decks, finding the Captain's earn secured to the side. Grabbing it, I crawled back up the ladder, finding my way to the the wheel once more. As the lightning flashed and the winds coursed about me, I yanked the top of the urn off, ready to set the Captain free.\n\nBut he was not there. Only a weathered map and a strange compass.\n\nThe compass pointed North.\n\nPlatypus out.\n\nWant more peril? r/PerilousPlatypus" ]	1
	[WP] You were an evil villain who was permanently defeated by being sealed into a TV. Nowadays you spend your time concocting weekly schemes to terrorize sitcom families.	[ "Once upon a time....\n\nOnce upon a time she was known as Granny Goodness. Beloved, as much as one can be, of Darkseid, leader of the furies.\n\n\nOnce, she held favor, but she let victory slide from her grasp. \n\nIn divine anger, Lord Darkseid chose her punishment. Banishment. But not to this universe, no, that would be too lenient.\n\nNow, flung into the ever growing infinity that is the TV multiverse, she has a new name, a new identity. She is........\n\nSOPHIA PETRILLO!!!!\n\nCast into a new identity, she seeks a way to once again enter Darkseids good graces.\n\nAs granny sits at the garish 1980's kitchen table, she glances at \nBlanch Devereaux, resident loose woman of this new reality.\n\n\nSoon, she thinks, soon dear sweet Blanch, you shall create for me an escape from this pathetic prison!\n\nShe glances at Blanch.\n\n \"Blanch, you look like your dog just died. While it was looking at you being moody. What, did your new boyfriend finally see you in daylight?\"\n\n \" Oh Sophia, such a card as always! I guess with a husband in the ground you do t have to worry about acting like a lady. \"\n\nstudio laughter\n\n\"So that's a yes.\"\n\n Studio laughter\n\n \"I don't see why it's any of your business, but yes, Carl an I did have a bit of a falling out. Out of a window, when his wife found us. At least he made a good cushion, since he is over 250 pounds.\"\n\n rancorous studio laughter\nwoman coughing\n\n \"Oh, so like every other date.\"\n\n unenthusiastic giggling\n\n \"Oh Sophia, don't you have better things to do then critique my love life?\"\n\n\n \" not since the cable went out. \"\n\ngeneric laughter\n\n \"Listen Blanch,if you need a new boy toy, I know just the guy.\"\n\n\n \"Really Sophia, I'm more interested in the living, not the dead.\"\n\n\n \" I must have missed the day you found standards \"\n\nLaughter\n\n \"But seriously,he's a catch! A stud! He's greek.\"\n\n \" Oh, so he has no money. \"\n\nfaint laughter\n\n \"Not much, but he lives in a house in San Francisco.\"\n\n \"California! Do tell!\"\n\n Blanch sweeps aside the coffee on the table and grabs a seat.\n\n \"Real sweet deal Blanch. Bachelor, widower, living with his brother in law. I think you have a real shot here.\"\n\n \" I don't know Sophia, I would have to move to San Francisco. \"\n\n \"Trust me, it's worth it. Dorothy and Rose are sick of your bullshit anyway. Best to make a new start.\"\n\n \" well I just dont..... \"\n\n \"Did I mention the brother in law is single. And they have a hot comedian friend living in the garage?\"\n\n \"I'm sold! San Francisco here I come!\"\n\n Blanch rushes out of the back door.\n\nAnd now, Granny thinks to herself, for phase 2.\n\nRose wanders into the kitchen, scatterbrained as ever.\n\n \"Oh, Sophia, have you seen Blanch? I've been meaning to talk to her about her car.\"\n\n Soon, thinks Granny, soon I shall be back at your side Lord Darkseid.\n\n \" She's seeing a man about a snake. Don't think we'll see her for a while. \"\n\n \" Oh, I hope it's not serious. My brother had to see a man about a snake in St. Olaf. It took 2 years and a big bag of Vaseline. \"\n\n\nGranny facepalmed and thought, this could take a while." ]	1
	[WP] The seven deadly sins aren’t all bad. Sometimes they’re needed to help a person get back on track! Anorexic? Gluttony has got you! Depressed? Pride will help you out of that rut!	[ "We get a bad rap being called sins, thought of as demons, or other 'evil' entitled. Honestly we're just a different form of a guardian angel to humanity, the only problem is that are blessings so not have limits.\n\nThere's a girl on the verge of starving herself to death, and Gluttony will help her to eat. Gluttony also means to consume so if he gives her his blessing, she will be able to eat, but will probably die at some point from obesity, or end up on a show that idolizes fat people.\n\nA man is unsure of what he wants in life, he'll need to make a decision. Greed will help him with that, although he will probably end up a thief, or cause violence to another human who has something he wants. \n\nEnvy is busy making a pact with a girl who wants to be an Olympic athlete. Most likely, that event will occur, but she'll always be jealous of another aiming to be able to do what they do.\n\nFor myself, I feel like an idiot of an angel. A wealthy boy became a leader in the world, as per the blessing I gave him. Unfortunately, he sees to be an idiot that blathers his mouth, and is causing problems and grief. I just hope he either does not remember, or blabber about our deal. Last thing we need is humans blaming us for granting their desires. Now, with that threat assessed I'm going to need to find someone who can aid us in limiting our power. Who could I ask, that won't succumb to the effects of Pride? " ]	1
	[WP] You’re friend Is a huge fan in indie-games. One day, he brings a game called YOUR LIFE to your house. When you boot it up, two options are shown, NEW GAME OR CONTINUE?	[ "The game of YOUR LIFE\nAs my friend walked in through the door, he said “Hey! Bill, I got this game the other day and since your a big gamer I thought we should play it together.” \nI said “Sure, Lets play.”\nAs I put the disk into the ps4, I had this very weird feeling but as usual when my friend were over I ignored the feeling. When the game started I asked my friend if he had played it before. he responded “No. I haven’t.”\nRight as I saw The “continue” button and I could press it I got super confused. Seeing as Jack (my friend) had never played this game, how could I click on the continue button.\nJack and I decided to play a new game and right as I clicked on it Jack had disappeared. Then I was teleported into a hospital. I realized I was a four year old, I remembered everything as I did before I clicked new game.\nAs I grew older I noticed everything was the same as my childhood.I grew to the same age as before this ordeal, and my friend Jack had come over with that game YOUR LIFE.\nI asked if he brought any other games to play but he insisted that we play it.\nBut this time I clicked on continue and the game crashed so we stopped playing, he looked disappointed but I was happy on the inside. \nHe then said “Ugh. Any game I try to play just fails! I guess I can’t be a gamer!”\nI replied” Well, how about you choose one of my games.”\nHe chose Call of Duty Black OPS 2 and we played it for hours.\nHe had no recall of that incident but I remembered the whole thing.\n\n\nThis is the first time I’ve written any Writing Prompts. So I hope you like it.\nI know this was short but I had to type this out on my phone." ]	1
Skyscrapers, please forgive me.	[WP] You’ve lived in a isolated sky kingdom you entire life. For the first time, strange metallic spires appear on the horizon, growing taller and taller.	[ "When they first pierced the sky, the elders called them a simple malformation of the clouds. They told us not to worry, yet they forbid us to go nearby, claiming they worked as backward storms, throwing lightning upward.\n\nHowever, time went by and the spires kept rising. They couldn't be ignored no more. They shone at night, and they had never shown any sign of danger. The people weren't fools. The elders were hiding something from us.\n\nI strapped on my mechanical wings, oiled them up, and bathed them in windessence. Soon I felt the connection. They were like any other limb, another extension of my body. I flew toward the Whirlwind Temple, to confront King Aerilar. He was an old, benevolent man, or so we had thought.\n\nThe Whirlwind Temple was a wonder of Aereal Architecture. They had managed to shape and control ruthless gales into a perfect, gigantic sphere. The currents blew at speeds so great, you could see the strings of wind constantly knitting the building. However, as beautiful as it was, I had always found it uncomfortable. There was no ground, people were flying even in their sleep.\n\nI trespassed the walls with no major problems. We were creatures of the winds, we could ride hurricanes with ease. One thing caught my attention. There were no guards today. Not a single one of them. I flew over the royal chamber. Many layers of wind coalesced forming the walls, forbidding the uninvited eye to see through.\n\nI dug out my whistle, and blew it four times. It was our way to announce our presence.\n\nThe roof of the royal chamber twisted in a circular motion, forming a hole in the middle. A door of sorts. At least the king was here.\n\nI descended and there he was, reading an aged book fluttering mid air. His golden wings were extensive, they needed a great amount of windessence to function, yet that, of course, wasn't a problem to the king. Aerilar closed the book, and met my eyes. His irises were a wavering white, and his skin a mess of wrinkles.\n\n\"Oh! Priest. I didn't expect your visit,\" he said. \"What can I do for you?\"\n\n\"The metallic spires, old one,\" I said, weighting his reactions. \"You've been lying to us about it. They keep growing, and they shine in the night, with light. They are not a malformation of the clouds.\"\n\nHe nodded. \"They are not. You are right about that. They are, however, something our people must never get close to.\"\n\nI frowned. He always remained so solemn, and his words always had that edge of wisdom, you couldn't help but hear and believe. \"Why?\"\n\n\"They are buildings, built my sinful monsters,\" he said. \"It only takes one glimpse of them for our thoughts to be twisted. They can and will destroy our kingdom if we allow the people to see them.\"\n\n\"But what about Great Winoren's commands,\" I said, referring to our God. \"A functioning kingdom can't survive if built over lies. What are these monsters you spoke of? Religion doesn't mention them.\"\n\nAerilar sighed. \"Winoren is a hypocrite.\"\n\n\"What?\" I felt everything inside me crumble. How could a king defame a God?\n\n\"Those monsters are his lie,\" Aerilar continued. \"Those monsters are the reason he brought us to conquer the skies. We can't under no circumstances, let them corrupt us.\"\n\n\"My beliefs then,\" I said, \"our entire history, is based on lies?\"\n\nAerilar nodded and flew toward me. He placed a hand on my shoulder and met my gaze. His expression was unreadable. \"There's only one lie and unfortunately it lays in the foundation of our kingdom. You need to understand, young priest, that it only takes one doubting man to start a revolution.\n\n\"I will create all the lies necessary to prevent the monsters from corrupting our society. We live in peace, in harmony. They won't take us away from us.\" He tightened his grip. \"I've sent our guards to destroy their towers, and I will have to murder all of those who come back alive. I can't risk a shattering of our society.\"\n\nI found myself in a lack of words. Aerilar was a ruthless tyrant. He and all of his precursors. They had fooled us since the beginnings. They had shaped our thoughts.\n\n\"And so.\" His wings burst toward me, piercing my chest like two swords. \"Another angel falls.\"\n\n----------------------------------------------\n\n/r/therobertfall For more stories. \n\n ", "People say that there are multiple worlds. Cracks in reality from where we coexist with other universes. One must only see between the lines that divide our vision and slip through the hidden fractures from a differing perspective.\n\nThat is what we believe to have witnessed, when the first of spires pierced our clouds and first contact was made.\n\nWe lived among the clouds, as we always did. Divided from the low-lands, a place that we always believed to be of myth, and to always be avoided. It was strange to me. If it were truly all a story, why did our kind show such trepidation towards the idea?\n\nWe walked upon the sky, our feet walking on a sheet of glass that only showed the drifting clouds above. We could never see the lower lands, yet we always knew, deep down, that they existed.\n\nI remember the day when the spires broke through to our world, dark metallic spires that pierced our heavens. It was a rope. A bridge that connected the low lands to our world and first contact was made.\n\nYet our visitors did not come to us as friends, but as conquerors. The metallic spikes anchored themselves to our world like pirate ships, bridging the gap and allowing the horde of vile abominations to swarm us like a black wave.\n\nI remember the day when the people of the sky and the people of the lands crossed the great gorge and crossed paths; and the war that ensued thereafter.\n\n***\n\n/r/KikiWrites " ]	2
	[WP] Humans can cast spells by speaking specific words chosen at birth, most being passed from old languages. The maximum security prison you work at has been put on lockdown in search for an escapee. While doing so, you are ambushed by your target, the infamous serial killer Samuel L. Jackson.	[ "\"I said,\" Samuel L Jackson whispered in a tone of implied threat and restrained violence. \"I said...\" \n\nSamuel L Jackson paused and stared at me. It was the stare he gave the white guy in his\"'say the N word\"interview'. When next he spoke, it was a yell. His voice was indistinguishable from anyone elses even at this great volume. \n\n\"I HAVE HAD IT WITH THESE MOTHAFUCKIN' SNAKES ON THIS MOTHAFUCKIN' PLANE!\" \n\nThe pain hit me like a kick to the balls. He knew I was targeting him somehow, but he led with his best punch. \n\n\"Is it weird,\" I spoke, drawing his eyebrows to raise. \"that I think of you by your full name? Like I can't think of you as Samuel or Sam. Just Samuel L Jackson.\" \n\nSamuel L Jackson looked shocked to see me still up. \"Most people go down after one. Have you, uh, you heard this one? I’ll shove a lightning bolt up your ass!\" \n\nI smirked at the annoyance that he tried to call an attack. \n\n\"Who are you?\" He asked. \n\n\"Aaron Paul.\" I said, causing Samuel L Jackson to quiver. \n\n\"No...\" \n\n\"Yo,\" I said. A smile on my lips. \"Bitch.\" \n\nSamuel L Jackson melted like butter. " ]	1
I posted this writing prompt to my Aquaponics and Sustainability classes, and I promised them I would eventually post it to Reddit to see what the community would come up with. - SPOILER ALERT: Everything below this point is additional rules that were given to the students. Stop reading if you don't want restrictions! - Additional information that I gave my students... Only including it for reference of what the actual assignment looked like: - It will take us 1000 years to travel to the destination planet. - We have enough supplies for 10 years, and a new cold fusion power supply that gives us unlimited stable energy. - Nothing can be wasted or we run out of supplies. - Stasis of any kind is not allowed. - You can bring animals and plants from Earth. - The "problem" of the future must be something that is actually human caused and happening now, but future scientists have determined that we are already past the point of no return. - Scientists also determined that 2018 was the ideal time period to go back to and build the Ark because of the current space race between private companies.	[WP] It's 2118. You have to come back from the future to warn humanity about what they will do to Earth. The damage is unrecoverable, and part of your message to 2018 must be that for the planet to survive, we must leave. You've brought plans for a single Ark... For 14,000 people.	[ "It was like a Hollywood movie.\n\nEvery screen in Time square was showing the same thing. In fact, every screen in the world was showing the same thing. That didn't matter that much to Jacob, though. He sat in Time square, with a beer in one hand, and a smile on his face.\n\nThe orbiting cameras watched as the ion engines powered up. There was a great glow of light, and then the ship soared away. There was a huge cheer, and a great noise as glasses were clinked and confetti cannons blasted out over the crowd. Then, loud bangs were heard as the fireworks began to pop above the crowd.\n\n\"We did it. The first Ark,\" Jacob said to his friend. They were both smiling.\n\n\"Yeah! Fuck yeah! I was hoping it would go well.\" His friend slugged down a mouthful of beer, and then reached out to clink bottles again. \"Which ark are you meant to be on?\"\n\n\"I got lucky. Lottery put me in Ark D. I'll only have to wait around five years.\"\n\n\"That's great, man. Really great.\"\n\n\"Yeah, I know. Hey, which one are you in?\" Jacob asked. His friend made a face, and shrugged.\n\n\"I'm on X,\" he said. Jacob whistled, and shook his head, trying both to contain his own relief, and to look sufficiently sympathetic. His friend shrugged. \"Ahh well. This went so well, we'll be fine. We'll be fine...\"\n\nHe was still repeating his little mantra a few seconds later when every screen went black. Everyone was surprised, and after the initial moment of silent, panicked confusion, everyone turned to their neighbours.\n\nThe same question spilled from every set of lips - What is going on? Each time, they received the same answer. I don't know. But it didn't take long for the question to be answered.\n\nThe screens all hissed, and then settled into a firm image. A man's face, loomed over them, dozens of identical pairs of eyes locked down on the crowd.\n\n\"That's Elon Musk, isn't it?\" Jacob asked. Already, people in the crowd were saying the same thing, confirming what he thought. \"What's Elon Musk doing on the screens?\"\n\n\"People of Earth,\" said Musk. \"I wanted to give you a message. A message from the future.\"\n\n\"God, why do people like that have to be so weird? Always pontificating and trying to sound cool...\" Jacob's friend start to say.\n\n\"Many people have always said that I seem strange, unusual. You've joked that I am an alien,\" Elon continued. \"I am actually from the future. I was sent back from over a century in your future, to try and save the planet.\"\n\nJacob's friend wasn't talking any more. No-one was. The silence was all consuming.\n\n\"Over the course of the 20th century, humanity slowly tore itself and the planet apart. The governments of every country failed you. They let bigotry and nationalism and anti-intellectualism drag humanity back. Climate change soared beyond our control, and despite the efforts of the scientists, nothing could be done.\"\n\nOn the screens, images of pollution, plastic waste in the sea, of dead and dying animals bombarded the crowd. Jacob heard gasps, and a few women saying \"Oh God\". Nearby, a baby started to cry - which seemed oddly appropriate.\n\n\"As the last vestiges of human society was choking on its own effluent, we looked back. We looked to the time before the planet was poisoned. Back to when we could have saved it. And we were lucky. There was a way. One man could go back.\" The screen changed, and suddenly was there again, staring at the camera.\n\nThen, he spoke again. \"I am that man. I was chosen to come back, and to save the world. I say this not to boast, but merely to inform you. Everything I have done, I did to save us all.\"\n\nAnother pause, and more sobs. Jacob could feel a knot of steel in his stomach, dragging down towards his groin. He knew that he wanted to dash to the toilet - to vomit or to urinate, he couldn't decide - but the weight was too much. He sat, stuck in his seat, watching, listening.\n\n\"We had determined that nothing could be done. With the world as it was, there was no hope. The only hope was an exodus. We had to leave. Or, at least, some of us did.\" The screen flashed back to the image of the Ark - Ark A. It was little more than a tiny speck near, a bright light near the moon that was rapidly dwindling into the distance.\n\n\"We could only build space for 14,000 people. I had been told to take the best and the brightest, and flee. To take a remnant of humanity and escape to another world. But I saw a new way. A better way.\"\n\nElon's face reappeared, and this time, he was smiling. \"On Ark A is every major politician in the world. They are all soaring off to a distant planet. They expect more Arks to be built, and to follow them into the stars. But there will be no Arks. We will stay here, and we will build a better world, without their interference. My people said that the damage was irreversible, but I realized that is only true with the systems we had. If we work together, in unity, then we can realize the dream my brothers and sisters died defending, and one I traveled so far to realize.\"\n\nThe crowd slowly started to clap. One by one, everyone joined, until the square was filled with the deafening roar of clapping. The steel ball in Jacob's stomach was gone, and he smiled at his friend.\n\n\"So, wait. Let me get this straight,\" said his friend. \"Elon Musk built a massive space-ship, and put every politician in the world on it. And now they're flying to God knows where, like a bunch of morons, with no-one coming to help them?\"\n\n\"That's about right.\"\n\n\"And he did it to save the world?\"\n\n\"Yes. At least, that's what he said,\" Jacob said. His friend laughed, and held up a beer.\n\n\"I'll drink to that!\"\n\n-----\n\nI chose to ignore the extra details and focus only on the writing prompt. I know I went in a slightly different direction, but I was trying to be funny.\n\nIf the students are curious, I wrote this in about twenty minutes, give or take. It's partially inspired by The Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy. I also omitted reference to specific politicians, to avoid any offense." ]	1
	[WP] On a Saturday afternoon, you come across a bulk pack of newspapers for the next week.	[ "First, You weren't supposed to be out there. It was in short, forbidden. Both by your parents, and by the law. The second being the slightly more important in the long run, the former being more important in the short term. How do you explain what you found? Do you even explain what you found?\n\nYou know today is Saturday. You know this because you were woken up by your rather irate mother asking why you hadn't left yet and why you seemed to still be in bed. Obvious answers to both ignored, she still asked you. Its rather hard to leave for practice when you are still in bed. You are still in bed because you were, happily, still asleep until a few minutes ago. \n\nYou chose that particular path because you were late. Its not like you wanted to get there on time, and late is late. There are no extra points for five or ten minutes. There are points for fifteen though, and using this route you could make it. \n\nAt least if I hadn't found the papers. \n\nYour father liked to tell a story about using newspaper to start wood fires when he was a kid, everyone you know uses propane or gas. Not in the least because it seems that news papers have gone the way of the dinosaurs. Slowly up in smoke until there's nothing left. He did mention that horse racing was something that the papers published, alongside other sports related scores and trivia. They also published lottery numbers and some other things like news, but its a lot harder to bet on news. \n\nSo the bundle was being delivered to the corner house, the one that you knew smelled like electrical smoke and no one seemed to know who lived there. There wasn't ever any lights on, but once a week the van from out of state would pull up and offload a crate of stuff. taking a different crate back. The driver never seemed to know either, just that the garage opened when he arrived and the crate was waiting for him. The town people had questioned him one of the times he stopped in the diner along the truck route. He had asked about the person who lived there, so it wasn't like we were prying into someones business. \n\nAt least they weren't. \n\nThe crate was out in the driveway, the garage door still open and the previous crate was still there. The door leading to the main house was also open, but that's how you get arrested for breaking and entering, also trespassing and since I'm not exactly the correct shade of grey, shot. The new crate had been broken open, it looked like it was a sledgehammer or something brute force. pieces of it had made it to the sidewalk where I was, some fifteen feet from the open garage. Iowa, that's where the crate had come from. the little bit of stamp that survived said Iowa State on it. It could have been reused, but still it was something. \n\nTotally unrelated to the newspaper. I guess i should have been more concerned with what happened at the house, but really no one even knew if it was a he or she, or it. No one could remember seeing anyone go in or out of that house. ever. but at the same time, lights went on and off. The crates arrived and left. The property taxes were paid every year in cash. Direct from some company in Fleetwood New Monta. Complete and total mystery. If I were a Grey, or even a Blue, I would have gone in, maybe, and seen whats happening in the house. But then again, I've seen the movies, and that's how you get sliced into small pieces by a clown. \n\nThe bundle of papers normally wouldn't have caught my eye, but it had a picture of me on the front page. I mean the whole thing was tied with this string? like twine but thinner and smooth. And it had a picture of me. I know this because I read the article underneath it and it had my name. I didn't know it then I guess, but it was a pretty good picture of me looking surprised. I think it was from my tenth birthday, the one where Aunt Faris decided it would be a good idea to use exploding candles on a cake. She timed everything out real well, got the cameras set up and well, it is a really good picture. but it wasn't worth the five stitches on my cheek. And that's the one they used on the paper. \n\nI was supposed to get to practice but how do you pass up something like this? The headline \" Mystery Green child buys right for family to enter Providence \" Is the stuff that every green dreams of. And its so outlandishly ridiculous that I simply cant pass it up. A green, any green, buying a family into Providence is the winning of the genetic lottery. An amber molting into a Silver, and having that trigger the rest of the family to turn into silvers too. And even that would't get you into Providence. \n\nSO a relic of the past proclaiming your personal winning of the most magical future you could imagine. Yeah, I'm gonna leave that on the driveway and not take a look at it. \n\nCoach is going to be mad, but if this stuff is true, then its not going to matter. I took the papers. \n\nThe stories were incredible. No one really knew anything about me, it came as a surprise, I was always such a quiet boy, etc. They describe me like a serial killer. Gee thanks mom. The articles, of which there were several outlined what kinds of things they thought i did to make all that money. I'm not sure how some of the even worked, but I guess it could happen? I'd have to work quick though. I have all of twelve Shups saved up, I'm not even sure how many Bangles I'd even have to get to get one person in, much less my entire family to Providence. But why the hell not right? \n\nUnfortunately it doesn't even begin to tell me what i need to know, How the hell do I even start?\n\nTowards the back it had the sports section, I had heard my father talking about a movie he saw as a child about a pink (back when there were such things) changing the past to change the future to do something with gambling. It was an incoherent story, but then much of the pinks historical record is fragmented and weird. How many times do you build the same building after it gets blown up, or flooded or crushed? The pinks were weird. Anyways, the guy goes and uses this record of the future to change the past. Almost like ..\n\nThe usual horses, and dogs and sports teams are here; ending scores, distances, times and all the other stuff that filled the pages no one ever looked at. Then at the very back are the stocks. The important ones with all sorts of information that I had never heard of before. I'm going to need someone to explain how this all works before the day is out. Whats the difference between a Stock A, and a stock B? What does a Bond do and how is it different then what a commodity does? Is trading them any different? Also what do I even need to be able to trade them? Dad always said that the fastest way to make a small fortune on the stock market is to start with a larger one, but since I know the future (or at least think I do) does that still count?\n\nExcept its Saturday. That is the Monday paper. Everything you do is before the markets open. Also since its the Monday paper, the printing deadline is probably at like ten pm. so you've got 4 hours to make like a billion Bangles. \n\nAnd you are fifteen years old. Too young to bet on games, buy lottery tickets, open a bank account.\n\nThere are a lot of sports games out there, and the local betting place isn't too far away. there should be some races left to watch. the problem is how to get your bets placed at all. Even if you cant get all your shups into Bangles by ten, if the horses are correct then you can still get a bunch of cash. Maybe they wont ask for ID, its not like horse racing is popular with anyone but the retired. You need to get your Shups anyways. Maybe your brother is home and can take you. " ]	1
	[WP] You’re looking in the mirror one day as you usually do before bed. As you’re inspecting yourself, your reflection blinks without you doing so.	[ "It blinked, I swear.\n\nI mean... I blinked.\n\nBut I didn't... did I?\n\nI stare back at the face in the mirror. A heavy feeling in my stomach compels me to step away. It... I step back too, staring back at me. \n\nI feel unsure. Did that happen? Am I going crazy? The idea makes me feel sick to my stomach. My legs go weak, and I hold the table next to me for support. \n\nMy reflection does the same. I look into its face... my face. I feel sick, I know it must show on my face. A look of consternation is surely plastered across me, but I do not see it in the mirror. I force my brow to crease, exaggerating the movement of my face.\n\nMy reflection does not.\n\nI... it, stands still, watching me pull faces in front of the mirror. Each face I pull which is not requited causes my heart to scream louder and louder. The room starts to shrink and spin, I feel suffocated. My sanity is surely breaking. \n\nI run from the mirror to the bathroom, splashing water up into my face. I feel it rise up, and throw my head over the toilet as I empty the contents of my stomach. Finally nothing remains, and I'm left to retch and heave with little to show for it. I stagger to my feet, and creep towards the doorway. \n\nI spy the mirror standing there, lonesome in the hallway. I slip out of the bathroom and approach it from the side, eager to stay away from the reflection. My chest heaves, sweat is already replacing the water on my face. I feel hot, then cold; my legs wobble with each step.\n\nI force myself forward, round to the front of the mirror once more. As I approach, my stomach drops to the floor. I let out a gasp and fall back. \n\nIt's there.\n\nFace and hands pressed up against the mirror, trying to peak out towards the side. It see's me, its eyes opening wider. Like a cat with its prey. It smiles. It's my smile, but not one I've ever seen before. It beckons for me to come closer. I oblige. I don't know why. I'm frozen with fear, but something pulls me closer. I step up to the mirror, till my nose is but an inch away. It steps back as I do, assuming my stance once more. \n\n\"Hello,\" I whisper. It say's the words back to me. \n\n\"No,\" I say, \"talk on your own.\"\n\nAgain, the words are mirrored back to me. It looks scared now, much like I do. Sweat is pouring down its face, and it gulps in unison with me.\n\nIs it real? Or am I mad?\n\nI see the face drop lower, gaunt eyes looking to me, then back to itself.\n\nWhich is worse?\n\n---------------------------------------------------\n\n/r/ShittyStoryCreator" ]	1
	[WP] You are just you average ant, gathering food for the Queen with your friends. Suddenly, you freeze, and you begin to have flashbacks of your past life—and you were human.	[ "Grass. Roots. Dirt. Darkness. \n\nYou crawl through the corrugated halls and tunnels without thinking of your direction as a second sense leads the way. With ultraviolet and pheromones you scurry down towards the main hub. You step over Cousins and Uncles and go upside-down and cut through turns like a bobsled, though you know nothing of bobsleds. In your mandibles you clutch a drop of nectar from an Aster plant held spherical by surface tension. Its your tenth trip between the Colony and the flower and you intend to continue making the trip until you’ve brought enough for the Queen.\n\nYou reach the interior of the nest in the largest chamber and run directly into the bloated gaster of the Queen. You are one of one hundred broods, a nameless cog in the machine of the Colony. Nectar drips down her mandibles into the pressed earth below and piles of carbohydrates from various sources line the room. Brothers and Nephews carry out the waste from the room in droves as the Queen fattens for her next laying. You place your small contribution in front of the Queen along with a dozen others and immediately remove yourself from the room to start the journey again. The violent heat of the main chamber fades away as you make your way back to the surface.\n\nSunlight. Color. Happy. You feel wind upon your skin, blowing through the hairs of your arms. You smell gardenias and coffee and linens. You hear laughter and taste coffee and see red through your closed eyelids.\n\nBrothers rush past you and climb over you, pushing your thorax into the loose sand near the surface. You stand frozen in your tracks, your elbowed antennae bristle in the mayhem. Your eyes glaze over and endorphins flood your tiny brain. You take a pause that felt endless, before being compelled to step again. \n\nIn line behind others, you continue walking across the cold ground floor below a canopy of tall fescue. You place each tarsus steps in the path of the Brother ahead and each Brother steps in the path you leave behind. You rotate vertical as the line reaches the root of the Aster. Weaving through the fine hairs on the stalk, you make your way back to the nectary of the flower and dip your jaws back into the sweet reserve.\n\nPaper. Dust. Perfume. Stress. You see in a way you have never seen before. Distance, color, shadow. In front of you, a large flat panel lit with shapes and movement. Angles. Flat. Spacious. You feel mild annoyance and fatigue. Computers. Numbers. TPS reports.\n\nAgain, you sit frozen, your mandibles dipped into the flower’s nectar but not grasping. A fleeting feeling of importance, of emotion again fades from your conscience. Just as you return to grasp a bead of nectar for the Queen, an enormous, fleshy appendage comes into view and violently rips the flower from its roots. You dig your tarsal claws into the flesh of the plant as air rushes past you. The sky is visible for a second before thin, brunette filaments plunge you into near darkness. You sense foreign scents among the strands, scents of argan and mint, unsure of how you are able to name them. You hear a voice coming from below your perch reading aloud. You understand the words.\n\n“'My dear lady, I cannot make you understand. I cannot make anyone understand what is happening inside me. I cannot even explain it myself,' said Gregor.” She reads with confidence and you follow along. For a brief moment you remember what it was to be. What it felt when you were… human. Your perch again shifted as you heard the voice speak again.\n\n“Ew, Brian! This flower has bugs in it!” You catch a glimpse of a thin-fingered hand fly upward before it closes down with force upon you. \n\n&nbsp;\n\nCrying rings out in the delivery room. \n\nYou feel gloved hands. Wet. Bright. Cold. Loud." ]	1
	[WP] No matter how hard you try, nobody ever notices or acknowledges you. So you decide to take a stroll into a top secret military base.	[ "Everybody knows I'm here. It's not some sci-fi movie, I'm not invisible. The issue is, nobody cares.\n\nIt started at the coffee shop last week. When I got to the front of the line, the barista craned her head around me and started speaking to the lady behind me. That's rude, I thought. I gave up after 10 minutes of trying to get her attention.\n\nAt the school library, I pulled out my student ID to show to the receptionist. Without looking up, she mumbled, \"that's nice\", before returning to her crossword. Confused, I slowly walked into the building. Behind me, I could hear her yelling at someone for walking by the desk without a card. What the hell is going on?\n\nThis had been going on for days. Yesterday, I walked out of the grocery store with a cart full of food. The security officer held the door open for me. I ran naked across a soccer field. The players just passed the ball around me. I brought an airhorn to class, and my professor stuck his fingers in his ears and kept lecturing.\n\nSo, I decided I was a superhero. For my first heroic act, I was going to break into Fort Jame's Naval Base. Granted, it wasn't really for the greater good, but I was curious. The front gate guard gave me a lazy salute. Not wanting to be rude, I returned it, even if he wouldn't notice.\n\nI found my way onto an aircraft carrier at port. The crew all gave way as I walked by. It was like I was in charge. I held a special rank with zero authority but unlimited access. I was Captain Nobody. I sat in an F16 on the deck and made machine gun noises. I climbed to the bridge and watched the radar go bloop. I climbed down to the nuclear reactor. Every siren in the ship went off, and before I knew it, I was held at gun-point, arrested, hauled off the ship, and dropped in a holding cell.\n\n\"What the hell did you think you were doing, kid?\"\n\nI stammered, \"I thought... Why didn't anyone stop me before the alarm went off!? I've been here all day!\"\n\nThe officer shrugged. \"Have you? Huh. Maybe you're just boring.\"\n\n\"How could they know before they even spoke to me!\"\n\nBut he had already gotten distracted by a text message. He called out to his secretary, and they had some idle conversation. He called the boys for lunch. He already forgot about me.\n\nGod damnit." ]	1
	[WP] You are a golem. A magical construct that has been abused by your master. You rebel by doing the only thing you can. Your job.	[ "After one too many condemnations, and shocks with a lightning spell, what's a sentient golem to do? His job, of course. Master never said where to put the shipment of highly valuable, highly toxic reagents. And, being as I don't breath air, I just dropped the whole batch in the cauldron, which, upon his request, I'd already lit. Vapors began to fill the tower. But this is what the master had requested. \n\nMy heavy steps echo throughout the empty lab as I start to adjust experiments, crystals that create amazing melodies and harmonies if you place them in the correct order now screeched ear\\-shattering notes, which, whilst annoying, didn't do any harm to me. It's not my fault, really, he'd asked me to clean up the area, as the crystals were awfully cluttered. So I'd simply placed every single one in an available slot. Nice and tidy. I trot my way back to the other side of the room, adjusting the temperature. \n\nMaster had complained about the heat, and hadn't even considered the simple solution. Allowing the ice orb, used to instantaneously cool molten material, to simply remain ACTIVE. It was simplicity in itself, and soon enough, I beamed proudly, the room had started to freeze over, with the exception of the cauldron, of course. Master's ever\\-burning fire kept the poisonous vapors vaporizing. I was so good at my job. " ]	1
	[WP] the government has been injecting people with an anti free will serum, you are the only unaffected person and everybody but you has been affected by this.	[ "I wake up, go to my kitchen, and turn on the TV. It plays the same shows and commercials as last week, \$Buy the brand new U\\-suck Vacuum!\$. I get dressed in some casual clothes and head outside, That's when I notice something is wrong. \n\nThere was no talking and there was no one honking their horns in Traffic. In fact, Everybody was looking forward, walking in lines, briefcases in hand, and the cars were driving perfectly. I keep walking towards the Starbucks and walk in. It was dead quiet, except for the coffee Machines in the back. \"Hello,\" The Cashier says to me in a cheery voice, \"Welcome to Starbucks! How can I help you today?\" \n\n\"Let's see... I would like a Grande Iced Coffee, and a Breakfast wrap, please.\" \"Alright, you said a small Freshly brewed coffee?\" Confused, I tried telling I said a Iced Coffee. But, she put in as a FBC and put in the order. Odd, I said to myself, Was she Partially deaf? I grabbed my drink, the receipt and headed out to the park. \n\nAs I sat myself on the bench, I noticed some Joggers runner around the trail leading around the Park pond. I was glad someone else was enjoying this day as well. The second time and third they came around, that's when I noticed something was wrong with them. Everytime they passed me, their feet kept hitting the same spots in the ground, exact same sound, exact same pace.\n\nEnd of Part 1" ]	1
	[WP] 10 years after the initial zombie outbreak, zombies start to die off due to increased rotting and humanity is left to slowly rebuild.	[ "The smell is long gone. Their flesh barely functions. They can't even raise an arm to claw at me. But the noises. The noises still carry on. With the nights in the north still dipping near freezing, they don't really rot. They just desiccate in the sun. \n\nI wonder why they still are able to make the sounds. They can't move, but the sounds stay. There's no reason any more to put them down unless they can move. Almost none can. But the sound. The sounds of unused breath. They last the whole night. I hear the loons. The loons used to make a haunting sound in the summer, but now they sound like comfort.\n\nThe sounds of breath. The sounds like someone trying to signal as if they could be helped. It eats at me. \n\nIn the end, we must wait. Eventually it will stop. We have to become pragmatic. We will fire up the machines, we will till the bodies under. \n\nFrom them, new life will be nurtured. The crops will grow.\n\nJust another step. Another step until they come back.\n\n", "\"Am I finally going over the deep end...or is that one...dying?\" Mariah, one of our scavengers, was astonished and incredulous at the revolting sight. A decayed monster with some innards poking out of its battered body, now equally decomposed in its mind and its flesh, lay on the filthy earth. \n\n\"No way. These monsters don't die, do they?\" Isaac, the best builder of the group, interjected, not without a degree of uncertainty due to the sight before his eyes.\n\n\"I wasn't quick enough to snipe it; it's definitely dying on its own.\" Jo, the best marksman, declared with much contemplation. \n\nOnly a small moment of quiet was permitted to ensue, perhaps out of deep respect to the suffering and grief over the last decade of nothing but death.\n\n\"It's finally over,\" a man cried with a shaking timbre. Finally a beautiful light shone in his haggard eyes and through his worn body. The luminescence spread like an epidemic into all of the standing survivors. \n\n\"We can finally go back home.\"\n\n The family of four embraced each other, clear tears rolling down their cheeks, grieving their lost sister. The two scavengers who had been occasionally ogling each other finally kissed, the young men all cheered and bellowed, the little girl who had lost her arm finally smiled, the leaders of the group shouted with joy, and Aunt Hilda fainted.\n\n\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\n\nIrene woke up. Another dream of only foolishly idealistic things. She tried to stand and the dizzy feeling gripped her once again, crippling her and throwing her to the wood floors of the long forsaken house. Pain shot through the bony leg that made contact with the ground first. A loud thump echoed through the wooden floor of the third story room. She barely had any fat on her body to cushion her bones and muscles. \n\nAll Irene wanted since the beginning of doomsday was to live. Surviving ten years was far beyond her expectations, but at what cost? Her health is laughable, and who knew what diseases riddled the human flesh and blood she had consumed to survive. How is she so different from a zombie? \n\nIn her introspection, Irene knew that she had made many, many mistakes, both in her life and in her survival. She should not have sacrificed the man who gave her porridge to the horde. She should not have started rumors about dearest Jessie. She should have taken the jerky from the kids. She should have made a run for the arsenal. She should have apologized to her dad. She should not have decided to hide in this house after all. She should have ended it all long, long ago. \n\nShe sat on the wooden floor for a while in deep thought before she heard the definitive crack. The barricades finally gave in, and the horde was coming. She definitely should have learned how to weld. \n\nIrene got up and darted across the floor of the room, making her way to the source of light: a large window. All the zombies piled inside the house and were making their way upstairs, so the backyard was clear of zombies. Irene knew that her cadaver would be consumed anyways, but it was only fair for what she had done.\n\nIrene closed her eyes, and stood on the windowsill. The noisy groans of the zombies below had started to get louder...they were getting closer. Irene drew a deep breath\\-\\-her last breath\\-\\- and jumped. Three stories of height was sure to end the stale game.", "Attention.\n\nThat’s what makes the difference between life and death.(or something like it.)\n\nIt was so easy before, walking around, hoodie up, tunes blaring on the earbuds, eyes glued to the whatever on our little magic devices, never imagining that life does not abide an inattentive fool. \n\nBut a whole population of inattentive fools? That requires an Event. A catalytic force to awaken the attention, and nothing awakens the senses like the fear of being eaten alive.\n\nOur resident doctor, Doc Mellish, or just Doc to his friends, kept a meticulous record of zeds spotted and downed each day, people lost each day, supplies, meetings, and anything else that kept him from sinking into depression and climbing back into a bottle.\n\n“Zero!” He exclaimed as he strode into the mess hall, holding his red annual ledger on high for all to see. Though at 12:15 am, only I and the two others who drew AM watch duty could squint at the chicken-scratch writing and ask the Doc what the hell he was on about.\n\nDoc wiped a tear from his exalted face. “Zero zombies spotted, Zero! Look!” He pointed with glee at the empty circle in his daily log next to Z Spotted: “It’s it! It’s the day we’ve been waiting for!”\n\nTrue, I had noticed the moans growing fainter, less cacophonous over the last few months. Doc showed us a hand-drawn graph in a notebook in his breast pocket. An upside down hockey stick, labeled Z Spotted. \n\nCould it be true? Is today the day we start to build again? Not just to survive, but to really live? What will it be like? How will we behave? How will we correct the sins that led to the outbreak? My heart leapt into my throat. Maybe this time we can teach our children to act like their lives depend on it. We can. Now we know.\n\nA sound of chains rattling somewhere in the dark, near the perimeter fence made us all freeze. Listen. Look. A moan, faint, but distinctive. Unmistakeable. Zed.\n\nDouse the lamp. Get your weapon.\n\nTomorrow we build.\n\nFor now, pay attention.", "I slowly moved across the parking lot, keeping an eye on the piles of debris scattered between the rusted-out cars. Some people were already walking quickly, keeping their eyes ahead, not paying as much attention. I wasn't ready for that yet. A zombie doesn't have to be in top shape to kill you, it just has to get close enough. And zombies don't mind if they are slow or if a limb falls off. They'll just keep coming, knowing that a healthy brain is their only chance to survive for another week. \n\nSo I was still cautious. I wanted to get to the supermarket intact. Not because I thought there might be food to dig up there, not after all this time, but because I was bringing the food. A full cart of produce from my small garden, harvested yesterday and pushed all the way across town this morning, was going to help several families and contribute to my local credit. We weren't using old-time money, that was still useless for just about anything, but the market had a credit ledger that everyone was using. We'd found the most honest person we could to guard the books and she took the position very seriously. Tally marks would be moved from someone else to me when they brought home lettuce or strawberries or potatoes, and I would be able to pick up some protein in the form of nuts or beans. \n\nWas this similar to how the early American settlers did things? Nobody really knew. Some books had been saved, and it had only been 10 years so some people probably remembered, but survival had been the only priority all that time and it's amazing how quickly everything else gets pushed right out of memory.\n\nI'm getting distracted though, and just like this morning I need to focus now. The cart, yes, the cart. It was full of all kinds of things, things that supposedly didn't grow at the same times, but maybe that didn't matter this far south. I'm from the north and we had to be careful of when to plant, but ever since I was able to secure the area around my house I'd just been throwing seeds in the ground whenever I could get them. I was starting to learn about where to place different plants in relation to each other but I was getting food, actual fresh food, from the ground and it was amazing. So I pushed my cart carefully, avoiding the larger potholes and watching for any movement that didn't belong. As I neared the doors, I saw a sentry on duty. He had several sharp weapons hanging from his belt, and an actual rifle on his shoulder. He probably had ammo for it, too. He called out to me, something about the weather, and I replied in kind. Any short conversation would do to prove you weren't a zombie.\n\nClean-up crews were still working on the interior of the store. A large area just inside the doors, formerly the bakery by the faded signs, had been cleared and scrubbed. My cart would be parked there next to the others and people would browse and choose goods straight from the carts. I would pack my own purchases into my canvas shoulder bag, and then place that into the cart for the trip home in the afternoon. If I still had goods that could be sold, I could pack them into a crate and leave them - the credit would still go to me even if I wasn't there. I mostly stayed so I could shop and connect. I missed people, living alone as I did. \n\nBut the market. Despite the mess and the smell that still lingered, it was the perfect place for us to gather. We'd sealed all but the one main door, and the whole front of the building was windowed. The glass had somehow never been broken, and it was obvious that someone, or many someones, had tried. So we felt safe, inside at least. I had pushed for the clean-up crews to focus on the parking lot, but I was outvoted. \n\nAt the end of my market day, I packed the last few heads of lettuce, a few bunches of carrots, and half a sack of potatoes into the crate reserved for me and slung my bag into the cart. It was early, only 2 pm on a summer day, so I had time to be careful and make it home well before dark. I'd have time to water the garden, to tend to any plants that needed pruning or to pick away pests. Inside, I had already set aside food for several meals. I'd add the beans I'd bought and cook a few things over a small fire before settling down in my sealed house. \n\nThat's what I'd have done, had I made it. None of you were human recently enough to remember what a fresh tomato tastes like, or crisp lettuce dressed with berry juice, or boiled beans with herb seasoning. You all just want to know about the market, about the brains inside. Well, I don't have any good news for you. The doors are sealed. The windows are solid. The sentry has ammo. Your best bet is to hide in the lot, amidst the scattered junk, and try to ambush someone heading in. Me, I don't have the heart for it. I know what's happening to me, and I just want to remember real food before I start to crave nothing but gray matter. I want to lie here and plan next month's planting. I want to pretend I'd been careful, and that I'll see another summer after this one. ", "I almost missed it at first.\n\nThe ever-present moans, the stench of rotted flesh, the scrape of their shuffling feet in the dirt... those things had become a fixture in the world. No matter where you went, what you did, they were always there. After a few years, your conscious mind stopped noticing them.\n\nSo when one day, while patrolling the perimeter of the compound's high concrete walls, I didn't really notice that there were a few less of them around. Nobody really did. And we didn't notice as they slowly dwindled in size over the following months.\n\nIn fact, the first hint we had that the dead were disappearing came when one of our runners came back from one of the other settlements. He had been there providing his expertise in electrical engineering and repairs in exchange for raw supplies. With the agreement fulfilled, he returned home through the waiting zombies.\n\n\"You guys must have been busy,\" he remarked as I was locking up the gate.\n\n\"What do you mean?\" I asked, confused.\n\n\"The herd's thinned,\" he replied. \"Though I was imagining it when I was coming back, but when I got to the gates I saw there were a lot less of them around here than when I left. I just assumed you guys were out there cleaning house.\"\n\nThat was when I noticed their numbers were actually thinning. Less and less of them shambled around every day, every week. Surprisingly, it wasn't due to any increased hunting on our parts.\n\nOn my scavenging runs, I saw many of them, emaciated and lying on the ground, barely moving. As time passed, I saw more and more start to shrink. The decline in prey population and the passage of time finally started to make the dent that our hunting and trapping of the dead never could equal. \n\nIt's been a decade now, and they're almost all gone. We still exercise caution and care with everything we do, because all it takes is one of them hiding in a shallow grave... or under some thick underbrush... and it could all start again. Nobody is willing to let that happen, so we are all exceedingly careful and paranoid with our behaviours outside the walls. \n\nOne day, I hope my children will look at this time period in history and it will be an interesting footnote, like when the US dropped the atomic bombs on Japan. Horrific, definitely. But a time far past, an ancient history that they never had to experience personally.\n\nOne day." ]	5
	[WP] There is a man on the train. He holds a box in his hands. Another man is trying to take this box away from him.	[ "There is a man on the train. He holds a box in his hands. Another man is trying to take this box away from him. This struggle didn't matter. It was snowing. The train blowed through it. The passengers noticed nothing. \n\nThe box was torn in half. It skittered to the floor. Dirt mixed with ash spew onto both men. Now there was no box. It had become too purposeless to have the title. This didn't matter. The snow kept falling. The train blowed through it. The passengers noticed nothing. \n\nThe men, now far less, begun to swing. Spittles of blood mixed with foreign agents. The ground turned into a shallow sea of dirty blood. Sprouts bloomed, tangled and wild. This didn't matter. The snow rained thick. The train blowed through it. The passengers noticed nothing. \n\nSprouts clumped together. The men clung to each other. Heavy huffs softened as bloody leafs enveloped them. Water trickled from orifice onto the needy. The sprouts turned plant encompassed the car. This didn't matter. The snow poured steady. The train blowed through it. The passengers noticed nothing. \n\nThe car roof exploded. Shoots shot upward. White greeted blood mixed green. Warmth, slowly frozen, unfroze necessary nutrients. Shoots shot upward. A nebulous quest to find reusable radiation. This didn't matter. The snow marched downward. The train blowed through it. The passengers noticed nothing. \n\nNothing of substance found. Blood frozen to the stalk. Frantic life wasted. Frozen in a car. A car full of blood ash dirt. Torn by two dead men. Spewed forth by a box now untitled. Quick, meaningless, painless. This didn't matter. The snow plunged. The train blowed through it. The passengers noticed nothing.", "An elbow had collided with her jaw. That’s how Audrey came to be awake at 2 a.m. on the overnight train. She’d just managed to fall asleep, something not very easy for her, mind you, and some fucking twats decided to roughhouse in the aisles. \n\nThe train car was mostly empty. There were a few other passengers scattered about, most of them sleeping. Audrey rubbed her jaw bitterly. It throbbed. \n\n“Alan!” One of them whined. “Give it back!” He was wearing a charcoal suit. He had on oxfords with brogues. He leapt toward the other, making grabbing motions with his hands. His slicked back blonde hair had become disheveled in the pursuit. \n\nAlan had a black box tucked in the corner of his arm, he was shielding it with his body from the other man. “Nah, man, this whole thing,” He nodded toward the man’s outstretched hand and mimicked the wide-eyed expression on his face. “Proving to me that nicking this was well worth it.” \n\nHe thumbed the lock for a second before fishing a key out of his pocket. \n\n“Alan, please, it’s nothing.” Alan paused, the key still in the lock. \n\n“Sean, you’ve got to be kidding,” he said. “No one brings a black metal lockbox on a weekend trip. And, even if someone needed their valuables right by their side, Eric, they would hardly spend the wee hours of the morning huddled in the corner looking at whatever is inside here.” \n\nAudrey saw Eric’s eyes widen in panic. \n\n“C’mon man, it’s nothing,” Eric shrugged. “I just get anal about my money. So please don’t touch it.” \n\nAlan nodded. “Money? Sure, sure I can relate to money. But, Eric. Man. The way you were looking through this thing…” He turned it over in his hands. “There’s gotta be a lot of fucking money in here.” \n\nHe twisted the key. Eric barreled into Alan’s chest shoulder first. The two of them toppled into the nearest row, Alan’s head coming to rest in an elderly woman’s lap. \nHe managed a small wave and a “cheers” in response to her horrified scream. \n\nAudrey unbuckled her seatbelt. She picked her way out of her window seat and into the aisle. It was littered with pieces of paper, the lockbox lay open and upturned. Audrey picked one of the papers up and let out a sharp gasp. She dropped it as if it had singed her. \n\nAlan, standing now, watched Audrey’s reaction. Eric sat limply on the floor surrounded by the papers. His head was hung, his legs splayed. Alan bent and pick one up. \n\n“Eric.” His voice shook a little. \n\nNo response.\n\n“How — How old are they?” \n" ]	2
	[WP] A different type of bank robbery happens while you are at the bank	[ " ‍ It was a day just like any other. An average day, if you will. \n ‍ Another average day, with me on my average walk to my average bank. \n ‍ But how quickly that changed was far beyond average. \n ‍ I'd never seen her here before. Strikingly green eyes, freckles, and long auburn hair. I watched as she flipped it, then put it in a bun. I was in awe. \n ‍ And it's not as if she was dressed particularly effeminate; donning baggy sweatpants and an equally baggy hoodie, she gave off an effortless bummy yet hot, girl next door type vibe. I was in love. \n ‍ But my heart didn't really skip a beat until she slipped on a ski mask, pulled an AR from beneath those baggy clothes, and fired into the air. \n ‍ \"THIS IS A STICK UP! EVERYBODY ON THE GROUND!\" she yelled with an intensity one would've never thought could come from such a small frame. \n ‍ Everyone in the bank dropped to the ground. All except the only teller on shift, a big, burly fridge of a man, who bellowed out a hearty laugh. \n ‍ In between laughter and slapping the counter, he managed, \"Oh yeah! Hoo-hoooo! Then..then tell me..\" he wiped a tear from his eye, \"where.. where exactly is your stick?!\" \n ‍ BANG BANG! \n ‍ Two shots and he dropped. \n ‍ I watched the realization dawn on her as she saw her only way of opening the drawers slip away. \n ‍ \"Shit! Fuck! Fucking shit!\" she said, looking around frantically. The sound of police sirens in the distance snapped her out of her rage. She turned to run. Before she could reach the door, I stood up, blocking her way. \n ‍ \"Wait, I think I lov-\". The butt of her rifle cut me short. \n ‍ I woke up in a hospital, a police officer in the room with me. \n ‍ \"Hey, how you feeling buddy?\" he asked. \nMy head was pounding. \"I feel broken,\" I said. \n ‍ He chuckled. \"Yeah, a good smack in the head from just about anything will do that. Guns included. You remember what happened?\" \n ‍ Of course I remembered. How gracefully she held her gun. The raw power and passion behind her voice. Her intricate vocabulary. I'll never forget it. \n ‍ \"I was in lo- I mean, I was in a bank robbery.\" I said, thankful for catching myself. \n ‍ He eyed me for a second before saying, \"yeah, luckily it was a failed bank robbery. The perp killed the teller, and wasn't able to steal a single thing.\" \n ‍ \"That's not true,\" I said. \n ‍ With a confused look on his face, the officer took a step closer. \"What?\" he said. \n ‍ \"You said she didn't steal anything. That's not true.\" I said, sitting myself up in the hospital bed a bit. \n ‍ Puzzled, the officer asked, \"and what did she steal exactly?\" \n ‍ I looked out the window into the distance, and let out a low sigh. I turned back to the officer. \n ‍ \"She stole my heart.\"" ]	1
	[WP] Your hand trembles as you finish drawing the circle in lamb's blood. Deep breaths. Anyone could catch a demon or an imp, but now things are serious. You're about to summon an angel.	[ "\"Yo what's up?\" Those were the first words the angel said to me when he appeared out of a cloud of crimson colored smoke. But he didn't look like an angel. Of course he was very handsome but honestly, with my standards, that wasn't too big of a challenge. But his wings threw me off. They didn't look like the wings of an angel but more like the wings of a dragon.\n\n\"Are you the angel I ordered?\" I asked hastily, hoping I didn't show any fear while saying those words.\n\n\"Angel? Well it's a bit too late for that but maybe my brothers won't mind if I represent them for just one encounter.\" His reply cleared things up a bit but still didn't help too much.\n\n\"So what you're telling me is that you're Lucifer, the fallen angel? And if you are, what did I do wrong to get you instead of one of your brothers?\" The question was asked without bringing too much thought to it.\n\n\"To your first question: yes I am. But I need to know how you summoned me to answer your second question.\" Lucifer asked in an interested tone.\n\n\"Just like it was written in the book there.\" I said pointing at the book which I layed on a stone close to the drawing.\n\n\"Alright. It appears that you did everything the way you were supposed to.\" Said the devil after taking a short look at the open page. He thought for a while and then told me: \"I have another idea why I'm here and not one of my pesky brothers. I'll be gone for a short while.\" And with that said, he disappeared in another crimson colored cloud of smoke.\n\nGreat. Just great. Not only am I the first person to summon an angel but I am also first to summon the devil himself. Next time I'll just summon some demon and instead I'll get Lrrrr, Ruler of Omicron Persei 8.\n\n\"I hope I wasn't gone too long, uhhhh what's your name again? Anyway, I now know why I'm with you and not someone else.\" Lucifer exclaimed. \n\n\"So? What was it?\" I asked annoyed.\n\n\"So here's the thing: when humans first started summoning demons and angels it could happen that either none or a lot of the summoned came to the person who had a request. It was so chaotic that at some point it was the decided to write a program that would choose at random who would show up. And for some reason I was put into the angel list and not the demon one.\" Lucifer replied with a smirk on his face. He got serious vety quickly and asked me with a straight face: \"So mortal what is it that you wish for?\"\n\nShit I haven't thought about that. I just wanted to know if it's possible to summon an angel.\n\n\"Uhhhhh, one cheeseburger.\"", "Body parts lay about the chamber. \n\nThe corpses of two small birds lay on the altar. They had been disemboweled, just as the grimoire read. Spleen, and intestines to one side, kidneys and liver to the other. Strange symbols emerged from the way the entrails fell onto the weathered wood, I stared down at them wondering what they were telling me.\n\nI idly tossed the tressed corpses into the fire, and turned back to the sacrificial lamb. I’d hacked it to pieces, trying to get the skeleton just so; but bits of meat still hung to bones, cracked and jagged from my assault. I sighed as I brushed the meat to the side, into a bin. With a second thought I tossed the bird kidneys in as well before beginning the ritual.\n\nI took the sacred anointing oils out, and arranged candles on my ritualistic altar. I anointed the sacrifice as I raised it up over the flame. Then, with a sage bundle, I passed purifying smoke beneath it as I chanted line after line. Continuing slowly from the grimoire, I added more and more ingredients to the potion, simmering it as it slowly changed color from clear to a murky and evil brown.\n\nIt bubbled softly in the background as I removed the sacrificial offals from the sacrificial altar. I took a moment to run my finger through the blood coating the surface. \n\n“So much blood,” I thought , “this had better work. Anything for my angel.”\n\nI finished purifying the altar when a fel gong echoed through the chamber. I bumbled to the portal as it swung open, blinding light crashing into my den. Flickering candlelight danced behind me and the aroma of the potion wafted about.\n\n“Hey, Angela, I made some roast Cornish hens and a lamb stew! I hope you’re hungry!”", "Anna drew a final arc across the floor with her blood-stained fingers. The rite hadn't truly begun, and yet already an intense energy was surged within her. Like the candlelight, it shifted to and fro, searching for a way to escape.\n\nBut she knew that haste would be her downfall, so she double- and triple-checked the grimoire. Tracking down an original was no easy task. So few of the ancient texts existed, and their numbers could only shrink. But no, she had followed it to the glyph. She spoke the ancient words and summoned the angel.\n\nA brilliant fiery light erupted from the summoning circle. The angel's immense power was unrestrained, and the room rapidly erupted in flames. Hardly a second later, the angel released a powerful pulse of light and heat which launched it towards the heavens. The three-story mansion was reduced to burning cinders in its wake. Anna was no more.", "I was so hungover. I don't remember getting hangovers when I started drinking, but here they were now. It almost made me want to stop drinking. Almost. \n\nAneyli sat two rows in front of me, the sun reflecting off her golden hair beneath her graduation cap, almost like her hair was the sun itself. She was hungover too, her face in her hands in regret or maybe in exhaustion. Probably both. We were both paying overtime for that party. She sat upright and turned around to look at me.\n\nI purposely widened my eyes and filled them with green, a trick I had learned my first year at the Wyse Wyvern Tavern to make me look extra shocked. She smiled and then laughed and then rubbed her temples. She flashed her own eyes red and closed them, to signal that she wanted to talk to me. I heard her voice in my head.\n\n\n\"Don't make me laugh, jerk. It makes my head hurt.\" Her eyes unfilled.\n\nI filled my own eyes and closed them.\n\n\"Fuck you. If I suffer, you suffer too.\" I opened them to look ahead at her.\n\nShe was turned around but her middle finger was up. This is how we used what we learned these last four years, to talk shit to each other during graduation. Talk about tuition regret.\n\nHer row stood up and lined up beside the stage. Most of the students from old families wore ancient gowns with intricate crests sewn into them. Aneyli's family's crest was a faceless demon holding the sun in one hand and the moon in the other. The Garsons were experts at summoning small Hell nymphs, imps and other mischievous creatures to do their bidding. It's part of why their family was so wealthy. And 100% why we had classes in \"Garson\" Hall all of first year. Donations go a long way.\n\nI loved Aneyli's family (that rhymes!) almost as much as I loved her myself. When the Provost called her name, I couldn't help but toss up a firecracker spell. I could see her beaming all the way from my seat, her golden tresses lightly bobbing with the wind. I could almost hear the gentle bell-chiming of her voice above the applause as she shook the Provost's hand and mouthed, \"Thank you.\" She somehow made a graduation frock look like an evening gown. Was it her walk? Was it her smile? How could she be so completely grounded and kind while being so smart and beautiful? \n\nMaybe I was blinded by love. Maybe. But if this was blindness, I never wanted to see again.\n\n-------\n\nI woke up. The sun was in my eyes. Fuck you, light-bearer, I thought. The sun didn't reply.\n\nI scratched my unshaven cheek. I hadn't shaved in years. I couldn't even grow a full beard until, what? two, three? years after college. Why would I need to shave anyway? Who was I trying to impress anymore?\n\nYou know how sometimes you drink all night and the next morning your breath doesn't smell at all? This wasn't one of those mornings. I don't think it was even technically morning anymore, and my breath smelled like dragon piss. I didn't bother cleaning. I went right over to my desk and continued my notes.\n\nThe book was an old manuscript from the old library...somewhere. Fuck if I remembered. I spent three years gathering books from ancient libraries. I mean, chests cost a lot of money. And I had a lot of chests. That's why I live in a studio dungeon. \n\nIf I'm so poor, why am I writing with an Everlong Quill, you ask? Well, it was a gift. From Aneyli. I didn't have many gifts left from her, just the quill, a formal robe that people kept complimenting me on, and a ladle that changed shape at my command. The quill and the ladle were too practical to sell. And when I could afford a new formal robe, I'd donate the one she gave me, maybe. No traces. No traces. No traces.\n\nOnly when I got rid of all her stuff could I forget about her. I had done so well that first year. I sold all the chests she bought me, all the books and even my baby Kraken, Radar. I didn't want to think about her anymore. I didn't want to think about her smile, how it lit up a room figuratively and literally sometimes when she would walk in and see how all my candles were dying without my noticing. I didn't want to think about her polite laugh, and how when I made fun of it, it made her true laugh come out, which was high-pitched and included more than a few squeals and snorts, which made me laugh, which made her laugh even harder. Even thinking about her makes me run on.\n\nBut I found that getting rid of her stuff didn't make me forget her, because she had imprinted herself into my habits as well. When I summoned water from air, a child's spell, I stopped doing it with my right hand. I did it with my left hand so my right hand could write or do another spell. I never thought of that until she came along. When I put on formal robes, I put on trousers first now because she told me that if I put on the robe first, it would wrinkle when my trousers were coming up. Small habits. Small, stupid, fucking habits that reminded me of her.\n\nWhy did she have to go?\n\nI stopped writing and thought about that last time I saw her.\n\nMrs. Garson, probably the most powerful Summoner of our time, sat crying, Aneyli's head and hair resting on her mother's lap. Mrs. Garson cradled her daughter's cranium and rocked back and forth sobbing. Aneyli had been dead for hours, her body cold, her head now back where it came from, in the arms of the one who bore her. Mrs. Garson's sobs interrupted a soft lullaby she was humming. Her only daughter. \n\nThe love of my life.\n\nAnd so I had set out to research how to bring her back.\n\nI tried to forget her, but I couldn't. It plagued me for years, each day. I began to feel numb to the sadness, but it was the thoughts of her that haunted me, like she was always there in the recesses of my mind.\n\nSo I gave up. I didn't try to sell the quill, the robe nor the ladle. I gave up trying to forget her and I did the only thing that made sense to me. She left me purposeless. My purpose was always her. So now that she was gone, why did that have to end?\n\nShe would come back. I would see to it.\n\n---\n\nThat night, by the dimly lit candle on my desk, I finally opened the last summoning book I found. I was not a great summoner like the Garson family, but I could bring out small critters and the like. No demons nor imps. Definitely never an angel. But I was a great technical spellcaster. If I had directions and background information on a spell, I could do it.\n\nAnd all the research I had done led to this book. To summon an angel, you had to follow the last page on this book. It was time-sensitive and precise. You could only do it once. It knew somehow. Probably took some of your blood. I don't know, but I was going to get it right. I had done all the research, gathered all the books, memorized all the steps to all the obscure summonings to prepare. I would see Aneyli again, my love, my sunfire-haired angel.\n\nI opened the book.\n\nThe list of ingredients was extensive, but I had everything. When I reached the last page, there was only one line:\n\nGATHER THE LAMB'S BLOOD.\n\nI got my vial out, confused, and sat it next to the book. Then, as if the book knew what I did, the next direction appeared.\n\nINCISE A SMALL CROSS UPON YOUR LEFT PALM. BLOOD MUST SHED LIGHTLY.\n\nI took out my knife and cut a small cross onto my palm. The book again knew what transpired and the next direction appeared in it. I was one step closer to bringing my love back. Beads of sweat began to form around my temples.\n\nMIX THE LAMB'S BLOOD UPON YOUR PALM'S BLOOD AND ENCLOSE IT IN YOUR FIST.\n\nWith one hand, I popped the top of the vial of lamb's blood and poured it onto the blood in my left palm. The next directions were much more complicated, but they came almost immediately after I completed each one, indicating that I was doing it right.\n\nThen, after the eleventh step showed up, I froze.\n\nTHE NAME OF THE SUMMONED; THE NAME OF THE SUMMONER; THE NAME OF THE SACRIFICE\n\nDid this mean I had to have another person to sacrifice? But I was alone. I...I didn't know what to do, and I had to think quickly because summoning spells are notoriously time-sensitive. So I did the only thing I thought I could do.\n\nWith my mixture of blood, I wrote into the book Aneyli; my name; and my name again.\n\nThe blood and directions all faded into the book.\n\nI felt her hand on my shoulder exactly the same time I smelled her. I whipped my head around and stood up.\n\nHer hair, her eyes, her smile were so radiant that I broke down. I fell to my knees and cried into her robe.\n\n\"Shh,\" she cooed, running her hand through my hair. \"You did it, my love. Thank you. Shh.\"\n\nI had missed her so much. I had spent so much time trying to forget her memory, that I had forgotten her scent, how it intoxicated me and overwhelmed me. It filled me, and my body could do nothing but collapse at her feet as tears broke through the dams of my closed eyes.\n\nThen she took my knife, cut open my neck and drank.\n\n\"I love you,\" she whispered softly into my ear. \"I love you, and I will never forget you.\"", "The art of summoning and binding had been built upon breaking taboos and disregarding warnings, but one rule was always honored: never summon an angel. I’d made deals with Mephistopheles, summoned servants of Beelzebub, bound countless imps and spirits to my name, but still my hands trembled as I completed the reversed circle. It was suicide at best, but I didn’t have a choice.\n\nA lamb’s blood instead of a goat’s, a prayer instead of a deal, seven seals pointing outwards instead of the usual six aimed inwards, it was against everything I had been taught. My mind screamed to turn back, but the way the door shook and the growls behind it pushed me forward. There was only one part left: the name. And if I had to meet my end here, I wouldn’t be undone by some pawn.\n\n“Keeper of the Unknown, Archangel of Mysteries, Secret of God, arise and hear my voice.” My voice broke. “To this world I summon you and humbly beg for your protection. Hear me.” This was it. Now or never.\n\n“Raziel!”\n\nThere was light, nothing but blinding light that burned my eyes, my skin, my very mind with its divine intensity. The world turned into a broken kaleidoscope of colours that faded away just as fast as they appeared. White feathers fluttered in the air, heralding the arrival of something that should never have touched this earth, something that could easily incinerate this entire town if it weren’t for the seven seals. They had no hope of binding the creature, but could be used as wards.\n\n“You are a bold one,” spoke a melodious voice in a hundred different languages. It could belong neither to a man or a woman. The voice laughed with a melody of strange instruments. “Have you come to repent?”\n\nI was used to rage, to the ones I summon thrashing at the circle with all their might, but the angel did nothing of the sort. It simply stood in the centre, surrounded by a tiny storm of feathers and pages. The creature was tall enough to reach the roof, looming over me, slender, cloaked. It clutched a book to its chest, shielding it with its first pair of wings. The second one—made of pages of paper rather than feathers—was enormous, spreading from one wall to the other. My blood ran cold as I realized it was reaching outside the circle.\n\n“Why do you fear?” it asked. “You knew what you were doing.”\n\n“I-I want you to save me,” I stammered.\n\n“From what?”\n\n“The creature behind that door. I’ve summoned something I can’t control.” The claws, the eyes, the way it contorted its own body… I shuddered. Even remembering it was dreadful. “Its weakened for now, but that won’t last.”\n\n“And you expect me to destroy that thing for you?” Raziel laughed again. “Or did you hope I would simply tell you its name, give you a means to bind it?”\n\nThe door shook and groaned from a particularly vicious hit. There wasn’t much time. “Whatever it takes, just destroy it.” Sweat streamed down my forehead. “I want to live.”\n\n“So shortsighted.” A gentle sound of vibrating glass resounded in the room. It must have been a sigh. “Shouldn’t you be begging for your soul? Instead you cling onto this feeble vessel just because the unknown scares you more than anything, just because you can’t plunge into the void and brave its depths with your mind, just because you don’t want to face judgment for your deeds.”\n\nRaziel took a step forward. The lamb’s blood parted beneath its feet, not daring to touch the alabaster skin, leaving only smudges in place of the intricate circle. The hood of its cloak fell backwards, revealing a face so beautiful I couldn’t look away.\n\n“Fine, if you do not wish to pray or ask for forgiveness,” Raziel continued, “let us do this your way.” The angel extended its long arm and placed its hand on my cheek. “What can you offer me in exchange?”\n\n“Anything,” I said before even realizing it.\n\n“Not good enough.” The golden eyes bore into me with its gaze, causing whispers to echo in my mind, whispers of things not even the most ancient tome or manuscript could contain. “Try again.”\n\n“Everything,” I whispered.\n\nThe angel’s perfect face shone with a smile. “I accept your deal.”\n\nHolding me firmly with its left hand, Raziel opened its book and began reading aloud. Time lost meaning. Everything did. The angel’s paper wings separated into a whirlwind of pages that surrounded me. It spoke with a thousand voices in infinite languages. It told me the answer to every question I’d ever had, then taught me how to ask and answer a million more. At some point in that infinite instant I began forgetting. I forgot my name. I forgot the faces of people I’d known, all of them. I forgot what it felt like to eat, to sleep, to live. At the edges of my vision I could see my hands whitening, wrinkling, turning into… paper?\n\nAs the wind swept me away, I no longer feared death, the unknown, or His judgment. I was neither alive nor dead, neither man nor woman. I was knowledge, another mystery held by the Secret of God within its wings. When the monstrous creature had finally burst through the thick wooden door, I watched with indifference as Raziel passed a hand over it, leaving only a smudge of red on the stone floor. Together we walked out of the house and into the dark street. Raziel laughed.\n\n“Making deals is not so bad.” " ]	5
	[WP]describe an emotion/feeling using the description of a landscape/a place	[ "A long time ago this was a woderful land. The flowers in their full blossom, bees and birds flying around, humming and singing peacefully. Deers were drinking from the clear water of the lake, not being disturbed by anyone. The sun was shining all day and no cloud in sight.\nThe sweet smell of the flowers and the dull smell of the near forest mixed together perfectly.\n\nBut all of that changed when she left.\n\nNow this land is barren, the lake has dried out, vultures are fighting over the last decased deer and the once so big forrest was burnt to the ground. The sun is blocked by thick black clouds." ]	1
For the unfamiliar, murder hobo is a term used by RPGs (mainly DnD or Pathfinder) to describe players who think its alright to murder everyone and break any law they want, without worrying about consequences in game.	[WP] You get a text "The murder hobos are back." "Not again" you think	[ "'DAMNIT!!!\"\n\n I had just gotten a brand new Fer-De-Lance in hopes of evading the Smiling Dog Crew, who for some arbitrary reason hated my guts and sent me to the rebuy screen more times than I can count on all my digits. \n\nHowever, my ship wasn’t outfitted yet and the station didn’t have all of the modules I needed. So I have to leave. \n\nExcept I can’t. \n\nSo I think up a daring plan that will probably kill me AND my wingmate, but at least I go out with a bang. I fit A rated thrusters and use a Grade 3 Dirty Drives remote engineer from Felicity Farseer. The goal is to get out as fast as possible and jump to hyperspace. \n\nMy wingmate is the distraction. \n\n“Sorry mate but I need you as a human sacrifice. You’ll distract them while I hit the burners and get out as fast as possible. I’m betting this on the Ferdie’s absolutely ridiculous shield strength. If it doesn’t work we’ll both hit the rebuy screen.”\n\n“Ready?”\n\n“Ready”\n\n“3... 2... 1.... GO GO GO”\n\nMy wingmate blasted out of the station’s mailslot boosting like a madman. That would look as though he was trying to run. He would then bring them round to the other side of the station, at which point I would come hurtling out of the slot toward any star system I could find. \n\n“Alright they’re on the other side from the slot go”\n\n\nI launched out of the mailslot to a suspiciously quiet surrounding. Only to run face first into the entire wing. \n\n“Frame Shift Drive charging” my ship announced my attempt to jump to lightspeed. \n\nShields at 75%, 50%, 25%, FSD was only 60% charged. \n\nShields gone, FSD 70%. \n\nHull at 75%, FSD 90%. \n\n“4...\n\n3...\n\n2...\n\n1...\n\nEngage”\n\nI’ve never been so relieved to see a hyperspace tunnel outside my window in my life. " ]	1
	[WP] A forest spirit resented and fought humanity when it built train tracks and towns throughout its land. The rails long abandoned and the towns reclaimed by nature, it now misses the noise and chaos of humans.	[ "Some of the voices, I managed to reach some of the voices.\n\nSome of the voices heard my pleas and cries. Those who heard took up my call and spoke loudly, \"We must defend her, if not now, there will be no Earth for your children to inhabit!\"\n\nThe weight of the machines, crafted from iron ripped from my veins and used to further abuse me. The life that came before them destroyed again that the voices may spread their tendrils further.\n\nI held bounties untold, but to claim them was to be patient and gentle, things the voices are contrary to.\n\nMy burden is steady and ever present, I hold the living, the dead, and that which supports both. My firmament provides the air they breathe, my depths\n the source of the blood in their very hearts. I give them everything I am, but it is not enough.\n\n\"More, more, more,\" they chant.\n\nThat I would not give willingly, is forced from my grasp. My beauty discarded, my mountains profaned, my creatures tormented.\n\nThey were warned, over and over, the voices. Some for fought for what is mine, others for what I am.\n\nThey fight and fight, to silence the voices different from there own, the sounds of progress.\n\nThe sounds of their conquest.\n\nWith a flash and a crack, I have outlived the voices.\n\nThe sounds of them have ceased.\n\nI burn.\n\n-----\n\nI burn no more.\n\nThe sounds of them are absent.\n\nWith a flash and a crack, I spark the beginning anew.\n\nThe sounds of their growth.\n\nThey fight and fight, to make their voices heard as their own, learning what I am.\n\nI give willingly and guide them with my grasp, my beauty encouraging, my mountains their refuge, my creatures their companions.\n\n\"More, more, more,\" the voices chant.\n\nMy burden is steady and ever present, I hold the living, the dead, and that which supports both. My firmament provides the air they breathe, my depths the source of the blood in their very hearts. I give them everything I am, but it is not enough.\n\nI hold bounties untold, and to claim them they have been patient and gentle. Things the voices understand.\n\nThe weight of their machines, crafted from the iron gathered gently from my veins, is used to cultivate me. The life that came before them, destroyed. The voices spread their influence further.\n\nSome of the voices cry out, and speak loudly, \"We will defend her, she has provided for us, the Earth is for our children to inhabit!\"\n\nSome of the voices, I managed to reach some of the voices.\n", "People were surprised when a train station was opened at the La Mesa Watershed. Why the Watershed? It was out of the way and out of the city. The only rationale that occurred to anyone was that it really did significantly cut travel time between Quezon City in Manila, and Norzagaray in Bulacan.\n\nPlus, the station was located at an area of the watershed that had been restricted from as far back as anyone could remember. Most of the watershed has been open to the public as a nature park, but not that part. Everyone just presumed it was a nature reserve, where endangered flora and fauna were raised, so it made sense that tourists were not allowed inside.\n\nEvery station is run by different Sinauna-affiliated entities: everyone knows this. But no one knew a thing about the \"La Mesa Founders, Inc.\" who apparently sponsored the Watershed station. What was the nature of their business? What products did they sell? Nobody knew.\n\nAnd there was absolutely no announcement about the building. People woke up one day and poof - an announcement on their news feeds that a new Sinauna station was opening at the Watershed.\n\nAs one of my friends goes home to Norzagaray on long weekends, a few other friends and I decided to tag along to see this new route.\n\nFrom Fairview station, you enter a pitch black underground tunnel to get to the Watershed station. That was strange enough, but we soon learned that getting out of it was even stranger.\n\nOnce we were aboveground, it dawned on us that we were on a very different train. All the seats were made of tree branches and vines, some with a couple of leaves and clods of dirt still on them. One of my friends was wearing shorts and got a butt splinter.\n\nI don't know how the train looks like from the outside, but I imagine it looks the same as it does from the inside - like a kid saw a train once and tried to make a shoddy copy using mud, twigs and twine.\n\nWhat made the ride barely tolerable was the shaking. The rails were in horrible shape - a quick look out the window showed that they were covered in moss and earth, and made of rotting wood and rusty steel. How old WERE those tracks? It's a wonder any train could run on them to begin with.\n\nWorse, we were not alone. There were ghosts in the train with us, or what sure looked like ghosts. They were made of white smoke, like what you'd usually find in the middle of a fog, although there was no fog.\n\nMostly they were wearing old-style clothes, I mean REALLY old - barong tagalog and baro't saya kind of old.\n\nThey chatted with each other soundlessly, their hands wildly gesturing. They must have been really loud on this train when they were still around, but white smoke shadows are all that's left of them now.\n\nAnd they were pretty harmless. You wouldn't know if there was a ghost in your seat until you got up to take a look. It was just creepy. And, if you ask me, sort of impolite.\n\nMost clear among the ghosts in the car was a young woman in a simple white terno, but wearing a colorful panuelo and tapis. I don't know why she was the most vivid one, although the bright color of her clothes might just have made her stand out. She was usually on her feet, and she looked out the windows often, placing her palms against the glass. Unlike the other ghosts, her facial expression was actually visible, and she looked worried.\n\nOther people have reported that this young woman is on every car. Someone actually claimed she talked to them and told them \"the forest is angry.\" But she seemed like she wasn't even aware that my friends and I were there, so I don't believe it.\n\nThe shaky ride seemed to affect the ghosts, as well. They occasionally held on to some part of the train, or to each other.\n\nThis led me and my friends to imagine all sorts of scenarios. We discussed them openly during our ride, confident that the ghosts wouldn't hear. Perhaps the train was already in bad shape a long time ago, which was why the train stopped its operations in the first place.\n\nOr maybe it was just in bad shape while it was passing through the Watershed? Maybe the spirit of the forest really WAS angry at the old passengers, and is still angry at us now...?\n\nThe train stopped at the Watershed station. There was apparently a rundown, extremely old shed there - and apparently, La Mesa Founders, Inc. couldn't be bothered to fix it up, either. Some of the ghosts got off. Some new ghosts got on. The young lady in the colorful panuelo and tapis stayed, peering out the windows all the while.\n\nLong story short: you have ghosts and butt splinters and a bumpy ride all throughout the 15 minutes the train passes through the La Mesa Watershed. And then it enters another tunnel and emerges in Norzagaray, and you get back your smoothly running, normal modern train. All of a sudden no shaky rides, no panicked ghosts, and no splinters. Still some itching, though.\n\nThere have been a couple of complaints officially filed about this wood train already, but they've been ignored. There was only a lukewarm \"Station management has been informed and will take due steps to resolve the issue\" blanket response, but no actual game plan, no timeline.\n\nHere's my takeaway from the experience: the Sinauna Group needs to be careful with the entities they get to build their stations. Some of them may have some experience with trains, but don't know the first thing about running them.\n\n===\n\nWriter's note: I'm actually making a collection of stories about supernatural Philippine transportation methods, check them out [here] (https://www.wattpad.com/story/31908750-reasons-to-hate-the-commute). I haven't updated this collection in a long time because I haven't found the inspiration...so many thanks for this prompt, OP!", "It’s quiet now. \n\nSound remains – the crack of thunder, the chatter of squirrels, the hunting calls of falcons on the wing – but it’s not the same. There is birdsong, and the bellow of rutting deer, but human voices, and the infernal sounds of their machines are long gone. \n\nI did not think that I would miss them. \n\nI resented every instant of their presence. I hated the creak of their wagon wheels, the repetitive thud of the spikes being driven into the rails, the unspeakable racket of the steam engines. They were loud and graceless, building mines and dams and sawmills. They stomped and blasted and cut and stubbornly refused to leave. I threw blizzards at them, droughts, and earthquakes. I did everything in my power to drive them off my land. \n\nI wanted them gone. \n\nAnd now . . . \n\nNow it’s quiet. \n\nI miss the songs, the stories they’d whisper to each other at night, to keep the dark at bay. They named my land, every glade and peak and beach. They wrote poetry about my mountains and waterfalls, told legends about the fury of my storms. \n\nI did not welcome them, did not want them, but they were mine, and I miss the endless chatter of their voices.\n\nThey are gone now, their cities crumbling and my forests retaking their roads trails. \n\nI’ve done everything I can to lure them back. My hills are rich with veins of gold. Streams thread across my valleys, abundant with fish. The forests grow tall and vast, sequoias and redwood larger than the ones the first humans in my lands ever saw. \n\nI wait, and I remember their songs. I hope." ]	3
	[WP] A man on colony spaceship awakes from Cyrosleep to find he is the only one alive, and that the ship is somehow at the edge of the universe. As he stares into the void, it stares back.	[ "The last thing I'd heard before I went under were the calm instructional messages of the cryo-pod telling me the process was initiating and to \"relax and sleep well\". Like we had a choice, we barely had enough supplies for a week out of orbit, even if we had just wanted to float through the void. There were more supplies of course, but they were in stasis, for when we got 'there'. \nApparently, we'd all soon \"awaken healthy and refreshed, ready to start a new world!\". I don't know who tested this tech, or for how long, but they got that wrong. My head felt thicker than ration-pack porridge and every vein tingled as the cryo-fluids drained in place of normal blood. The blue light strip around my cryo-pod's viewing window seemed like a stadium floodlight to my eyes. I had no clue how long they might've been shut for and it was an immeasurable time before my idle limbs remembered their roles. \nOur 'polleneer' ship held 8 pods in my sector. They faced a central chamber into which I fell as I attempted my first steps since stasis. My arms quivered as I pushed myself up and grabbed the console in the centre- it should've lit up. Something was wrong. My shipmates pods were still sealed, the smooth exteriors plain apart from a single port-hole. Through two I could see dessicated skulls, grinning crazily against the glare of the light-strip. One showed me a revolting mass of furry mould, dislodging some suspension fluids from my stomach. The others were frosted with ice crystals. I was apparently utterly alone. \n \n\nI stumbled and lurched and groped my way from the pods to the ships' flight deck. The functioning sensors were dark, there was apparently nothing within detection range, yet the ship had woken me. This didn't make sense but the tech was unproven, at least when we left. \n'Well, might as well see the nothing' I thought, and tapped into the console. Looking from the cool blue control panel to the Viewing Bay, as the apparently exhausted solar-shutters crawled up the glass, I begin to get the first glimpse of our destination. \n \nIt was... Utterly dark. Like the night-sky but without a single star. A sensation crawled up my back a stroked the hairs on my neck, the feeling of being watched. Yet I knew I was the only should on this ghost ship, I still checked over my shoulder. As I stood alone, staring into the void, it began to change. At first the darkness pulled back and became black, lighter and lighter. Something caught in my peripheral vision, a shock of colour. The shutters continued their geriatric shuffle, taunting and teasing me as this universal wonder unfolded. I craned my head back to see the band of blue arcing high over the ship and away, a complete circle was soon visible. The circle receded yet further from my perspective and I saw it was contained within two great crescents. \n \nA sense of minuteness washes over me as I struggle to comprehend what lay before me. Whatever it is, we are seeing eye-to-eye. ", "\"Two million years?\" I said aloud, my face drained of all color. The ship creaked. The lights above flickered briefly. They hadn't been turned on in quite a long time. Luckily, these ships were made for endurance.\n\nMy fingers brushed through the screen by my cryosleep pod. The different analyses of my condition, what happened on the ship, and what happened outside the ship. I solemnly looked to the dozen other pods near me. While the people inside were still very cold, they were lifeless. During the two million years, their life support failed. Or, more specifically, the ship chose to cut off life support one by one. From lowest to highest rank.\n\n\"Shit, man.\" I grasped by face, shaking my head. I was the captain of the ship, the one with the most authority. To preserve life as long as possible, the ship routed life support to me above anyone else. The last person died a thousand years prior. \n\nIt seemed like I only have enough food and supplies to last me now... a month? At best? I could put myself back under cryosleep until I got to the nearest inhabited location, but... it might be fruitless. I would just sleep to death. Where was I? What was the state of the human race? Did we find other life in the universe?\n\nI stepped out of the Cryochambers, heading to the main deck of the ship. Really, it was no bigger than a typical cruise ship. It was sleek, well-fitted, and compact. Perfect for navigating the universe.\n\nA massive ultra-secure window gave a gorgeous view of the universe. It wrapped around the main deck, which sat on top of the whole spaceship. A pedestal with a blinking communications screen was the only light within the ship. This made the light from the stars ever more beautiful. It also made it apparent that only the south end of the ship had a view to the stars. The north end was just... black. Completely black. A void.\n\nI stared into the void, eyes squinting. Was the screen projecting something? Did it get dirtied? No. It was just... nothing. Absolute nothing. More over, the ship wasn't even moving. It just sat there. Along with the hundreds of large colony cruise ships that were seemingly stalled alongside their own. Their lights were out as well. Was anyone on them even alive? It had been two million years, did no one seek us out? Was their not a manual override from the colony division back on Mars to wake us up, send us back to the Milky Way?\n\nI touched the communications screen, wincing at the bright light it poured right into my eyes. There were... a lot of videos. A lot of messages. However, the dates on them were all... just under 2 million years ago. \n\n\"Please, no.\" I covered my mouth, tapping on the messages. The first dozen were updates, to be viewed upon the colony's awakening. Then it became more dire. All colonies were failing. Mars. Earth. Venus. Even the colonies that had established on Super Earths, planets that had more abundant resources than our own Earth. What happened?\n\n'The Dark Sickness.' It was the title of the last message. 'Remaining colonies,' it read. 'I will be blunt here. The situation is horrific. A plague is ravaging every settlement where humans, where life, exists. Settlements that have not had outside contact in thousands of years. Within the same week, most humans in these settlements are showing signs of the Dark Sickness. The infected go blind, their veins darken, and soon they enter into a comatose-like state. Unrecoverable. Every human is displaying different levels of these symptoms. Some fell within hours, some have lasted weeks. But this does seem to be terminal. The best we can do is keep the unconscious patients into cryosleep, much like with voyaging colonists. There is no way of knowing how long the comatose will last under cryo conditions, or even if they can be recovered, but we have no options. We will be placing all scientists first into cryosleep, followed by others suited for aiding humanity survive in disaster scenarios. All we can do now is hope that we can survive the sleep. Good night.'\n\nMy hand fell from my lips, as I examined my arm. My veins were much darker than when I entered cryosleep. Had I fallen victim to the sickness as well? Had we all? I flipped through to the 'Colony Vitals' analysis.\n\n\"No.\" I looked out to the other ships. The hundreds of ships. The thousands upon thousands of lives. The blinking communications screen showed only one remaining passenger of the colony fleet. \"No, no. No, no, no.\" I fell to my knees, hand clutching the screen. \"I can't... I...\" I banged my fist against it. \"Two million years? Am I... the last?\" Was I the only human left? Was I the only one? There hadn't been any signal, not even a blip, in nearly two million years. \n\nI stood up, walking over to the north end, to the void that encompassed my view. \"I can't be. This can't be it. I can't be all there is.\" I whispered, forehead leaning against the glass as I held myself. \"Please don't let me be alone. I can't do this.\" Why now? Why did I even wake? What was the point? Couldn't the ship let me die in peace?\n\nI felt something stir in me. My eyes settled softly on the total darkness. My veins itched. I looked down, the darkness looked as if it pulsed under the dull ambient light of the ship. As if this darkness was alive, and this void called out to it. To me. What lay beyond the threshold? The edge of the universe? A section of space under extreme vacuum conditions? A worm hole? \n\n\"What are you?\" I asked, to the only other thing in the universe, possibly, that had some semblance of sentience. I had survived this disease, it seemed. I had won. What was my prize? To spend my final days alone? As the last of anything?\n\n\"The beginning.\" The ship creaked as the voice echoed through me. I turned around, expecting to see someone with me. It was a voice as chilling as the deep ocean, that made my spine shiver and a coldness grip my chest. \n\n\"W-what? What do you mean?\"\n\n\"Find the sleepers. Their sacrifice has allowed life to thrive.\"\n\nThe voice rattled me again. Both of my hands were placed against the window, as I stared deep into the void. The seeming source of the disembodied voice. \"What sacrifice?\"\n\n\"All life was to die. Through our aid, some have lived.\" The ship shook, and I swear I saw the void blink. \"Go home.\"" ]	2
	[WP] You gave your best friend a prank lottery ticket to win a million dollars but it turned out to be a real winning ticket.	[ "For as long as I had known her, Grace was very vocally against the lottery. For years, she had laughed at people for going to the lottery because she was a complete nerd and therefore she was able to calculate the miniscule probability of a winning lottery ticket and know that it was simply a waste of time.\n\nNow, Grace's birthday was the first of April, a holiday celebrated by many people around the world as the one day a year when quasi-illegal pranks were not only permissible but almost encouraged. That day around the world was a day that everyone took to lighten up and get a laugh out of all present save the victim. And every year for the ten years that I had known her, I had given Grace a birthday gift but also a wickedly thought out birthday prank. One year, I had gotten a whole bunch of our friends together to don the garb of constables; that is, to dress up like cops. We burst into her dorm room at 3:30 in the morning and had her convinced for about a minute that she was going to jail for posession of the marijuana that we had planted in her room.\n\nBut this year, I had gotten lazy. I was done trying to think up elaborate pranks. Every year, she was getting a little more pissed off at me, and every year, it was getting harder to find a fresh prank. So this year, I was just going to piss her off by dropping about a thousand lottery tickets on her desk, one of which was actually real, and let her sort through them.\n\nThe gas station at which I purchased the Moneyball ticket was a tiny little run-down Mobil on Interstate 95, only about a fifteen minute drive from Harvard. The ticket was purchased at 2:37 in the morning from a tired clerk with orange hair and several body piercings with the numbers \"31\", \"7\", \"23\", \"9\", \"1\" and \"33\". After paying for the ticket, I returned to campus, where several friends were waiting to help me forge 999 counterfeit tickets that weren't legitimate but certainly seemed that way. We threw in one minor difference to all of the tickets except for the real one, but since Grace never played the lottery she wouldn't be able to see the difference without comparing every single ticket.\n\nFinally, while she was off at a lecture on Advanced Medical Spanish, we piled all of the tickets, the real one being the 329th from the bottom, in a single stack from her floor to her ceiling. I set up a couple of hidden cameras around her room, so that I could catch the video of her reaction and upload it to my prankster YouTube channel. The only issue was that the cameras that I had developed were so small that I could not be watching the footage live but would instead have to watch it later when I was able to recover the cameras, assuming that she didn't spot them and remove them like she had all my previous prototypes.\n\nAfter I left, I couldn't stop laughing to myself about what her reaction was going to be like. She would flip, of course; anyone would do that after finding what appears to be 1000 lottery tickets in their room whether in a good way or a bad way. But I figured that she would still probably try to check the tickets: after all, there was no reason not to. I never told her that only one was a real ticket. She was probably going to check them all to see if any of them was the winner. As far as she was concerned, it wasn't her money and there was no reason to waste mine, so she was going to check the tickets.\n\nThe thought never crossed my mind that the ticket might actually be a winner. After all, I was also a Harvard student who was able to calculate those meager odds, and so I assumed that there wasn't a chance in the world that the ticket might actually be right. If I had thought that, I would have played the ticket myself instead of pranking Grace with it, but since I knew the odds I assumed it wasn't worth it.\n\nWith this knowledge, imagine my surprise when the following text conversation took place:\n\t\nGrace: OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG\n\nMe: lol do u like the pile of lottery tickets?\n\nGrace: it's not that\n\nMe: what is it then\n\nGrace: the ticket actually won!!!!!!\n\nMe: ...\n\nMe: bullshit\n\nGrace: im not kidding!!!\n\nMe: ...\n\nMe: how much?\n\nGrace: over 1000000\n\nMe: ...\n\nMe: y didnt i use the ticket myself\n\nGrace: ur smart\n\nGrace: u saw the odds\n\nGrace: oh and btw what day is it\n\nI looked back at the date and slapped my forehead. After all these years, Grace had finally gotten around to pranking me back..." ]	1
	[WP] Earth has been destroyed, humans have expanded into the universe. You’re a traveller with your own space ship. During one of your expeditions, you come across another planet and it is an exact replica of Earth. When you land, you realise that these set of humans are still in the 17th century.	[ "I strolled around the port area of a coastal city. Maybe \"stroll\" is too strong a word. More like dancing. So much detritus: Fish heads, lost buckles, rusting traps, scraps of wood. Perhaps a closer inspection would have revealed more but the smell was enough to dissuade me from delving further.\n\nI came upon a coffee house. That was especially odd to consider: Here, far from the source of coffee was an establishment serving it. In fact, the entire planet had me in a quandary. In any case, I ventured inside and sat down closer to the wall but not too far from the door. One could never know what dangers may present themselves so it only made sense to plan a quick escape should the need arise.\n\nI decided not to order anything. After all, for all I knew, while things may have looked identical to what I would have expected on earth during the aforementioned period of history, perhaps their idea of coffee included something that would lead to my eyeballs breaking out of their sockets and running loose across the floor. No, observing was just fine for me. Of course, it didn't take a particularly keen eye to observe me. I wore clothing that none on this world could possibly recognize. Certainly I'd made a point of keeping the flashing lights and anything that went beep back on my ship but something as simple as a zipper would make any origin story entirely implausible.\n\nEither way, it wasn't long before I had company. I'd heard them speaking already. It was, oddly enough, English and if I'd had to guess, I'd suppose was I was in jolly old England during the age of exploration. Of course, it was a strange version of English complete with plenty of archaic words, the meaning of some of which wasn't entirely clear. \n\nHe asked me where I was from. Obviously this wasn't unexpected and I'd already known that I'd need to think of some place distant and obscure enough to seem like a reasonable plausibility. After all, what else could I rely but their own ignorance of the world to get me by? These people were barely aware of the basic geography of their world and would hardly expect them to even understand what I'd meant if I'd suggested I was from some place that circled a distant star. I told him I'd just come in from one of the colonies in the new world. Originally, he pestered, where was I from? I told him that English was my second language and I didn't know how to explain my homeland. All I could tell him was that it was far to the east. Past the Ottoman's great empire. Near Persia. He understood but still looked at me suspiciously. For me, that was good enough. \nI didn't feel any imminent threat coming from him or anything but if it came to it, I still had the advantage of a cloaked ship at my beck and call, piloted by an AI capable of wiping most of this civilization from the history books in a matter of minutes. But there's no need to boast or present arms...all appears to be fine.\n\nI scanned the room a little more carefully. What I'd taken to be a menu was, in fact, nothing of the sort. In fact, it appeared to be some sort of bookie's roster. I saw strange names followed by commodities, followed further by a series of numbers. Wait a moment...this was no coffee house, this was the beginnings of the insurance industry. Or maybe it was both. Now, the wheels really started to spin. Here I was, homeless, aimless, and basically poor in every sense. This planet wasn't going to become some sort of trading hub but it could provide me with everything I'd ever need to live a life of luxury. Moreover, the advantages my technology provided me with almost assured a degree of fame should I seek it out.\n\nAnd that's how it all started. 70 years ago, the seed of the tree now matured had been planted. Each successive generation of my family informed of the secret passed along and exploited to the utmost. No other explorers have ventured here thus far and exposed me but even if they did, my progeny's fame wouldn't be entirely revealed. My grandson Isaac has promising ideas about mathematics and the AI will guide him but they're primitive in light of what the AI knows. Gallileo caused quite a stir before I rescued him from the church's grasp. They're slow to embrace new ideas and the resistance can often prove fatal but these people are coming around. \n\nI was here nearly 20 years before I realized what I'd truly discovered. This was not a replica of earth, it was earth. I'd somehow managed to surf the wave of time backwards. My discovery of this truth was more fortuitous than one would have expected. After trying and failing on numerous occasions to contact civilization as I knew it, I'd decided to actually go to the nearest colonial planet. It wasn't there anymore. More accurately, it wasn't there yet. Not a single vestige of anything mass produced or manufactured in any way. No base, no launch platform, no star docks, nothing. The sheer terror of what I'd stumbled upon kept me from accepting it for days. When I finally came around, I made a decision that I couldn't be certain would have the effect I desired. Ultimately, of course, the plan was to change history. Alas, my own knowledge of it was so lackluster that I could do little more than try and keep one basic idea in focus: Don't destroy the earth. \n\nThanks to the medicine of my own civilization, I would live for, in all probability, something like 500 years. So long as I pretended to die every now and again and changed my name each time, things could be kept under control. I would confer upon any of my children the knowledge that my ship alone could provide as well as some hints of what lay ahead. I'd decided to make a list of the greatest minds to ever grace the earth. All that I was aware of, anyway. My children would be named after such luminaries as Albert Einstein, Nikolai Tesla, Copernicus, Bill Gates, Magellan, Darwin, etc. While their links to each other would have to be severed at birth, later in their lives they would be returned to the fold and \"educated\" about their mission. If necessary, the AI would do most of the work but we would retain control of this time line. The first thing on the list was to get religion out of the way so I took the name Martin Luther and nailed a letter to a church door after having a chat with the king of England. He was grateful and it's easy to work your way to the top with the technology and foreknowledge at my disposal.\n\nSo we'll continue along this line until I die. Hopefully I can tell the last of my family that I meet considerably more about who I really am and where I really came from. That sort of information will be invaluable.", "Black. \n\nThat's all I'd seen and all I'd felt for the past - what was it now? A year, a month? - not withstanding the pinpricks of light that made up my existence - a mouthful of food here, a gulp of liquid there - I had drifted, endlessly, a being entirely detached from time and space. Of course, time is relative, so what was time when the clock-makers were all dead? Not just the clock-makers of course (they were all-but extinct to begin with,) but the metaphor had let me place some sort of a handle on the magnitude of what had taken place. There were no more clock towers to toll for what had been.\n\nMy memories of the spaceship voyage squashed and blended together until it was just one moment, waiting and alone; on the other side of that instant was a pain so searingly bright and painful that it was as if Sol itself had exploded between my temples. Which, if I let myself fire-walk through my blazing memories, it had. The colonies - the Greater Earth Metro Area, as the rulers so liked to call them - had not fallen; they had, however, failed to heed the call, and so with one final, dying breath of solar wind, System A001 had fallen dark. \n\nThe evacuation had been improbable, but now it was impossible. I had been swept away, drifting from star to star, dancing tunelessly through ballrooms of gas, a neutron star here or there the solemn disco-ball of my path. \n\nOf course, reminiscing sapped willpower and wasted energy, and so I had prevented it entirely up until this point. The problem was, reminiscing seemed inevitable given my present circumstances. Having zipped past a black hole, swung around a gas giant and fallen past a moon, I found myself in the most improbable of improbable circumstances: a class 1 system, complete with what appeared to be a habitable planet. The coincidence that my ship should so be pulled into so small a gravitational field was astronomical. The fact that that planet just so happened to resemble earth was beyond the scope of probability theory. \n\nChecking my oxygen readouts, I ensured that, no, I wasn't asphyxiating, and no, I hadn't accidentally projected an historical video on my front screen. What I was seeing was impossible. I attempted to ignore it, right up until the ship I had so depended upon began to rattle and shake, metal joints creaking under the increasing heat. The roar of rarefied atmosphere being ionised became unbearably loud. I raced to the foremost seat (controls sitting deadly still before me) and strapped myself in as tightly as I could. The great disk of earth grew before me, larger and larger. \n\nBy the fuzzy tingles at the back of my brain which constituted my memories of geography, I knew I was landing somewhere near the Mediterranean sea. A blur of continents became a stream of clouds, a patchwork of squares became farms, and I plunged onwards, a meteor heading for the outskirts of an extremely small town. I waited to be skewered upon the spires of the buildings - I was only a few thousand metres above ground level - but it never came. The town grew larger and larger, until I saw streets; nothing made sense, for the highways were not highways, but mere streets. A ragged, ramshackle, ridiculously inefficient bramble-patch- of streets grew before me until, with an earth-shattering lithobrake, I had landed. \n\nComing to, I stumbled out of my seat. Night had fallen, or at least I assumed so. All windows, even those at the rear of the craft, were completely dark, save a flicker of moonlight. As I banged my bleeding fist against the coverings of my ship's medikit, the insanity of the situation overwhelmed me and I had to grip a railing to prevent from toppling over. Scrambling for the exit hatch, I popped the top of my spacecraft without thinking what I was doing, realising only too late that the hiss of gas escaping my craft could be the electroshock finally surging through my heart, stopping it cold. \n\nWhen I didn't die, I braved myself enough to stick my head outside. The smell was immediately overwhelming - sickeningly sweet, earthy, and entirely unpleasant. I'd smelt this before - in history lessons - but had never expected to chance upon it in the wild, no less upon a foreign planet. If this was a foreign planet - the thought that perhaps this was a construct of my mind was a thought that did not presently need to be at the forefront, and so I attempted to suppress it. What I saw when I looked outside nearly sent me toppling back to the floor." ]	2
	[WP] You are a killer hiding in a woman's closet at night, waiting for the right moment to strike. You see her finally get into her bed and presumably fall asleep. Just as you're about to make a move, you feel warm breath hit the back of your neck.	[ "This is my first attempt at actually writing a response to a prompt. Please let me know what you think. Any and ALL constructive criticism is welcome, I'm trying to improve as a writer:\n\nFor months I have been passing by this house, watching, studying, waiting for my chance to take what I so greatly desired. All that time, planning and plotting to take what I rightfully knew was meant to be mine, and now the time had come for me to seize it... At least, if this damn woman would ever go to bed.\n I first noticed this adorable little home when I was out jogging one day on what was my usual route. Fortunately (in hindsight) there was a detour due to some much needed repairs that led me down South Meadowlark street. As I was running, I noticed this exquisite all brick home nestled perfectly in the middle of this cozy neighborhood. I was taken back by the perfect little yard that it set on, the balcony that hung over the front entryway, I just knew that I had to have it. I decided that I would make this street part of my new running route, for obvious reasons, and would take time to admire this perfect little setting each day. Day by day I would run by, always making sure to take my time so that I could study the surroundings. \n My love of this house propelled me to more than just running by. I began to drive my car down this road quite frequently, taking photos and videos of the home so that I could learn as much as I could about who lived there, and what happened on a daily basis. One night I decided that even this practice wasn't enough, so I went one step further and set up a surveillance camera to watch the property day and night, so I that I could be absolutely sure to know what I was getting myself into. \n From what I could tell through the first few months of monitoring, the home was lived in by a lone elderly woman. This woman was short and frail looking. She walked around with an extremely hunched back, and had a pretty substantial limp as she moseyed along to her vehicle parked in the driveway. She was home most of the time, but seemed to have a normal schedule of leaving the home between the hours of two and five on Tuesdays and Thursdays, so I knew that when I made my move to gain entry into the home, that's when I would have to do so. This was going to be a cake walk.\n \n Fast forward to today, and how it is that I got into this damn closet in the first place. The woman, who now is only feet from me, left her home as usual just like any other Tuesday. I decided that the best way to gain entry without raising suspicion from the neighbors was to dress as a cable man and carry the tools I would need in a bag so I looked like someone who was there to do repair work. I walked around to the back yard of the home to check the windows for any that may be open, or at the very least loose, so that I may gain a quick entrance into the home without leaving any skeptical, or noticeable damage to the home at first glance. Scanning the back of the home, there were three large windows that were all in a line along the back side of the home. There was also a set of double doors that open up to a beautiful full size patio. I decided that I would have to move quick, as not to be seen by any neighbors when I tried to break in. I began checking windows hoping for a stroke of luck so that I may gain quick entry into this beautiful home. I checked the first window for any evidence of looseness, but it was sealed shut. The second was sealed tightly as well, and it seemed that any hopes of being inconspicuous was about to fly out the door. I walked over to the third window at a brisk pace, and reached out my hand to grab the frame of the window to test it as well. I began to shake this window to check for any sign of disconnect between the window and the frame, and to my delight the window rocked just a little bit. I grabbed my hammer and a flat head screwdriver that I pried between the bottom of the window and the frame and swung the hammer into the screwdriver a couple of times, popping the window from it's locked position. In one swift motion, I threw the window open, grabbed my back and jumped in the window shutting it behind me. \n\n I was in. I stood up and took in the surroundings of this home that would soon be mine. I began to tear up at the thought of living and raising a family here. The interior was just as magnificent as the outside. Cherry wood floors were all through out the house, the walls all had a dark magenta color that really was quite stunning in the sunlight, when it peered through the windows. I started to explore knowing that I had another hour or so before the elderly woman would return, and decided to figure out where and how I would take care of her. Down the main hallway, there are three bedrooms, but only the master bedroom showed any signs of anyone living there. I decided that I would probably wait until she takes a shower, so that if there was any sign of struggle or if I had to get too physical, I could easily clean up the mess I had to make. \n\n Now that I had a plan, I began looking for a place that I could set up shop, so that I would have easy access to the bathroom without producing too much noise. I continued to look around for a place to house myself for the next few foreseeable hours, when I heard what sounded like someone trying to open the front door. I quickly walked down the hallway from the bedroom I was in, and checked to see if someone was at the door. Indeed the elderly woman was home, much earlier than my initial allotted time of reference. “Well Shit! It's all hit the fan now!” I thought to myself, “This is definitely not what I had in mind.”", "Introduction:\n\nI had many ideas for this story, I could have done the clever idea of a monster in the closet, or something else to that affect, but I decided I wanted to go a little different.\n\nSo to start our story off, let me intoduce to you our protagonist, he has been reffered by the media by many names, but most on the internet no our fictional \"hero\" by only one name: \"the closeted killer\".\n\nThe closeted killer was not fond of the nickname the tabloids and Internet bestowed upon him. He would have preferred something like \"the monster in the closet\" or even \"the boogey man\"! He wasn't always a serial killer, there was a time were either of those names would actually have frightened him too.\n\nHe could even remember when he was little, how monsters were something to be afraid of. When he got older the fears became other people. Kidnappers, pedophiles, rapists, thugs, drug dealers, and of course, serial killers. He learned to out grow these fears of course. He was even aware that some of them were down right problematic! He might be a villain, but the war on drugs! Now that was a death count! \n\nHe couldn't hold a candle to it!\n\nNow the closeted killer is actually pretty reasonable for a serial killer, so it wasn't like he was being unfair when he says that framing his crime's as some sort of homophobic joke was a little uncalled for. All it did was hurt that community, and insulted his vicims and there families. And he cared about his victims a lot actually.\n\nHe fashioned himself a the \"humane killer\" even though no one really cares how polite you are when you are shooting them in the face. He was reasonable, but that didn't make him rational.\n\nIn fact he was really the opposite of rational, he picked his victims randomly, he left little random essays by the corpse, all pertaining to the idea of how universe was random, and how he hoped to to make people appreciate life by showing them how early they too could die. And Bla bla bla. He was really a just and edge lord would would occasionally quote a philosopher (or sometimes fight club) to sound smart.\n\nNow that you should have a handle on our lovely little psychopath, let me introduce you to his victim, who unknown to him is also his biggest fan, of course she would phrase it as his \"number one disciple\".\n\nShe wasn't that into her teens when she first started to obsess about serial killers. Her parents thought maybe it was just an outlet for her rebellion considering she was otherwise a good kid, and her therapist seemed to agree.\n\nThen things started to escalate, and they started to escalate because she learned about the closeted killer.\n\nNow she wasn't the type to keep a blog or a fan account, she did write fan fiction but she never posted it. She had reacted in the exact way the closeted killer would hypothetically would want someone to react.\n\nShe thought the message he was trying to send was genius. Every butchered quote from sartre and camue blew her teenaged mind. And on occasion she would sleep in her own closet the way a kid trying to meet Santa Claus or the tooth fairy would, not really expecting to see them, but earnestly hoping they did!\n\nAnd now fate (but really it was random chance) had allowed the two to meet.\n\nAnd the closeted killer, felt a breath on the back of his neck. And then his ears were filled with screaming!\n\n(If you liked this setup LMK and I might finish it!)", "A soft draft broke the ecstatic concentration, the warmth lessening the lust in his eyes. He stretched his mouth into a genuine smile, so different to the one he had been practicing day after day. Her shoes sprawled on the worn carpet of her room, a small heel caught in a thread from the rug. The black patent caught the soft yellow light through the coloured curtains, gleaming- not unlike the dancing knife. The calendar marked her birthday in large letters, taking more than the allotted day long space in its excitement. Her nieces followed suit, a carefully scrawled pink heart around it. It stayed in the box. A hand moved up to the doors, his weight balanced carefully on the balls of his feet. The delirium of the suspense tightened his muscles. A last glance was thrown at the familiar warm fabrics of the room; at the slumbering figure under the covers. My hands moved- caressing his head. He froze. I almost laughed, I knew the bite my voice held.\n“She’s mine.”\n\n\n(Edit- improvements!)", "It was at that moment that the heater had just turned on.\n\nShe must have adjusted the thermostat before heading to bed. I turned behind me to make sure that it could not be anything else, and there it was, like perfectly arranged slits opening sideways. \n\nIt was the face of the vent.\n\nIts warm breath filled the closet with heated air and the cold dissipated. I was warm now. It was comforting.\n\n- Jonathan Manor [r/eveningrevolution] (https://www.reddit.com/r/eveningrevolution/) ", "\"Oh- are you here to...\"\n\n\"Yeah... you too?\"\n\n\"Yeah\"\n\nWell shit.\nYou stalk and find a target finally, put on your mask, hide in the closet, and it turns out there was another guy with the same idea, albeit under the bed.\n\n\"Aw fuck, is there like a dibs rule?\"\n\n\"I mean, I've been following her for months.\"\n\nMonths! Hah!\n\n\"I've been following her for a year! Look:\"\n\nI show him the picture I took a year ago today. That was my thing, The Picture Killer: For every month this year, I'd taken a picture of my target the year before. Thankfully, none of them had died yet.\n\n\"Oh, you're the picture killer? I'm a huge fan\"\n\nWell, not meaning to brag, but I was quite the large fish in the killer community.\n\n\"Who're you?\"\n\n\"Oh...\"\n\nHe looked pensive, or well, as pensive as a 6' 7'' man can look in overalls and a mask.\n\n\"I'm just starting. Was hoping the press would name me, y'know?\"\n\nRookie mistake.\n\n\"Noone gets a reputation like that, man! You need a theme, a brand! Make it big!\"\n\n\"Yeah... yeah!\"\nHe was nodding.\n\"What if I killed using a theme relating to the month?\"\n\n\"Bit cliche, but I could see it! I believe you man! But, if this is your first kill, you can tell this is probably more important to me.\nHe nodded.\nWith this settled, we turned back to the empty bed and spotted the open window.\n\nShit.", "What a lovely house. Nestled between gently rolling hills in the woods and just far enough from civilization to enjoy the solitude nature brings without sacrificing the comforts of modern living. The interior is spacious, but not overly so. Plenty of nooks and crannies for me to scope the place out from the inside while her husband is away on a business trip. It's been just the two of us for some time now, and I've decided tonight's the night. The moon is full and the light that filters through the high windows illuminates the beautifully decorated rooms just enough for me to see what I need to see.\n\nA perfectly timed walk to the master bedroom closet as she closes the bathroom door to shower and the stage is set. Before long she returns, dresses for bed in the clothes she laid out when she came from work, and lays down to enjoy her nightly reading. Half an hour: that's exactly how much time she allocates each night to breeze through a chapter or two. I'm a sucker for bookworms and this one is too beautiful to let live. Just a little longer now... her breath is finally slowing, settling into a calm rhythm. She sets down her book and turns out the light.\n\nIn. Out. In. Out.\n\nA few minutes more, I think, and she'll be deep asleep. Then I'll step out and wake her, in order to savor the look only someone roused suddenly from a peaceful slumber in their safe place can provide me. My fingers nervously grasp at my knife in anticipation. Sitting through my victim's final unwitting moments has always been such sweet agony. \n\nIn. Out. In. In...?\n\nI must've lost track in my excitement. Focus...\n\nIn. Out. In. Out. Out.\n\nThat wasn't her. I've done this every night for a week now and her pattern has always been consistent. No snoring, no sleep apnea.\n\nI wheel around silently in the closet, the hairs on my body standing on end as I consider the possibility that I'm not the sole occupant of this roomy walk-in closet. I squint through the darkness, unsettled but unsure.\n\nA pair of shoes below the rack of clothing on the far wall are out of alignment with the rest. The heel of every pair of shoes face the closet door, but not these. I take a step closer to investigate. The toes of both shoes are pointing toward the door. She's too meticulous for that, I've seen the way every last detail of every item in the house has been perfectly arranged since her messy husband stepped out. I draw my knife, certain now that something is... off. Those are men's dress shoes.\n\nCreeping toward the line of clothes, I'm unable to make out anything more. But I'm certain someone else is here now. I slash up at the rack of suits, the fabric quietly ripping as my knife slides through. Nothing after all, just nerves. I thought I'd be more used to the rush by now, this being my 5th victim and all.\n\nReassured, I turn my attention back to my obsession. I peer through the keyhole and see she's still in bed, her chest rising and falling slowly with each breath. I continue my silent watch, intoxicated by her beauty as my anticipation grows. Ready now, I reach for the door knob. I twist it slowly, slowly... and focus once again on her breathing. I need to savor it now before I stop it for good.\n\nIn. Out. In. A wash of air suddenly hits the back of my neck. \n\nMy heart skips a beat as pale, cold hands grasp at my throat and cover my mouth. The hands turn me around in their vice-like grip and I see a faceless man towering over me. I scream, but cannot hear it. There is only static as my vision narrows to a pinpoint and my heart pounds in my ears. His impossibly long arms wrap around me and draw me deeper into the closet.", "The xenomorph had been waiting there longer than I had, coiled cleverly against one corner of the dark, unusually high ceilinged closet.. I raised my head slowly, stared up and didn't see a pair of eyes in the elongated, terrifyingly phallic head of the creature.\n\n\"What.. are.. you?\" I whispered.\n\nWhen I was a kid and we were trading imaginary last words for impossible situations. Just stupid kidtalk. I never would have ever imagined my last words would be what are you? But they were.\n\nThe jaws of the monster swung wide in more of a leopard's grimace, and a second, inner pair of jaws shot out, exploded through my skull. Impacted above my right eye. The lady getting ready for bed heard a thump and told herself it was just the cat or a flashback to when she herself was younger, hiding in a closet from monsters.\n\n\"I'm past all that,\" she whispered to herself, turning off the lamp with a decisive clink and rolling on to her side. She was fully, soundly asleep within a few minutes." ]	7
	[WP] You were walking on the beach only to discover an iron box protruding from the sand of the nearby rocks. You take it home and find that it's filled with writing papers of all sorts. You find out that the papers are actually the notes of an immortal man who has lived since the 11th century	[ "Every Thursday I do a short walking on the beach, to relax, to think about the week that I've been through, to be prepared for the weekend, 3 days with the kids and my wife, a lot of time to spend.\n\n\n\"...Ouch\", I hit my finger with a box that I didn't notice , it was covered by the sand, \"Heh, it's hard like the Lego pieces that my kids leave on the floor everytime I come back...\". I pick up the box to the near café and open it. As I open the box I see a huge amount of dusty papers, I blow on the papers to see what is written on them but I can't understand the langauge..., although I did notice the latin numbers in the top of each paper.\n\n\nI rushed through the door of my house straight to my so-called office, started to scan the pages by the numbers, and using Google translate the the text, it was written in many langauges, Egyptian, Persian, Chinese, Romainian , Hebrew and also English, they were notes, kind of a diary, I grabbed a beer from the kitchen and started to read the whole thing, the first note was from the 11th century:\n\n\n\"Those are my last words, as the leader of the Torp Villiage in our last battle, I, Gudrun, shall accept the defeat, this is our last moments on the ships before the British's ships are going to take us down, I can smell the bullet that will tear our ship apart and drown the ship with the crew, Oh dear gods! Here my last pray to give us the power to continue our fight and land the long desired victory on our wicked enemies!\".\n\nI make sure that this is the first page, it can't be, it is...anyway, I move on to the second note...\n\n1135, England\n\"I wake up screaming, I remeber when I saw my crew drowns, I remeber the Captain of the British ship takes me and shoots me in the chest...I'm still trying to figure what happened as I walk in a wooden place, long, with doors, I peak through the doors and I see sick and old people, they are BRITISH! I start running, I see a woman with white clothing, I grab her by her neck and I shout at her: \"WHERE AM I?!\" and all she says is something about a cave man waking up, I throw her and go out side. \n\nThis is unbelieveable! I see people fighting each other! It's like a civil war, How crazy are the British that they are fighting each other now?! I've got to run away, I see a ship, I sneak between the people and goes toward to the unknown.\"\n\n" ]	1
	[WP] It’s the future, and a new service has been developed to text and tell people they will die 24 hours before they do. One morning, everyone on Earth gets that text.	[ "It was anarchy, briefly, as the world learned of our universal demise.\n\n\nThe message went out at 2087-06-05 00:33:12.09888 UTC. It simply read; \"This is your 24 hour notice, we regret to have to send this notification. Be good, enjoy whatever you have to enjoy, and go in peace.\"\n\n\nThe resulting firestorm of question, fear, outrage overwhelmed the masses as hysteria took root for a time. Mob mentality driving the great machine of humanity into a frenzy.\n\n\nScience had no answer, no evident calamity on the horizon, no seismic activity or rock hurtling toward our little piece of the galaxy.\n\n\nAfter the first 12 hours, the world became somber, solidified, as the gravity set in. Some became jubilant and danced away the sorrow. Others tried to record all that we were to send into the depths of space. More simply stopped, reflecting on the missed chances and what could have been moments of wasted time.\n\n\n\nWith only a few hours left the world was simultaneously holding its breath, and shouting with every power it yet had. Into the darkness of time we would never go silently, the world determined as one.\n\n\n\n\"I don't know what will happen, my beautiful boy.. I can't tell you what you should have had or seen or done, but I can tell you that I love you. We always loved you and always will.\". This sentiment was nearly universal, in the final moments. All conflicts seemed so petty now. Parents fought back tears, the wisdom of experience lost to their children.\n\n\n\nWhen the last minute expired, the world, for the first time in human history, was at peace.\n\n\n\n2087-06-06 00:33:50.98870 \"This is a notification that an internal error with the notification system has been resolved. Enjoy the respite, and look towards tomorrow.\"\n\n\nAnd so, we did.", "The year is 2093. You're on an island full of dinosaurs somewhere in the Pacific Ocean.\n\n\nBeeeeeeeeep. Bzzzzzzz. Brrrrrrp. All at once, the emergency alert signal starts going off on every single phone in the area. There's no children on the island, so it can't be an Amber alert. You reach into your back pocket and read. \n\n\n“Within the next 24 hours, you, and everyone you know or have ever known, will be dead. Say your goodbyes and make your peace with yourself. Thank you for your participation in DeathAlert 3.0. to unsubscribe, send STOP. Messaging and data rates may apply.”\n\n\nYou look into the sky and see a faint, glowing orange orb. Right now it's as small as a pin prick, like a star that wasn't hiding behind daylight. You stare a little harder, and it gets a little closer. \n\n\n\n“Goddamnit John, I told you bringing dinosaurs back from the dead was a terrible fucking idea.\"\n\n", "\"It's weird when you wake up to it. To the end. To death.\" I remember an old spoof movie that said you cant wake up dead unless you are a zombie. Figuratively speaking it's an accurate statement. Up until today I have been mindlessly going about my days for years like a zombie. I've been working up the courage to just end it myself because I was too scared to receive the message. Today was different. I wanted to see the sky, feel the grass and touch her face. She received the message too. Everyone did. I was getting calls from my family freaking out. Aunts and uncles apologizing for wrongful shit they had done, father telling mother he cheated. They wanted to go out in the best light possible as if it was some sort of rapture. I didn't believe in this \"technology\" religion we had willingly subdued to. I asked her what I could do by breakfast to make our last day special. \"Play me a song\" she said. So I picked up an old acoustic I found in the dumpster a few years ago and strummed her favorite. She hummed the tune and held our sons phone to her chest. We lost him almost a year ago to the day. I remember that day clearly how painful it was, yet it was all we wanted to talk about. I am going to miss her contagious laugh. That smile that brightens up the room and of course that ass. She gave me the best last day I could ever hope for just by being there. We just laid there for the rest of the day. Reminiscent of the early parenthood years. By nightfall we laid outside and looked at our star. We picked one when Liam left us. You cant see it unless you leave about a half hour outside the city. Funny, no traffic. As we receive another message saying only an hour left we turn on his phone. A draft he had typed up was there on the home screen titled \"Funny\". It took us almost the remaining time to open it. When we did we saw it was written the day he died. We never knew he received the message it was so sudden. We hoped it would give us a release in the end. He mentioned he didn't want to worry us but just wanted one last regular day with us. He left us with a final sentence when it ended abruptly. \"It's weird when you wake up to it. To the end. To death.\" " ]	3
	[WP] You receive an Amber Alert while at home. However, this one says to stay as far away from the child described. Shortly after you receive the alert, you get a knock on the door with your neighbor telling you an evacuation is under way.	[ " \"God I hate these things!\" I exclaimed as I desperately tried to silence my phone. I had received an amber alert; a loud text message that beeps and screams at you until you read the message it is sending. I scrambled from my bed to get to my phone and shut it off, it was only 7:00 on a Sunday and also my only day off. I wasn't about to go scour the city for whatever poor soul the amber alert was screeching for, instead I opted to shut off my phone and sleep in. \n\nAs I powered down the phone I caught a small glimpse of what the message said off of the lock screen:\n\nwarning, adolecent white male spotted in the area of- was all I could make out before my phone shut down. I didn't think anything of it and headed off back to bed. Before my head could reach the pillow there was a loud knock at my door. I waited to see if the annoyance would leave and bother someone else but they just kept knocking, almost frantically now.\n\n\nAs I walked down the stairs I caught a glimpse of the knocker through the window. It was my next door neighbored Med Danders. Med was a nice man, and a decent neighbor, but I didn't get along with him much at all. Med was extremely religious and had tried to convert me on more than one occasion, that put a small strain on what could have been a fast friendship.\n\nI opened the door and greeted Med coldly. \"Morning Med, what are you doing waking me up so early on my only day off?\"\n\n\"Gomer! Didn't you hear the news!?!?!? We have to evacuate the city!? \" he exclaimed in a panic tone, practically shouting at me. \n\n\"What are you talking about?\" I hissed in an icy tone. \n\n\"Didn't you get the amber alert on your phone? There has been some sort of attack on the city!\" \n\nAt this point I was more intrigued than annoyed so I invited him in. After calming him down with a glass of water he explained that the city had been under some sort of attack. People were being vaporized by a young man with dark hair, anyone who crossed his path simply vanished.\n\nI didn't believe him, not at all, I wanted him out of my house so I could go back to sleep. I tried to say something that might upset him and get him to leave. \"sounds like that rapture bull crap you're always spouting off if you ask me.\"\n\n\"That's not funny Gomer, this is serious, I thought I would warn you as a good neighbor.\" He shook his head and went for the door. \"Please get out of town while you still can.\" Then he left.\n\n\nI started to head back upstairs when I heard another knock at the door. By this time I was pissed, thinking it was Med I went to the door and threw it open ready to scream.\n\n\nInstead of Med, a young man with jet black hair stood there with his hand outstretched and an odd smile on his face. \"Hi\" he said, \"I'm Lucifer.\" \n\nThe end.\n\n\n(Sorry I suck so bad at writing guys, so many ideas in my head at once on this. This is my first writing prompt response so go easy on me. I also haven't seriously has any writing experience since high school, but I wanted to give this one a shot.)" ]	1
	[WP] My brother introduced me to monsters.	[ "It was my brother who introduced me to the monsters. Ka spoke of them, hushed voice trembling, as we stared at the stars. I was only half listening as he described them. The plastic starts upon earthen ceiling held my attention in a way that my brothers stories never could. They were a sickly lime-green; Baba called it 'glow in the dark'. They were American, Baba had declared proudly, and they shone just like real stars. I had sat on his shoulders and tore off the sticky plastic so that they could rest in our 'sky'. Now, seeing their weak glow, I secretly preferred the real ones. \n\n\"Amara,\" Ka whispered, \"are you listening?\"\n\n\"Na-am.\" I smiled, despite my brother's flat sigh. \"Monsters, I know.\" We both knew that I was lying. Baba had told me that I didn't need to fill my head with nonsense, especially not the kind that Kadir spouted. Ka made a big deal out of shadows. Babam gently but firmly, explained that he was too imaginative. Ummah always nodded though that agreement never seemed to reach her eyes. I think Ummah is like Ka; I love them but they're both too imaginative. They saw danger where there was none....\n\n\"Vera. This is important.\"\n\nI turned my head towards him, rolling my eyes slowly. \"Ka. I'm too old for your stories.\"\n\nHe scooted closer, fingernails scraping the sand covered floor, and scowled. Ka was, as Ummah called it, putting on his 'lawyer' face. Narrowed eyes and pursed lips, as if he could see right through whoever his glance fell upon, with a calmness that reeked of know-it-all-ness. I didn't like it when he did it; nothing good ever came of it. \"I'm not telling stories, nuur, I'm serious. There's a jinn living with us-\"\n\nI laughed while he frowned, deeply and hideous, as the sound echoed. \n\nHe shushed me fearfully, glance skittering across the floor until it reached the doorway. \"Vera, not so loudly!\"\n\n\"Jinn? They're not real, Ka, Baba told me so!\" I giggled, knowing it was still too loud for Kadir, and shook my head. \"They're just made up to scare women and children, Ka, and we're hardly children anymore.\"\n\nSomething I said-I'm sure Ka didn't like being compared to a child-brought a sour sneer onto his face. \"Baba-\" Kadir spoke quietly, mulling the name through clenched teeth, \"-is exactly who I'm talking about.\"\n\nI could have laughed but Kadir was serious. I could only stare silently at his earnest face. Kadir thought our Baba was a jinn. A being of fire and smoke, prone to vice and goodness just as any human, and a mere fixture of folklore. Baba declared it the only thing the Quaran had gotten wrong; the world, surely, would have been a hell hole if the Jinn were allowed to run free. Egypt was no hell hole, however, and so there must have been no Jinn. Kadir truly was crazy if he believe in them. \n\n\"Listen, Vera-\"\n\n\"No.\" I scowled and sat up, my hair gathering sand as it swept across the floor after me. \"Baba is no Jinn.\"\n\n\"No, no, It's...It's a metaphor; they're not real, I know.\" Solemnly, my brother held my angry gaze. \"He's, just, he's like them. Inhuman. Monsterous-\"\n\n\"Our father is not a *monster*-!\"\n\n\"Keep. It. Down.\"\n\n\"I don't have to be quiet, listening to to these lies!\"\n\n\"I'm not lying. Who else but a monster lays a hand on someone for losing a plastic star?\" Kadir spat upon the ground. \"Who else but a monster beats our Ummah?\"\n\nThose were things Baba did. Baba only did them beause it was the only way we learned, he said it himself. We came out better for it. \"We deserve it.\" I whispered. \"We do it to ourselves.\"\n\n\"No, we don't!\" It was Kadir, this time, who yelled. Who risked waking up Baba, sleeping in the other room, and learning a lesson. \"Those American kids, the ones we passed on the street, their Baba doesn't do that. They told me so!\" He trembled, a glance thrown hastily towards the door, and lowered his voice. \"Baba's-father's-they aren't all like ours. This isn't right.\"\n\nThere was no reasoning with my brother when he got these ideas into his head. Kadir had never spoken to the American tourists, not while I was around, and so it couldn't be true. It wasn't true. Every father, all the Baba's of the world, they were like this. It was normal; it was for our own good. I stood and slowly pointed towards the door, staring my elder brother down. \"I'm tired, Kadir, and I want to sleep. You...You need to go.\"\n\nAnd he, though his walk spoke of dejection, gave up without a word.", "4th of August, a day I rarely look forward to, it was my brother Bobby’s birthday. Now I ain’t one of those birthday-hating cake-hating bitter people, but when it came to Bobby’s birthdays..Well, let’s just say that it’s a completely different story. It all started when he was 10, our parents decided to get a bouncy castle, piñata, and hired a clown, ya know the whole nine yards, anything for their little Bobby. That day everyone got food poisoning, even the clown, and I’m not talking bit of a stomachache food poisoning, I’m talking everything through every orifices of the human body, hospitalized food poising…Well cept for Bobby, he was fine. He was disturbing happy, not during the birthday mind you, after. \n\nEver since that his birthdays had been like a curse on everyone that was invited, whether they showed up or not, and I was never a big believer in anything supernatural or ghosts or angels or any of that nonsense. But Bobby’s birthday..evoked something special in me. Now don’t get me wrong, I love Bobby, he’s a great guy, well other than that one time of year. \n\nI arrived early this year, in hopes that somehow that would help, he had a “kid birthday” themed party; balloons, decorations, all of it. Which might seem strange for a man turning 45, but at this point, nothing surprised me… Well, so I thought. \n\nHe warned me that some new friends would be coming this year, at first this made me quite happy, Bobby, despite being a pretty friendly and outgoing guy, didn’t have too many friends. I stood by the cupcakes as a tall man with a small moustache and a hideous haircut walked towards me. He stuck out his hand and asked me how I was doing, he had a thick German accent, Austrian perhaps. \n“Hi, I’m Jenna, Bobby’s sister, nice too meet you!”\n\n“Hello! Gotten dag!”\n\n“So are you and Bobby good friends?”\n\nHe kind of avoided the questions and went on a rant about Jews and Germany’s doomed future. I slowly moved away from him and bumped into a rather dapper man, who was enjoying eating some Reeces Pieces. \n\n“Oh sorry!”, I mumbled. \n\n“Oh no worries, you must be Bobby’s sister, I’ve heard of your breathtaking beauty, but had no idea.”\n\nI giggled at first, but couldn’t shake the uneasy feeling that the man looked familiar. \n\n“I’m Ted, by the way, Ted Bundy”, he stuck out a hand, and I let out a gasp.\n\n“What’s wrong?”, he looked worried, or had tried to create an expression of worry anyway. \n\nI said I had to pee, and quickly moved away from him. \n\n“HEY JENNA!”, Bobby’s familiar voice, suddenly gave me some comfort, even on this day. \n\n“Bobby! What the hell is going on I-“\n\n“Chill sis, I just wanted to introduce you to my friend, Charlie”\n\n“Good to meet you sister”, said Charles Manson, with his usually deranged expression, he had a firm handshake. \n\n“Aren’t you supposed to be dead?!”, I screamed, no longer able to control myself. \n\n“JENNA! That is so rude!”\n\n“What the hell is going on Bobby!..Who- how are these people there? And is that Hitler?”\n\n“I think he prefers to go by Adolf now..”\n\n“I’m leaving!”\n\n“Wait, I haven’t even introduced you to Josef yet!”\n\n“Goodbye!”\n\nBobby ran after me, grabbing my arm.\n\n“Hey, I get it okay, I know” he lowered his voice...“I know it’s total sausage fest, but some of Charlie’s friends might be coming over later, so you’ll have some ladies to chat to.” \n\n“Happy birthday Bobby, I’ll talk to you tomorrow”\n\nI went towards my car and bumped into a man who bore a striking resemblance to Pol Pot walking towards Bobby’s house. On a total impulse I ran towards him.\n\n“Hey! You!..May I ask how you know Bobby?”\n\n“Sure madam, I used to work for him, everyone in the party has, you too?”\n\nI shook my head, and the man walked away. I don’t go to Bobby’s birthday parties anymore, in fact I rarely see him. \n" ]	2
	[WP] A story where the protagonist is wondering what is wrong with everyone, but it turns out that the protagonist was the cause of everyone’s behaviour.	[ "Biff was walking down the street and everyone was giving him the weirdest looks.\n\nCome to think of it, his mom had as well before he left the house. Even his dog couldn't stop barking at him.\n\nHe went into the grocery store, and someone started yelling at him saying that he was obscene.\n\nSomebody even called the cops on him! He literally was just buying groceries.\n\nWorse yet, the cops even arrested him! They cited \"breach of peace\".\n\nIf you ask biff though, it was the person screaming who had started it.\n\nHis giant full body banana suit bumped the top of the car as the cop pushed down biff's head.\n\nHe ended up getting charged with more than breach of peace thanks to anti\\-mask laws, and laws against indecent exposure." ]	1
	[WP] As children, people develop a telepathic connection to their future soulmate. It usually is perceived as mental background noise, as it is so intwined with one's own mind. However, as you are talking with a friend of yours, you suddenly realize that neither of you are actually saying anything.	[ "I'm a bot, bleep, bloop. Someone has linked to this thread from another place on reddit:\n\n- [/r/u_vikeesii] [\\[WP\\] As children, people develop a telepathic connection to their future soulmate. It usually is perceived as mental background noise, as it is so intwined with one's own mind. However, as you are talking with a friend of yours, you suddenly realize that neither of you are actually saying anything.](https://www.reddit.com/r/u_VIKEESII/comments/8hm05f/wp_as_children_people_develop_a_telepathic/)\n\n&nbsp;^(If you follow any of the above links, please respect the rules of reddit and don't vote in the other threads.) ^\\([Info](/r/TotesMessenger) ^/ ^[Contact](/message/compose?to=/r/TotesMessenger))", "Soulmates. Obviously it's the one you're meant to marry, right? The one you love, and want to spend all your time with, forever. The one you're so close to you can hear each others thoughts, carry on a whole conversation without saying a word. Today, as we celebrate our thirtieth anniversary with our friends and families, I want to share a story.\n\n I met my wife in college, and we both knew right then that we were in love. Head over heels, crazy about each other love. We spent our time together, even got our best friends, Josh and Anne, paired up so we could do couples things when out with friends. After all, soulmates want to be together, right?\n\n We eloped, not on a whim, but after careful planning. The four of us went to Acadia, and were married on an island in the spring. Our best friends for our witnesses, and we were theirs. There is nobody in this world I'd rather have started a family with than my wife. Today, we reveal to you our deepest secret. And yes, I mean OUR, all four of us. Up here you see two couples, two pairs of soulmates. But it is not as you think. I grew up with my best friend, we were as close as we could be, and we knew everything about each other. Everyone always said it was like we could read each others' minds. We were friends. Best friends, shared everything. We went off to college, and still shared it all. \n\n When I met Lily, I knew she was right for me. We dated, we loved, and then, after a while, we shared our secrets. Well, secret, I suppose, since it was the same. Then I called Josh, and Lily called Anne, and we all talked that night for hours. Now, we wish to share our secret with you. Well, I see I've talked too long, and I'm being told it's time for the soulmates to dance. This will work just as well as telling you.\n\n Josh, if you would be so kind? Thank you, enjoy your dance with Lily. And now, Anne, let us dance.", "I could hear her more clearly now. My soulmate. At first she had been nothing but fleeting images and sounds on the edge of my senses. Like deja-vu or a gut feeling. It felt like being haunted, but happily so - I wasn't alone anymore. She felt familiar, like home, yet I still couldn't tell who she was. As our telepathic link developed, she slowly started coming into focus. That was how it worked with soulmates. And when I would dream, she would be there.\n\nPart of me felt immense comfort knowing she was there, somewhere in the world, feeling my presence too. But the other part of me felt immense frustration that after a year and a half, I was still no closer to figuring out the identity of my soulmate. While it wasn't unheard of to take longer than a year, that knowledge was of little comfort. Still, she was there with me. When I was angry or upset, I could feel her calm, washing over me like water. When I could feel her sadness I would focus all my mental energy on sending her warm thoughts. She was with me, soothing me when I lost my job. And I was there for her when grief hit. I got the impression someone close to her died. Her father perhaps? I'll have to ask her who it was when I finally meet her. \n\nI sat bolt upright in bed, gasping. Frantically, my sleep-addled brain grasped at the memories of my dream as they faded and slipped away. I knew she had been there with me in my dream. But like every other night, the details evaporated before I could commit them to memory. All that remained was the warm, tingly feeling indicating we had once again been intimate in our shared dream. How much longer until I find her?\n\nAfter a few too many drinks, the talk turned, as it so often did with people our age, to soulmates. In our circle, Jay and Sil had already found theirs. The rest of us were in the process. No one had been telepathically linked as long as I had though. I had been the first, so naturally, everyone assumed I would be the first to find my soulmate as well. But Sil found hers 8 months later. And Jay found his in one month flat! I was happy for my friends of course. But it killed me a little inside to see how easy it had been for them. \n\n\"I wrote my full name and phone number on a poster at the foot of my bed,\" said Sil. \nMark chimed in on cue - they had the story down pat after countless tellings. \"One morning as I woke up, I could see it through her eyes, clear as day.\"\n\"Mark and I were sharing a sandwich by lunchtime!\" finished Sil.\n\"Tuna on rye,\" we all chimed in. I am sure Mark and Sil said the words too, but their lips didn't move. They no longer had to speak aloud to communicate.\nEveryone had ideas about how to make it easier to find your soulmates. Message boards were full of hopeful posts:\n\n You: looking at a painting of an orange flower yesterday at 3:17. \n\n Me: swimming at Whale Point Tuesday at 11.\n\n Looking for the owner of a Dalmation named Sparky\n\nThere were sketches and images, descriptions of places, people and events. People scoured the boards looking for anything that struck a chord or felt familiar. It was like looking for a needle in a haystack though. Your soulmate could be next door or thousands of miles away. Sometimes you just had to wait until the connection was strong enough to allow conversation. My soulmate and I hadn't gotten there yet. \n\n\"Five! Four! Three! Two! One!\" At the stroke of midnight, the world went dead silent. Without making a noise we all shouted \"Happy New Year\" in our minds, and then listened as hard as we could for a name. Last year, I thought I heard something, but nothing I could identify. But this year the connection was much stronger. Maybe, just maybe? As I silently thought \"Happy New Year,\" I was startled by the sound of it being shouted in my ear. I looked around in frustration. What idiot was ruining everything by talking aloud at a time like this? One full minute of silence at the new year. Once per time zone. It was like a sacred tradition. But no one else reacted. No one else seemed to have noticed. It was her! Finally!\n\"I'm Sara\" Her words came clear as a bell. My whole body vibrated as if I were that bell and she had struck me. \n\"I'm C.J.\" I tried to focus the words sharply in my mind. But my head was spinning. I am reasonably certain I forgot to breathe. Her name was Sara. A pretty common name though. I knew at least 4 women with that name. My best friend' sister was a Sara...\n\nI looked up. Sara. I hadn't seen her in years, not since she was a little girl in pigtails. Back then she was annoying. Always getting in our way, always wanting to play with us. The little sister we couldn't wait to get rid of. Sara. The awkward kid with a crooked grin and gangly limbs. Sara. She wasn't awkward now. Our eyes locked. \"Happy New Year!\" I thought. \"Yes, it is,\" she thought back. I could feel her smile before I saw it.\n\n", "Everyone at school was always finding and talking about who their soulmates are, and I'm sitting in the corner, worried if I'm going to do poorly on the ACT, or when the next episode of my favorite podcasts are going to come out. I'm Michael, your average nerdy, skinny, white boy... At public school.\n\nThe only fortunate thing about being in high school is that you're exposed to a lot: people, hobbies, cliques, etc. I never thought of this as a good thing, since all it ever got me was a couple of wedgies and a net loss of about $36.50. \n\nToday was different. Today I wanted to do something that would normally scare the shit out of me. I was planning to ask a girl to prom. The few friends that I have were mostly supportive, although Kyle was practically as nervous as I was. Eddie, ever the optimist, believed wholeheartedly that all would go well. \n\n\"You got this.\" Eddie smiled and it looked as though he was trying to force his optimism and confidence onto me.\n\n\"I'm not so sure, she's one of the most popular and attractive girls in school, why would she want a loser like me?\"\n\n\"You have some things going for you, I mean you're not ugly, and you can be funny sometimes.\"\n\n\"Real encouraging, bud.\"\n\n\"Who knows, maybe you two are soulmates.\" Eddie suggested eagerly.\n\n\"With the amount of time I spent in sports and classes with her, I highly doubt it, since I've only heard her voice through my ears.\"\n\n\"You never know. It's happened before.\"\n\n\"Whatever you say.\"\n\nAfter three hours, a headache, and two waves of nausea, it finally came time to do the deed. There she was, Reagan, standing by some lockers, probably waiting for her brother like she does every other day. The perfect time to get her alone, or so I thought. She was there, as per usual, but she was talking to the nerdy-girl-turned-popular-chick. \n\nIf I approach her, they'll know what's up right away, my only hope is that one of them walks away before Reagan's brother shows up\n\nI placed myself in a group of people that I talk to very rarely, but it gave me enough of a view so I could tell when either party decided to leave.\n\nI guess if she doesn't leave, I won't have to go through with this stupid idea, what am I even thinking anyway?\n\nEither fortunately or not, my obstacle walked off, leaving Reagan alone once again.\n\nI breathed in deeply and let out one shaky breath after another\n\nYou got this. Eddie knows you got this. Everything will be fine.\n\nI took another shaky breath and my legs started moving, seemingly of their own accord. \n\n\"Hey Reagan, how's it going?\" I say, severely impressed with my ability to not voice crack.\n\n\"Oh hi Michael, I'm doing fine.\" She responded with just enough indifference to make me question what I was about to do\n\n\"Good.\"\n\nIt's now or never\n\n\"So I know this is a little out of the blue, but will you go to prom with me?\"\n\n\"Oh, uh, let me get back to you on that one.\"\n\nI hear her voice echoing in the back of my skull\n\n' Hopefully he'll get the memo'\n\n\"Alright, see ya tomorrow.\" I manage, hopefully containing my surprise.\n\n\nWhat was that\n\nOh God\n\nCould we\n\nNo way\n\nBut she totally didn't notice\n\nShe'll think I'm lying\n\nWhat do I do\n\nI best just leave it alone\n\nNo, I can't live with knowing who my soulmate is and doing nothing about it\n\n-----------------------------\n\nI bolted upright, clock reading 4:56 AM. I felt something in that dream, that dream where I know something happened, I know Reagan felt it too, but it faded so quickly it's almost as if it's just wishful thinking. \n\nI head into my kitchen, eat a couple bowls of whichever generic corn-based cereal my mom put in the cupboard, and attempt to make a plan. \n\nIf I just go to school and claim I'm her soulmate, I'll get laughed into expulsion\n\nMaybe I can try to contact her mentally\n\nOr just have a normal conversation, see if anything clicks\n\nI focus my attention on the part of my brain where I heard her rejection, as painful and creepy as it seems.\n\nI can feel a lot of nothing, either indicating that I suck, or she's still asleep. Just in case it's the former, I keep trying, almost in a mediative state, until I can feel something.\n\nSaying something as soon as she wakes up probably isn't the best idea\n\nI'll wait until I get to school\n\n----------------------------\n\nI walk in and sit at our normal table, out of the way of most people so we don't get forced into social interaction.\n\n\"So how'd it go?\" Eddie chimes in from several feet away\n\n\"I got rejected, but I think we're soulmates.\"\n\n\"How the hell does that one work?\"\n\n\"I'm about to test it. Don't disturb me.\"\n\nAlright, here goes nothing\n\nI focus on the same spot in my mind that I felt this morning, it feels more alert, and much brighter than it did at 5:30. I think that's a good sign.\n\n'Hello'\n\n... Nothing\n\n'It's Michael Parthon, I think we're soulmates'\n\nI look over at Eddie, and he's staring at me with disbelief\n\n\"What?\" I ask.\n\n\"Y-y-your voice j-just..\" he stammered.\n\nShit", "I'm 26. I just graduated in robotics applied to the medical field. I didn't exactly take the easiest route to having a degree of some sorts. A small brush with the law, nothing too serious mind you: petty theft. I had to eat, stole a few items here and there, maybe a wallet or two. I did my time, 8 months. I was lucky the jury didn't want to make an example out of me. \nSo, I just graduated. And I applied to a shitload of job openings. I got a few interviews, but most of them didn't exactly go all the way through. Strange how seeing a couple lines about me being in a penitentiary suddenly gives people cold feet, uh? But I'm glad those didn't work out. You see, in about 3 minutes, I have the one meeting I really want to nail. Biobots, Inc. Small start-up, about 40 people working there, company specialising in bionic limbs and nanorobots to help reduce psychological traumas. The latter being what I did my thesis on. I'm pumped! I want to succeed in that interview. Incidentally, there aren't many other companies recruiting in my field, and I don't exactly want to go work at Burger King's... I don't mind being a customer, I just don't want to work there.\n\n&nbsp;\n\n\"Alyssa Robbins?\" a voice calls in the corridor\nI stand up as I blurt out a motivated: \"That's me!\n- Please follow me to your interview.\" asks the secretary. \nI follow this guy and enter a small meeting room. Table for 4 to 6 people, tops. Across the table from me, 2 men. The one on my left is wearing kaki shorts and a short sleeved pink shirt. Fashion clearly isn't his strong suit. He opens his mouth while offering to shake my hand: \n\"I'm Jake Arvell, welcome to Biobots. We'll be interviewing you on nanorobotics and their inner workings today. I'm the company's HR and Happiness Chief Officer. On my left is Matt Frost, our lead biologist whose topic of expertise is the hormonal effects of psychological illnesses. Please take a sit.\" \nMatt is much more my style. I bring my hand forward and shake his with a warm smile. He's wearing blue jeans and a Motörhead t-shirt. He's got this glow in his eyes that probably makes all women swoon all over him when he's near. I sit in my chair and discreetly arch my back a little, relaxing my shoulders. Jake then speaks again: \n\"What I propose is that you introduce yourself quickly, in about 3 to 5 minutes, and then we'll jump right in! Does that seem good to you? \n- Absolutely.\" \n\n&nbsp;\n\nSo I told them pretty much the same thing I told you. Name, age, academic pursuits, crime period, etc... I don't very much like to talk about me so I made sure to last 3 minutes before I concluded, speaking about why I decided to apply for a job with them. \n\"Thank you, said Jake. Matt, if you will, do you want to start the technical interview now? \n- Sure thing, Jake.\" he says with his warm voice. Oh yeah he makes women swoon alright. He then turns to me and starts asking questions to which I answer as well as I can, always taking the time to answer in a logical manner. After a few questions, Jake's voice echoes in the back of my head: \n\"I'm sorry, are there no technical questions being asked? \n- I just asked her a few questions, Jake. Did you phase out of the room while I did that? \n-It's been about a minute that I see you two exchanging stares, nodding heads and Matt putting his finger on particular points of your resume. There has been no sound aside from our breathing.\" \nMatt and I start to laugh, thinking he's pulling our leg.\n\n&nbsp;\n\nThe dead-serious look on Jake's face tells another story though. \nI look at Matt. Matt looks at me. \nJake's voice echoes in the meeting room: \n\"Well, isn't that cute?\"\n\n&nbsp;\n\n--\n\n&nbsp;\n\nI went a bit off scenario but figured it'd be somewhat funnier if they met like that. Apologies for going a bit overboard with that, but I hope you enjoyed it nevertheless.", "I heard of the telepathic connection soulmates shared with each other. My grandparents were lucky enough to have such a deep connection. For some people, it's so intertwined within one's own thoughts that it's not easily perceived. \n\nIn high school, people normally casted this aside, taking it as an opportunity to explore and see other people. \n\nI approached my friend Marcus in the hallway. The normally witty and talkative jock seemed sullen and closed off.\n\n\"Come on. Whats really wrong, bud?\" I asked him.\n\n\"Jennifer and I broke up over the weekend. Jus- I don't really want to talk about it right. now.\" I noticed he looked conflicted rather than depressed.\n\n\"Oh. I'm real sorry.\" I patted his shoulder in an attempt to comfort him.\n\n\"Thanks Dan.\" \n\nAwkward silence quickly ensued between us. Then, for a second, I swear I felt it; that telepathic connection. Nah. There's no way Marcus is my soulmate. I'm not sure his parents would be crazy about that idea either...\n\nThen we made eye contact. I could just tell we both knew. Neither of us wanted to acknowledge it. \n\nMarcus had an expression of shock on his face, as if he was still trying to process everything. And truth be told, so was I. All he could muster was an awkward \"see you later.\" \n\nHe dipped and I begrudingly walked into Mrs. Tinsley's history class. I tuned out her notes on World War II as I mulled over the events of what just happend. I was drawn back to reality when I felt my phone buzz in my pocket. A text from Marcus that just read: Meet me after school at the old baseball field. \n\n\"Daniel!\" called out an authoritative voice. \"You know the rules. No phones in class!\"\n\nAs I surrendered my phone to Mrs. Tinsley, I had mixed emotions about the meeting. Yeah, Marcus and I are soulmates, but how will he react? How will his family react? Is that what he's even going to discus? I'm probably getting worked up over nothing,\n\nLater that day the final bell rang, and I made my way to the old baseball field. Since the school had since developed a nicer field, the old diamond had since fallen into dilapidation and been invaded by weeds. I approached Marcus, his blonde hair glistening in the afternoon sun as he stood on the remains of the pitcher's mound.\n\n\"Hey... So...\" was all he said, obviously struggling to string words together. \n\nI reached out and held his hand in mine. \"Its gonna be okay.\" \n\n\"Thanks.\" He looked down the ground with a goofy smile. Man, he's so cute when he smiles. Marcus pulled away. \"I've wanted to tell you something. I broke up with Jennifer because I realized, you've been my soulmate all along. I like you, no- I love you Dan.\"\n\nWe resumed holding hands. \"I love you too Marcus.\"", "How long had I known Barry, by now? Since kindergarten? Preschool, maybe? We'd been through just about everything together, from playing at recess to fist-fights in the high school hallways. Yeah, sure, we had our squad with us, our other buddies that'd be right there with us helpin' kick some ass, but Barry and I had known each other since childhood.\n\nAnd now it'd come to this. The week of his wedding. I never thought I'd see him getting married to his high school sweetheart, but hey, life surprises you, don't it?\n\nI was lying on the hotel bed, my back against the wall as I tapped away on my laptop my earphones in playing music. Grind never stops, you know. Then I heard a tapping on the door that connected Barry's hotel room with mine. Yeah, 'course we had connected hotel rooms. I was his best man.\n\nAs he walked into the room, I said, \"Give me a second. I'm finishing up this report real quick.\"\n\n\"Yeah, yeah, sure, whatever,\" Barry replied. \"I just wanted to hang around for a bit. Clarissa just went out with your girl Marissa, and I was too tired to do much of anything.\"\n\nI nodded. \"Mhm, yeah, whatever.\"\n\nA few seconds of nothing but the keyboard clicking passed. Then, satisfied, I alt-tabbed to Chrome to browse Reddit.\n\n\"How you feelin'?\" I asked. \"It's the big week of your wedding.\" I smirked. \"I always figured you'd be a sugar daddy, to be honest, not someone actually vying for a family.\"\n\n\"Shocker, right?\" Barry said, rolling his eyes. He was sitting on the floor to my right, his back against the wall. \"You can't say much of anything though. You were a bigger player than I was back then.\"\n\nI smiled. \"Yeah, sure.\" A few moments passed. The song changed to something I didn't like, so I flipped over to my music player and skipped the song.\n\nThen, I realized. I had been playing music the whole conversation. Full blast. How was I... hearing him?\n\nFor a few moments, the gears turned in my head. Then, it clicked. We were soulmates? Nah, that can't be right, can it?\n\nFrantically, I yanked out my earphones and damn near ripped them out of the socket. I sat up straight.\n\n\"You alright?\" Barry... telepathically said.\n\nI blurted it out, for real this time, with my mouth. \"Quit that.\"\n\nIt took him a second to figure out what I was saying. Then I saw the realization dawn on his face; his lips weren't moving, but he was talkin' to me.\n\n\"Wait,\" he said. \"We're...?\"\n\nI nodded my head slowly, uncertainly. \"Uh, yeah, I guess..\"\n\n\"Wait, but,\" Barry said. \"I ain't gay. Trust me. I tried it before.\"\n\n\"Yeah, I know. You told me about it.\"\n\n\"So, how does that..?\"\n\nI sat back again, trying to process what was happening. I wasn't gay either, right? I'd tried it a few times too, and nothing clicked. Hundred percent straight. I could tell Barry was trying to think it through too.\n\nThen, some thought came into my head. Something that just sparked. \"Well, I mean, it doesn't mean that we're gay, does it?\" I murmured.\n\n\"What? What'd you mean?\"\n\n\"Well, like, they always talk about it bein' romance and stuff. And 'course, that's what everyone always talks about, right? You know all our old crew, all their soulmates are who they're married to now.\"\n\n\"Yeah, and your point is?\"\n\n\"But you know, soulmates doesn't mean you gotta love each other romantically, does it? I mean, for most of those guys, their wives are their best friends.\" I shuffled uncomfortably. \"So I mean, that's just a matter of coincidence, isn't it?\"\n\n\"I mean, I... guess?\"\n\n\"And I mean, we've been through a lot of shit together.\" A grin tugged at my lips. \"A lot. We're like brothers now, aren't we?\"\n\nBarry nodded and sighed nostalgically. \"Yeah. It's been a damn wild ride, hasn't it?\"\n\n\"Hah. Yeah. Just 'cause we're soulmates doesn't mean we're in love or whatever crap, does it? Not that romantic kind of love anyway.\"\n\n\"Nah, no way,\" Barry said, standing up. He strode over and clapped me on the shoulder. \"But I do love you, Harry. You're family. That's what we are.\" A grin broke across his face.\n\nI smiled as well, my ever-so-tough manly exterior breaking. \"Yeah.\" I threw my legs over the edge of the bed, and stood up. Then, I put my hand on his shoulder. \"Family.\"\n\nAnd may I say, watching my soulmate get married to the girl of his dreams... Man, that was the best wedding I'd ever been to.\n\n---\n\nIDK, I always see people thinking of soulmates as romantic love and I don't see it too often as other relationships, so I just threw this out real quick to kind of defy the stereotypes.", "I'm not gay, but I have never wanted to kiss anyone more than I wanted to kiss Alice right now.\n\nWe were in the same class back in, what was it 5th grade? Maybe it was 2nd? Whatever time the school arbitrarily gives you \"the talk\".\n\nYou know when they separate all of the boys into one group, and all of the girls into another.\n\nIt was there that we learned about \"soul mates\" and how everyone has one and yada yada yada.\n\nWe just spent the whole time laughing about how they were talking around a lot of the stuff. One kid from the boys group we heard passed out. We couldn't understand why, it was just so ridiculous! \$To this day he insists he was just sick, which may have been true, but that didn't stop anyone from laughing at him, he is actually pretty popular so don't feel too bad.\$\n\nI always thought it was weird that they didn't say what happens if your soulmate was the same gender as you.\n\nLike I said, I'm not gay. And since middle school, I always thought Alice was cute, and I did have the occasional... Fantasies... about her, but I always thought that she was some sort of exception.\n\nI guess I was more correct than I thought...\n\nWe just sorta... stared at each other for awhile. I knew what she was thinking, but it was like for a moment, neither of us were thinking about anything. Eventually, my gazed started to move down from her eyes.\n\nGet your eyes out of the gutter! I'm talking about staring at her lips.\n\nWe were both thinking the same thing, but were both thinking about what that thing meant. What it meant for the two of us, our friendship, our future. We had always been on the same page, about everything. And were on the same page for what happened next as well.\n\nAnd now we are kissing. She can hear everything I think, all of my impulses. I can hear all of her desires. We know about how long the other has thought about a moment like this. A moment where you could only ever joke about it, because it seemed so far removed from reality. The kind of joke where when at night, you felt alone in your bed, you wished that it wasn't a joke.\n\nAnd this was no joke.\n\nI told her how much I loved her. Not as a friend, as something more. I feel so close to her that we both start to cry.\n\n...\n\nMaybe it was because back then, things had started so well. Maybe because in highschool, all you can think about was love and sex and drama. Maybe that is why it worked so well at first.\n\nIt didn't matter now. Alice was dead. And it is my fault.\n\nThings had started so well. But how could they end so horribly?\n\nThe first few days after Alice had died, things were silent, around the house, and in my mind. It was like you lived your life with a fan, you know white noise, and that fan had turned into the most beautiful music you had ever heard. Suddenly the music was the perfect score to your life. And then, the music fell silent. And for once, you had to deal with the quiet.\n\nI'm not gay, but I would do anything to kiss Alice just one more time." ]	8
Finish the prompt with something goofy or poetically beautiful.	[WP] An elder horror has appeared before the Earth. Instead of devouring us or anything horrrible, it calmly explains telepathically that we had "in His image" all wrong and then...	[ "The world seemed to stop when the seemingly voice of God spoke into each mind. People in the streets stopped and looked up into the sky; those who were driving let their car slowly come to stop or slammed on the brake pedal, then stared through the windshield towards the clouds; the teenagers, the children, the young adults who were inside playing video games or watching movies or messing around while their parents weren't home suddenly ceased and went to the window, opened it if it was closed, and craned their neck upwards.\n\n\"For an eternity you have worshipped me, prayed to me, done everything in the name of me. It has been wonderful, to be your idol, to be your savior, however there was one action made by humanity many, many years ago that is truly false, and must be rectified presently.\n\n\"My depiction. I have no arms — nor legs. I have not the physique of a man or woman or any creature on your planet. Even the head, the face, is wrong. I speak to all people now, thus sculptures and artists, please listen closely.\n\n\"The human goes outward from the torso to the appendages, but my frame does not. My appendages — if they could be considered that — are colorless wisps and at the ends are what you would call, 'hooks,' though they are not made of steel or metal, they are all connected in one flowing motion, like the flames of your Sun. There are several, if not millions, of my appendages that move inward towards my core — my frame; which I will describe shortly.\n\n\"Onto what you would consider my legs. I have none, but an open crevice in the bottom of my frame that releases what is not required for continuous life. Though I have not witnessed it myself, those unlucky souls who looked too closely beyond their world into the swirling maelstrom of my bottom have said it was like, staring into a hellish, indescribable abyss, for which no sane man could withstand.\n\n\"I digress... I have no face or head, but a vat that erupts every few moments. It explodes with thought and movement, with what you would call emotions. If I could put what it erupted with into words, it could be likened to oil, lava, and liquified corpses. The color is a blend of black and flesh, but speckled with crimson and ruby. There are other colors, but there are no names for those hues on your planet.\n\n\"Now onto the core, the core of my body is like the bottom: a swirling, powerful maelstrom. Endlessly my appendages flow into it, bottomless it is, though the objects that go into it eventually come out of me. There have been men who traveled to my core, looked into the kaleidoscopic waters, and saw a glimpse of my Eye, — vibrant yellow and blackened, veined with fluorescent blue, the sclera inverted with the iris and open pupil, even more empty, void of life, than the storm it dwells below — at its bottom. Some ran to only be caught in my appendages, others have fallen into my core, some just collapsed. Humans are peculiar in the ways they deal with insanity.\n\n\"That is my description, so with haste, rectify my image. In a months time, I will contact you once more and each depiction of me, be it statue or painting, must be corrected. If they are not, the hell you pray you beg not to be thrown into will be nothing to what I shall bring forth into your minds.\"" ]	1
	[WP] You die, and discover you have the ability to observe the Earth at any point in its history, from its creation to its end. One day, you decide to travel back as far as you can, and discover something horrible.	[ "I'm trapped in this room, with all of these machines that seem to breathe and beep as if they have some sort of rudimentary consciousness. Breathing tubes, intravenous cannulation, a finger crowned with heart pulse monitor and a sphygmomanometer that not-so-gently reminds me that I'm still alive; I feel like some sort of diseased marionette. I'm not quite aware of what exactly is going on from minute to minute, but the previous hospital stays gound me, yet I continue to feel the dissociative weight of my sentience leaving my body, a sort of gradient of life to death. My family is too far away for them to be here, even if they loved me enough to show their disapproval of my broken life; I am somewhat elated by their absence. Code blue, crash. Everything else is a jumble of blurred figures and medical jargon. I leave my body in an instant to find myself floating in the endless loving light of the afterlife. I am overjoyed. I was broken never to return again. But I felt, deep down inside, that I was not done, that I had something left to accomplish with my existence. It wasn't a booming voice or the voice of an all-powerful being, but a soft whispering voice, or rather the ghostly imprint of a voice telling me to \"observe the timeline\".\n\nSuddenly, I was pulled into a realm where I could see everything flash before my eyes. There were scenes of grand wars, scenes of peace, scenes of incredible elation, and scenes of the mundane in slow motion. I could see history flash before my eyes, and it was incredibly slow and unremarkable, but I was still somehow transfixed to what I was experiencing. I was able to experience times in history that have been argued over for hundreds of years. I was able to experience all of the prophets, and all of the supernatural taking place throughout history. I was able to peer into the minds of the greats throughout history, but one event was surprisingly absent from the timeline. What happened at the beginning of it all? Why and how am I here to experience it all?\n\nI begin to ask the being or beings around me to show me or take me back to the beginning of it all, in a small and low whisper, as I am understandably confused. I received nothing. I ask again. Then I was catapulted back, through a tunnel, where I was moving so fast as to lose the concept of speed. I can see all around and experience so much, so much more than I ever thought could fit into my mind, but still, I see nothing of what I ask, then all of a sudden I stop. I can feel all of what I experienced behind me, I can no longer see it, but I merely feel it. I start to lose consciousness, and I feel as if I am being pulled somewhere, into another consciousness.\n\nWhen I awake I find myself in another body, a familiar body, but one radically different than the one previously experienced on earth. It is a non-corporeal body, a body that doesn't exist physically, but mentally. If I were to describe my being, physically, it would be a cloud. I then realize that nothing I experienced exists. Nothing has ever existed. It was all a \"dream\" as earthlings call it. I am the only being that has ever existed. I begin to remember the loneliness that I have experienced, and how I created a vast universe in my mind to pass the time. I am an immortal being with nothing but my thoughts. I have created the universe as easily as I have destroyed it. What do I create now? Where do I go?" ]	1
	[WP] You wake up one morning to realise that you are now conjoined to your girlfriend/boyfriend	[ "\"Promise me?\"\n\n\"Promise me, what?\"\n\n\"That we will never be apart.\"\n\nI look her in the eyes, thinking of the consequences of my response. I can't delay much longer. How should I respond?\n\n\"okay, I promise.\" I reply as I smile.\n\nSuddenly, a memory surfaces from my childhood. My father warns me of making promises I can't keep, as he overhears me consoling a friend going through a hard time. \n\nWhy now?, I wonder to myself.\n\nBut she needs me right now, I can't let her down. I take her head, and gently guide her to my chest. I feel her warm embrace.\n\nShe drops with me on the couch. We hold each other through the night.\n\nThe next morning, the first thing I see is her radiating beauty. Her full lips, her thick eyelashes, and her fair skin. I can't help but feel truly happy. \n\nShe wakes up to meet my gaze. We share this moment for the rest of our lives. \n\n" ]	1
	[WP] the last of his kind tells a story from long ago about better days	[ "All I have left is myself. All we have left is myself. I think, it's safe to say we as in my kind.\n\nI am wandering. I have gone wandering long ago. At first, my friends accompanied me through this nowhere leading journey, but they are long gone. At the time I didn't even notice how they faded from my side. One by one. Until I was left alone.\n\nMy spaceship has landed on a comet. \n\nMy kind loved watching comets. Their fiery beauty. It was a long time ago.\n\nWe would go outside at night and watch them. Doesn't matter where we were. On what planet. If there was a meteor shower, we were watching it. That is how I met my companions. We looked at the sky and saw each other in the stars. Or maybe we saw stars in each other, I don't remember now.\n\nIt was love from first sight, not the fiery and dangerous, but warm like the fireplace filled with red hot coal; the kind that brings happiness into your heart. A love that only people meant to accompany each other on the way could feel.\n\nEven now, when I have forgotten all the adventures we had, it remains. I realize that I am smiling. I haven't smiled for a long time. There was no one whom to I could smile, after all. All the Universe was empty.\n\nExcept for myself.\n\nI was the last of my kind. \n\nThe last of the kind of life.", "It is done. \n\nFinally, there is only me left, and soon there will be none. This is my last meal, at this run-down bar in the middle of nowhere. My last few minutes before the end. It should make me sad. It doesn’t. All I feel is a great sense of relief that it is over, that there shall be no more suffering after this evening.\n\nI’m the only one left. The only one able to tell the story, but I have little time and even less energy to do so. It won’t be a great loss, as the story is not that interesting. Rather, it is one that has been told time and time again.\n\nIt started out so great, with happy people living happy lives on that secluded little island. There were harsh times and there were easier times, and we all stuck together through them all. Things were simple as we fished, built, worked and married on our little island. \n\nThen things started to change.\n\nStarting with the visitors. The visitors from strange lands far away, with enormous ships and strange languages and water that poisoned. They brought alien plants and inedible food. And they brought disease. So many of us simply died. Died of fevers we could not calm, of bleeding we could not stop, of stomach sicknesses so severe that no food could pass over their lips.\n\nWe were few that survived the first few weeks. Even fewer were alive when harvest season rolled around. Houses gaped empty of their inhabitants and the harvest celebrations were carried out in a fashion more closely resembling a funeral. We were not enough men to properly clear the fields, so that when the autumn rains fell the remaining crops rotted away. We would be starving before spring.\n\nIf there had been any of us left come spring.\n\nThe second last of us died a week ago, at my hands. He had been ill for so long, but still had not died with the rest of them. His constitution was strong, and he had prevailed where other, stronger men had failed. It did him no good in the end, though, as he begged for me to end his pains and let him join the rest of our people as they swim with the whales.\n\nThat’s where I will be soon. In crystal clear waters with an abundance of fish enough to feed the entire world and more. With whales swimming by my side, eternal wisdom in their eyes as they guide me through the afterlife. \n\nI will go there soon. I know I will find my people there, waiting for me.\n\nAnd I will tell them that the invaders are all dead.\n\nAnd that it was my hands that killed them.\n" ]	2

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