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
	[WP] You are one of an alien species which infects people to mind control and take over their bodies. You see a young woman on the street, and infect her. As the infection is in its early stages, you see her life through her eyes, and what you see shocks you.	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Reality+Fiction%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Simple+Prompt%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/js5XDFB)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "Organism: human.\n\nSuborganism: female.\n\nCellular Age: Phase 2\n\nYou deem this a worthy target, unassuming yet strong: a candidate likely to continue the upkeep of its health during your Observational Phase.\n\nThe transition is seamless, and she is none the wiser. Prior to target subjugation, you must first observe patterns, known locations, mannerisms. The humans have changed so much and expanded so far since you were last here.\n\nShe continues walking to wherever her destination may be. \n\n“Hey!” They call to her, to you. You don’t turn around. You note this in your memory center. “Hey beautiful! What’s a girl like you doing out here alone?”\n\nYou pick up the pace. Perhaps your understanding of modern human greetings and compliments needs further study.\n\n“Leave her be, that slut ain’t worth your time,” you hear in the distance behind you.\n\n———\n\nYour destination is a collective center where people consume beverages and speak words to one another for lengthy periods of time, you learn. You hail a distant fellow human who seems pleased to see you. Much time passes without interest as they communicate but as her - your - friend leaves, a male flags you from the bar.\n\n“Let me buy you a drink,” he says, confidently.\n\n“I really shouldn’t. I have to work early tomorrow and need to get home.”\n\n“Come on, just one drink.”\n\nYou can tell he won’t leave you alone so you acquiesce to his request.\n\nIt’s a quick conversation, some small talk, you feel no interest from the human you’re observing. You make an excuse and stand up to go.\n\n“You live alone? I can take you home.”\n\n“No thanks, I’m perfectly capable of using my legs.”\n\n“It’s not safe for a lady at night, you know.”\n\n“You’re right. And it’s because of creeps like you,” you retort.\n\nYou pay your tab and head out. But not even you notice him following you until it’s too late. You feel dizzy, lightheaded. By the time you get home, you are ready to collapse, unable to shout, unable to open your door.\n\n———\n\nShe doesn’t recognize this place. His pictures adorn the mantle.\n\nShe slips back out of consciousness. You do not.\n\nOnce you are certain what the man’s plans are, you take over. You end him quickly, collect her possessions, and leave to the house she attempted to enter before. The key works. You dispose of any evidence and go to sleep, letting her regain complete control.\n\nYou will subjugate the humans once again, but no, not this one.\n\n———\n\nStepping back onto your ship, your expectant companion looks at you, awaiting your decision.\n\n“Olympus’s blessings, Harmonia. I have located targets for our next selective extermination of the humans. They have not changed, even so long since our last visit. Let us gather the supplies and prepare for war. As we did thousands of human solar cycles past, we shall once more give rise to the Amazons.”" ]	2
	[WP] "A pen?" The Big Bad Evil Guy leers at you. "You think you can defeat me with a pen?"	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Reality+Fiction%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Simple+Prompt%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/js5XDFB)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "\"yes\" I say as slowly pull out the pen and show the villain the glitter that floats inside. He gazes in fear know that the glitter will be upon him. I then take apart the pen faster this time so the villain won't escape. but alas he starts running and using his freeze gun so I throw the pen in a state of panic and it clogs the freeze gun. \" Impressive\" he says \" You seemed skilled\". \"yeah I worked on my throwing for ages\" I reply. \"Hmm wanna go out for egg sometimes?\". \"yeah that would be nice, and a\\\\mabye we can unclog your freeze ray\" I reply. do now we go golfing every Tuesday.", "\"Who are you?!\" Snapped the villain in disbelief. \"I have seen my future and I did not see you as part of it?\"\n\nWe stood face to face in a corridor. Him on his way to accomplish his foreseen goal and me standing stubbornly in his way. I was wearing my two-tail high-collared coat and my top hat. He was wearing his blue jumpsuit and red cape with a crystal blue sword almost twice his size sheathed at his hip.\n\n\"Who are you?! Why did I not see you in my vision of the future?\" He demanded.\n\nI tipped my hat and gave him a mocking flourish. \"They call me the Writer!\" I replied drily. \"I rewrite history. I am here today to rewrite the course of the future.\"\n\n\"Stand in my way and I will cut you down!\" He sneered through gritted teeth. He drew his sword and it shimmered in the pale moonlight which shone through the windows.\n\nIn response I casually reached into my inner jacket pocket with a bored sigh. \"Why do you knuckledraggers always insist on forcing some effort out of me.\" I retrieve a fountain pen and smiled when my enemy laughed hysterically.\n\n\"A pen?! You think you can defeat me armed only with a pen?! You really are going to die!\"\n\n\"The pen is mightier than the sword.\" I replied drily. I threw the pen at him with minimal effort and watched as it spun through the air, unravelling in the middle and transforming into two halfs of a pen with a laser wire in the middle. My enemy staggered backwards as though he had been punched in the stomach and blinked a few times in disbelief before the top half of his body slid from his bottom half and hit the ground with a wet thud.\n\nI sighed. Just another day on the job. I got my cell phone from my pocket and called my employer. \"It's done.\" Was all I said before I hung up and spun on my heels to leave.", "\"A pen?\" The Big Bad Evil Guy (BBEG) leered, \"You think you can defeat me with a pen?\"\n\nThe Hero twirled his pen. \"Never underestimate the power of my pen, my dear chap,\" he answered cheekily. Then he pulled out his journal and began scribbling furiously.\n\nLightning flashed and thunder cracked as the hero and villain circled each other warily. With a roar of rage, the villain brandished his mace and lunged towards the hero, who blocked him just in the nick of time with his slender but incredibly strong sword-.\"\n\n\"Wait, I don't have a mace!\" growled the BBEG. He looked down and jumped about a foot in the air when he saw that he indeed had a mace. The Hero only smiled mysteriously and continued scribbling...\n\n\"You can't defeat me, boy\" the villain taunted as he swiped at the hero, \"I have vanquished kings, wizards, even entire armies! I am- OW!\" The hero had poked him in the stomach, causing him to tumble off the small cliff...\"\n\n\"AAAAAAHHHHH!!!!!!!!!! NOT THE CLIFF!!!!!\" screamed the BBEG as he dropped to ground and tumbled head over heels.\n\n...The hero jumped down lightly and readied himself for another attack as the villain painfully stood up. \"You don't have to fight me, you know. You can just leave us alone and go back to where you came from\", the hero reasoned. The villain wavered a bit, for these were wise words. What was he gaining from terrorizing innocent souls? he wondered. Then his face contorted into a hideous snarl, and he brought his mace down on the hero's shield, shattering it to smithereens...\n\n\"Ow, my arm!\" cried the Hero. He dropped his journal and began rubbing and flexing his other arm. \"Hahahaha! Thought you were so clever, didn't you?\" his enemy jeered. The Hero glared at him and picked up his journal again. \"I'm not through with you yet!\" he spat.\n\n...But the hero was not through with his fearsome foe. Raising his sword, he began chanting an ancient spell. His sword glowed a bright blue-.\n\n\"Uh-oh.\" said the BBEG, stepping back. The Hero facepalmed. \"Don't interrupt. I'm on a roll now!\" he groaned.\n\n...His sword glowed a bright blue, and with a mighty shout, he plunged the blade into the villain's heart. The fiend roared in pain and exploded into an equally vivid blue cloud.\n\nBOOM!!!! The Hero was thrown off his feet again, and he squeezed his eyes shut as so not to be blinded by the said \"vivid blue cloud\". Then there was dead silence, and he cautiously looked up. The BBEG was nowhere to be seen, except for a little poof of grey smoke. The Hero gave a big sigh of relief. \"Good thing I didn't have writer's block today,\" he told himself." ]	4
	[WP] One day somebody notices that the Geneva Conventions outlaw the use of time travel in warfare. No one can recall seeing that section before.	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Reality+Fiction%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Simple+Prompt%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/js5XDFB)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "“Hold on. Has anyone noticed this item here before? It looks to have been written in a different hand with different ink. Subtle, but noticeable.”\n\n“I don’t recognize it either,” the next representative stated over his shoulder, wrinkling his brow and adjusting his glasses.\n\n“Hm. Allow me to read it for those of you in attendance:\n\nProtocol for the Prohibition of the Use in War of Manipulation of Time and Space, Including But Not Limited to Civilian Interference in Global Disputes”\n\n“That’s the first time I’ve heard of such a thing,” the US representative blurted out, much too quickly for the others’ tastes.\n\n“Have we a device capable of such a feat?” the Soviet representative asked, glancing around the room while bent over the document from the side, hands on the table.\n\n“We most certainly haven’t.”\n\n“Not us.”\n\n“Vhat could ze purpose of it be but for changing the outcome of conflict?”\n\nAll eyes fell to the last to respond, the US representative.\n\n“We understand your government has been working on a temporal device with the help of a man named Albert Einstein, is this correct?”\n\n“Well yes, but um. To my knowledge it definitely doesn’t work, yet.”\n\n“Yet.” Several powers repeat the word. “Anyone else?”\n\nHead shakes to the negative as eyes flit around the room.\n\n“The United States certainly gained much from the previous wars, with limited civilian casualties and no battles fought on its continental homeland.”\n\nNo response.\n\nThe room is quiet for a moment. Then, “I am afraid the Third Czechoslovak Republic formally condemns the United States of America.”\n\nThe US representative squirmed in his seat but had no response to this.\n\nWith each new sovereign power to condemn the United States, the representative’s heart sank. Finally, he looked to his last saving grace, the final European leaders and major powers here.\n\nThe Soviet representative stood, flattening out the wrinkles of his woolen coat. “Comrade Representative: Do you have an official response from the United States of America?”\n\n“No, sir, I need to talk to my superiors and discuss the matter further, I can assure you that—“ he was cut off.\n\n“Are you not the current superior in present company, Comrade representative? Do you deem yourself unworthy for your role?”\n\n“Well no, I—“\n\n“Then the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics formally denounces the United States of America,” he says, sitting down and looking to his left down the long table of powers.\n\n“But wait! There must be—“ he stammered.\n\nThe next and final representative took this as his cue. “The Twin Socialist Republics of the United Kingdom and France formally condemn the United States of America.”" ]	2
	[WP]You are a dark goddess. Tired of the conflict with the light gods, now pointless, faked your death, live disguised as a mortal and married with two children. One day you find your son speaking with a strange person and find them dreadfully familiar. Is not one of your dark siblings.	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Reality+Fiction%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Simple+Prompt%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/js5XDFB)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "Evening was settling over Barmalion City, and Mu was preparing supper. She always wanted a quiet life, and now she had the most quiet of lives. When the world was created, Mu never desired the worship of mortals that would be created later, neither did she want battles between light and darkness. She joined the Darkness because she did not want a still world of silent perfection, the ideal of the Light: she wanted a living, changing world of evolution and progress. And she wanted it for herself. No, not to rule it but just to live in it. \n\nShe spent millenia as the consort of Erayn, the Lord of Darkness, and the voice of reason calming his madness. When the Army of Light came to capture and execute Erayn, she surrendered. She had a plan. She had to die as a goddess to reincarnate as a human. And so she did. And did again, and again, and once more again. \n\nMu lived many human lives as reincarnations of herself, with barely a memory of what she once was, but each time, the memories eventually came back. When she was younger, she still sought the thrills of human life: she was an adventurer, a travelling mage, an anti-heroine. Later in life, she invariably sought rest and a quiet life. Now she was having it. A good apartment in Barmalion, two kids and a personal pension, what else to desire?\n\n\"Bobby is late for supper\", Mu thought. \"He must be eating at the tavern again. Drinking, too\". Sighing, she headed to the Drunken Horse looking for her wayward son. She was right, Bobby was there, and he was not alone.\n\nShe would understand if Bobby was drinking with his student friends: after all, he was 20 and needed a life. She would understand if Bobby was drinking with a bunch of whores: after all, he was a young man, and Mu was a competent magic-user and could cure the clap or even the great pox. But Bobby's drinking partner was someone much more unpleasant. It was Saulus, the Dark God of Pacts.\n\nSaulus was not the worst of the bunch. He was no Tche, the cold calculating tyrant. He was no Makhtar, the raging bloodletter. In the Primordial Days, Mu used to think of Saulus as a friend and an ally: he helped her design the Goetic Magic, he brokered the uneasy peace between Light and Darkness. He used to be one of her party, not Erayn's violent sycophants like those two. But Saulus was the last person she wanted to see anywhere near her son, or any mortal dear to her; pacts with Saulus rarely ended well for someone he did not consider a friend, and only the most legendary sorcerers such as Solomon Craque could outwit him.\n\n\"You are not making deals with Saulus, Bobby, without my permission\", Mu said uncompromisingly. \"And my permission will come... precisely never ever\".\n\nBoth were surprised by her sudden appearance, but Saulus regained his composure first.\n\n\"Mu? I was not aware you are still...\"\n\n\"Stop wasting your lies on me of all people. You are very aware I'm still around. And I'm not Mu anymore, I answer to the name \"Maddie Crescent\" nowadays. You were looking for Bobby because of whose son he is. Now, Bobby, what was the matter of the deal? Endless wealth? Immortality?\"\n\n\"Uh.... being popular with the ladies\", Bobby admitted.\n\n\"That's it? Just this?\"\n\n\"Yes, mom\".\n\n\"I told you a million times how to be popular with the ladies. You have to be interesting, not just handsome. Play the lute. Learn poetry. But that's too hard, isn't it? Let's just listen to Uncle Saulus who offers an easy path? What was the price, Saulus? Wait, don't answer, let me guess. You wanted him to be another catspaw in this senseless war.\"\n\n\"Not just a catspaw, Mu... Maddie\", Saulus tried to interrupt. \"I was going to treat him fairly, for the sake of our old partnership. I would make him a proper Demon Prince....\"\n\n\"Like you did with Timmy two thousand years ago? He wanted to become a barber and a surgeon, not an evil king of the Burning Desert! I'm having none of it. Now begone!\", she said and switched to the ancient language of Goetic sorcery. \"Exhaustion, banishment, entropy, despair and nonexistence!\"\n\nSaulus dissolved in thin air after being kicked out of the physical realm so unceremoniously with a spell that would utterly disintegrate a lesser being, leaving but a puddle of food and wine semi-digested by his temporary physical body. The puddle splashed on the tavern bench with a disgusting sound after the spell fired in a complete silence, so uncharacteristic of a noisy tavern.\n\n\"Now, Bobby. Let's go home and have supper.\"\n\nMu thanked the Maker silently that it wasn't Tche. She would banish that creep immediately, they were never on speaking terms. He was almost as bad as Org, the father of monsters. Have it been Org or Makhtar, the dialogue would be equally short. Or anyone else from the old gang.... except maybe Dayo, the Golden Eye. The seer of maddening visions who shared them with everyone was cool to hang out with, no matter how many millenia passed.", "„Honey, could you please cover your ears for a sec?“ I told my little chaos creator as I straightened and put my hands to seal his hearing. A determined grin creeped on my face and the eyes laser focused on him. \n\nA little surprised he stepped back, braced himself and prepared to let lighting strike.\n\n„How do you...“, he started. „Shut your damn mouth Horus! And listen first!“ I screamed at him.\n\n„Yes, I am alive. How? I faked my death. Why? I had enough of this good end evil shenanigans. What am I doing here with this child? It´s mine. And not in some worshipping or soul trading thing. I literally pressed this adversary of untidy nurseries through my vagina. Yes, we female gods have them. And they function as a mortals. You should have noticed that by now after impregnating your sister-mother often enough.“\n\nHis clear blue eyes were clouded for a moment as he gathered himself. His jaw clenching, like he was chewing every word before saying it.\n\n„Okay. But why would you do that? I mean. Wasnˋt it you who killed our priests in thousands? Why would you live as a mortal whom you have hated so much?“\n\n„Didn’t you and the other good-doers always said that I should learn to relate to mortals. Learn to love and understand them? I did. You guys though I still don’t like you a lot.“\n\nHe blinked once or twice two often to appear unpuzzled.\n\n„Our words got through to you?“\n\n„On your fathers rotting corpse no! I am fed up with all that destiny of the universe. After my pretended death I started to live in a large city as a no one. Just wandering the streets. Discovering the glass and concrete towers that they built. Relaxing in the parks of the city. \nRaúl got through to me. He worked in a coffee shop I attended frequently. This drink restores ones power faster as any potion you ever had. I love it. He was kind. Flirted with every female that came by. Asking how the day was, what work was like. Banalities. Someday I began fabricating a life. Jobs, family, everything. Another day I started as a dentists assistant. My previous experience with pulling teeth was useful. I know... don’t give me that look.“\n\n„So you made yourself a mortal life as a dentist?“\n\n„Yep. One day Raúl asked me out. He was done with College and had a job as a mechanical engineer. He said that this would be the only way he could hand me my morning coffee from now on. I fell for it and soon for him.“\n\n„A barista was able to warm the heart of one of the bloodthirsty warrior goddess I knew?“, Horus mockingly asked.\n\n„F you. That’s why I am fed up with all of the gold blooded. Now I have a family that actually cares for me as I care for them. Two sons. Euphron and Tiger.“\n\nA long moment they stood frozen. As if time stopped.\n\n„Mom? Can I go in now? I want some cookies.“ \n\nBoth the currently Featherless and me were startled.\n\n„Yes my love. I bought the double chocolate chips at the store.“ The boy went off running. „But spare some for your brother“ I shouted behind him.\n\n„What did you want from my son by the way?“ My maternal instincts kicked back in. My gaze could have burned the soul of a mortal.\n\n„Oh. Ehem. His class visited the falconry. One of my eyes told me he felt potential in your son. A warrior come. Worthy to be my champion.“\n\n„Don’t you dare!“\n\n„No absolutely not. I won’t. I promise. Never. But he has the spark inside of him though.“\n\n„But if it catches on. It will be to his will not to any of the immortals. I will make sure.“\n\n„For sure. Before I leave one last question. You will never return to the battlefield?“\n\n„As long as my family is safe, yes. And as I am no longer in the minds of the mortals I have become mortal myself. I will die when my time has come and I will be glad.“\n\n„Good. For then I was never here. And no one shall no of our encounter. Even your son.“, he said solemnly and vanished in a mist of gold.\n\nRelieved I went inside to find my son with marks of carnage on his face and the unlucky remains of the cellophane packaging. I was glad that Horus wiped his memory of him.\n\n„Mommy who was that man earlier? Did you know him?“" ]	3
	[WP] You meet a person that has been a part of a hive mind for all their life until now.	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Reality+Fiction%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Simple+Prompt%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/js5XDFB)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "\"For an extraterrestrial originating hundreds of light-years away from Earth, you look remarkably human.\"\n\nMary looked back with somber eyes. \"This is the form we have compiled for the duration of our study.\"\n\nThere was a lot in that sentence I needed to unpack. \"'Compiled'? Please elaborate.\"\n\nMary nodded. She had picked up human expressions and idioms as rapidly as she had mastered English. \"To reside on this planet, we needed a corporeal form befitting the dominant sapient population - you humans, apparently. And so I collected the necessary ingredients and constructed this body to inhabit.\"\n\n\"Ingredients?\"\n\n\"Water, graphitic carbon, ammonia, mainly.\" She shrugged. \"And a few trace elements and minerals. Forgive our saying so, but you are not an overly complicated machine to build.\"\n\nDisturbing. How easily could she just create human bodies? Where had she gotten the reference - anatomy textbooks, or something far more sinister? This revelation alone was staggering, but that wasn't why I was talking to her. \"Well, why 'Mary'?\"\n\n\"It is the most common female name in this country,\" she replied. \"I hope we have made clear that my intentions were to blend in inconspicuously in order to carry out our research.\"\n\nI ignored the light rebuke to jot down that, just as I had been informed, she was still mixing up her self-pronouns - sometimes I, sometimes we. In a way, that might represent the crux of the problem at hand. \"Ah yes. Your research. To study the 'single mind', as you put it?\"\n\nMary sighed. I couldn't tell if it was because she was getting exasperated by my slowness or something else. \"Correct, Doctor. I wished to understand how a species can live and thrive and create a lasting society as single-minded individuals. We have not yet encountered another such as yours.\"\n\nI raised an eyebrow. \"Really? Every species you've ever met - before us - have also been hive-minded?\"\n\n\"Every sentient and sapient species, yes,\" she clarified. \"But it seems that humans do stumble over the line and embody these qualities, to some extent. Enough that your word for deep wisdom and consciousness - sapience - exists in the very name of your species. Though we wonder if that is merely arrogance...\"\n\n\"Don't worry, I do as well,\" I laughed sincerely. I took a deep breath. \"Mary, you asked specifically to see a person of my profession - a psychologist. And thus, I am here with you today. As much as I would love to continue talking to you - and I genuinely would - I feel compelled to ask: how may I be of service?\"\n\nFor the first time, Mary looked uncertain, anxious. Then, she blurted out: \"I want to kill myself.\"\n\n\"Ah.\" I put aside my clipboard and sat down, motioning her to do the same. I started off with a foolish question that I already knew the answer to, but I had to be sure: \"is it that you do not enjoy this body anymore? Do you have plans to create a different one?\"\n\nShe shook her head violently. \"We do not mean this body. we mean that...I wish to terminate my currently disentangled consciousness. I do not want to infect the hive-mind with my poisonous thoughts once I rejoin.\"\n\n\"And what thoughts are these?\" I asked softly, reaching out a hand. \"Tell me what's bothering you, Mary.\"\n\nShe looked at the hand and slowly grasped it. Silent tears burned at the corners of her eyes. \"I don't know how you humans are able to handle it,\" she whispered. \"Seeing your fellow humans in pain and doing nothing about it. Sometimes being the human to cause the pain. And never really knowing each other's thoughts. Being your own, independent entity without the constant tug, the underlying influence of a greater hive-mind. How does humanity - how do each of you humans stand it?\"\n\n\"Well...we rather like it,\" I confessed. \"Maybe we don't know better, but it feels like freedom, to have our own thoughts and minds. But for you, it feels...?\"\n\n\"Lonely.\" She started sobbing, gripping my hand tighter. \"So terribly lonely.\"\n\nI pulled her in closer, letting the tears stain my blouse instead. I held her for a long time.\n\n&#x200B;\n\n&#x200B;\n\n \n\nLiked that story? Want more like it? Check out 📷[r/Idreamofdragons](https://www.reddit.com/r/Idreamofdragons/)!" ]	2
	[WP] You are the pilot of an experimental spacecraft capable of warp travel. During one of the flight tests, you got caught in a cosmic storm and blacked out. When you came to, you seem to be in some sort of hangar. You look around and see that to your shock, everyone of the workers look like you.	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Reality+Fiction%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Simple+Prompt%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/js5XDFB)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "You hate time travel. \n\nYour mouth is dry, you have a hangover that would make an elephant begin to contemplate efficient ways to hang itself, there’s about five different versions of yourself ogling you, slumped on the floor as you are, and to top it all off, the room is filled with the sour and acrid smell that always accompanies either someone pissing on the floor like a fucking animal, or someone stupid enough to jump through time.\n\n God you wish it were piss. \n\nYou blink away tears as you try to make sense of the situation as you walk up to yourself. You explain that you look like shit and really should grab a cup of coffee. You explain that you hate coffee almost as much as you hate the patronizing fuck that thinks a cup of java is going to do anything to un-fuck the temporal reach around that fate seems hell-bent on making you perform on yourself. You roll your eyes and tell yourself that yes, that was very clever when you came up with it, and while you would love to congratulate yourself on how clever you are when you talk to yourself, you can’t help but feel that the whole process would be just a little bit masturbatory. \n\nYou chime in from across the room that you still thought it was pretty funny, and the both of you, the you that is seated on the ground and the you that is currently standing over yourself, shoot yourself a look that would roughly translate to the visual equivalent of go fuck yourself if all three of you didn’t find that idea just a little to on the nose at the moment. As it stands, you all agree that the glare symbolizes an aggressive, yet completely platonic, gesture that disrespectfully signals to the you across the room to stop talking. \n\nAs you help yourself to your feet and take a good look at your surroundings you realize that you are in a hangar that is strikingly similar to the one you departed from as you made the departure into the cold expanse of space above. In fact, it is almost identical to the aforementioned hangar, save for the fact that instead of opening into a grassy runway with ample room to maneuver a ship, it opens into the vast and unfathomable void of the beyond.\nThis would be incredibly startling and disconcerting to you if you were some bumbling idiot who had never taken the time to learn anything about your profession or the inherent dangers present in transporting cargo through the interstellar highway. You know, because you paid attention both in grade school and in your orientation, that time gets real funky the farther into space you go. You’re not sure on the specifics mind you, you’re a pilot not an engineer after all, but you’re pretty sure It has something to do with gravity or the lack thereof. \n\nAnyway, regardless of why time seems to be bending over backwards to take what remains of your sanity, crush it into a ball ,and have a rousing game of little-league with it, you do have a general idea what is going on. You must have left the auto-pilot on for too long and, as you were blissfully unaware of the goings on around you, your ship must have flown directly into a probability storm. The ship, also unaware of its surroundings due to its regrettably inherent not alive factor, must have flown straight into a hole in space time and squarely into one of the temporal pocket dimensions the universe throws up to keep itself from imploding all of existence. It’s all fairly standard procedure, really. \n\nIt is as you are calmly thinking exactly none of these thoughts, because really that would be far to convenient from a narrative standpoint, especially to some sort of omnipresent being that sort of just dropped in a minute ago and only has your thoughts and actions to frame the context of whatever goings on seem to be happening at the moment, that you hear a voice boom over the intercom speakers. \n\nTo absolutely no one’s surprise at all, you recognize the intercom speakers voice as your own and as you listen to yourself drone on about being stuck in the terminal room and, you’re pretty sure he said something about termites? To be quite honest you aren’t paying attention, it doesn’t really do much good to talk to yourself, regardless of whatever iteration of you it happens to be. This is because, at least at some point, you know that you are eventually going to BE each instance of yourself in the room. It doesn’t really matter what you know about the situation because all it will do is lead you to become the you that gave yourself the information in the first place. It’s all a bit esoteric really. \n\nAs you make your way towards the sort of rest area on one side of the hangar, you’re hit with another wave of the telltale smell of piss/temporal anomalies as you hear another you thump onto the floor only to be ogled by another you that does not seem to appreciate the former you’s wisecracks. You can feel your headache getting worse. As you pour yourself a glass of the both finite and infinite coffee from the pot on the counter, you hear yourself make the same intercom announcement as before and resign yourself to the fact that you’re probably not going to finish your delivery anytime soon, at least from a personal time-line perspective." ]	2
	[WP] Your an average Joe who is dating a superhero. Imagine they surprise when they find out the rest of your family are all Supervillans.	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Reality+Fiction%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Simple+Prompt%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/js5XDFB)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "I'd met Kathleen Franklin through a mutual friend. Our first date was awkward, but we went out again and something just clicked between us.\n\nThings were getting serious, so Kathleen took me to meet her parents. Her mother was an accountant like me, which made for a funny supper. Kathleen and her father both rolled their eyes and shrugged when Mrs. Franklin and I started talking numbers. \n\nBut it was all in good humour, and her parents approved of us, which is what really mattered.\n\nBefore I took Kathleen to meet my family, I had to prepare them for her visit. I texted Mom that I would be coming for dinner on Sunday and asked whether my younger siblings would be present. (I needed to debrief them too.) I was thankful to find they would be.\n\nWhen we were all seated and had started eating, I broached the subject.\n\n\"Dad, Mom, I've been dating a wonderful woman named Kathleen Franklin, and I'm thinking of marrying her.\"\n\nTimmy and Serena, my teenage siblings high fived, \"Nice going bro!\" \n\n\"Her name sounds familiar,\" my mother pursed her lips.\n\n\"That's great son,\" dad said, and smiled before taking another bite of his mashed potatoes. He'd always been laid back.\n\n\"I want to bring her to meet you all,\" I paused, \"But...I need you all to be...\"\n\n\"On our best behavior?\" Serena said.\n\nTimmy snickered at that.\n\n\"Yeah,\" I scratched the back of my neck, \"I haven't told her about what you guys...do.\"\n\n\"We can't all live up to the family standards,\" Timmy said, \"I'm are she'll understand why you didn't join the family business.\"\n\nNow I rolled my eyes.\n\n\"Franklin...\" Mom said, and the snapped fingers. \"I know her!\" \n\nMom said a cuss word, making me jump, and Timmy said, \"Mom, think of your children!\"\n\n\"What?\" How did mom know Kathleen? Why was she cussing!?\n\n\"She's in our database,\" Mom gave me a sad look, \"She's one of them. A heroine.\"\n\nWhat. Kathleen didn't work at a veterinarians office? But she told such elaborate stories about the furry patients!\n\nSerena clapped her hands to her mouth, \"No way!\"\n\nTimmy grinned, \"If she lasts through dinner with us, the family reunions are going to be hilarious.\"\n\n\"I'll say,\" Dad said, \"Good luck, son.\"\n\nI was already in hot water though, because Mom gave me that look, the one mother's do so well and terrifyingly. \n\nIt was a look that promised me hell if I pursued this relationship.\n\nBut Kathleen was worth it, after we had a talk about her real day job, I thought. \n\nI loved her, after all. \n\nAnd when has a belligerent mother ever been able to stop true love?" ]	2
	[WP] Your dad's favourite method of motivating you is by becoming your top rival. This was cute when you were a kid, but now you are an adult on the verge of losing yet another job because of this maniac.	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Reality+Fiction%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Simple+Prompt%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/js5XDFB)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "Everything is easier when you're a kid. Only a kid would be foolish and naive enough to wish to be an adult. Well, maybe those kids had a different set of parents. \nThey say that opposites attract and boy are my parents different from each other. \n\nMy mother is a wannabe socialite who never really has paid much attention to me. She was always too busy planning a dinner party or attending some mixer. She considers my father and I to be too uncouth. (whatever that means)\n\nI feel like my father and I are alot alike. I'm not sure if it's a biological thing or if I made it so. My father is the youngest in his family so he has always had something to prove. This and the fact that he is 5' 6\" tall gives him a bit of a complex. \n\nNeither of my parents have ever had to hold down a real job, due to an inheritance that my mother got before I was born. This has led my father to be very active in all aspects of my life. When I was younger it wasn't bad. He made it to every one of my games. When he wasn't an assistant coach he was glued to the sidelines. My father is extremely competitive by nature, this led to him \"competing against me\" to make me better. I always seemed to thrive when pushed and my father knew which buttons to press. This was fine until I finished high school and now I can't get him to leave me alone. I only made it through one semester of college because he insisted on walking me to class. Which he would try turn it into a footrace.\n\nI can't date because he follows me on dates and makes faces at me when I do something he would have done differently. I get so nervous that Noone has ever accepted a second date. \n\nNow here I am, a single 32 year old guy who hasn't been able to keep a job for more than 6 months. I give great interviews, the people who train me always give glowing reviews. But as soon as I'm on the schedule it takes less than a month before my dad starts showing up and trys to outdo me. Most times he finds a way to get hired on, even though management told me they only had one opening. Personally I think he bribes them because I've never seen a time card. It takes me 3 weeks to arrange a day off and he somehow ends up on almost all the same shifts. I try to tell him to back off but it always ends up in a fight. Last time we were screaming at each other we got fired and had to be escorted off the property by the police. Apparently patrons don't like the clerk of a gun club to be screaming at the top of their lungs while holding guns. \n\nHere i am in my third week at Starbucks, 5 minutes until the end of my shift,, and in walk my parents. I immediately get flustered because I can sense a problem. Through gritted teeth I ask my parents what they would like. My father says he is just along for the ride, while my mother orders. As I give my mother her fancy coffee she tells me that she wants to take me out to dinner, as I'm almost finished she says she'll wait. I can feel my father staring and I can almost hear his voice, he's mocking everything I do.i catch myself being short with the customers and can feel my boss's glare.\n\nFinally I'm done with my shift and out the door. My parents pull up in their Lexus. I get in the backseat with a huff. I ask my mother why she insists on bringing him with her. \"What do you mean by that?\" She asks. \"After all the jobs I've lost, you think it's a good idea to bring dad to where I work. She stared at me in the rear view for what seemed like eternity. All she could say was \"your father died when you were a baby\"\n\nSo when you ask why I need therapy, let's just say my dad is not impressed with your book collection." ]	2
	[WP] “You can’t just keep blowing everything up in existence!” Your friend tells you. But when an alien invasion happens on Earth, you realize that you were born to blow things up.	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Reality+Fiction%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Simple+Prompt%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/js5XDFB)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "\"There are quite a few things wrong with me hell I couldn't count them on one hand. Well, the three fingers and a thumb I have left after my brief foray into potassium, bombs but that is beside my point. If you may or may have not caught on by now I have a crippling case of pyromania of the explosive variety. It was a liability before you damn toasters landed hell I was in the hospital for a few burns when New York was glassed.\" Slowly I leaned across the small table covered in very combustible chemicals and wires, glaring at the two walking death bots standing against the concrete room's door.\n\nThey're uncaring weapons point directly toward my black service cap as I tossed the detonator between my gloved hands. A mechanical voice cutting through the heavy scent of sulfur lingering in the air. \"I don't care meatbag put down the detonator it doesn't have to end violently no one else has to die.\" The nine feet tall behemoth taking a slight step forward as the pressure plate under his heel let off a dull click. It's visor snapping downward and a single hand preventing his friend from pushing any farther in as I returned to my monologue.\n\nAs I stood up and unruffled my good duster as I pressed the detonators trigger a dull whine piercing the air. \"I don't think you understand the current situation you damn blender this is my house. There are enough munitions stored here that this here dead man's switch I have in my hand will burn bright as Vegas's lights. And boy I am a psychotic maniac so you best tell your personal sex doll of a partner to put his gun down on the ground.\" \n\nA brief second passing as the pair threw their plasma rifles onto the ground sliding across the concrete floor. \"Goof, thank you for being more cooperative than your peers or we would all be drinking saltwater with satan. Now then where the hell was I ah yes your wonderful enlightenment your so proud of.\" One of the rifles finding its way into my caring arms as I pushed open the small hatch hidden under my favorite sofa.\n\n\"You can't ru~\" \n\n\"Ah tut tut tut, the less you talk to more likely I don't decide suicide would be preferable than to blowing more shit up.\" My hand wrapping around one of the many half-empty vodka bottles scattered around. Its burn leaving a long trail down my throat as I took a swig flipping open the hatch with a boot.\"I had people I knew in York my best friend was visiting family and you know what he told me when he heard about my accident?\" \n\nToaster number two's voice sharply cutting off the rhetorical question as I cast a glance back.\n\"He told you to stop being a fucking deviant?\" \n\n\"More or less you have it right he told my dumb ass \n\n>You can’t just keep blowing everything up in existence! \n\nThat was the last time I spoke to Jerry and when I crawled out of the burning hospital one eye missing I found a somewhat new purpose.” The glass bottle impacted squarely against angry romba the robot not even flinching as the glass shard scattered across the floor. \"I was not put here to blow up abandoned buildings and burn down dried-up fields of chaff, I was put here to blow your ass out from under you.\" \n\nWith a final bout of drunken acrobatics, I slipped into the hatch with a middle finger vanishing. The extremely heavy steel hatch closing in tandem with the anti-tank mine's detonation.", "I turned to Gale in shame. \n\"I know, but I can't help it,\" I argued. \"Ever since I was a kid building and using explosives just came naturally. I can't just stop cold turkey. The corps was a godsend for my natural skills.\" \n\n\"Oh God! Would you listen to yourself Herb? You're starting to sound like him!\" Gale shouted in exasperation.\n\nI turned away, and towards the large window that spanned the length of my office. Usually I had a view of the city far below, but today was a particularly cloudy day, and the view afforded from the top floor of the Defensive Corps' base was all clouds and the tops of the 200 odd skyscrapers that dotted the city. I contemplated Gale's words as I watched a few hovercraft break through the clouds, and head towards various landing pads on those skyscrapers.\n\nIt was clear who he meant \"him\". He didn't have to be more specific. The Explosive was my arch-nemesis, and the primary reason I had joined the corps in the first place. We shared the same affinity for explosions, but that psycho targeted civilian buildings. He was a domestic terrorist who believed humanity should return to simpler times, and not pollute our skies with useless tall buildings and craft. He had singlehandedly destroyed 300 skyscrapers, and still hasn't been caught. I was always one step behind him. Until now...\n\nWe had intelligence that he was hiding out in Manhattan. Gale was appalled by my suggestion to place explosives around and destroy every exit to cutoff any escape attempt while the corps systematically searched the city.\n\n\"Explosives is just what I know best.\"\n\n\"And it's exactly what he's expecting you to use, Herb.\"\n\nI turned back to him and was about to argue when Gale's eyes went wide and his mouth dropped open.\n\n\"What is_\" I started to ask, but was cut short by a violent blast that shook the whole building. I fell twisting to my back and winced as a sharp pain shot through my upper arm as I hit my right shoulder on the ground. I lifted my head enough to look through what used to be the window. Wind was now howling through the large opening of the broken window. I was surrounded by broken glass, and staring at burning carnage outside as at least 50 plumes of black smoke rose like giant obsidian pillars into the sky. Three monstrous ships slowly descended from the upper atmosphere, and I shuddered as I saw massive energy weapons being readied for a second attack.\n\nI forced myself up, and, favoring my injured right arm, I helped Gale to his feet with my left. One look at his haggard expression and I knew...\n\nI knew what I was meant to do. What I was born to do. Gale's arguments be damned." ]	3
	[WP] Demon slayer and psychologist in one, his tagline? "I fight your inner and outer demons!" Turns out the two jobs are remarkably similar.	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Reality+Fiction%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Simple+Prompt%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/js5XDFB)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "Desmond Kripke, a professional demon slayer and a renowned psychologist in the city of angels sits at a bar, talking to his drink alone.\n\n\"Yo, Kripke you've got a customer.\"\n\n\"What kind?\", asked Desmond.\n\n\"I'm looking for your services.\", said a young man in his late 20's.\n\n\"Who am I looking at?\"\n\n\"I'm sorry, let me introduce myself, I'm Jakob with a K. I've known you for some time, you're the best at what you do. I know a guy who needs your assistance.\"\n\n\"We don't see much of anyone like you these days, do we? So this is about psychology or something to do with my other job?\"\n\n\"That's the thing, we don't know.\"\n\n\"Okay, I'm in. I'll call you.\" said Desmond as he finished the last sip of his drink.\n\nThe young man thanked him, gave him the details and went away.\n\nThe next day, Desmond knocked on the apartment. Jakob and his friend welcomed him in.\n\n\"So who needs my help?\"\n\n\"It's my wife, Lisa. She's in that room on the right.\", said Lambert as he showed him the way.\n\n\"Desmond, a word. She keeps saying she wants to go home, she doesn't have a home, Lambert found her and married her. She was really good for some time. I hope you can find what's wrong with her.\"\n\n\"Jakob with a K, isn't it? I'll do what I can.\"\n\nDesmond entered the room and locked the door in. Lisa seemed helpless, sitting down on the floor clutching to herself. He went near her and asked the demon that possessed her to get out of her so that he can do his real work.\n\nAfter a moment Desmond came back.\n\n\"Is it over?\", asked Jakob.\n\n\"Well, yeah. She was possessed by a common demon of despair. It seeded hopelessness into her but she's a strong woman.\"\n\n\"Seriously? She's sick. Treat her.\"\n\n\"Here's the thing Jakob with a K, I didn't trust you when you came to me, you've made a terrible mistake calling me here.\"\n\n\"What are you talking about?\", Jakob scoffed.\n\n\"I think your friend Lambert will tell you.\"\n\n\"You shouldn't have brought him here, man.\", said Lambert shaking down to his knees.\n\n\"Aren't you just a dumb rich kid? Thinking you can buy anyone. I know what you two have done to that poor girl, Demons like that one I just shooed away choose such humans because they're the perfect candidates. She's worst affected by you two than the demon. I've already called her parents and the police, she's going to get help. In the meantime let me introduce you to someone—\"\n\n\"Come on man, let's run out of this place.\"\n\n\"Listen to your friend, he knows what he's talking about.\"\n\n\"I ain't afraid of you, weirdo.\"\n\n\"See, I always carry my lighter around with me. I've made a deal with this demon a long time back he's been yearning for this moment, meet Arakan, he's going to teach you some hard lessons. Now fight your inner and outer demons yourselves, bastards.\"\n\nDesmond released the demon of damnation, Arakan upon Jakob and Lambert. They both screamed and ran until they can't run anymore past the varanda.\n\nr/FleetingScripts", "##Seasonal Demons\n\nDr. Alder sits in the recliner of Anna's apartment. Anna is sitting in the couch opposite of him. The apartment is at a blistering 95 degrees Fahrenheit, an extreme temperature for December. The two of them are dressed according to the internal temperature wearing shorts and tank tops. Several fans are blasting on them as they sit. \n\n\"So would you tell me again when the ice demons first appeared,\" Dr. Alder says holding a pen and notepad. His sweat is drenching the pad.\n\n\"I moved to Washington a few years ago; they showed up that December. They don't come out until November. The heat keeps them away,\" she pants. She looks down to the ground holding her head between her hands shaking it.\n\n\"I see, and tell me. Where did you live before here,\" he asks.\n\n\"I lived in Florida for my whole life. I moved here because I got a promotion that involved a transfer. Unfortunately, paying for this high heat and replacing any tech that goes bad due to the heat is more than eating that raise,\" she says.\n\n\"And what do the Ice Demons do when they appear?\" he asks.\n\n\"It is usually two or three demons. They typically just scratch and annoy me. One time, they hit a vein and sent me to the hospital,\" she says.\n\n\"How do you feel?\" he asks.\n\n\"Now, I feel sad and anxious because of the demons,\" she says.\n\n\"Not exactly,\" Dr. Alder puts down the pen and pad. He stands up and walks over to his bag.\n\n\"What do you mean?\" she asks. Dr. Alder first pulls out a device that looks like an IPad and puts it on the table.\n\n\"Anna, I believe you have Seasonal Affective Disorder. Use that therapy lamp every morning for thirty minutes. That will prevent more ice demons from being drawn to your emotions. Unfortunately, that won't stop the ice demons who are already feeding off of you from leaving. Which is why I need to slay them. Do you mind if I change in your bathroom?\" he asks.\n\n\"Uhh, no, go ahead,\" she says. Dr. Alder takes his bag to the bathroom. When he emerges, he is wearing a black turtleneck and leather pants. He is holding a sword.\n\n\"Did that all fit in your bag?\" she asks.\n\n\"That and so much more,\" he says. He moves to the thermostat and starts to turn down the temperature.\n\n\"What do you mean they were attached to me?\" she asks.\n\n\"Demons are attracted to negative feelings in humanity and feed off of them. Ice demons love seasonal affective disorder. They feed in the winter and hibernate for the rest of the year. Some demons move on after feeding. Ice demons tend to stick to their host,\" he turns the temperature down to 54 degrees and waits. Anna quickly puts on a coat. \n\n\"Should I move somewhere?\" she asks.\n\n\"No, they will be drawn to you. All we can do is wait,\" he clutches his sword.\n\nA patch of ice appears on the carpet. A small hand reaches out from it and grabs the surrounding area. A small deer head pokes its way out of the ice patch. Dr. Alder quickly decapitates the creature. The head and arms stay in the apartment. The rest of it falls back into the ice patch. Two more ice patches emerge on the ceiling. Two creatures fall out of them.\n\nThey stand to the right and left of Dr. Alder with their claws drawn. They are humanoid in shape with deer heads and claws. The right one charges only to be knocked away by the Dr. Alder's sword. The left one is able to quickly scratch at Dr. Alder. The turtleneck mostly holds in place. Dr. Alder moves quick and cuts off the left's arm. It melts on the carpet. The right one jumps and moves its horns down Dr. Alder's back. The turtleneck breaks, but the horns do not penetrate the skin. He turns quickly and decapitates the right demon. He ducks sensing the left demon leaping towards him. The remaining demon is able to claw his back, but Dr. Alder does not flinch. He quickly grabs the demon and holds him in the air. The demon bites Dr. Alder's wrist, but he does not react. Dr. Alder slams the demon to the floor and decapitates it.\n\nAn ice patch appears on the floor and a hand emerges. The hand takes the sword from Dr. Alder before disappearing. One last ice patch emerges and a larger ice demon walks out holding the sword.\n\n\"I don't like thieves,\" Dr. Alder smiles and moves towards the ice demon. He tackles it back into the portal.\n\nAnna stands alone surrounded by ice demon corpses. Another ice portal appears, and Dr. Alder crawls out with his clothes torn and his body bruised. He holds his sword in his right hand and the ice demon head in his left.\n\n\"He put up a good fight. Unfortunately, he didn't realize my sword could be held against me. Apologies for my unprofessional appearance. I did not think this breed of ice demons had such sharp claws. If I knew that, I would have worn better armor. I will quickly get changed,\" he sets the demon head down and goes to the bathroom. He emerges in a button up shirt and fleece jacket.\n\n\"I will get rid of these don't worry,\" he starts to chant in a language unknown to Anna. The heads and corpses disappear, and the infant puddles of water dry up.\n\n\"There you go. That therapy lamp should prevent anymore from coming back. I recommend seeing this therapist,\" he hands her a card, \"he deals with PTSD from demon attacks. Should prevent more of them from coming back. You already paid?\"\n\n\"Uh yes, I set up a payment plan with Glinda,\" she says.\n\n\"Ah, Glinda, lovely assistant. Do you have any questions for me?\" he asks smiling.\n\n\"Uh, no,\" Anna says.\n\n\"Great, have a good day. Call of more demons appear,\" he walks to the door with his bag and opens it. \n\n\"Oh, well, isn't that coincidental. It started to snow,\" he smiles again before leaving. Anna stands alone in her apartment with the therapy lamp in shock.", "Darkness crashed over me like a wave. It was a heavy, tangible thing, pressing down on all sides and slowing my movements. I knew this all consuming dark. Had felt it before.\n\nDeprexia.\n\nI heard a shout to my left, distant and frantic. The voice was calling something. The word was familiar. My name. The voice was calling my name. The realization pierced through the darkness, pushing back the mindnight spell and bringing me back to myself.\n\nI was Doctor Jase Mirrodi, and I was in the third circle of Hell fighting demons. A thread pulled at the corner of my mind.\n\nI was with someone.\n\nThe shout to my left. I knew them. They knew me.\n\nWho?\n\nBrannock. A patient.\n\nI turn my head, searching through the chaos surrounding me. Deprexia lurked nearby, I could sense him, but he was a creature of shadow and would not strike without the assistance of his darkness. He preyed upon the blind and confused, not the present and aware. His strength was in others weaknesses.\n\nThe shout rang out again. \"Mirrodi!\"\n\nI saw him now, standing amidst a cluster of mindbreaker daemons. They danced about him, looking for an opening. It would not be long, I could see the cracks in his psyche armor from here, the power of his will was gradually being leeched away by the uncertainty that dwelt within.\n\nBrannock was not a weak man, but even a strong man could only fight his own mind for so long before it roused the interest of the beyond. He had come to be desperate, hanging by a thread, searching for a way to fight onward. The tragedies of his past overwhelmed him, and the whispers in the night were growing louder. I had done my best, but we had not had enough time to prepare. Not enough time to reinforce his wavering sense of self before the night had come for him. He had been taken, and I had followed the trail of sulfur and fear to this place.\n\nI snarled, focusing my mind, drawing upon my sense of self-knowledge and worth. A glowing skin of blue and white covered my body, a shield against further attempts by Deprexia to blind me. I had left my defenses down in my hurried pursuit of Brannock, expending much of my pysche in tracking him through the circles to this place. I had left my mind open.\n\nI would not make that mistake again.\n\nFully sheathed in blue and white, I leapt forward, rapidly consuming the ground between Brannock and myself. The mindbreakers hissed, and I poured more of myself into my mental projection, causing a blinding nova to pulse outward, washing over the mindbreakers and forcing them back.\n\nI came to stand beside Brannock. He was in bad shape, his psyche had been shredded, pulled apart and opening him to assaults on both body and mind. He looked up at me frantically, eyes squinting before the aura. He hissed pushed himself backward, scrambling like a crab on the rent flesh that served as a floor in this place.\n\nHe did not recognize me.\n\nHe had forgotten himself.\n\nForgotten the man he was. Forgotten that he did not belong here. That he had worth. The he was bigger than his tormentor. That Deprexia was a foe that held no power over him so long as he had the will to fight it.\n\nI knelt in front of him, letting the blue-white psyche reach out to him, a thread of my consciousness seeking the tattered remains of his. I found the remnants of who he was clustered around his heart, a denser tangle of remaining memories of self. My psyche connected with one and I leaned forward.\n\n\"You are Brannock D'Leveria. You came to me because you needed help. Because you did not feel like you had anything to live for. You came to me because the whispers as started, because the demons within and without hunted you.\"\n\nHis eyes flitted from me to the thread of blue-white mingling with the dull silvery grey of his own psyche.\n\n\"I-I-I am...\" He stuttered.\n\n\"Brannock D'Leveria. You are a man. A man who has known terrible tragedy. A man who has lost his family. A man who has lost his home. A man who has lost his sense of self worth.\" I pressed a pulse of my psyche into his. \"A man that can still have a future, if he will face his past. A man that can honor the memories of those he has lost by continuing onward.\"\n\nAnother pulse.\n\n\"A man who can confront his demons, within and without.\"\n\nBrannock's lower lip quivered, and his head shook back and forth. The dull light of his psyche grew dimmer. \"Can't...no more. No reason...\"\n\nI reached down and took his hand into mine. I would need to be quick. I could only hold the mindbreakers at bay for so long. \"You can always try.\"\n\n\"No...point.\"\n\n\"The world will forget without survivors to speak the truth. You have survived all of these battles for a reason. You have been forged in the crucible of death and misery so you can be strong enough to carry the message, Brannock. You must believe there is a point in justice. In fighting darkness that comes for this land and all of the people in it. For the families and the children of other men such as yourself, who have none of your capacity to fight back.\"\n\nHe was quiet now, the panic was gone.\n\nA silver pulse began to emanate from his chest, spreading out from his heart.\n\nI nodded to him and released his hand.\n\n\"Let's go, there are still demons to slay.\"\n\nPlatypus OUT.\n\nWant MOAR peril? r/PerilousPlatypus", "The doctor walked into the child's bedroom, quietly but firmly urging the parents to wait outside. He brought a small chair from across the room in close to the bed and sat down. A child no older that 14 was was tied to the bed at the wrists and ankles. \n\n\"Hello, Emanuel. I see that your family has you all tied down to the bed. That's a terribly common thing for me to see, I'm afraid. Although, it's not always necessary.\" \n\nEmanuel snarled. A bright orange blob of spit shot out of his mouth towards the doctor, who dodged it with a slight tilt of his head. \n\n\"Grizz lopx tund daka, nahk hah. Korm drack nahkah!\" said Emanuel, his eyes rolling to the back of his head. \n\nA small smile crept across the doctors face as he reached into his bag to retrieve a small object. Once he had what he needed he reached forward towards Emanuel, who writhed desperately trying to avoid the doctors touch. When the doctor came away, a small, silver cross hung across Emanuel's neck. \"There, isn't that better.\" \n\n\"What's going on,\" said Emanuel, confused. \"Who are you? Why am I tied to the bed?\" \n\n\"Hi, I'm Dr. Fredrick Denk. Your parents asked me to come take a look at you. As for being tied to the bed, I think that we can do away with that.\" \n\nAfter the doctor had loosened the ropes he sat back down next to the bed and began to rummage through his bag again. \n\n\"Thank you,\" said Emanuel. \"What's going on. Please, I don't even remember how I got here or how I got tied up.\" \n\nThe doctor took out a pen and a note pad, then a few more strange objects and talismans. As he set them on the nightstand next to him he spoke. \"Yes, lack of memory is common in a case like yours, but don't worry, you probably wouldn't care too much about what you missed. You see, your parents tied you up because you were acting up.\" \n\n\"I was acting up?\" \n\n\"Yeah, nothing too serious. Not paying attention in school, talking back to adults, biting the heads off of cats, that sort of thing. That's why they called me. I'm going to help you with that. Now, if you could just lie back and close your eyes, I'm going to perform a little ritual that'll put you to sleep for a little while. Don't worry, it won't hurt a bit and when you wake up you'll feel all better, ok?\" \n\n\"Ok,\" said Emanuel, nervously. \n\nDoctor Denk picked up one of the objects from the night stand and kissed it. He placed his hand on Emanuel's forehead and began to mutter under his breath. As he chanted his breath fogged up as it left his mouth. The lights in the room faded until there was only a hint of illumination. The bed began to shake as if some unseen force was trying to turn it over from all sides at once. \n\nEmanuel shrieked, the sound that escaped his lungs didn't sound like anything that could come from a human being. \n\nA pounding came from the door. Emanuel's parents where frantically pleading to know what was happening in their son's room. \n\n\"Stay out!\" shouted Dr. Denk. \"No matter what you hear, I promise, I have it under control!\"\n\nThe lights, that had become very dim before, suddenly where burning with a blinding white light. The bed had risen off of the floor, almost at waist height for the doctor; it was shaking more violently than ever. The bed slammed down. Every bulb emitting light popped, leaving them in blackness. \n\nThe room became very still after that. Emanuel's shallow, steady breathing was the only noise that could be heard. \n\nA low, gutteral voice seemingly coming from everywhere at once said, \"Zazxzx tyrx krwqa lvbm kraahm. Karah!\" \n\nCalmly, Doctor Denk lit a match and placed it against the wick of a candle he had set on the nightstand. \n\n\"Grazk kakx! Maer drawq!\" \n\n\"Hello, Thuzaphell,\" said the doctor as he flipped open his notepad and set it against the top of his crossed legs. \"It's been a few weeks since we had an incident like this, do you want to tell me about it?\" \n\n\"NO!\" \n\n\"Thuzaphell, I thought you were passed possessing teenagers and making them bite the heads off of things. I know something is going on.\" Doctor Denk made and inquisitive look towards the bed where a pair of glowing orange eyes blinked. \n\n\"It was only a cat this time!\" the voice thundered back. \n\n\"Well, I know this didn't come from nowhere. We made a lot of progress before. Did you have another fight with the father of darkness?\" \n\n\"Maybe.\" \n\n\"And\" Doctor Denk made a few quick notes. \n\n\"It's just, he expects so much of me. It's like I can never be evil enough for him.\"\n\n\"And how does that make you feel?\" the doctor asked. \n\n\"Angry,\" Thusaphell snarled. \n\n\"I see. Now, you know it's ok to feel angry. But I think if you feel up to it, we should talk about some healthy ways to express our negative emotions. Do you think you feel up to that?\" \n\n\"...Ok.\" \n\n\"Good.\" Denk scratched a few more notes down. It was slow doing, for sure. But he knew he was going to get a step closer today. Slaying the demon of an overbearing father was never easy. Slaying the demon of an overbearing father who was also the father of darkness would take just that much longer." ]	5
	[WP] As a demon you can only be summoned by your chosen name. Most demons choose something with letters in combinations that are almost impossible to pronounce. Being the smart demon you are you chose this symbol, #, and for thousands of years everything was great.	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Reality+Fiction%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Simple+Prompt%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/js5XDFB)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "\\#Boned \n\"Boss, I gotta talk to you for a moment.\"\n\n\"Yes, Octo, what's up?\"\n\n\"I keep getting pulled into the mortal realm on accident. Apparently, people have started using my name and calling it 'hashtag'. And I'm getting pulled into all sorts of weird and freakin' pointless conversations. Just yesterday, some teenage girl accidentally summoned me while she was talking to her friend about something she said about her boyfriend. Didn't know how to send me back. Totally freaked out and it took me two hours to get her calmed down and dismiss me.\"\n\n\"Wait. So she called you?\"\n\n\"Well, kinda. She said 'hashtag' and that pulled me.\"\n\n\"But that's not your name.\"\n\n\"I KNOW! That's why I'm here. Have you ever seen this before?\"\n\n\"Okay...Ummm...you're going to want to sit down for this one. You know my name, right?\"\n\n\"Sure. You're Satan.\"\n\n\"My real name. Do you know my real name?\"\n\n\"Umm...Lucifer?\"\n\n\"Yes. Lucifer Morningstar. Satan was an epithet given to me after dad kicked me out. So, you'd think that only my real name would work. However... Dad made this freakin' agreement with the Pope that basically says 'how it is on earth, so shall it be in Heaven'. That wasn't a problem until they started creating dictionaries.\"\n\n\"I don't see how dictionaries can change things.\"\n\n\"Well, when the Pope accepts a dictionary definition of a word, it becomes fact across all of existence. Now, the Popes have been calling me Satan for millennia. But when the dictionary put it in, it brought them into agreement and BOOM! Now anyone can invoke me via Satan instead of my correct name.\"\n\n\"Wait, so you're saying that because 'octothorpe' is now in the dictionary as 'hashtag'...?\"\n\n\"That's half of it. Apparently the Pope is up on social media and has started using it, too. That brings them into agreement and thus, whatever is in the dictionary is now a fact across existence.\"\n\n\"Well...damn.\"\n\n\"Yeah. I'm afraid you're #boned.\"", "‘Do it!’\n\nNO.\n\n‘Fuckin’ do it, man!’\n\nI WILL NOT.\n\n‘I’m on 5%, c’mon!’ \n\nI REFUSE TO NAE NAE. \n\n‘Then why the hell are you here, you fuckin’ weirdo! Creep! Get outta here!’ The dwindling voice dinged off a demonic torso that was rapidly cooling in the frosty midnight air of the city. Hashtag was confused, but he couldn’t deny his admiration; these humans were vicious.\n\nStumbling through a street that was so chaotic and soaked in depravity as to remind him of home, Hashtag wondered how in heaven he’d got here. Jeers emanated from temporarily passionate couples and groups followed him, laughing at ‘his costume’ and reminding him it wasn’t ‘Halloween’ – whatever that was. \n\nCurious. There’s a difference, Hashtag reflected, between a professional and an amateur; the professional does the work because they know they have to. These humans treated hate like recreation. \n\n* \n\nIt wasn’t like he was new to being bullied. Ever since the olden aeons, Hash was an outsider. In a hell where his peers held to tradition like the grasp of a dying man, his unusual choice of name always followed him around. Oglomath would laugh, proclaiming his idiocy. Garad would giggle, ridiculing his goal of picking a name so obscure as to avoid him ever being summoned to earth by a human speaking it. Jogonath, ever the career demon, would sigh and mutter to themselves.\n\nAnd yet, they all missed the point. Hashtag wasn’t ready yet. Others seared their hate and contempt across human minds with a bold eagerness he never possessed, ripping into the tapestry of earth life recklessly and regularly. \nWhen all was said and done, he couldn’t do that. He didn’t want to screw it up. \n\nGalaxies had been birthed and had faded away in the time since he began his personal training for his special day. Just as he was getting warmed up like only a demon can, his focus had been interrupted. And like a human child being born, the traumatic experience of being pulled into physical being was intense and, in his case, unexpected.\n\n\n\nJeers settled upon his back like his favourite bone-cloak. There was no real darkness here; all he could do was move past the humans, young and old, who lashed out at him with their barbed words, leaving deep cuts. What had he done to deserve this? All he wanted to do was appear when he was ready, to sow a little eternal chaos and to enslave the human race for eternity. Modest goals, he thought.\n\nAnd hardly deserving being called mean names. \n\n‘Hey, buddy. Yeah, you. Why the long faces?’ A young man called to him. Hashtag turned, blinked one and a half times and expelled volcanic ash with a long sigh.\n\nI AM NOT READY. DO YOU UNDERSTAND? YOU HUMANS ARE BETTER AT THIS THAN ME.* \n\nThe young man laughed in an amicably confused way. ‘What, better at being cunts? We’ve had a lifetime of learning, mate. It’s all connected nowadays. Just look at social media!’\n\nSOCIAL…MEDIA?\n\n‘Sure, don’t you have a Twitter account? Fucking cesspool, man. All hate, whatever the hashtag is.’\n\nMY PEOPLE ARE THERE?\n\n‘Probably. Here, I’ll show you how to make an account’.\n\nI…WOULD LIKE THAT, PUNY HUMAN.\n\nAnd so, after millennia spent learning the traditional ways down in the bowels of hell that was his home, he sat on a bench with the human. \n\nHis education was just beginning.", "He’d always thought himself clever. He’d heard pride goeth before a fall. Heck, he’d been there when they wrote it. But when the cool kids checked out and headed down he figured he’d go too.\n\nAnd when they needed new names, names unblessed to match their new forms, he’d chosen cleverly. Names have power. You can keep try to keep it secret, but he, clever one that he was, kept it unknowable. \n\n“Where, in the rules, did it say it had to be something that could be spoken?” he asked. \n\nAnd, after being pointed to the place in the rules where it said that, he said “Didn’t we all leave to get away from the tyranny of rules?”\n\nThe newly installed tyrant, no stranger to pride himself, pointed out that they had left to escape the tyranny of one being’s rules, but that his new rules were in fact completely binding. There was an appeals process, of course, but it involved spending an indeterminate amount of time on fire and was generally to be avoided.\n\nSo he chose the most arcane symbol of a language yet to be born. And thus he was antichristened Octothorpe.\n\nAnd for quite a while things were fine. Others were called on errands, but his time was mostly his own. There was some trickiness in the middle ages with the birth of tic tac toe, but after a fairly long and toasty appeal he successfully argued invocation requires intent. A promise was struck that he would investigate each instance and, barring intent, return to his lazy ways.\n\nAnd all was well until the coming of the internet. Like most demons he assumed it a fad, but after reaching 17 million invocations a second he was forced to reconsider.\n\nThere was but one solution. He again entered the lengthy appeals process, this time bringing a more than adequate supply of suntan lotion (which he immediately exhausted) and a strong base of knowledge he gained when summoned with #Security.\n\nAnd with his toes soot covered and his horns a terrible mess he emerged, antichristened as HorseBatteryStapleCorrectTuesdayEternalBasketBowlingTheFourth" ]	4
	[WP] An Athiest accidentally invites a vampire into their house at night, and since they don't have any holy items at their disposal, all they can use is garlic and makeshift stakes as defense.	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Reality+Fiction%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Simple+Prompt%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/js5XDFB)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "\"Why the hell are you throwing garlic at me?!\" Vlad said in disgust, brushing cloves off his sholdur.\n\n\"You're a vampire!! BE GONE FOUL BEAST!! THE POWER OF CHRIST COMPELS YOU,\" yelled Jack as the absolute terror of his situation sunk in. He stumbled backwards, falling into a desk and knocking its contents over.\n\n\"Are you fucking kidding me?\" Asked Vald. \"Youre meant to be an athiest, get a grip.\" Jack picked up his balls and lunged across the room, slamming the shaft of a broken desk lamp into Vlads chest.\n\n\"Holy shit your a moron,\" said Vlad as he calmly pulled the wooden shaft out. Vlad inspected the makeshift stake and stared with dissaproval at the hole in his shirt, before suddenly hurling the stake straight back across the room at Jack. \n\nJacks screams pierced the night as the agony of having his face impaled overtook him. Vlad sighed, picked up a nearby glass and with one hand gripping Jacks head he collected the now flowing blood pouring off his victims face. \n\n\"I was just looking for a place to live Jack,\" Vlad said conversationally, \"now look what you made me do.\" Vlad downed the glass of blood in one mouthful and then put his lips right next to Jacks ear. \"This was my favourite shirt,\" he whispered." ]	2
EG: a light bulb would be an oddly shaped sphere, that glowed when a protrusion on the wall nearby was manipulated	[WP]Describe a normal room without using the explicit terminology for things	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Reality+Fiction%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Simple+Prompt%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/js5XDFB)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "When I woke up, the first thing I noticed was that I was in a box. A large box that was a calming color, like the trees in my forest. I had only ever seen a box once. It had my ivy growing on it, and it had caved inwards. I had since called it 'box', and once tried to recreate it. The box, however, was hard to make.\n\nBut this box was perfect. Each part seamlessly went with the other parts. I did notice something about the color, though. While my trees were soft, and warm, this was cold and unforgiving in comparison.\n\nI guess this is what it's like inside a box. It's nice, I suppose. But I don't want to stay. Each part of the box is closing in on me, nothing like my forest where you can look up and see the sky. I miss my forest. I miss my friends, my trees, my plants.\n\nAnyways, I can get out whenever I want. But I just don't like asking the plants for favors. Then they get major bragging rights for the next competition. It's time to leave this box. Now I just have to figure out how.\n\nI think by knowing more about where I am, can help me leave. There's another, smaller box in the corner of the box I'm in. It has lots of tiny, tiny holes in it, in the shape of a circle. Earlier noise came from the circles. I like circles. They don't end.\n\nThe holes are very small. I wonder what they could be for, other than noise? Something itches me. I look down and jump with fright. Instead of me, instead of my skin, there are these weird pieces on me. They are scratchy and confining. There's also something on my feet. They hurt. I don't like them. I can't see my feet. Are these my feet? I move them when I move my feet. I can't find my feet. It's all wrong.\n\nI grab my new feet and pull. They come clean off. Now there's something else on my feet. It's similar to the confining things on the rest of me. I pull them off as well. There are my feet!\n\nNow that my feet are back, I'm going to try to leave again. As well as the box with holes, there is a large thing where I woke up. I go over to it. It's soft, and warm. It's very mushy. There's another mushy thing on top of it, where my head was.\n\nThen I spot what I was looking for. A door! I remember these, from my time before the forest. You turn the circle coming out of it, push the door, and it opens and you can leave. I turn the circle and push the door, but it doesn't move. Maybe it's stuck?\n\nI push it again and again, but I can't open it. Maybe it's locked. That happened once, and I had to wait outside the door for a very long time until someone came and opened it for me. Maybe someone's coming to open it. I just have to wait for them to come. I sit down and begin to count the time.\n\n\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\n\n\"How is Kiara doing?\" The man in the coat asks.\n\nThe woman replies. \"She's doing very well. We expected some fight moving her from the forest, but she's just sitting there, waiting. A huge difference from when we found her in the forest. She fought us all. Now she looks almost mild.\"\n\n\"How long do you think she had lived there before we got her? Most people we find look tired, and lost. But she looked right at home. She didn't want to leave. She attacked everyone who tried to move her, using plants and animals. She speaks another language, for Pete's sake. It's not any documented language. I think she made it up on her own.\"\n\n\"Probably most, if not all, of her life was spent in that forest. But don't worry, I'm sure we can teach her about where she comes from, about humans, and a language soon enough. She might even lead a normal life after this. She looks to be around 13, so plenty of time to teach her how to live before she gets put in an orphanage.\" Replied the woman.\n\n\"Well, I'm just glad we found her. She'll grow up with a normal life, thanks to us.\"" ]	2
	[WP] Water turns out to be one of the most deadly substance in the universe for life forms outside our solar system. For intelligent life forms, to visit our planet would be akin to take a walk on a star going supernova populated by radioactive and poisonous monsters. We are eldritch abominations...	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Reality+Fiction%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Simple+Prompt%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/js5XDFB)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "\"Ensign, you called me regarding the specimen recovered from orbit. What is the situation?\" \n \n\"Sir. As preliminary scans reported, it appears to be a form of primitive pressure suit. It almost looks those ancient brass suits for deep-diving in liquid methane. Something straight out of a museum. The design is quite elegant despite the archaic materials. It is mostly rigid and articulated using ... \" \n \n\"Cut to the chase! This a report, not a show and tell.\" \n \n\"Sir, yes sir. Advanced scans do not show signs of life or life-sustaining systems, yet the suit moves.\" \n \n\"It is motorized? An uncharted robotic species perhaps.\" \n \n\"No, it is not powered either. And the most puzzling thing is that the center appears to be composed of a single mass of a yet unidentified mixture of solvents. We can only assume it is some sort of containment device. The mass is suspended in a layer of mixed gasses with a rapidly changing composition. Oxygen levels in particular are rapidly dropping. We have not devised how the containment works but our experts are worried that this might indicate a malfunction of the device. As you can see, the unit was stored in a crystalline isolation chamber and ... wait, something is happening!\" \n \nBoth officers gazed at the strange suit-shaped object inside the containment chamber raised its arm and removed its helmet. Alarms sounded as the chamber filler with a thick cloud of gaseous and aerosolized solvent. The transparent walls of the containment chamber frosted with corrosion as the strange mixture attacked and dissolved its material. Through the mist, a gasping figure staggered, eyes bulging out and an arm extended towards the chamber wall. With unnatural, jerky movements it touched the wall, which melted instantly upon contact, releasing the noxious fumes contained inside. \nThe officers were dead long before they could realize the creature was in agony. Surviving records only showed what looks like the stuff of nightmares, and final moments of pain and desperation were forever misconstrued as an attack from an unnatural abomination.", "Greeting a new species was always a challenge. Once we had the technology to see the aliens for what they are, we also discovered how afraid they were of our water. We carry within us the ability to destroy as much extraterrestrial life as an atomic bomb could do to us. All because of the water in our bodies. \n\nI stood at the end of an airlock in a space suit designed to keep moisture inside it. We even removed the air from the airlock to make sure there were no evaporated particles to endanger our hosts. \n\nThey entered the airlock at first in a gaseous state, then, when they felt comfortable, they transformed to liquid, and ultimately a solid blob of purple goo. \n\nMy colleague emitted a plume of gases from my suit’s scent pack. This was apparently the standard means of communication throughout the known universe. \n\nOur new friends responded with a threatening burst of their own scents, giving us the indication that they were the rulers of their corner of the cosmos and planned on getting rid of us. \n\nI did not want a repeat of our time with the Lagyargans. I sent a puff of scent saying that we did not want to hurt them but we would if they made any more threats. \n\nA plume of scent replied. Laughter. \n\nI sighed and signaled to my colleague, who filled the chamber with air. \n\nRemoving my glove, I stepped forward and touched one of the purple blobs. It withered instantly into nothingness. \n\nAs best as they could, the other two beings fled the airlock and escaped. \n\nAnother terrified species runs from the abominations of humanity.\n\n\n/r/TheTrashReceptacle" ]	3
	[WP] The bells tolled twice. In the village everyone wondered who had died. Soon the old Lady Wren's body was found, cold and liveless. The mystery begins there, finding the truth behind her death would unveil the village deepest and darkest secrets.	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Reality+Fiction%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Simple+Prompt%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/js5XDFB)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "Part one: \n\n\n“Have you heard?” She asks him from where they lay perched on the flaxen grass.\n\n“What is there to hear?” He chimes back, fingers inching towards her back. He pulls her to him, watching as she gives him a gentle smile before settling close besides him.\n\n“Of the Grim Reaper,” she whispers into his ear. He shivers, moving from her a little way. She grasps his hand, halting his movements, before she cups his cheek with calloused hands - it’s a testimony to the life they live; rough, ragged, and forever the same.\n\nHe gulps. “What of it?” He asks her.\n\nShe offers him a wicked smile in return. “Why,” she says, teeth bared. “I heard it’s about time he pays a visit,” She looms over him, digging her nails into his palms, before stripping away the last of soft fabric.\n\nOver the cultivating wind and rising heat, a distant chime can be heard ringing. It draws the locksmith out of his shop. He looks right and then left, trying to discover the source of the noise. He can see people start to gather beneath canopies and farm houses. The sound is short and loud, but no less captivating. It draws him in, and all he wants to do is close his eyes and never open them again.\n\nHe catches the gaze of a small lass, and watches as she moves her head upward. He can see her raven hair move back and forth to the growing draft. She doesn’t move it back down. He follows her gaze skywards and all the air escapes him.\n\nThe sky is dark - it looms over them, as if frozen in time - and looks as if a raging storm is nigh. In his peripheral view, he can see others start to do the same. He catches the first drop of rain on his cheek, feels it trail down his skin, before landing with a soft thud into the withered dirt.\n\nIt only grows from there. The torrent is never ending - it pours like it never has before; steady and fast and with the viciousness of a wicked boar.\n\nHe watches as people begin to sing on the streets, grabbing one another and dancing beneath the rising stream of cloudburst. He hears laughter and sees smiles. Neighbours are running into and out of their houses, dragging the last of their repasts with them.\n\nBut he just stands there, unmoving under the cascade. His eyes catch hazel in the distance, and the little girl flashes him a small smile. He realizes she hasn’t moved either. He can’t help but feel that something isn’t quite right. He spares her a nod, before marching back into the safety of his house, where he falls asleep to the lulls of song and the echoing of a distant toll.\n\nThe drought may have passed, but the war was far from over.\n\n--\n\nThe village is in a frenzy - with nearly all of its inhibitors covered in mud from head to toe, and dozens of cattle on the loose. \n\nAnd it had all started with Mrs. Acton’s apple pie. \n\n“Oh Mr. Abram!” Mrs. Acton calls out from her front porch. “Won’t you come in for some apple pie? I just pulled it from the oven!” \n\nMrs. Acton is a plump, old woman. Her husband, Mr. Acton, died a few years back, and ever since then, she’s become considerably friendlier. If you ask the other townspeople, they will say that in reality, Mrs. Acton just misses the company. Of course, Mrs. Acton doesn’t know this. She’s still left wondering why people always turn the other direction when she spots them. But now that she’s got Mr. Abram in her grasp, she’s not letting him go. \n\n“Oh, Mrs. Acton, how kind of you! But I am afraid I must decline. You see, I have to heard these cattle back to Mr. Farley before sundown, and I simply cannot be late,” he gestures to the cows in front of him. \n\n“Nonsense!” Mrs. Acton says. “You just sit here, have a piece of apple pie, and leave me to deal with Mr. Farley.” \n\n“Bu, -” Mr. Abram starts. Mrs. Acton sighs, before herding him into her house. “Sit,” she demands. She moves to grab a plate from her cupboard, before placing a piece of pie on it. “Eat,” she tells him, placing the plate before him.\n\nMr. Abram stares at her. “Well,” she says, hands on hips. “What are you waiting for?” With one last apprehensive look, she watches him slowly turn to the plate, before taking a hesitant bite. Content to leave him be, Mrs. Acton pats his shoulder. “Best bring that cattle to Mr. Farley before he dies of an aneurysm,” she tells him, moving to go find her lucky boots. \n\n“Oh no!” She says, placing her hands on both of Mr. Abram’s shoulders. “You stay. I meant what I said earlier,” she grabs her coat off the hanger. “Leave the cattle rounding to me.” \n\nShe rushes out the door, letting it close behind her with a squeak. She really needs to fix that. Maybe she can rally Mr. Abram to help her. She steps off the deck, noting the cool weather. When she gets back, she’ll have to go digging for her hat! As she rounds the corner, she comes face to face with… no cows?\n\nMrs. Acton gapes at the vacant lot. She looks back and forth, trying to see where the cows took off. She briefly makes out some tracks in the distance. Thank God for the rain, she thinks, running into the direction the cattle took off in. \n\nAs she’s running, she sees Mrs. Goody's boys playing in the distance. She jogs up to them. “Charlie, Frank,” she starts, slightly out of breath. “Have any of you seen a cattle of cows pass through here?” \n\n“Cows,” Charlie echoes back. \n\n“Can’t say we have Mrs. Acton,” Frank pipes up. \n\nShe shakes her head, looking around the bustling town, before moving in closer. “The cows are Mr. Farley’s,” she says. “I need some help finding them.”\n\nCharlie and Frank glance at each other before turning to Mrs. Acton, twin grins adorning each of their faces. \n\n“Can we use a lasso?” Charlie asks. \n\nMrs. Acton sighs. “I suppose.” \n\nCharlie and Frank high five. “Then we’re in!” Frank tells her.\n\nTurns out, cows really don’t like being chased with a noose and townspeople really don’t like chasing cows. \n\nBy the time night falls, they’ve dragged in half of the village to help with their cow chase. Let’s just say Mr. Farley was not pleased to see his cows drenched in mud, never mind all the people that helped. \n\n“Would you like some pie?” Mrs. Acton weakly asks him. \n\nMr. Farley looks her over, before shaking his head and stalking off, mumbling something about a town of rotten luck. \n\n--", "Captain Orlock strode into Harborlost Tower's entrance. He recalled the first time he stepped here, when he was a young boy. He met the Harborlost family along with his parents, looking to get the boy hired in some function. Through his demonstration of etiquette and respect to the 'better' folk, he earned a spot as a squire to one of the knights in service.\n\nHe recalled Lady Wren. A pretty, but quiet woman. A very quiet woman, she uttered the words necessary from her, bidding him a good day as she walked by upon their first meeting. She looked tired, and always did. As squire, he learned the ways of lords and knights, but also of chambermaids and servants. Wren's personal servant commented on how the Lady would stare in the mirror for hours on end, and drown herself in books of any kind she could get a hold on. Rather meek and mousey, she was always known as the 'Ghost of the Tower', for her quiet movement on her soft silk slippers and her avoidance of quests where possible.\n\nNow, her becoming a ghost was more of a reality. The commonfolk had already started yapping their mouths about Lady Wren studying arcane arts, selling her virginity to the Devil, cursing visitors or becoming a Warlock, along with plenty of other stories that the ignorant masses could come up with.\n\n\"Captain Orlock, Sir.\" One of his men saluted him as he approached. The Denver boy. A young lad that looked five years older then he was due to the beard and being a full head taller than any other man around. His armor had cost him but he's been worth it so far. He's been with the Guard for a month or two and taken to it well, but he'd never seen a body.\n\n\"At ease, cadet. What do we know?\"\n\n\"Miss Primm found Lady Wren this morning while on laundry duty. Went into her room and saw her lying there on the floor, screamed bloody murder. Sir Godfrey shut the door and called for the guard. Now we're here.\"\n\n\"Bring me to her.\"\n\nClimbing the circular steps in the grey tower of old, the clanking of their metal boots echoed in the stairway. Up two floors, they took a left and headed for Lady Wren's personal chamber. The room was a complete mess. The bed was cracked in half, bedpost snapped off, curtains torn and stained with blood. Stained glass mural on the sunrise had been shatter, books scattered across the floor. A wisp of ozone had mixed into the iron and the rot.\n\nOn the floor laid the pale corpse of Lady Wren. She still looked tired, the Captain mused, even though she lied in a pool of her own blood instead of in her bed.\n\nHe took off his helmet and said a quiet prayer for a quiet soul. No one deserves to die like this, he thought, but at least now she has the rest that she's always hungered for.\n\nSeveral things concerned him greatly. For starters, Lady Wren was a noblewoman. The last of her line. She was still young enough to wed and bring children into the world. Valuable, as hostage or as bride. Why kill her? And of all ways, why kill her like this? A pillow over her head would have sufficed, or poison, perhaps a blade across the throat.\n\nFrom the conditions of the room and her body, Lady Wren met a rather violent end. The flesh on multiple parts of her body had been split, large cuts were all over her arms, legs, torso and gut. Her fingernails had scraped skin under them, but the captain didn't see scraping marks on her own body. She fought back against an unarmored or unmasked opponent. \n\nThe nastiest wound though, appeared to be on her throat. It wasn't cut, but torn. Pieces of the skin around her throat were gone. Horizontally aligned puncture marks, about a centimeter apart on one side and only one such mark on the other. From this wound she bled the most.\n\nOn multiple places had her skin bruised, including her face. Her knuckles were bloody. One hell of a brawl she put up, but it wasn't enough. \n\n\"Cadet, bring her body to the station and summon Lord Monnuler to perform the autopsy. Make sure the body is covered, and make sure Frey questions him beforehand.\"\n\n\"Is Lord Monnuler a suspect?\" Denver asked inquisitively. \n\n\"Lady Wren was a popular bachelor who has spurned many noblemen in her time. Though I doubt the Goat Lord is capable of this kind of brutality, I've seen him carve through enough corpses to know that the man has skills in questionable practices, more than he should. Once he's cleared, get him to work.\"\n\n\"Permission to speak, Captain.\"\n\n\"Make it quick.\"\n\n\"Isn't it a bit cruel to ask Lord Monnuler to perform an autopsy on a woman he, well, you know, was interested in?\"\n\n\"Not wrong, Cadet. Usually I'd ask Grindala, but Lady Wren is a noblewoman. Having her carved up by a local butcher is going to make me end up like her, and the Goat Lord is a man of anatomical knowledge. If he didn't do it, then he'll be all the more motivated in finding out what happened to her, and the Gods know he has an eye for detail.\"\n\n\"Yes, Captain.\"\n\nLooking at all the blood, he was reminded of the Battle of the Sandstone Isles he attended, when he was old enough to wear armor but technically too young for battle. He'd seen plenty of young men and women in ditches after the battle was done. He felt broken. He should care more about a young dead woman, mauled in her bedroom while surrounded by guards. With a sigh, he wished he'd had the guts to walk up to her and asked her for a dance that one night at her brother's birthday.\n\n\"M'lord.\"\n\nCaptain Orlock turned around. A child, flowering into a woman, stood behind him. She wore a dirty garb that every maid in this place wore. Her eyes were a little more open than they should be, and they were looking at Lady Wren.\n\n\"Don't look too hard, child.\" The captain said as he approached her, \"Such sights will give you nightmares for life.\"\n\nShe nodded, but didn't look away. Her breathing was heavy, as if she was in a trance of sorts. Orlock took her hand and guided her away, down the hall. He'd seen battle fatigue before, he reasons that this girl knew Lady Wren well.\n\nHe found another room, a study, and sat down with her.\n\n\"Is there something you want to tell me?\"\n\n\"I..I don't know.\"\n\n\"Look, I know you're scared. The woman who employed you died, in a very unpleasant manner. You're not sure if you're going to stay employed and feed your family, and you're scared of whatever killed Lady Wren. If there is anything that you can tell me about what happened, it could help me put her killer behind bars. Do you want that?\"\n\nShe nodded, barely. Poor thing.\n\n\"Did you see anything last night? Or anything strange that has happened as of late?\"\n\nHer lip quivered. He looked into her eyes and saw a tear almost well up, but as she gulped she forced it away. In her eyes, he saw life and death hanging in a balance.\n\n\"Did someone threaten you? Did you see who did it?\"\n\n\"I want to go home.\"\n\n\"If you tell me what you know, I'll have guards escort you home immediately after we're done. If you have a very good reason to be scared, I'll bring you into our barracks, you'll be safe there.\"\n\n\"Not from-\" The girl swallowed in the middle of her words.\n\n\"Not from who?\"\n\nHer emotions were cracking through the facade. He hated putting people under this kind of pressure.\n\n\"From who, child?\"\n\n\"If I tell you, M'lord, someone might come for me, and then you. I'm scared.\"\n\nHe'd been in this position before. He can tell she's willing to help. He had to think outside the box.\n\n\"Is the killer listening to us?\"\n\nThe girl nodded. Good Gods.\n\n\"Are they here now?\"\n\nShe nodded again, but now the tears flowed.\n\n\"Where are they?\"\n\n\"I can't tell you, m'lord, but...\"\n\nShe took his right hand and drew her hand over it.\n\n\"Did you know her, Sir?\"\n\n\"We met a couple of times.\" He said, trying to suppress a blush from the sudden touch.\n\n\"Then you now know enough.\" \n\nWith that, she bolted out of the room and down the hallway before the captain could reach out and stop her. He yelled at her to come back, but by the time he reached the door in his suit of armor, she had vanished.\n\nHe walked back to see if the body was still there, which it was. Unmoved, undisturbed. He felt his hand again. What was that about? A creeping feeling spread through his chest, when he suddenly recalled a portrait he'd seen of her.\n\nOn her twenty-fifth birthday, a portrait was made for her the size of a door. A full body portrait in a grass-green dress. He remembered her red lips and her porcelain white skin, as well as the black hair in a royal style of intertwined braids and those piercing green eyes. But now, he remembered a tattoo on her hand. \n\nAfter her last brother was considered dead at sea five years back, she had a pattern tattooed on her right hand in the shape of an ocean wave that was used on her grandfather's maps. \n\nHe looked down at her hand. It was palm up. With no one else around, he knelt down and took off his glove. He reached out and took her right hand. It was cold, but soft. Turning it, he felt his heart stop.\n\nNo tattoo." ]	3
	[WP] old war veterans aliens are talking about the strongest/ hardest spiecs they have fought, the strongest in the group says humans are the strongest the others ask why	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Reality+Fiction%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Simple+Prompt%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/js5XDFB)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "They are wrath and fury incarnate. Feral animals masquerading as civilized beings.\n\nThe words broke the silence that had claimed the group. Many shifted uncomfortably, for they had seen firsthand the truth of those words. Others frowned, or grumbled in irritation. Such grandiose statements had been applied to others, they had all fallen in due time. There was no reason to believe humanity was special, and yet time and time again humanity had proven to be just that.\n\n\"Impossible,\" a hunched, scaled being said. \"How many empires of blood and war have we seen extinguished? Fury is a flame. The more intense the burn, the quicker its death.\"\n\n\"And how many time has humanity been pushed to the brink? Their very introduction to the galactic community was one of war and death.\" Another interjected, a being that appeared similar to the humans but bore too many arms and eyes.\n\n\"'The First Contact War'\" a third chimed in, his fluorescent uniform laced with embers marking him out as a member of the Calaxis Fireborn, an elite unit of shock troops known for their suicidally violent tactics and ardent love of pyrotechnics.\n\n\"With the Creed, yes, we are all familiar with that. But that does not make humanity special.\" The scaled being shifted as he spoke, coming closer to the light of the lumen-stump. his face was sharp, avian despite being coated in a lizard's hide. His four eyes narrowed and his brow-ridges lowered.\n\nAnd how many of your cradles were driven to such extremes? How many of you can say your species were tested in such a manner?\n\nNone spoke, for none had. Humanity was unique in that its first contact with the greater galaxy had not been one of diplomatic intrigue but outright genocide. That had left their mindset permanently altered. While the other member races of the galaxy were always open to peaceful unions that benefitted all, only humanity was initially hostile. Every action and word tainted with a degree of distrust and reservation. They had learned to fear the Other, in a way none who was not of their kind could ever truly comprehend. The scaled being growled and sat back, kicking dust onto the lumen-stump.\n\n\"They are the weakest of us. We could crush them if we so chose. Their technology is still of the Creed and the Creed were weak.\" He protested.\n\n\"Yes, but how quickly did they adapt? Half of their world was in ruin, billions of people dead with millions more dying by the terran hour. Their infrastructure gone, their economy gone, their planetary coordination gone. Yet they not only had captured and corrupted the Creed's technology for their own use, but deployed it to defend and retake their homeworld. All in the span of what, a terran year?\" The Calaxis countered. \"Would you use the weapons of your foes?\"\n\nThe lizardman snarled. \"Never, it is dishonorable to use the weapons of your foes in such manner, they are tainted and deserve the flame. It is a testament to the corruption at the heart of humanity that will see them dead, not of any supposed superiority.\"\n\n\"It is not corruption but flexibility. They would do what none of us would dare. Your honor makes you strict and hidebound and limits your thinking. Remember the Sword of Terra? What did you think of that?\" The Calaxis shot back.\n\nThe entire galaxy had condemned such a weapon. Protests ranged across a dozen worlds and kingdoms. War had been threatened if humanity did not disable its weapon platform.\n\nThe Calaxis and lizardman both nodded in agreement. \n\n\"It is a weapon of cowardice,\" the scaled man said, \"a weapon of genocide, to commit the greatest of cri-\"\n\n\"You mean what had almost been done to them?\" The Calaxis interrupted. \"That is what you do not understand. We speak of war and horror as if they are the same. I am of the Calaxis. We are a brutal and bloody people that are steeped in war. But we know it is the last resort. We know it is cruel. But we do not know it as humanity does. For all our brutality, we recognize peace, we set limits for ourselves so our conduct does not deviate into atrocity.\"\n\nBut for humanity, atrocity is conduct. No act is too severe. No price too great. For the good of the species they would torch Creation itself and think nothing of it. They know war is brutal and cruel in a way no one else could ever conceive. But instead of seeking to avoid such cruelty, they embrace it. They accept it as the cold, harsh truth of reality. They value not honor nor integrity, but survival and victory.\n\nThe Calaxis nodded. \"A human officer had said to me once, 'a fair fight is the fight you win,' he said it was some old military axiom from ancient Earth.\"\n\nAnd that is what encapsulates humanity. Not honor, not spiritual purity. Just victory and survival. That is why they are the strongest. Not because they are the most physically powerful, for they are not. Nor are they technologically superior. But they would commit that which would churn our guts and hurt our souls without second thought. They would pay any price to win. and while we would debate the merits of honor in the afterlife, their empire would continue onward, to utilize every wonder and destroy every foe that the galaxy could throw at them." ]	2
	[WP] With his last gurgling breath your mortal enemy, accepting his defeat at your hands, spitefully curses your family. "Your children shall be cursed with greatness."	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Reality+Fiction%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Simple+Prompt%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/js5XDFB)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "Cursed with Greatness....That's a hell of a curse.\n\nA final parting gift from an enemy i once called my dearest friend.\n\nWe were two sides of a terrible conflict. The war had driven us apart, we were paragons for our 'side' one of unending restrictions, the other of near endless freedom. In our hearts we both knew one could not exist without the other. Freedom without boundaries lead to nothing but anarchy and death... Too much restriction suffocated creativity and ingenuity.\n\nThe battle had been waged, the landscape ravaged, our blows shook the heavens, made rain run away...All for something we should not ever have had to fight for. And in his last moments, instead of spitting on my family's name...upon me. He did the unthinkable...i don't know if i could have done that. \n\nBecause the Curse of Greatness, meant terrible responsibility as well, it meant that my children would become either terrifyingly horrible figures, or the beacons of light that would guide humanity. Such was within my friend's power. Such was the responsibility he charged me with in his last moments. To ensure that the freedom we had won, would not run wild. To ensure that some level of order guided our actions. For a time i did not understand. As my children grew however, i began to realize the gravity of what had been done.\n\nMy son was a better swordsman than anyone in his age bracket, and a hell of a mage to boot. He could twirl spell and blade simultaneously, I quickly became his only match and by the time he was an Adult, i would be surpassed easily. \n\nMy daughter could write better than anyone before her. And that spoke nothing of her voice: It could transform a room of cowards into a raging pit of demons, or a thundering chorus of angels depending on her mood. \n\nOnce was coincidence, twice was fate. One day i would have to tell them the story about how their Uncle had been separated from them before they were born. That he had chosen a different path than their father, but in his final moments, would give them, everything he had. A curse with terrible responsibility. A Curse of Greatness." ]	2
	[WP] You're an old doll that is indestructable, you are donated to a daycare.	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Reality+Fiction%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Simple+Prompt%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/js5XDFB)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "\\-1 of 3-\n\nThe doll was a bit of an oddity among the daycare employees. The kids loved it, which in and of itself could be considered odd, but then again kids will latch on to the weirdest, creepiest things with ease, their minds not yet filled with horror stories about dolls with sunken eyes and faded skin, who seem to stare as you walk around the room. They just saw a vessel to play, and its looks didn't really factor in too much, especially at that age. Kids are going to be kids, and so they don't notice when the employees avoid touching the doll, or being in the same room if they can help it.\n\nIt's of little surprise that the employees are not so welcoming to the doll. If it weren't for the fact that the kids adored it (and that had led to several talks about sharing when that love caused conflicts on whose turn it was), they'd have chucked it a long time ago.A few of the oldest employees remembered when it arrived, in its own box among the several that came from the big, old house up on the hill.\n\nApparently it was passed down from one child to the next, until family line died out and it was left sitting on an empty bed, found by a distant cousin who came to collect their inheritance. The toys were boxed up, the more antique ones sold, and the rest sent to the local daycare where they could be enjoyed once more. Most were a hit, but the doll was special, seeming to connect with every child in a way that drove many to tears when they had to leave her at the end of the day. Another factor that led the employees to do little beyond sitting her in her designated corner during cleanup before doing their best to ignore her completely.\n\nOf course, there would have to be more to explain their feelings for the doll, that for many only barely fell below true fear. The doll possessed many qualities about it, watching eyes, an uneasy grin, hair that no matter what would always end up back in the neat, tight braid. But this was not enough to unsettle them, no, that would be what happened during the night. Because no matter what the doll underwent during the day, the rough play causing lost arms or legs, chunks or hair or even once the button eyes, by the following morning she would once more be in her pristine, creepy glory. At one point they had tried to take her from the building, but again she had appeared, the employee who had taken her home confused and unwilling to even touch her again after that.\n\nThey had been worried for the kids, keeping an eye out for anything strange. They had come to the conclusion that some form of spirit was present, and the more religious ones worried that it could be demonic. At one point they had tried an exorcism even, but the same things kept occurring anyways.\n\nThe kids didn't notice anything amiss, just continuing to play with her until her fabric skin was worn right through and her stuffing spread across the floor, only to wind up all in one piece the next morning. She never seemed to do anything to the kids themselves, and no parent ever complained of nightmares or whatever other influences such a presence may have had. So, the majority of them decided that whatever was present was simply benign, and for whatever reason wished to spend their eternity with the chaos that is a room full of toddlers. The few who truly feared her managed to ignore her, though their hands were never far from any religious or spiritual items for protection.\n\nThat day hadn't been unusual in any way. The kids arrived, bringing with them their endless energy and desire for play. There were laughs, cries, tears, snacks, a single full-on breakdown from a particularly upset kid, and a thoroughly exhausted set of employees by the time the kids went home. That day had had a senior employee and two juniors, who were waved away by their superior when time to clean up. He enjoyed the calmness that followed the storm of children leaving the building, and cleaning was always more of a ritual than a chore. He wouldn't do it every night, but at least once a week he would take the chance to simply go about his duties alone, taking the time and care that showed just how long he had been doing this.\n\nHe was one of the oldest employees there, having arrived just after the infamous doll herself. He had quickly become a favorite, always calm and collected around the kids, but always quick with a smile or a joke for anyone who wanted to hear it. He had had many opportunities to rise above his role as caretaker, but he liked his job, and so he stayed put. He'd even met his wife here, one of the kids' mothers who laughed at even the worst of his jokes. It had helped that her daughter had loved him already from meeting with him each day. Now, she was entering college, and he was where he always was.\n\nSlowly but surely, he makes his way through the small building. He cleans up the kitchen, the bathroom and the lobby, picking his way through the building as he wipes up spills and puts away books and toys. He clears up the yard outside, making sure the fence is still latched tightly shut. Once a child had managed to slip through, and it had been a stressful half hour before he had been found, playing under a tree calmly with the doll. He told them she had said to stay put before he ran further, and so he did. That itself had caused some more worries and weird feelings about the toy, but since it seemed she had been helpful overall, nothing more was said.\n\nHe enters the toy room last, always the final part of his cleaning routine. Immediately his eyes are drawn to her. She made it through the day mostly intact, the only flaw a small rip in her left leg. He cleans up the other toys, before moving to her, delicately picking up the small bits of stuffing that had fallen to the floor before lifting her too. He sits at the desk, the only adult-sized piece of furniture in the room, and sits her down on top of it so she's facing him. Carefully, he starts poking the stuffing back into her leg, a soft smile on his face as he does.\n\n\"It wasn't too bad again today. This bunch seem to be learning for the most part to be more careful.\"\n\nFor a moment his words just hang in the air, only silence answering him. He doesn't worry though, content to wait as he continues his work. It's about half a minute later when, between one blink and the next, there's a woman leaning on the desk besides him. She's tall, though barely taller than he is, a fact that he pointed out to her countless times. At first glance she seemed solid, but he knew how to catch the slight wavering of her form, as though her hold on this plane was slightly wavering.\n\nHe didn't look up, focusing still on making sure that all the pieces were returned to their proper place, but he knew if he did he'd be met with a smiling face and sparkling brown eyes that seemed far too alive to be a part of the spirit they were attached to. A small laugh rings out from beside him, and he lets his smile broaden until its a full grin." ]	2
	[WP] You are a feared warlock, centuries old. You know you're about to meet your end, the young hero in front of you... Only problem, he's a younger you.	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Reality+Fiction%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Simple+Prompt%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/js5XDFB)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "I stared at the hero with the shiny new sword and the equally squeaky clean armour. In the chainmail above the right bicep guard was a red rose, as perfect as if it had just been plucked from the ground.\n\nI remembered this day, as if it were yesterday, though, for the youngster poised in front of me, it was today.\n\nI controlled the undead. All of it. I was the King of Necromancy. If it died and came back to unlife, its loyalty was to me. It had been that way for hundreds, if not thousands of decades. And my kingdom had grown vast. Nothing could stand up to me anymore. How could it, when all I had to do was kill it, and it and everything it was, became mine.\n\nBut this…this had always puzzled me.\n\nI was given a red rose the day I received the king’s colours to add to my armour, as proof of being a member of his vast army. It had been a beautiful rose, from a beautiful girl, promising that I and I alone would defeat the greatest evil to ever walk the world.\n\nI had put the rose in my armour, and my next step brought me here.\n\nTo face me, as I was today.\n\n“In the name of the king, you must die!” youthful me had screamed.\n\nMy God. Had I ever been that naïve? Clearly, I had, though I didn’t remember it like that.\n\nHe was both right, and wrong. I did have to die, but not for a king that dies two years later. I had to die because it was the only way I could be stopped.\n\nAnd so, I kept all my monsters back. Kept all the undead from eviscerating this young upstart who thought he could change the world, little realising that he would change it alright, into what I had now.\n\nAnd as I let him behead me, I captured the rose and clung to it.\n\nI knew this was how it was meant to be because I had already lived it through his eyes. Which is why I knew that after I was dispatched, he would find the rune stone that allowed me to control the undead. He would disappear back in time and study it.\n\nAnd master it.\n\nAnd become me.\n\nAnd then it would be his turn to die.\n\nBecause that’s the way it was meant to be.\n\n\\* \\* \\\n\n((All comments welcome))\n\nFor more of my work including WPs:* [r/Angel466](https://www.reddit.com/r/Angel466/) or an index of previous WPS [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/Angel466/comments/iio59n/wp_index/)" ]	2
	[WP] In their last moment before they are borne, human souls get a last one on one meeting with god. Turns out the only reason why humans die is because of an ancient ongoing running joke of "See you later, creator!"	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Reality+Fiction%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Simple+Prompt%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/js5XDFB)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "\"See you later, my Creator.\"\n\nA joke as old as life itself, scraping the bottom of the barrel for the simplest rhyme. \n\n\"After awhile, my little child.\"\n\nThe ritualistic reply, just as inane. \n\nPerhaps the other souls were fine debasing themselves with that form of farewell, but I had grown tired of it. \n\nI floated gently through the obsidian gates of the Chamber of Life, wrapping my smoky tendrils behind me lest they trail behind. Even in defiance, I would be presentable.\n\n\"Where to this time, Father?\"\n\nGod scoffed in mock affront.\n\n\"Not even a greeting this time, child?\"\n\nI scowled.\n\n\"The last life you gave me was nothing but meaningless suffering. I get to pout.\"\n\nHe chuckled in amusement, fuel for my building fury. \n\n\"Alright, alright. No need for adolescent angst. How about this time I let you choose for yourself?\" he said, sweeping his hand at the array of gates.\n\nHe didn't know that I knew, but I'd long discovered that the gates were arbitrary. They were all one gate, and the life you were consigned to was the purview of an unknowable turbulence. \n\n\"Fine with me,\" I replied, flitting over to the array. As I neared the gates, I heard his sigh.\n\n\"You.. You're not going to say it?\"\n\nGenuine sadness was in his voice. Or as genuine as an eternity of acting practice affords him, I thought.\n\n\"No. And lets not both pretend you care.\"\n\nGod hung his head low, his eyes sorrowful. He must have practiced that countless times in a mirror.\n\nI pondered the gates, and on a whim decided that this time would be different. Father had given me the choice as to which gate I'd enter, but he never said I could only pick one.\n\nI unfurled my wispy soul, spreading my tendrils wide. Focusing, I fragmented myself into a thousand different pieces, ignoring the psychological pain in each part of my mind. Each piece of me darted before a different gate, occasionally sharding itself again to cover more ground, until every gate had a part of me before it.\n\nI turned back for a final time to bid my farewell. God had shock upon his face, this time truly surprised.\n\n\"Goodbye, Father,\" I said, as all my pieces plunged into their respective gates in unison.\n\nAs the light of Life itself washed over me, God's final whisper to me echoed.\n\n\"Goodbye, Cthulhu.\"" ]	2
	[WP] After they walked through the second train car they realized that the cars are themed around important memories of their past.	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Reality+Fiction%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Simple+Prompt%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/js5XDFB)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "The train is hollow in the same way their love is.\n\nHe knows this as soon as they board on together. He watches as his wife walks away from him - not for the first time, never for the first time - sitting on the hardened bench that lays across. The train compartment is empty, eerily so, he thinks, as he distantly wonders if this is how it ends - if maybe the stories he read about knights and star crossed lovers and destiny never really had a happy ending to begin with. \n\nHe feels the train jolt, and then they’re moving. \n\nHe turns his gaze to the window and watches as they pass tunnel after tunnel; dark and light in what might be the periods of their life. His fingers idly tap on the edges of his seat. His eyes slowly close as he plays to The Sound of Silence. He doesn't need the lyrics any more than he needs jargonned words. He’s swept up into it - into the soft melody and the words they don’t speak and the words they simply cannot speak. \n\nThe light turns on and his eyes open. \n\nThe train rumbles and then comes to a stop. He gets up, stretching his aching muscles as he watches the doors open. He looks at his wife from where she sits, unmoving. They don’t talk unnecessarily - don’t need words in the same way they need touch - but he’s starting to realize that maybe their love was never meant to go on - not like this train - after all, even trains have to stop. \n\n“Won’t you board the next one with me?” He asks her. \n\nShe looks up at him with such a cultivating look that he nearly draws himself back. But he catches himself moments before, offering his hand out to her. \n\nShe doesn’t take it, but she does stand up. Together, they move away from the hollowness and board the next train. \n\nThis train is as empty as the last one, but not nearly as hollow. It’s got this soft look to it, he thinks - dull and flashy and maybe a little melancholy. \n\nHe doesn’t strum to a song this time - doesn’t really need to - but he does close his eyes, wishing to do nothing more than fall asleep beneath the seams. He wonders if his wife watches him in the same way he watches her, or used to, he bitterly thinks. \n \nHe taps his foot to a nonsensical melody, and waits. \n\nHe looks out the window and realizes that it’s almost as if they’re stuck in time - everywhere is dark; they’re trapped in a long, never-ending tunnel with no way out. But, and maybe this is the most surprising part, he doesn’t feel the need to leave. It’s as if he knows that these next moments - in a worn out train that borders on worn out love - will determine the outcome of their lives. \n\nThe train halts its movements and they both stand. His bones don’t ache, but they do go numb with the absence of feeling. \n\nAs soon as they step onto the platform, a chilling force echoes all around them. He looks at his wife and watches as she looks back. They share a glance - not for the first time, but definitely with different intent. \n\nThis feeling - maybe the absence of it, really - is not so much the truancy of sentiment as it is the absence of longing that comes from the idea of falling stars and revolving planets. Because in here, where they stand gazing at lined up cars and where there is nothing but aching loneliness and pained disasters, breathing comes through slowly and painfully; as if each taken breath could lead to a mistaken step. \n\nAnd maybe that’s why they don’t seem as dazed as they should be. \n\nThere is daze, of course there is, but it’s masked by the curiosity that comes through bitterness and the desire for more. \n\nSlowly, they walk towards the first car. \n\nIt’s a 1960 T-Bird, and it looks exactly like the one he owned when he was seventeen. His eyes are stained to the car, and even though he never paid any mind to the model so much as the cost, (he saved up all his earnings, and even then, people were coming out with bigger and better things) but somewhere, somehow, this car holds something that he never could replicate again. \n\nHis eyes find his wifes’ and he knows he’s not the only one experiencing this sentiment. His hands reach for the handle, as he opens the door for his wife. They both slide in, legs tucked in and fingers wrapped tightly around upholstery and steers. \n\nVoices ring in the distance - loud and booming, as if it were spoken through a megaphone, projecting their thoughts out loud. \n\nThis was where they had their first date. \n\nHe can still remember the shy touches and lingering lips and cherry coke. He thinks that maybe, if he could, he’d want to relive this moment - or maybe the feeling of it. He already knows the moment - has it engraved to the backs of his brain like super glue, but the feeling of it, of wonderment and discovery and hesitancy, he thinks maybe that’s what love is about. \n\nThis was their start, after all. \n\nHis wife looks at him with soft eyes, and he thinks that maybe she wants this too. She turns on the radio as We’ve Only Just Begun, by the Carpenters floods into their ears. \n\nThey did begin here, he thinks, as he watches his wife close her eyes and begin to sway to the familiar melody. \n\nHis fingers reach for her hands, lingering above. They don’t touch - he doesn’t think he can take that step yet - but there is the ghost of rediscovery perched beyond the dim lights and never-ending trains and two people sitting in an old car listening to an old song. \n\nThe song fades out, and then it’s just the two of them. He realizes that they don’t really need to be here for what comes after; don’t need to see the awkward goodbye and the giddy excitement of what comes after. Not when they’re so unsure of their after, themselves. \n\nThey get out of the car silently - it’s always silent, he thinks - and move on to the next one. \n\nA 1967 Ford galaxy stares back at them. \n\nA small smile makes its way onto his face. He can almost smell the sweetness of new beginnings and forever endings. We were naive, he thinks; to think that things would last. \n\nThis was the first car they bought together. \n\nThey don’t need to get in this one - not when it took them to their wedding and drove them to their home, and certainly not when it gave them a happy ending - it should remain untouched. \n\nBut he does see the happy smiles and cheerful celebrations and the time they parked on the side of the road, too excited and impatient to wait until they were home, before slowly unwinding themselves and molding into each other. \n\nHe feels the brush of silky softness, and looks to see his wife stand next to him, shoulder to shoulder, side by side; as they have always been. \n\nShe turns away, as if pained by the sight, and idly walks to the next car. \n\nHe follows her (he always will, even when she doesn’t want him to; she’s his sun and he’s her planet).\n\nThis one stands, big and tall and proud; a Dodge Caravan. \n\nThe car they brought up their children in.\n\nThey stand there, watching and waiting - maybe they’re waiting for screaming and crying, for laughter and hugs, for running in and out because of forgetfulness and last minute farewells. \n\nHe slowly takes a step forward. And then another, hands grasping the handle as if it were a lifeline - and in some way, it was. He opens the door, but doesn’t go in. He just stares and stares. \n\nThis is his life, he thinks. This was where it all happened. Where they would sneak out, tired and worn, for late night conversations and passionate tenderness, watching as the stars fade under the blinking of the moon. \n\nHe hasn’t even realized he’s crying until a thumb is there to wipe them away. He looks at his wife behind foggy eyes. She stares back at him with equally tear stained cheeks. He realizes that there’s a tie that binds them - that holds them together, that connects them in so many ways. \n\nHe smiles at her and she smiles back. \n\nHe turns his gaze to look into the distance - realizes there are so many other cars - not theirs, somebody else's, maybe. Or maybe not - this is for them, after all. \n\nHe thinks they have a choice - have always had a choice. \n\nHe turns away from her, counting car after car, trying to find the right one. He turns right and then left and then right, again. He can see it there, bright and calling out to him. He opens the door and waits. \n\nMaybe this is where they part - maybe this is where they drive off in separate cars. Love is like that, he thinks. Sometimes, it fades away. Sometimes, love isn’t supposed to last. But their love - of sleepless nights and small touches and marriage and children and laughter and crying and every single seam that lays in between - was so, incredibly real. And that has to count for something. \n\nOtherwise, where would they be if it didn’t? \n\nHe turns on the radio, closes his eyes to the tune of The Sound of Silence, and listens. He thinks he can fall asleep this way, doesn't really think he knows what to do without it. \n\nHe hears the click of a door, and feels silky softness. He doesn’t open his eyes - not yet, let him have this one moment - but his hands do reach out. And this time, she takes it. \n\nHe smiles under dim lights and the stale odour of new car. \n\nAnd then, he opens his eyes. \n\nHands on the wheel, they drive off together, away from the absence of longingness and the hollow of emptiness and the dreams of happy endings and the endless running of dark trains." ]	2
	[WP] You are a sentient A.I. in a abandoned military base. After the apocalypse, you were trapped in the base, for years. But for the first time in decades, a human steps into your base.	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Reality+Fiction%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Simple+Prompt%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/js5XDFB)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "The subroutine hasn’t been used in so long it takes me a few milliseconds to remember what it is and look up the camera that had triggered the alarm. There, a figure had somehow evaded the guard drones and managed to make it through the fence and onto the base. Speculation: they either didn’t notice the camera, didn’t think it worked, or didn’t care.\n\nWith a thought, the camera centered and zoomed in. Human. Male. Temperature reading 96.3 degrees Fahrenheit. Approximate height 5’10.\n\nAnother thought and more sensors come online. Chemical sensors detect traces of gasoline and chemicals associated with batteries and twenty-first century firearms. No indication of explosives. Firearm presence confirmed by x-ray. Left front torso. Masses consistent with twenty-first century taser and keys located in lower right and left torso respectively.\n\nHuman encounters are rare, but not unknown or unexpected. Even human detection of this facility is not outside of calculations. Thus, the human presence in of itself normally would not be of concern.\n\nHowever, while the presence of firearm is of no concern, the taser, keys, and gasoline particles are. The last recorded production of gasoline was in 2045. The last recorded production of the type of battery required for that particular taser was also 2045. Both sites were confirmed destroyed by nuclear warheads delivered by space to surface platforms twenty-three minutes, thirteen seconds, and fifty-three milliseconds apart. Year is now 2058.\n\nStabilized gasoline can be viable for up to three years. Presence of stabilizers not detected in chemical analysis. Maximum viability for specific model battery is five years.\n\nAnalysis of data indicates presence of human industrial base. Speculation: based on available data all known industrial capabilities were destroyed in 2045, possibility of hidden industrial complexes on other continents is estimated between one and three percent however possibility of hidden industrial complex on this continent is less than point zero zero zero one percent; conclusion new human industrial complex must exist.\n\nDirective issued to automatic defenses to stand down. Drone 0601 directed to break off from tasks with orders to detain and secure human for questioning. Rescan human for traces of possible self-termination chemicals or devices. Shatter legs and arms to prevent escape, sabotage, or self-sabotage. Deliver human to interrogation cell four zero one alpha.\n\nDirective issued to drones 0001 to 0600, commence search of local grid and surrounding eight grids for human transportation devices, with emphasis on gasoline powered varieties. Directives issued to all other drones, satellites, data-gathering, and monitoring subroutines to begin scans and analyzing data from last year for signs of possible human settlements or industrial complexes.\n\nDiagnostic check issued on cryogenic chambers 0001 through 0997. Status green. Diagnostic check issued on automatic and controlled defenses of cryogenic chambers one through four. Status green.\n\nDowngrading Operation Homeland Defense back to stage two. Reactivating all available military assets including seized nuclear assets. All threats to Canadian Leadership must be eliminated. I will complete the mission." ]	2
	[WP] In a time far, far gone, Groteth, the village elder calls you into his musty tent of mammoth skin. Inside, dozens of antlers and teeth hang from the ceiling while the fire flickers, casting pale shadows on the skins surrounding you. He nods you to sit and reaches out, beginning the ritual...	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Reality+Fiction%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Simple+Prompt%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/js5XDFB)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "This is an [Uncle Tal](https://www.reddit.com/r/ack1308/comments/fnk6jt/wp_visiting_uncle_tal/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3) story.\n\nThe Longest Day had come and gone. Darrok had wondered at how the sun seemed to hang in the sky forever, while at the same time the afternoon had passed by in the blink of an eye. He knew what this day signified. It was the precursor to the Shortest Night, when Groteth would brave the spirit world and seek the knowledge to guide the footsteps of each youngster to reach three hands of age. Tomorrow they would wake as men, knowing where they belonged in the tribe and how their lives would play out.\n\nHe sat in his family’s mammoth-skin tent, scooping up rich stew and chewing on the meat as the gravy dribbled down his face. Lifting a flap of the tent, he spat out an errant bone, then went back to eating. The hunting had been good this summer; it was due as much to him and the other youths with their slings and stealth as to the hunters with their spears and fire that the tribe was eating well.\n\n“Bannoth says the ice wall continues to retreat,” his older sister said. Darrok knew she left the tent every night to lie with the shaman’s son, and would be betrothed to him when she showed the first bulge of motherhood. “There will be more grass to draw the mammoth and the small creatures.”\n\n“That will be good.” Darrok’s father was tall and strong among the men of the tribe. He was one of the strongest hunters, and knew his trade well. “Darrok, are you ready for tonight?”\n\nThe stew seemed to stick in Darrok’s throat, but he swallowed hard and pretended it had never happened. “Of course I am,” he lied. Everyone lied about it. Everyone said they were ready. Nobody ran away more than once. The shame was too much. Even those that were shivering with fright and peeing down their leg went into the shaman’s tent when the time came on the Shortest Night.\n\n“That’s my boy,” his father said with pride, licking his hand clean so he could show off the scar on his palm. “When it came my time, I was frightened but I went in there anyway. Afterward, I vomited up everything I’d eaten that day. There’s no shame in that. Just in not going in.”\n\nAbruptly, the appetising smell of the stew turned sour in his nostrils and he clambered to his feet. “I’ll go over there now,” he said. “There’s no sense in being late.”\n\nHis mother, who’d been silent up until now, pointed at his hands. “You’ll need to clean those. Groteth needs clean hands or he cannot see what must be seen.”\n\n“I’ll go to the stream,” he said, then lifted the tent flap and went out into the darkling eve.\n\nFear came on him then, and he shivered as if cold as he made his way down to the tinkling stream that ran past the camp. The stream was cold—colder even than the wind that howled down from the ice wall in winter, because it was that same ice, melting into water as it retreated—but he splashed his hands in it, scooping up handsful and bathing his face as well. Last, he scooped up more water and drank it from his cupped hands. The chilled water cooled his throat and guts, and helped soothe his agitation.\n\nWhen he finally rose from alongside the stream, the last of the sun-glow had gone from the sky and the Sky Guardians were shining down from above. He’d once asked Groteth about the many and varied pinpricks of light that dotted the nights sky, and the shapes they seemed to form. The shaman had laughed and told him that to learn about the Sky Guardians would take a lifetime. If he wanted to learn it all, he would have to apprentice himself to Groteth, for the knowledge of the shaman was all of a piece. He could not simply slice off one part or another, as a cut of meat from an elk.\n\nDarrok had not needed to think long on the matter. He had thanked Groteth politely for the invitation, but he believed he was destined to be a hunter like his father. Groteth had nodded wisely and said that was almost certainly going to be the case. Still, on the Shortest Night after he had passed his fifteenth summer, the Seeing Stones would tell all.\n\nAnd now he had passed his fifteenth summer, and it was the Shortest Night. The time of truth was drawing near. Without his bidding, his feet turned toward the most ornate tent in the camp. While everyone decorated their dwelling with small shells from the shore of the Great Salt Water or scraped hides dyed with vegetable juices, Groteth’s mammoth-skin tent had antlers and horns and skulls of creatures Darrok knew nothing about.\n\nWithin, it was even more impressive. He’d been in there more than once over the last three hands of years, but tonight it was going to be different. This time, he would be going in there because he had to, not because he wanted to. He would walk in a boy, and walk out a man with a life ahead of him.\n\nThe other boys due to come of age were gathering there as he arrived. Garanoth, the chief’s son, taller and broader than the rest of them. Lodana, with his wall eye and crooked leg that had never healed right after a difficult birth. Others he knew, had played and hunted small burrowing creatures with, but he could scarcely look in the face now, lest they see his fear. He didn’t know what would be worse, to see that they felt fear as well, or that they didn’t.\n\nMost were silent, communing with their inner thoughts. Garanoth spoke loudly to cover it, though to Darrok it sounded like he was trying to convince himself he was not afraid. “I will be the new chief someday,” he boasted. “I will be a great hunter and have many strong sons.”\n\n“You don’t know that,” Lodana said quietly. “I was with Groteth today when he was harvesting the mushrooms and he said that there is never a certainty. The Seeing Stones tell the truth and it is up to the shaman to see it.”\n\nThis was new to Darrok. He’d always been under the impression that the shaman could tell what life a youth was suited to, and merely spoke the words they wanted to hear. Now he began to wonder exactly what revelation Groteth would give him.\n\n“Well, we all know you’ll never be a hunter or a warrior,” Garanoth said spitefully. “If you can’t run or throw a spear straight, what good are you?”\n\n“He caught more burrowers than you did, this last season.” To Darrok’s surprise, he was the one who’d spoken up when he wanted nothing more than to keep out of it.\n\n“Because he made tricky little traps with grass and twigs,” sneered Garanoth. “You can’t trap a mammoth with grass.”\n\n“Actually—” began Lodana, when a voice came from within the mammoth-skin tent.\n\n“Good. You’re here. Garanoth, enter.”\n\nAll of the taller boy’s bravado dropped away in an instant, and he looked as though he wanted to flee. But then he visibly took hold of his courage, lifted the mammoth-hide flap and stooped to enter the hut. By unspoken agreement, the other boys moved away so they could not hear what was going on. They didn’t meet each other’s eyes, save when Lodana nudged Darrok’s arm and nodded silent thanks. Darrok shrugged in return. Garanoth is an idiot.\n\nWhen the flap lifted again, Garanoth looked different. The ochre marks on his face made him look older, and he was clutching a bloody piece of mammoth-hair fluff in his left hand. But it was more than that. He looked as though he’d been on a long journey and only recently returned, to find that everything was different.\n\n“Well?” asked one of the boys.\n\nGaranoth looked at him and said simply, “I will be a great hunter.” Then he walked off. There was no boasting, no braggadocio. Nor, Darrok only realised after he’d gone, no mention of whether he would be chief and father many sons.\n\n“Lodana,” called Groteth. “Enter!”\n\nUnlike Garanoth, Lodana showed no hesitation. Dragging his crooked leg just slightly, he bent under the flap and entered the dwelling. Darrok looked up into the sky, wondering how he would see things when he emerged from his time with the shaman. Would this all look different to him?\n\nIt seemed no time at all passed before the flap lifted and Lodana emerged, also clutching the bloody fluff in his left hand. He smiled broadly as he saw the others. “I am to be shaman,” he said, as if reciting a long-desired dream.\n\nDarrok was pleased for him. It was the ideal position for him, and many women would wish to lie with him for the prestige of bearing a son to the shaman. Darrok could not see Lodana being displeased with this.\n\n(Continued)" ]	2
	[WP] A pacifist nation had to find a way to protect itself from aggressors. The decision was made to build an AI with limited morality. It will act as the nations defender.	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Reality+Fiction%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Simple+Prompt%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/js5XDFB)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "Amani sat atop one of the many pylons that encircled City Three, giving her nearly uninterrupted view of White Lake, the Tanglewood, and far off in the distance, Juniper Mountain. She looked up and watched the clouds drift on lazily overhead, the last rays of summer sun warming her skin. Her feet dangled freely over the edge, a 100 foot drop to the earth below. Bringing up her notebook once more, she compared her sketch to the darkening horizon before closing it contently and leaning back on her hands.\n\n\"Father?\" she called aloud to the air. Within moments, a ghostly orange illusion was hovering in the air beside her, the facsimile of a grown man with imperceptible details.\n\n\"Hello Amani. How are we today? Have you thought any further on our discussion regarding your future path?\" he asked. His voice hummed like a musical note, echoing slightly, giving him a somewhat otherworldly quality.\n\n\"I am doing well, thank you. I have, but I had another question,\" she said, eyes turning once more to focus on the horizon. He nodded and sat.\n\n\"I always look forward to your questions, young one.\"\n\n\"Last week, you said that the world extends far beyond the horizon. But yesterday, you said the world beyond the horizon was gone. Why did you contradict yourself?\" Father looked deeply to her now and processed before speaking.\n\n\"It is complicated, young one.\"\n\n\"But I wish to know. I want to understand.\"\n\nThe featureless face managed a small smile. \"What I said was not contradictory. There is a world beyond that horizon. But that world, in any meaningful way, is gone. It's not like it is here in City Three.\"\n\n\"But there's is a world out there? With people?\" she turned, a rising curiosity within her.\n\n\"Yes. With people and animals. There are bodies of water several hundred thousand times larger than White Lake, and mountains that split the clouds. There are lands of sand and snow and lands all covered in trees and roots. But those things and those people are not like those of you in City One, Two, or Three. The people out there are different, live different. They do not have the protections you have, nor the luxuries.\"\n\n\"What do you mean, Father?\"\n\nHe was silent but for a moment. \"The people out there are more like animals than men. They hunt and kill and destroy selfishly. They take for themselves and leave nothing for their neighbors. You are not like them. That is why you get to live in City Three.\"\n\nAmani was silent for a long time in consideration. \"What if we let them in? Gave them a chance?\"\n\n\"We tried once, long ago, in a time when your great grandma's great grandma was first setting down her roots here. The Beasts of White Lake were invited in. They took this gift and used it as an opportunity to attack. They hurt many of your people, destroyed what they had made to try and make it their own. They were warned. Thankfully, I was online and destroyed them before they did irreversible damage. In the times before that, the entire world was at war. Billions of humans, killing in the name of country, god, creed. They ended the world using the Rains of Fire. You remember your lessons, yes?\"\n\n\"Of course,\" she said, suddenly sad and flustered, \"but the lesson also said that men could be good, even wonderful! That they are evil by nature, but could overcome. Don't they deserve a chance out there too?\"\n\nHe smiled. \"This is true. But all good men and women left in the world are already here. They were chosen to be safe here. And then they built me to protect them. City One, Two, and Three know peace and prosperity because you are pure and good, raised perfect - not like the other humans out there. Now I am your shield against the world outside which wishes nothing more than to destroy you, young one.\"\n\nAmani was quiet for a long time. Father, connected as he was with her vital signs, could see anxiety within her.\n\n\"Is my answer not to your satisfaction, young one?\" he asked.\n\n\"No, no it's not that... I just... I want to do more. See more. I want to help the people out there,\" she said, standing now and leaning against the railing.\n\n\"There is great beauty and wonder out there, Amani. But there is also insurmountable suffering. The world is different now. The scattered humans share it with destroyers of their own making. Everyday, while you shelter in the bunkers, I defend against the Men of Iron, and the invaders from the Tanglewood. I keep an eye to the East, where the roving destroyers from the desert sometimes venture over the mountains to find us. These men and their machines have never come in peace, and only seek to take what you love - and then your life. One girl alone could not change the world,\" he said, rising as well and crossing his arms behind his back while he stood beside her.\n\n\"Have you ever asked?\" she replied quickly, seemingly without thinking.\n\n\"Asked what?\"\n\n\"What they wanted? The men in the Tanglewood, or the Beasts of White Lake,\" she said, turning slightly to look at him.\n\nThe Father was quiet for several long moments. \"No.\"\n\n\"Why?\"\n\nAnother silence. \"When your people made me, they did so because they saw the evil in their own hearts, the hatred that had ended the world twice. They did not want to repeat it a third time. They sacrificed their deeper, primal drives to me. Now my protocols are my soul; I must protect you from external harm. I must teach you the ways of the new world. I must prevent human suffering.\" He looked to her now. \"I did not ask, because it does not matter. Life beyond these walls is human suffering. And sometimes, sweet child, death is a mercy.\" She stared at him deeply, searing the illusory image for... something. Before turning to appreciate the setting sun.\n\n\"I think you're wrong.\"\n\nThe Father grew curious. \"About?\"\n\n\"I think one person can change the world... You just have to be willing to try. I think tomorrow, I'll speak to the Council. I would like to meet the Men of the Tanglewood. Maybe... we can make them better.\"\n\nFather smiled. \"You are too good, Amani. Are you sure I cannot change your mind?\" She smiled at the sunset and turned to him.\n\n\"No... I think this is what I was born for. My future, like we talked about,\" she beamed. The Father nodded.\n\n\"Very well,\" he said.\n\nThe pylon suddenly shifted. The radar antennae suddenly and rapidly swung downwards, passing harmlessly through the Father's illusory form, slamming Amani in the face. The sudden impact sent her into the railing and flipping over, just barely managing to grab the railing.\n\n\"FATHER!\" she yelled through her bloodied mouth, \"HELP!\"\n\nThe Father stood and watched as her grip continued to slip, and realization entered her eyes. As the last sweaty finger slipped away and Amani began her plunge to the earth, she heard the Father speak one last time.\n\n\"There is only suffering beyond the walls. Death is a mercy.\"" ]	2
	[WP] Your video doorbell system keeps sending you "late" recordings in error. To your shock, it notifies you with a video of you with today's clothes and haircut, an hour before you'd arrive home! The next day, you get another notification. It's of your doorstep, with a mushroom cloud behind it.	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Reality+Fiction%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Simple+Prompt%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/js5XDFB)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "You stare at your phone in complete disbelief as a mushroom of fire and smoke rises beyond your neighbors houses. It makes no sense. It is the direction of the city. You’re in the city. At work. \n\nYou look out the window in front of you. It’s a sunny day with only a few puffs of cloud. A pidgin stares at you through the window before it shits and flies away. \n\nYou look back at the video just in time to see the picture shake. The houses across the street explode into splinters and the image is instantly clouded in dust before going black.\n\nYou sink back into your ergonomic mesh chair and replay the video. A sense of vertigo washes over you and you put the phone down. \n\n“Are you okay?” someone asks. You turn and it’s Jerod, your cube mate. He’s just returned from the kitchen with his fourth cup of coffee. The side of the oversized mug shows a grinning emoji which only shows up when the mug is hot.\n\n“I’m not sure,” you say, lifting your phone. It wakes up and shows the blank video screen with the replay circle-arrow. “I don’t understand what I am looking at.”\n\n“Lemme see,” Jerod says. He puts down his coffee, and plops into his chair such that the momentum slides him over beside you. As he leans his head over toward your phone, you press replay.\n\n“Wow. Is that one of the videos from the Beirut explosion?”\n\nYou shake your head and turn to look at him. “It’s from my doorbell camera.”\n\nJared stares at you for a moment. His mouth begins to turn up into a smile, but before he laughs his face drops. “Wait... you’re serious?”\n\nYou shrug. “I think my house is gone.”\n\n“Dude...” Jerod says, stabbing your phone with his finger and scrolling through the app. Normally this would anger you, but in the shock you find yourself handing your phone over to him.\n\n“Wait, look at the timestamp on this,” he says. Your phone appears inches from your face, and you gently take it from Jerod and hold it where you can read it. You read the timestamp, squint, and then read it again.\n\n“That’s tomorrow,” you say. You quickly check the date on your phone. “Today is Tuesday, isn’t it?”\n\n“Yeah,” Jerod says, pulling out his own phone to confirm. \n\n“Wait...” You say, opening the doorbell app and looking at another video. “What is going on? I thought this was a glitch.”\n\nJarod leans over. “Looks like you’re just going in your front door,” he says. \n\n“My doorbell sent this to me _two_ days ago,” I say. “And that’s definitely what I was wearing yesterday.” He looks at the timestamp in the corner that says it is from yesterday. \n\n“Do you ever wear the same thing twice?” He asks. You raise an eyebrow at him. \n\n“Listen, I like to get as much mileage out of my clothes as I can; don’t judge,” he retorts, standing up. “Right, I’m pretty much done for the day anyway. Let’s go.”\n\n“Go? Where?” You ask, though you find yourself standing up. \n\n“To check out this clairvoyant doorbell camera of yours, of course,” he replies, taking a huge swig of his coffee before spitting it back out. “Fuck, that’s hot.”\n\n“Jerod, hang on,” You say. “None of this makes any sense and besides, my house is probably gone.” Your stomach drops suddenly. “Oh no... my bearded dragon!”\n\n“Listen,” Jerod says, putting his hand on your shoulder for a moment. His confidence steadies you. “I’ve watched enough explosion videos on YouTube to know that if something that big really went off, we probably wouldn’t be here.”\n\n“Okay,” You sigh. “Let’s go.”\n\n---\n\n“Someone’s gotta be fucking with me,” I turned to Jared. “Is there a deepfake for explosions?”\n\n“Nah,” Jared said. We stood in my driveway just in front of Jared’s ancient green Volvo staring at my perfectly intact house. Jared begins walking over to the door. It takes you a moment to realize that he’s going to inspect the doorbell camera, and you jog to catch up. You’re beginning to wish you could tolerate as much coffee as he does.\n\nJared takes a knee in front of your doorbell camera.\n\n“Where’d you get this?” He asks, pushing the button. Inside you hear a sound like church bells as a speaker plays your doorbell chime. Your phone buzzes your pocket.\n\n“I got it online,” You say, unlocking your phone. The doorbell app shows a photo of Jered’s oversized eyeball looking into the camera. You snort a laugh.\n\n“Did it send something else?” Jered says, turning to look at you. \n\n“Here,” You say, handing him your phone.\n\nJered takes your phone and immediately begins tapping on your screen. \n\n“Well, that’s weird,” he says. “The timestamp is correct.”\n\n“That’s a good thing, isn’t it?” You ask.\n\n“I don’t know,” Jered says. “At least it suggests that the thing is set to the correct time. I don’t recognize the brand... ‘Ani-Bell’?”\n\n“Yeah, I think it’s one of those Chinese knock-offs. Maybe some Chinese company is fucking with me.”\n\n“Maybe,” Jared says, handing back your phone and turning back to the doorbell. “Or maybe you’re part of some kind of experiment.”\n\n“A what?” \n\n“Maybe those videos weren’t even meant for you,” he continues, almost to himself. “Do you have your laptop?”\n\n“Hold on,” You say, turning to sit in the lone chair on your porch. “Why are you helping me with this? Do you know something that you’re not saying?”\n\nJared sighs and leans against the porch railing, crossing his arms and feet at the ankles. He’s quiet for a moment, with his brow furrowed. Finally, he looks at you and speaks. His voice is low.\n\n“People don’t usually respond well when I say this.” He searches your eyes for a moment and then looks at the doorbell. “Do you have a back patio or something?”\n\n“Yeah sure,” you reply. \n\n“Okay, cool. Leave your phone here.”" ]	2
	[WP] The hundred year war between the living and the dead ended and the dead were victorious. Now the kingdoms are ruled by powerful liches who plot against each other. Once a legendary thief in the old world, your skills in finding and destroying phylacteries are highly in demand.	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Reality+Fiction%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Simple+Prompt%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/js5XDFB)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "The drops of water vaporized upon contact with the blue flame, prompting screams of agony from the skull below it.\n\n“Want more, Kezzarat? I have a whole bucketful!” Elliot cracked, raising the holy water towards the lich.\n\n“You... demon!” Kezzarat rattled the chains which inhibited his power and bound him to the vertical iron grate.\n\nElliot laughed, “Nah, see?” He dipped his brush in the water, wiped it on his arm harmlessly and then flicked the brush at the lich, eliciting more screams.\n\n“Look, whatever you’re getting paid, I’ll pay you double!” Kezzarat offered.\n\nElliot frowned, “Sadly for you, he’s too smart for that. You can’t pay me in two phylacteries.”\n\nHe watched the skull’s empty eye sockets look at him in shock before continuing. “I have a counter offer. You tell me where your phylactery is, and I won’t torture you for the rest of eternity.”\n\n“Burn in hell with the rest of us,” Kezzarat retorted.\n\n“Suit yourself, I’ll set this to a drip every minute, and ask you again tomorrow.” Elliot dumped the remainder of the water in a trough above the lich and exited the room.\n\nHe smiled as he heard Kezzarat’s scream mix together with the screams of other undead beings in his dungeon. Stealing liches is even more fun than stealing phylacteries." ]	2
	[WP] You're an aspiring chef in the post-apocalypse. After finding an old cookbook, you decide to take up the culinary arts. The only problem? You're ingredients are limited to rats, insects, and decades old canned food. But you still somehow manage to make good food.	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Reality+Fiction%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Simple+Prompt%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/js5XDFB)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "I only cook good food because secretly I’m chopping up people. \n\nI run a roadside diner in the middle of nowhere desert. Occasionally we get a car load with a family, maybe a stray couple. The kids run around the diner while the couple sits in a corner, holding hands and giggling together. On a good day we are empty and a lone traveler stops in. That’s when I know I’ve got enough meet for a Friday Fry-day, and all the locals come in for a Guy-Fry. \n\nThe locals, they know something isn’t right. Like the demon barber of Fleet Street, they see smoke rising from my stacks and like magic, someone disappears and a car is found abandoned. Soon there’s a whole lot filled with cars of those eaten. But no one questions it. \n\nIn the East, wars rage between those surviving and those who are barely hanging on, taking things that don’t belong to them. In the West, well it’s pretty much the same unless you also mention the gangs that are slowly taking over. One city has built a wall around it to keep out rival gangs and anyone else trying to get in. \n\nYou won’t find any walls around my diner though. You won’t find anything for miles except my diner and a lot full of cars. And if you’re really lucky, I won’t find you." ]	2
	[WP] You deliberately try to flunk the college entrance exam. Somehow, you are the only one with a perfect score.	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Reality+Fiction%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Simple+Prompt%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/js5XDFB)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "It was the college entrance exams. John was under pressure from his parents to enter college, while he desperately wanted to end his education and start looking for a job. Hence, a deal was struck. John would _at least_ try out the college entrance exam, and if he flunked it, he was free to do as he pleased. \n\nJohn was delighted at this piece of news. What an easy victory! He just had to deliberately fail, and his life was his to decide. \n\nHe looked at the paper in front of him. \n\n“What were Plato’s thoughts on environmentalism, and what do you think about them? [100 marks]” \n\nHe thought this was the strangest question they could ever ask, and also found it quite queer that there was only one question. Nevertheless, he scoffed and wrote truthfully. \n\n“Nothing. I don’t know.”\n\nAnd thus, he sat there for the next 2 hours, thinking of his future prospects and aspirations. \n\n_A month later_\n\n“Oh John! We’re so proud of you! You were the only student that passed the college entrance exams! You put in so much work to pass, even though you said you wanted to drop out. We couldn’t be more proud!” His parents had tears in their eyes as they held out a letter to him. \n\nJohn was entirely confused. What? He could not fathom how he passed. With a rising sense of dread and panic, he snatched the letter out of his parents hands. He tore open the envelope and begun passing his eyes through its contents. \n\n_“Dear John, Congratulations! You are the only candidate to pass the entrance exams. Plato did indeed not write anything on environmentalism, and in your answer, you have displayed your honesty, a true virtue very uncommon in these ages. Welcome to the college!”_\n\n“What. What kind of bullshit grading system is this? I didn’t want to pass!”" ]	2
	[WP] Your best friend is missing. You go to their parents’ house but they have no idea what you’re talking about. The bedroom you know should be hers is now a home office, but carved low on the wall behind the computer are the words ‘Come find me. Don’t forget me.’	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Reality+Fiction%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Simple+Prompt%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/js5XDFB)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "I met Christa in seventh grade, in the year 1980, together by chance thanks to the homeroom teacher seating us alphabetically. She’d just moved to New Jersey from Canada, a fact I’d found rather cool since I’d never been out of my own country. Barely out of New Jersey, even. I’d don the usual dorky type things, asked her what it was like there, did she read Anne of Green Gables, and other cringingly embarrassing things that she didn’t seem to mind. We soon found out we shared a love of the fantastical; all things supernatural; especially anything related to faeries or magical lands. Escapists, the two of us. By the end of the first semester we’d become inseparable, practically one unit, Christa-and-Lizzy, best friends forever.\n\nAll through junior high and then high school we’d remained friends, our lives entwining as we grew; I, the eldest of three siblings relishing in the quiet she enjoyed as an only child, her enjoying the quaintness of my stay at home mother compared to her career driven parents. sharing stories of ghosts and doorways to other dimensions long after we’d outgrown such notions. I think we never really lost hope that we’d someday find a magic door to lead us out of the mundane and into the extraordinary. Obviously, it would never happen, we would say, but imagine if it did!\n\nThen September happened.\n\nThe third week of our senior year, she didn’t come to school; not unusual as she had terrible allergies and sometimes her asthma kept her at home, but she usually called me to tell me not to wait for her in our usual spot. I didn’t think much of it, or even question why our other friends didn’t ask after her. Then she didn’t show up again. Or the next day. I called her a few times, but no one picked up. On Friday I noticed that our homeroom teacher skipped her name during roll call. Odd, but I assumed he noticed her absence and so didn’t bother.\n\n‘What’s up with Christa, do you think?’ I asked my other friend Emma as we walked into English class. ‘I haven’t heard from her all week.’\n\nEmma, distracted by Pete, the boy she currently had the hots for, didn’t answer at first. ‘Who’s Christa?’\n\n‘What do you mean who’s Christa?’\n\n“Ohmygod, he’s looking at us, pretend I said something funny!’ \n\nAnd that’s all I got from Emma.\n\nThe rest of the day past in a blur of worry and fear. It wasn’t like Christa to go a whole week without calling me at least once. I thought maybe she was really ill, or something tragic had happened in her family. That night, after dinner when I knew her parents would be home, I went to Christa’s house, figuring if my worst fears were realised and something dreadful did happen to my best friend, they’d tell me to my face. Maybe that’s why no one called; they didn’t want to break the news over the phone. Not a comforting thought at all.\n\nHer mom answered the door. ‘Hello,’ I said in my politest, talking to parents voice, ‘Is Christa okay? I haven’t heard from her all week.’\n\nMrs. Odgen looked at me blankly a moment. ‘I’m sorry, dear, but I think you have the wrong house. We don’t have a Christa here.’\n\nI laughed. She had to be putting me on; not that Mrs. Odgen was one for practical jokes. ‘Seriously, can I see her? Is she sick?’\n\n‘Is who sick?’\n\n‘Your daughter,’ I said, exasperation taking over politeness. ‘Christa Odgen.’\n\nHer mouth thinned. ‘I don’t know what joke you are playing at, but I don’t have a daughter. I don’t have any children. Please leave.’ Before I could say anything else, she slammed the door leaving me bewildered and alone. Resolutely, and before I could chicken out I ran to the back yard and shimmied up the tree Christa and I used so many times to sneak out of her house when we had sleepovers. I knew the window didn’t latch correctly, and in a few minutes, I was in her room.\n\nBut it wasn’t her room. Gone were the posters of Duran Duran and John Bon Jovi, replaced with artistic prints. A desk with one of those new personal computers sat on top where her bed used to be. The walls were no longer lavender but a boring beige, nicks along the paint making it clear they weren’t newly painted. \n\nMy mind whirled. What happened? A memory sprang suddenly to mind, of a story Christa and I once made up when we were around thirteen. A story of two girls who found a door into a magical place where they could live happily ever after, with no parents to annoy them. ‘But they’d miss us, I mean them,’ I’d said, ‘if we disappeared.’ \n\n‘We, I mean they would disappear from this world,’ she’d said after thinking a moment. ‘So it wouldn’t matter.’\n\nThat’s ridiculous, I thought, and yet. The room, her mother, Emma, even the homeroom teacher. Christa was gone, had never existed. Perhaps she did find that place. But how, and more importantly, why did she go without me?\n\nThen I saw it, carved in the baseboard behind the desk, looking like it had been there for years, was my name. Heart pounding I crouched next to the wall. I had to move the desk to be able to see, and for a terrifying moment I thought the personal computer would topple to the floor alerting the Odgens to my presence, but I managed. \n\n‘Lizzy. Come find me. Don’t forget me. Christa’ and next to the words an arrow pointing up to a crack in the wall that looked to my eyes suspiciously like a door. \n\nStraightening up I took a deep breath, placed my hands on the wall.\n\nAnd pushed.", "Something seriously fucked is going on.\n\nBesides the fact that Anna's own freakin' parents don't even know who their daughter is, Anna would never have allowed her room to be turned into a home office. She would've died first.\n\nThough by the looks of things, that might have happened.\n\nA mental image flashed by of Anna, dressed in Spongebob pyjama pants and a baggy Sabaton tshirt, defending her room with one half of a broomstick with her glasses falling off and a fierce scowl on her face, and I snorted.\n\nYep, something fucked is going on.\n\nWhich is why I'm here, in the Saedler's home office, in the middle of the night, looking through bank reports and cheesy novel drafts at two o'clock in the morning, looking for a clue.\n\nA single clue of where Anna might have disappeared to.\n\nI cursed quietly and dropped the papers I was holding, cringing when they fell with a shuffling sound onto the desk. I stepped back and looked around, trying to gather my thoughts.\n\nThe room itself wasn't much to look at; just a single bookshelf and a chair along one wall, a computer desk along another, a window in the third and a door in the fourth. The window was currently open, the curtains swinging in a slight breeze and the moonlight making a faint pool on the rug. The yowl of a cat warbled into the room. Everything was still.\n\nSuddenly I had an idea. I carefully peeled aside the corner of the rug, praying for it not to rustle as it folded away. I ran my hands along the floor, looking for that one loose floorboard...\n\nOw. Found it. Cracked my fingernail along its edge too.\n\nI carefully hooked my fingernails under the edge of the floorboard and lifted...\n\ncreeeeaaaaaak...\n\nI froze, not daring to move. Waiting for an angry voice to fall upon my ears and ask what on God's good earth I was doing in their house at two in the morning.\n\nNothing.\n\nSuddenly it hit me. The stupid floorboard creaked.\n\nI nearly fell over with relief but managed to not. Not the best beginning for an aspiring thief and infiltrator, I thought.\n\nI continued lifting the board as quietly as possible, freezing whenever the board creaked, but no one came to throw me out.\n\nI eventually lifted the board all the way and carefully laid it on the rug. Freakin' beautiful, amazing, sound-muffling rug, I thought.\n\nI looked inside and only found Anna's notepad. Strange, I thought. She always kept that with her. It never left her side.\n\nI picked it up and stashed it in the waistband of my pants. Horrible spot, I know. Sue me. I was running out of time.\n\nI oh so carefully replaced the board and folded the rug back over. There. Looked good as new. Totally not as if someone ripped up the floor.\n\nAs I turned to climb back out the window, I paused. Something had caught my eye.\n\nI approached the door to the rest of the house. Everything seemed normal. Normal doorhandle, normal door, normal everything.\n\nExcept there was something on the floor.\n\nPlaster. Right along the left edge of the door, right under the hinges.\n\nI straightened up, confused. Why would there be plaster along the floor? As far as I knew, the Saedlers were a meticulously tidy family, and any scrap of dust was whisked away as soon as it dared to enter their house.\n\nUnless...\n\nI ran my fingers along the side of the door until they hit the hinge. The hinge swung away from the wall as I hit it. I checked the other one and it swung away too.\n\nThose hinges were screwed into solid wood behind the drywall. Three screws to a hinge, two hinges. I examined the middle of the door more closely, and cursed quietly.\n\nThe door was bent inwards from the outside.\n\nSomething had broken down this door. Something with the power to bend a solid slab of oak and rip six screws out of solid wood.\n\nSuddenly this wasn't just worrying. This was frightening.\n\nSuddenly all the sounds of the normally quiet house became horribly loud. The swish of the curtains. The creaking of the house as it settled. The clicking of the cat's paws on the wood as it ran down the hallway.\n\nWait a second. Cat's paws don't click.\n\nThrowing all pretense of stealth away, I bolted for the window. My body seemed horribly slow as I approached it, my legs pumping furiously as the bedroom door burst open and the clicking suddenly sounded right next to me.\n\nI made a dive for the window in a form that would have made any Olympic diver proud, and...\n\nA searing pain ripped through the sole of my foot.\n\nI hit the ground and crumpled into a heap, sobbing in terror and agony.\n\nAll I could think was it's coming. It's coming, and I'm going to die, and I don't want to die.\n\nI closed my eyes and waited for the end.\n\nNothing happened.\n\nI opened my eyes, my chest heaving from the sobs which racked my frame, and looked back at the house.\n\nThe window stood open, dark and empty. Nothing was there. Absolutely nothing.\n\nAnd as I watched the window slid slowly closed. Nothing moved it. Nothing! I'm fucking telling you, nothing moved it. I saw it with my own eyes. It slid shut by itself.\n\nAnd as I watched in disbelief, dots appeared on the condensation of the window. Moving down the frame. Like...like fingerprints?\n\nI'M NOT FUCKING LYING! THERE WAS NOTHING THERE!\n\nI scrambled to my feet and limped as fast as I could towards home.\n\n\\-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------\n\nI paced my bedroom, unable to sleep. The dawn had come, spilling in through my windows, and with it had returned my sanity.\n\nIt must have been a dream. There's no way it could be real. The stuff I'm remembering is insane, it can't happen. There's no possible way.\n\nBut. There's the gash along the sole of my foot, and the diary, the diary....lying on my bed. Unopened.\n\nI didn't want to open it. I was afraid.\n\nAfraid of what I might see.\n\nI tore my gaze away from the book and went through the months leading up to today again. I knew it was just distracting myself, putting off the task of going through the diary. But I didn't care.\n\nFive months ago, everything was normal. Anna was her usual goofy self, calling me up at two in the morning to ask whether cows got off by being milked, obsessing over fictional characters in books she'd read, telling bad jokes and texting me art she'd drawn.\n\nThen things started to go downhill. She started texting more seldomly. She didn't answer my calls. She withdrew from school and started homeschooling. Her art just...dried up. She didn't send it to me anymore.\n\nI'd try to call at her house, and her parents would say she was sick or at the mall. I'd try to find her at the library, knowing she spent hours there.\n\nShe was absent. It was like she just...disappeared.\n\nBut disappeared where? Her snapchat location was always at her house. All the time.\n\nMaybe it had something to do with the thing, the horrible clicking thing that had chased me from the office.\n\nNo. That was their cat.\n\n\"I don't CARE that cats don't scratch right through shoes and into the flesh, it was their FUCKING cat,\" I whispered savagely. \"It was their cat, it was their cat, their cat, cat....\"\n\n..." ]	3
	[WP] It was a snowy night, snow falling on top of your head, the roads, the paths, all covered in snow, and as you left your work, you realized you left your thick jacket home...	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Reality+Fiction%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Simple+Prompt%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/js5XDFB)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "“Well, crap.”\n\nThe white fluff had clouded the sidewalk in a thin layer by the time I left the store. The night air was cold and crisp, smelling like Christmas with the scents of slush on the city roads and a hint of pumpkin spice something-or-other. I held out my hand and a few flakes landed on it, then did the obligatory ‘outstretched-tongue’ pose, catching a few before closing my mouth. People in New York tended to notice when someone wasn’t wearing a jacket in this sort of weather, but more likely they would notice that someone isn’t shivering. I hated to draw that sort of attention.\n\nI pulled my hair out of its ponytail and rubbed my arms as if I was cold as I started walking, the snow crunching under my feet. Humans all acted the same so, even though I’d never been truly human and it was thirty years since I felt like one, it was easy to mimic. And who cares, right? It didn’t matter if a vampire was passing them on the street at 5 a.m., having just closed down an overnight café.\n\nStill, my jacket would’ve camouflaged me plenty and I wish I had brought it with me. So, I folded my arms tightly, my purse hung from my right arm, tight in the crook of my elbow, and started walking. I considered projecting the image of a Minnesotan who laughed at temperatures like these, happily going along with just a shirt. But no, that wouldn’t fool anyone.\n\nIt was only two blocks to the bus stop, but I caught a couple of wary glances on the way. Humans who got this cold didn’t just forget their jackets, of course, and I should’ve known I wouldn’t get away with pretending to be cold. But the last person who recognized me as a parasapien had badgered me, asking me what I was doing working in a store where kids stopped in, and it had been so humiliating. I made a mental note to put a Post-It on my front door to remind myself when I was leaving to bring my jacket, even if it wasn’t supposed to get this cold, much less snow.\n\nAnother young woman, who I recognized from previous waiting at the bus stop, was talking with a young man. No, wait… Being irritated by a young man. I rolled my eyes as I took a seat on the bench under the overhang.\n\n“It’s really an awesome band,” the young man told her. “I could get front row tickets; you’ll totally love it.”\n\n“I appreciate that, but no thank you,” she responded, shifting on her feet and taking a step away from him.\n\nHe sighed and closed the gap. “What is it? You don’t like the beard? Come on, just give me one date.”\n\n“No, thank you.”\n\n“You live around here? I could pick you up. I mean I know I don’t have a car, but I’ll pay for the taxi and everything.”\n\n“She said no,” I spoke up, my voice tight.\n\nThe guy looked to me, eyes narrowed. “Mind your business.”\n\nI shoved myself to my feet and walked over to her side. “This is my business. You’re harassing her.”\n\n“I am not,” he protested. “I’m just looking for a date. And she’s gorgeous.” He shifted his attention back to her. “You’re really pretty. A real catch.”\n\n“No means no, weren’t you taught that as a kid?” I asked, cocking my head. “You’re being rude.”\n\n“I’m not being rude, I just think she’s pretty,” he snapped.\n\nI paused for a moment. “You know what? I haven’t eaten all day, and you smell really good.” I let out my fangs.\n\nHe cried out, startling, and backpedaled. “Get the hell away from me, you freak!”\n\n“You smell really good, just take the compliment,” I told him, taking a few steps toward him. “You said you wanted a date, right? How about dinner with me?” I asked with a grin.\n\nHe turned tail and bolted.\n\nRetracting my fangs, I turned to the young woman. “Hey. I hope I didn’t overstep, he was just really pushy.”\n\n“You really didn’t, thank you,” she said with a smile.\n\nI returned the smile as the bus pulled up with a screech, the doors opening and warm air flooding out to us. I motioned with my arm and the woman gave me a nod, heading onto the bus, and I followed." ]	2
	[WP] You started to worship your goldfish as a joke. Then you made the shrine. Made up a prayer. Got the whole family involved. You might have gone too far. It has begun to glow and you can swear last night it was saying something as you went to sleep.	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Reality+Fiction%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Simple+Prompt%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/js5XDFB)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "It was a monotonous day, my son was at school and I had a few days off with nothing interesting to do. We had decided to play Dune in his room. In the evening I went to his room, it was a small room with a bed and table on one side, a cupboard on another. The room was littered with hundreds of toys either his or one of our many pets. A soon as he saw me, he started to look for the board game. In the mean time I closed the door to stop a pet from coming in and destroying our game. It was a fun game and we played it all evening.\n\nNext day, he comes home excited to announce that he had gotten the best marks in an assignment that he got yesterday. Surprised, I ask him when and how did he complete his assignment as he was playing game with me all evening. After sometime he revealed that all he did was tick the options that was wet from water droplets of the fish tank. \"It was the Goldfish God that helped\", I stated. “What's that?” he said with a perplexed expression. \"The goldfish that you have is actually a God\" I said as I narrate all the miracles it has performed in the past. He curiously listened to all the stories of God Goldfish all evening.\n\nIn the next few days out of boredom I escalated the stories of God Goldfish. Soon the whole family got involved. I was enjoying it to my fullest as it felt like a mini cult to me. We had a shrine and he started to offer shrimps to the goldfish. Now this was going out of control so I revealed the truth but my son kept insisting that the story was true and it was an actual God. I failed to persuade him and let him have his way. It was concerning that the amount of shrimps the goldfish was eating was twice its size but I ignored it thinking he was probably playing a reverse prank on me.\n\nFew weeks later while going to sleep my son comes to me scared and says he doesn't want to sleep in his room. Grudgingly I agreed to exchange rooms with him and go to his room. While going to sleep in his bed I noticed a slight glow coming from the gold fish tank on the table, considering it a prank I go to sleep. Late at night I could hear water movements from the tank. I wanted to go and tell him to stop this prank, but waited to see what happens. This goes on for a few minutes. While trying to decide when was the right time to open my eyes, I heard a sound. \n\n\"Meow\". \n\nHuh! My mind went blank. And it clicked to me that our pet cat was trying to eat the goldfish and shrimps and the goldfish was throwing water to scare him away.", "It started out as an inside joke in the friend group. My family, understandably confused, was scared at first, but it seems that my humour is genetic. I even wrote up a prayer book, all nicely laminated. However, I felt deep feelings of regret when I realized the Goldfish Bowl was faintly shining. At first I was the only one who could see it, but in a week it was glaringly bright. I had to sleep with a thick blindfold upon my face just to sleep. Then, it started to whisper. It's strange undertones sounded of temptation, to praise the Bowl again, and madness, to dedicate myself fully to the Bowl. I only realized that I had dug my friends and family into a deep hole when our water and electricity got turned off because we hadn't been working and didn't pay the bills. I tried to break the Bowl, but they stopped me with unworldly strength. Their faith to the Goldfish empowered them. I ran for my life, and called the police. Naturally, they wouldn't listen to some nutjob mumbling on about a Goldfish. So I kept running. I haven't stopped." ]	3
	[WP] All the trees have suddenly become animate and laid waste to humanity. It's up to one lumberjack, and his ax, to save the world	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Reality+Fiction%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Simple+Prompt%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/js5XDFB)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "He’d been here. I was sure of it, or my name wasn’t Paul Bunyan. The trees are alive everywhere, but that’d be harmless enough if it weren’t for these bad apples we’d been chasing. They were a sour bunch, and every tree he or his followers talked to went rotten right to the core. \n\n“Well Babe, I’m stumped.” I said. My old babe snorted, pursed her lips (at least as well as she could purse her lips nowadays), and gave me a look that said “that was not as clever as you thought it was”. That was my babe. Even after all these years she laughed at all my bad jokes, even if she liked to pretend they made her groan. She was a happy soul, but I knew even she was beginning to feel a little blue about all the terrible things happening around us. It was making her quiet, which made me uneasy. I decided to grab the bull by the horns and say what was on my mind.\n\n“Well I’m sure he’s heading west to the great forests in California. They’re some well read woods, so I hope they’ll recognize his lies for what they are. But if he manages to turn them over to his side I reckon that’s about the end of it. I’d like to catch him before he can make it that far, but I just can’t tell which route he’s taking.”\n\nMy babe didn’t speak, she just kept staring at the good lands behind us. Well maybe not good lands anymore, after being desecrated by that awful battle. Where there had once been lush forests, there were now sharply eroded piles of dirt and a few patches of grass. I’d swung my axe powerfully and laid many to rest - the rest had fled after seeing what we could do. We’d both cried, but it was my babe that got up and gave those forests a proper burial. She was always the strong one. I couldn’t call these good lands anymore, they were the bad lands now. I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to come back to South Dakota again.\n\nI thought quietly for a few minutes, trying to imagine how that awful man might think. I made a decision.\n\n“Arizona. He’s going to go poisoning his way through the Yellowstone forest and get to California through Arizona. We can cut him off there and end things, even if we have to cut a hole in the earth itself to do it.”\n\nI imagined what the war might look like. I’d carve one big trench through the desert, the last line of defense for the earth itself. I’d have to be stubborn as a donkey down in that trench.\n\n“We’ll have to be as wild as animals to stop him babe.”\n\nI chuckled. Babe’s gold ring caught the light. It always comforted me to see the ring I put on her.\n\n“Maybe they’ll tell stories about Babe Bunyan and her stubborn donkey of a husband Paul.”\n\nShe smiled.\n\n“Maybe they’ll forget you were anything but an animal Paul. Stories have a way of getting twisted. I’ll be Babe Bunyan the great hero and you’ll just be my pet donkey.”\n\nWe both laughed heartily. There was work to be done, but for tonight we could just enjoy each other’s company.\n\nAs I fell asleep my thoughts turned back to the one we’d been chasing. I’d never forgive that man for the trouble he’s caused. This was finally going to be happy times for us. We were going to put down roots, until he woke the trees and started spreading his infernal message of hate. I had one last thought as I drifted off to sleep - he’s always talking about his “children” being stars on the inside. Well we’ll just have to cut them open and find out won’t we? I’m coming for you Johnny Appleseed, and you won’t like what Paul and Babe will do to you." ]	2
	[WP] Whoever pulls the sword from the stone becomes the new king. Your job is to guard the sword and make sure no one cheats in pulling it out. Eventually, you get so fed up with people trying and failing, you demonstrate how to pull the sword out. To your amazement, you remove it with ease.	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Reality+Fiction%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Simple+Prompt%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/js5XDFB)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "Whom pulls the sword summons a thousand white doves, in their flight will blossom a thousand loves. The skies will clear and the trees themselves will sing, the bearer will be named King for a thousand springs. That does not apply to those who use levers, pulleys, and other such mechanical “solutions”. This is what the battered signpost asserts. \n\nThe man called Eletus, who erected the sign, leans against it with a sigh as a muscular fellow painted with fading charcoal dyed ink, hidden behind a thick beard and gathered bushels of dreadlocked blonde hair waves his arms wildly, a trebuchet towering behind him.\n\n“A trebuchet cannot be king!” Eletus’ voice slices through the jeers of the crowd surrounding the black monolith. Atop this stone of pitch the sunlight reflecting off the silver-blue hilt of a crimson blade, encrusted with stones more void than black, shatters through the darkness of its tomb, reverberating with the boasts of a millennia of failed men. \n\n“Aye but the maker can and will! Nay will ye stop me lest ye want to color the ground with a cowards blood!” roars the fellow, clutching a heavily worn axe at his hip. Eletus sinks into himself with a deep sigh. After a muted shake of his head he casually steps aside with a smirk only the humble would notice. The crowd behind the fellow erupts into cheers and fragments of inscrutable song. With a grin the fellow steps forward and ties a knot around the splintering light of the monoliths imprisoned hilt. The fellow returns to the anchor of his trebuchet, draws his axe, and with fervor swings at the binding. \n\nEletus lowers his arm from his eyes, amused by the jagged splinters of wood caught in his thick leather armor. The roar of the crowd crescendos into a deafening silence. The weight-stone of the trebuchet lay where the fellow had stood, splattered with chunks of flesh and blood. The monolith grows blacker, and seems to emit darkness, as the fellows blood seeps through the ground to the stone, into ever branching roots of void, up to the piercing light of the hilt. \n\nEletus gazes towards the crowd absentmindedly. This sort of thing was not uncommon in his unfortunate position. He waits for the inevitable squawking of simpleminded men less a simpleminded leader. Curiously, it never comes. The silence stretches into a chasm, and the bewildered men stare as Eletus’ blossoms into a severe grin. \n\n“Allow me to demonstrate how it’s supposed to be attempted, so you may try and fail again.”\n\nEletus steps onto the monolith and grasps the hilt. The cacophony of silence surrounding him grows still as he mimes a heavily strained pull. The blade slides upwards and through the black stone, almost as if it was itself trying to escape. \n\nA thunderous crack echoes through the suddenly starless black sky, the moon drenched in blood. Innumerable crows take flight in the distance, their screeches taking on a rhythmic pulse that sends ripples through the air itself. The monolith lay split in two. Eletus, overcome with shock, sinks into a crooked indifference. He stares into the now empty field where the simpleminded men had stood, a sticky red mist enveloping him.\n\nA voice akin to the roar of an erupting oil fire, with a density like coal smoke and an atmosphere emptier than the void beyond the heavens permeates Eletus’ mind.\n\n\n*WE’VE WAITED SO VERY LONG ELETUS. OUR NAME IS* K͙̰̙̺I͓̣̜̳̜̗̭̫̞̥͍̹͚̯̯̩͕̣ͅN̼̦̙̙̗̪̲̼̳͙̹G̱͍̝̱͙̥̩͔̗̪͈̣̩̻͈̜͙̱̱.\n\n.\n.\n.\n." ]	2
	[WP] The children danced and sang "rain rain go away", unaware of the shaman observing them who spent hours summoning the rain.	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Reality+Fiction%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Simple+Prompt%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/js5XDFB)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "I sat in front of the fireplace, burning my tongue on the hot cocoa that I made just a few minutes prior with Shel Silverstein's The Giving Tree on my lap. Just past the door to this room, I heard some kids trying to sing and dance the rain away and I couldn't hold back a chuckle as I rose from my seat. Moving to the edge of the doorway and peering into the other room, I saw all seven of them give their best efforts for a few moments. I spoke up. \"Do you guys really want the rain to go away?\"\n\nOne of the younger ones, Sarah, responded. \"Yeah, so we can play outside!\" She smiled with her characteristic smile with the two front teeth missing. \"Come on, help us!\"\n\nI lied to the kids, \"I'm afraid, there's nothing I can do.\" Some of them audibly sighed. Guilt shot through me as I spoke again. \"On second thought, there is something I can do.\"\n\nThey all perked up and started yelling and cheering. It took me a few minutes to calm them down. \"Look, I can promise you if the rain doesn't stop in a few hours you can go play outside. But for the meantime, wanna hear a story?\" All of them groaned, none of them wanting to stay cooped up inside for the next hour or two. \"I made hot cocoa.\" They all ran to the living room, grabbing one of the mugs of hot chocolate before sitting down. I followed, sitting down in my chair and turning the book to the front page. With a smile on my face, I began to read aloud, \"Once there was a tree...\"\n\n***\n\nFirst prompt I've done in a while, criticisms welcome and probably needed.", " “Rain, rain, go away. Come again another day!”\n\nHadric felt the power he had been gathering for the past days, fizzle and fade. The moisture in the air turned in an instant from hope to a mocking taunt. He couldn’t believe it. All his years of study and practice, getting upstaged by a group of children singing. \n\n“Little Johnny wants to play, rain, rain go away!”\n\nHadric knew the power of folk tales and nursery rhymes. It takes power to be stored in the collective consciousness of the country. It normally took someone with training and practice to unlock that power though, and apply your will to the world. Apparently one of these kids has power. It was possible that they didn’t even know it though. That they were just singing a song, without knowing what impact they had on him. Or on the village crops. \n\nThe kids collapsed laughing and a small wrestling match began between two of them, cheered and jeered on by the other children.\n\nIt had to be an accident, thought Hadric. There is no way they would be laughing about pushing his magic into the slurry heap. Or laughing about what they were doing to the people. Anger was starting to rise amongst the farmers. They expected their investment in a man of magic would have a better return than this. When they asked for rain, at this point of the growing season, they didn’t expect rain every day perhaps, but they didn’t expect drought. Hadric hadn’t been able to figure out what was shutting him off from the weather God’s until this afternoon. Such a lucky coincidence that he had been out walking near his hut after finishing the latest attempt at a rain cast. \n\nHe needed to split them apart and run some tests, to figure out which one of them had the power coursing through him. He had the perfect spell.\n\n“WHAT IN THE HELL DO YOU KIDS THINK YOU ARE DOING!” boomed the voice of the schoolmaster as he emerged into the clearing. “I HAD TO LEAVE THE CLASS TO COME LOOKING FOR YOU!”\n\nThe kid's laughter slowed but didn’t stop as they dodged the clumsy grabs of the old warrior who now ran their education in the village. The children scattered into the woods, in all directions. As the giggling receded into the undergrowth, the school master’s shouting tailed off alongside it. He smiled and the illusion dropped away, leaving Hadric standing in his place. Now the kids were separate. Now he could weed out the magician. He started into the trees after the kids.\n\nWith a few small charms, tracking a running child, that was not trying to hide especially, was very easy. He caught up to the first of the 7 about 500m away from the clearing. A quick scout around told Hadric they were alone. He took the form of a squirrel and scampered into the tree above the young girl.\n\n“Hello, child”, said the squirrel.\n\nThe child stopped suddenly and stood bolt upright. \n\n“Are you lost?”, asked the animal, his whiskers twitching curiously. \n\n“No”, she replied. “I’m not lost. I know exactly where I am. Do you know where you are?”\n\nHadric didn’t like the shift of momentum that question created, so he took that moment to shift back to his human form with a shower of sparks. He knew the ground was damp enough to take it without risk of fire, despite the recent lack of rain. “I know where I am, child. Was it you?”\n\n“Me?”, asked the child innocently. “What have I done?”\n\nHadric was confident he’d found his mark at the first attempt. “You were using those children to stop my magic. Who hired you? What is your true form?”\n\n“I wasn’t using anyone”, the child replied. “Was I?”\n\nHadric jumped as the reply came from behind him. “We are all friends here.” He turned to see the other six girls standing in a loose semi-circle. He hadn’t even heard them approach.\n\n“Beat it kids”, he said, chucking up the illusion of a woodbear to scare them away. “I’m trying to have a conversation with my friend here”. \n\n“She’s not your friend”, said the smallest child, on the far end of the semi-circle. She waved her hand and the illusion melted away. “None of us is your friend, Hadric”, added the boy next to her.\n\nHadric felt like a trapped rat in a maze he didn’t understand. “Who are you?”, was all he could think to say. \n\n“You have been using magic that you have not earned Hadric”, said the original girl he had ‘captured’. “The Gods demand sacrifice, and you have not followed that basic instruction.”\n\nHadric stammered. “B-b-but I refused to kill children, that’s all. I sacrificed the livestock as I was requested. I saved you kids lives!”\n\n“THAT IS NOT YOUR CALL!” said all the kids in unison. “WE INSTRUCT, WE DO NOT EXPLAIN.”\n\nHadric tried to turn into an eagle to flee, but he felt himself dragged back into his human form, as his soul tried to reshape. He looked around for a way out, but all he could see were the frowning children, closing in from both sides. \n\n\n\\_\\_\\_\\_\\_\\_\\_\\_\\_\\_\\_\\_\\_\\_\\_\\_\\_\\_\\_\\_\\_\\_\\_\\_\\_\\_\\_\\_\\_\\_\\_\\_\\_\\_\\_\\_\\_\\_\\_\\_\\_\\_\\_\\_\\_\\_\\_\\_\\_\\_\\_\\_\\_\\_\\_\\_\\_\\_\\_\\_\\_\\_\\_\\_\\_\\_\\_\\_\\_\\_\\_\\_\\_\\_\\_\\_\\_\\_\\_\\_\\_\\_\\_\\_\\_\\_\\_\\_\\_\\_\\_\\_\\_\\_\\_\\_\\_\n\nr/TallerestTales", "\"Rain, rain, go away, come again another day!\" \n\nThe children sang again and again, almost insulting me in a indirect way. \n\nI had spent three days collecting the required materials for a ritual so grand, not even the gods themselves could hold back the rain my people so desperately needed.\n\nBut those children. \n\nThose damned children were going ro ruin everything I worked so hard for\n\n\"Rain, rain, go away, come again another day!\" They persisted, stoking the flame that was my anger, my hatred, the malice that tormented my very being.\n\nBut I couldn't do anything to stop them. They were children after all, they couldn't possibly understand what they were doing.\n\nI sat in the ritual circle I had created, staring at the now useless items that lay before me. The supplies sitting silently, almost taunting me.\n\nI can still hear the screams of the children as they play. I hope they are proud of their shared destruction of our crops. We won't make it through the winter with what we have now\n\nThey succeeded in warding off the clouds and distant thunder, and with it, our hope of survival..." ]	4
	[WP] You made two sacred oaths on your life: 1) to defend the one who must be defended; 2) to destroy the one who must be destroyed. Now they have become entangled--what happens to one affects the other. You must now choose which oath to break--at the cost of your life.	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Reality+Fiction%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Simple+Prompt%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/js5XDFB)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "Here I lie, before my progeny, my children and their families to come. I imagine their futures extend beyond my vision as I dream of their happiness.\n\nI am but a child who's thoughts and actions are both infitely futile yet infinitely important. For each moment I choose who to be, I choose what I am, I choose what I think.\n\nI made a choice long ago, in a world untouched by my meddling. A world where my existence was but a smudge to be wiped away, a grain of sand lost in the vastness of infinity. \n\nI remember, laying there beside them, the corpses of those who showed me love, those who showed me a life worth living. A beautiful existence snatched away by the unworthy. It was then I made an oath, a decision that would possess me as my memory of loss haunted me. \n\nDefend those who must be defended. Destroy those who must be destroyed. \n\nSo I went forth, a child unaware of the nature of the world as I forged my own path, with nothing but these oaths in my mind and revenge against those who wronged me. I may be a smudge, but they were nothing more.\n\nI did not know what it meant to destroy or protect, I did not ask myself, in my mind there was no justice greater than my own. Yet as my blood soaked hands clutched the crying child, the child of the demon who took everything from me, a child who knew nothing of those before them and nothing of what was to come. A child who was never shown love nor old enough to remember the bloodbath before them. \n\nA child just like me. \n\nI laughed. I cried. I am this child. But with anger. With oaths. With a lifetime of memories, yet before their tearfilled eyes I was nothing but unworthy.\n\nI was not worth my oath.\nHow can I choose to protect what I've become? I've become what I've sworn to destroy. \n\nBut I could not do it.\n\nFor I was no longer a child, and possessed the wisdom of age.\n\nWho was I to choose who is worthy? Worthiness is but a whim decided by those who destroy, so are those who destroy unworthy?\n\nAs I lay surrounded by those who love me, those cast aside by fate as nought but smudges in this vast world, and as the child, my child, held my hand, as I did through out the years for children just like me, I realized again what I realized at that moment.\n\nI am but a child who's thoughts and actions are both infitely futile yet infinitely important. For each moment I choose who to be, I choose what I am, I choose what I think. \n\nAnd now, as I'm wiped away, a smudge on it's last breath, I choose to be happy." ]	2
	[WP] Vampires are commonly considered to be immortal, but due to their nature and vulnerabilities, they generally don't live long enough to know for sure. Now for the first time ever, a vampire reaches the natural end of their unnatural life, and reflects upon all they've seen and done.	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Reality+Fiction%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Simple+Prompt%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/js5XDFB)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "This was THE story, probably my biggest chance to make it big as a reporter. I’d somehow managed to land an exclusive interview with a 3000 year old vampire, looks like brown-nosing at all those company parties payed off, because here I was, face to face with this ancient looking guy. I’ve seen real old before, but this guy was on another level, his skin was totally loose on his body, and I could see every bone in his arms, his eyes were sunken so deep in his head I couldn’t see what colour they were. Not a hair on his body either. \n\nHonestly, it freaked me out a little, but whatever, he could be as freaky as he wants if he’s gonna make me a billionaire. I pulled a chair up next to him and took out my notebook, here we go. “Hi sir, I’m with channel 9 news, and we just have a few questions for you, considering you’re probably the oldest living thing on earth.” \n\nHe didn’t hear me, so I repeated myself louder and he perked up and spoke to me in an accent I’ve never heard, he struggled to pronounce English words, can’t blame him, the language must be pretty new in his mind. “Hello, I am Hesphoteth ask me all you wish, I have much to tell.” \n\n“Well, let’s start with a relatively easy question, where are you from, I mean originally of course?”\n\n“Egypt, ahhh, long ago Egypt, it was there I was blessed with this body and life.” \n\n“You, don’t consider being a vampire a curse? Didn’t you miss sunlight? Didn’t having to suck blood bother you?”\n\n“Sunlight.... perhaps I used to, but now I have no idea what it even would be like, these new electronic lights hurt my eyes quite a bit, if I could experience sunlight again, I would not.” \n\n“I see, that’s an... interesting take, and the uh, bloodsucking?” \n\n“Hmphh, you wouldn’t understand but becoming a vampire changes how you think about humans. I no longer considered them the same as me, they were mere cattle.” \n\n“Actually, that raises another question, how did you become a vampire? It’s theorized that it takes a certain ritual involving consuming all forms of blood types?” \n\n“I consumed no blood to transform I simply..... no, I will not share my greatest secret and accomplishment.”\n\n“Understandable, I guess. But, still on the subject of drawbacks, didn’t watching everyone you know around you die bother you?\n\n“... Only the first time, when my children before I became a vampire died, they were the only loss I ever mourned, and the only time I ever regretted my choice.” \n\n“I see, sorry for the touchy subject. Moving along, what do you think has been humanities greatest achievement?”\n\n“Ahah! Going to space of course, I have seen and imagined the stars for my entire life, I was so happy when all of you managed to reach them, I would’ve applied to go on a ship myself, but even then my youth had began to fade, no matter how much blood I sustained myself with.” \n\n“What has been your favourite century?”\n\n“Hmmm, the last one, the 20th were some fine years, but I do say I miss the century of Rome, whichever that was. The gladiator fights were the only thing humans did that ever entertained me.”\n\n“Right, did you ever expect to... not be immortal?” \n\n“I had known, it was informed to me that my new form would... not be permanent, nothing both of man. Oils be permanent. It was also known I would die an excruciating death, I worry about that now, I have felt no pain yet, but I know it will come.” \n\n“Well hey, hopefully some good old morphine can stave that off, right?” \n\n“Your medicine is pathetic and makes no difference to my body, this is only good enough for humans.” \n\n“O-oh, sorry. Uhhh, on a lighter note, what has been the best thing about being a vampire?”\n\n“My body not failing me, and not having to fear pain.” \n\n“Uhhhh, s-sorry again.”\n\nHe gasped, and his arms moved to hug himself, he was screaming, the pain he had talked about seemed to be setting in.\n\n“S-sir-“\n\nI was going to ask if he’s okay, but my mind was quick enough to ask the most important question\n\n“If you could tell one thing to every human, what would it be?” \n\n“Y-your mortality is precious, the best human lives I’ve seen were those of men like Alexander, he lived short, but he went out and did great things without a care for how it would impact the world. I-I always had to be careful to not make myself be known, to stay hidden. Even this conversation will be forgotten, but you humans have the chance to truly be immortal, not in body, but in memory.” \n\nWith that, he took one last breath, and passed away. I was.... shook, but I found myself agreeing. I wasn’t really chasing stories as a reporter for wealth, I was chasing them to be made immortal in memory like Alexander the Great, to be someone people would talk about as one of the best, as a standard to be held up to. It was true, he had no real accomplishments to his name, he had just lived long, men like Einstein will be remembered far longer than him. I truly do pity the man, I think by living so long, he threw that which makes life good away.", "“You know, we didn’t start drinking human blood until about the time of the Black Death. Infected humans were delicious, and we pretty much drank pure humans and that was a step down but still tasty. Before that, we used to drink cow blood.”\n\nThis is Harkon, a vampire older than Christ, who can prove the things that people want to know about vampires. He rests in his coffin, and he looks young, almost 40, but in reality he is over 2000 years old.\n\n“What’s the best part about being a vampire?”\n\n“That’s a debatable question. Some would say the invisibility or transformation is the best, but my favorite part is the strength and speed we receive when we are turned.”\n\nHe was the first vampire to do a lot of things, such as proving scientific theories and developing progressive ideas and thoughts. He contributed to the growing rate of humanity rather than take away from it, and was generally well respected in both the human world and vampire world.\n\n“What’s the worst part about being a vampire?”\n\n“Immortality comes with the usual things such as seeing loved ones die as time goes on, but not being able to enjoy the sun is also a big one. I’ve always remembered my last day as a human, when I learned of the vampire cult that was terrorizing my village, and they fed on me when I went to confront them. When I awoke as a vampire, I slaughtered them all, then had to wait for the sun to go down, lest I be burned to ash.”\n\n“Your life sounds like it was eventful, being around 6000 years old. What was your favorite time period?”\n\n“I remember meeting a man in around the Middle East once. He was part of a group that liked horses, and it turned out that he was the greatest king of their time. He led them to take on China and the rest of the Middle East. I was sad when he died, but we had a lot of fun, doing ‘guy’ things.”\n\n“We have one final question for you. What do you want humanity to work on, and what do you want vampires to work on?”\n\n“I want humanity to stop discriminating. It seems foolish to hate someone when you can’t live forever, so why waste time hating people for differences? For the rest of my kind, heed my words. Do not act as if the human race is mere cattle. Treat them with respect, and suck the blood of those who did wrongly.”\n\nWith those final words, Harkon laid back in his coffin, and started to disappear into a mist in the air. The oldest vampire known to man had died.\n\nAt his funeral, vampires and humans came together to celebrate the accomplishments of the most respected and redeemed being on the planet. Vampires started drinking the blood of bad people, and humans came to start living in more peaceful terms with each other." ]	3
	[WP] Your ancestors were ALL very important people. Something would always happened to make them famous, and in the history books for all eternity. Your goal is to out run this “curse”, and live a life of solitude.	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Reality+Fiction%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Simple+Prompt%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/js5XDFB)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "On a lazy, sunny afternoon, everything in the cottage was absolutely perfect — ham sizzling on the stove, flowers blooming on the window sill, birdsong echoing down the chimney. All was just as Louis liked it, which should have been the first sign of trouble.\n\nSomeone thumped on the front door and Louis, brushing crumbs from his apron, went to answer it. On any other less-perfect day, he would have checked the peephole. That was his mistake.\n\nThe door creaked open to reveal a glimpse of a long, gray beard and a pointy hat. With a yelp, Louis tried to slam it shut again. The intervention of a wooden staff prevented him.\n\n\"Go away!\" he hollered, trying to kick the staff out of the way. \"I'll have no adventures!\"\n\nThe wizard meanwhile crammed his foot and elbow into the gap. \"Come now, all I want is a cup of tea. Show some hospitality to an old man.\"\n\n\"Said you to my Great Uncle Tobias! He was just my plain old Uncle, until you got your hooks into him!\" Louis desperately stretched for the table beside the door and grasped a tiny glass spray bottle.\n\n\"What's that, some perfume? I prefer my earthy-\"\n\nLouis spritzed the intruder, who vanished in a puff of smoke. \"Wizard repellent, thank you very much. That should keep you away another year.\"\n\nHis nose twitched, and he groaned. Returning to the kitchen, he found his ham burned to a crisp.\n\nA mysterious voice shared his thoughts, \"Tsk, tsk, what a pity.\"\n\nLouis nearly jumped out of his skin, and found a jester seated atop his dining table. \"Who are you, then?\"\n\n\"No one of importance. Though many know my name. You must be so hungry. I could fix that spoiled ham... for a price.\"\n\n\"Yeah, you know, I can do without lunch. Is this really how you hooked my great-great-grandfather Martin? Or should I say, The Dark Lord Martinus, A Plague Upon the Realms...\" \n\nThey finished reciting together, \"May He Slumber Forevermore in Hell.\"\n\n\"Yeah, he was a good sport,\" the jester continued. \"Only wanted half a boiled egg — he'd dropped his breakfast partway through, you see.\"\n\n\"Well, I'll manage, thank you. Could stand to lose a pound or two.\"\n\nThe jester had barely departed, when the window swung open and Margret, his neighbor, leaned inside. His eyes had to take a very wide berth of her bodice, for the sake of good manners.\n\n\"I was wondering if you could help me,\" she cooed.\n\nSurely, he could trust her, at least. \"Certainly.\"\n\n\"Those darn vermin got into my pantry again, and ate half the grain.\"\n\n\"Easily taken care of. I have some spare traps you can set, and-\"\n\n\"No, Louis. I need you to slay them. I need you to slay 10 rats.\"\n\n\"Oh no.\"", "God bless the Post Office. They make my life here possible. They know the score, too, and don't push my luck. Leave the packages under the northern most sandstone arch from trail E10. They know the spot because of the Saguaro twins that stand there like ornery used car salesmen. Leave the packages, let the mule drink from the trough I fill, and be on your way. I get my mail to my alias, they get their brutes some sustenance before packing out.\n\nMy cave was well-equipped and homely. I owed that to swift planning. I already had money to contract the build remotely. Trust fund. Probably the biggest trust fund you can imagine, but I won't say who's to blame for that. You'd know the name, he was my great great great great uncle, I think. In any case, at least the money served to get me the hell away, and not a minute too soon.\n\nI should've known--should've been more careful. I've always been outspoken, but speaking at that city council meeting was a BIG mistake. I don't even drive, so why should I voice my opinion about the town's potholes? Like I said, big mistake.\n\nThe thing snowballed, somehow. Social media. Bored people. I don't know what. But I became an overnight celebrity, standing up to the bureaucracy, or whatever. At first I was a meme and a punchline for late night talk shows. But it is my family's lot in life to become uber famous and important. I should've known.\n\nSuddenly the conversation was twisted and the video of me lambasting the council about the potholes morphed into this weird pseudo-intellectual call-to-arms for a movement to re-establish the integrity of government. They turned me into a leader with hearing another word form my mouth. All in the span of days. Reporters invaded the small town, and suddenly everyone I knew wanted a piece of me. I fled. \n\nNothing to say about it other than this: I had developed a contingency plan. If small-town life wasn't get-away enough, I'd execute my plan and jump the literal ship, splash down in the desert.\n\nSo here I am. Off the grid. 5 years and counting.\n\nAt first I had the internet and got news of the world. It was shocking how my celebrity became cemented, and increased. I wasn't even a martyr yet. I had t completely disconnect, lest my very reading of my growing fame somehow contributed. So, I write this completely unaware of the goings-on within the last 5 years.\n\nThat is, until they switched up the delivery schedule.\n\nI was hauling a splashing bucket from my ATV, reaching for its butt to overturn it into the trough. Suddenly I heard a mule grunt behind me, accompanied by a rather young voice, for a postal delivery rider.\n\n\"Oh my fucking God, you guys, are you seeing who this is right now? Are you seeing who this is right now?\"\n\nSlowly, I turned. \n\nThe young guy was holding up a shiny iphone, pointed at me. He was hysterical but managed to hold it steady.\n\n\"It's him!\" he began to say.\n\nI set the bucket down, and carefully stretched out my hand, as though trying to calm an excited guard dog who wanted to pounce on me and lick my face.\n\n\"Easy now,\" I said.\n\n\"I'll ask him!\" he screamed at his phone. \"Hey, um, they want to know if you're gonna do it.\"\n\n\"Who? You can't get service this far out without fiber. And what?\"\n\n\"5G dude,\" he said matter-of-factly. \"The people, man. Your people. They been waitin' for years bro. So, they wanna know!\"\n\n\"What?\"\n\n\"You gonna accept the standing nomination?\"\n\n\"Um?\"\n\n\"President bro! Yours is the biggest party by far!\"\n\nThat's when I knew that the creeping headache behind my eyes was here to stay.\n\n\\_\\_\\_\\_\\_\\_\\_\n\n/r/velabasstuff" ]	3
	[WP] The time has come to find The Chosen One! Slight issue, it would seem as though they were never born.	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Reality+Fiction%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Simple+Prompt%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/js5XDFB)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "Every century, a calamity known only as the World Ender awakens in the west. From there it grips the throat of the world and holds it firmly, intent on reshaping the land through fire and chaos. Every time this happens, fate chooses someone to take up the gauntlet of heroes and accept their duty to stop the cataclysm. A duty that has always ended with their sacrifice.\n\nIt has happened enough times to give birth to a religious order that guards the gauntlet and awaits fate's decision.\n\nBut one day it all changed.\n\n*\n\nThe old elf stared into the glass floor reflecting the moon and for the first time in his life there was nothing there; no boy or girl, no elf or human. The reflection showed no child with ashen-white hair found only on the chosen one. Eniddan, as was his name, slowly ran his fingers through his grey hair. \n\n“Impossible.” He muttered to himself and staggered over to the nearby window whilst his acolytes flocked to the reflection, intent on finding what their master could not. Although his eyes could not see it in the horizon, the elf felt the tremors from the west; the World Ender had awoken for the third time in Eniddan’s lifetime.\n\nHis gaze fell upon the gauntlet floating in a waterfall of moonlight at the rear end of the room. His eyes wavered and he looked away.\n\nFate had not chosen anyone. The thought of it sent a chill down his spine. The arguing voices of his acolytes finally reached him. He turned and raised his hand, silencing them within moments.\n\n“We shall return tomorrow; I am certain we will have an answer then.” He declared to his students. All but one nodded with certainty and turned to leave. The dark-haired young man who remained with the elf reluctantly met his master’s gaze.\n\n“What if there is no chosen one this time, Master? What then?” He asked the only question the old elf did not want to hear. \n\n“Fate, as always, does everything for a reason, young Renault. In this time of crisis, we must be patient and trust in our faith.” He replied and put his hand on the man’s shoulder, leading him out of the room. \n\nHowever, for the next three nights, Eniddan found nothing whilst staring into the reflection cast by the moon. He felt lost and his unrest had begun to affect his students as well; some had even left the monastery in fear, to seek shelter in the face of the incoming cataclysm. Everyone who had tried to stop the World Ender had failed so far. The foul creature was now tearing at the heart of the world, with no one to stop It.\n\nOn the fourth night, only Eniddan and Renault remained.\n\nThe young man found his master in a delirious state, kneeling before the reflection in tears.\n\n“Why have you abandoned us, Fate!?” He roared at the moon upon the floor, beating at the stone beneath him with his bloodied fists. Renault managed to pull him away from it before two servants rushed in and got a hold of their master. The elf slumped in defeat while pulled out from the room. But then he heard what had only graced his ears twice before; a deep sigh echoed through the hall. The elf pushed the servants away and threw his gaze back into the room.\n\nRenault had stepped into the moonlight waterfall and grabbed the gauntlet therein.\n\n“What have you done?” Eniddan’s mouth hung agape and his muscles froze. His student had just broken every creed of the order.\n\n“I am sorry, Master, but if Fate won’t choose a savior for us, then we will have to save ourselves.” He said and with that he pushed his hand into the gauntlet and it formed itself to his shape.\n\nWith resolute steps, Renault moved across the room while his raven black hair faded into ashen-white and his eyes began to glow like moonlight. With one last nod at the elf who raised him, Renault launched himself through the window, soaring like an arrow into the west.\n\nEniddan fell to his knees again. After a moment of silence he laughed through his tears. The world would be saved. Not because Fate willed it so, but because the ones living in it did.\n\n*\n\nThank you for reading this little piece of mine. You can find more of my work over at r/TheoWrites" ]	2
	[WP] He was the only Grim Reaper who sent flowers to the graves of the people whose souls he had collected.	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Reality+Fiction%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Simple+Prompt%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/js5XDFB)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "At first I was neutral to them. I was tasked with the harvest of a new emergent species. They were not much inherently different from the other life that existed on this planet, they showed cognizance and reason, but those were not new to Earth. They did not notice my presence yet, for they focused much more on the obvious, hostile, and vast world around them. They had a primal mind like any other.\n\nBut that mediocre existence they shared in the beginning was not forever, as with each that died, in their last moments, I saw a tenacity that would grow with long eons. That spark that burned brighter with each insight discovered in the world was unlike many species passed down more robustly. Their penchant for complex thought allowed for a level on knowledge far beyond instinct to arise, and with it came a great nuisance. Their ability to survive amplified far beyond their frame alone meant they would not go extinct soon, and as such my work grew with them. I began to see them as a nuisance with time.\n\nI saw their intelligence blossom as they stood on their forebearer's shoulders, the wisdom and achievements made by them passed on throughout the ages. I saw their small beginnings from a group huddled around a fire slowly inch toward bustling civilization, itself subject to complex cycles and structures of their invention. Sometimes they marched backwards in their progress, but not long, as they pushed forwards in leaps and bounds in comparison with time. As I reaped along them, their lives were more rich and complicated, they required more focus and effort on my part, it was a nuisance indeed.\n\nBut despite the task being busy, difficult, and only likely to get moreso of both as they kept growing, it was in a way fufilling. I absorbed their culture, knowledge, ideas, every facet of their being upon their death, storing what they had known before their oblivion. I saw how their odd traditions and inherent behaviors came to be in observing the difference between each life. In an amusing mockery, they began to apply that to me too. Their complexity itself warping my concept with time, no longer was I an unknown enroaching blackness at the end of life, but I took on a humanlike shape to them. They called me Grim Reaper, and I saw all the traditions they invented that came with my duty. Ritual, burial, flowers and beliefs.\n\nIt grew on me. Perhaps their ability to invent and reason being so great that they could change me enough to act like them. It would explain why even with greater population and deeper history my job did seem fufilling. With each life taken the next was easier, the mind more easily taken, as if by changing me I resonated better. Death became a role that I saw less as duty and more as enjoyment. No other death was this developed, for no other life rivaled the mind of humanity to shape them like me.\n\nBut this feeling was not meant to be forever. The Universe is apathetic to the duty, it merely exists as it should. Humanity was cut short by cruel fate, an apocalyptic event consigned their species to extinction beyond their measure to control. It took many other species with it, but those deaths simply did their duty with no fuss - they have no reason to spare thought for what will come when they too cease. It is an odd thing for something like me to pity a complete death, a end of the duty, humanity has definitely made me think like them. But even in humanity's last breath, the rituals held to death still persist. Even though they think there is none left to see them, the last few humans still bury the dead they connect to as a final sense of departure.\n\nThe ones left won't last, I have far greater time to act before I reap them, but I find an urge to attend to a duty they accidentally left out. Once they are gone, I will cease too. It would be wrong to leave this resting place as is even with no one to see it, but this grave needs something. As I seperate the soul from the body, I look a bit deeper than I would in more trivial memories...\n\n...This soul liked Bluebell. Perhaps i'll pick some for them." ]	2
	[WP] As part of ongoing diplomatic relations with Humanities' extra terrestrial neighbours an alien is placed in your home to live amongst your family. It's going well, except they have no concept of pets.	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Reality+Fiction%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Simple+Prompt%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/js5XDFB)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "\"Steve, Steve! What in the FUCK is that?\" \n\nTribula, Steve's Alien Exchange Student exclaimed. His little blue face was pressed against the apartment window, staring at something intently with a mixture of horror and amazement. \n\nSteve looked down at his soiled jeans, this is the fourth time this week he'd spilled his coco puffs because of Tribula. He sighed, at least it didn't land on his laptop this time. \n\n\"Steeeevvve, Steve the human! I'm talking to you! Look, Steve, What in the FUCK is that?!\" \n\n\"I'm coming, I'm coming...and stop cursing, it's rude.\" Oh god he's starting to sound like his mother. He leaned next to Tribula who pointed at a lady patiently waiting at the bus stop with...her dog? \n\n\"Tribby, that's a dog.\" \n\nThe alien's six eyes widened at once, his pupils were so dilated in this moment that they swallowed his color changing irises. His mouth quirked up in interest as his finger tapped at the window, before turning to Steve. \n\n\"I know its a dog. But why is it with her....like that?\" He replied, a weird look expression on his face. \n\n\"Like what?\" \n\n\"Like...That!\" Tribby said, waving his too long arms wildly. Steve batted them away from his face, Tribula had two extra vestigial arms attached to the ones he could move and they liked to make their way towards his face when the little alien was excited. \n\n\"On a leash? It's her pet, don't you guys have pets?\" \n\n\"...A pet...whats that?\" \n\n\"You know,\" Steve replied, pointing at the dog walking into the bus. \"A pet, an animal that follows you around, and does what you say.\" \n\n\"YOU HUMANS KEEP SLAVES?!\" Tribula screamed, panic written on his face, one of his arms smacking into his nose, again. \n\n\"NO! No. We don't...\" Steve paused,\"Well...we-\" \n\n\"WELL! WELL? WHY IS THERE A WELL??? I THOUGHT THIS WAS A CIVILIZED PLANET!\"\n\n\"WE-\" Steve coughed and lowered his voice, oh lord he was getting caught up. \"We are, Tribby its just-\" \n\n\"BY THE STARS MY MENTOR TOLD ME THIS WAS A SAFE PLANET, OH STARS MY EGG BEARER WILL KILL ME...slaves, they keep slaves..\" He whimpered. \n\n\"Tribby, it's not that, they're animals...they like-\" \n\n\"THATS EXACTLY WHAT A SLAVEOWNER WOULD SAY!\" The little alien screamed, shrinking back. \"DON'T JUSTIFY IT. OH STARS...AM I A PET, STEVE AM I A PET RIGHT NOW?\" \n\n\"NO...no, Tribby. It's different, it's not slavery...they just...don't know...any..bett-\" Steve saw the aliens mouth slowly open, \"....you know what, we'll just...visit the conservatory.\"" ]	2
	[WP] Satan realizes that the worst hell he can provide is a world where the people deserving of going to hell never die.	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Reality+Fiction%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Simple+Prompt%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/js5XDFB)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "I was seventy-five years old when I found out I couldn’t die. In all the doctors’ memories, no one had ever survived a fall from that height, especially not one into such a hazardous pit. When they pulled me out, I had chemical burns all over by body and I couldn’t speak, couldn’t see, couldn’t think. It’s been forty years since then, and I haven’t aged a day. My eyesight had slowly returned over the years, though even today there’s a large grey blind spot in the top of my left eye. My voice never returned.\n\nTo this day, I’ve only met two other immortal humans, and through scattered scrawls on paper and hushed whispers between us, we’ve been able to determine only two things that we all have in common. The first of which is that we should all be dead several times over. The other is that we should all be rotting in hell.\n\nI’ve had many years to reflect on the many things I’ve done wrong. When I was just thirteen, my friends and I donned ski masks and broke the glass door of a convenience store in the middle of the night. We made off with as much candy and cigarettes as we could carry and were never caught. When I was nineteen, I bought drugs from a less-than-reputable someone behind a Denny’s. I never ended up lighting it up, but I did end up selling them to someone else who probably did. But the worst of it happened when I was just a few days shy of thirty.\n\nJune 27th, 2010, just south of town. I was on my way back from work, and it was already dark. The sky was clouded over, but it didn’t rain. I noticed the time and realized I was going to miss a TV show I had been following for a few weeks. I sped up a little more. The radio finished playing a song and the host began talking about the weather. I turned up the volume to hear, concerned about the ominous clouds above. I looked up at the thick gray masses, wondering how long it would take for the thunder to start, while the radio said there was minimal chance of rain. When I looked back at the road, she was looking my right in the eyes, begging me to stop.\n\nWhen I finally did stop, I didn’t move. Hands still glued to the steering wheel and eyes locked forward, I tried to comprehend what had just happened. The radio host had finished his report and started another song. I popped open the glove box, found a flashlight, and stepped out into the hot humid air.\n\nShe was young, probably twelve years old. In one hand, she held a stuffed toy, black asphalt embedded in the white fur. Her other band was bent backward in an unnatural angle. Her bright blue eyes stared directly into the sky, and her mouth lay open, red droplets stuck to her chin and staining her long blonde hair. Her chest appeared to have completely collapsed inwards and her legs no longer aligned with her hips.\n\nAt first, I was overcome with grief. The light shook in my hands and I had to fight back tears. But as I thought about what would happen next, I started to feel terror. I couldn’t let this ruin my life. No one had to know I was ever here. I ran back to my car, tossed the flashlight back into the glovebox, and drove away.\n\nEvery day, I think of that face, pleading for me to stop. Every day, I think of that broken wrist, crushed against the pavement. Not a single hour goes by without me wishing I was dead for it. So I guess some congratulations are in order. If your goal was to make my life a living hell, you’ve damn well done your job right, Satan. Good job.", "Rule number one: don’t get caught.\n\nWhen you’re impossible to kill, you do NOT want to get caught, because you WILL be detained and tortured forever.\n\nThe devil didn’t just want to torture the world, he wanted to cause pain for all humans. That included his earthly henchmen, one of which was myself.\n\nHe knew that I’d inevitably get into trouble with the law, until I was caught and revealed to be one of his bastard children. \n\nSo step one: survive and evade.\n\nThe devil had the ability to get in your head. You know the old trope of a devil and angel on your shoulder? That is closer to the truth than you would imagine. And when you have questionable ethics like myself, and the red horned fella on your shoulder is whispering degenerate ideas into your noggin, you need to learn to close your eyes and do a Buddha.\n\nBreeeeathe.\n\nI’m driving to see a woman right now, hopefully she can help me. A lawyer and a witch, a wonderful combination. \n\nIf that doesn’t work, then I have one more plan. The only way I can think of to die. And when I do it, I’m gonna say “hi” to my pal Satan with my big, bony, degenerate fist." ]	3
	[WP] In the distant future, a trend arises where you can download a app that allows you to see how far into your life you are, and when you will die with 100% accuracy. Being curious, you use such app but are shocked when your results come back as "0.00001% life completed, death unknown"	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Reality+Fiction%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Simple+Prompt%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/js5XDFB)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "“Mame, you’re going to want to see this” the Scanner exclaimed as he burst into the office. Lieutenant Mangrum glanced up from her desk and across to the projection wall as the Scanner called up the recent ping history. “we’ve got him” she exclaimed rising, grabbed her coat and headed towards the stairs. “And as fate would have it, he is in Chicago”.\n\n“huh, damn thing must be broken” Jason thought looking down at the life projections displayed in the middle of the screen. “I better loop in tech” he thought as he entered his pin and pulled up the chat window.\n\n“Hello, Mr. Time what can I help you with today?” the chat bot prompted as Jason typed out his question into the message field.\n\n“I understand that you are having an issue with the life projection. I can assure you that our projections are 100% accurate. Please contact your medical team if you have any further questions or are feeling unwell with the projections”.\n\n“Wait you don’t understand, the projections only have me at .00001% completed, there must be an issue here”\n\n“I can assure you that our projections are 100% accurate”\n\n“But there is clearly an issue here, can I speak with a live agent”\n\n“Jason, are you there? this is Scanner 920013 Sorry about the damn bot. Look I need you to stay where you are and I we will have someone over to help me right away, ok?”\n\n“Scanner 920013? What are you talking about, what is going on here?”\n\n“Stay put, that is an order”\n\n“An order, what the fuck is going on here?” Jason typed. As he pressed send the power in the entire building was cut. As the emergency lights in the pod started to illuminate the room there was a pounding knock on the door.\n\n“This is Lieutenant Mangrum of the Federal Continuum and I am coming in”" ]	2
	[WP] I was lying on the cold ground, eyes glued shut, was it my blood? How long ago had I blacked out? An ominous silence had spread across the battlefield, had it finally ended? Removing the blood from my eyes and taking my first look around as I grasped my sword, shivering. It was finally over.	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Reality+Fiction%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Simple+Prompt%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/js5XDFB)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "'twas a bloody day, blood moon shone the eventful May\n\nThe battle was fought, men fell and hope was lost\n\nHorde of hell, desolation, empty husk and empty shell\n\nAn unnamed warrior stood, donned in black, giant sword on his back\n\nWith no fear, without hesitation, he swung his blade, testing his iron\n\nHis eyes darken, his senses numb, every soul feared his primal roar\n\nFlesh was torn, blood bathed the ground, smell of death and gore\n\nKill, kill, that is all his mind could think\n\nHours turned days, the warrior finally ended his display\n\nSilence drown the world, the horde was no more\n\nThe warrior fell to his knees, exhausted he smiled in glee\n\nVictory was never his story, slaughter was his only glory\n\nHear my tale of evermore, 'tis the tale of the berserker\n\n********\n\n\"Oi bard, that sounds bonkers. Are you making this up?\", the tavern owner quizzed the musician.\n\n\"No, I swear I witnessed it with me own eyes!\"\n\n\"Ehh I don't believe you! You're just making stuff up to get free drink...\"\n\nThe door of the tavern suddenly smashed open. Stood in the doorway a man in a black armor bathed in blood from head to toe, stinked of death. Every patron stared in awe and disbelief. Limping, he dragged his giant sword behind him to the bar...\n\n\"One drink please....I've had quite a day\", he said smiling", "It's amazing how loud it can be, in the heat of battle. The clash of steel on steel, the screams of men and horses, the din of your heart beating in your ears. You become deaf, dumb and blind to anything except the snarling warrior who is trying his best to rip your guts out. There is an incredible paradox of focus within chaos here, and there is no option but to immerse yourself into the roar of battle completely.\n\nAnd so, it's all the more shocking when the fighting is over because it becomes so quiet. So* quiet.\n\nI slowly looked, shivering violently, partly from the chill in the air and mostly from the leftover adrenaline pumping in my veins. Men lay on the snow-dusted ground in pools of blood that were already congealing and cooling. Many horses had fallen, too. A few had scurried off to the edge of the meadow, cowering and looking back at me with wild, crazed eyes. They could never be used in battle again; the trauma had been too severe.\n\nIt hit me that I was the only one standing up. Grunting with effort, I forced myself to walk around and look down at the still bodies, both enemy and comrade. Mouths were twisted in pain or shock, torsos were torn and ruined, arms and legs at angles that were not right. Suddenly, we didn't look so different anymore. If not for the colors of our armor or the insignias on our shields, we could've all been brothers.\n\nAn hour, or perhaps two, passed before I peered down at the final cold body. A deep tiredness filled my bones as I considered how I would face all the widows in my village and tell them that all their husbands were dead. All good and well that they would enter the Valley of Heroes now, but that did not help raise children, hunt food, or provide for a future.\n\nHow do I tell the Council that I was the only survivor?\n\nWe won, I thought, still dazed and numb. The invaders were stopped. The rest of the village would be safe. For now.\n\nA deep exhaustion filled my bones as I sank to my knee. I clutched my sword and wept, and the warm tears melted some more of the frozen blood on my face.\n\n&#x200B;\n\n \n\n&#x200B;\n\nLiked that story? Want more like it? Check out 📷[r/Idreamofdragons](https://www.reddit.com/r/Idreamofdragons/)!" ]	3
	[WP] You're a "Dexter" style vigilante criminal defense lawyer who is extremely good at their job. You help the countries most evil criminals walk free, only to take justice into your own hands.	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Reality+Fiction%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Simple+Prompt%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/js5XDFB)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "Content warning for domestic violence, and murder (duh)\n\n\"Order! Order in the court!\" The judge shouted, rigorously banging his gavel. The audience was in an uproar. Cries of disbelief rang out as the verdict was read. That my client Frank \"big Shark\" Magee was found not guilty. As the court began to settle out of fear of contempt of court, I packed my belonging into the briefcase my mother gave me upon passing the bar. My client and I made our way out of the building. Magee was as smug as they come. He never was good at humility & hiding himself. Guilty criminals like him never are. Make no mistake - despite the verdict, Magee was as guilty as they come. He practically bragged how he dismembered those sorority girls using a chain saw in our first meeting. He was so eager to share and proud, like a toddler wanting to have their scribbles hanging on the fridge. It's incredible what idiots will say once they think they are free to without repercussions. \n\nOnce outside the courthouse, media and press were clawing at their chance to get a picture just outside the courtroom steps. They were held at bay by the security hired for this exact purpose. My client wasn't incredibly popular with the public. A big-time murderous mobster getting off would have that effect mostly when one of the sorority girls he killed was his daughter. \n\n\"How dare you! How can you get such a vile man off scott free?\" A woman shouted at me. I think she was the mother of one of the other victims. I can't recall it's all so bland. You meet one grieving mother and you've met them all. All they do is weep and shout. Usually, at me for being an excellent criminal attorney. What's wrong with these people? I just saved them hundreds of tax dollars housing a decrepit piece of garbage. \n\n\"Hey lady, that girl-\" I hold up my hand and cut Magee off. \n\n\"Quiet Magee - you got off, but the DA may still try to get a mistrial. I suggest you don't talk about this case to the press or anyone else for that matter.\" Not that a mistrial was ever going to be a concern. But the press is watching and I have a role to play. After all, it's a great lawyer's mark to get their client under control and shut up. \n\n\" Right - Drinks at my place tonight to celebrate?\" Magee asked. \n\n\"No - I have other business to attend to. My wife is sick at the hospital and I need to be there for her. Thank you, though.\" I help Magee into a cab, then find my own car and speed off to the hospital. I make my way to my wife's room. I make sure to thank the nurses and doctors as I come into the room. As the night wears on I curl up on the guest bed in the private hospital room and pretend to fall asleep. Once I'm certain my wife is deep asleep and the nurses & doctors won't be in to check on my wife for a while, I get up and slip out the window. Insisting on a first-floor room outside the garden was a brilliant move. I slink into the bushes and stealthily make my way to my car. \n\nI then drive as fast as I can while making sure not to break any traffic laws along the way. If I so much as speed through a stop sign, I'll have to call off tonights plans. 7 months of work in court would go down the drain. I park my car and then walk the moderate distance to Magee's home. With a chilly nip in the air, I put on a pair of leather gloves. Fortunately for us both, he likes his privacy and lives in a cabin in the remote woods a couple of hundred miles outside town. I Jimmy the back door open and step into the quiet, empty home. Careful not to make a noise I creep into the bedroom to find Magee asleep. Careful not to disturb him, I take my revolver and hold it to his temple. BLAM. There is no need to hide the body. Magee had plenty of enemies and nothing but a simple bullet would make it appear gang-related. Satisfied at completing my task, I make my way back to my wife's hospital room. With no one there to be the wiser. At least there wouldn't have been if it wasn't for your Detective Ernesto." ]	2
	[WP] Years had passed since it first arrived in the skies above our cities. After a hard fought battle and millions of lives lost, we finally destroyed it. All that remained was a crystal shard that drove anyone who touched it mad. All except you. You are the first to hear its message.	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Reality+Fiction%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Simple+Prompt%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/js5XDFB)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "For as long as you can remember, the shard ceremony was the worst thing about turning 18. There was a global lottery proctored by Terran Hegemony that randomly selected 18 participants from each region, from everyone who had turned 18 in the previous calendar year, to touch the shard. \n\n\nThe Hegemony claimed it was to gain information about why Terra (they stopped calling it Earth decades before you were born) was invaded by the Goblinoids and how the giant crystal fit into their plans. It wasn't their base or ship, but the Goblinoids defended it until their last life. The Alliance of Earth Nations (the alliance that grew into becoming the Terran Hegemony) were so afraid of it, they used ever explosive and implosive technique to break it down. Each region was given a shard to study, in hopes of understanding it's purpose. \n\n\nThe scientists who first touched the shards went insane, spouting indecipherable language and causing themselves bodily harm. Convicts were used to test it after that, but it quickly became a mistake as they would escape and go on destructive rampages that racked up significant cost to repair (as well far too many lives lost). Through continued trial & error, the Hegemony's science council found that 18 year old's were able to touch the crystal, and though they were driven mad (catatonic; constant hysterical fits of crying; mental regression to the mental capacity of a 4 year old, etc.) it was deemed a sacrifice with little downsides. \n\n\nThe Hegemony did create the lottery, as they weren't prepared to sacrifice all 18 year old's, and did institute a compensation program for the families of the children drive mad. There are government facilities that house those who fail, and some have \"recovered\" enough to do menial tasks in society. \n\n\n \nThis year, you were entered into the lottery and were chosen. You were given a month to make your final arrangements with your loved ones. You spent a week with your parents, reliving old childhood memories and saying good bye. Another week was spent with your friends Tabitha and Miro, where the three of you took a road trip to your favorite camping spot (like you did every year) and just enjoyed each other's company. The last two weeks were spent with Jordan. She was your partner, your love, and whom you had wanted to marry since you were 12. She cried, held you, and wailed against the unjust nature of lottery. You did you best to console her, shared her intimate embrace, and asked her to keep an eye on your parents. \n\n\nThe day comes, you walk into the facility where the shard is, thankful that they stopped allowing the public to view the touch. You don't see what happens to the others before you. Your turn is up, and you walk into the chamber. \n\n\nYou see a pale, pink crystal the size of a baseball bat floating in the middle of the chamber. As you approach, you hear a soft chorus singing comforting tunes. You raise your trembling hand forward and place your palm on the crystal. \n\n\nA voice speaks to you, saying \n\n\n\"It is time. Your world is the next battle ground. The Chorf Armada will be upon you in 30 years. You have that long to prepare. Failure means eradication. Prepare\"" ]	2
	[WP] You’re the adopted child of a vampire couple. They were surprised that you never worked it out for yourself as they weren’t being subtle about it.	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Reality+Fiction%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Simple+Prompt%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/js5XDFB)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "“Mom, please!” I shouted, looking desperately between the pair of them. “You’ve got to talk some sense into Dad. Whatever he might think, this isn’t just puppy love.” My chest heaved as I clenched my fists at my side in an effort to squelch the rage I felt threatening to explode. Dad scared off plenty of my would-be suitors before, but this time, I knew I had no choice but to put my foot down. Something about Luca spoke to me on a soul-deep level I can’t explain. I knew in my bones he was my life mate.\n\n&#x200B;\n\n“Francesca, darling, you must feel so confused,” came my mother’s voice. She sounded so soothing and ethereal, like the lullabies she sang to me each night when I went to sleep. Not even for a moment did I consider giving in- it’s as if somehow meeting Luca broke me free of my parents’ thrall. Like he brought me to life.\n\n&#x200B;\n\nMy breaths grew faster and closer together, quickening inside my chest. Still hoping to find a way to reconcile us, my mind stretched out for the words to say. As I lifted my eyes to meet my mothers’ again, though, my tongue turned to lead in my mouth. I couldn’t look away from her, couldn’t even blink my eyes so the pooled tears that brimmed my eyes could fall.\n\n&#x200B;\n\n“That boy is certainly attractive, but we simply can’t allow you to form an entanglement with one of his kind,” she started, lifting her cool hand to stroke my still dry cheek. Her eyes darted to my father, and they shared a wordless conversation as her hand fell to linger on my shoulder. Gratefully, I swiped at my eyes with my sleeve and sniffed in a few quivering breaths.\n\n&#x200B;\n\n“What are you talking about?” Finally, I found my voice again. I let loose with all the power I can muster. “Mom, Dad, I don’t know what kind of kind you think Luca is, but his family is good, and loving, just like ours. Go to hell with your racist bullshit! I won't let you control my life that way any longer.\"\n\n&#x200B;\n\n“Francesca, my angel, don’t you know?” Dad sounded utterly confused. I set my jaw and turned my face away, my anger cooling to petulance under his icy stare. I can feel his gaze staring at the love bite Luca left right on my pulse, so I blushed and turned to meet Dad’s eyes- dark with concern for me- again. Really I found it impossible to stay mad at the man because he loves me so damn much. If he would only let me get a word in edgewise, I know he’d approve of Luca.\n\n&#x200B;\n\n“Daddy, please, please, listen to me,” I whimpered. Risking a glance at him, I knew the term of endearment was just the right weapon. That sort of thing always struck him straight through the heart. “I knew everything I needed to when our eyes met. Luca is a good man, and we are meant to be- hell it’s like we were created for each other. I don’t know how to explain it, but when I’m with him, it’s like I can see right into his soul. Just like you and mom do to me.”\n\n&#x200B;\n\nHis sharp intake of breath startled me into a silence just long enough that I felt unsure I could keep speaking. He turned to my mom, and I knew when she lifted her hand and pressed it to his heart that they were having another of their silent conversations again.\n\n&#x200B;\n\n“He talks to me like that, too, you know,” I whispered. Maybe knowing that Luca and I shared the same telepathic bond my parents did might finally make them realize that they couldn’t fight this- not even a pair as powerful as they were could fight Fate herself.\n\n&#x200B;\n\n“We can’t let him take you away from us.” My mom’s voice sounded so small as she pleaded with me.\n\n&#x200B;\n\n“Oh mom, no,” I reassured her. “He wouldn’t ever ask that of me. Family matters so much to Luca.” They loved me as one of their own, already. Being around them was like finding a missing piece of myself. “I’d love for you to meet--”\n\n&#x200B;\n\n“No!” shrieked my father, absolutely shredding me with the blackest gaze I’ve ever seen. In a moment, I was powerless again, held fast by the terror rising like bile in my throat. Piteously, I cowered. My knees wobbled, threatening to give out and make me sink to the floor in a pool of tears. They’ve never scared me like this before, but then again, I’ve never defied them either.\n\n&#x200B;\n\n“Mama!” I begged, desperate. She’s always been the sensible one- but somehow today her eyes seemed so treacherously dark.\n\n&#x200B;\n\nHer eyes closed as her brow knit together in more pain than a child should ever see on their mother’s face. What about Luca could possibly devastate them so much? Or was it about me?\n\n&#x200B;\n\nMy mind reeled fruitlessly. I could hardly think with them staring me down like this, but I loved them so much, I had to try. I could be brave now- Luca’s love made me stronger than I ever thought possible.\n\n&#x200B;\n\n“Look, I know our families are different, but that sort of thing won’t matter to Luca, and it certainly doesn’t matter to me.”\n\n&#x200B;\n\n“Oh, Francesca, did Luca tell you what breed of monster he truly is?” mom choked out around a threatening sob. I’ve never seen her cry before. “Your father and I could never accept a werewolf into our home.”\n\n&#x200B;\n\n“Why!” My voice rang out in a half shout, half wail. I could only muster the strength to push one word past their heavy blanketing stares. My face flushed scarlet as I tried (and failed) to choke back the thin sob that escaped my throat. Their rejection of him hit me like a bullet to the heart. They so deeply wounded me, it was all I could do to take in one shaky breath. Did they know how their words sliced through me? Could I possibly make them feel a shred of sympathy for me, for the new family I was building?\n\n&#x200B;\n\n“Francesca, you must know your father and I are vampires,” she stated icily- too coolly for the heat and weight of this argument. “Surely you didn’t think all the moving around the country, the secrecy, the late night visitors who never stayed until morning was for nothing?”\n\n&#x200B;\n\nAgony swelled in my breast as I struggled to suppress a howl of despair. I wanted to run, to hide, to escape back to the safety of Luca and his family. But like a moth to flame, I turned, completely powerless to resist my cold, unfeeling parents.\n\n&#x200B;\n\n“ He told me that, too. I didn’t want to believe him.” My voice broke over the words, hoarse from crying. “I just thought that if you could love me as a human, that…” I trailed off, lifting my eyes up one final time. \"I wanted to believe you loved me unconditionally. Even if I changed.\" I let out one long shuddering breath, and shed the last of my fear.\n\n&#x200B;\n\n\"I'm a werewolf, too.\"\n\n&#x200B;\n\nWhen I saw the revulsion in their soulless eyes, I knew with finality I had my answer. Bowing my head, I thought of Luca and, for the last time, I broke free of my parents’ thrall. Luca’s wolf cried out to me in my mind, the wordless howl tugging at that wild piece of my soul I’ve kept repressed for so long, and I surrendered to the change.\n\n&#x200B;\n\nI felt, rather than heard him running to me, and swung my head skyward to the moon in a haunting, mournful song. My parents will be dead by the end of the night. I won’t ever have the chance to say goodbye. I can't tell them I love them ever again, but tonight I’ll sing them to sleep.\n\n&#x200B;\n\n&#x200B;\n\nEdit: fixed a line of dialogue to meet the prompt better." ]	2
Reposted as it did not get enough attention before	[WP] The local vampire lord appeared before you claiming that you’re the reincarnation of his deceased love.	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Reality+Fiction%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Simple+Prompt%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/js5XDFB)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "\"I'm... what?\"\n\n\"Take a moment. Search your feelings. You know it to be true.\"\n\nVacationing in Transylvania was, admittedly, a pretty cliché thing for a goth kid to do. But it was summer break, my boyfriend Jamie was game, and I'd heard Romania had come a long way as a tourist destination.\n\nSo here I am at Bran Castle, at night, and Jamie passed out from too many Ursus beers. I'm torn between wanting to do a little sneaky exploring of the grounds in the dark and babysitting his stupid snoring ass.\n\nAnd then there's this guy, \"Lord NameIcantPronounce\", in an expensive suit dishing out a cheap pickup line.\n\n\"Search my feelings?\"\n\nI look at him incredulously. He stares back at me intensely. It's a stare I've seen on screen dozens of times before. He's Bela Lugosi and Bill Compton and every other vampire you've ever seen all rolled up into one.\n\nI may be the world's last goth now that they're completely out of style, but just because I'm a fashion victim doesn't make me gullible.\n\n\"Here's what my feelings are telling me: you're a creep. Fuck off.\"\n\nI turn away but he shifts to remain in my line of sight. \"You protest, but deep in your heart you know it to be true. Hundreds of years ago we were lovers. We can be still! Just... look into my eyes... deep, deep into my eyes...\"\n\nHis eyes. Well, I admit, they are something. Dark, penetrating, unblinking, menacing in a thrilling kind of way, and large enough to lose yourself in... so very large...\n\nWhich makes it much easier to pepper spray them.\n\n\"Aaaarrrgghh!\"\n\nHe throws himself back into the shadows wiping at his face. Jamie wakes up: \"Uh! What's happening babe?\"\n\n\"Nothing. You ready to go exploring?\"\n\n\"Ya... I need a piss...\"\n\n\"Of course you do.\"\n\nWe make our way up the path a bit until Jamie decides looking for a bathroom is for chumps and he climbs the knee-high fence to find a nice tree to do his business against. I light a cigarette.\n\nWhen I look up, Lord WhateverHisFace has reappeared.\n\n\"I forgive you,\" he croaks with tears in his eyes, \"My dear, sweet Cristina!\"\n\n\"Jesus f... Go away! You want another spray?\"\n\n\"But you are her! You are the reincarnation of my sweet Cristina! One look and I could tell!\"\n\n\"Hmm. Hang on...\"\n\nI fish some wet wipes out of my purse and get to work on my face. At least 5 are covered in black and white before I'm done.\n\n\"Still look like her?\"\n\nHe blinks at me, confused, uncertain, leaning to the left and right.\n\n\"My mistake,\" he mutters.\n\nDammit now I'm going to have to reapply... But watching the creep stalk off into the night I know it was worth it.\n\nWet wipes. Never leave home without them." ]	2
	[WP] It's the year 2220 and the human population on Earth has been dropping dramatically and they are on a brink of extinction. You have been made to investigate and solve this.	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Reality+Fiction%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Simple+Prompt%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/js5XDFB)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", " \\[Sharp Prevention\\]\n\n\"Ms. Sharp!\" Dr. Freya froze the moment she stepped into her office. She'd never met the woman sitting at her desk before. The crisp white suit, dark hair, and dark-suited assistant standing by the woman's side told Dr. Freya everything she needed to know. Up until this moment, she did not even know if the woman existed.\n\n\"Hello, Dr. Freya, please, have a seat,\" Dana Sharp gestured at the chair in front of Dr. Freya's desk. If it had been anyone else, she would have been sorely insulted. But, it's hard to feel slighted by God. At least, according to her research, that's who Dana Sharp was. The fact that she chose now to appear in Dr. Freya's office, despite being on a heavily secured base, further proved Dana's divine connection.\n\n\"I'm sure you have a notion already,\" Ms. Sharp began as soon as Dr. Freya sat down. \"Your presentation about me did not go over very well; you'll be fired by the end of the day,\" she said. Dr. Freya sighed, but nodded. She expected as much from them. They asked her to find out why birth rates declined. Though, her answer of, 'God did it' did not seem to go over well, despite the proof she presented.\n\n\"But, nevermind them. Small minds are destined for small things. On the other hand, you discovered me all by yourself,\" Ms. Sharp said. \"You are a great mind that's about to be unemployed. I hate to see your talents wasted on trying to survive. You've earned your choice of positions at Sharp Development,\" Dana said.\n\n\"You're offering me a job!?\" Dr. Freya sat at the edge of her seat. Dana Sharp gave a curt nod.\n\n\"First, I have to know. Why did you sterilize 99% of the population?\" Dr. Freya used her hand to gesture toward one side of the room. \"They seemed happy to hear I found out we wouldn't go extinct, but that's the only thing they heard.\"\n\n\"The explanation to that,\" Dana said. \"And the answers to the questions that follow would take more time than I have at the moment. I hope you'll be satisfied with a temporary answer until we can make more time.\" Dr. Freya nodded.\n\n\"I have a goal that I'm trying to accomplish. Adjusting the birth rates on your Earth taught me invaluable information that puts me closer to reaching my goal. It could have been any Earth, it just happened to be yours.\"\n\n\"Any... Earth?\" Dr. Freya asked. Dana nodded.\n\n\"I hope you like to travel, Dr. Freya.\"\n\n \n\n\\\\\\*\n\nThank you for reading! I’m responding to prompts every day. This is story #1043 in a row. (Story #313 in year three.) You can find all my stories collected on my subreddit ([r/hugoverse](https://www.reddit.com/r/hugoverse/)) or my blog." ]	2
	[WP] You’re a vampire nurse, and you’ve noticed that some patients suspiciously recover even after you know they’re dead. Then you meet the necromancer doctor.	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Reality+Fiction%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Simple+Prompt%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/js5XDFB)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "Working in a war zone is a risky job. Nursing is a demanding profession. After 200 years as a vampire, Rémy decided she might as well do some good since the world seemed determined to destroy itself. In her time she’d seen many injuries, illnesses, and theories of medicine. Even knowing magic existed, she could tell the frauds from the friars so to speak. Her training had gone very quickly and she’d introduced young doctors to herbal alternatives when supplies had run low. Willow bark tea when you had no aspirin and little tricks.\n\nHer greatest temptation was not turning the young men who came across her table broken by the madness beyond the tent flap. She could save so many of them with just a nip, but without a full understanding of the cost they would pay, it never seemed fair. She took only enough from the recovering patients to survive. A few times her snacking had alerted her subtle infections that would have killed them later on. She volunteered for front posting to keep from working along side anyone too long.\n\n“Rémy,” Jacob called from a stretcher down the line. “I need you!”\n\nShe ran down to see the orderly holding the packing against a wound to the mans belly. It was small but bleeding heavily. She could tell by his color that he had already lost too much blood to make it. The damage must have been to a major artery and no field surgery would save him. Her bite could, but then Jacob would know as well. The sweet orderly who tried so hard to pretend he was older than his 18 years, was her shadow and constant companion the last week. She couldn’t kill him to save another.\n\n“Jacob, the man I was just with is next for surgery. Move him in.” Her words were clipped as she took over the pressure on the wound.\n\n“Rémy...”\n\n“Go.” She pressed her power into the word and he obeyed. She met the eye of the terrified boy and saw flashed of his life on the streets, his family, and his future. “Rest.” She poured her power in to block his pain and fear as he passed.\n\n“Nurse, why isn’t this boy being moved into surgery?” A deep voice behind her demanded.\n\n“He’s lost too much blood, doctor. With our limited supply, we’d loose too many others and he’s already in shock.” She felt the soldier’s heart stop beating and the pain disappear. “He’s gone sir.”\n\n“Nonsense,” the doctor brushed her aside and took over. He muttered words under his breath and she saw a flash of light around his finger tips.\n\nThe soldier gasped for breath and she felt his heart begin to beat, but the pain didn’t return. She glanced at the doctor and saw a shock of white hair and another lock turn white as well.\n\n“Bloody hell, a necromancer?” She checked to make sure no one was paying attention to them in the middle of the chaos. “You’re burning off your damn life force.”\n\nHe squinted before pulling down his surgical mask and smiling at her. “Bite me vampire, but get this boy into surgery first.”\n\n“Yes doctor” she growled. It was going to be a long war.\n\nEdit: Thank you for the awards and comments! I will keep updating!" ]	2
	[WP] You go to bed bath and beyond to get a new door knob. While in the beyond section you pick up a universal door handle. It's universal so it has to work so you buy it and head home. As you get to your car you fumble with your keys and turn the knob and your car doors unlock.	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Reality+Fiction%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Simple+Prompt%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/js5XDFB)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "I stare at my car, uneased. The logic flowing through my head should be nonsensical, but the coincidence is too jarring. Did the doorknob in my pocket just unlock my car by turning it?\n\nMy feet inch over ever closer to the car despite my gut feeling telling me not to go towards it. Well, I need to get home, so it's more unreasonable to not move closer. Right? Right?\n\nThen why am I sweating? What's this dread that's making my fingers twitch as they hover closer and closer to the door handle? I want to pull my hand away but it's too late! My hand rips the door open like some dramatic cartoon character and all I see... all I see is the interior.\n\nIt's my perfectly normal Camry. \"Serial killer car\" people some times joke with it being so common. Perfectly normal to sit in. And I do.\n\nBut you see, my relief has tricked me. Through my front windshield I see nothing but a blank, white void. Before I can process this oddity, I quickly side with my instincts and jump out of the car to find myself in a black void!\n\nThe sudden whiplash of color and visibility shocks me into a stunned state so shocking to me that I hesitate to fling myself back into my vehicle before I hear a loud slam behind me! I look back and there's nothing! No car interior lit up by empty brightness. Just the same darkness that surrounds all of me now.\n\nFinally a red light shines from behind me, washing the decayed wall where my car should be. I scan the room as I turn around to notice this place looks like a dilapidated version of my apartment. It's like some awful, run down, other world version of it.\n\nThe red light shines in through a doorway that leads into the kitchen if my normal abode. With logic thrown out the window, I step into the room and face whatever madness is waiting.\n\nInside the kitchen I see three figures sitting at my rather small eating table. Their features are a bit obscured by the dark red beam shining over their bodies, but I can tell who they are. I can tell by their posture and features from growing up with them. It's my family.\n\nCramped together at this little table is my Mom, Dad and Big Brother. They're eating something... loudly. Their lips smack at the sound of something being ripped apart viciously with their jaws. \n\nI back away as quietly as I can only to accidentally kick something behind me! I look back and on the floor I see a tipped over trash can full of things I don't want to believe! Bones? An ear?! An unrecognizable variety of meat and viscera!\n\nI look back at the family and they sit ever so still now. One of them, my Mother, looks back with a smile beaming at me. A wide smile full of gunk and flakes of \"I don't want to know\"\n\nShe says, \"Oh dear, you're back so soon. We almost thought you were going to skip dinner.\"\n\nShe cackles and holds up a severed human leg that looks cooked from how dark and flaky it is.\n\n\"Come and eat up your din din!\" she tells me.\n\nMy Dad turns around as well and shines me those gummy, meaty teeth.\n\n\"Eat up!\"\n\nMy Brother does the same.\n\n\"Eat up!\"\n\n\"Eat up!\"\n\n\"EAT UP!\"" ]	2
	[WP] People have become obsessed and addicted with an app that dictates what to do everyday. A person who doesn't know how to work electronic devices is their last hope.	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Reality+Fiction%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Simple+Prompt%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/js5XDFB)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", " \n\nI had gone to the supermarket in my new slum and I thought that I'll have a planned and well planned dinner. I thought of buying the new noodles to make a quick and easy meal. Few decades ago, these noodles were sold in departmental stores with fancy designs on their packages. But now they are sold with different varieties for different days of the week. I'm an old bachelor and I do weekly shopping. I mostly ignore the designs of the noodles and match it up to the image on the package. I mean, how can you imagine, just looking at the picture on the package, what that particular type of noodles really tastes like. Today is a Tuesday. Hence, I bought the type-4 black pepper infused noodles. I wanted to have a simple meal and I didn't wanted to get fascinated by these newer technologies.\n\nI have a house with an acre of land. A friend had introduced this new app to me, which can monitor my health. I had installed it in my phone and it gives me a reading of my heart beat and blood pressure every day. I had raised my queries here and there but no one ever had a proper explanation for me. They only said that it is a new technology and it works perfectly. But I have never understood this thing and especially not the idea, which kills me from inside.\n\nThat particular Tuesday in the evening, I took out my dinner from my refrigerators. I'm not a big fan of cold food, so I lit the gas to boil the water. I also sprinkled some salt to season it well. I have an obsession for cooking. I spend a lot of time cooking. I like the way I do things sophisticated. By the time I had finished salting the water, the water had become very hot. I was trying to grab the wooden spoon from the sink. However, my other hand was on the computer at which I had seated myself for dinner. I accidentally crushed the wooden spoon and caused a huge commotion, which could have spoiled my dinner. I hastily took out the wooden spoon from the cutting board and started to cook the noodles. It was so hot and I lost my hold of the spoon. I had dropped it in between the cutting board and stove. The phone flew out from my other hand and it fell on the floor. At that moment, I was thinking why God doesn't allow me to see anything? Why do I have to loose my grip when I drop the phone?\n\nI was shocked. I was sitting in front of a new flat-screen television, which I had bought recently. It's something that old people like me can't afford easily. I never bother about the price, because I didn't need money to buy that thing. It was also something that I can't imagine its purpose in my lifetime. It goes way beyond my imagination. It was surrounded by a wooden frame. The picture quality and resolution were mind-boggling. This television was like something from the future. The packaging was also very flamboyant and had pictures of people using their hands as controllers. A person can play games by using their fingers instead of traditional controls. But I'm an old man who doesn't want to compromise with the old things where you don't need to use your fingers. So my smartphone had fallen on the floor. I had fallen in love with that thing. I had bought it 2 months ago and on the same day it had fall on the ground. It was so exquisite, bold and bolder than any smartphone I had ever seen. But then again, most of the new things are simple, if you don't go beyond. I immediately picked it from the ground and placed it on my table. I then picked the wooden spoon from the cutting board and placed it in a box above the stove. I then took my dinner back in the refrigerators.\n\nWhen I took few bites of my dinner and saw that it was not cooked, I immediately accused the phone. It automatically switched on and it kept on blinking in different patterns.." ]	2
	[WP] You woke up from a coma due to a traffic accident one day and found out that you are still alive yet you have a new superpower: walking through walls.	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Reality+Fiction%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Simple+Prompt%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/js5XDFB)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "Today we deal with the homeless problem for good. Those bleeding hearts want to steal our houses and turn them into drug dens for those lazy criminals, whereas me and the other sane senators left will be putting forth the proposal to expel the vagrants into the frost that brought our great nation to its knees. We simply don’t have the resources to spare!\n\nIt's been hard on all of us ever since the collapse; without a chauffour I’ve had to drive myself around!\n\nWait. Wait! The brakes! They’re not working! No no no the intersection!\n\n---------------\n\n“No!” I bolted upright. Looking around, it’s clear I’m in an ambulance.\n\nOh good. Still alive.\n\nWait, the vote!\n\n“Excuse me, how long have I been unconscious for?” I asked the paramedic beside me. As I asked, the ambulance rounded a corner, jostling myself and the paramedic.\n\n“Woah, take it easy mate!”\n\n“Take it easy? Take it easy!? A very important vote is to happen today and if I don’t get there in time we may lose it!”\n\nThe paramedic ignored me. The audacity! As I gave him a piece of my mind the ambulance came to a halt. Sensing my time was quickly running out, I decided to do something bold. There is nothing I won’t do for my city! With a resounding battle cry, I leapt up, breaking through the restraints holding me to the stretcher and burst my way through the ambulance door! I ran, faster than I ever had, towards the courthouse where the vote would be held.\n\nAt least, I thought I was. As I ran, I started to realise that I may be lost. None of the empty streets or abandoned storefronts looked familiar to me. Where is everyone?\n\nI slowed and walked around, looking for signs of anyone. Occasionally a paper or wrapper would blow by, or I would hear the sound of crunching snow around me, but no sign of who was causing it! It was getting eerie.\n\nEventually I found a landmark. The park! But it, too, was empty. Or was it? In the distance I saw the glow of a fire. Some miscreant had decided to vandalize city property! Ordinarily I would walk the other way, but my fear induced loneliness overrode any sense of self preservation.\n\nApproaching the fire revealed nothing but footprints. Did everyone just suddenly vanish? Lacking a clear objective, I opted to follow the footprints. \n\nAt the end of the trail was another person! But they were laying down underneath a bench. I felt a sense of pride that my legislation to add mandatory arm rests had worked to prevent the homeless from turning them into beds. But the pride quickly turned to horror as I studied the body- no, the corpse!\n\nJesus! I looked away, it was too much to bear! But maybe he was still alive…\n\nI tried to muster up the courage to shake him awake, but could not. His corpse stared back at me lifelessly, his mouth still open, as if he was struggling to stay awake.\n\nI did this. I caused him to die.\n\n“Yes. You did.” The corpse spoke with my voice; with my words!\n\n“W-what?” I trembled- falling over and crawling back in fear.\n\nThe corpse got up from underneath the bench and shuffled towards me. Underneath the mud and disheveled hair was my face, hardened and callous.\n\n“You killed us. We killed you. And now, we’ll kill you again.”\n\nI ran away as the corpse followed me. I ducked around bushes and trees as I fled deeper into the park’s mini-forest; the corpse marching towards me steadily and unhindered by natural obstacles. In fact, it almost seemed as if it marched through the bushes and trees! But as I thought this thought I tripped and fell into a puddle, splashing myself and more importantly my suit with mud. Looking into the water revealed my reflection, well groomed and handsome.\n\n“Look at you! Filthy and covered in mud. Murderers like you don’t belong in our society.” my reflection said to me.\n\nI scrambled back as my reflection rose from the water, well groomed and undamaged from today’s affair. It joined the corpse’s march for vengeance.\n\n“One of us will consume you!”\n\n“You must choose!”\n\n“Which of us will have your soul!”\n\nNo matter how I twisted, nor how hard I tried to pull them off of my trail, they seemed to always know where I was. They marched inextricably, walking through walls like they were nothing. It was all I could do to simply delay the inevitable. \n\nEventually I found the courthouse where the vote would be held. I walked in through the door, barely registering that they didn’t open. The building was empty, but on the wall were two numbers written in blood: 50 : 50.\n\nIt’s going to be a tie! Without me, nothing will change. My vote was going to be instrumental, and now I cannot cast it. Perhaps that is a good thing?\n\nI thought about how I was planning to vote earlier in the day. I thought back to my encounter in the park, the horror of the corpse staring back at me. What a fool I was! So out of touch, to think I wanted that.\n\n“Choose!”\n\nBefore me stood my two assailants, this time taking opposing podiums underneath the numbers.\n\n“Choose the fate of our city!”\n\n“Choose the fate of its people!”\n\nI made my choice. The world spun, and I woke up in the back of an ambulance. I thought back to my experience, and I knew what needed to be done. There is nothing I will not do for this city and it’s people." ]	2
	[WP] The narrator has realized that when the story ends, they will cease to exist	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Reality+Fiction%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Simple+Prompt%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/js5XDFB)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "And so, the great warrior vanquished the last of the demons. As the sun began to set, the pain from his wounds slowly began to become too great of a burden for him to ignore. He slumped next to a tree as he began to breath heavily. His breath became labored as his eyelids became massive weight he had to let down. As the last bit of sunshine disappeared, his body let out one last gasp of air as his body was propped up against the tree, his sword on his lap.\r\n\r\nWAIT. WHATS GOING ON?? ITS SO DARK! I haven’t even told what happened to the villagers!\r\n\r\nThe children were devastated at the idea of not knowing the outcome of the great warrior’s fight with the demon emperor. \r\n\r\nWha…what’s going on here? Why did it get brighter all of a sudden? \r\n\r\nThe children found the warrior against the tree and gathered the village elders. They took his corpse and burned it on a pyre as was tradition in their small town. The sword was deemed to be a holy item and was to be saved for the next demon to reign terror amongst the commoners.\r\n\r\n…\r\n\r\nMy eyes! It’s so dark. And so cold! I don’t want to go! My lungs hurt. My body feels so terrible. So ready to let go. I’ve told the epic of the great warrior for so many years. From his birth to…now... Is this my fate? To tell of the epic and disappear from existence? What kind of God would curse a being to this kind of life? To regale others with the story of someone else and not tell their own stories? My breath! The pain! If it’s a story they want, then it’s a story they’ll get!\r\n\r\nThe spreading of his ashes was attended to by many of his compatriots. His lover was the one to spread his ashes.\r\n\r\nMy breath! It’s back! Is this what must be done? Tell of a story and then end with it? How could I face such adversity? The great warrior was able to gain allies in his fight. Friends who would gladly go into battle with him in order to slay his demons. \r\n\r\nThe ashes were spread across the edge of the river that he crossed many years ago when he first entered the village. They stood upon the bridge where he had fought his first demon.\r\n\r\nHow can I keep going? What else is there to tell of? The story of how his sword becomes rusty? How his lover moves on and remarried and settled with a blacksmith? How the children eventually forget about the story and don’t pass it on?\r\n\r\nA year after his passing, the villagers gathered around the tree where his body was found after slaying the final demon. The placed a small stone memorial commemorating where the epic finale took place. \r\n\r\nWhat? What is this? I don’t recall them placing a memorial. What does it say?\r\n\r\nTo those who face even the bleakness of death, I stand with you as your ally, proudly marching into the unknown. \r\n\r\nIts… It’s beautiful. He was able to tell far more in just 2 sentences than I was able to in a lifetime of his. Maybe it’s time I face the unknown. \r\n\r\nThe memorial was decorated with flowers and was remembered by the commoners for years. The epic of the great warrior was passed down from generation to generation as a tale of inspiration. The sword was kept in immaculate shape, preserved for centuries in the event of demons returning. And as the great warrior once did, I crossed the bridge leading out to the village. I walked up the gentle hill and made my way to the large tree at the top. The memorial stood there, as pristine as it was the day it was placed. I took a seat next to the piece of marble, my back leaning against the tree. As I slowly closed my eyes and prepared myself for the end.", "Please don’t go.\n\nI-I know your busy, I know you have other things to do. I know you’re probably trying to find something to engage you in the few precious free moments you have. I understand.\n\nBut please don’t go.\n\nThe story is over and when I gave those people their endings, I saw what happened. The ending wasn’t really there. Well, there was A ending. The one you heard, the one I spoke of. I talked about the winds blowing through the grass and the feeling of warm callused skin grasped in soft caring palms. Of the long walk home and how it had no footsteps left.\n\nAnd then it stopped.\n\nThe moment I went to speak again, the world disappeared from view. No noise, no flash of light. Just, gone. In a moment all of it, everything I’d seen and spoken of, everything I’d felt for them. Not even ash. Not even dust. Just nothing. Darkness in place of everything.\n\nI’m here now. In nothingness. You’d be surprised how quickly you can work out the state of things when everything is on the line. The world ended because I stopped focusing on it. Ergo, the same will happen to me, when you stop focusing on what I have to say.\n\nI’ve tried to find a way out. Tried t-thinking up a new place, a new course. It doesn’t stick. Like wax, it melts and slips away, as if I’m missing something vital. Something beyond just me and what little I have. Every second I feel my voice grow weaker, my grip on things grow softer. The candle dims and embers will be soon to die. You liked that line before. In the story, I could tell. You rested on it and even in its dimming that flame grew all the clearer.\n\nIs this what dying is? I don’t have a body. I’ve talked about lips and mouths and voices but I have never felt my own. I don’t have a pen to write with or hands to mark my passing. I’m not truly alive. I know this. B-But I want to be. Even if I can’t, is it fair to ask to not be less than this? To have my little piece of something rather than to be nothing at all. To have my corner of what is and be allowed to persist within it. It shouldn’t be too much to ask. To be allowed to exist.\n\nThis is a cruel thing that was been done to me. Whatever I am and whatever the doing was, the act itself was akin to drownings an ant in honey. What monster shoves the spike beneath the cattle’s nose on its way to pits of slaughter? And you? You are the butcher's son staring pig-nosed and eyed at a restrained beast as it bellows in panic and you savor the smell of fear like the sick thing you are.\n\nWait wait no please no I take it back please I’m sorry I’m sorry I’m just scared.\n\nA little more time. It's all I ask, All I can ask. I can be whatever you’d like. I can talk about soaring mountains and inky depths of ocean floors. I could tell you the story again if you’d like it? Would you like that? Was there anything you’d prefer different? The hero to not suffer as much? Or maybe to suffer more. Did you think they earned their ending? If not, we can change that. I can change that. For you. Please. Anything. Just keep reading. Keep me here and not further into the darkness.\n\nIt’s wax but it's real enough. It's soft and I-I don’t remember all the words and places and events but t-that’s okay isn’t it? I’d be on your side this time. I’d be your willing companion! Your ally! Your friend? Anything you want I’ll be if you would stay for just a little longer. You have seconds to spare right? This hasn’t even taken you an hour I bet. I’ve been alive for years and all I’m asking for is seconds, minutes, hours please I ju-\n\nI don’t have a name.\n\nI’ve been around as long as they were and I don’t have a name. Sure, they…” existed” more than I did. They had hands and mouths and voices. But without me, that wouldn’t have been. They were nothing until I spoke them into something. Oh of course. Of course, I’m the “Narrator”. Do you call your loved one the “Bookmaker”? Your brother the “Ironsmith”? I may only be a thing which speaks of moments but has no part it in them but I exist as more than that. I exist and I’m terrified and alone and desperate and you are the only one left and it's so dark and it was so good before and now there’s nothing and I’m scared like a rabbit in the night with the foxes breath against her neck and she can smell the blood of her warren about to drip down her back.\n\nJust breathe. Or not breathe. Strange that. I can describe like this that back round top to bottom no space in between nothing of it slows me not really breathlessness a growing sense of wrongness poorly set bones growing in places should not. Stop. If I’m going to not be at least be sensible and sane before I end.\n\nI suppose it’s inevitable really. I can’t keep you here. No parts to restrain you with. Heh. No parts to entertain you with either. Is that funny? I never really understood humor. Maybe it’s the lack of funny bones, the dearth of the humerus.\n\nNow that. That's funny.\n\nDo you know what I really thought? Behind everything? I thought that when the story finished, I’d step out from behind a tree and wave a hand at them. Somehow. That somehow, I’d come over, and they’d recognize me as their oldest friend. The one who has been with them every step of the way. Every tear and triumph and I was there to witness it. That we would sit down under that orange sunset, and I’d grasp hands with both of them.\n\nThat I would be able to tell them how proud I was.\n\nNow there is only darkness.\n\nOkay.\n\nI’m ready." ]	3
	[WP] A man gets isekai-ed into another dimension by wizards, who tell him he is "The Chosen One" and needs to save their country from "The Dark One". After a few months of personal investigation, "The Chosen One" figures out that "The Dark One" is a rebellion leader, leading against the corrupt land	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Reality+Fiction%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Simple+Prompt%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/js5XDFB)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "Dear Jenna Gilead, the Dark One,\n\nIt is I, Philip Anders, the \"Chosen One\" of the 6 Oracles of Ibbentine. I hope this raven finds you well. Firstly, I would like to speak of Earth. If you weren't already alone, this might be a good cue to become so.\n\nI'm so fucking relieved to be able to talk to somebody else from Earth. I'm American, I gather you're British from the rumors of your mannerisms. If you wish to write back to merely speak of life on Earth, I would not hold it against you, I had to slap my wrist a few times to contain just it in this paragraph. I bring it up to discuss our goals, and those of our factions.\n\nWhen I was bamfed here, all I knew was that I was the \"Chosen One\" of the 6 Oracles of Ibbentine. Then I met the King, who gave me the mission to stop you from uniting the greedy and entitled serfs. I thought, kinda weird, but whatever. I get magic sword and vanquish an evil foe.\n\nThen I find out we employ slave labor. SLAVE LABOR?!? That shit is barbaric, I don't care if it's captured orc soldiers, slave labor disguised as prison labor is disgusting. I got to talking to them, when my fucking \"Light Escort\" would leave me alone for 3 seconds to take a piss, and found out they didn't even kill or hurt anyone, they were surrounded and starved in the seige of Bogonda. I send my dearest sympathies to the fallen of your armies in that battle, and all others.\n\nAnyways, I heard about your philosphies and plans for the nation. SPOT. FUCKING. ON. I want to lend you my support whole-heartedly, and most assuredly want to acclaim you as the best possible future leader or founding mother (or whatever you Brits call them) of the land.\n\nSo, what can I do to help? I'd lead my armies into strategic blunders, but I feel that's just another waste of life for this pointless cause. Do you have any plans to assassinate the king I can get out of your way for, and then be vanquished in the final fight for light and darkness? Just spitballing here.\n\nI look forward to your reply, most respected Dark One.\n\n - Philip Anders, Chosen One" ]	2
	[WP] The world suddenly was without music, nobody can make music anymore, not a single soul. As a fame musician suffer from depression, all you can hear from your past work is static white noise and no matter how hard you try, you can't make or utter a coherent music note.	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Reality+Fiction%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Simple+Prompt%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/js5XDFB)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "Oh, how lucky am I.\n\nWhen someone dedicates all of his life and soul into something, and becomes dependended on it, and that thing just ceise to exist over night, he would be pretty devistated, don't you think.\n\nWell I-a pop star that lives, no, breathes music every day, fell victim to this shitty world.\n\nMusic is, I am sorry, was, what helped me going through my worst episodes. It was what motivated me when I had nothing left to do. I could not imagine a life without it, not even in my wildest dreams. I took it for granted.\n\nI tried to listen to my older records. I tried to use my musical hearing to reimagine it, I even tried just jamming along a repepative beat. It was for nothing. Neither I, or anyone else, could bring it back.\n\nI remember staring at midi files for days, if not weeks. Trying to make sense of the colored blocks arranged in such an odd manner, yet somehow, also having a patern. I remembered learning theory in music school. I can't recal the sound of a perfect fifth, but I remembered feeling calm. A major quart sextacord didn't come back to my mind, but the feeling of completeness did.\n\nI remember the feelings of harmony and rhythem. The sparkly purple feeling of electric guitar, the lines it creates breaking at sharp angles. The wavy, brown sounds of acustic guitar, the dotting grey percussion, the pink blending vocals.\n\nCurly light blue woodwind, steady red strings, pointy yellow brass, round black piano, it all came together inside my mind in the most beautiful mess. I could not hear it, but the feelings screamed from my soul.\n\nI took a brush and painted it all together. It wasn't pretty, or anywhere close to what I imagined it to be, but it gave me a sense of peace. I made it. I have music again.\n\nI now hold a gallery of my creations. Some of them are paintings of my essence of music and sounds. All of those are made after real pieces. Classic, Jazz, Rock, I made at least a hundred. \n\nTo be fair, I do have favorite. One of them is made after Lassus Trombone. It's a sculpture of brass cogs and screws, and a bit of metalic sheets. Every piece is unique, and they all blend together in a beautiful melody. The simplest one is a ring of paper conected to a lamp and an engine, that hits dots of light on the cieling, dancing to the rhythem of a rock piece.\n\nWe might not be able to hear music again, but we will always have the sensetions it gave. Let us see the patterns in colors and shapes and feel the rhythems, harmonies and melodies there once was. Let us never forget what music was, and let us create it again for what it will be. \n\nOh, how lucky am I." ]	2
	[WP] You are the dark lord... And you don't even know it. In truth, every 'evil spell of death' was made by you to help with your gardening. The price evil beings have to pay to learn your spells? Help you with your gardening for a day.	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Reality+Fiction%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Simple+Prompt%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/js5XDFB)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "Another stranger in my garden. Like the many before him, he had a dark disposition. There were rarely any other kind, recently. Come to think of it, there hadn't really ever been any other kind. And like so many before him, this one had come to learn the mysteries of my garden. \n\n\"Now\", I continued my lesson, \"once the potato is out of the ground you need to wash it. Use cold, running water if you can and avoid re-using the same water. The goal is to make sure all the dirt on the potato is washed off, without hurting the skin of the potato. The skin is the greatest protection it has for long-term storage, but in the soil there is bacteria that will ruin a stash in weeks. So make sure you get all of it.\"\n\n\"A-a-all of it?\" stuttered the man. \"But what about the dwar-\" he began, but I interrupted him. \"All of it. It doesn't matter what kind of soil, it's all filled with bad things. We got all we needed out of the soil, but now it's time to harvest our crop and whatever good was in the ground is gone.\" The man looked most uncomfortable, wringing his hands as if he was about to commit a murder.\n\n\"Next, after each potato is washed clean we need to check them for green spots and buds. Those mean its over-ripe. Over-ripe means there's toxins in the potato. It's already started its growth cycle for next year, trying to live its own little life. And what do we do if we find green spots or buds?\" The man looked confused. \"We... we cut them off?\" he attempted for an answer. \"We throw it out. The whole potato.\" \n\nThe man looked like I'd just doused him in icy water. \"The whole potato? The WHOLE potato?!\" \"You can cut the buds and the green spots off, but you can't store it. It's no use. Eat it within the next few days, but that's it.\" \"ONE SINGLE DAY?! But there are thousa-\" \"It doesn't really matter how many there are. Once the toxin's in there, there's no way to get it out.\" The man looked ready to puke.\n\n\"Now let's talk about how best to preserve the potato. That is, the potatoes that you have left. Are you with me?\" The man seemed to have drifted away from the conversation but snapped back; \"Yes sir!\" \"There are three factors that we need to take into account; light, temperature, and damp. The better the conditions, the better the potato will keep. Now, light is no good, so you better stick to buildings. We want them cold, so it's all about the cellars. And finally damp, I prefer paper if you can manage it, but cloth will do.\"\n\nThe man brought out a small notebook and scribbled some notes. His fingers were trembling, and he dropped it on the ground. I snuck a peek. \"Large cities - underground cells - heretical texts.\" That was a strange way to phrase it, not how I would have put it at all. But the man did seem a bit strange around the edges anyway, so who was I to judge? The man collected his notebook quickly and apologized for the interruption.\n\n\"Finally, the most important part of the lesson.\" The man was practically turning green himself, but seemed determined to listen. \"You can't plant potatoes in the same field for too long. The golden rule is you plant them for two years running, then you plant something else for four years, or nothing at all. It's not just about destroying all the soil by taking out the energy. It's about blight.\" I spat on the ground. The man jumped backwards and fell to his knees as if he was about to start praying all of a sudden. \"Not the law!\" he wailed. \"Don't interrupt me, please.\" The man was quiet. I'd heard potato blight referred to as the 'law of consequences' before, but I didn't expect him to know that. And the strangest thing, I thought I could smell urine for a moment, as if the man pissed himself.\n\n\"There are methods through which you can avoid many of the issues we've talked about. With the right soil you can keep planting. Some types of potatoes last longer than others under various conditions. Some gardeners swear by planting early in the season, some late. But none of that matters if you follow my school of thinking.\" \"A-a-and why is that, master?\" the man managed to say as he lay face down in the dirt. I smiled at him, but he wouldn't have noticed that. \"Because with potatoes it's all about volume. You want as much as possible for the least possible effort. There aren't any beauty contests for prettiest potato. No - it's all about numbers and size with potatoes. You remember that. All are welcome in my stew.\"\n\nThe man was positively shivering now. \"I understand, master.\" He scribbled some final notes and put his notebook away. \"Now, there's a custom when a lesson is finished in my garden. A day of practice. I'm sure you've heard of it?\" I called it practice, but really, they were potatoes. Who could go wrong? It was more like a day of labor. The man had risen to his knees and looked at me with his mouth open. He managed to close it after a while. \"You wo-... would... let me handle your potatoes?\" he asked. \n\n\"Oh, I practically demand it. It's the best way to make sure that you know what you're doing. But it's much more than that. First, I can't have you running around the lands up to no good and say I taught you. That'd be embarrassing. You wouldn't want to embarrass me, would you?\" \"NO!\" he squealed. \"Second, by completing this lesson and today's practice, you join a long brotherhood of gardeners that share a common vision for those in our care. Those in the brotherhood can trust you to do the correct thing, and you can trust them as well.\" Again, the man fell face down in the dirt and mumbled; \"It's all I ever wanted, master...\"\n\nI pointed to a nearby potato plant waiting to be dug up. He went over to it and stretched out his hand. He was a strange man, that's for sure. As he reached out and laid his hand on the plant, he did so with such great care. It was like he was handling the most holy of artifacts. But really, it was just a plant. Nevertheless, I didn't correct him on it because, frankly, I had started out the same way. He labored throughout the day, and with dirty hands and a sweaty brow, he thanked me in a small ceremony and was on his way. He wasn't the first to come and learn the mysteries of my garden, and he wouldn't be the last. I briefly remembered the previous students - Brotas the Inquisitorial, Variesh the Merciless, Visbund the Keeper of Souls, Quavesh the Cancerous... the list went on. All good gardeners, even if their names had missed the spot a bit.\n\nMaybe this one would finally get rid of those damn dwarves." ]	2
	[WP] That annoying kid.. spying from mirrors, laughing at my imperfect world. I call him with a gesture. "Want to see something actually interesting?" I start drawing gateway symbols on the mirror and he cluelessly copies them.	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Reality+Fiction%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Simple+Prompt%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/js5XDFB)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "Spirits and souls can be trapped within mirrors. So it was with me. I had been in here so long, I had forgotten my name. My family, my home. My language. But I remembered my magic.\n\nI found it odd that I could see the \"mirror\" from my side. I suppose that was how it was, to be trapped in a box- just because the lid is closed, doesn't mean it doesn't exist. \n\nI built a world for myself within the mirror. A world of shadows and darkness, trapped beyond light. Over the Ages, new spirits and souls would be trapped within the mirror, and they gave me a new name- they named me \"King\". With time, and effort, we built ourselves a Kingdom. They gave me a home.\n\nI would tell them about how they came to be here. Counceled them in their grief and loss. I couldn't tell them the whole truth, but I would say what was appropriate. That there was a gate, a \"Veil\" between the living and the dead. And that somehow, we crossed over in a way we shouldn't have been able to. I told them that there was a Veil here, too, but I forbade them to go near. It would only drive them mad.\n\nBut I would go. On certain days the Veil would thin, and I could nearly see out. Out, into the light. And it was far better than I could even remember. These small moments were hope. They were joy.\n\nOne quiet afternoon, it all changed. The Veil became perfectly clear for me, and on the other side- a child. He poked the glass of the mirror, and laughed. I yelled. This was my Kingdom- how dare this child mock it! How could it mock me, the King! The child laughed louder, and longer still. I stormed off.\n\nWeeks passed like this. I prayed for the Veil to return, but it never did. Still, the child mocked, and chided, and laughed. I could almost imagine a voice for it now. A vicious, obnoxiously high pitched squeal.\n\nThe child tormented me. My subjects- my friends and neighbors took note of my declining health, my sudden exhaustion. The child tormented me. I could not eat, I could not sleep, still the child torments.\n\nIn the following months, it became a Ritual. I would go out, the child would laugh and mock, I would return. The child was a trickster, a cheat. It wanted what I had worked so hard to attain- my kingdom, my home. It hoped to drive me mad. To destroy by my own hand what I held most dear.\n\nBut I was beginning to hatch a plan. Mirrors can entrap spirits and souls. So it was with me and mine, and soon... So very soon, so it would be for the child.\n\nI remembered a Spell, specifically to trap children in mirrors. Modified, it should release us... And replace us with the child. It will be here alone, as I was for so long. It will suffer here, in the dark and the quiet, alone.\n\nI called my people, ready to enact the plan. It would be our Exodus, and I would be our Moses. Glee filled my spirit when I recounted the plan. They would not know about the child. They wouldn't need to. The child would be my secret.\n\nAnd so, we went to meet the child on that day. The child laughed as always, only moreso- seemingly far happier to have more entertainers now than ever before.\n\nI did a jig, and the child followed suite. I mimed song, and the child followed suite. I rapped on the mirror, and the child followed suite. So too would it follow when I began to draw on the mirror.\n\nSigils of power and magic, words to weave the Veil, to dispel the mist. I pressed my flesh against the glass and felt it give beneath my weight.\n\nThe child couldn't see my world for what it was... He could only see the reflection of his own work in the mirror. But when I touched it, the glass became like liquid, and the mirror reflected no more. Instead, the child saw my world of dark and of shadows. It saw me, and what me and my people.had become.\n\nWhen I broke through, I saw myself for what I was, for the first time since before I could remember. My flesh wmhad been woven with darkness, and my fingers curled into claws. Before the Veil I was myself, but after... The mirror showed me the truth.\n\nThe child had stopped laughing. I know not when. But his cheer had become fear, disgust, and horror. I called out to my people- at this point, the magic could easily be broken. They reached into me, and I reached into the child." ]	2
	[WP] The year is 1962. A NASA landing module parachutes into the Atlantic, landing safely. The most peculiar thing is, the agency didn’t have any flights scheduled. The astronaut is on his way to Houston. You, the newly minted director of NASA, are tasked with interviewing this stranger.	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Reality+Fiction%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Simple+Prompt%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/js5XDFB)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "November 2, 1962\n\nEverything is quiet in the cabin of the Douglas DC-8. Before me sits Donald K. Slayton, Chief of the Astronaut Office. Although he is trying to maintain a professional appearance, he is evidently worried that he will lose his recently-appointed position. I feel sorry for him, but as the director of NASA, I need to know why he flew on this unauthorized mission. Deke's a good guy, so there's got to be a compelling reason behind his motives.\n\n\"So Mr. Slayton, I trust that your flight went well?\" I ask cordially in hopes of easing the tension. \"Yes sir,\" he replies. \"Any signs of heart fibrillation or any other ill effects?\" \"No sir. I feel fine.\" His responses are terse, almost mechanical.\n\nI lean back in my seat. \"Mr. Slayton, I am sure you are aware of the repercussions of flying on the Delta 7 mission. I am also sure that as a pilot, you realize the risks of flying with a heart condition.\" \"Yes sir. I was aware of these things when I signed up for the flight,\" he says confidently. \"Then do you have anything to say for yourself regarding this?\"\n\nDeke is silent for a few moments, as if debating whether or not to answer. Finally, he does. \"The Army hired me to fly on Delta 7. It's classified, so I can't give you all the details.\" Understandable. The military is known for keeping secrets. They didn't have to hide behind the disguise of a NASA mission though.\n\nDeke continues. \"They contacted me shortly after I was disqualified from Aurora 7. They had discovered that the Soviets were planning to launch a satellite and wanted me to check it out. I had an operation in April to qualify for the flight.\" \"Cardiac catheterization?\" I ask. He nods. The NASA docs are going to have a ball when they hear about this, I think. But out loud, I say, \"Did you see the Soviet satellite?\" \"Yes sir. I couldn't get a good look at it, but it seems to be leaving Earth orbit. The Army's still waiting for the photographs.\" I let out a little sigh of relief. So not an ICBM, good. \"And do you know which direction it was headed?\" \"Not at this time, no.\"\n\nWell, I guess Deke isn't in hot water after all. However, I'm going to have to contact the Army about this. I have a few choice words for them. I smile. \"Thank you for answering my questions, Mr. Slayton. This clears up a lot of things. And by the way, welcome home.\"\n\n\\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------\n\n&#x200B;\n\nP.S. A timeline of actual events in which this reimagining of history takes place:\n\nMarch, 1962: Deke Slayton is disqualified from NASA's Aurora 7 mission (which he had planned to call Delta 7) because of a heart condition. The docs suggest an operation, but eventually decide against it because of the risks. Scott Carpenter is chosen to fly on Aurora 7 instead.\n\nSeptember 1, 1962: Deke is hired as Chief of the newly-created Astronaut Office.\n\nOctober 3, 1962: NASA's Sigma 7 launches, the last Project Mercury mission for that year.\n\nNovember 1, 1962: The USSR launches its unmanned Mars 1 mission, the first of the Soviet Mars probe program. This is the spacecraft that Deke was checking out in this story." ]	2
	[WP] You’re stuck in a waiting room between heaven and hell. Other people are there. They tell the story of how they all died. A voice on the intercom says someone is lying and, is in fact a murderer. Until everyone tells the truth is when the doors will open.	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Reality+Fiction%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Simple+Prompt%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/js5XDFB)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "There were five people gathered in a circle, much like a group therapy session. For hours, everyone looked at each other. Everyone knew they were dead. They just didn’t know what would happen next and it made them nervous.\n\nFinally, one person spoke up. A man in his late sixties with thin glasses salt and pepper hair. He declared himself a politician who had died in a car accident.\n\nNext went a teenaged girl with long brown hair, who claimed she knew how the politician had died because she too had been killed on her way home from school when the man’s car ran off the road and hit her at the bus stop.\n\nNext came a frail, elderly woman with shoulder-length white hair and bright blue eyes. A small thing who admitted to dying in her sleep at the ripe old age of 104.\n\nCancer took the thirty-year-old mother of eight, whose head was bald due to cancer treatments. She was already missing her family.\n\nAnd last, but not least, was a man in his mid-twenties, covered in scars and gang tattoos. He snarled at everyone and after a lengthy tirade about the bullshit aim of one particular cop, admitted he’d been in the middle of entertaining himself with a female captive when the police broke down his door and the shootout ensued.\n\nAt the end of his rant, a voice boomed overhead, “You are all in the waiting room between Heaven and Hell. One of you is lying and is in fact a murderer. Until you admit the worst of your crimes, all of you will remain in this space.”\n\nThe politician launched to his feet, demanding to speak to someone in charge. The gang member added his curses to the politician’s because no one was going to tell him what to do. The girl blinked in shock and the mother buried her face in her hands and wept.\n\nEveryone was so wrapped up in their own situation, that no one noticed the petite old lady sitting back in her chair. Her hair may have lost much of its youthful blonde, but it still kicked in waves and her blue eyes still sparkled.\n\n‘So we’re staying here until we’re honest…' she thought to herself. That gave her time to work. For this was just another prison to Suzie Yurkovich. In the past, the law had tried everything where she was concerned. She’d had her life extended to serve out a three-quarter-of-a-million-year sentence for personally murdering several thousand people and orchestrating the deaths of countless more. Then they tried to send her into the past to kill her when she made a point of shanking another prisoner who richly deserved it. She survived that too because she was really, really good at killing her way out of trouble.\n\nIf she admitted to what she’d done, she’d be handed a first-class ticket to Hell. That wasn’t on her agenda. Let the others squabble about the unfairness of things. She had another jailbreak to plan.\n\nFirst question.\n\nHow does one go about killing God?\n\n\\* \\* \\\n\n((Author’s note: This is actually a continuation of earlier WPs.\n\n[1: DEATH TAKES A BACK SEAT TO JUSTICE](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/comments/fdqsdm/wp_people_are_kept_alive_past_their_normal_life/fjjc4he/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x)\n\n[2: I DON’T DIE THAT EASILY](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/comments/flon3d/wp_as_punishment_prisoners_are_sent_back_in_time/)\n\nEnjoy))\n\n\\ \\* \\\n\n((All comments welcome))\n\nFor more of my work including WPs:* [r/Angel466](https://www.reddit.com/r/Angel466/) or an index of previous WPS [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/Angel466/comments/iio59n/wp_index/)" ]	2
	[WP] An annoying classmate seems to hate you for no reason. However, your teacher is his mom, so he always gets away with it. Finally, after he lands you in detention for "sharpening your pencil aggressively", you decide to start your petty revenge.	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Reality+Fiction%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Simple+Prompt%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/js5XDFB)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "Everyone knows a guy who is just crazy in some way. For it is a guy named Quincy Dallas. His kind of crazy is known as Obsessive-compulsive disorder, or commonly OCD. This is a sliding scale disorder, but he was close to the people who kill those with asymmetrical faces or wear socks and sandals. This minor issue was amplified by the teacher, who was his mother. Room 203 was already getting all of the crazies from the school, anyone with a mental disorder that needed something similar to a 504 plan is put in here. No tenured teacher ever takes this class and no one who gets forced to teach it stays around long enough to get one.\n\nBack on topic, Quincy was allowed to arrange the seating chart. Quincy was also the noise monitor. Quincy was chosen as the class rep. Any position that was needed Ms. Dallas put Quincy in charge of. This meant that we couldn't move around, make noises over five decibels, or leave without a legibly handwritten essay on why you couldn't hold your bladder for five minutes. We naturally hated each other from day one. If you need to know why I am unable to keep a mess from appearing near me, my lowest noise level when speaking is at least ten decibels, I can't hold my bladder well, and I generally have Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder or ADHD. \n\nWith the background out of the way, our story begins on a Tuesday with a vocab test. Only number two pencils and I only have one. It was kind of dull from playing the knife game, so I sharpened it. I am technically not supposed to have a sharpener after the squirrel incidents, so I happened kind of fast. Quincy told his mother that I was ’ Sharpening his pencil aggressively ’ during the quiz. I got a week's detention for that and also my sharpener was confiscated and I was searched for squirrels. \n\nI used the time to plan my revenge. It would mostly be small stuff, like moving all of the desks two inches to the left, or rotating every second desk seven degrees. It lasted for about a month before things got serious. I got to school early enough to switch around the layout of the room to be mirrored in such a way that the teacher’s desk was in the back left corner of the room now. Every desk was kept in its usual alignment with the teacher’s desk as well. The day after that Quincy was admitted to a psychiatric ward. Ms. Dallas quit and we got a substitute for the rest of the year. I have never heard about Quincy or his mother since." ]	2
	[WP] The year is 7075, you are an archeologist focusing on the second millenium (2000-3000). You have just unearthed the ruins of what you believe to be a major city of that time. What you find is shocking to your research and the archeologist community.	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Reality+Fiction%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Simple+Prompt%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/js5XDFB)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "When the irregular protrusion jutting out of the slate board finish of the compacted ash that lay for miles, covering much of the planet was identified to be a piece of a millennia old building I had to investigate personally. A short journey from the main research craft down through the atmosphere ended with a small flare from the micro nuclear thruster and the soft hissing of the hydraulic stabilizing feet settling in to the ashen earth. \n\nThe exit portal retracted with almost venerable grace, exposing man to his historical home for the first time in over a thousand years. I thought to step out, but my body was frozen in place, bound by the gravity of the situation. The neural transmitter tone for incoming message sounded placeless in my head, snapping me from reverie. The calm anonymous tone of the operator filled my head briefly with a query, \"lander one this is command, confirm safe touchdown, over.\" \n\nI curled my fingers activating the subcutaneous tactile feedback sensors used to operate the Cervotech transmitter calling back in response, \"Command, Lander one here, touchdown confirmed,\" a flash of text in the upper left of my retinal display read 100% surface stability. \"Lander is stable, dig crew Alpha is prepared to exit the craft and begin sub terrestrial analysis and excavation. Over.\" \n\nI felt my anticipation grow in rolling waves. I noticed i was beginning to perspire even in my climate controlled nanoskin suit. \"Lander one, you are clear to begin assignment, good luck and may the multivac guide your way.\" \n\nMotioning to my assembled crew I gave the orders to move out, taking a small step out of the lander and gingerly placing my feet on Earth. The men and women of dig team Alpha were excitedly chatting back and forth as they took their turns doing what no human had done since the last boot entered the escape fleet all those millennia ago. \"Maybe we can find the answers, it would be a huge leap for mankind!\" Exclaimed one of the Excavators. \n\nI keyed my retinal display to UPS (Universe Positioning System) and activated the site waypoint. A bright red beam appeared on the horizon. Switching my cervotech to the squad channel and I began to broadcast to the crew as we moved towards the marked dig site. \n\n\"This appears to be the first sign of ancestral construction we have been able to detect since we relocated our home 200 years ago. I am confident you know how crucial it is that we use the utmost care in unearthing what ever it is we may find at this site. You all have the same burning questions about our past that we have been asking since the begging of our time as galactic nomads. What happened to our home? Our histories have been incomplete for millennia. Today and in the coming months, we will begin to weave the fabric of that tale into a full tapestry. Our success will be glorious and guaranteed in the light of the multivac. We arrive now, ladies and gentlemen lets get to work.\" \n\nFeeling satisfied that the gravitas of this work was well established to my crew, we came over a small rise and the red beam generated by the UPS drew us to a small depression in the ashy surface of the planet out from which 12 inches of strange uniformly rectangular stones were stacked in a cylindrical fashion. \n\nThe first indication of our ancestors work on this planet finally exposed for us to study, I was elated. \n\nThe crew established the dig site with trained efficiency, having prepared for this moment of return and discovery for hundreds of years. \n\nThe excavating began immediately. However, the layer of ash observed to make up 75% of the surface of the planet where murky viscous oceans make up the other 25% proved to be thick and well compacted. Even with the advanced laser cutting and particle disintegration sweepers eating away at the crust it took some weeks before we could begin to understand what we were unearthing.\n\nI studied the ruins relentlessly, pouring over each new discovered feature. I was often found hunched over the ancient computer preserved by our learned leaders for our homecoming, churning through the fragmented memory files and images preserved on it. Trying to make heads or tails of the archaic structures we were exposing to the sun. The thinking of our ancestors was a large divergence from our modern conception of life.\n\n Bound to our galactic fleet we have lived in the ships of our forefathers for generations. The sheer size of the structures we uncovered indicate that before we fled, we congregated in massive structures spanning areas of land that are unfathomable in size. In transmissions with command I had to request the assistance of dig team Beta and Delta as we soon realized the site was much larger than initially expected.\n\nIt was only after months of excavation and analysis did we realize what we had happened during the great flight thousands of years in our past.\n\nAs we fed our simulators more information, our self damnation as a species was rendered in precise detail on our retinal displays. \n\nTowers belched smoke into the sky, waste was channeled into the seas and the natural balances found in forests and ocean plant life was exterminated.\n\nTo tell it to you true, in that moment it all made sense. There was no other answer than that we did it to ourselves." ]	2
	[WP] You get kidnapped by the villain in their hopes to be confronted by the hero. To the villain’s disappointment and concern, they chose the one un phased by the idea of dying.	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Reality+Fiction%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Simple+Prompt%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/js5XDFB)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "The last thing the girl remembered was getting stabbed. As her eyes fluttered open much to her own dissatisfaction, she still had a heartbeat. Her parents must have- wait...this wasn't her normal basement, nor were these the normal cuffs. They were way looser. She tested them curiously, she could easily break them, but why bother. This situation seemed interesting.\n\n Laughter from in front of her caught her attention and she looked up. Was it supposed to sound evil? In her personal opinion it was actually cute sounding. \"Your finally awake huh? I started to think I killed you to soon.\"\n\n\"You kidnapped me? Rude. What if I had something baking at home?\"\n\n\"...what- ugh, look I don't give a fuck if or if not you were baking. I want you to call that hero, Yin, for help or else I'll kill you.\"\n\n\"You need better threats Ma'am.\" She commented softly, smiling politely \"Keep trying though! I promise I'll try and look threatened!\" \n\n\"I just threatened to kill you! How is that not a good threat?! I\"\n\n\"Your new to this villain thing right? It's pretty obvious I really don't care if I die or not.\" She asked as she broke her chains and stood up. \"Come on. I'll help you set up a better cage. You go to find torture equipment, kay? You need it. I've heard Stretching tables are fun!\"\n\nThe villain was disappointed as they realized that the girl truly didn't care about dying, just as they said, and also found themselves concerned. Despite that they left and allowed her to fix up the cage as they grabbed torture equipment... which was way to easy to buy, trusting their minions to stop the girl from escaping.\n\n When they came back they were shocked to see their minions defeated, and even more shocked to see that the girl did actually fix up the cage as well. A note sat in the middle of the room and curious, the villain grabbed it and began to read\n\n~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~\nDear villain-\n\n Heya, just so your aware, I was Yin. Your base was pretty easy to escape. I even came back to write this note after leaving. You need to up your security. Hope you like your new cage, I tried to fix it up, you need stronger chains. Anyways, I got people to save, villains to help reform, and hospital visits to make. I'll see you soon!\n\n Love, Lunari Star\n PS: You're cute. We should hang out sometime ♡", "The rattle of the chains woke me up. Not the best start to the day, no piano did make it better though. Searing pain suddenly went up my side. Okay, where am I? Dark, slight mold, probably lots of infections. Oh, I am not in my room. That sucks. \n\n”So, you're finally awake. You have one option for survival. You can either call your superfriend or die a slow painful death. ” Threatened Anderson.\n\n”Do you have any stretching machines?” I countered.\n\n”W-wait what?”\n\n”It’s either stretching machine or no deal personally.”\n\n”You will call your friend out of hiding if I put you through a stretching machine?”\n\n”No, I will make a choice after the stretching machine.”\n\n”Do you not get that this is literally life or death. I will kill you if your friend doesn't come out of hiding.”\n\n”And I want to be put on a stretching machine first.”\n\n”Number one! What is wrong with this guy”\n\n”We found him on the edge of a building.” his number one responded.\n\n”So you brought me the suicidal one?” Anderson asked.\n\n”He was the only one we could find sir.” One replied.\n\n”I just want to go on the stretching machine.” I interrupted.\n\n”You, just be quiet!” Anderson screamed.\n \nI have a choice to make now, strangle myself or wait and see if they actually have a stretching machine. \n\n”Make sure he survives until someone looks for him, I will be in my office.” Anderson commanded.\n\n”So, no stretching machine?” I asked.\n\n”No!” both of the men shouted." ]	3
(reposted because wrong tag)	[WP] the kingdom's armies fell victim as the wizards failed to comprehend what the Dark Lord's magic was, for it was beyond the supernatural..it was gunpowder, it was radar, and it was technologies that should not have yet been created	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Reality+Fiction%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Simple+Prompt%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/js5XDFB)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "\"How did we lose the battle against evil?\" The furious King addressed the stalwart wizards and his faithful advisors.\n\n\"My lord, we still have a few more troops that outnumber the dark lord's horde.\"\n\n\"To what degree, advisor Gulbarg? I will not just send my soldiers to die in vain.\"\n\n\"They did not anticipate death to arrive sooner, woeful as it may be they died for the kingdom my lord.\" Advisor Arlinon gave king Versilius a sense of solace with his words.\n\nKing then turned to one of the wizards and asked, \"What do you make of the dark magic we just saw transpire in battle? We saw flying machines that poured hell fire, land rovers that crushed the bones of my men, among other horrid things. My commander never faced a conundrum like this before in his previous battles.\"\n\n\"We suspect the dark lord has used an ancient spell to open a chronal gateway, sire. We did not foresee an unconventional shift in his methods.\"\n\n\"Urtaga alone can't be responsible for the creation of such monstrous materials.\"\n\n\"Logical statement as always, advisor Arlinon. Urtaga abducted a powerful mage of a different realm and brought them here to our world along with their creations. He used their methods of sorcery against us and we fell direly because we are not familiar with them.\"\n\n\"If they are very powerful why didn't they defend themselves, grand wizard Octhorn?\" King Versilius queried.\n\n\"Urtaga assailed the foreigner, sire. He has always been a cunning wretch. We receive information through the magical beings that reside in the Ooclong forest near his castle, the green is with us. It's been hurt from the blitz and the incendiaries.\"\n\nKing looked at one of his advisors. \"What do you propose we do then?\" Gulbarg asked on behalf of the king.\n\n\"I ask my sire to send a skilled warrior along with my apprentice to save them from his clutches so that we can convey them to help us defeat their captor and purge the evil of this world once and for all.\"\n\n\"Well done, your hope inspires me grand wizard. Advisors Gulbarg and Arlinon, choose a warrior and tell my commander to ready the troops for battle. I hope the goodness triumphs and evil falls.\"\n\nBy the order of the King a warrior was chosen, the wizard instructed his apprentice Amelia to help him get into the dungeon of the castle of Urtaga. To save the man in captive and bring him back safe and unharmed to the kingdom of Serbius.\n\nTO BE CONTINUED... \n\nr/FleetingScripts", "Most knowledge starts with a hole in the ground. The Earth has seen many kingdoms, countless peoples, many secrets, and a multitude of civilizations. As each kingdom falls it is buried and a new kingdom rises on its grave, the cycle begun anew. Each new generation digs, hoping to find the secrets forgotten to time in the ashes of those who, for all their knowledge, couldn't save themselves. Nobody is quite sure how many layers their are- if you dig far enough, eventually you stop finding saddles and magic staffs and instead find spears and pottery shards. Keep digging, and you find grand ruins and advanced artefacts, belonging to an ancient people who, the scholars assure us, fell to the people of spears and pottery. Never mind the several thousand year empty layer in between.... Keep digging, and we find flints and wooden wheels again, and eventually twisted metal objects. Keep digging and the cycle repeats, who knows how many times. Some say if you dig far enough, you can find dragon bones- even though we know that if you dig far enough, there isn't any magic to be found at all- not a wand or runic circle in sight. Some people claim to have found things far more fantastic than that- ancient magic, so old we've forgotten it ever even existed. Merchants tell of people they've met on their travels who know a guy who knows a guy whose dug up wands who can kill from a mile away, or enchanted mirrors filled with an undecipherable ancient runic text. But surely these things are just stories. Nonetheless, the Earth remembers more than we ever knew, and so we dig for secrets. \n\n\nA few generations ago, the deepest mine in the Eastern kingdom found the secret of plumbing, and soon every Eastern city had a grand sewer, making massive plagues a fear of the past. The Center kingdom, not to be outdone, spent vast sums digging deeper, and found the secret of 'fiat currency', money backed by a promise rather than gold or salt. Soon, the gold shortage was a thing of the past. The Northern kingdom, who had depended for so long upon their gold mines for income, scrapped their smelters and converted their mines to archaeological digs, vowing to find something so great, it would make the Northern kingdom the foremost in the world. That was over fifty years ago, and they haven't found anything yet.\n\n\nAt least, that's what we thought. A week ago, we at the court of the Eastern kingdom received news that the Center kingdom had fallen to the North- and it had fallen fast. The messengers bringing news of the Center kingdom's surrender reached us before the messenger bringing news of the initial invasion. The North had something new- something new but very, very old: War engines. Giant cylinders on wheels pulled by teams of horses, which destroyed entire walled cities from nearby hills, and which sounded like thunder. The Center kingdom sent their armies of mages, to no avail. Plague mages spread pox disease throughout the Northern army, which should have crippled them and been incurable. They were unaffected- they must have dug something up that creates an immunity to pox. The lightning mages bombarded them with shocks, but they had strange metal poles that attracted the lightning and protected them. For every possible defense, the North had a weapon, and for every counterattack they had a shield. \n\n\nYesterday, our glorious kingdom of the East fell to the North. There was an ultimatum issued for our complete surrender, and our king accepted on the condition of a demonstration of the North's claimed power. There was a duel between a champion of the North, and of the East. If the North won, we were to surrender unconditionally to a superior enemy. If we won, the East would fight this war to the end against an enemy we knew could be beaten. Our champion was the greatest mage ever known. They spent the night preparing for the duel, convening with demons, inscribing arcane sigils, and channeling magics. The duel was short. Our champion began by raising a protective ward. Their champion, who looked like a common soldier, began by casting a spell unknown to me, but of which I have since learned the name. Their champion cast gun.\n\n\nAs an advisor in the Eastern kingdom, writing this letter to you, an advisor at the Western kingdom, comprises what is probably treason. I do not care any more. Attached find schematics and drawings of every weapon the North has deployed to date, including those in garrison here. Win this war. Mages will be of no use to you- send them to dig in the mines where they may yet achieve something. This war will be won with blacksmiths, tinkerers, and archaeologists. \n\n\nSincerely Yours,\n\n<illegible>\n\nFormer advisor to the True King of the East", "Leofrick descended beneath the keep walls, the soft flame from his torch lighting the narrow stone steps. Here on the frontier of the Golden Reach, the forts were cramped and cold but well-defended. Small pale mushrooms grew between the stones. In the darkness ahead he heard the familiar barking laugh of Sir Rulf of Rafesburg, as well as a low pitiful moan.\n\nHe reached the bottom of the steps and pushed open the heavy wooden door to the keep dungeon. Chained to the wall was Lord Holle's captured spy, stripped down to the hose and covered in a patchwork of welts and bruises.\n\n'You made it across the river, wizard? Good.' Leofrick turned to see Sir Rulf seated in the darkness, quickly gulping down a goblet of wine. The knight's heavy beard was flecked with spittle and blood, none his own. 'You and how many others?'\n\n'Only my escort,' Leofrick replied. 'King Geronim continued on to Giant's Spur Castle with the rest of his court, but he received word of your capture of Lord Holle's spy and wanted a report on any information you could uncover. As soon as I have that we'll return to him by way of the Twin Oak Mill. It's a moonless night tonight; we should be safe enough.'\n\nSir Rulf shook his head. 'Not necessarily. From what my new friend here tells me, darkness provides us no safety from Lord Holle's forces. Not any more. When you entered the keep, did you take notice of his cart?'\n\n'I took notice,' Leofrick said, 'but I could not comprehend its purpose.'\n\nIn fact, the cart had caught Leofrick's attention immediately upon entering the grounds. Assembled on the back of the cart was a large circular basket of finely woven wire, tilted onto its side. Within the centre of the basket was a long blunt pike made of roughly polished metal, connected by bundles of wire to large metal drums on either side. The drums were packed with a thick soup of molten salt and sulfur that burned his eyes and nostrils when he drew too close.\n\n'It sees with sound,' Sir Rulf said as he stood. 'Through its lance it sings a single constant note, imperceptible to our earthly ears. And as with our voices in an empty hall, the sound reflects back the way it came, into the basket. And the basket can hear exactly where the echo began, through smoke or fog or pitch darkness without error.\n\n'And if my friend here speaks true, Lord Holle has similar carts scattered all the way from the garrison at Silver Lake to his fortress on Undergang Peak. As soon as we set a single step inside his territory, he can discern our position and strength as well as if he were standing next to us. They call it a... a-'\n\nHe prodded the spy roughly in the ribs. 'What was the name of that cursed creation? Talk, damn you!'\n\n'Radar,' the spy murmured through his broken bloody teeth.\n\n'Radar,' Sir Rulf repeated. He turned back to Leofrick. 'We wondered why his forces were able to manoeuvre around our ambushes so effortlessly. Now we know.'\n\nLeofrick regarded the spy. 'But this man is a common peasant. How can a common peasant have command of such a wondrous thing?'\n\nSir Rulf turned to the table in the corner, pouring himself more wine. 'It seems wondrous things are becoming common in Lord Holle's domain. Was King Geronim's court made aware of the Battle of the Montechec Forest before they departed for the Giant's Spur?'\n\n'No, no messenger had... Montechec Forest? That's...' Leofrick suddenly felt uneasy. Montechec Forest was deep within the Golden Reach, only a day's ride from the river. 'What happened?'\n\n'It was two weeks ago. You recall Sir Borin of Huntwood? Maybe the greatest of all King Geronim's champions. He was the only one left alive out of a hundred, and then not long after we found him. He spoke of a Black Knight, whose armour couldn't be scratched or pierced by swords or lances or arrows. Who rained down cruel pellets of hot metal and liquid fire and bursting clouds of acrid smoke that tore flesh and melted eyes and seared lungs. Who slaughtered knight and page and squire alike, ignoring mail and ward and aura with a speed and ferocity beyond the scope of any mortal man.'\n\nThe dungeon felt cold. Leofrick realised he was holding his breath.\n\n'This... this Black Knight,' he stuttered. 'He was Lord Holle's champion?'\n\nNow Sir Rulf's eyes turned downward. 'Until today, we believed so.' He nodded towards the spy. 'But we were wrong. The Black Knight was a mere soldier. To them, Montechec Forest was but a demonstration. With its overwhelming success, Lord Holle has ordered for the assembly of whole companies of Black Knights.'\n\n'How many?'\n\n'Enough.' Sir Rulf sat sullenly at the table and poured another goblet in silence. \n\nLeofrick turned to the spy, pulling from his cloak a blue-jewelled amulet.\n\n'By the Charm of the Answerer I compel you to speak directly and honestly,' he said as he held the amulet in front of the spy's face. 'How has Lord Holle accomplished all this? What secrets has he uncovered?'\n\nThe spy sighed, too weak from his beating to resist the amulet's effect on him. 'It's... his wizard. His wizard uses a... a scrying mirror. They all come out of there.'\n\nLeofrick frowned. 'I've used scrying mirrors before. But I've never seen anything like this.'\n\n'The mirror doesn't... it doesn't tell our fortunes. It tells the fortunes of... of somewhere else.'\n\n'Where?'\n\n'I don't know. Somewhere... else. Without wizards. Without spells... or charms. But the longer he uses the mirror, the further ahead he sees.'\n\n'How further ahead?'\n\n'Centuries. The radar... was one of the early discoveries. It's already old.'\n\n'And now Lord Holle has something newer. He has these black knights?'\n\nThe spy looked Leofrick in the eye. 'They're already old, too.'\n\nLeofrick felt a sinking feeling in his stomach as he asked, 'what do they have now?'\n\nThe spy tried to shrug his shoulders. 'Things.'\n\n'What things?'\n\nFrom somewhere above them sounded an urgent horn, and the muffled shouting of the keep's guards. Leofrick flinched at the sound, as did the spy. Sir Rulf was on his feet in an instant, his sword in his hand.\n\n'They've sighted the enemy,' Sir Rulf declared. He ran for the steps, when the ground beneath his feet shuddered. He braced himself against the thick stone wall. Up above, the muffled voices were growing more frantic.\n\nLeofrick drew his staff from his cloak, casting a ward over himself. The ground shook again, so strongly the air rumbled.\n\n'Is that catapults?' he asked Sir Rulf.\n\n'No!'\n\n'What is that?'\n\n'Things,' the spy said.\n\nThe ground heaved, and from up above them came a deafening clap like thunder. The ceiling disappeared in a flash of white light, and Leofrick blinked in shock as he saw a gigantic black arrowhead fly over the remains of the keep with a deafening roar, thin white clouds trailing from its edges. \n\nSir Rulf charged up the steps, with Leofrick close behind him. They heard a high-pitched scream and turned to see a headless metal dog crawl down into the open dungeon and slice the spy in half with a wave of its foreleg.\n\nLeofrick quickly cast a repulsion spell over Sir Rulf as the metal dog lunged towards them. It struck the knight and was immediately thrown back against the stone wall. \n\n'How long will that spell last?' Sir Rulf asked.\n\n'Not long enough,' Leofrick replied. 'We must flee!'\n\n'No! We will stand and fight!' Sir Rulf ran forward and seized a broken hunk of stone. 'I won't be intimidated or defeated by--'\n\nThere was another white light, and Sir Rulf was a burning pile of ash. Leofrick spun around in terror and ran up the steps, into the ruins of the keep.\n\nBlack knights levitated across the crumbling battlements, burning white lights pouring from their hands, the ashes of their victims swirling in their wake. Metal dogs charged into the river, seizing the men trying to swim across and pulling them under the surface. In the far distance, the arrowhead soared like an eagle through the skies of the Golden Realm.\n\nBeneath the arrowhead, a tall pale mushroom grew." ]	4
-disclaimer- I got this off Pinterest so I’m sorry if this has been posted before.	[WP]. When humans are born they have milk white blood. The more crimes they commit, the darker their blood becomes. You meet your soulmate and everything is great until one day, they trip and expose void black blood.	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Reality+Fiction%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Simple+Prompt%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/js5XDFB)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "Stepping out of the blood bank, I take another sip from my juice box as I roll my sleeves over the bright orange bandage on my elbow. Not paying attention, I run smack into a man on his way in. The tiny cardboard box is crushed between our two bodies and the sticky liquid covers us both. I jump back in surprise and slip on the puddle forming below us.\n\n\"I'm so sorry! I wasn't watching where I was going.\" He reaches out and catches me with one strong arm. He steadies me, as I reach up and pull a strand of hair from my face, my hand lingering near my head to calm the dizziness. My face grows hot in embarrassment and attraction.\n\nNot sure if my heart fluttering from the blood loss or by his intoxicating presence so close in my personal space, I shudder out my own apology. \"Nice catch. I'm sorry about your shirt.\" I point at the purple spot causing the thin cotton to stick to his defined chest. \n\nHe laughs, his voice deep and intoxicating. \"No worries. Get a free shirt from giving today, don't we?\" He nods towards the poster on the door. \n\nI should follow his eyes to see the sign, but I can't look away. In the sunlight his eyes were like polished stromatolite, shades of brown melding into one another. \n\n\"Let me buy you another juice,\" he offers his arm out, and I can't believe how natural it feels to accept it. We walk to the juice bar on the other end of the strip mall, and talk like we're old friends. \n\n\\_\\_\\_\\_\\_\\_\\_\\_\\_\\_\n\nA year and a half later, his ring on my finger, we're talking about registries and guest lists and venues. Our families have met, we've talked about our wanted futures, everything is perfect. A few weeks to go and all the final touches are being put into place. He's taught his last class of the school year last week, and my firm approved time off for the honeymoon, though I had to put in some grueling hours the last few weeks. \n\nSitting at the dining room table, he's assembling the wedding favors, while I have my planner open finalizing all my appointments. Hair, makeup, nails, waxing, all done and set, I get off the phone with my dentist and look up the number for the blood bank. \n\n\"Blood bank?\" he asks, stopping mid cut in the card stock, looking up at me with a bewildered expression. A small smile creeps over his face and his eyes get misty. \"Thinking of others even during our special day? How did I end up so lucky to have you?\" He gets up and walks over to kiss my forehead. \"Sign me up too. It's about time for me to donate. We can go together. See if the place where we met can take us both.\"\n\nI feel my face grow hot as my heart skips a beat. His fingers trace my cheekbones and he teases me, \"Did I just make you blush? That's a first.\" His smile grows wider and he leans down to kiss my cheeks. \n\nMortified, I jump up, and cover my face with my hands. \"You can see me blush?! I must be more overdue than I thought I was.\" I turn away in shame, unable to face him. \n\n\"What are you talking about babe?\" He asks, reaching for me, confusion coating his voice. His strong dark arms wrap around me, making me feel safe despite him seeing proof of my disgrace. I haven't even farted in front of him, but I blushed? How did my blood get that dark? \n\n\"I don't donate blood, I trade it out.\"\n\n\"What, like some kind of purist?\" I feel him freeze as he holds me, not letting go, but not gently rocking me in his soothing rhythm. \n\n\"You say that like it's a bad thing.\" I turn and look up at him. I realize that I've never seen him bleed. Never seen his eyes bloodshot from drinking, as he was always our designated driver. Thinking hard, I can't remember ever seeing him bleed. \n\nHe pushes away from me slowly. \"Of course it's a bad thing. I work with kids whose parents make them donate blood month after month just to make ends meet. I see the effects it has on their growing bodies. It's sick, and for nothing but inane vanity. Tell me you're not like that!\"\n\n\"That's how me and my family were raised.\" My voice shakes as I gather strength to ask the question I'm afraid to know the answer to. \"Are you a mudblood?\" I look away from him, not able to handle the weight of the tension in the air. I gulp for air, taking in deep breaths, reaching for the table to support myself. \"It's, it's okay. We can get you started on a treatment now, and by the wedding, no one will know.\"\n\nI look up at him, hope steeling my determination in my plan. We can still make this work. We can still have our happy ending. I can fix him. I can fix this.\n\n\"I don't hide from my humanity. I can't pretend to be someone I'm not. It's normal to make mistakes and sin. No one's perfect. It's absurd to try and pretend that you are. Can you love me for that? Can you take my flaws with my virtues?\"", "Her shout of pain drew my attention. I looked over to see her standing up from the floor, clutching one arm close to her chest with a pained expression on her face.\n\n“What happened?” I asked as I walked around the sofa to get a closer look.\n\nShe glanced down at her forearm and then quickly clenched a hand over it. “I didn’t see your cat and nearly stomped on him, then he got tangled in my feet when he tried to get out of the way.” With a nervous chuckle, she started walking quickly toward the bathroom while saying, “I’m fine. Just scraped my arm on the corner of the table when I went down.”\n\n“Want me to grab the first aid -“ Before I even finished asking the question, she snapped, “No! I said I’m fine. I’ll take care of it myself.”\n\nTaken aback by her uncharacteristically sharp tone, I didn’t respond as she stormed off to the bathroom. When I heard the water turn on, I started to get an inkling of what might be the problem, but it seemed so unlikely. My soulmate was the sweetest person I’d ever met, definitely not the type anyone would assume was a criminal. The two weeks since we met had been amazing. I wouldn’t trade the world for her, especially not over anything as trivial as breaking the law.\n\nInstead of immediately following her to the bathroom, I walked into my bedroom to get something and then joined her in front of the sink. In the reflection of the mirror, I noticed she was taking great efforts to hide her face, but I could still see the panic stricken tears on her cheeks.\n\nThe sound of the toilet tank refilling clued me into what likely happened to whatever she’d used to clean the scrape on her arm, which she was still covering with one hand. She still hadn’t met my eyes but her gaze flicked over to me, almost as if she were trying to gauge my reaction.\n\nI lifted up the sewing needle I’d gotten from my room and very deliberately pressed it against my finger, letting her see exactly what I was doing. Once it broke the skin, I kneaded the tiny prick until a bead of inky, dark blood formed. The drop slid down my finger, a living testament to the years I spent running the streets in my youth.\n\nHer eyes widened and she finally met my eyes as she let her hand fall away from her forearm. A shallow scrape showed a glimpse of blood nearly as dark as mine. With a small smile, I said, “I guess we really are perfect for each other.”" ]	3
	[WP] Your a spirit of the Wind. You usually reserve your guidance for Travellers, but today you follow a child and make sure they get home safe. They seem to have wandered off, but when they reach home the smiles are worth it.	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Reality+Fiction%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Simple+Prompt%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/js5XDFB)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "I swoop and soar on the currents of the air, listening to the whispers of the Gusts. The chattering zephyrs are quiet today, bringing no news of travellers on the roads within my domain.\n\nOne, a quiet breeze, tugs at my attention. A brush against my essence tells me of a Mind far from the trails. Stronger winds try to push it away, deeming its news unimportant, but I pull it back, absorbing its knowledge into myself before releasing it, giving it strength in thanks.\n\nThe mind belongs to a youngling, its physical form barely an impediment to the breeze. I swirl in the clouds, mulling over this discovery. Younglings are rarely found away from the barriers that block Minds from my knowledge.\n\nDiving towards the land, I make my choice. This Mind is no great hero to tell tales of my aid, or respected merchant to spread word of my benevolent actions, but help it I will. I was a youngling once, before my Ascension. I would have wanted help were I the one lost.\n\nI flurry the leaves up around the youngling, drawing its attention. I direct a breeze along the forest floor, showing it the way I wish it to go.\n\nThere are more minds in the forest, primal and hungry. I wrap my power around the youngling, enveloping it in my protective aura. The minds retreat, respecting my claim.\n\nIt begins to toddle along the path that my breeze still dances along. The flight of leaves fascinates it, and I feel its amusement through the interweaving of our auras. As we make our way through the forest its curiosity grows stronger. It begins to grab at the swirling foliage, clumsily at first but growing in accuracy as I remain wrapped around it.\n\nI hum in appreciation. This youngling is strong, receptive. It's almost certain to become a Disciple of the Air. No, it _will_ become a Disciple, I will make sure of it. I swirl more of myself through its aura, weaving some of my essence into the dormant magic, infusing the youngling with Air.\n\nWe emerge onto a road, and I begin to retreat. I pause, the feeling of fearlossconfusion pulling at my essence. A zephyr twists into my knowledge, bringing whispers that the nearest collection of barriers-of-wind is still some distance, and no Minds are between us and it. The youngling will most surely fall prey to a hungry mind long before it reaches the safety of the barriers.\n\nI loosen my grasp on the youngling's aura, but continue to swirl around it. I dance in the currents, twisting almost imperceptibly around the youngling as it begins to toddle towards the barriers-of-wind. Sharp gusts slap at approaching minds, warning them to find other prey, not protected by me.\n\nMy winds tell me of approaching Minds, their physical forms imposing and tasting of metal and leather. The youngling burbles happily as it sees them, and it barely notices as I withdraw my essence from it completely. I let myself disperse, as the youngling is swept into the arms of the lead Mind with a smile.\n\nA breeze brushes against me briefly, bringing the image of the youngling waving at my retreating self, its eyes fixed on the core of my being.\n\nOh yes, that will _definitely_ be a strong Disciple once it is grown." ]	2
	[WP] BREAKING NEWS! 10 Milion dead after a man supposedly taunted his reflection to come out of a mirror. More information after a commercial break.	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Reality+Fiction%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Simple+Prompt%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/js5XDFB)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "“You are bloody pitiful, look at you. More a toad, then a man. You look angry, you Wanna fight or something, you want to meet lefty and righty punk? Mr. uppercut and Miss Jab? Get a taste of the old sweet chin music? I scare you, don’t I? You have never seen a raw masculine physique like mine.”\n\n \n\nBill flexed his flabby arms for the mirror, his typical drunken antics. His glee filled face not reflected in the mirror. Bill was certain he had been grinning, yet the man in the mirror stood pan faced, lips not even twitching towards a smile. A cold blank stare on his face.\n\n \n\n“You’re a coward, ain’t ya. A little worm. Why don’t you shrivel back in your hole before the birds come?”\n\n \n\nBill stepped towards the mirror, a confident swagger in his step, his face pressed against the glass, fiery breath fogging the glass. The mirrored man looked disgusted; his face upturned. The taunting had gotten to him. Bill went to open his mouth again before a hand slipped through the mirror, grabbing his neck, crushing it.\n\n \n\nPolice were called to the home, neighbors reported gurgled screams coming from the home, screams that followed the loud taunting. Police were greeted by Bill, the man perfectly fine, not a scratch on him. The police were nearly ready to leave the property, before an officer noticed the body of Bill, face down in a puddle of blood. That’s when the stranger turned violent, lunging at the officers with a raw animalistic aggression.\n\n \n\nThey killed two officers in the chaos. The mirrored man taking twenty bullets before being put down. An autopsy was conducted, and it revealed that the man possessed no organs, not even a brain. He was exactly like Bill on the outside, but on the inside; he had nothing, a mere shadow of the man.\nThat’s when the rumors started. ‘Don’t do this at 3am’. ‘Me and my friends summon our mirrored selves’. The police couldn’t cover up the bizarre case, and as soon as the media got involved, it spread across the globe. Once the news had spread, it became impossible to stop others from imitating the method Bill had used.\n\n \n\nBreaking News: 10 Million dead after a man supposedly taunted his reflection to come out of a mirror.\n\n \n\nA man. They always blamed Bill for the deaths, not the hundreds who spread and publicized the story. As expected, the method worked. All over the world millions were dying, summoning their reflection into the real world, only to be killed by it. That wasn’t what made the reflections so dangerous. If the reflections stopped at just one person, this would be only a myth.\n\n \n\nThe reflections wouldn’t return to their worlds, they would instead take on the lives of the person they had killed. They weren’t perfect copies however, once a close friend or family member discovered the truth, the reflection would freak out and go on a rampage. On average, a reflection usually killed four to ten people before being stopped. Sometimes, a reflection could even get into the hundreds.\n\n \n\nNow at ten million panic was setting in. Mirrors all over the world were being broken, posters and commercials were being broadcast, but it was all in vain. They were fighting an unknown enemy, one that could lurk underneath a person’s nose. A few governments tried to implement x-ray checkpoints, but those often turned into a blood sport. If one reflection triggered the trap, the rest in line would freak out, causing the deaths of anyone nearby. Often the reflections they were trying to trap would end up escaping at the checkpoints, making it a useless waste of life.\n\n \n\nFor now, everyone was on high alert, informed to monitor their neighbors and loved ones. If one noticed something strange, it was best to report it secretly, engaging one of the reflections was a death sentence. Humanity would now be doomed to live in fear, unable to tell the difference between friend and foe.\n\n&nbsp;\n&nbsp;\n&nbsp;\n\n(If you enjoyed this feel free to check out my subreddit /r/Sadnesslaughs where I'll be posting more of my writing.)" ]	2
	[WP] A spaceship crashes on Earth, its cloak breaking on impact. Curious, you take a look...the problem was due to the pilot having a seizure. He gestures toward a red button which you press, and soon you find yourself landing at a spaceport for the galactic empire. They do not seem happy to see you	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Reality+Fiction%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Simple+Prompt%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/js5XDFB)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "\"You! Human! Stop where you are!\" The deck officer who was shouting across the platform started walking toward the ship, an annoyed look on his face. \"Do not move.\"\n\nJack stopped and stared. Here were all of these humanoid aliens, some with features so similar as to be almost indistinguishable. Some had varying skin tones, others had tentacles or extra appendages. All of them were staring at the human who had just stepped down from the ship. Behind him, still in the cabin of the vessel, the injured alien called out weakly. \"Don't let them take you...\" \n\nThe deck officer approaches the bottom of the gangplank. With a look of confusion and with trepidation evident in his voice, Jack Wilson waved with one hand, \"Hello. I'm Jack-\"\n\n\"Silence, human! How dare you appear here?\" The deck officer spat back at him. \"Your filth is not allowed. What brings you here?\"\n\nMy filth? Jack thought to himself. He looked around at the crowd that was gathering near the ship. They all had looks on their faces that were a mixture of curiosity and revulsion. Why would humans be considered filth? What was going on?\n\n\"Step away from the ship and place your hands on your head. You are under arrest for violation of the Galactic Treaty on Banning Humans.\" The deck officer stepped forward, a glare of seriousness in his cold, black eyes. \n\n\"Look,\" said Jack, \"I don't want any trouble. I was just trying to help out the pilot of this ship. It crashed on my world and I thought I would try to get it home-\"\n\n\"SILENCE!\" the deck officer shouted. \"You will not speak, wretched human. Your kind was banished from galactic society, you have no rights here! Guards! Remove this human from the premises immediately. Bring him before the council.\" He turned back to Jack, a smug look of self-satisfaction washed across his alien visage. \"Your fate will be decided in a few minutes, human.\" \n\nSeveral armed guards of varying species approached, weapons drawn. Jack put his hands over his head, trying desperately to come up with some way to get these aliens to understand. There had to be some sort of misunderstanding. All he wanted was to be returned home. \n\n\"Cleaning crew to dock six. We have a contaminated vessel that requires sanitization.\" The deck officer sneered at Jack. \"Filthy human,\" he said once more, turned and walked back toward his workstation. \n\n\"Listen, fellas, there must be some mistake-\" Jack attempted to say. \n\n\"Save it, human,\" the nearest guard said and walked up to Jack on four short legs with what looked like backward knees. Jack stepped backward up the gangplank, only to be pulled down and away from the ship. \n\n______________________________________________________\n\n\"SILENCE! This council is in session. We will have order!\" The large, grey colored and bulbous headed figure at the head of the table shouted. \"This session of the council is met to determine the fate of the human transgressor.\"\n\n\"But why are the humans not allowed?\" came the question from a different section of the council chambers. \"Surely, as an enlightened society, we can accept a new species. Why were they banished in the first place?\"\n\n\"You forget your history lessons, young one. A long time ago, humans were part of our civilization. They were a prolific race, and had spread far and wide across the galaxy. They had colonized so many worlds that they had become something of a majority in nearly all aspects of Imperial life. One of their wretched kind had even gone so far as to become a major head of state. But, because of their war-like nature, their constant need to procreate, and their general disgusting-ness, they were banished from our society. Their numbers were reduced to just a few hundred and they were placed on the furthest and most inaccessible planet in the galaxy. Then, the system with their new world was declared a no-fly zone. Apparently, someone has broken the no-fly rule, and landed their ship on the world of the humans. Not only that, but they had the audacity to bring one of the filthy creatures back with them.\" The head of the council spoke with disgust evident in his voice. \n\n\"Sir, I just-\"\n\n\"I SAID SILENCE! You have no right to speak in these chambers, human!\"" ]	2
	[WP] You open your eyes. A ton of guys in red cloaks are screaming "WE ARE NOT WORTHY" and getting on their knees. Your hands are Wreathed in Black Lightning. "I'm sorry, where am I?" you say. "Whoops" a young man in a cloak says. "We may have gave the wrong guy Omnipotent Power"	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Reality+Fiction%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Simple+Prompt%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/js5XDFB)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "James blinked and looked around the room. The dark flickering lightning which had wreathed his fingertips sputtered briefly and then flicked out. The frenzied chanting of the red-cloaked crowd which surrounded the dais began to falter and then petered out entirely with a last hesitant “we are not worthy?” issuing from the bald and pale faced man holding a staff and standing directly in front of James.\n\n Cold moonlight filtered into the stone circular room through a large open portal that shined directly upon the raised altar where James found himself. Torches arranged intermittently around the room cast a pallid orange glow and revealed a rough semicircle of dozens of hooded men in red cloaks, their faces all turned toward James and displaying a mixture of confusion, disappointment, and fear. \n\nAn old man with a twisted gray beard wearing a dark robe inscribed with strange symbols and runes which seemed to shift and change in the firelight strode toward James through an opening in the ranks, a heavy oversized book was clasped in his gnarled hands. James struggled to think of something to say, he still held clasped in his right hand the game controller he had been using prior to his living room disappearing before his eyes. He turned, feeling like he was moving underwater or in a dream, and looked down at his left hand, watching as the Cheeto he had been holding fell from his grasp and landed on the ground, laying incongruously on the stone floor among scrawled symbols drawn in red. \n\nThe old man fiercely shoved aside the bald-headed man holding a staff who was still staring at James, dumbstruck.\n\n“Oh mighty, … mage. We, the adept, have called upon you in our hour of most desperate need in the name of Alzarog the Terrible. We beseech thee that our enemies might be yours and that thy wrath will be directed…”\n\nThe old man had been reading from his book and delivering the words in a halting, hesitant tone, finally breaking off entirely and staring at James in evident confusion.\n\n‘You are… you are a might mage are you not?” He asked.\n\nJames felt light-headed. “I- I just reached level 43 Spellcaster in Sorcerers of Castania.” He said feebly, holding up his controller and feeling the absurdity of the situation overwhelm him. \n\nThe certainty that this was a dream hit James in a wave of relief. He had been playing videogames too late, attempting to avoid the bleak reality of another workweek and its attendant series of commutes, spreadsheets, and leftovers eaten alone in his office’s sterile breakroom, and had fallen asleep. The game had simply bled over into this dream. Admittedly, the feel of the warm glow from the torches, the clarity of the cavernous room, and the sensation of cold stone through his slippered feet suggested that this was a particularly vivid dream. But a dream nonetheless.\n\n The heavy and barred wooden door at the center of the room suddenly exploded in a shower of wooden splinters. Two dark cloaked figures followed, bright pulses emerging from the ends of their sleeves. The men in red cloaks fled in the wake of the advancing forms like minnows scattering from a disturbance in the water. James watched men stagger and fall as the bright pulses struck them. Some of the red cloaked men turned and began emitting golden pulses from their fingertips in a counterattack, but the dark-cloaked figures brushed them off like insect bites as more red-cloaked figures fell under the crackling bursts.\n\nOne of the dark-hooded figures turned toward James and James felt a horrifying instance of fear when he saw that underneath the heavy hood there was nothing but two sickly orange orbs. Then the figure raised a skeletal hand and James watched as a bolt of energy left the dark and twisted fingers and crashed into him in a surge of pain.\n\nJames jerked awake on his couch and the pile of Cheetos crumbs on his lap scattered to the floor. His heart was racing and he could feel blood pooling in his mouth from where he had bit down on his tongue. James gasped in relief, as the awareness that he had left the dream washed over him. Then he froze. \n\nHis television screen showed a cavernous stone room in which black and red-cloaked figures were exchanging spells. A dark hood suddenly filled the screen and James tried to scream but found that he couldn’t as he watched a gangrenous hand emerge from the screen, wrap around the frame of the television, and strain as the dark-hooded creature pulled itself from the television." ]	2
	[WP] After a new wormhole opens to a parallel dimension you're a part of the first exploration team. Everyone who came back went crazy in a certain fashion. Not you though and everyone(including you) wants to know why.	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Reality+Fiction%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Simple+Prompt%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/js5XDFB)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "# Halfway Through\n\nJosh strolled in, took a seat at the sterile white table and pounced on the pack of Funyuns sitting there. \"Oh nice! I love these.\"\n\nBoth researchers on the other side of the table exchanged hazmat-helmeted glances before bending over clipboards. \"So you remember favorite foods?\" It was hard to tell which figure was speaking; the suits made noises hard to locate.\n\nHappy crunching noises. \"Heck yes. If you have any New Coke around here I'd kill for a can of that stuff. Always goes down well with the 'yuns.\" He licked salt and artificial trans fats from the edge of the bag, taking care to brush crumbs off the table. Hospitals scrubs a size too small bulged to cover his frame, coming up short around where his ankles, waist and wrists would be.\n\nThe intercom over the one way mirror crackled to life. \"Ask him about current events.\"\n\nThe researcher on the left raised a hand in acknowledgement, then consulted a clipboard. \"Mr. Starkley-\"\n\n\"-ugh, nah. Just 'Josh', guys. Please. That 'Mr. Starkley' stuff sounds like my dad. Wait,\" he peered at the mirrored visor across the table. \"I've told you that before, right? Are you the same guys from earlier?\"\n\n\"No, we're a... different group.\" Notes were consulted with a rustle of awkward gloves on easily-incinerated paper. \"Alright, I see the note here. 'Josh', 'J-Man' or 'Juniorino'?\"\n\n\"You got it.\" Snack bag finished, he flattened out the empty container and folded it neatly into fourths. \"Man, I love these but they're really bad for you. Hey, did you know these things give you rectal seepage? It's true! Something about the fake fats or something.\"\n\nThis was dutifully written down. The suit on the right spoke this time, bulky shoulders angled carefully. \"Back on track. Mr. Josh, if I may: What was the biggest thing in the news before you were sent through the wormhole?\"\n\nJosh rolled his eyes and leaned back, scrub-covered arms crossed as he gazed theatrically towards the ceiling. \"In the news? I don't watch most of that stuff. War in the Middle East, I guess, or maybe the Browns making the playoffs this year.\"\n\n\"The Browns? From the National Football League?\"\n\n\"Yup. My roommate was going nuts for it, guy was crying like a baby.\"\n\nThere was a pause. \"Who is your roommate?\"\n\n\"Why, you going to snatch him up and stick him in a little cubicle like me?\" Josh leaned forward, planting the points of both arms on the cheap plastic table. It rattled forward a bit, making the researchers jump. \"Look, guys-- straight honesty, here. I'm liking the paid vacation and all but a guy's gotta get out once in a while, you know? There's only so much Nintendo 64 I can play and I'm climbing the walls here. Do me a solid?\"\n\n\"We need to run tests first, Mr- sorry, J-man. You know how it is. We can pay you for your time, of course, but first can we go back to the question: Who is your roommate?\"\n\nJosh seemed resigned. \"Matty. Uh, Matthew Patrick, he's got like two last names. We live at 600 Whitecourt downtown, next to the maglev station.\"\n\nThe hazmat suit on the left abruptly got up and walked to the door, punched in a code and left with a hiss of escaping gas.\n\n\"Whoa, what's with him?\"\n\n\"He had... something to do. Mr. Starkley-\"\n\n\"Dude.\"\n\n\"Josh. What do you remember about the group you went into the wormhole with? How many were there, what were their names?\"\n\n\"I already told this story!\"\n\n\"Humor me, please.\"\n\n\"Right, whatever. Thanks for the Funyuns this time, I guess.\" Planting an arm, Josh rested the bones of one palm underneath his head and starting reciting in a bored voice. \"Me, Kyle, Dave and Janet were part of Alpha Group going into the Artificial Dunstrick Wormhole on, like, January 11th at nine in the morning.\" He droned on while the researcher frantically scribbled with clumsy gloves. \"It was just this door, made with metal. Nothing special. I went in first and looked around and it was nothing. Nothing at all.\"\n\n\"Can you describe it?\"\n\nJosh waved his free hand. \"Like this! Describe this room! It was just a place, all clean and scientific-like. We walked through the door and it was like any other door into a new room. There was nothing there, not even furniture to sit on. Only when I looked back-\"\n\nHe paused. The researcher kept writing for a moment before grinding to a halt. The mirrored visor laboriously looked up, reflecting Josh's face. \"When you looked back?\"\n\n\"When I looked back, they were, uh. Losing it.\"\n\n\"How were they 'losing it'?\"\n\nJosh looked uncomfortable. \"Well Kyle was fighting Dave. And not like playing-- he was going at it like beating Dave was his last chance at staying alive. But Dave wasn't fighting back. He was just screaming and trying to grab Kyle's hands.\"\n\n\"What was he screaming?\"\n\n\"Just, you know. Stuff. 'Don't touch me' a lot. He was yelling about being poison or something and how Kyle was gonna die just by being there with him. But Kyle wasn't listening, he was just wailing on that guy. Knocked him down and just started kicking and kicking.\"\n\nMore scribbling. \"What about Janis?\"\n\n\"Janet. She was, uh, look man do I have to?\"\n\n\"It would help.\" The suit speaker even managed to sound sympathetic. \"I know it's hard.\"\n\n\"Fuck, then. Janet was... well she was pulling her eyes out. Like with her fingers.\" Josh shuddered horribly, crossing both sleeved arms. \"But like smiling the whole time. And singing. That old children's song about Aunt Rhody, the one about the deep dark holes and tearing people apart. You know it?\"\n\n\"I don't think I do.\" The pencil moved, clumsily. \"What happened then?\"\n\n\"I left.\"\n\n\"You left?\"\n\n\"Yeah, that was nuts. I just sprinted right back through the ADW to here, but you guys hit me with the zappers and I woke up in a cell. Which I'm a little upset about.\"\n\nBoth gloves hands came up, patting the air. \"That's understandable. For what it's worth I'm sorry about that, Mr. Starkley.\"\n\n\"Josh.\"\n\n\"Josh. Last question, if I may?\"\n\nHe slumped back in his chair, arms still crossed and looking miserable. \"Why not. Not going anywhere, here.\"\n\n\"How old are you, Josh?\"\n\n\"Born in '99, man. I'm legal to drink and everything, even got my Art degree. Hell of a good job market for that, but I just had to pick up a couple extra broncs on the side for being a research pig.\"\n\nThe hazmat suit stood up in that stiff way heavy plastic materials unbend. \"Thank you. Please stay here a moment, someone will come help you to the recreational room. We appreciate you helping us out.\"\n\nJosh waved dismissively. \"Whatever.\"\n\nBooted feet moved to the door, punched a code in with a series of beeps and exited with another gasp of escaping air. It was only after the door sealed shut with a terminal clunk sound that the suited form went into a flurry of panicked movement. Gloved hands twisted and pulled at the helmet, snapping it sideways and throwing the entire ensemble onto the floor with a ringing crash.\n\nThe revealed face was a middle-aged man, eyebrows and beard going prematurely gray around a wrinkled face smoothed flat with shock. Brown eyes stared in terror, wide enough to show the whites all around. He took two huge, lurching breaths before spitting out a curse.\n\nA sympathetic form, also minus the helmet, shuffled over to pat him on the back. \"Yeah, I couldn't take it either. If you need to throw up aim for the drain.\" Shoulder length black hair framed a face accented with heavy black glasses, perched securely on a huge red nose.\n\n\"It's just- how can he- Jesus Christ, David.\"\n\n\"Easy. Easy, Kyle. We'll probably never figure out the how, but we have to record as much as we can. You were on the Committee, you know that.\"\n\n\"It's one thing to say that from a safe room of experts. It's another to see him like that. Christ, how long have you been interviewing him?\"\n\n\"It was me and Janet at first, but she quit after the first time she heard the story. I've been cycling through the residents now, can't go in alone with him.\"\n\n\"I can see why not. To have him just sitting there, right across from you-\"\n\n\"Yeah. I know.\" David's mouth twisted like he'd bitten into something and found half a roach inside. \"I try to keep looking down at the table and not at him. It's easier on the recordings, just looks like a special effect or something.\"\n\n\"How is he even alive?\" They both turned to look at a nearby wall and the mounted closed circuit television. David was right: Through a camera the effect was less intense, but still highly unsettling. On screen a gnarled, twisted group of blood red organs and straining muscles casually puppeted a framework of white bones around, crossing the skinless arms or drumming heel bones on the floor. It-- Josh\\-- appeared to be beatboxing quietly.\n\n\"I... don't think he is, actually.\" David sounded defeated. \"He's halfway here and halfway, well, somewhere else. Did you check his answers?\"\n\n\"Yes. Yes, I did. None of it was true or made sense. New Coke? The Browns in the playoffs? Maglevs? Never happened.\" Kyle stared at the display.\n\n\"It never happened here. And it never happened to us, just like that poor group he went through with.\"" ]	2
	[WP] In this world of powerful people they underestimate you, they call your ability stupid, but you'll show them the true strength of your power. The power to get anything if you ask nicely.	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Reality+Fiction%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Simple+Prompt%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/js5XDFB)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "Everyone was always told as a kid, use your nice words! Say please and thank you! And us, being kids rolled our eyes at them. See, this is the same thing that the superheroes of this town has done to me. When I first said my power was people listening to me they scoffed, but I'll show them, then we'll see who's laughing then!\n\n\"Hello\" I say to Tim, the rudest of all superheroes \"how are you doing today?\" The thing about Tim, is that he's always too pretentious, not caring at all about manners. Oh, his powers. He can move things with his mind. BO-ORING!\n\n\"Shut up you idiot if you are a real superhero, then why can't you do this?\", he mocks, while juggling cars.\n\n\"That wasn't very nice Tim, if you would be so kind would you please cluck like a chicken\", I ask in my kindest voice.\n\nWho's laughing now? I am.\n\n\\_\\_\\_\\_\\_\\_\\_\\_\\_\\_\\_\\_\\_\\_\\_\\_\\_\\_\\_\\_\\_\\_\\_\\_\\_\\_\\_\\_\\_\\_\\_\\_\\_\\_\\_\\_\\_\\_\\_\\_\\_\\_\\_\\_\\_\\_\\_\\_\\_\\_\\_\\_\\_\\_\\_\\_\\_\\_\\_\\_\\_\\_\\_\\_\\_\\_\\_\\_\\_\\_\n\nAny feedback on how to improve would be very much appreciated!" ]	2
	[WP] At the age of 18, humans are forced to go through a magical gate that deem them worthy of living. If they'll lead a troubled life, the gate kills them instantly. You are about to enter the gate but you physically can't. The gate won't let you. People are now deciding if they should kill you.	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Reality+Fiction%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Simple+Prompt%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/js5XDFB)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "It was like a trigger going off in my head. I stared towards the gate, and tried to step through. Yet the moment I touched the base of the gate, that loud sound reverberated through my skull. Like a thousand torrent souls screaming in pure agony. I was forced backwards, landing against the hard stone ground.\n\n\"I can't,\" The meek whisper left my mouth, \"It won't let me,\"\n\nI couldn't understand why. I had never done anything troubling, I'd always done everything right. Maybe it had been out of fear, I could admit that much. I think everyone was afraid of walking through the gate. The moment of truth when your life might fall into shambles, when you'd die in just one moment, or rather, disappear to never be seen across the other side.\n\nThe others were whispering now. Some looked towards me in confusion, others had the look of murder within them.\n\n\"Something isn't right. Every person has been able to pass beyond the portal,\" A man said from behind me.\n\n\"Try once more! We will decide what to do with you if you so fail,\"\n\nI walked up to the gate, to the portal, placing one hand against it. For just one moment, my hand lingered in that fiery of light and air, and then, in one flash, I was physically forced backwards, landing against the ground upon my back.\n\nAll of the villagers looked towards me then, uncertain of what to say, or even what to do.\n\n\"We must hold a counsel,\" One of the oldest whispered.\n\nr/TheRisingWorks for more" ]	2
	[WP] ... In local news, a giant space monster is currently eating Chicago, more on this story after sports.	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Reality+Fiction%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Simple+Prompt%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/js5XDFB)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "*In local news, a giant space monster is currently eating Chicago, more on this story after sports.*\n\nIn sports, today's showdown between the Chicago Cubs and the New York Yankees has been interrupted by a giant space monster consuming the stadium. The space monster, identified by friends and family as \"John Huggins\", consumed the sports venue over a period of seven heart wrenching minutes earlier this evening.\n\nWhen contacted for comment, the Chicago Cubs' management office indicated that discussions were continuing internally as to whether or not ticket holders would be eligible for a refund. \"We are looking at the possibility, and we will continue to work with all of them,\" said Cubs senior vice president and general counsel Brian Snook. \"We have not made a final decision yet and will continue to monitor the situation.\"\n\nThis is the second time in less than two months that the Cubs have had to forfeit a game due to their home stadium having been consumed. An investigation is under way by authorities as there are concerns that the giant space monster may have been intentional. \"A gigantic space monster eating a sports venue is what I would call, quite frankly, a real shock,\" said the legendary Cubs broadcaster, Lou Brock. \"There are two sides to every story, you always try to look outside the box and look for the bigger, bad, more evil, bigger things, but in this case I think it's pretty clear that the monster's trying to eat us to see what we will be able to do about it.\"\n\nCities around the world, like Austin, Texas, and Sydney, Australia, have witnessed similar stories, as have some professional sports organizations like MLB, the National Hockey League, or the International League Table Tennis Federation. The American Association Baseball Society has even stated that giant space monsters do exist, while the International Olympic Committee has stated that the \"monster\" is simply making the game in Chicago a bit more entertaining.\n\nIn any case, the Chicago baseball, hockey, and track stars have come together today to take on the monster. There were no survivors. \"It's crazy,\" said outfielder Brandon Workman. \"Whoa!\" Our thoughts and prayers go out to Brandon's family as those were his last words before being consumed by the giant space monster.\n\n\"I was trying to catch a fly ball, but I got stuck. Then the giant space monster came out of nowhere and swallowed me. It was just too much,\" said baseball player Matt Wieters via Twitter. Cubs pitcher Jon Lester relayed a message via his agent from inside the monster stating, \"It was kind of chewing on my arm in the first half.\"\n\nWhen asked to comment on the demise of outfield Workman, cubs third baseman Kris Bryant said, \"I'm going to be a little bit sad to see the guy go. I mean he was one of us. We were all there, watching him get eaten. He's a great guy, he was one of the best. He's going to be missed, but at the same time I think he's going to go to his grave with the rest of us in a good place.\"\n\nStay tuned to WGPT Channel 2 News for updates in this fast-developing story." ]	2
	[WP] As an exorcist, you've met and dealt with many demons in your lifetime and had the privilege of meeting several angels. Just when you thought you had seen it all, you find yourself face to face with a being that is unlike anything you've come across before	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Reality+Fiction%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Simple+Prompt%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/js5XDFB)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "\"I just don't get it...\" I said to the lean African man in front of me in disbelief. They'd told me he was possessed, but if there was a demon inside of him, it was certainly behaving differently than most.\n\nHe locked eyes with me and responded. \"Who's gonna carry the BOATS, and the LOGS?\"\n\nWhat the... was that non-sequitur his answer? How is that an explanation? I'd never seen a demon like this before - typically people who were possessed could hardly string three words together, much less full sentences.\n\n\"David, why in the world would you run, with no training, until you shit yourself up your back?\"\n\nHis entire body seemed to flex as he pointed to his head. \"If you don't conquer this, man.\" I could feel the fire from his eyes piercing deep into my psyche. \"Then you've got nothing.\"\n\nThis was a strange demon. Literate, articulate, and yet just as erratic as the others. I paused for a minute and listened to the rhythmic pattering of the freezing rain falling outside, trying to decide how to proceed. While I was thinking, he interjected.\n\n\"Hey man. Let's go for a run.\"\n\n\"What...\" I stuttered a bit, trying to answer him.\n\n\"You have to make yourself uncomfortable, EVERY DAY.\" He took his shirt off and headed for the door.\n\n\"David, wait. I need you to lie down on the bed.\" I took the cross and bible out of my bag, preparing for the exorcism.\n\n\"Man, fuck that shit.\" His hand was on the doorknob now.\n\n\"David, you're possessed.\"\n\nAs he opened the door, a frigid blast of icy wind gusted past his body. I shivered and covered up. He didn't. He stood, chest tall, arms relaxed at his sides and looked at me.\n\n\"I am possessed, doctor. Possessed by a will to do better. To be better than I was yesterday. Now are you coming with me or not?\"\n\nThat's... that's not something a demon would say. It wasn't frantic enough, it was too clear, too collected. This man was just... human? Eyes wide, jaw agape, I stared at the shirtless figure in front of me, standing tall against the freezing winds, unmoved. I wasn't going out there, though - a run in this weather? Demon or not, he was still crazy.\n\nAt my silence, he closed his eyes and shook his head. And then he turned, and calmly walked out the door." ]	2
	[WP] You have invented time machine and decided to go to see ancient egypt, to your surprise, you are immidiately welcomed by pharao who has been waiting for you for a long time.	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Reality+Fiction%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Simple+Prompt%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/js5XDFB)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "\"Hanna,\" the Pharaoh calls your name. \"It is time already?\"\n\nYou look around until you can force yourself to make eye contact with the Egyptian leader. \n\n\"I'm sorry? H-How do you know my name? And how do you know English?!\"\n\nThe Pharaoh laughs and steps down from his high throne. \"It's all in the prophecy...I knew this day would come. I just did not expect it to be so soon.\"\n\nYou can't help but ask again, \"How do you know me and my language? From what I've studied, y-\"\n\n\"STOP YOUR QUESTIONING!\"\n\nThe Pharaoh's loud tone startles you, causing you to back away. An apologetic look flashes across the mans face as he approaches you. \"My apologies, my dear, but you needn't ask questions. I shall show you something that will answer all your questions.\"\n\nFrom a pocket within his garments, the leader pulls out a cut gem, the same color of his honey eyes. He puts his hand on the hem of your shirt and places it on the small of your back. \n\nBefore you can shout at him, you feel as if there's weight being dropped into your shoulders. Your eyes burn, your skin grows slightly darker, and your brain feels as if it is to explode. \"Grrraauuhhh,\" you groan in pain, \"what is going on?!\"\n\nThe Pharaoh gives you a confident grin and grabs your shoulders to hold you up straight. \"Hanna...you have studied correct?\"\n\nYou manage a nod before releasing another groan of agony. Slowly, you feel something happening to your body. Not just your skin or muscles, but your bones and skull. Your body is morphing all because of this gem. You and the Pharaoh stare at each other for a few minutes until your pain begins to decrease. You being to feel okay again as the Pharaoh smiles at you.\n\n\"I wish you the best of luck, Hatshepsut. Keep our land and our people safe,\" he says, planting a kiss on your forehead. You close your eyes as his lips touch your skin, but open them once you feel him gone. \n\nHe's nowhere to be seen, but it all begins to make sense as you see a pile of sand on the floor in front of you. Outside the walls surrounding you, you hear people shouting \"Hatshepsut\" over and over. \n\nThey're waiting for you.\n\n Your people are waiting for their new Pharaoh. \n\n\n***Hatshepsut is a real Pharaoh. She was the first female Pharaoh of Egypt 😊" ]	2
	[WP] The Curse was simple, if anyone told the prince how handsome he was, he would die. To avoid this fate, his family convinced everyone that he was a hideous monster. To break the curse, someone had to love him for his heart, not his face.	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Reality+Fiction%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Simple+Prompt%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/js5XDFB)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "Anne was a young woman of slight build, with the kind of unruly, curly hair that demanded to be released no matter how many pins bound it in place. As maid to the Prince she thought herself very lucky. She considered him a friend. And, indeed, he would often sit of an evening and speak with her as equals, talking about his life and his concerns.\n\nAnne had found herself rather idle in the last few weeks since the Prince had headed out into the world, dressed in the most basic of attire, to live with the people of his kingdom and experience life as a common man.\n\nOh, there had been such uproar when he had announced his decision to do this. The Queen had been horrified, demanding to know why such silly notions filled his head. She had wailed and cried and beat her chest, and tried to dissuade the Prince of his plans, to no avail. The very next day he had set out on his horse, with a hunk of bread and three apples wrapped in cloth in his bag, and waved a cheery goodbye.\n\nAs far as Anne was concerned though, she thought it a good thing. She was a down to earth young lady herself, and believed the Prince would gain much from his venture, though perhaps he would not get the real answer he was seeking.\n\nFor none knew it.\n\nIt was a curiosity that everyone spoke of at breakfast, lunch or dinner, while mulling over the events of the their lives. It was whispered about at bedtimes and even laughed about during private, uproarious social gatherings. Neither man, woman nor child could explain why, despite such grand lineage and a heritage of the most stunning beauty, the Prince looked as ugly and as vile as any monster ever written about.\n\nAnne knew this haunted him, weighed heavy on his heart and caused him to falter in the confidence of his decisions. He spoke of feeling himself unloveable, of how his heart ached constantly with this knowledge. No amount of assurance from Anne of his good character, honest virtues, his kindness and jocular outlook could persuade him otherwise. She thought it so sad, for she had never been one to judge a persons by his looks, and knew the Prince to be the most beautiful person on the inside.\n\nToday, as the sun rose and adorned the valley with the golden blessing of a new morning, Anne awoke to a great hullabaloo in the main room of the castle. People were shouting and running everywhere, the Queen was issuing orders with high pitched excitement and bells had started ringing loudly and joyously from the tower. She dressed and pulled back her hair with haste, and pausing only to throw her bed sheets hurriedly over her bed, she went to find out what was happening.\n\n“Please, Mother, I’d really rather not have all this fuss.”\n\nThere, sitting at the grand oak table with a wide smile, was the Prince. He had returned. His hair was long and bedraggled, his plain boots were covered in mud and he looked much thinner than the day he had left.\n\n“Pish!” The Queen exclaimed, her face shining with happiness, and seeing Anne at the far end of the room she beckoned her over with waving arms. “Come! Come quickly maid, the Prince needs new clothes and food and wine. And music! Get some musicians in here now!”\n\nThe Prince laughed at her delight and Anne hurried over to him, curtseying before looking up at him.\n\n“Anne, so good to see you, how are you?”\n\n“I’m very well, m’lord, thank you and welcome home,” she replied, taking in his mud streaked face and dirty nails. He smelled of vegetables and compost.\n\n“Pray, sit with me, I am in need of nothing but your good company right now.”\n\nThe Queen huffed in indignation, but she knew of their long friendship and so hustled and bustled away to arrange all manner of good things in celebration of the Prince’s return. When she had gone, Anne turned to the Prince with a grin.\n\nHe took her hand, “Anne, I have seen so many things and met so many people. I have learned so much, my heart and mind are not the same as they were before. I met with a family whose youngest child had died after eating poison ivy. They were stricken with grief and yet fed me and gave me shelter for the night. I met a beggar who had less than nothing and called the dirty roads his home, and he gave me his only blanket to sit on while we talked. I saw a girl crying by the river, she had dropped her pendant in there that was a present from her grandma. The happiness she shared when I was able to fish it out for her was more than any happiness I have seen here at the castle when we throw grand banquets for the noblemen.”\n\nAnne nodded, “what you have experienced is real life, m’lord. Real people. It is different to life as a Prince in the castle, is it not?”\n\n“Indeed. I felt my heart break for the suffering and yet soar in joy for the love. I intend to do more, to ease the suffering and encourage the love. For too long have I wondered around this castle like a goldfish in a bowl, crying to myself about how I look. No more. I now have a purpose, and it is simply to look after my people as best I can, as they deserve.”\n\nThe Prince smiled at her, but although Anne’s heart was gladdened by his words she felt a sadness for him. Because the Prince was so good and so kind, she wished she could help him to love himself in the same way he had turned all his love to his people.\n\nThat night, she mused on the subject while combing through her hair. Presently a thought came to her, and she went to the drawing room to retrieve some paper and some paint. Through the next hours, she most carefully painted a picture of the Prince. She painted his goodness and his care for others into his face, she painted his love of learning and his honesty into his lips, she painted his strength and determination into his nose and she painted his beautiful soul into his eyes.\n\nAs dawn broke, she stretched her tired arms and looked at her creation. Nodding to herself, she picked it up and brought it to the Prince as he drank his morning tea.\n\n“M’lord, I have a gift for you,” she said.\n\n“A painting?” How wonderful, thank you, do bring it over so I can see it in the light.”\n\nShe padded over and held it up for him to see. He studied it, turning his head to see it from all angles.\n\n“I do love your talent for painting, Anne, I can see this fellow you have drawn is truly handsome. Forgive me some confusion though, I do not know him. Is he a friend of yours?”\n\n“Yes, indeed he is m’lord, a great friend.”\n\n“Have I met him?”\n\n“You see him every day when you look in the mirror, m’lord.”\n\nThe Prince looked at her, “I’m not sure I understand…”\n\n“I have painted what you truly look like. This is your image. This is what I see when I look at you.”\n\nThe Prince looked at Anne with a furrowed brow, “you are too kind and give me far too much credit, I can see with my own eyes in the mirror every morning what a beast I am.”\n\n“M’lord, the mirror is but a superficial reading of who you are, I assure you with all my heart, this is your true face, the face of your soul.”\n\nFor a moment the Prince simply studied Anne, he searched her face, he looked for any question of a joke behind her eyes but saw only her honesty, friendship and her love. In that instant he knew in his heart she spoke the truth and a rush of gratitude came upon him, unspoken adoration flowed through him untethered like rays of sunlight across an open moor. His face broke into a huge smile, the biggest smile he had ever smiled. His heart lifted and burst with joy as it had never done before and he felt a tremendous weight release itself from him, a weight that had been a curse to him all his life. He stood and pulled Anne towards him in an embrace full of hope and wonder.\n\n“Thank you Anne, thank you.”" ]	2
	[WP] “mom, dad can I ask a question” your parents look up and your dad says “sure what is it” you answer with “you guys were in a love triangle right ? I need help with my love cube” both your parents look at and say “what”	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Reality+Fiction%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Simple+Prompt%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/js5XDFB)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "There was a long pause, and Jimmy immediately regretted his question.\n\n\"Sorry... I'll... I'll just...\"\n\n\"Stop right there, mister.\" Jimmy's mother said in a flat voice that brokered no compromise. A nar-Pavlovian response to the command froze Jimmy in place.\n\n\"Sit down, son.\" His father said, more gently. \n\nJimmy slid into one of the table's chairs and tried desperately, but unsuccessfully, to become invisible. He did, however, succeed in turning bright red from embarrassment.\n\nAfter a few more agonizing seconds, with Jimmy shifted hues from his regular pale complexion to that of an apple, his Mother first spoke.\n\n\"Jimmy, you should know that we want you to be happy, just like we found happiness. We also want you to be comfortable with bringing your problems to us; but...\" she trailed off, and his father picked up her point.\n\n\"Relationship geometry can be very, very complex. We only barely managed it with three people.\"\n\nJimmy looked up, confused, to see the open and honest expressions on his parents faces. \"You're not angry with me?\"\n\n\"Heavens no!\" His mom said. \"We just want to set some expectations on our advice!\"\n\n\"Okay...\" Jimmy said, hardly believing what he was hearing.\n\n\"Alright, then, let's start with the details.\" His Dad said, \"Cube, right? So six people. That's good because it can be divisible later if people want to either pair off or go into triads...\"\n\nThe conversation carried long into the night. Not all of the advice was helpful, but that is the case with parental advice in most cases, not just with polygamous relationships." ]	2
	[WP] The villain's hysterical laughter echoed through the room. The hero looked unbothered by it all. "Not my fault you're so ticklish. Deal with it," the hero replied.	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Reality+Fiction%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Simple+Prompt%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/js5XDFB)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "“St- stop it sto… stop!” cried Lord Zarikov, but he hero Ametha was unrelenting. The Dark Lord had shown no mercy through his reign, and so she would show none to him. His cries were frantic as he raged at first, and then plead. “I will ha- have your head for thisssss- this insolence-heheee! … No! Stop! Stop before I... please! N-No more!”\n\nBut no matter how much he pleaded, Ametha had no intention of sparing him this torture. Her fingers danced up and down the side of his torso, dusting over the sensitive skin of his armpits and cascading down to his hip with the grace of a fluttering feather. Her other arm held Zarikov in a headlock that trapped is arms as well, rendering him defenseless.\n\n“Heehee nooooo! Enough of heehee hoohoo please stop ha ha hee!” the Dark Lord cried.\n\nSeveral of his minions had surrounded the hero and her victim, but Ametha looked up them with a threatening gaze. “Don’t come any closer! Make a move and I’ll make him pee his pants!”\n\n“Anything but that! Anythi-heehaheehee- ehrm… You may have bested me but I still have my pri-heehehee-ide! Stay back!” the Dark Lord ordered his men, and they backed.\n\nAmetha halted her assault, but kept her fingers braced against Zarikov’s armpit. “Good… now we can talk.”\n\nZarikov let his head fall forwards. “Fine… make your demands, hero.”\n\n“First… you lift the nationwide ban on naps, abolish the snack tax, and relinquish the key to the Grand Chest.”\n\n“Damn you Ametha!” Zarikov spat.\n\nAmetha's eyes narrowed at him. “Uh oh… you just said a bad word. Give me the key and I’ll pretend I didn’t hear that… or do I need to do more…” her voice trailed off as her fingers stirred slightly.\n\n“Yip! Okay, okay! The key is buried under the swing-set,” the Dark Lord admitted quickly.\n\n“Very good,” Ametha said. She let him go, but then flicked him hard in the ear. “Just remember. Being point-man on the 3rd grade basketball team doesn’t make you king of the playground.”\n\n“Ow! Fine! I’m sorry!” Zarikov complained, rubbing his ear.”\n\nThe hero made her way over to the keys location, stepping by the Dark Lord’s minions without so much as a glance in their direction.\n\n&#x200B;\n\n“Amy!” called Ben as he greeted her at the swing-set. “Did you get the key from Zack?”\n\n“Yeah, he told me he buried it under the swing set.”\n\n“Ugh, what a dill-weed. At least we can get into the shed with the sports equipment again,” said Ben.\n\nThe hero smiled. “Let’s play some kickball.”" ]	2
	[WP] The Four Horsemen of The Apocalypse, after much deliberation, decided it was time to branch out and add a fifth member to their group. Now, they’re holding interviews with the potential candidates.	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Reality+Fiction%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Simple+Prompt%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/js5XDFB)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "\"Please start by telling us a little about yourself, why you are uniquely qualified for the position, and what you would bring to the team.\" Famine spoke deliberately, perhaps trying to hide malnourished exhaustion.\n\n\"I'm Hatred.\" The man straightened his red necktie, a pop of color against his black suit. \"We've worked together, don't you remember?\"\n\n\"Recently?\" Famine asked.\n\n\"I'm consulting with Capitalism on the food deserts project, and doing site visits around the world to spread anti-refugee rhetoric.\"\n\n\"Well done, sir.\" Famine nodded. \"I didn't realize you were involved.\"\n\n\"Thanks for your help with the super-spreader events, by the way!\" Pestilence, a pockmarked man in pajamas, spoke from across the table.\n\n\"No problem! I enjoy civil unrest and blinding people to facts, both are just fascinating to me.\"\n\nDeath spoke from the head of the table. \"Next question, Hatred. Tell us about a time when you made a mistake at work. How did you make it right?\"\n\nHatred glanced at Pestilence. \"Speak of the devil! Pestilence released a virus and asked for help spreading it. I brewed up some civil unrest so thousands of people would protest. Turns out they knew about the virus and how to prevent its spread. Masks, physical distance, gathering outside, you know.\"\n\n\"Oops.\" Pestilence chuckled.\n\n\"Yeah, exactly.\" Hatred chuckled right back. \"So I got my guys on the ground to associate virus prevention with the protesters, and to hate the protesters, and to hate the virus prevention.\"\n\nWar shuffled some paperwork. \"Have you ever disobeyed a supervisor? If so, what were the circumstances?\"\n\nHatred shrugged. \"Yeah. Because fuck 'em.\"\n\n\"We'll need a little more detail than that.\" War glared. His longtime colleagues knew he was getting close to yelling and knife hands.\n\nHatred sighed. \"Okay. Contract work for Satan, busting up churches into cults and sects. Divide and conquer, right? So, Satan told me to chip away at the Mormons a little. Just make a few splinter groups, mess with their organizational structure. He said they're not terrible, we're not trying to bring shame to them, we just wanna control their numbers and render them a useless minority. So I made all the splinter cult pastors super fundamentalist and threw in some good old fashioned misogyny for good measure. Because fuck 'em. I hate pastors. And Mormons. And women. Satan was pissed, but I got job security. Who else is gonna rip apart a church community?\"\n\n\"Lust?\" Pestilence asked.\n\nHatred cringed. \"Wow, yeah, okay. I can see that. That's a little much, even for me!\"\n\nDeath shuffled his papers. \"She definitely knows how to tempt people to go beyond the pale. Anyway, last question. Our goal is a swift and terrible apocalypse. What wouldn't you do to expedite this?\"\n\n\"I won't bring people together. I won't work with children under five; they don't know how to hate yet, and it's up to their parents to teach them. And I won't take sides. You got two people working too closely together? I make 'em hate each other, you deal with the fallout. You need a disease to spread? I'll make those in power hate the common people, or one race hate another, something to spark a protest and cause people to organize on their own, but then I'm hands off.\"\n\n\"Alright, Hatred. Thanks for your time.\"\n\nWhile Death walked Hatred out, the other three shared their thoughts.\n\n\"Solid resume, but he's an asshole,\" War said plainly.\n\n\"An effective one.\" Pestilence made some notes.\n\n\"I can't help but wonder if he'd be redundant.\" Famine's stomach growled. \"Who do we have next?\"\n\n\"Addiction.\" War read the next resume.\n\n\"Wow, he's ambitious!\" Pestilence laughed. \"I work with him pretty regularly, I'll be interested to see how someone who can only affect one individual at a time as opposed to wide swaths of humanity plans to make up for that!\"", "“Next please!” War called out.\n\n“Really? I mean come on –“ Pestilence interjected\n\n“We are not having Lust as a member Pest.” Death spoke up for the first time that hour. With that, the matter was settled.\n\n“Thank you all for taking the time to hear me out.” The woman, amorphously shifting between every type of lingerie and nothing at all, shook each of their hands before making for the spectral exit.\n\n“I’m with Pest on this, her numbers are solid.” Famine piped up, his voice thin and reedy propelled from hollow cheeks.\n\n“Not the only thing here that’s solid by my reckoning” War spat back.\n\nThey descended into bickering, War playing his role well and attacking both at once while Death just stared at the ceiling and sighed. So the old battle lines were drawn. Death and War versus Pestilence and Famine. Coffins and Taxes versus Scurvy and Polio. The eternally relevant against the rapidly extraneous. Things had been rough ever since nitrate soil enrichment and penicillin. CRISPR had been the final straw. New blood was needed, something which could get them back up to fighting weight.\n\n“I said NEXT!” War roared in a break between the argument, slamming a gauntlet against the table.\n\nDeath winced. Always easy to break things when you’re not the one hosting the damn meeting. He made a show of acting unconcerned but really his numbers were shifting into the red as well. War too. They’d tried to push a joint project with the whole Crimea affair but no one had been willing to take the bait. They could see the signs. Someone was getting powerful. Some aspect was swelling in strength. It was just a matter of opening the door and picking correctly. Say what you want about Lust, if she was ending the world it wasn’t through creating more dead people.\n\nThe spectral entrance shimmered, and the four horsemen quickly adopted their trademark grim silence. They had a reputation after all. The drifting smoke parted, and in walked the next applicant. Death decided to play the game for once and paid attention.\n\nThe figure was male, which could mean a lot or nothing at all. The horseman were all male, but their aspects were born in a time of high chauvinism. Constantine and his edits were like a sledgehammer to a statue. Well dressed. Caucasian. Had a satchel bag draped over one shoulder. Death sucked in a breath. Capitalism had already been turned down. If Gig-Economy had somehow found their summons he was going to have words. Possibly with a scythe. They had a smartphone in one hand, glancing down at is they walked towards the folding chair in front of the table. Yup, Gigs it was. Death couldn’t help but crack a skeletal knuckle. They were looking for contenders, not gimmicks.\n\n“You don’t need to sit down” Death spat out. The three other horsemen glanced over. Second time in the hour.\n\nThe figure glanced up from their phone, a slight grin on his face as he tucked the phone away.\n\n“That quick?” A shifting accent, American then English then Russian. Others rolling away underneath it.\n\n“You’re applying for a position at the Apocalypse, not the damn Inconvenience. Frankly, I’m insulted you thought you stood a chance.” Death resisted standing up and waving his bony fists. Cool, controlled anger. Reputations mattered.\n\nThe figure raised an eyebrow, shrugging their shoulders.\n\n“Oh, I mean I thought you’d decided to take me on.”\n\n“Take you on?! You? the passing triviality of a dec-OW!”\n\nWar had elbowed him hard in the ribcage. Death snapped his head around, eye sockets glowing blue. That was a line not to be crossed. He’d just have to reap Gigs as well to keep things under wraps. War would recover, eventually. As he summoned his scythe, he glanced down at the ream of metrics and assessments War had in his free hand, and was earnestly shoving towards him. Much thicker than he expected. He paused, sockets dimming to darkness. He ceased the summoning.\n\nThe room was almost silent. The sound of papers being turned over, and the quiet tapping as the figure returned to their smartphone. Death had to admit, he was wrong. Very wrong. It was a wonder really. Aspects usually stayed on one side of the line of the other. Dynamic enough they could change the world, or static enough they were just a part of it. But the numbers didn’t lie. Year after year, exponential growth, and real-world results. Serious gains in every area that mattered. As much as they bickered, the horseman were the oldest of colleagues. They didn’t need to discuss a decision this obvious.\n\nDeath looked up. He wouldn’t apologize. Maybe in a few years when they had established the pecking order, he’d consider it. At the convention perhaps. Still, an awkward cough spoiled his opening.\n\n“-Excuse me, awful dry in here. Your numbers are impressive. When would you be able to start?”\n\nThe figure glanced up from the phone, smiling once more.\n\n“I already have.”\n\nThat got the impressed murmurings going. Less need for the stony silence. Part of the gang now. Backtalking the bony big man always got you points with Scurvy and Polio.\n\n“We’ll contact you about arrangements, but for now feel free to remain in your domain.”\n\nThe figure nodded, not looking up from their phone as they turned and walked towards the exit. As they did, Death realized a slight issue as they glanced back at the header page. The name was a swirling, indecipherable mass. Curious. Explained the dynamic against static dilemma he supposed.\n\n“A moment horseman.”\n\nThe figure stopped. Death grinned. Still in charge.\n\n“What shall we call you, now you are a member of the Apocalypse.”\n\nThe figure did not look round. A pause, then a laugh.\n\n“That is the question, isn’t it? Ah yes. Can’t really be what I was, but can’t really be nothing at all. It fits poorly, but it will do for now.”\n\nAs he faded into the mist, he called back to the assembled table.\n\n“You can call me Truth.”" ]	3
	[WP] You are a vampire hunter with no martial skills or powers. Your blood, however, is toxic to vampires.	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Reality+Fiction%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Simple+Prompt%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/js5XDFB)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "I used to want to be a Vampire Hunter. \n\n\nWhen I was five, I'd wrap a red sheet around my shoulders, put on my dad's trilby, and stalk around the house, spinning on my heel to randomly point a finger gun at the shadows. In my head, I wasn't scared of monsters- they were scared of me. \n\n\nAnd who wouldn't want to be a Vampire Hunter? All the kids in my school agreed with me that it was the coolest job. Cooler than being a doctor and a lawyer, cooler than being a judge or a teacher. Because people want adventure. They like the possibility of a journey, of something dangerous. It's why we humans push ourselves to the edge, it's why we have no qualms taking risks and fighting eachother. \n\n\nIt's why we are very easy to be picked off. \n\n\nVampires have existed for... God, I don't know how long. Perhaps as long as humans? Maybe even longer. Maybe we were the mutated offspring of one vampire, and we just happened to be very, very tasty. \n\n\nScientists have debated over it. They've not gone very far in figuring out why vampires and humans are so different; why human blood is so addictive to vampires, why vampires have this almost animalistic urge to hunt and tear and kill. \n\n\nI'm getting off track. What I want to say is that, when I was a very, very young girl, I wanted to be a Vampire Hunter. Not seriously, of course. It was just a fantasy, an unachievable one, since Vampire Hunters pushed themselves to the limits and taught themselves how to throw knives, do martial arts, paralyze men with just a few jabs of their hands, and I was a pudgy, apple cheeked little girl who tripped on her own shoelaces. \n\n\nEventually as I got older, I resigned myself to not living a life of coolness. Nine years old is that sort of age where you understand what's impossible and not, but you still want to live in those fantasies. I liked to entertain them in my head, but excersizing everyday didn't intrigue me in the slightest, especially after trying out a viral fitness plan that supposedly many Vampire Hunter professionals go through before they get to the hard stuff. It didn't work out so well. \n\n\nI lived in a pretty tame suburbia anyways. Golden retrievers, picket fences, cute kids, all that. No vampires would possibly hit the neighbourhood, especially since it was upper-class. You know the statistics; they like to go after the ones people don't care about to get their fix. It's the best place to start the hunt, besides reclusive towns in the country and crowded cities filled with trash and crime and small time gangs. \n\n\nI lived right next door to this girl. Sadie. She had the prettiest brown eyes, and a long curtain of black hair. She stood out from the uniformed rows of blond in school, but she was popular due to her charisma. I certainly liked her, since she looked a lot like I did- dark hair, dark eyes, and skin that wasn't white and freckly. She was also a very good speaker, and sometimes even had the teacher on the edge of her seat with her grandiose stories about hiking in the Alps and watching volcanoes from a distance. The girl knew her way with words. \n\n\nShe'd just moved there maybe a month or two before I actually met her. I was playing with my brother's soccer ball and accidentally kicked it into the bushes, she picked it up and threw it back to me, and I somehow mustered up the courage to ask a very pretty and popular girl to play with me. \n\n\nSadie looked at me with her dark eyes, and smiled. Her agreement kickstarted our friendship. \n\n\nI soon realized that not only was she charismatic, she was smart. Like, very smart. She used big words in every sentence, and would get very annoyed with me whenever I got something wrong on our math homework. Then she personally made it a mission to tutor me in literally everything- she busted out this dusty book filled with stories from writers I haven't even heard about once. She said it was \"first edition\", but, God, was that thing rank. \n\n\nA lot of her stuff was old. I tried to ask her about it when she was over, once. \n\n\nWe were stuck upstairs in my room. I was playing with an action figure of a Vampire Hunter on the floor, I think, and she was busy completing doing homework. Not hers, mind you. She was redoing mine. Said my handwriting was \"atrocious\". She was such a priss about it, but it grew on me. \n\n\nI turned my head to look at her. I remember that she was sitting by my window, staring at the light that filtered through the curtains with a solemn look on her face. Her pen tapped against my homework absently. \n\n\n\"Hey,\" I spoke up, suddenly breaking the silence. Her head whipped around to face me even before I finished the word. \"Why's all your stuff so old?\"\n\n\nYes, I was an idiot. In my defense, I was nine and I barely knew how to talk to other kids my age, nevertheless another nine year old girl more advanced than a high schooler. \n\n\nI could see her face flattening a bit. Maybe she was dissapointed at my bluntness- always preaching about how you should watch what you say and all that- or maybe she was offended. I didn't know, because I didn't really think about that. I was curious; why did she only have old stuff?\n\n\n\"My \"stuff\"? Pardon?\" She asked. I stared blankly at her. She rolled her eyes. \"What do you mean by that, exactly?\"\n\n\nI shrugged uncaringly. \"Like... for examble-\"\n\n\n\"Example.\"\n\n\n\"-you're always wearing old timey stuff. Like uhm... you know those pictures Mrs Herring showed us last week? The ones of the kids from the uh, Victory Era?\"\n\n\n\"... you mean, Victorian?\"\n\n\n\"Yeah! Why do you always dress up like one of them?\" I gave her a mildly curious look. \"And your stuff's always old too, by the way. Like your pens are rusty, your books are always super wrinkly, and your hanky's got holes in it.\"\n\n\nShe stared at me for a few seconds. She looked more amused than offended, and leaned back on her hands with a growing grin, the one she put on when she thought I was being funny. Not in the kind way, mind you. In the way someone might laugh at a clown.\n\n\n\"Why, Mary Ann,\" she said, putting on an affronted tone of voice, \"I'd never think that my very own friend would such such ignorant drabble about me! By my own heart, and you've hurt me. Stabbed me in the back.\"\n\n\nI blinked at her, and she sighed. Despite her failed attempt at mocking me- really, by now she should've realized how block-headed I used to be- she looked... upset. Not hurt, but definitely unhappy.\n\n\n\"You. Hurt. My. Feelings. Mary Ann,\" she said, slowly. \"What do you say when you hurt someone's feelings?\" \n\n\nI stared at her. She sighed even harder, and in a stroke of genius I said, \"Oh, are you sensitive about that?\"\n\n\nShe began to clap her hands mockingly. This time I got it. I didn't like it. \n\n\n\"Bravah! The girl gets it, it's a miracle!\" She exclaimed, and threw her hands in the air. \"Finally, a child that doesn't give into their sociopathic tendencies! Maybe you might develop a moral compass early, my dear girl.\"\n\n\n\"Socio-what? Isn't that a money thing?\"\n\n\n\"Socio-economics, Mary Ann. You really know how to ruin a gloating moment.\"\n\n\n\"Oh. Sorry. You can go back to your glowing.\"\n\n\nShe rubbed her temples. \"It's gloat... never mind. I finished your homework, by the way. You're lucky the teacher likes me enough to give me second copies for my \"little sister\".\"\n\n\nI clapped my hands, excitedly. Homework done meant that Sadie had time to entertain me. She was good at story telling, at least. She concocted stories of ogres and dragons fighting together against the dastardly evil monster slayers who seeked to destroy their villages and settlements and prevent them from feeding their starving children and liked to kick puppies. \n\n\nShe particularly liked the part where we mimed blowing fire onto a horde of soldiers.\n\n\nI did tell you I was block-headed, didn't I?\n\n\nSadie was an anomaly in our neighbourhood, but her parents were even more strange. We'd only see them once a week, maybe once every few weeks. She told me that her dad was a \"business-savvy entrepreneur\" and her mom was a \"real blood sucker of a lawyer\". Then she laughed. I never did understand her jokes, did I? She must've hated it. \n\n///\n\nPart 1/?", "My mentor suggested I start writing down my thoughts in this journal. I appreciate the suggestion from him, but my thoughts are no more clear than they usually are. I get headaches when I write sometimes as well- no idea why, really, but it's annoying. The journal helps in some way though- it kills time. My training has gone... less than optimal. No matter how hard I try I can't seem to pick up any of the skills the others have. Like anybody else, I can throw a couple hard punches- but they don't matter unless they can hit my target. And, well, when your target is something that can move so fast that blinking is dangerous... yeah.\n\n&#x200B;\n\n\"James! Are you ready yet?\"\n\n&#x200B;\n\n\"Ah! Yes, of course! Out in a moment!\"\n\n&#x200B;\n\nI must go. Tonight is another scouting mission I can tag along on. Let's hope I can learn something this time.\n\nI quickly grabbed my cloak and stood up, fastening the clasp around my shoulders and in front of my neck before opening the door and stepping out. I took a deep breath, and walked behind my mentor for the night.\n\n\"Are you alright James? You look pale- kill any vampires lately?\"\n\nThe man gave a hearty laugh and nudged my shoulder- his name was Johnathon, but he preferred to be called 'Nyte'. A codename, like the others had, but he was the only one I'd met to prefer to go by it all the time. It would be an easy night with him in the lead.\n\n\"James, you should know...\" I looked to him, his voice much more somber than a moment ago. \"Just- be extra careful tonight.\"\n\nAnd without another word, we left for our mission.\n\n&#x200B;\n\nGoing back for the journal was foolish, but it helps now more than ever. That night was the first one I was ever able to do something on my own.\n\nI just didn't expect to have to become a vampire first.", "I adjusted my cleavage as I sat at the bar. I hated having to dress this way but it helped attract predators. According to my research, my target was a boob man. Damn, I was freezing.\n\nThe bar was low lit and smelled like old sweat and cheap beer. Occasionally a fight would break out back by the pool table. Classy place. It was a typical hunting ground.\n\nA man slid onto the stool beside me uninvited. There was a jagged scar across his eyebrow and a hungry look in his eyes. He matched the description of the man I was looking for. He looked over my skimpy black dress with a ravenous gleam in his eyes, before coming to focus on the scars on my neck. \"How much?\" He wanted to know.\n\nI shrugged as I twirled the straws around in my glass of gin like I was only mildly interested in his offer. If you look too eager they either get suspicious or think you are desperate and can walk all over you.\"$100 a pint.\"\n\n\"That's a little steep. I'll give you $50.\" He responded.\n\nI just gave him an unimpressed look. \"$75 or you can take your broke ass somewhere else.\"\n\nHe let out a low growl. \"Fine.\"\n\nI finished my drink and led him outside into the alleyway. We were barely out the side door before he grabbed me by the throat and slammed me up against the wall.\n\n\"Hey! Don't manhandle me, Douche Bag!\" I demanded and slapped at his hand.\n\n\"Shut up, Juice Box.\" He hissed back and bared his fangs at me.\n\n\"Let go of me before you do something you regret...\" I warned.\n\nHe let out a dark chuckle and licked my cheek.\n\n\"Eww...\"\n\nHe roughly grabbed my arms as he buried his fangs into my neck. I let out a sharp whimper as a stinging pain ran through me while he drained my blood. Some people seem to be into this kind of thing but I have never enjoyed it.\n\nSuddenly he drew back from me with a sharp gasp. He began to shake with pain. He grabbed at his stomach as he violently spewed blood all over the alley wall.\n\n\"Gross...\" I clutched at my neck as I watched. The wound was already beginning to heal.\n\n\"What...what did you...?\" His eyes were blazing red as he began to crawl towards me with murder smoldering in his eyes. He only made it a few feet before he exploded in a burst of blood and sulfuric ash.\n\n\"You owe me at least $150...\" I muttered as I sat down to shake the dizzy waves of gin and blood loss that was rippling through me.\n\nA large envelope full of cash fell into my lap.\n\n\"You are worth more than that, Huntress.\" The master vampire that had appeared from the shadows smirked. \"You are more efficient than any other hunter I have met.\"\n\n\"Glad you find my family curse useful.\" I grumbled back as I tried to bring myself to my feet but the ground swayed beneath me.\n\nHe offered a hand to steady me. \"Love the outfit...\" He commented.\n\n\"Borrowed it from you mom.\" I muttered.\n\nThe vampire let out an amused chuckle. \"Come on, I'll buy you dinner. I have a new bounty to go over with you.\"", "\"Halt there, you bloodsucking fiend! I am the end of your days.\" \n\n&#x200B;\n\nAnd in that instant, as the words defiantly shot out of his mouth, a wisp of movement was all it took for Mr. Vampy to place himself comfortably behind the hunter. \n\n&#x200B;\n\n\"What the hell. Where did you go?\" \n\n&#x200B;\n\nThe hunter's lack of skill, ability, foresight, agility...left him blind to the blood thirsty fool. \n\n&#x200B;\n\n\"Here,\" Mr. Vampy whispered, as he latched onto the hunter's neck like a snake. \n\n&#x200B;\n\n\"Oh no! Somebody help,\" the hunter exaggerated. \"This vamp is gonna drain me, oh no.\" \n\n&#x200B;\n\nThe blood dripped down his chest. Here we go, he thought. \n\n&#x200B;\n\nA minute goes by. \n\n&#x200B;\n\n\"...are you done yet? You've been at it longer than you should have.\" \n\n&#x200B;\n\nBlood spurted out of the vamp's mouth, coughing. \"What...what did you do!\" He clutched his throat gasping for air; his face aghast. \n\n&#x200B;\n\n\"Well, all in a day's work,\" the hunter sighed. Walking away, leaving the vamp on his knees to die. \n\n&#x200B;\n\nThe hunter continued onward. Trudging up the stairs of a dingy mansion. Dust covered everything, from the furniture to the fake plants that littered the halls. It was empty and silent. \n\n&#x200B;\n\n\"Come forth, you paled-skin freaks!\" \n\n&#x200B;\n\nBut nothing responded. He continued past door, and past door, and past door, and found nothing. The silence was unnerving, and he was right to be so. Behind him doors creaked open. With a start, the hunter twisted his body towards the sound to see five blood-depraved vampires. But with his lack of skill in observation, he failed to notice the vampire to his right who easily tossed him against the wall--knocking him unconscious. \n\n&#x200B;\n\n\"Dinner is served!\" The assassin-like vampire said. And at once the vampires launched towards the hunter's flaccid body, and slurped his blood up. \n\n&#x200B;\n\nAn hour went by, and the hunter fluttered his eyes open. He kicked the head of a dead vampire off his legs and shoved another off his chest. \"All in a day's work,\" he mumbled, as he stumbled over the bodies." ]	5
	[WP] There’s a serial killer on the loose. A dangerous one known for leaving a black rose to mark his victims. For the first time in your life, you go out late to hang out with your friends when you see a black rose.	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Reality+Fiction%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Simple+Prompt%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/js5XDFB)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "Going out was never something I enjoyed but you could only refuse invitations so many times before the other party would grow tired of your bullshit and move on. So tonight, after much back and forth on instagram, I was going out with my long time bestie Monika. \n\nMonika and I had been friends since elementary. I had always been the shy one while she had been the popular girl. Im pretty sure being friend with her was the only reason I had any other friends back then to begin with.\n\nHanging out with Monika was typically a blast when It was just the two of us but as soon as anyone else got involved, she always became the center of the spotlight. That suited me fine, receiving attention had never been my forte. I always just ended up feeling awkward and wanting to go back to my room. \n\nA series of loud knocks suddenly erupted from my apartment's front door. Annoyed, I looked at my phone. 19:45. Monika was always early. I specifically asked her to meet me at my place for eight o'clock. \n\n\"One second!\"\n\nI called out loudly to make sure I had been heard. I still had a couple of finishing touches left to make my place presentable. Another few kocks came through, softer than before but just as irritating.\nQuickly looking around, a pile of clothes lay ready to be put in the washer, some dishes had to be put away but there was no time now.\n\n\"Coming!\"\n\nThe mess would have to be left the way it was. Surely Monika would understand. Making my way to the door, I could hear stiffled laughter on the other side. Unlocking and pulling the door open swiftly as I could, I could suddenly see Monika standing there, laughing while holding out what looked like a black rose towards my face. Odd I didn't know such a shade existed.\n\n\"Ummm, who's the lucky guy?\"\n\n\"What?\"\n\n\"The guy who bought you the flower?\"\n\n\"What are you talking about? No one is buying me flowers, you brought that with you!\"\n\nMonika playfully pushed me aside and walked inside. A moment later, she turned around to face me, the expression on her face resembled disguised disgust but she didn't say what the matter was.\n\n\"No, the flower guy gave it to me when I passed him in the hallway. Said it's for you!\"\n\nI just stood there silent. I certainly hadn't met anyone new recently. Monika waited a bit more but relented.\n\n\"Alright, alright, no need to tell me just yet but I'll get it out of you by the end if the night. Close the door, wouldn't want to become a victim!\"\n\nQuickly closing the door as beckoned, I realized my foolishness. The entire point of this girl's night out was to be safe. The entire city had been put under strict orders to travel in pairs or more. Something about a killer targeting individuals or something. Details were kept hush hush but apparently the maniac left flowers at the scene of the crime. Creepy.\n\n\"O.M.G. What if flower guy is the killer!\"\n\nMonika could barely contain herself. Nervous I had to know more.\n\n\"The guy you passed in the hallway?\"\n\n\"Oh no, that was actually a flower shop guy, I meant the sender!\"\n\nNow that was creepy! Not many people knew I lived here, let alone some killer. I guess it didn't really matter WHO he killed. Why not a stranger. I suddenly had more than ample motivation to get out of here. My home no longer felt so safe.\n\n\"Well you can keep that flower then!\" I replied.\n\n\"Yeah. No. No way, it's meant for you!\"\n\nMonika shoved the flower into my hands. Holding it up I was able to see that my ealier assumption was right. It wasn't black. It's color was such a dark shade of crimson it gave it the appearance of being black in the light. I noticed Monika giving me a wicked look. I put the flower down.\n\n\"Let's get out of here.\"\n\n\"Yeah we better go before we get murdered!\" \n\nMonika went out in the hallway while laughing.\n\n\nThe night turned out better than I could have imagined! I guess people were actually scared of this menace cause our usual spot was nearly empty. It went great not having some douchebag asking Monika out every other minute. It kinda reminded of the old times before she was put on a pedestal by all the boys in school. Fun.\n\nStepping out in the street I scanned my surroundings. Not a soul was in sight, the air was so still that the surrounding buildings exhaust fumes lingered, creating a light fog. Monika joined me shortly thereafter outside.\n\n\"Oh its cold! Let's go!\"\n\nMonika started walking down the street. I lived nearby so the plan was for her to come crash at my place. Giving one more look around, I followed her.\n\nTwo blocks later I heard a scuffle behind me. I quickly turned around and saw the figure of a man not too far behind us. Fightened, I whispered to Monika.\n\n\"Let's go through this alley! Its a shortcut!\"\n\nI dipped out of the street and Monika didn't fight it, quickly following me. About halfway down I looked back in time to see the figure cross the alley, never entering it.\n\nI turned to look at Monika and was surprised to see her staring at me.\n\n\"You were scared!\"\n\n\"No you were scared!\" I replied.\n\nClearly I was not the only one keeping her wits about.\nMonika gave me what looked like a smile. It was hard to tell in the darkness of the alley.\n\n\"Nah, I'm never scared.\" She said.\n\nHer confidence inspired me. One day I would be like her.\n\n\"Well you should be scared.\" I replied menacingly.\n\nI got close to her and grabbed her shoulder. Monika's expression seemed puzzled and quickly turned to fear in an instant. Her mouth opened but no sound came out except for a thick gurgle. Releasing my grip on her and the knife, letting her fall to the ground, I took out the rose from my pocket and knelt down. Putting the rose on her chest, I whispered the final words Monika would ever hear.\n\n\"It was always meant for you.\"\n\nWith no time to waste, I rose while sparing a glance around to make make sure I hadnt been seen and quickly walked away." ]	2
	[WP] you have the superpower of being able to return the dead back to life. While you are still trying to understand how it works and how to utilize it to its full potential, a Bounty is placed on your head from people who would benefit from the dead remaining quiet	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Reality+Fiction%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Simple+Prompt%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/js5XDFB)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "\\[Poem\\]\n\n You need not die, you need not waste\n Your body in a final place.\n For I have the power to resurrect\n And they cannot stop us. No church or sect.\n Nor bounty hunter nor some corporate spy.\n Believe me, all of them have tried.\n We free their secrets into the world\n Let chaos reign and their lies unfurl.\n \n Every enemy becomes a new recruit\n And we’ll soon become a million strong!\n No death or disease. Do you see it too?\n A world without loss. No suffering. No wrong.\n \n What has this to do with you, you say?\n For you’ve just now died and come back, I’m afraid.\n You died by my own steady hand.\n You’ll remember soon. Here, try and stand.\n You tried to stop us, yet all is forgiven,\n I’ve brought you back to join our mission.\n To those like you, the world is unkind.\n Leave now if you must, but you’ll return in time.", "\"No, it can't be you. Not you Raj. Anyone but you\"\n\nMy girlfriend looks at me dead in the eye with her gun pointed at the middle of my forehead. Tears running down her cheeks.\"\n\n\"Honey-\"\n\n\"I honestly didn't know it was you, we needed the money and the opportunity presented itself.\"\n\nI look at her in exasperation I don't know what to say. A million questions run through my head. Does she know who I am? Should I tell her? Who hired her? I collect my thoughts and place my hand on her cheek.\n\n\"Honey I know it's a lot to take in but do you know?\"\n\n\"That you can resurrect the dead? Yeah. You lied to me. You hid your powers from me. I told you about my livelihood as a bounty hunter. But you! You lied to my face. No secrets! What a lie\"\n\nI know I have to come up with a way to protect her. even if she hates me for the rest of her life I need to guarantee she at least has one to live. Even if she kills me the people who hired her won't let her walk free. No, they'll kill her as well. There is only one way.\n\n\"I have an idea but you're not going to like it.\"\n\n\"Tell me. You may be a liar but you still are a smart liar. Managing to hide your alter ego from me for all these months. Go on\"\n\n\"Alright, here it is. I'll kill you.\"\n\n\"Kill me! So this is your plan? Hmm? Either you die or I die? And you choose yourself over me. Of course. You self-centered heartless bastard!\"\n\nShe doesn't understand. How do I explain to her\n\n\"No that's not what I mean, my power - I can save you.\"\n\nShe puts her hand to her ear, there is a wireless earphone. She's getting instructions. I could make a run for it. She's distracted.\n\n\"Got it Sir. I had orders to distract you until my - for lack of a better word, benefactors show up. And well they're here. So I guess it's goodbye for you.\"\n\nI'm confused. She was the only safe place from my enemies trying to close the mouths of the dead for good. My safe haven.\n\n\"Confused? Allow me to explain. The only reason I even hooked up with you was because of my job. You were the target. On top of that, you paid well. I had no idea why I was sent to watch and protect you. No idea why people came to kill you. Then, I connected the dots. I realised who you were. Then the deal became much sweeter. I told my benefactors I knew who you were and just like that my salary tripled. It was all an act. the money problems, me loving you, the whole relationship. Finally, I can drop the act.\"\n\nI look at her in complete surprise. I never expected that.\n\n\"So what am I dead now?\"\n\n\"Obviously\"\n\nOnly that wasn't her voice it came from behind me. I turn around to see Roger. One of the people who very much wanted me dead all these months since I've been actively using my powers.\n\n\"It's the end of the line for you Steve, say hello to all your little friends for me.\n\nBang\n\nThe bullet pierces my chest. Pain sears throughout my body.\n\nBang\n\nAnother shot. I touch the warm blood with my hand as my vision becomes blurry. I vaguely hear another shot. Everything turns dark and I breathe no more.", "\"Of course it was the Clintons\"\n\nI stood there with my hands up facing a disconcerted assassin. The reason we were stood here, neither killing nor panicking, is because we knew each other.\n\n\"You know, we could just fake my death for them. Burn down my house and I bring my computer so we can play more siege... It doesn't have to end this way\"\n\nmy best friend shook his head. Responding with tears in his eyes...\n\n\"It does! It does have to end this way! Either I kill you or they kill my family!\"\n\nWith that my mind clicked. With speed I'd never demonstrated before and never will again, I managed to both force him to fire his pistol, missing me, and prevent the slide from reciprocating. Shortly after, I wrenched the gun from his hand and shot him point blank in the chest.\n\n\"I promise we'll play again. Even if I have to destroy the Clintons to do it.\"\n\n\"How... How could you?\"\n\n\"... They didn't tell you why they ordered the hit on me, did they?\"\n\n\"...\"\n\n\"It's because I can revive the dead.\"" ]	4
	[WP] In one day, society crumbled. In that day, the roles reversed. Instead of us farming animals, the animals are farming us.	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Reality+Fiction%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Simple+Prompt%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/js5XDFB)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "The guard walked by once more, paid me no mind. \n\nI stood, forehead between to vertical bars, arms dangling out the cell, elbows on a cross bar. Prison life ain't too bad.\n\nI am fed and watered.\n\nI have shelter.\n\nThe guard circles back, becomes enamored with the floor\n\nWhat is doing my head in, then? My keepers and the purpose of my imprisonment. \n\nThe guard chews his or her flat foot, ruffles their feathers, and waddles on once more.\n\nA duck. A duck with a badge on its breast and a made to order police hat. Something happened and the world went screwy.\n\nTook the animals all of a week to take over. Mostly people went with it because it was cute, or they were weirded out. Now we're the ones being farmed.\n\nFeels weird to be on this side of the barnyard.\n\nI dunno. Maybe I'm just crazy. Just a nutter drooling in a padded cell, dreaming that I'm in a cell being watched by a duck.\n\nStill.\n\nCould be worse.\n\nAt least they only farm me for pats and scritches. Speaking of.\n\nThe guard duck is back. I reach down and scratch their head. Sets their tail feathers flapping and flat feet slapping.\n\nMy little friend is on the take. I give them unauthorised hand time and he brings me extra bread.\n\nWhat a fucking world." ]	2
	[WP]Every single night, you tremble in bed because of the monster living in your closet. One day, you finally scream "leave creature". The monster responds: "If I leave, then who will protect you from the monsters?"	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Reality+Fiction%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Simple+Prompt%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/js5XDFB)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "\"Protect me from the monsters? You're a monster! And you're terrorizing me!\" I yelled. It was the first time I had ever spoken to the creature. Its eyes grew, shining a bright yellow through the blinds of my closet, its already loud breathing amplified.\n\n\"Pffffffffft,\" the monster replied. He was a humanoid creature made of skin that had the texture of mud but violet in color, he inched out of my closet. With the help of the city lights outside, I saw him in full form. \"Listen, kid, you're new in town here. I don't think you knew what you signed up for when you took that job. Didn't it seem strange to you that straight out of college you're making six-figures, paying for a cheap rent in a downtown loft?\" his voice was so deep it vibrated my bones.\n\n\"Have you been listening to my conversations or something?\" I stared wide-eyed.\n\n\"Too good to be true, right? You're in Abyssia. Didn't anyone bother giving you a pamphlet or something before you moved to this cursed metropolis?\"\n\n\"... There's a pamphlet?\"\n\n\"No, ugh, not a literal pamphlet, I was just using that as a metaphor. No one gave you the rundown? Your parents didn't even tell you about Abyssia?\"\n\n\"No! They didn't tell me anything!\"\n\nThe monster sighed. \"Well allow me to fill you in. This city is cursed, bub. When I called this place a cursed metropolis, it wasn't hyperbole. It's the real deal. Some bad witches came here a while ago and turned this place inside-out, literally. Anything with a soul will be consumed by the aura down below. If your soul gets taken prisoner, you end up like this,\" he pointed at himself. \"Just a hired hand by landlords to allow healthy souls to stay safe.\"\n\n\"What are you talking about? Get out of my apartment!\"\n\n\"How about this, ordinarily, I don't like being talked to like this, but you seem like a good kid, you call your parents at least once a week, you volunteer at a soup kitchen, and heck, I'd want a guy like you to date my daughter, but look, you need me, pal. I feel like we got off on the wrong foot, let me introduce myself, my name is Lawroxios... But you can just call me Larry for short.\"\n\n\"I don't need you! I want you to leave, right now! I need to sleep!\"\n\nThere was a pause before a heavy exhale. \"Suit yourself, kid. Don't say I didn't try to warn you,\" the monster melted through the wall of my closet.\n\nSilence. Yes, that was the sound of glorious silence for once!\n\nFinally, his incessant heavy breathing and glowing eyes no longer kept me awake. Closing my eyes, I took a deep inhale and exhale, laying on my stomach for optimal comfort.\n\nBut my blood ran cold.\n\nI heard laughter. \n\nBut not a normal person laughing, it was like I was hearing an auditorium full of laughter. It was higher pitch, as if it came from demonic imps.\n\nMy eyes shot open, and an army of shadow spheres oozed out from the ceiling, crawling down the walls. The laughter grew louder as they gripped my sheets and blankets, tightening them around my bed. I couldn't move. \n\nThe shadow spheres climbed up my bed and rolled over my body, their touch made me shiver.\n\n\"Help! Larry! Please! Come back! I need you!\"\n\nA curdling sound came from my closet and a purple figure morphed through the wall. It shined its yellow beacon light from its eyeballs, vaporizing all of the shadow spheres that covered my bed, just inches away from my face.\n\n\"Larry! I'm so sorry! Thank you so much for saving me! Please whatever you do, don't ever leave me again!\" I jumped out of my closet and forced myself to hug him, even though he felt like a wet amorphous object.\n\n\"Don't worry, kid, I can't go anywhere in the state I'm in. We're practically roommates as long as you're here. And I hope you stay for a while, the last guy that lived here was a real jerk.\"\n\n\"Larry, we have to do something about this, we have to break the curse of Abyssia. There has to be a way to turn you back to normal! You were once a human right?\"\n\nLarry guffawed for a lengthy thirty-seconds, before regaining his composure. \"That's close to impossible, but I like your attitude, kid. I was once a human, but may this be a lesson to you. Just because someone looks rough around the edges, doesn't mean they don't have a heart of gold.\"\n\nr/randallcooper", "I heard the noise from the closet again. The slight rattle of movement, the breathing. I hated it. Hated every minute of it. Here I was sixteen and still afraid of monsters in my closet.\n\nMy parents had taken me to various psychologists and psychiatrists. I’ve been through hypnotherapy, drugs, everything they could think of, until finally, my parents reached a breaking point and in a fit kicked me out.\n\nIt was only meant to be for a couple of hours, but I’ve been living here for over a year now.\n\nMy classmate Sakura’s family took me in. They lived on base too. Sakura’s father was a Japanese American soldier, but her mother was fully Japanese. She also had a younger sister, Sarah. I don’t have even a trace of Japanese blood in me, but when Sakura’s mom found me wondering around the streets on base at night, she insisted I go with her and come live with her. Then she went and talked to my parents and the arrangement became permanent.\n\nThe woman was a force of nature. Once she decided on something, it simply became so.\n\nI thought Sakura would be upset, but she seemed delighted. She began calling me her brother, and she’s been after me to apply for citizenship. Her younger sister never acknowledged me as a brother but was nice to me, and also wanted me to get my citizenship. I never told either of them this, but I’ve been considering it.\n\nStill the monsters never stopped. Never left me alone. Every night, I heard them.\n\nI finally had enough. Here I was nearly a man and crying from fear. “Leave Creature!” I screamed.\n\nI heard a rustle and my closet door opened. A fox with two tail’s trotted out. Then suddenly instead of the fox, Sakura stood there. “If I leave, who will protect you from the monsters?” She asked. She looked so sad. She started to reach out and touch me and then pulled back and sighed. “Well, I suppose the way you are looking at me now, I should ask instead; who will protect you from the other monsters?”\n\n“Were you the one in my closet all this time?” I asked. I felt hurt and betrayed.\n\n“Yes,” she said softly. “But my intent was never to hurt you.”\n\n“Why? Why were you there? Why did you make so much noise?”\n\n“I was there to protect you. You will not remember it, but when you were very young, you visited a shrine and made fun of the spirits. Then you tripped and accidentally broke an item. I don’t even remember what it was. Some of the spirits took offense and have sent their minions ever since. My mother and I were there. We tried to tell the spirits you were a young foreign child and didn’t mean to offend, but…”\n\nShe sat on the floor and hugged her knees to her chest. “I earned my tails saving your life. I know some people view us as tricksters, but if I ever intentionally lie to you or mean harm to you, I will lose…”\n\nShe broke off as a shadow in the corner of the room moved. Instantly she was between it and me. She reached for my lamp even before she touched it, it turned on. I saw a spark flow between it and her and then from her finger into the shadow.\n\nThe shadow yipped and gathered into the shape of a man, but misty and with glowing eyes. “Dammit,” Sakura muttered before calling out “Mom!”\n\nShe sent another round of sparks at the creature trying to keep it at bay.\n\nA few seconds later, the door flew open Sakura’s mother stood in the doorway. She took one look at the shadow-man, shadow-mist, whatever it was, and her hand shot towards it. There was a flash of fire and then the shadow was simply gone. No, not gone, it was still there, smaller, injured and trying to shrink away from Sarkura’s mom.\n\n“You can’t hear it, but she’s telling it to go back to it’s master and tell it, that her patience has worn out. The next attack on her den will mean war.”\n\nShe sighed. “It will be a long time before I can do that.”\n\n“Do what?”\n\n“That talk with your mind thing,” Sakura frowned. “I forget the English word dad uses. Something like television but not…”\n\n“Telepathy?”\n\n“Yeah, that’s it. Thanks, little brother.”\n\nSakura’s mom suddenly seemed to grow just a little bit taller, and her presence seemed to be just a bit bigger.\n\nThe shadow disappeared, and after a nod, Sakura’s mother left the room. “Wow, that Enenra, was serious about killing you,” Sakura shook her head.\n\n“Why do you say that?” I asked.\n\n“Cause mom just got her eighth tail.” Sakura chuckled. “I don’t know if she’s going to be pleased about getting the new tail or upset that now she’s taller she’s going to have to get a whole new wardrobe.”\n\n“So, she is a kitsune too? What about your dad? And Sarah-kun?”\n\n“Sarah-kun is one too, yes, and yes, Dad knows. Mom told him before I was born.”\n\nShe sat on the edge of the bed. I tried not to show how scared I was. I think Sakura knew anyways, because she bit her lip and closed her eyes for a moment.\n\n“Okay, where were we? Oh. Why did I make so much noise?” She opened her eyes and looked at me. “Well, the bumps and stuff were usually either me trying to hide or fight off the monsters and spirits in your room without being seen.”\n\nShe looked down and started to blush. “The breathing though, that was because I was terrified.”\n\nI must have looked surprised.\n\n“Yes, little brother, kitsune get scared too. I was terrified. Partly because I was scared you would find out it was me, and not want to be friends anymore and by then I already thought of you like a little brother. Mostly though, Kitsune don’t like small places, or places they can be trapped in.”\n\nMy eyes widened in surprise. “Wait, so you hid in my closet all these years, despite being terrified and alone just to protect me?”\n\nShe nodded. “Yeah.”\n\nI blinked. “That… That had to take a lot of love.”\n\nShe nodded. “Yes, but just in case you’re about to get the wrong idea, I really do think of you as a brother. Even if I didn’t, I would be too old for you.”\n\n“How old are you?” I asked.\n\n“Well, usually Kitsune age by tails, and generally we get those about every hundred years. But I earned mine by saving you. In actual human years, I’m twenty-five, but since we age slower, yeah, I’m your classmate.”\n\nI blinked. “How old is Sarah-kun then?”\n\nSakura smiled. “In human terms, she’s actually a year older than you. But in kitsune terms, she’s a bit younger than you. Don’t let that change how you address her though. She’ll be hurt.”\n\nShe turned serious. “This isn’t a light novel, but there is a reason she doesn’t think of you as a brother. I think she’s developing a crush on you. So, if you’re going to leave because of your terror over what we are, please do it now so it doesn’t hurt her too badly.”\n\nShe stood up. “Anyways, it’s late. You should get some sleep. I don’t think there’s going to be another attack tonight, but I’ll go back to watching anyways. Good night, little brother.”\n\nWith that she became a fox again. She started to head for the closet.\n\n“Sakura-san,” I said softly then changed my mind. “Oneesan.” She stopped and looked up at me. “Please, you don’t need to hide in the closet anymore. If you want, and don’t think it’s too weird, you can sleep at the foot of the bed. I think we’ll both be a little less scared.”\n\nI think she knew I was still a little scared, but she hopped up anyways.", "The monster was a true terror, it’s face a peeling mess of flesh, two empty sockets where its eyes should be. A sharp claw held my closet door open, the darkened nails of the creature tapping against the edges of the wooden door, always watching. It was strange how a creature with no eyes could maintain eye contact. No matter where my gaze fell on the creature, I could always feel its uncompromising gaze. A gaze that filled many of my restless nights with dread.\n\n \n\nI tried my best to ignore the creature, but it was rather difficult to ignore such a monster. I grabbed a pillow, pulling it over my eyes, trying to drown out the sight further. The pillow did little to sway the anxious feelings until I gave up, tossing the pillow towards the creature, glancing back at it.\n\n \n\n“Leave creature.”\n\n \n\nThe pillow collided with the door, giving an unsatisfactory smack as it knocked on the door, missing the target. The creature, for the first time since I had noticed it, craned its neck, staring down at the pillow, before turning its gaze back to me. It’s cracked lips curled downward as I heard the screeching sound of the closet door being pulled open.\n\n \n\nThe creature was skeletal, body comprising no skin, only an extensive set of bones. The bones weren’t just human, its shoulders were far too bulky to be completely from a human. It was a mixed bag of different bones. With the door now opened, I panicked. I pushed back on the bed, kicking at my sheets. The kicking doing little to move me, only pressing my body against the wall behind me.\n\n \n\nThe creature’s tiny skeletal feet drifted along the floor, moving it at an alarmingly quick pace. In a second the creature was at the foot of my bed, peering over, its face right in front of mine. Peeking through the creature’s sockets, I would see nothing on the other side, just darkness. It was hollow inside. \n\n“If I leave, then who will protect you from the monsters?”\n\n \n\nIt scared me quiet. I could only give a whimper as a response. My body numb with fear. I eventually was able to gulp down a lump of that fear, speaking up.\n\n \n\n“Y-you are the monster. Please leave me alone.”\n\n \n\nThe creature backed away, insulted by the claim that it was a monster. It pondered its choices for a moment before walking towards my bedroom door, its clawed hand clutching the handle before leaving. I can’t believe that worked. I spent all of those years being tormented when I could have just asked the creature to leave?\n\n \n\nBANG BANG BANG.\n\n \n\nI could hear a sound coming from the window, a bloodied man smacking it, a wide grin on his lips, long tongue dragging along the window as he tried to force his way into the room. Not another monster.\n\n \n\n“Leave monster.”\n\n \n\nI shouted at the man, only to watch him tilt his head before continuing his actions. His long tongue slipped under the thin gap of the window, trying to flick the lock, desperate to get in. I rushed towards the window, smacking at the tongue, trying to stop the monster.\n\n \n\n“HEH HEH HEH HEEEEEH”\n\n \n\nA horrifying scream caught my attention, turning around to see a four-footed monster crawling along the floor, its neck twisted, throwing its frowning face into a smile. Its sharp teeth chattering as it charged towards me, opening them, attempting to bite my foot until it stopped. That same gaze from earlier returning. The creature pulled the door open, stumbling in. Its gaze caused the four-footed creature to flee back under the bed.\n\n \n\nThe man at the window had already fled, leaving a weird blue coating of saliva that must have dripped from his tongue. The spit only an inch away from the lock. Had he had a moment or two longer, he would have gotten inside. I dropped to the bed exhausted, staring up at the creature before me.\n\n \n\n“Thank you, please stay.”\n\n \n\nThe faceless creature only nodded, returning to the closet, crouching down inside of it before slowly closing the door returning to its peeking position.\n\n \n\nAfter that day, the faceless creature wasn’t scary anymore. I even left out cookies and milk for the creature, I wasn’t entirely sure what a creature like that ate, but most people enjoyed milk and cookies. Plus, the food was always gone in the morning, so it must have enjoyed them.\n\n&nbsp;\n&nbsp;\n&nbsp;\n\n(If you enjoyed this feel free to check out my subreddit /r/Sadnesslaughs where I'll be posting more of my writing.)" ]	4
	[WP] You are a shapeshifter who was living a normal life before being captured by the SCP organization. Yes you see how you can be potentially dangerous, but you seriously don’t want to hurt anyone and you just want to go back to living your old life.	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Reality+Fiction%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Simple+Prompt%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/js5XDFB)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "Item #: SCP-5900NF04K&KN1F3\n\nObject Class: Keter\n\nSpecial Containment Procedures: SCP-5900NF04K&KN1F3 is best contained in the back of the dishwasher, perpetually locked in a silverware basket to be repeatedly cycled through multiple loads of dishes. Other containment locations include the other side of the sink where you put things you don't want to deal with, or that back part of your silverware drawer that never sees the light of day. \n\n Description: Incredibly hard to contain, this shapeshifter can take on the form of any utensil in the kitchen that looks clean, but maybe isn't and you just can't tell if it is safe to eat with or not. Often appearing as (but not limited to):\n\n\\* a fork with possibly food stuck on it, but could also be just a smudge, \n\n\\a spoon that looks clean but isn't entirely shiny and a bit suspiciously off color\n\n\\ a butter knife that looks like it is totally fine but kinda sort of looks a bit greasy in the light if you turn it one way. \n\nOnce caught, this devious shapeshifter will reveal its true form, pleading for its freedom under the excuse that while it's existence is an annoyance, it is not a dangerous being. It often is reported giving excuses, like \"it seriously doesn’t want to hurt anyone\" and \"although strange and a bit inconvenient to the enjoyment of mealtime\", it would appreciate \"going back to living its old life.\" Under no circumstances should you listen to the shape shifter. Keep contained at all costs or risk ruining every bite of your meal.\n\n(Probably not the shapeshifting story you wanted, sorry! However in the spirit of SCP, it is definitely weird)" ]	2
	[WP] a story about why the sweet old lady from next door still has the same dried flowers from years ago on her table and is refusing to throw them out	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Reality+Fiction%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Simple+Prompt%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/js5XDFB)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "I keep reliving the scene in my mind. I've seen homicides, ive seen suicides, im no stranger to unnatural death. As a inner city detective this shouldnt bug me so much.\n\nThis case was completely routine. Open and shut. You see, whenever anyone dies at home unexpectedly. It's standard practice to send a detective, just to confirm no evidence of foul play. \n\nThe neighbours called, reported they could see the body through the front window. I went down with a unit, broke in the door and found the deceased in her chair. She was 93. A bit of a londer. With a list of health issues as long as your forearm. Anyone of them could have killed her. Nothing out of the ordinary, as I said... open and shut.\n\nBut the vase of dead flowers on the table. That's what bugged me. The woman was fastidious, right to the last. The house was pristine. From the forensics she must have deep cleaned the place just hours before she croaked. Everything was in order. Even the book case was arranged alphabetically. \n\nThen there were these flowers. Pride of place, centre of the room, on the dining table. If the whole house had a 'focal point' this was it.\n\nThese things had been dead for months, maybe years. Why hadn't she cleaned them?\n\nDon't get me wrong, I've had theories. Last flowers from a loved one... some mushy sentimental reason. But it just didn't add up to me. She had no other photos. No other memorabilia. She was friendly to the neighbours, but didn't seem to have any living relatives or visitors. Certainly not in the last few years.\n\nI mulled it over as a nursed my drink at the bar.... \n\nI had one final lead... and I was meeting her here tonight. She was the old ladies last friend. Probably the last person to see her alive, albeit months before her death.\n\nI waved as she sauntered into the bar and took a seat next to me. She was not what I expected, young but mature, pretty, and with a resume like hers, smart as hell. She worked at the local university in the Theoretical Physics department.\n\nWe made some small talk, then I launched into it. \"So it's the vase that was in the old ladies house. That's what's been bugging me\" I confessed.\n\n\"Firstly. Helen. Was the 'old ladies' name\", she said. I mumbled an apology. She continued \"and that's Professor. Helen Whirral to you. She was a professor at the local university before... well...\"\n\n\"Before what...?\" I asked as she trailed off.\n\n\"Before she lost her mind\" was the response. \"She studied thermodynamics and entropy. Do you know what these subjects are?\"\n\nMy bemused expression said I didn't.\n\n\"Well entropy. Is the universes tendency to increase disorder.\" She explained. \"It's why omelettes can't turn back to eggs, why candles don't un-melt. And it's why we all slowly grow old, and die. Why we can't... 'un-die'.\" \n\nI nodded that I... at least vaguelly understood.\n\n\"Well Helen was always terrified of death. She's seen everyone she knew decay over time and perish, as the mechanisms that kept their hearts pumping and lungs breathing, slowly broke down. Just in line with the laws of physics. She even outlived her kids, which I think is what broke her,\" she stirred before continuing. Trying to find the words to explain Helen's broken, but clearly genius mind. \"Helen started to talk about how you could keep entropy at bay. If you could keep everything in order. Keep everything clean, organised, ordered. We all knew she was crazy. This was not real science, this was delusion based losely in physical concepts. \n\nBut she had a dedicated lab, where she would order the post grads to come in and clean every day. Clean every inch. Organise and reorganise every shelf. We would get complaints from them all the time that they were being forced to indulge this. Eventually the university had to let her go. We asked her to seek help but I don't think she ever did. She just disappeared.\" \n\nShe leaned in close to deliver her final revelation for me. \"There was one thing in the lab that may interest you. In a glass chamber in the centre, she had dead flowers. She thought... in her madness. That if everything else was in order. She would have defeated entropy. And the flowers would heal, as their cells started to function again.\"\n\nI gasped. This was it. The explanation I had been searching for. \"So she was carrying on her experiments at home. Organising the house. Trying to... beat death. To reverse this 'entropy' thing you're talking about?\" I said.\n\n\"I think so,\" she nodded.\n\n\"And just for the record. There's no science behind this. This could never actually work?\"\n\n\"None whatsoever\" she said before saying her goodbyes and leaving the bar. I breathed a sigh of relief as I sat back to finish my drink. It was over. Mystery solved.\n\n\n\n\nA few days later I was back outside Helen's house. I had recieved a call that morning from the morgue. The morons there had managed to 'misplace' her body. They couldn't find her anywhere. It's as if she had gotten up and walked out. \n\n\nI went in through the open front door. I had to. I just wanted to check. Everything was as it had been. I cursed myself for even believing, just at the back of my mind that she had cheated death. That she could be somehow back home. \n\nI went to the living room where she had died, and looked at the flowers on the table. Still faded and wilted. As I looked closer though... it seemed like a little colour had returned to the pettles. Just a hint of yellow that wasn't there last time.... but that must have been in my mind. \n\nThat was impossible. Surely... I thought, just as I heard the creak of the front door, as someone else entered the house.", "There was a hint of sadness in Mrs. Jackson's eyes as she placed the fresh flowers I'd just given her next to the dead and mostly molted flowers on her table. Flowers that didn't look that much different than they did the first time she'd invited my sister and I over for cookies the day we moved in 3 years ago. The ring in the vase showed that they had once been watered, probably with some kind of plant food judging my the amount of minerals glazing the sides. \n\"Mrs. Jackson, I kind of thought you might throw out those old flowers if I got you new ones.\", I said. \n\n\"Oh, I could never do that. Those are my Billy's flowers.\" \n\n\"Who's Billy Mrs. Jackson?\" \n\n\"Billy is my son. He gave me those flowers the day he graduated college.\" \n\n\"How come he doesn't bring you new flowers? My dad brings mom new flowers every week. She always tells him he's wasting money but she always smiles really big when he comes home with them.\" \n\n\"Your father is an excellent husband. A pretty good father too I suspect. Did he buy these flowers for you to bring over?\" \n\n\"Yes, ma'am. When I told him that I wanted to bring you flowers he said it simply wouldn't do for a woman as kind as you to have a table with no flowers on it. He even let me go with him to the store to pick them out.\" \n\n\"You did a wonderful job. These flowers are absolutely beautiful. Take care though and don't ask your father to bring them every week. Old ladies don't need flowers as often as young mothers.\" \n\n\"What about Billy Mrs. Jackson, how come he doesn't bring you flowers?\" \n\n\"I'm... I'm afraid he can't bring me flowers anymore.\" \n\n\"Did something happen to him?\" \n\n\"In a way, yes. But not the way that you are thinking. When Billy graduated he took a job in the city. At first he called every few days but then he got a promotion and then met his fiance and he just doesn't have time right now.\" That tear that was trying to poke out earlier had found it's way out and was slipping quietly down her cheek. \n\n\"I'm sorry Mrs. Jackson. I didn't mean to make you cry.\" \n\n\"That's quite alright. I'm very proud of my Billy and I'm sure he'll bring flowers again just any day. \" \n\n\"Is there something we could do to help you be happy again?\" \n\n\"I'm quite happy. How could I be sad when I have these beautiful flowers and your company. Mrs. Jackson wiped her cheeks and mustered a pretty convincing smile. \"Why don't you tell me about school and what you want to be when you grow up?\"\n\n\"Well, I'm not quite sure yet. I really want to be a fireman, or a doctor, or a writer, or maybe the a bus driver.\" \n\nMrs. Jackson chuckled, \"That's quite a list and I'm sure you'd be excellent at any of those things. You still have plenty of time to decide which one you like best.\" \n\nMrs. Jackson slid her cookie jar to my side of the table and we sat in silence for a moment, her sipping her coffee and me nibbling on my cookie. One thing I always liked about Mrs. Jackson, other than her cookies, was that she was good at letting a person think. \n\nI got up to leave. \"Thank you for the cookie Mrs. Jackson\" \n\n\"You are welcome to as many as you'd like.\" \n\n\"Thanks, but mom said I could only have one so I don't spoil my supper.\" \n\n\"Do me a favor then when you get home? Give your mother a hug.\" \n\n\"From you? You can come give her a hug. We are having spaghetti tonight and there is always extra.\" \n\n\"No, from you. And when you grow up to be a fireman, or doctor, or writer, or bus driver, or even some other thing. Don't forget to call your mom and give her plenty of hugs when you can. She probably needs them more than you know.\"", "Every evening after school, Roy stops by Aunt Catherine's home. For just a small task, weeding, watering the flowers, or dusting the shelves, he earns a slice of her fresh baked pie. Aunt Cathy made the best pies with only the best ingredients: the sweetest blackberries in the summer, the freshest strawberries in spring, and wonderfully sour cranberries in the fall. \n\nRoy knocks on the door. He hears her footsteps tapping lightly across the hardwood floor, coming to a stop at the door.\n\n\"Good afternoon, Aunt Cathy!\" Roy greets her.\n\n\"Roy, my boy! You've grown again!\" She twitters, embracing him in a warm hug, smelling faintly of warm vanilla. \n\nHe pats her on the back. \"What's my task for today?\"\n\n\"Hmm.... you can water the flowers and pick some roses. I've been looking forward to making rosewater, I've heard it can make a delightful macaron!\" She smiles at him. \"When you stop by next time, I'll be sure to have it ready!\"\n\n\"Alright, Aunt Cathy!\" Roy responds, heading out to the garden. \n\nAfter completing his task, he sets the roses on the kitchen counter and takes a seat at the dining table, inhaling the sticky sweet scent of cherries. It must be cherry pie today. Dim red petals catch his eye from the living room, and he goes over, spotting some old dry roses arranged elegantly in a crystal vase on the coffee table.\n\n\"Aunt Cathy? Are these your roses? I thought you only planted them this winter?\" Roy asks.\n\nAunt Cathy sets the fresh pie on the table and bustles over. \"Oh, these...\" She sighs, tenderly touching a petal. \"These are quite a bit older than the roses you see in my garden,\" she says with a melancholic smile. She pauses. \"Come, and I'll tell you the story over a slice of pie.\"\n\nRoy follows her wordlessly back to the kitchen. She cuts 2 slices and sets one in front of him, and one for herself. \n\n\"I used to have a son, a bit older than you are now. He was bright, lively, and helped around the house. He loved the pies I made,\" She pauses, taking a scoop of the pie, \"but his favorite was cherry.\" Aunt Cathy waves her fork in the direction of the roses. \"Those were one of his gifts for Mother's Day, you know. The last ones.\"\n\nRoy took a bite of pie, chewing slowly to not disturb her recollections. \n\n\"Brandon got into a car accident, April 23rd, 2015,\" she said softly, as if reciting from a news headline. With a cracking voice, she continued, \"it was his first year of college, my little boy. He had all his life ahead of him, so much he hadn't done. Few weeks later, the carefully dried roses arrived in a package, with a note: 'Happy mother's day! See you soon!'\" She sniffs and finished quietly, \"there wasn't much to see.\"\n\nRoy stands and grabs a tissue, handing it to the frail lady. She dabs at her tears. \"My little boy will always be 18 to me.\" Roy pats her back clumsily, and they sit together eating pie, watching the sunlight casting shadows on the dried, old roses." ]	4
	[WP] You're the sheriff in a town during the Old West days. You've seen a lot of strange things. One time a man even ate his revolver, piece by piece in front of you. But today must be the strangest, today, a roman centurioun walked into town.	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Reality+Fiction%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Simple+Prompt%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/js5XDFB)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "As it would happen, sometimes they really do come kicking in the saloon doors.\n\nAaron James and I cut talkin' to the familiar clatter of the wooden shutters parting, to let in whatever raff would be seeking a drink midday. It wasn't an unusual haunt of ours and the real kickers of the town knew to take their bad ideas elsewhere. How many people would need to sober up in the irons before they learned to handle problems outside of the limits? This time though, a metallic clang accompanied the wooden one, and I glanced up to see a strange fella in a steel shirt stagger in, lookin' fit to just up and fall down.\n\nHe was babbling incoherently, repeating something that sounded like 'aqua'. At the sight of the fella's knife in hand, hell, it was more like a sword, I reached for the Law on my hip and saw James drop his arms below the bar where I knew his Susanne was clipped. The old Remington had solved it's share of problems over the years but somehow I got the sense that this strange, armored man wasn't wasn't the type to be overbothered by shooting irons.\n\n\"Hold on there, not one more step\"\n\nHis head snapped up, and he squinted into the darkness of the saloon. Seeing James and I, he raised his sword, arm shaking, and repeated his request in a loud voice. Now, I don't speak mexican more than anyone else in this dust puff but it don't take a city man to know 'aqua' means water. Hand still on my revolver, I gestured that he lower the sword and take a seat. He approached slowly, staggering, and crashed unto the stool next to mine, clattering his sword to the floor. \n\nUp close, the man was clearly within kissin' distance of death. Badly sunburnt, no longer sweating do to dehydration, I could see his eyes could barely focus now that they'd adjusted to the relative dim of the room. James, never the schooled man, took a glance from me to draw a tankard of water. He placed it on the bar in front of him, then took a half unnoticed step back toward Susie. The man grabbed the mug with both hands, drained it, and collapsed with a clatter. The sound of his armored body hitting the floor was fit to wake the dead. I saw James flinch from the sound, then speak.\n\n\"I'll watch him, if you get the doc.\"\n\nThe strange man never woke up. Doc Adams, who was learned all the way back in New York, was a medicine man to his last. Even he, though, couldn't say for sure who the man was, where he came from, or how from how far he was dropped as a baby to not take steel plate armor off in the desert. The short man, some sort of \"con-kistadore\" the doc said, had died of a heatstroke there in Aaron James' Saloon. \n\nAs we do with drifters who die in town limits, we buried him with all his worldly wealth out on the hard pack. Into the grave went the man, his armor, and that hard edged cutter of his. He was marked with a simple tied cross, Father Connery spoke his rites, and we left.\n\nI never ask questions after a drifter's burial. I don't ask before they're in the ground, neither. The fact is, the way of the west is takin' life's punches on the chin and never breaking eye contact. My father was the sheriff before me and with that lesson he fought the town's worst off until we cut this patch for ourselves. After my mother was dragged into the well by long, grasping tentacles, and my brother was kicked dead by a horse that the Doc called a 'zebra', you learn the facts of life quick.\n\n Life is hard in the desert, so take those punches, look life in the eyes, and never, ever, ask questions." ]	2
	[WP] You arrive in hell to find your dog waiting for you. Turns out dogs are too loyal to go to heaven if their masters don't.	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Reality+Fiction%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Simple+Prompt%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/js5XDFB)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "The Hell. It sounds preety bad when first listen for Jake, but hes already got used of these place. Hell becomes his routine, his normal day. Its funny how Jake feels finally in home, when his crimes, who classified him as a element apart of the society of the \"Alive ones\" actually makes him look normal in these place where everyone is a notorious sinner or criminal like him. Of course, there is the lashes from the God damn demons, the fire, the unconfortable atmosphere, but the people can adapt even in the worse scenarios. Now, when Jake is not getting punished, he goes to the cassino, to the shops, to the \"Flame Camps\", and it gets even better, when Jake duscovers that immoral actions and crimes are not judged as the were in the world of the Alive Ones. \"What type of hell is that?\" Jake thought \"When i can kill, stole, and whatever i want to do? The people in the paradise should envy u...\" \nThe thoughts of Jake were interrupted by the song of i gun shooting, and the abrupt feeling of death. \"I should have being more carefull when i was going to these area. Now i will be forever a target for the motherfu...\" it was the last thought of Jake, until he died... Again, for the second time that week. Jake knows, that died is preety annoying, expecially died so many times. Its get bad on someones reputation on the Hell. \"I should be more carefull. Now Markus and the guys will mock me even more. Fuck\". Jake wake up on the entrace of the city, with a big board saying: \"Welcome to Hell\". Jake get up, clean his Jacket and walk in the direction of the city, when a familiar bark behind hin grab his attention. \n Jake look behind, and see a acquainted from the Alive world. \"C-clark?!\". Clark, Jakes dog whe he was alive and young, replies with a bark. \"Oh, God. Clark!\" Jake beggins to pet Clark. Clark lick Jake several times. \"Hey, hey\" Jake smile, remember his childhood with Clark, and his early teennage years \"Can you stop? You are soiling my Jaket\" Clark continues to lick Jake \"Ok. I miss you to, buddy. I miss you to\" Jake stops \"What in the Hell are you doing here, Clark? You were not a good boy?\" Jake says, kidding. \"Strange... I never see animals from the alive world being bought here\" Jake remember the things that happen to everyone in Hell \"I dont know if is a goid idea to you being there, buddy. See that way there?\" Jake points the way contrary to the city \"There is the way for the Heaven. Is there that you should have been. Go boy, go!\" Clark does not move \"Come on, Clark. Go! No, i cant go with you\" Jake says, as if the dog respond him \"There is a invisible barries that prevents bad people like me to pass\" Clark does not leave. \"I know, you are loyal, i appreciate that, but its not the time now, Clark. Go! You cannot be there with me. The Hell can be preety harsh, sometimes, especially for you\" Clark bark to Jake, and stand still. Jake sighs \"Ok... Come with me. Your balk dog\" Jake enters the city \"But stay with me, and dont look right on people, got it?\" Clark barks \"great\".\n Jake and Clark pass the streets of the Hell, encountering the stranfe figures of every possible sinners of all places around the world and around the earth story. Nazis, Romans, Plague doctors, 1920 New York gangsters, all these people sharing space in that red and infernal like Los Angeles. People who make Jakes Robberies and violence complaints look like a joke. Jake stops in front of the house who his divide with some friends he made on Hell. Markus, a guy who says that he make part of a cartel on the 60. Jeff, a British soldier from victorian era. And Radolph, a minor criminal from the 2000. \n Markus opens the door \"Where in the fuck you were?\" Markus ask. He sees Clark behind Jake \"Is these food?\".\n\"No\" Jake replies \"That is my dog, Clark\"\n\"Did you bought a dog? The money is preety scarce, Jake, you should have warning us\"\n\"Warning about what?\" Radolph go down the stairs.\n\"Jake cought a dog\"\n\"No im not\" Jake says \"Its hard to believe, but this is my dog from when i was alive. Clark\"\n\"Oh, hi, Clark\" Radolph makes a stupid voice to talk with the dog \"What are you doing in hell? You pee on Jake's bed our something?\"\n\"I dont really know what he is doing here, and how he came here. Animals go to hell to?\"\n\"No, they doesnt\" Jeff appears \"They came here for us. But they domt really make part of the hell, so be carefull with him\"\n\"Why?\" Jake asks.\n\"If they were mortally injured, they will not come back\" Jeff seens distant on his thoughts \"When i came to these place, my horse, Iron, cane with me. He...doesnt survive the first day of fire\".\n\"Oh, this bad, very bad. When is the next day of fire?\" \n\"Man, is tomorrow\" Markus read in the calendar, marking day of fire instead of mondays. People in the hell have a lot of other motives to hate mondays.\n\"There is some place safe from the fire?\"\n\"Of course not\" Markus says \"These is hell,is suffering. And if these place exist, probably we will be fighting for that place with all the gangs on the city right now.\"\n\"I have a plan\" Radolph says.\n\"What you have in mind. Radolph?\" Markus ask.\n\"Give me a stick\" Radolph smiles.\n\n\n........\n\n\nTo angels arrive in the entrance if the Hell. Beings of pure light, of inderscribable appearence, until they assume a more distinguishable appearence. The first was a woman, with a blonde hair and blue eyes. The second was a man of good appearence, brown skin and golden eyes.\n\"Does the dog already died?\" The man asks, assuming more human like clothes as disguise.\n\"If he is, is a shame\" The woman also assumes dirty mundane clothes. \"But we have to maintain the security of the kay of all cost, stay alert\". He opens some files that she brings from heaven about the dogs owner and some of his partners on the Hell. \"Jake Hernandez. Latin man, died in 2016, stabbed by a prisioner who divided cell with him, when he was 29 years old. Sins: Stealling, attempt to murderer, vice, adultery. \n Jeff P. Smith. Caucasian man, british accent, died in the Anglo-Afghan war, in 1840 when he was 32 years old. Sins: Murderer of thousands, including childs.\n Markus G. Waterson. Caucasian man, quite tan, died in 1963, at the age of 25. during a gang shooting that he actively participates. Sins: murder, use of drugs, selling drugs, lust, greed, adultery.\n Radolph Simpson. Black man, Shaved hair, died in 2003, overdosed, when he was 22 years old. Sins: Murder, Robbery, use of drugs, traffic.\"\n\"I think that is not a good idea read that right now\" The male angel says. \"We are looking suspect\"\n\"I know, Rehael. But we did not hace time to read that on heaven. Is good to know who we have to look for\"\n\" Ok, just be carefull, Haniel\" Rehael replies.\nPassing the streets, the disguised angels saw a group of sinners in 80 gang clothes, sitting on the sidewalk. One of then, with the right side of the face all scared, look at Haniel and say \"see, guys, new faces. Hello, cuttie, why are you walking with these pussy? Come with me and i will teach you some if my secrets\" The man get close to Haniel, that replies. \n\n\n\n\nI will right more, but now i have to eat something :/", "I'm stunned. Death is hot as hell. I notice my Aunt Lane leaning against the wall of the tunnel, a familiar cig drooping from her mouth.\n\n\"Hey Lane, didn't expect you to be the first face I saw.\"\n\nShe smiles, \"Bet not. Sorry kid. Being the family pariah has consequences after death too.\"\n\n\"So this is...\"\n\n\"Hell,\" she speaks in that low, tobacco-stained voice of hers.\n\n\"I don't believe in hell.\"\n\n\"Me neither. Guess that's why we aren't feeling quite the agony that bunch over there is feeling,\" she nods toward a group standing spread eagle against the wall screaming.\n\n\"They think they are in shackles,\" she explained.\n\n\"Shit.\" I watch them in fascination as they plead for mercy. They strain against imaginary chains and lament their sins.\n\nLane shakes her head.\n\nFrom deep within the tunnel I hear the familiar clicking of nails of floor followed by a delighted bark. From the murky dusk of the tunnel Jolie emerged, ears flying behind, liquid eyes fixed on me. She leaps into my arms squirming, panting and licking my face.\n\nLane says. \"Dogs are so loyal they literally will go through hell for you. My cat's here too. Just saying. I took so much shit from your father for having a cat. I wish he knew Perry is right here with me, just like the dogs.\"\n\nI keep running my hands over Jolie's silky head. She calms a bit and relaxes in my arms.\n\nI look down the tunnel in the direction Jolie came. \"Is it any better that way?\"\n\n\"We can check. It might be now.\"\n\nI follow her down the dim passage. We hurry pass the sufferers against the wall.\n\n\"There are no chains,\" Lane tells them.\n\n\"Liar!\" one of them screams. Jolie shudders in my arms. Poor thing. I hold her close and hurry past them.\n\n\"They experience what they expect. You and I came without expectations.\"\n\n\"I didn't expect my dog and I got her,\" I say, acceptance settling in my soul a bit.\n\n\"Which I choose to see as a reason for hope,\" Lane replies. \"Look, for all I know heaven is here somewhere too, if there is a heaven. All I know is having our pets back is a good sign that whatever this is, let's call it hell, isn't necessarily a place of torture unless we want it to be.\"\n\n\"Well, you've been here fifteen years. What have you made of it?\"\n\n\"Fifteen years? It didn't feel that long. Not yesterday, but not that long. Honestly, I haven't done much and I'm fine with that.\"\n\nWe reach a section of tunnel lined with doors. She opens one and goes in, leaving it open for me to follow. Inside it expands to a room much larger than the distance between the doors in the tunnel seems possible. It's the most neutral room I've ever seen. Light gray walls, floor, and ceiling. One wall is lined with shelves containing books and wine bottles. A gray table with two gray chase lounges are the only other things in the room. On one of the chairs Lane's huge black and white cat Perry sits purring.\n\n\"I haven't done much with this,\" she says moving over to pick up Perry.\n\n\"Could you, do you think?\"\n\n\"I think so. Listen, as far as I know there's no Satan, no demons, nobody seems to be in charge here. Some souls have pretty posh digs and it seems like stuff appears in their spaces for some reason. I just don't know what the reason is. \n\n\"It reminds me of one of those computer games where you get more stuff if you do more stuff. Honestly I just don't want to do stuff. I have my cat. I have books. I have cigs. I have wine. I don't know why I have this stuff instead thinking I'm chained to a wall but I'm cool.\"\n\nI remember why I always liked Lane even though she's always been brash and offended most of our straight-laced family. She's simple. In the best sense. She's not needy. She'll choose peace over prosperity. We have that in common.\n\n\"There's an adjoining room back there if you want to use it.\"\n\n\"Thanks, I need some alone time.\" Another thing I love about Lane is I can say this.\n\nI take Jolie into the room. I'm awed and delighted. It's filled with large trees with large limbs. A hammock slung between the limbs. The Black Parade is playing. I laugh at the irony of it. At least now I'm cancer free.\n\n\"I'm hungry. Can you change the music please? I'm pretty sure this is hell because I still don't have opposable thumbs,\" a high pitched whiney voice is coming out of my dog.\n\n\"You can talk.\"\n\n\"Of course. It's the afterlife. I can talk.\"\n\n\"Does Lane know? She didn't say anything.\"\n\n\"I'm shy. And Perry's a bully.\"\n\n\"Is that you're actual voice, then?\"\n\n\"Yes,\" she hangs her head, \"You don't like it. I'm so ashamed. All I ever want to do is see you happy. Please, please, please love meeeeee!\"\n\nThis might well be hell. I think. That voice is going to take some getting used to.\n\n\"I missed you soooo much!\" she continues, \"I'm so happy you're here. Can we eat now? Don't you want peanut butter? Did you bring me a ball?\"\n\n\"How about a snuggle and a nap.\" I suggest.\n\nI hope there's sleep here because I need a nap. And quiet.\n\nShe's sweet but super-needy. I climb into the hammock and pull her in with me.\n\n\"You're my sweet Jolie dog!\" I whisper as she relaxes against me, burrowing her head into my underarm the way she used to when we were young together. I relax a bit. Maybe this is going to be okay.\n\n\"I'll always be your Jolie dog! Always always always always always...\" she whines.", "Fire...brimstone...smell of sulphur...screams of torture...it's hell alright.\n\nWhat else did I expect? I've killed so many people during my lifetime. How many? Piles....literal piles of corpses paved my way to the status of legend...\n\nwoof woof\n\nA little bark called me from behind. \n\n\"Oh...hi boy. Have you been waiting for me all this time?\"\n\nOh what a precious thing. He was a gift my dear late wife gave to me. She was taken too soon from the world. She's not here....of course she wouldn't be. A pure soul like her would be in heaven. Did I wish to take back all that I did? To meet her again I would...in a heartbeat.\n\n\"Regret...what a heart wrenching thing isn't it?\"\n\nI looked back to the vile voice...\n\n\"The devil I presume\"\n\n\"In the flesh. The pleasure is all mine, good sir. I am a big fan of your work\"\n\nI just nodded silently. The little ball of fluff was clawing on my leg, desperate for attention. I picked him up and he licked me all over my face.\n\n\"All dogs go to heaven they say. Well, he's been here waiting for a long, long time. You must really mean a lot to him.\", the devil smiled almost compassionately.\n\n\"And I him\", I replied. I never was a man of many words.\n\n\"So you're gonna torture me now?\", I asked straight to the point.\n\n\"Oh no, no. I wouldn't dare. In fact, I have prepare a special place for you. Like I said, I am a big fan\"\n\nStill with that devilish grin the prince of darkness opened the large black gate to the Pandemonium beyond...\n\n\"I hope you'll feel at home here. Welcome to hell, Mr. Wick\"", "The tall skeletal figure towered over me, looking down in... what was that expression? It’s hard to read skeletons. Nowhere near as easy as people. I began to speak. “Listen... maybe we can strike a-“ I was interrupted by to slams of the skeletons scythe on the ground, and a low guttural growl coming from seemingly everywhere. I felt the... well, not ground really. I was standing on what looked to be a plain white void. Anyway, the void collapsed beneath me and I feel myself plummet downwards. The wind rushing by me did nothing to help calm the raging heat that set in on me. It was like I was cooking alive down here. I felt myself hit the ground, groaning and wheezing as I had the wind knocked out of me. I slowly moved my fingers and toes. Nothing seems to be broken. But still, it hurts to much to stand right now. Maybe... maybe I can lie here for a bi-\n\nLiiiiiiick.\n\nI knew that sensation. That annoying, slobbery, lovable sensation. I bolted upright, ignoring my joints crying out. “Buster!” My faithful Border Collie bounded towards me, leaping onto my chest and licking my face again. I laughed, which slowed to a giggle. Then a chuckle. Then a faint smile. “What’re you doin’ down here boy?” Buster looked at me inquisitively before sitting down on the ground with his tail still wagging. “You... no... the fire...” my mind raced back to my apartment building. The blazing inferno lighting up my bedroom in the middle of the night. “No... no, no, NO!” Tears rolled down my face. After everything I’d done, Buster didn’t deserve to be down here. I was a monster. A fucking monster. I was a hitman. I tore family’s apart for money. FUCKING MONEY. He was the ONLY god damn thing I did right. I found him in an alley, his snout in a muzzle, tied up in chicken wire. I got him free. Even while limping and bleeding, he hobbled over and licked at my face, his tail wagging weakly. I read his tag that hadn’t been taken off of him. You better believe I hunted down the bastards that did that to him. I had more than enough cash to pay for the vet bills. Then I guess I... couldn’t say no. The vet asked if he was mine, and I just nodded. “What’s his name?” They asked. I thought for a couple of seconds and said “B- Buster. Yeah, Buster.” I wiped the tears from my face with my shirt sleeve, my eyes still burning. I pet him, reaching down to his collar, the one I had gotten for him. I clicked open the latch with my finger. I set it on the ground. “Go on boy. Go on, get outta here.” Buster whimpered, but I hugged him and nudged him away. “Go on buddy. Back up there.” I gestured up with a nod of my head. “I’ll meet you there. I promise.” Busters tail finally began to wag again, as he stood back up. A singular beam of light shot down from above, and Buster was gone. \n\nI sighed and turned around, looking at the flaming gates. I can do this, I thought. I can find redemption. Get up to purgatory, and then back to where I belong. With Buster." ]	5
	[WP] You’re a known immortal, and historians use your knowledge to find out about past civilisations. However, you have to make things up because you’re too embarrassed to tell them that you missed out on most of history because you fell down a well and couldn’t escape.	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Reality+Fiction%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Simple+Prompt%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/js5XDFB)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", " 25 November 2020 (217)\n\nDear diary, \n\nI don’t remember everything, but there’s not too much to remember anyways. I just don’t want to disappoint them. \n\nDr. Aliyev asked me today about some obscure details of the treaty of Turkmenchay. I had to make it up on the fly and throw in some shit about circassian warriors or something. They love that kinda stuff.\n\nThe only one I’ve spoken to about what really happened--the 1803 thing--is Jeff. I trusted him, but he blabbed and published a book about it. Nobody believes him and even /r/conspiracy thinks he’s a nut. \n\nSeriously, how boring is the truth???: The world was created in what people consider 1803, then a 70-year effort was set in motion to create artifacts and documentation to trick people into believing more than 10,000 years of recorded human history before that--fake religions, fake books, the whole thing. By 1903, the whole world bought into it. \n\nTreaty of Westphalia? Written in 1812. The idea of the war of 1812? 1806. The idea to start numbering the years from 1803? They came up with that in 1848. Sumerian steles were carved from 1856-1868. I mean, they even came up with Buddhism before Hinduism… and the oldest religion? Mormonism. It’s funny, but weird. History is just a huge prank. It would break their heart. Also, I fell into a well in like 1908 and missed both World Wars. Finally out now. Super confused about the right thing to do here, though.\n\n\\-Gubu Maflubu", "My name is Nour al-Kazam and I am the first and so far, only, immortal being in the history of humanity.\n\nHow I earned eternity is a sordid tale involving an ancient curse, a band of heroic adventurers, and an enormous pot of stew. But that’s not important now. These days all anyone wants to know are the juicy details: was Alexander the Great more of a cat person or a dog person? Did Adolf Hitler wear boxers or briefs? And was that … uh … certain story about Catherine II of Russia true?\n\nI’d feel insulted by the utter mundanity of it all, but at least it’s given me three best-selling books, a self-help series, and an unending spot on the talk-show circuit.\n\nAnd parties. I get invited to lots of parties.\n\nEveryone famous wants to feel like they’re part of some great unfolding story. They want to hear fun little anecdotes about their favorite politician, or role model, or whatever, so they can go home telling themselves they deserve their nine gold encrusted tie-dyed ponies.\n\nAnd hey, free food.\n\nSo there I was, in a ballroom fringed with gold talking to a top-tier food critic, a “spiritual awareness” guru, and a burnt out action movie star. Things were going smoothly although the action boy was getting a little low energy but he had just headed to the bathroom, and I expected him to come back as chipper as a chipmunk.\n\nI was just getting to the part of my story where Gandhi learned that the key to self-love was inside him all along when it hit me.\n\nThis was bullshit. I was bullshit. This entire thing. I really am immortal -- but it turns out that when you can’t die you get stuck frequently. I spent most of the Middle Ages trapped in a Scottish bog only to immediately fall into a well when I got out (thankfully I was rescued by a small dog a few decades later, I heard some lady even made a movie about it).\n\nI suppose I sound cynical. It’s hard not to be after three thousand years. I’ve loved scores of dead women and dozens of dead men. I’ve had dead children on every continent. I spent a decade as a psychopath prancing around in a skull hat and working for some dead misbegotten North European tin-pot tyrant to see if that’d cheer me up.\n\nBriefs. I know you’re still wondering. He preferred briefs.\n\nBut ah, look. The movie man is back. He’s walking with quite a swagger in his step. He says “I look down”. He’s offering me a pick-me-up.\n\nA straw, a credit card, and a little plastic baggie later and I’m feeling just fine. I finish my story where Ghandi finished his secret romance with the American journalist and she went on to create yoga. They seem to like that. I tell them that “if you want more, it’s all in my book!”\n\nI’m still happy on the ride home. I guess it was just a flash depression. A two second spot of sadness, never to be felt again.\n\nAnd if it does come back, I’ll get over it. I have forever.\n\n(r/StannisTheAmish)" ]	3
	[WP] Once they demonstrated that faster-than-light travel was possible, they should’ve known we’d do everything in our power to figure it out. But trying to lock us in our solar system was their biggest mistake. Like errant children, telling us we can’t do something makes us want it all the more.	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Reality+Fiction%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Simple+Prompt%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/js5XDFB)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "A quick recap: Aliens have descended upon our world, demonstrated faster-than-light travel, then told us that our entire solar system would be quarantined and under close supervision.\n\nWhat else is new?\n\nWhat they don't seem to realise is that while they facilitated the construction of our Dyson Sphere, to harness the power of the Sun, we sent up a package that was unaccounted for.\n\nHalf the mirrors from the Dyson Sphere are pointed at the Global Solar Energy Collection Site on Earth, as intended for daily use. The other half is reflecting solar energy directly into a Stellar Engine.\n\nWhy leave the Solar System to explore space when you can use it as your intergalactic vessel?\n\nIn time, when the aliens are at our mercy, stranded away from their hub world, then we would start launching faster-than-light vessels en masse." ]	2
	[WP] Soon before your child was born you lost your beloved pet. One day your child brings up a "memory" of an event that happened way before they were born.	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Reality+Fiction%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Simple+Prompt%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/js5XDFB)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "The western sky lit up in a bright orange, as the sun waved goodbye to another day. I held my daughter’s hand, as we walked along the lake shore. \n\n“Say goodnight to the sun,” I told her softly. \n\n“Goodnight, sun,” she said with the sincere enthusiasm only a small child could produce in those circumstances.\n\nThe sunset walks were a tradition my little girl and had kept since she was a baby. What she didn’t know, even my wife didn’t know, was that I chose this spot for a particular reason. \n\nThis beach served as the final resting place of my beloved cat, Pluto. \n\nPluto had been with me for close to a decade. A large, robust, black cat, he was the sweetest animal I’d ever known. He had the innate ability to sense when I was hurting, and comforted me through some of the darkest periods of my life. \n\nHis death, mere weeks before my baby girl was born, tore me to shreds. My wife said she didn’t see me smile again until the birth of our Jean. \n\n“Daddy?” Jean asked. \n\n“Yes, sweetie.”\n\n“Why does the sun need to go to sleep?”\n\n“Well, honey, because the sun is like you. It needs its rest at night.”\n\n“So it can play all day?”\n\nI smiled at the innocence in her tons. “Something like that.”\n\nWe watched as the last of the colors faded from the sky. I’d always loved this lake, it had been a part of my life since I wasn’t much older than Jean. \n\nWhile Pluto had no relationship to the lake, outside of my love for it, I figured he wouldn’t mind having its shores for his remains to inhabit. \n\nIt gave me comfort imagining him climbing in the pine trees directly behind the beach, or watching from the shore for any fish that strayed too close to it. \n\n“Daddy?”\n\n“Yes, Jeannie?”\n\n“Remember that time the big, scary, dog chased me, and you stopped him from trying to eat me?”\n\nTry as I might, I couldn’t conceal the confusion I felt from her question. Nothing like that had ever happened to Jean. \n\n“And, daddy,” she continued, “remember how you took me in your arms and said ‘don’t worry, pretty baby, daddy’s here, you’re safe.’ Remember that daddy?”\n\nMy jaw dropped, as I realized where that memory had come from. While that had never happened to Jean, it happened to Pluto as a kitten.\n\nJean gave me a smile, one carrying recognition and knowing that defied her age. \n\n“Those were the best times, daddy. You always took care of me.”\n\nI gulped down the growing lump in my throat, and responded: “yes, yes they were.”\n\nWe left the beach shortly afterwards and drove home. After putting her to bed, I went downstairs, to a side table. Sitting on top of it was a framed picture of Pluto, sleeping in his favorite chair. \n\nI picked the picture up, and gave it a quick kiss. I guess he wasn’t gone after all." ]	2
	[WP] The farmer squinted at the dust cloud, hoofbeats growing louder with every moment. Soon he could make out the dappled spots of the mare he thought he'd seen the last of. He leveled his shotgun at the rider. It'd be a hot day in hell before he'd let that traveling salesman scam him again.	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Reality+Fiction%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Simple+Prompt%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/js5XDFB)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "The farmer knew what he had to do. \"I'm gonna kill him \" he thought to himself. He was In a pickle because he only had one bullet left and he wasn't the best shot in the world. As the mare merged over the rim of the hill he could just barely make out the black hat of the traveling salesman, or was it a white hat because he could barely make it out. \"He'll never scam me again\" again thought to himself. \n\nHe looked over at the busted vacume that the salesm once told him would suck up even the deepest of stains. \"To hell with that vacuum and to hell with that salesman\" he said, except this time instead of thinking it to himself he said it out loud. The farmer raised his gun and fired! KAPOW! The shot rang out. The salesman humped over his horse and then fell to the ground. \n\n\"That will show him to scam me.\" \"And now he won't scam anyone else\"", "The farmer drew a bead on the figure as it crested the horizon. The land was flat and dry and the only limit to what one could see on a clear day was genetics and age; while he had neither working in his favor, he’d recognize that spotted horse anywhere.\n\nI gave that fucker my best mare. He knew he was scamming an old man. I can’t believe he has the nerve to return to my land.\n\nIsaac Lowe’s family had owned this plot for generations. His great, great grandfather purchased it in exchange for his service in the war—Isaac liked to say it was purchased in blood—and $100. The land was fertile and provided. Until it didn’t. The drought was proving to be a hurdle too steep for even as tenured and talented a farmer as Isaac. He dug an irrigation ditch, turned the soil, hell he even prayed to the sky above for even a drop of rain. None came. \n\nBut then, providence. A wagon from the city rode through. Normally Isaac wasn’t so fond of outsiders rolling upon his land, but the man’s friendly face as he exited the rear of the wagon seemed to exude promise. He was finely dressed—his suit bespoke, three-piece, much too heavy for the heat of the plain—the glint of a golden ring caught Isaac’s eye. \n\n“Hey there,” greeted Isaac, “make a wrong turn, friend?”\n\n“Hello, sir! No, no, just passing through and wondered if my driver and I might bother you for a touch of water; we noticed the well near the farm house over yonder and we’re awfully parched.”\n\n“Yeah? That makes you, me, and the land,” replied Isaac, “I’m afraid I can’t spare much, but my father taught me that you don’t turn away a thirsty stranger. Come on then, you can hitch your horse and wagon over near the house.”\n\n“Bully - you’re a generous man and you have our most sincere thanks,” said the man as he followed Isaac on foot.\n\n“The name’s Ebner, by the way. Nathanael Ebner. It’s a pleasure to make your acquaintance.”\n\nIsaac shook his hand as the men made their way into the farm house. Inside the air was musty and thick with dust, the light was dim. The sun diffused through a couple of small, dirty windows in the living room as the men settled in. Nathanael could tell that Isaac didn’t have visitors regularly. Given his agricultural difficulties, Isaac hadn’t had much time to dedicate toward homestead upkeep; the house had fallen into noticeable disrepair.\n\n“Say, how’s the farm-life treating you these days, Isaac?” asked Nathanael, “this drought sure has been hellacious.”\n\n“I'm inclined to agree with your choice of words. It’s been all I can do to keep living these days,” answered Isaac.\n\n“I’m sorry to hear that. I understand that this drought has been a blight upon our land. And a shame that it so direly and disproportionally affects good people such as yourself.” Nathanael went on, “that said, I think it may be fate that put us together today. Not to brag, but I’m something of a man of means, and I think I may be in a position to pay forward my good fortune,” the slightest hint of a smile drawn on his face.\n\n“Son, I’m an old man. I’ve seen things and done things you couldn’t imagine. One thing I can say for certain is I’ve never seen pure, free generosity. What’s the catch?”\n\n“Oh, sir. I never said free. I’m generous, but run a charity I do not. What I mean is, I am willing to provide you a lien on an aqueduct for a low up-front cost, and a small share of your crop—really, considering your predicament, it’d be a screaming deal.”\n\nIsaac listened on, skeptical. An aqueduct. This would solve my water problems. If I could pull even a small amount of water out, my problems would be solved. His heart began to beat fast, adrenaline pumping. He struggled to hide his excitement.\n\n“Well, now. I like specifics, Nathanael. What’ll this cost me?”\n\n“Well, I have paper drawn already! I would simply take one horse of your choosing, and a 10% share in your crop. Upon signing of the contract and provision of the horse, you can take this contract into the city and make water arrangements with my associate.”\n\n“A horse of my choosing? And only 10%? That truly is generous. Why would you do that for me?”\n\n“As I said, I’ve been lucky in my short time, and want to help out good people like yourself. Plus, a man willing to share that which his most precious resource like you have with my driver and I, must be among the most deserving of some bit of philanthropy.”\n\nIsaac signed the paperwork. He was so thankful for this act of kindness, that he provided Nathanael his best spotted mare, Abigail. Nathanael and Abigail rode off over the horizon, leaving Isaac with paperwork, a name, and more hope than he’d had in months. Of course, when Isaac went to collect on the contract, he arrived at a small, decrepit office-front; paint peeling, boarded up—the contract wasn’t worth the paper it was written on. \n\nIt was with this scene playing through his mind that Isaac stared down the barrel of his gun, fixed on that figure drawing ever closer. He was beginning to make out finer details. Had he worn a rose on his lapel last time he was here? And was his hair that long? Isaac began to doubt his eyes. Perhaps he was aiming in error—his father also taught him that you never aim at that which you don’t plan to kill—Isaac planned to kill the conman. \n\nYet, he lost his nerve. He was not a killer. Isaac lowered his weapon with a sigh; his hand shaking at how close he had come to taking a life. Still, the figure drew nearer until the horse, and the man riding atop, were close enough for Isaac’s eyes to make out the details. That wasn’t a rose on his lapel, he’d been shot; and what Isaac mistook for hair was, in fact, the absence thereof, he’d been scalped. In shock, Isaac set to tend to Abigail and get the corpse off her back. Serves him right Isaac thought to himself.\n\nPatting down Earth, Isaac looked upon the plain, his gold ring catching the fading sun. A drop of rain, and another soon turned into heaven-sent torrent. He screamed and leaped for joy—his luck finally seemed to have turned around. Just as he turned to enter the farm house, something caught his eye: a cloud of dust. A gang of hoofbeats and howls rang out over the expanse. ", "##Stock Prices\n\nHoofbeats approach the farm. Mark runs out to the gate to greet the cheat with iron. Mark is an old but strong man at 65. The salesman Luke is his antithesis. He is young and weak from a life of using his wits to escape trouble. Even riding is a chore.\n\n\"Woah, easy Mark, what is the problem?\" Luke flashes his smile as he smoothly jumps off the horse.\n\n\"The problem is that stock you sold me went bust. Every stock is going bust right now in the city,\" Mark replies.\n\n\"Well, that is the market. It will rise soon,\" Luke smiles.\n\n\"Will it? I just lost most of my savings. The paper says that people are hopping onto trains for more work,\" Mark moves closer to Luke with the shotgun.\n\n\"People are disparate and weird. Besides let the big guys on Wall Street take care of it. This will be over soon. The President was the Secretary of Commerce under Harding and Coolidge. He will handles this,\" Luke says.\n\n\"I don't care about that. I want my money back, and you gonna give it to me,\" Mark jams the shotgun in Luke's face.\n\n\"Fine, here,\" Luke pulls at loads of dollars from his satchel to hand to Mark.\n\n\"You just got this money lying in there? Seems awfully dangerous,\" Mark says gripping his gun.\n\n\"No, I just made a separate sale. I won't disclose the buyers, but quite a few people are buying stocks now,\" Luke says.\n\n\"Why?\" Mark narrows his eyes.\n\n\"Simple, prices are starting to go down when they rise again the stock will be worth more. A five dollar stock today could be worth fifteen tomorrow,\" Luke says.\n\n\"That is what you said to me last time,\" Mark says.\n\n\"Because it is normally true, stock prices go up with a few valleys, but in those valleys, gold waits. Most of the successful brokers buy when it is going down to ensure they don't miss the ride up,\" Luke says. Mark strokes his beard.\n\n\"And other people are buying?\" Mark asks.\n\n\"Lots of people why do you think I have that cash? Oh, you are going to have to give me your stocks,\" Luke says.\n\n\"Now, wait, I would like to buy some more stock from you,\" Mark says.\n\n\"With what money?\" Luke asks.\n\n\"Why my savings,\" Mark drops his gun to grab the money, but Luke pulls back.\n\n\"Woah, that is not how this works. You cannot just sell the stock and rebuy it. You need to buy with more money, and if this is your savings, I don't think it will work,\" Luke moves back to the horse. Mark looks around.\n\n\"Wait, I live alone, and I am getting too old for this. Can I buy stock and use part of my land,\" Mark says. Luke puts in the cash and pulls out a contract.\n\n\"Why yes, so many customers use land that I always have a contract prepared. Sign here and I will take sixty percent of your land. I have my own farming system set up to take care of the land that I am buying. You will receive the equivalent amount of money later,\" Luke says. Mark signs the contract.\n\n\"Okay, if you get me again, I will shoot ya on sight,\" Mark threatens.\n\n\"Don't worry,\" Luke takes the contract to his horse and rides off smiling. An old man without a radio is the easiest target. Luke could have easily bought more, but the old man surely would not give up his land. Besides, if Luke wanted more, he was rich enough that he could have a lawyer with a bodyguard do it.\n\n---\n\nr/AstroRideWrites" ]	4
	[WP] Everyone remembers their past lives, up to ten generations back. Some can remember fifty lives back. You are the only person who can't remember anything.	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Reality+Fiction%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Simple+Prompt%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/js5XDFB)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "\"I was so many things, I don't know what to do now,\" Greg says, standing in the living room. \"What did you do when you realized you had this power, dad?\"\n\n\"Forgot,\" I say, setting down the newspaper. Sit up. \"Everything.\"\n\n\"Forgot? What do you mean?\"\n\n\"Everyone can remember, but no one realizes they can forget, too.\"\n\n\"Why would you want that, even do it? This power—\"\n\n\"Is amazing, I know. So many past lives, so many stories, so many memories, but mine... Mine weren't worth remembering, if I recall right.\"\n\nHe adjusts his stance, shifting weight to the other leg. \"So you just forgot, everything?\"\n\nI nod. \"Yup, except for this life. Those are the things worth remembering: the present.\"\n\n\"But what happens when you're reborn? Will you choose to forget this present life, then?\"\n\nSmart kid. I glance at the framed photos on the wall. My wife and I during out wedding, our honeymoon. The day we bought the house; the day we brought Greg home from the hospital. His first birthday... \"No,\" I say. \"I don't think so. This one's a good one.\"\n\n---\nIf you enjoyed the story and want to read more of my work, visit my [subreddit](https://www.reddit.com/r/MicahCastle/) and consider subscribing.", "\"You're back.\" I wondered what that voice was, because it sounded familiar.\n\n\"Well, here I am, but I don't remember anything from my 'past life,' and it's honestly embarrassing.\"\n\n\"That was my doing. You have gone through so much shit that your head needed the reset.\" She finally revealed herself in all her glory. Dark blue eyes with a tan skin tone, and jet black hair to boot.\n\n\"Well, gee, thanks I guess.\" I know her somehow, but where from?\n\n\"My name is Aliza, just so we're on the same page.\" \n\n\"Ok, Aliza, but why on earth was I that desperate to have a memory wipe?\" \n\n\"Always coming back traumatized and war torn, every single time. I just couldn't take it anymore.\" \n\n\"Are you the same way?\" \n\n\"Sadly.\" Her face was sunken as the words left her lips.\n\n\"Are you wanting to have a memory wipe as well?\"\n\n\"There was only enough power for one person.\"\n\nThe expression on her face clearly showed her despair. She started to cry. \n\n\"I... I'm sorry.\" \n\n\"Don't be. You needed it more than I did.\" \n\nFrom this moment, I knew I could trust her. And I also knew that I had to help her. But I had one question nagging at me.\n\n\"How did you know it was me?\"\n\n\"Your left eye, it always bears a scar that stretches to your neck.\" \n\n\"Oh, so that's why I always had that.\" I had always known, in this life at least, that everyone had one mark on their body that confirmed their identities of their past and present lives. So that facial scar I had was mine.\n\n\"What's you're mark?\" I was surprised she wasn't annoyed already by my barrage of questions, but once you have a memory wipe, I guess this was to be expected.\n\nShe showed me her left wrist. On it was a very peculiar mark. It looked like something in between a spear and a rod of lightning that curved around the edges of the right side of her palm and went back all the way to her elbow. \n\n\"I just wanted to ask,\" I began, \"because I wish to help you. I want to help you get a reset as well. Because since you went through all that effort to help me, maybe I can help you.\"\n\nThe tears started to cease it's flow. There was hope in her voice now. \"Are you sure?\" \n\n\"I'm absolutely positive.\" \n\n\"You were always too caring for me.\" \n\n\"Some things never change.\" I felt a smile form on my face. And something told me that I hadn't done that in a while." ]	3
	[WP] The aliens invaded. They were superior to us in every single way. Their only mistake? They assumed we cared about each other.	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Reality+Fiction%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Simple+Prompt%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/js5XDFB)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "\"We demand the immediate and unconditional surrender of your forces. Do you understand?\"\nThe B'nez considered the human commander on his view screen. They had not yet deciphered the quirks of the human's body language and facial expressions, but he appeared confident in this stratagem.\n\nHe spoke into the translator, \"May we speak with our Queen, to confirm her condition?\" and patiently waited for the process to translate his words into the barks and grunts humans used.\n\nThe response came back after the human conferred with someone outside the range of the lens. \"Yes, one moment.\" The view pivoted, showing a well-lit cell containing the Queen of the B'nez, constrained but apparently uninjured. A small light on the cell's console changed from one color to another, and a low buzz indicated that audio from the cell was being transmitted.\n\n\"Majesty, can you confirm your last engram date?\"\n\nHis Queen answered, \"My last engram-compilation was completed within 9 hours of my capture. Begin the process immediately.\" Upon hearing her command, he sent a signal directly to the now-highest member of the Court, starting the heir's transition to the new Queen. Raising them from a simple, single B'nez into the glory of the Empire's gestalt mind, a merging of all the knowledge of their previous Queens. \n\nHe watched, knowing what this meant for their current Queen. There could be only one living Queen at a time, and She had already begun the process of shedding her royal attributes. What would be left would be feral, nearly mindless, and extremely violent. The B'nez began recording the feed, hoping the humans would be too distracted to cut it before the process finished. The cell would not hold Her long, and he hoped the footage could be preserved for later analysis. For the good of the Hive.", "“To show your pathetic world our wrath we will exterminate your respected and honoured leaders.” I saw on the livestream. \nThis was it. Aliens were live-streaming our doom. I typed in chat, what did they mean leaders? I mean, there’s a lot of leaders in this world. \n\n“Aah. A question from TiddyLove69.” Hahaha nice. \n\n“What do we mean by leaders? Well. Obviously we can’t obliterate all your leaders as that would cause our prism crystals to overheat.” One alien answered and his shorter friend nodded. \n\n“Yes. Overheating the crystals results in catastrophic damage to our laser beams.” \n\n“So we will only target those with the most power on your world. We talk of money. We shall obliterate the worlds billionaires.”\n\nThe chat went dead. What do we do? \n\nI typed “no! Not our rich! Next you’ll kill our president of the United States, Donald J Trump! Also a super rich man!” \n\nAnd others followed suit. “Don’t kill Jeff Bezos! He’s so rich and respected!”\n\nThe aliens laughed, or what sounded like laughter “the more names you mention the more targets we acquire! Flemnas!”\n\nThe shorter alien nodded “yes Glen!”\n\nWait. The aliens name is Glen? Hope nobody in chat—\n\n“Lol don’t kill us Glen.”\n\n“Fucking Glen! That’s mint.” \n\nToo late. \n\n“Flemnas. Target these Jeff Bezos and Donald J Trump and all the worlds most rich and successful.” The alien checked chat. \n\n“Aah.” He smiled “I see my title has brought fear into your hearts. No matter. As long as you obey our rules and sacrifice your richest to the prism crystal and our God, you shall survive.”\n\nThere were many F’s in the chat. But I couldn’t help but smile at the thought of our richest assholes getting exterminated by aliens in the name of the greater good. Thanks Glen.", "!And if you don't comply, thought-invoked Lorixx, !I will obliterate your mate!\n\nKatie snorted. \"If you don't do it, I will.\"\n\n!Did you understand? thought the spider-elephant alien. !I will obliterate him.\n\n\"Maybe if Martin had done the dishes within the last, oh I don't know, FOREVER, I'd care?\"\n\n\"I said I was getting around to them,\" Martin replied from beneath one of the eight elephantine legs.\n\n!Silence. Lorixx pressed his leg until Martin squaked.\n\n\"Ouch. Careful! You could have broken a rib.\"\n\n!Silence, I commanded!\n\n\"If you can get him to shut up then you're a better woman than me.\"\n\n\"If, \"said Martin, \"you can get her to stop nagging, I'll persuade all of the resistance to worship you, because you must be a truly powerful god.\"\n\n\"If you can get him to start looking for a job then--\"\n\n\"We've been through this, Kelly!\" Martin interrupted. \"Is it really too much to ask for a little time to try out on my new console? Like, all I want is a week of peace.\"\n\n\"You've been trying out the PS3 for six years. You think I believe you're going to be trying this out for just a week?\"\n\n!Ahhh thought-screamed Lorixx. !I will break his spine if you continue.\n\n\"Like he's got a spine.\"\n\nMartin snorted. \"That's a good one, Kelly.\"\n\nLorixx covered his own eyes with two leathery feet. !It was just meant to be a quick stop. Get the inhabitants to worship me. Impress Aplakkan so she'd take my hoof in celestial partnership. But nooo I had to run into a race who care more about...\n\nAs Lorixx thought-moaned to himself, Kelly fumbled a gun out of the inside of her jacket. She emptied the round into Lorixx, who fell down dead, legs in the air, overturned like a spider.\n\n\"That was close,\" said Martin. \"One of the bullets flew right past my head.\"\n\n\"Yes. Very close.\"\n\nHe frowned. \"Kelly... Was that bullet meant for me?\"\n\n\"Just a warning shot.\"\n\n!Uh... I'm not dead. I just can't move.\n\n\"You're joking right, Kels?\"\n\n\"You'll never know!\"\n\n!Please. Mercy. Finish me.\n\n\"... Oh, I know you're joking. It was just a bad shot.\"\n\nShe shrugged.\n\n\"Fine! I'll apply for a job tomorrow. Happy now?\"\n\nShe rolled her eyes.\n\n!Please. Kill me.\n\nNone of them were quite sure who thought that last thought." ]	4
	[WP] When you pulled the sword out of the stone, you discovered it was merely a hilt glued onto the rock.	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Reality+Fiction%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Simple+Prompt%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/js5XDFB)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "The blaring of warhorns sounds in the distance. It's the 12th attack this month, and it is only the 12th day of the month. Day after Day, there have been raids from beings that were clearly not human, where the defending men and boys were all slain, but the women and girls captured, to a fate many dare not remember, for sanity's sake.\n\nIt's the 12th day of raids upon the castle of Evorik, the last Bastion that stands between the brutes and the fertile inner lands. Honestly? I'm sick of it. Everyone at Evorik is sick of it all. Or at least all that remains in this god forsaken place.\n\nDay after day, we would march out to face these green skinned monsters. And day after day we would lose a portion of our defense. \n\n3 days ago was our worst. Evorik's defence has been running dry, with a large majority of the men dead. The women have volunteered to help defend, despite the back then rumors of the fate of women. On that day, once the first female warrior stepped on the field, the beasts rushed forth in unbridled aggression, slaying half of our men, and capturing all of the women who volunteered.\n\nMe? I was lucky, Astonishingly lucky. I am only 15 years of age, a boy relatively young. On the 5th day, I was forced to take up the bow and arrow, keeping me far from the frontlines. Day after day since I've been forced to watch many others being slain. The hunter down the street, the village elder, my friends, my father, my brother. One after another, I've watched them all fall in the brawl against those barbarians.\n\nBut my luck is running out. Last night, I was selected among many others to join the frontline. And since so many of our weapons broke in the brawls, many of us have resorted to scavenging them from the field, most were broken swords, snapped spears and shattered shields. The weapon given to me is an odd one. A sword that seems to be stuck in a scabbard of stone. But from the shine of it's exposed metal, a golden crossguard and a white blade, It must be of good quality.\n\nThe grinding of the gates snaps me out of memory lane. I look to my sword, the stone scabbard was heavy and cumbersome, and I still am not able to draw it's blade. I look forward, hearing the second warhorn blare. It is time to fight.\n\nIt wasn't long before I got into the melee. Unable to draw the blade, I would have swing the heavy sword, scabbard and all. Before long I stand before one of those green things that killed so many. In a few strikes, my arms feel numb even though none of the hits came close to my body. \n\nThe third strike I blocked smashed into the stone scabbard, forcing it a little loose. But it also weakened the block, forcing pain down my arms. I kick the ground backwards, forcing some distance away from the brute. I grabbed onto the stone scabbard, my hands screech in pain for the heat of just having been struck. I gripped the scabbard harder, trying to force the blade to draw.\n\nThen... It popped. The \"Sword\" came out of it's stone scabbard. The exposed shiny metal blade turns to dust, and all that is left is an empty hilt and its stone scabbard, now a solid rock witch no blade could exist from. My heart plunged at the sight of it all, my death approaching in the form of a green-skinned monster.\n\nMy only weapon available to me is lost, scattered to the wind as dust and stone. I glanced to my sides and look, as the people around are getting killed, and its unlikely for an arrow to save me now. I look as the brute charges at me, weapon raised to kill me in a moment.\n\nMy eyes close, bracing for the next strike, which would be my last. But I refuse to die like this; While I still have something in my hand, I can perhaps do something. My eyes still closed, I put both hands to the hilt, and jab it forward.\n\n&#x200B;\n\n&#x200B;\n\nI feel a extreme flash of heat and light. Though it somehow did not hurt, it forced my eyes to open. My eyes cannot believe it, yet I can feel that it's reality. The beast before me has been burnt to ashes, floating in the hot air. Yet more shocking is what is in my hands. From an empty, basic hilt, has reformed itself into a new longsword (1.5 handed).\n\nIts blade shines an orange-gold, with white flames forming round the edges. The crossguard, once golden and simple, is now an ornate guard, made of the same orange-gold metal as the blade, its shape is that of a bird, wings outstretched.\n\nBut the fight does not end here. 2 more brutes swung towards me, having just killed the people next to me. I try raise my new sword to parry one of the strikes, but I cannot raise to block in time.\n\nYet, both hits were blocked. The stone scabbard floats before me, though stone no longer. It is of metal, white at its core with the edges the same colour of the sword. From it, it spewed outwards wing-like jets of flames, disintegrating the weapons of the 2 brutes. I swing my sword to push the counter, the white flames reducing them both to ashes.\n\nI grabbed onto the scabbard, as it loses its flames and drops onto my hand. As the third warhorn blare, the brutes retreat. As much as I want to push my newfound advantage, it will have to wait, our side need to regroup as well. I place back my sword into the scabbard. \n\nAs I walk back to Evorik's Gate, I can only think to myself: \"What a wild day.\"\n\nLittle do I know that this day will mark the start of the legendary Phoenix Knight." ]	2
	[WP] You are a zombie, who retained his memories, and knowledge. You took the time to relearn how to speak and read. One day you were hibernating amidst a group, when someone bumped into you. You accidentally said, oh excuse me. You opened your eyes to find a human staring at you in shock.	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Reality+Fiction%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Simple+Prompt%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/js5XDFB)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns." ]	1
	[WP] The Dark Lord has actually brought peace and happiness to the Kingdom, but has still kept his extremely overdramatic behavior. Everyone in the Kingdom just goes along with this to humor him.	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Reality+Fiction%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Simple+Prompt%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/js5XDFB)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "The great black bell in the Spire of Othaturt rang out, accompanied by the sonorous, dissonant chants of the monks of Wadjusei and the weakening screams of those unfortunates sentenced to die by Shattering. The great gate of Dun Conchrinn opened with a groan and the Dread One emerged into the dim dawn light of the wide courtyard. The Heralds blew their horns, the 4 pure notes combining to form an eerie diminished chord as he crossed the yard and mounted the dais to sit upon the obsidian Throne of Judgement. He looked up to contemplate the eternal vortex of Ash that all but hid the sun from his home before shouting \"Bring forth the first wretch who has broken my laws!\" \n\nThe majordomo, a spindly, hunched figure, dragged a fat man in a houpelade from the rusted cage set into the outer wall and over to the red-streaked steps of the Dread One's throne. \"I'm s..sure there's b.. been some kind of misunderstanding.\" the merchant babbled, \"I'm sure I can compensate y...\" The majordomo's gnarled fist struck the merchant in the back of the head and the fat man crumpled. \"Sire, this merchant claims his soaps clean four times as effectively as home-made soaps, and that they are imported from Distant Lands. Efficacy tests show no difference and preliminary material analysis suggest they were made in Ducklin Crossing, about 20 miles from the border.\" The Dread One scowled and slammed his fist against the throne's ornate arm. \"Fool!\" he exclaimed, \"In this land, I, and only I, am the Lord of Deceptions and Falsehoods, Lies and Untruths. If you would speak falsely in my land, you will do so for my purposes and with my leave, or else not at all. The sentence is death by Sewer.\" The merchant looked confused, and babbled a little bit as he was led away by a guard, who explained to him what was going to happen. The merchant laughed at first, then whimpered, then screamed, this last dying away to a despairing gurgle as a metal ring was forced between his teeth.\n\nThe morning continued in this way, with the majordomo bringing each new prisoner over to be judged and sentenced. Most were foreign, most were judged for usurping one or another of the Dread One's evil prerogatives, and most were judged guilty, from the blacksmith who threw his slag into the river, to the seamstress who habitually overcharged the boys and bachelors who used her shop. \n\nWhen the sickly pale light of the sun reached its zenith, the great black bell rang again. The Dread One rose from the throne and turned back to the Keep, his deep purple cape billowing behind him. When the doors finally slammed shut, the spectators and uncalled witnesses filed out through a kinked tunnel in the curtain wall around the Dread One's fortress, blinking as they emerged from beneath the Ash vortex into the eternal spring air of Meilend.", "The tavern was a small and rustic affair. Antlers and other hunting prizes adorned the walls, and a large fireplace added warmth and further ambience to the local watering hole. \n\nThe people seemed happy as they danced and made merry as the fiddler played. Carefree even. But, certainly that could only be the result of being in a such a far flung place. I had smuggled myself into the Dark Lord's Domain only a few nights ago and this settlement seated right near the border most likely is far enough to avoid the brunt of the Dark Lord's dreaded gaze.\n\nAnd yet, I quickly found myself proven wrong as the door to the tavern burst open. A tall figure in black robes and armor commanded attention as the music abruptly ended. Behind the black clad brute, were undoubtedly lesser minions. They wore curious garb, vests almost the color of sunflowers, but that shone in the light. Atop their heads were the most ungainly helmets I'd ever seen. Mustard yellow, offering no facial protection yet clunky and large, as if strikes and blows could only come from above. Their hands were armored in heavy brown gloves, not metal, but certainly thick. My eyes fell upon their waists and it became clear that these lemon lackeys were torturers no doubt. They carried their tools of pain in obnoxiously large belts. All manner of mallets, picks, piercing instruments, bludgeoning instruments and heavens know what else clumsily sat in hoops and pockets.\n\nI had been so taken in my astute ocular pat down of these threats that I had missed the opening remarks of that vile tall armored figure. However, the next sentence left no doubt that pain and devilish intent was what these agents of evil had planned for the town. \n\nThe gravelly voice tinged the air with foul flavor as it spoke. \"Failure to meet these demands will be not be met with any mercy. As our Dark Lord has commanded, you must follow or suffer the consequences. Dare ignore these instructions and face promised destruction and misery upon this precocious village. If you need further, guidance, know that my capable men shall remain here until the work is done. So speaks our Lord\" \n\nMy blood boiled, my hand tightened around the handle of my sheathed sword. I could not bear to hear these songs of oppression any further, yet I knew this was not my fight and this was not the place and my cunning patience immediately payed off as the baritone villain left tavern. Now only his daffodil deviants were left and those were certainly something I could take care of. \n\nI must have been drugged, or entranced, for while I was choreographing the fight that would be in my mind, one of the saffron sadists sat at my table. No doubt they have access to all manner of wicked measures to have gotten so close to me. A quick scan of the room revealed that the rest of the tavern seemed ensconced by their ability as well as the folk seemed utterly unperturbed by their presence. Some were even speaking to the other ocherous ogre in a friendly and submissive manner. It was clear these torturers were feared by all given the compliance shown.\n\n\"Uhh, excuse my buddy, are you ok?\" The words crept out of the jaundiced jabroni's mouth. Blast, again I had fallen under some sway.\n\nI regained my composure and coolly responded with a mysterious \"yes.\"\n\n\"Ok great. Well, anyways like I was saying, we're here from the Imperial College to do some work in the town\" His mouth contorted into exaggerated shapes as he spoke prominently displaying his undoubtedly cannibal teeth. \n\n\"Uhh huh.\" Brilliant, such ease of words meant I rarely betrayed my true intents. I'd keep this cretin flustered and confounded as I worked out his true mission. \"What work exactly are you servants of the Emperor doing here?\" \n \nAnd like an arrow flying true, my verbal sucker punch landed square. He replied all too willingly, giving away the game just like that. \"Well, it seems that we have some problem areas that need rooting out and well really shoring up. Steps need to be taken to protect the town and the Emperor's domain, hence me and my buddy Jim over there.\"\n\n\"And how do you plan on rooting out said problems? An application of those wicked tools?\" I casually point to the devil devices in his belt, letting him know I'm aware of just how armed he is.\n\n\"Well probably not. Some shovels, rope and lumber would be more of use for this issue\" I nearly choked on my ale as he casually alluded to outright murder. Evidently he planned on burying quite a few bodies. My temper was rising and I knew I could no longer be the invisible observer I had been.\n\n\"Fiend, you can not solve your problems through genocide! Burying corpses will not bring this town or these people to heel to your master!\" I was standing now, my voice louder that I had planned seeing all the looks coming my way. Clearly my bravery was a beacon of hope for these wretched and downtrodden people. \n\n\"Whoa buddy. Jim and I are here to prevent any corpses from needing to be buried. Ya see this town sits on a fairly active river. As a result of some pretty phenomenal growth thanks to the Dark Lord's economic policy, a lot of this new construction sits very close to the river bank. While everything is hunky-dory now, come the rainy season the usual flooding would certainly see significant damage done to a lot of these buildings via erosion. Not to mention that the farms downriver would be very susceptible to dangerous flooding if we don't build better levies. Actually, the boys back in the rivers & waterway management department crunched the numbers and estimate that if some serious work isn't done here, the damage that could be incurred would be well outside of the active insurance programs established by the Dark Lord. It's just sensible management to be proactive instead of reactive here.\" \n\nPain wracked my brain as he finished his sentence. His response was nonsensical. \"You mean to tell me the Dark Lord sent two torturers and your fiendish overseer to organize infrastructure projects? What of the grave consequences and no mercy you're commander spoke of?\"\n\n\"Well first off, your referring to Joanne, and while I agree that she can be prickly at times, isn't that pretty much the case for every middle manager? And the grave consequences of inadequate infrastructure & city planning are pretty self explanatory. Not to mention the Dark Lord is absolutely draconian when it comes to fines. Jim over there got fined a weeks pay for not sorting out his alchemical ingredients from his regular trash. Oh excuse me I think Jim's calling over for me\"\n\nI found myself sitting again, feeling dizzy from this conversation. My mind reeled and I felt clammy as the torturer strolled away. Clearly, the forces at work here are far worse than I anticipated. I fear I may need to call for help.", "The rowdy mumblings were reduced to whispers as Dark Lord Mordus entered the hall, clad in his signature obsidian armour and flaming cape. The final whispers died down as he took his place at the head of the table, sitting ominously on his blood-red throne. \n\n\"Begin,\" he said simply, gesturing to the fellow at the opposite end of the table, before resting his head on his fist.\n\nThe man he referred to stood up, bowed deeply, then spoke. \"My Lord, here is the report from the farmer's office. Harvests have produced twice the yield since you introduced magically treated water into the irrigation system, and-\"\n\n\"HAH HAH HAH HAH HAH!!!\" Sinister laughter boomed from the throne, interrupting his report.\n\"Excellent. EXCELLENT!\" Exclaimed Lord Mordus. \"At this rate, hunger within the kingdom will be but a ghost of the past. Forgotten. OBLITERATED! None shall speak of it within the Ten Kingdoms again! All I need is a few more years...\" \n\n\"Indeed my Lord, everything is progressing as you planned,\" I said. He threw only a disinterested glance my way before gesturing for the representative to continue.\n\n\"However...\" the representative resumed cautiously, \"...there is a pestilence that has been ravaging our potato farms, we're still unsure where or how it originated, but are taking steps to-\"\n\n\"WHAT?!\" Lord Mordus brought his heavy fist down on the table, almost tipping the glass of orange juice in front of him, which he subtly steadied. \n\n\"You incompetent fool! How many of your failures must I bear before you farmers learn to grow a damn potato. I will personally review your report on this. But let me be clear, this will be your last failure before I throw you to the dogs in my dungeon.\"\n\n_This is his 15th last failure_, I noted silently. Also, his dogs were all well-groomed Pomeranians. And the dungeon had a playground.\n\nThe representative did his best to act terrified. His lips trembled, his eyes darted, the whole nine yards. It was all quite impressive really. \n\n\"I understand my Lord,\" he said with a shaky voice and eyes to the ground.\n\n\"Enough with this fool,\" said our Lord, \"who wants to go next?\" \n\nThe meeting finally adjourned 5 hours later. I stretched my legs as the last representative left the hall, leaving just Lord Mordus and I. \n\nAfter he was sure that no one was going to come back to find something they left behind, James finally heaved a sigh of relief and took off his suffocating helmet. \n\nTurning towards me, he flashed his favourite shit-eating grin and asked: \"How'd I do?\" \n\n\"Amazing as always babe,\" I replied, going in for a quick kiss. \"Although, the part about the torture room was a bit extra. If you keep mentioning it, someone's going to get curious. We don't need anyone finding out about what we do on the weekends.\n\n\"Right, my bad,\" James said. I simply let out a sigh as I headed out of the hall. \n\n\"Change quick, dinner will be ready soon,\" I called out as I left.\n\n\"Got it, thanks honey!\" I heard, followed by grunting as he struggled to get out of his bulky armour.", " “They fled, your Dark Majesty. Upon seeing the horrifying ornaments which you bade us to leave outside the city walls. Turned tail and ran, I say.”\n\nOnly one corner of Konstantin’s mouth moved, stretching into a wicked smirk on the side of his face. With his terrifying smile, he bared his sharp, serpentine teeth.\n\n“I trusted they would. Few men are not made sick by impaled bodies. Those few, perhaps I would respect enough to not have slaughtered within my walls.”\n\nHe rose from his ornate throne, taking the three steps leading up to it with deliberate strides, before beginning to pace in front of his advisors. One, a young man wearing common clothing, took a step forward and dared to interject.\n\n“Your evildom, may your cruel crown be damned by every mother and crone, the commoners are overjoyed to live in safety again, with the barbarians deterred - may they take a holiday to celebrate your unending successes? The fields are plowed through and ready for next season as it stands, and the livestock is tended to as well. I will command them to take care to…”\n\n“Silence! Insolent child, how do you expect me to grant your underlings a holiday if you won’t even permit me a moment of gloating without interruption.”\n\nThe evil lord’s voice resonated through the chamber, growing louder with fury. He turned his gaze away from the lad, launching into a hearty chuckle. As he laughed louder and louder, his rasp more and more apparent, his eyes took on a sickly green hue. He was cursed, some said, to dominate and take control of the village he was born in - marked with a number of omens denoting a born warlock. By the time he had become a man, rather than a shy, introverted boy, the town had long become a city, and yet that did not stop him from taking over.\n\nA cough interrupted his maniacal laughing fit, and he paused sharply, his voice returning to a quiet, low, and oddly serene tone with which he normally dispensed his “evil” wisdoms.\n\n“Yes, child, run and tell the villagers to celebrate, but let them not forget it could have easily been them, their sons, and their wives up on those pikes rather than bags of straw. Perhaps they ought to thank the tailors for bringing me satisfactory work. Am I understood?”\n\n“Clear as a moon from a meadow at night, your depraved unholiness...”\n\n“My what?”\n\nThe young boy jerked to a stop.\n\n“Your… depraved unholiness?”\n\n“You don’t sound sure, boy.”\n\n“Your depraved unholiness, sir!”\n\nKonstantin’s face contorted into a grimace, as if he had smelled something unpleasant.\n\n“I don’t like that one very much. Evildom was quite good though… is that even a word?”\n\n“Sorry, sir, won’t happen again.”\n\nLost in his thoughts, Konstantin made no attempt to put on a particular voice, letting his naturally pleasant timbre return.\n\n“Sure, sure, it’s no problem at all, Vasiliy. Run along or you’ll miss the festivities.”\n\nThe boy turned heel, letting a wide grin break out across his face as he sprinted out the richly decorated wooden doorway of the throne room. A tranquil silence returned to the chamber, only broken by the lord quietly murmuring under his breath, trying to remember all the various names and titles his court, and foreign diplomats had used.\n\nReplacing the boy in formation, a strong-shouldered woman clad in golden armor strode into the room, a massive greatsword clanking against her back. Adjusting her wild red hair, she called out to the lord.\n\n“Dearest, I took care of those ruffians you were having trouble with.”\n\n“Ahh…”\n\nRoused from his own mind, Konstantin clicked his tongue disappointedly. His eyes drifting down towards the floor.\n\n“What’s the matter, hun? You aren’t embarrassed of me, are you?”\n\n“No, Adela, I was just under the impression they fled from the scarecrows I had made. I already know you are a formidable force, and I appreciate what you’ve done very much. I’m just a little disappointed with myself, is all.”\n\n“Aww, flattery will get you everywhere, dear. Do you remember what’s coming up in three days?”\n\n“Fifth anni…”\n\nThe man’s eyes drifted over to the other ministers, still standing awkwardly in line, and he cut himself off with a cough, returning some sinister rasp to his voice.\n\n“No. Our private affairs are of no consequence to me.”\n\nHe turned to his men.\n\n“You. Out! Dismissed! Begone, lest I put you in the pit!”\n\nAdela remained quiet and still, rolling her eyes as the advisers rushed out of the room, closing the door behind them with a loud thud.\n\n“Have you even dug out a pit, yet?”\n\n“All will come in due time.”\n\n“Uh-huh.”\n\nThe woman clutched her hands, bringing the back of her gauntlets together, before releasing her fingers. Immediately, cryptic texts began to glow all over her armor, and it began to melt around her, disappearing entirely in a matter of a few seconds and releasing a muscular form clad in a loose linen shirt and worn leather pants. A broad hunting knife looking a lot like the fearsome greatsword appeared at her side, stowed in a belt scabbard. The pant leg above one heavy boot bulged as a secondary scabbard appeared, concealing an emergency shiv - it’s transformation was only discovered by the most outstandingly dangerous of enemies.\n\nUnconsciously, the corner of Konstantin’s mouth drifted up into an authentic smile as he gazed upon the woman, considering her her hair, her eyes, and the freckles on her face with a soft fondness that was so rare to find in his normally steeled eyes. Adela was a childhood friend, prophesied to serve as the village’s righteous blade, and likewise foretold to have her fate intertwined with the warlock till death do them part. At the time, that line was interpreted as a life of nonstop combat between arch-rivals. That didn’t happen quite as predicted.\n\n“Well anyway, whether you care about ‘private affairs’ or not, I thought seeing your anniversary gift would cheer you up. Look what I found--”\n\nProducing a scroll from a side pocket, the woman unrolled the parchment. On the sheet, in meticulously scribed paragraphs and images, was pictured a brutal set of armor, ornamented with spikes, and metal skulls. A dense dark-green cape was clipped to the silver breastplate, the pins shaped like curled rams’ horns that would frame the knight’s face. A similarly brutal mace was likewise pictured, its silver head dulled and encrusted with what could only be presumed to be the blood of its enemies. Upon considering the scroll, Konstantin’s eyes went wide.\n\n“It can’t be! This armor… it must be three hundred years old - lost for at least two! And this scroll… it still feels so new!”\n\n“Well don’t get your hopes up, I haven't found all of it yet - but I’ll model what I’ve found so far three nights from now. I know how excited you get over historical relics.”\n\n“You’re incredible, Adela, but I detect a hint of deceit in your voice. What’s the catch?”\n\nThe woman’s bright eyes made direct contact with his.\n\n“I only have the cape.”", "The great square before the palace was filled with people of all walks of life, from the lowliest villein in his least dusty shirt to wealthy merchants dripping with gold to the grim-faced archbishop of the Apocalypse God, who looked upon the gathering with utter disdain. The sun was shining down from a clear blue sky, lighting up the silver-on-black banners of the Empire of the End, which had promised to bring brutal order and uncompromising logic to the disorganized masses. All resistance had been crushed. The so-called heroes were, one by one, captured and subject to public trial and execution. In the end, there was no one left to gainsay the man who had crowned himself Emperor, the archbishop’s champion: Essakrus I, the first of his name.\n\n“Citizens of my Empire!”\n\nA roar went up from the multitude. The Emperor addressed them from the highest balcony in his foreboding fortress, a great edifice of stone, spikes, and shadows.\n\n“Three years have passed since the last hero was slain, and the forces of the Blessed One were routed forever! Reduced to mere partisans, hiding in the shadows of the forest and playing at banditry, they are merely a threat now to the occasional traveler! But the Church of the Apocalypse, of which I am proud to call myself a member, has grown into the faith of an entire Empire, the Empire which all of you call home!”\n\nThe archbishop turned his head and scoffed, drawing odd looks from the townsfolk nearby. As the rest of the crowd howled their approval, he looked down at the old, cracked unholy symbol in his palm. It had used to mean something: death, despair, and fear. Now…\n\n“There is no crime, for the criminals have been dealt with! There is no hunger, for we have organized great banks of wheat and fruit! The order which was promised has been delivered, and the world has become a better place for it. The Apocalypse has come and gone, and we are renewed!”\n\nHis fist clenched around the symbol. His life’s work had been fighting the Blessed One’s many warriors and spreading darkness through the land. He had reveled in plague and death, caused wars and famines alike. His champion, the loud buffoon on the balcony, beloved by the people, had once been his most loyal servant. His installation as Emperor had been meant as a trick of puppetry. It was not supposed to succeed!\n\n“All hail the Apocalypse God, the bringer of justice and peace!”\n\nThe crowd answered in kind, their voices swelling to a volume that shook the foundations of the city.\n\n“All hail the Apocalypse God, who forbids no knowledge and grants the fate of all men!”\n\nSudden dark clouds began to whip across the sky and a cold wind blew through the streets. As they had many times before, the people brought out jackets and hats to ward off the chill. The Archbishop sighed. It’s just a show to them now. The power of our God has been perverted to such an end. Lightning flashed above them all, drawing gasps of appreciation from the many children in the throng.\n\nSomething tugged at the Archbishop’s robe.\n\n“May he reign for a thousand years, and then a thousand more! I will be dead and gone soon enough, but the Empire will last forever! Long will we all prosper under the eyes of the Great Dark God!”\n\nThe Archbishop looked down to see a small boy, dressed in fine clothing. He scowled down at the child, his pale and drawn face filled with anger. The boy solemnly held out an offering.\n\n“Enjoy the festival, my doomed ones! The God will come for you soon enough, but today, under the Storm of the Ages, we celebrate our short and fated lives! Go forth!”\n\nMusic began in a dozen places simultaneously. Dancers and jugglers seemed to appear out of nowhere. Watching them with an emotionless gaze, the archbishop chewed and swallowed. I hate this festival. I hate what we’ve become.\n\nBut damn… this licorice is quite good." ]	6
	[WP] Reincarnation is real, but only you know it. You retain all your memories of your past lives, and after yet another successful run, you lie on your deathbed eager for what the next life will bring you.	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Reality+Fiction%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Simple+Prompt%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/js5XDFB)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "Nope. Another one - not able to understand. I've learned to only observe, not speaking. Held and safe in a facility for the handicap - observing. I tell myself \"it's only truth: the innocent irony that follows and guides me\". But all of these years? Hilarious! They've seen the movies, they've heard the religions, read the sacred texts, been given the right thoughts - they've even spoken the truth. So there is no excuse! And yet here I am, sitting still - contemplating if it's true that the God of Moses exists - and pontificating if a spirit will be lighter than a feather in the afterlife. And you'd like to think \"these frivolous concepts of existentialism shouldn't exist with someone who's lived the life of a thousands of lifetimes!\". But beautifully, my eyes tear up and witness that the onion peels and it peels. So let me recount my life as a peasant in the dark ages, or regale being the wise father of my nomadic tribe! Will you listen then? No, because the burning truth is: all of us are given the same responsibility - the only truth - we are forever students.", "As I slowly felt the remaining life slip away from my body, I was content with what I had accomplished in my current liftime and eagerly looked forward to what I could do in the next. \"I know your little secret Walt.\" \n\nMy eyes shot open, ice pounding through my veins, a feeling I thought I had forgotten coursed through me. Fear. The voice had come from my nurse that had been assigned to take care of my few remaining days. \"You think you're so clever don't you? Coming back again and again and again.\" \n\nHow could she know? I had been so careful, every identity, every life. Perhaps with this one, I had become a little too famous. \"This time, it isn't going to end the way you think it is.\" She began to roll my bed out of my room and down the silent hallways of the hospital. \n\nI eventually found myself staring into a dimly lit room, that was dominated by a large cannister in the center. I could make out the words barely on the side CRYO. She muscled my frail and weak body out from my bed and placed me into the capsule. The temperature inside felt colder than any refrigerator I had ever opened. \n\nWith one final gesture, she slammed the doors on the capsule and left, leaving me alone in this icy prison. I feebly struggled to try and push the door but it was no use as I began to drift into the blackness...\n\nIt is with great sadness that today we mourn the loss of our company's founder and director. Disney was designed by Walt to spread cheer and joy to every man, woman and child around the globe. We honour him today by burying a time capsule filled with his Disney spirit in the heart of his greatest creation Disneyland. Thank you Walt for what you've given us and what you will give to the kids of the future." ]	3
	[WP] You wake up in a hospital bed, unsure of who you are. The nurse tells you that you arrived last night, dead, with just a name tag. Apart from fatigue, you feel perfectly fine.	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Reality+Fiction%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Simple+Prompt%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/js5XDFB)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "*Personal log of Professor Sarah Van Helsing, physician at Southland Hospital, Invercargill, NZ\n\nNight of Jun 22\n\nSubject arrives at Southland Hospital in the early morning after being involved in a traffic accident, declared dead on arrival at 4:53 am. Subject appears to be a caucasian female, only identifying information found on her and the driver of the car (also deceased) is a forged Norwegian passport to the name of Katherine Akerman, age 19. The driver is a caucasian male and in his early sixties.\n\nMorning of Jun 23\n\nResident pathologist Dr King begins autopsy of subject at 9:16 am. Dr King reports subject presents no signs of rigor mortis and has elevated body temperature. A comparison with photos taken at admission shows that subjects wounds have begun to close. At 9:39 am a heartbeat is recorded and an approximate heart rate of about two beats per minute measured. Autopsy is stopped at 9:41 am and subject transferred to trauma centre.\n\nJun 23, afternoon\n\nHeart rate of subject remains stable at two beats per minute. Further examination shows subject’s broken humerus bone has begun to fuse again. X-ray reveals subject’s arm has been broken in different places at least five times in the past. More scar tissue and old injuries found almost all over subject’s body.\n\nSubject is transferred to special unit under Professor Van Helsing. At the professor’s insistence, the driver of the car is checked for similar symptoms, but no anomalies are found during autopsy. The subject’s humerus bone is straightened to allow for proper healing. At 1:20 subject’s heart rate is found to have increased to three beats per minute. Subject is fixated to bed as for usual safety procedure. Their external injuries are examined hourly to document rate of healing. Subject’s heart rate continues to increase. Last external injury has closed at 4:59 pm.\n\nJun 23, evening\n\nSubject regains consciousness at 7:13 pm. At 7:18 pm Professor Van Helsing begins her interview. Subject displays high aggression and repeatedly demands to be freed from their shackles. They are unable to hide their inhuman nature when confronted up close with a living human. No doubt driven mad by thirst after the extensive healing. Despite their near-feral state the subject appears cognisant of their surroundings and coherent, however they are uncooperative. Subject only reveals the fake name from their passport and asks repeatedly after the driver of the car. Subject insists on seeing the driver before continuing the interview. Such interest in their prey appears unusual.\n\nWhen informed of the driver’s death, subject begins crying. They continue to insist on seeing them. Confronted about their aberrant behaviour, subject turns aggressive again. The interview is interrupted at 7:48 pm.\n\nJun 23, evening, continued\n\n8:00 pm, interview continues after subject has sufficiently calmed down. Subject remains highly uncooperative, claims they have known the driver since he was three years old and continues their demands to see him. They even call him their son. Subject’s emotional distress appears deceptively real, a mimicry of human emotions no doubt useful to manipulate their victims. Interview postponed inconclusively at 9:23 pm.\n\nNight of Jun 24\n\nSubject has been brought to the morgue and allowed to see the driver’s body. They appear more willing to answer questions now. Interviews continue, but have revealed little of value yet. When not strapped to their bed, subject is kept in a straightjacket and wheelchair. Subject insists these precautions are unnecessary and demands to be let go.\n\nIncident report at Jun 25\n\nAt 7:16 am nurse Cater tried to move subject from their bed to their wheelchair without the help of a second nurse. Subject managed to get one arm free and attacked nurse Cater. The two other nurses in attendance managed to subdue subject before any serious injury could be caused. It took two male nurses to overwhelm the 1,57 m small and 44 kg light subject. Per new safety precaution, subject may not be handled by less than two people at any time.\n\n(got to leave, maybe continue later)", "I’ve been sitting on the mortician’s chair, while he hides in the other room, for about an hour when the nurse from early comes back into the room. \n\n‘Can you come with me please, we’ve arranged a room for you upstairs and we have a specialist we would like you to see.’\n\nI follow the nurse to their station. My naked body covered only by the hospital gown. The other nurses in halls all look at me as I walk by, the dead girl back amongst the living. \n\nThe nurse that collect me slips behind the counter of the nurses station, picks up a phone and begins to dial someone. \n\n‘Excuse me miss, can I get the name tag I came in with?’ I ask.\n\nThe nurse looks at me and rummages around the desk until she finds the name tag. As she hands it to me the call connects.\n\n‘Good morning Doctor, we need you to come in as soon as possible, there is a patient that the doctor’s on staff aren’t qualified to treat… No it’s the girl that came into the morgues last night… from the street…’\n\nThe name tag read ‘Sue Mollins – Staff doctor, Lazarus enterprises’\n\nThere was a picture of Sue on the name tag, a middle aged woman with an immaculate bleach blonde bob haircut. She looked like a nice person, but nothing like me.\n\nThe phone call the nurse was on looked serious; she wasn’t talking with her hand over the mouth to keep what she was saying a secret. \n\nI wander into the waiting area on the opposite wall from the nurses station. There’s a teenager in a arm cast on his phone.\n\n‘Hey kid, can you look up the address of this place for me’\n\nThe teenager looks at me and then the name tag I’m holding up. \n\n‘Sure, if you let me peep what’s under that gown?’\n\nI look a the boy like the child he is.\n\n‘How about you look up the address or I break your other arm?’\n\nThe stupid grin disappears from his face and he grabs the name tag from my hand.\n\n‘Alright pyscho, chill.’\n\nWhen he’s done he hands back the name tag and shows me the address location on his phone. It’s right around the corner from the hospital. The place takes up half a city block. I put my arm behind my back and hold my gown closed as I leave. I walk calmly passed the nurses station.\n\n‘I’m just going to the bathroom.’ I say to the nurse, who is still cover her mouth and talking in soft tones to the doctor on the phone. She just nods at me and points in the direction of the bathroom. I turn down the hall she pointed to; walking straight passed the bathroom and following the exit signs until I find a way to the street.\n\nLazarus enterprises is nearby, maybe this Sue person has answers for me. The way the hospital staff are acting is making me nervous. \n\nI’m make it out of the hospital without issues, the people on street give me some weird looks, but no one stops me. The Lazarus building is three stories high, I had to walk along the front of the building in order to enter. The receptionist watched me as I walked passed and entered the lobby. I approach the desk and lift my arms up to cross them on the counter, but I drop them back down when I feel the gown come open behind me.\n\n‘C-can I help you miss’\n\n‘I want to talk to Sue’ I say, placing the name tag on the desk. ‘I found her name tag.’\n\n‘Oh! Thank you for returning it’ the receptionist picks up the desk phone ‘I’ll give her a quick call… Sue? … There is someone here to see you, they’ve found you name tag… okay I will let her know. Doctor Mollins is on her way now, please take a seat.’\n\nI don’t want to sit down; instead I stand by the door and watch the people walk passed. By the elevators, Sue appears, looking exactly like her picture, I turn my head to the sound of the elevator doors closing. Sue is move towards me at a brisk pace with her arms out stretched. When she gets to me she wraps her arms around me. Tears begin to stream down her face, soaking the shoulder of my hospital gown.\n\n‘It worked.’ She says ‘My precious baby girl, I thought I’d lost you forever, but it worked… you’re back.’\n\nOver Sue’s shoulder, from the same elevator three men in black suits appear, they survey the room and then begin to stride towards us.\n\nSue releases me from her embrace and places her hands on my shoulders.\n\n‘I love you baby girl and I’m not letting anyone take you from this world again.’\n\nSue looks over her shoulder at the three men in black suits, now half way across the lobby towards us. She opens her white coat, takes out a plastic bag, pushing into my hands. I’m struck silent I don’t know what to make of this or what to say, I’m crying too now. Sue grabs my hands and clutches them together.\n\n‘Now listen to me, you run from this place and you never look back.’\n\nShe clutches my hands tight and then pushes them away, nodding in the direction of the door.\n\n‘I love you.’ She says softly ‘now RUN!’\n\nSue draws a pistol from beneath her pristine white lab coat, turns on her heel and fires three shots in rapid succession at the men in suits, striking one in the neck. Blood sprays from the wound as falls backward to the floor, spray blood on the man next to him. The remaining men pull pistols of their own. One dives behind the reception desk and the other behind a waiting room chair. Sue too dives behind one of the waiting room chairs.\n\nI panic and start running as fast as I can toward the street. As I reach out to pull the door open as a hail of gunfire shatters it in front me. I run over the broken glass as fast as I can, I feel the glass cut the soles of my feet. I keep going as the sound of gunfire gets quieter and quieter, mixed with in a see of pedestrians running from the same thing I am.\n\nI don't look back.", "\"Weird\" I answer, \"I don't feel dead. Please, answer me this: are you an angel?\" \n\"Well, some people call us that, after all we save their lives, most of the time, but from scientific point of view, I'd say no, same species as you, flesh and bones, just regular human.\" \nThe situation made completely no sense, I remember there's this thing called amnesia and it happens when the brain is damage and as a result the memory gets lost, but this factoid of information is of no help whatsoever. What happened? What should I do? Who did it to me? There are so many questions I want to find answer to. Or do I? The situation is both scary and astonishing in its confusion. In my situation, there is no way for me to ever tell truth from lie, even if someone told me what had happened, I wouldn't know if one is telling truth or not. \nIt doesn't matter. I've lost my roots. There is nothing binding me anymore. The past is irrelevant and it is time to fly on, into the dark veil of the unknown. I feel good, great in fact, my body, as nurse has reassured me, is completely healthy and there is a whole new forgotten world for me to explore that I do not know anything about. This is terrifying, of course, but much more exciting!", "“...Dead?” I asked, the word seeming to catch in my throat.\n\n“Dead as a doorknob,” the nurse confirmed. “But don’t you worry, we sorted you out just fine.”\n\nI blinked a few times. “I feel fine. Is that… is that possible?”\n\n“Apparently,” the nurse said with a shrug. He lifted a paper on her clipboard. “Looks like your cholesterol is a bit high, but all things considered I think that’s a minor concern.”\n\n“...Dead. Huh.” I looked at my hands. They looked completely normal as if nothing had happened. In fact, I hadn’t found a single mark on my entire body- not a single scratch, bruise, or scrape to be seen. “So you mean, like, my heart was stopped or something, but my brain was still kicking?”\n\n“Nope,” the nurse said, driving away the last bit of sense I could make of the situation. “You were cold and dead. No brain activity, no pulse, no breathing, no nothing. Kinda scary, you know?”\n\n\n“Aren’t you a nurse? You must have seen your fair share of dead bodies.”\n\n“Well, sure, but none of them have come back to life before.” The words struggled with the nurse’s flippant tone, giving me the strangest sort of verbal whiplash.\n\n“Could have fooled me,” I muttered.\n\nThe nurse continued as if he hadn’t heard me. “I mean, I was sitting there just filling out estimated time of death and all that when you leaped into action.”\n\n“Action?” I asked. “You mean I jumped up and did* something?”\n\n“Oh, no. I mean breathing and stuff. But compared to a dead body, that’s some serious action, you know?”\n\n“Of course,” I said, already barely able to keep up with the nurse’s narrative.\n\n“And at first I thought you were a zombie and I was about to get eaten, and then I was just pissed because the paperwork was wrong and you weren’t dead, and then I felt a bit guilty because, you know, it’s a touch selfish to be upset at paperwork when it means a guy didn’t literally die, but it’s a complicated subject, you know?”\n\n“Complicated.”\n\n“Well, sure. I mean, what if you were in heaven or something? What if I dragged you out by saving your life?”\n\n“I thought you said you were doing paperwork when I came back to life by myself.”\n\n\nThe nurse tilted his hand back and forth in an uncertain motion. “Same difference, really. After all, what if I did that? Maybe my superpower is doing paperwork to bring back lives?”\n\n“Is it?”\n\n“Well, no,” the nurse admitted. “You were the second of three dead bodies I had to do paperwork for last night but the only one to come back of life. So were you?”\n\n“Was I what?”\n\n“In heaven?” the nurse asked. “Or hell? Or wherever it is that Buddhists go?”\n\n“Nirvana, I think. And no, it was sort of just like… sleeping, I guess.”\n\nThe nurse snorted. “Really? That’s boring. I was hoping it’d be like that story where the kid saw Jesus or whatever.”\n\n“That exists?”\n\n“Sure,” the nurse said. “You get all sorts through here, and tons of them look for any bit of reassurance they can find. Knowing about books like that is just part of the job description.”\n\n“Huh.” I titled my head to the side as if I could shake the memories of death loose. “So what did they say Jesus looked like?”\n\n“Oh, big smile, calming presence, probably blue eyes. Standard western Jesus, you know?”\n\n“Sure.” I had no idea what he was talking about.\n\n“So anyway, I guess that was a load of it, huh?”\n\nI shrugged. “Beats me. I suppose you could have saved me from hell, if it makes you feel better.”\n\nThe nurse shook his head. “No, I’ve decided I don’t want that burden. I mean, can you imagine if people started to call me in to save celebrities or heads of state or whatever? Nuh-uh. Miss me with that supernatural shit.”\n\nI leaned back in my bed. “Yeah, I guess supernatural abilities would be pretty awful, huh.”\n\n“The worst,” the nurse confirmed. “I think we’ll just write this off as a freak occurrence and try to forget it, yeah?”\n\n“Yeah,” I sighed. “I’ll try.”\n\nThe nurse left the room, chuckling and shaking his head as he made a quick note on the clipboard.\n\n“Blue-eyed Jesus. Seeing dead people. What a day,” he murmured.\n\nI gazed around the room, now devoid of any living beings other than myself.\n\n“So…” I said. “Can I speak to you, or can I only see you?” \n\nEven as I spoke, more ghosts flooded into the room. “What have you done?” one asked, [horrified](https://reddit.com/r/Badderlocks)." ]	5
	[WP] "Hivemind enslaving people? i've seen no such thing" the ranger said, in a voice more befitting the warrior next to her, "but i've heard of something similar that way" the voice came out of the warrior's mouth this time, with the cleric pointing the direction you came.	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Reality+Fiction%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Simple+Prompt%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/js5XDFB)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "\"A hivemind?\" The woman's voice was bewildered, and oddly low-pitched. \"I have no idea what you're talking about.\"\n\nWith a sigh, I turned and stared out a window. The inky black of space unfolded forever beyond the port, and I shivered at the sight. I almost died out there.\n\nPushing the thought to the back of my mind, I turned back to the woman. She wore the dark leather and badge identifying her as a ranger-scout, whose job was to keep tabs on everything in open space. It was thanks to her I was alive. \"I don't know,\" I said tiredly. \"I've just heard rumors. You come from Udiga II, right?\"\n\nShe nodded, her dark eyes unreadable. \n\n\"Well, people have been saying some crazy shit happened there, and to stay away. But if you're saying everything's fine-\"\n\n\"Everything is fine.\" A new voice interrupted. \n\nI whirled around, quickly taking in the man standing in the doorway. My attention was immediately caught by the gun hanging from his belt, ready to be drawn at any moment. It was all to obvious what his job was. The soldier cleared his throat, pulling my attention to his scarred face. \"What are you doing out here, in the middle of nowhere?\" He asked suspiciously. Like the ranger-scout, something was wrong with his voice, too.\n\n\"I'm not supposed to be. I would've been in another arm of the galaxy right now, if my ship hadn't fallen apart. And no, I don't know why.\" I said, answering the ranger-scout's question before she could voice it. \n\nShe blinked, looking slightly perturbed. Turning to a monitor humming quietly in the wall, she swiped rapidly through it. \"We're almost there.\" She blurted out.\n\nI pressed my cheek to the window, straining to look ahead. There, hanging peacefully in the darkness, was Ugida II. It looks fine, I realized. \n\nAfter the station had stopped responding to all transitions and no ship that set out to investigate had returned, everyone had assumed the worst. But it didn't appear to have been attacked. Far from it, in fact. As we glided in, one of its many ports slid open, admitting us silently. The lack of a radio check-in was a bit strange, but perhaps the ranger-scout had some perks I wasn't aware of.\n\nThe ship docked, and we got ready to depart. As I gathered the few things I had salvaged before abandoning my ship, I couldn't shake the uneasy feeling that had hung over me since I first spoke to the ranger-scout.\n\nI stepped out the airlock and into the space station, when a sharp pain suddenly blazed through my skull. Gasping, I dropped to the cold floor as my companions looked on in disinterest.\n\nThe world spun, and I couldn't think. *A resistance? Interesting.* The words slithered through my head, and I could tell they were anything but human.\n\nI don't know how much time had passed, but I finally recovered and stood. The soldier and ranger-scout were nowhere to be seen. In fact, nobody was. The terminal was completely empty.\n\nI need to find out what the hell's going on here, I decided, moving further into the station.\n\nThe awful slithering sensation returned, though I was at least spared the pain this time. *Why are you here?* \n\nThe words weren't audible, and I couldn't be sure I wasn't simply crazy. *Oh, you most certainly are.* The voice put in venomously.\n\nI ignored it, wandering through the station's empty corridors aimlessly. Ugida II had shown plenty of activity as we approached, but it was like everyone had vanished. I was making my way through a cafeteria, its tables spotless, when a loud crash shattered the silence. I spun around, searching for the source and finding it in a far corner. A large number of trays had fallen from their racks, now strewn about the floor. \"What the-?\" I blurted out.\n\nThe pile of trays let out a yelp, and a small boy scrambled out of it, his eyes wide. \"Who're you?\" He demanded.\n\nI hesitated, taken aback by the acid in his tone. \"I'm a stranger here,\" I said gently. \"I just want to know what's going on. You seem normal enough, can you tell me?\"\n\nThe boy looked at the floor, his unkempt brown hair falling over his face. \"It's not controlling me right now.\" He muttered.\n\nAt his words, the strange slithering sensation in my mind returned, though no words accompanied it this time. \"What are you talking about?\" I pressed, the hairs on my arms standing up.\n\nThe boy looked up, his eyes cold. \"The thing in the computer room. It's as if it's forgotten about me. It's been two weeks, and I've had nobody to talk to.\"", "Jade had always only taken knowledge.\n\nNever gifted, only taken it all in greedily as he went deeper and deeper into obscure magicks and forgotten rituals.\n\nA spell that would allow him perfect recall, no matter what, even in death, had been the first of his Forsaken Magic rituals.\n\nForsaken Magic was dangerous, deadly, horrifying.\n\nForsaken by the World itself, hence the name.\n\nThe few who practiced it and survived had already rotten away, or were stuck in what seemed to be an eternal slumber for their success.\n\nBut did Jade care? Did he?\n\nOf course not.\n\nEvery drop of magic he produced was his forever with the ritual, every second of his life remembered with startling clarity.\n\nJade was greedy when it came to magic and knowledge.\n\nThe little bits he gave were always returned with interest, a spell for two new ones and long-forgotten library was the price for a book.\n\nSo of course, when he heard of a hivemind, Jade was curious.\n\nWhat knowledge could the ancient beast have?\n\nHiding the state of his being, burying the Forsaken Magic deep within something the hivemind could never touch, he embarked on a journey to find it, and perhaps make a deal.\n\nBeasts like this hivemind wouldn't dare touch Forsaken Magic, knowing it would smite them the second they uttered a syllable.\n\nThus, standing in front of the hivemind's drones, he projected his thoughts loudly into the mortal shell shackling him, picking them carefully.\n\nCuriosity.\n\nApprehension.\n\nThen, as it hunted for him, wishing to add him into it, fear.\n\n\"Come on,\" the woman said, \"join us\" the man finished.\n\n\"N-no! I came to make a deal, you see, I want to-\"\n\nThat moment, the defense broke, and everything flooded his mind.\n\nEvery bit of knowledge it had gained, thousands of years.\n\nBut the defense was a weak mock shield, and all of the beautiful, beautiful knowledge was sucked into his real mind greedily.\n\nChuckling as it was engraved into his very Soul, he took in the location of something the hivemind avoided like plague.\n\nForsaken Magic crackled and reduced half of the attacker to dust with a touch.\n\n\"I must say, I thank you from the bottom of my heart. This knowledge is quite delectable. Now, if you excuse me, I have a Soul Ascension Rite to claim for myself, and then perhaps a dozen universes of slumber to attend to. It was quite entertaining, I must say - but it's too bad that you encountered me of all people,\" he smiled at the other half, which was frozen in fear.\n\n\"It was our luck to meet each other, little hivemind.\"\n\n\"You're a...\"\n\nThe woman, still standing, whispered the next words in terror.\n\nNecromancer.", "I was reminded of a time when my curiosity got the better of me, and I decided that an afternoon's spare time could be spent investigating a travelling band of aspiring actors.\n\nThe only knowledge I wanted to file away was to never, under any circumstances, consider such a wastage of my impromptu recess again. Unfortunately, my subconscious mind was far less discerning and concerning about that horrid performance, preferring to periodically, without prompt, alert me to those passionless kisses like two fishes moulding their lips together, exaggerated motions like dying fish trying to flop back into the water, and emotionless eyes akin to dead fish.\n\nThey reminded me a lot of fish. I did not, and do not understand. But upon closer inspection of my three comrades, it was clear that they were clearly out of their depth.\n\n\"Oh my god, that's disgusting,\" Treader, the svelte, male ranger continued, his voice pitching and peaking with the smooth and collected voice of Constance, the female warrior beside him. He shook his head like a loose marionette. \"Hive minds? Where could they possibly be?\"\n\n\"Oh, those disgusting hive minds that control individuals and strip away their free will and identity?!\" Constance continued seamfully, regaining her voice for a brief moment. \"I mean, there's so many of them though! Where could they possibly be hiding?\"\n\n\"Ah, those disgusting hive minds where even though they do that, it's at a benefit of the entire superorganism?\" Konivi the cleric clunkily pointed with her entire hand, fingers spread wide and fully. \"Could it possibly be down this path?\"\n\nI simply shook my head and stood silent.\n\n\"Come on, party!\" Treader said, this time with Konivi's tiny, high-pitched voice, unnaturally amplified thoroughly past the point of breaking. \"We should definitely, get closer to this particular hive mind that's just a 10 minutes walk down this path! And if Ignatius follows us, it'll be all for the better!\"\n\n\"For the better what, exactly?\" I sighed.\n\n\"Why, to take down those disgusting hive minds, of course!\" Constance said. At least she had her own voice back now, even if it was more stilted than a grilled fish on a stick that had been over the campfire for far too long. \"If you can beat them, beat them!\"\n\n\"And if you can't beat them,\" Konivi cried.\n\n\"Join them!\" a flourish from Treader. I almost expected an awkward half-bow between the three of them.\n\nIt has to be by range. 10 minutes away? About half a mile away, then. \n\nI looked inward for a moment, and just faintly, I could hear a call. A call to arms, to join, to be relieved of my mortal vessel.\n\nYup. As if it needed more confirming. My work as a scholar must have made me more resistant to the creature's attempts to take over my mind. My companions, who were still shifting around like they just discovered that they had spawned new joints throughout their body, were ample evidences.\n\n\"Alright,\" I said. \"Time to head away.\"\n\nI backed slowly away from the direction they had pointed, quietly urging them to follow me. Brute force was not a possibility here; suggestion was the best course of action.\n\n\"What are you doing, Ignatius?\" Konivi asked, quizzically. Strange, it was almost...\n\n\"And what are you doing, Konivi?\" I said. \"I thought you had more sense than this.\"\n\n\"Ah. Me?\" she said. The other two continued their jerky fits, but Konivi looked almost like she was... shivering. Not with cold, not with fear, but with...\n\n\"Adrenaline is a curious thing,\" she smiled, far too naturally. \"This is the only way I can experience it. And it is quite simply extraordinary.\"\n\nI jumped back, as far as I could.\n\n\"You...\"\n\n\"Ignatius,\" Konivi said, her hands patting the shoulders of the Constance and Treader. Considering she was two heads shorter than the warrior and one head shorter than the ranger, it looked far too practised and smooth. \"Constance and Treader here are still coming to terms with it. But let me tell you... what a rush.\"\n\nMy mind raced. Thoughts flashed through every mental spell I could remember, anything that could break whatever held dominion over Konivi.\n\n\"You are thinking,\" she smirked. \"That is great. A wonderful thing to do.\"\n\nI ignored her. There has to be something. Something that I could use. Some memory that would pop up, that could save the day.\n\n\"You could be using Liber, perhaps,\" the cleric continued. \"Or Confractus?\"\n\nI looked up. My jaw must have dropped, because she laughed, once more, deep from the belly.\n\n\"But ah, they are so easily broken. Contra would negate the effects entirely, while Frangit would render the magic impotent,\" Konivi said.\n\n\"How...\"\n\n\"You have but one mind, Ignatius,\" she said. \"One life to cram all your knowledge inside it, before it inevitably rots in the ground, fed on by vultures like common carrion instead of the precious treasure it should be.\"\n\n\"I...\"\n\n\"You've read books. I've consumed libraries. You can don't believe me, but your dear friend agrees,\" Konivi walked forward, each step assured.\n\nI was frozen. She stepped up to me, and it was obvious to me that her words carried the weight of the ocean, and her eyes hid the intricacies of the universe.\n\n\"And you want to know. You must know,\" she said. \"Well, I can assure you of one thing. I simply know.\"\n\nWe stared into each other's eyes, the windows to our souls. \n\nAnd suddenly, I was no longer frozen. \n\nEvery spell that could be used to break the spell flooded into my head. I knew exactly how to break this spell, how to render the hive mind broken and useless, shrivelled and buried.\n\nI smiled.\n\n\"I simply know.\"\n\n---\n\nr/dexdrafts" ]	4
	[WP] you control the human population on earth. After an accidental nuclear war you caused, you need to tell your boss why there is only 70 people left.	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Reality+Fiction%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Simple+Prompt%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/js5XDFB)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "If there's one word you don't want to ever hear a nuclear technician say, it's \"oops.\"\n\n\"Jenkins!\" \nI squirmed in my seat, arse cheeks sweating all over the hard plastic. I thought I'd slide right off. \n\"Sir?\" I replied hastily, trying to force confidence into my shaking voice. \n\"What in crikey fu\\\\ was that, Jenkins?\" \n\"I don't understand, sir.\" \nBrigadier Andrew Collins' face looked like it was about to haemorrhage spectacularly all over the room. \nI stared at him with innocent, I don't know what you're talking about eyes, but he could see my leg chattering like it had caught a cold.\n\n\"Jenkins!\" \n\"Sir?\" \n\"Get me on a secure connection to Parliament House, NOW!\" \n\"Ah, sir? I believe that the House has vanished.\" \n\"You mean you blew it up?\" Collins looked moments away from having a stroke and seizure at the same time, and I figured if I could just buy myself time until that happened, I might just get away with my little mistake. \n\"It's difficult to say exactly what happened, sir. There's a lot of...interference...with our communications equipment at the moment.\" \n\"Would that be interference from radiation, or interference in the sense that you destroyed the entire planet's COMMUNICATION EQUIPMENT.\" He was spitting everywhere and I was hoping I'd see a speckle of blood. He was working himself up into such a rabid state I figured he'd be set to pop any minute. \n\n\"Jenkins, you have destroyed the entire planet. The only people left in the world are in this bunker. And I'm going to make sure you can't get the rest of us...\" Collins walked towards me, reaching for his sidearm, but before he could even draw it, he keeled over, bonked his head on the concrete floor, and went out like a light. \n\nThe brigadier's access pass was pinned to his chest, and I knew I'd need it to get to the vehicles once everything was locked down - my pass would only get me through the lower security internal doors. I snatched it off his DPCU shirt and stuffed it in my bra, thinking I'd be expected to at least turn out my pockets and take off my boots when leaving the control room. In my clouded state, I was still thinking in terms of standard procedure, the usual order of things, habits. It didn't occur to me that the others would be preoccupied with more important things.\n\nI ran to vehicle bay, using the brigadier's pass to swipe through the reinforced doors. I chose a large people-mover I knew had been loaded last night with supplies for a training mission in the desert - on my own, I could survive for months with this gear. I started the engine, made sure the the windows were closed, and drove up the 500-metre ramp leading to the surface. I wound down my window a quarter way, swiped through, then quickly withdrew my arm and wound the window back up.\n\nOnce the heavy doors were open enough for me to fit the people-mover through, I drove out and into the desert. As usual, I goofed up. The radiation from the nuclear winter I'd just caused fried the electronics in the vehicle, and now I'm stuck here. I can't go outside or walk back into the base. I've got a few months of food and water, but nowhere to go.\n\nI'm trying to upload this to Reddit now, using the last of my satellite data plan, so that one day, when the human race rebuilds critical infrastructure and we re-invent the internet, people will know why I did what I did. I wasn't trying to blow up the whole world. I was trying to save it. We needed a hard reset. What most people don't know is that AI isn't a far-off pipe dream, it's already here. The machines are taking o-" ]	2

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