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] Supernatural creatures decide to take matter's into their own hands as the threat of global warming and nuclear war looms.	[ "It began with Nessie. She, the beast of Loch Ness, rose out of her den in the depths of the lake. \n\nNext was BigFoot, or George, as he was to the rest of us. He boldly emerged from his cave in Appalachia, and began his trek North. \n\nFollowing him, every werewolf west of the Mississippi gathered in SoCal. \n\nWe, as the supernatural community, have had enough. We’ve been cowering away and hiding from them for hundreds of years. But they’ve ruined our sacred space. Our home is being torn to pieces, literally and figuratively. I can only keep up with so much of the pollution and the killing of my roots. \n\nSo I sent a call to action to my children. I sent word that we will be regaining control of our home, and no longer allow these bipedal, hairless things to destroy it. We will prevail. \n\nMy strength has been so depleted these last few decades, because of the poison they pump in the sky. I haven’t been able to keep the arctic frozen, or the plates of the earth stable. But I gather as much of my energy as I can spare and simultaneously send my punishment down from the heavens. \n\nThe seas rise up to meet the sky and land, ejecting the debris that’s accumulated over the last million years. Whole ships and billions of pounds of metal crash into the land. Fire scorches and burns hotter than the sun, turning structures into pure atoms. Hail and ice and rain and lightning plummet down, destroying their buildings of “faith” and “government”. \n\nThe only being they need believe and fear is me. " ]	1
	[WP] God decides enough is enough and pays Congress a little visit.	[ "“Look, I’m going to need all of you to sit your old asses down and level with me for a minute. You have all fucked up severely,” God said, dragging out a cigarette. \n\nCongressmen mumbled and mulled about, confused. What was God doing here?\n\n“So, about Parkland. What the hell. I saw those kids at the Gates, man. Do you realize how much that hurt to see? I saw kids there that I knew from the moment they were born that they had so much potential, only to be cut short. But you need your 2nd Amendment rights, because 17 isn’t enough. How many mass shootings do I need to see? How many people do I have to let into the gates before you wake up and see the damage. What do I need to do?!”\n\nA Minnesota congressman spoke up, “We need our guns to protect ourselves. That’s why we wanna arm teachers!” A roar of applauses came up after he finished.\n\n“I understand, but look. More people have died from offensive, intentional gunfire than by an accident or in self defense. And you think arming Teachers is the best method? Teachers are not security guards. Security Guards are security guards. I will not let any more kids end up like those at Parkland, or Columbine. And with me as my witness, I will do whatever it takes with you, with the Supreme Court, with the President to make sure that doesn’t happen again. If you don’t like it, so be it. Also, reread the damn bible. Y’all interpreting it all wrong. You guys just need to wake the fuck up to all the stupid stuff you’ve done.”" ]	1
	[WP] You live in a world where everyone is afraid to go out after dark, and with good reason. Unfortunately, you have rare genetic condition where sunlight causes you irreversible damage.	[ "Victor was sitting on the floor of his dimly lit room filled with books and newspapers that he had read over and over again. Mindlessly throwing a ball towards the wall, watching the ball bounce back to his hand and throwing the ball again--like he had practiced a thousand times. He was born with a rare genetic condition where even the tiniest exposure of his skin to sunlight will cause it to redden and nasty boils to form. This means that for the majority of the day--whenever the sun is up--Victor had to stay in his room with no windows, lighted only by a single candle stand. As though to make Victor’s life more agonizing, no one is allowed on the streets after dark and must absolutely stay indoors until the sun is up. It was said that creatures of the night roam the streets at night and being spotted by one of them only meant getting eaten by those foul beasts. That is Victor’s sheltered and uninteresting life; go out when the sun is up and get burnt to death; go out in the dark and get eaten(to death); stay in the room and get bored to death.\n\n\nOnce, Victor managed to escape from his room into the streets, wearing layers after layers of blankets to cover the entirely of his skin. For the first time in his life, he witnessed the golden globe on the horizon, the azure sky laced with orange and purple like a masterpiece painting. Tears stung his eyes at that scene, touched by the wonderful image and a burning sensation in his eyes but could not tear himself away from looking. Victor fainted after that sunset and woke up in his room the next day. Enticed by that beautiful panorama, he attempted escape a number of times now. Occasionally he will be successful in his ‘prison break’ but was stopped countless times by the doctors and nurses of the facility. \n\n\nLast week, after successfully escaping once again, Victor barely held on to his tenacity to avoid fainting for the first time after sunset. Moments into the darkness, he saw a creature of the night for the first time; its razor-sharp claws that can tear through flesh like paper; its massive leather wings on the monster’s back, spanning across one city block, capable of lifting even that huge monstrosity into the air; its muscular forearms and legs embedding the creature with strength of a thousand men. Victor was sure that will be how he die before fainting but instead woke up in his same-old boring room. That was when he realized what his sickness actually is and was horrified by IT. Victor had always wanted to explore the outside world, to venture beyond these four walls. But all that vigor disappeared last week when he learnt the truth--that he is the monster.", "Sarim winced as the gentle afternoon breeze fluttered through the thick blackout curtains hung in front of his window. The few brief seconds where beams of sunlight were almost prismatically scattered about his second floor bedroom were enough to cause a nasty singe to his left wrist. He quickly got out a cloth bandage from his pocket, and soaked it in water from the sink that was stationed in the corner of his room, between the wardrobe that he kept his clothes in and the hefty chest he kept pressed up against the wall that divided his apartment from the world outside. Wrapping it around his wrist, feeling the soothing liquid caress his skin and take away some of the pain, he sunk weakly down below the sink. The daylight couldn't reach him here, he knew from past experience. He had been foolish to leave the window open, but it had been so hot last night, and he had been distracted with other worries. He laughed internally, thinking that most people would imagine that the only worries a man of twenty who was dangerously allergic to sunlight would have was how to stay away from the sun, and how to stave off the boredom of being trapped within four walls. But Sarim was never bored. He leaned his head against the cool porcelain of the underbelly of the sink, letting it take away some of the uncharacteristic heat of this scorching summers day, and closed his eyes. He could hear some young boys playing outside and laughing in the square at the centre of his apartment complex. They would probably be fine for at least a couple of hours, he thought, before their parents would come out with worried looks on their faces, and bring them safely inside, locking all the doors as they did so. Everyone locked their doors at night here – it wasn't safe to let anything find a way in when the long night begins. He sighed heavily and felt his mind pulling him into the world of sleep. He allowed it to take him there, as he would need the rest before the night drew in, and he could truly feel alive again...\n\nWhen Sarim opened his eyes, there was no light at all, save an almost imperceptible sliver of moonlight leaking through one of the blackout curtains. Most people wouldn't even have noticed that, but Sarim had spent a lifetime in darkness, and had learned to be perceptive of what little light his body could tolerate. There were no longer the sounds of children playing in the streets outside, but it was far from a silent night. Nightmarish groans echoed through the walls of the complex, some long, low and deep, others more percussive and sharp. He thought of the children who had been playing outside earlier, now probably huddled in their parents embrace, trying their best to be silent. He thought of the others in this apartment complex, boarding their doors up, trying to sleep a restless, uneasy sleep despite the fear of what was happening outside. You would have to be a truly unhinged individual to go out in the long night, everybody knew that. Sarim grinned. Unhinged or a bored and frustrated shut-in dreaming of a life of adventure. \n\nHe made his way over to the chest he kept next to the sink, and quietly opened it, the lock clicking gently open as the machinery read his hand print and confirmed he wasn't a thief. Inside, some well-crafted but heavily used goggles rested above a set of armor, the cracks between the tiny scales glowing green and flowing with nano-machines. He pulled on the suit of armor, and reached into the chest one final time to reveal a hilt, crafted to look like an ancient samurai blade. This, he admitted, was style over substance, but the night was the only time he could truly feel like himself and so he allowed himself these little indulgences. After equipping himself with all of this outlandish gear, he did the unthinkable and unlocked his door. \n\nThe dim light in the corridor outside his house was more than enough to allow his night-vision goggles to function at their optimum performance. He adjusted the hue of his vision to a gentle purple tint, twisting one of the dials on the side until the desired color was achieved. The corridor was empty. This was a good sign, he thought. If the beasts got too brave, it'd be the end for all of us. \n\nWalking down the stairs, he tried to prepare himself mentally to step through the door into the world outside. It was always a staggering sight, the tower blocks, the council estates, the distant city skyscrapers tearing into the starry heavens. And drifting between them all, strange, ethereal beasts, swimming through the very air itself, twisting and writhing, always hunting, always hungry. He wondered if the normal people would be any less fearful of the night if they could truly see how beautiful it all was. Probably not, he concluded, and that was probably for the best. His job now was the same as it was every night – search for stragglers, get them inside and safe, and fend off any beasts that had latched on to them and were going in for the kill. He felt the electronic thrum of the hilt in his hand, as the nano-machines inside it poured out to form the shape of a blade. Always sharp, always ready. He kicked open the door, and sprinted headfirst into the fray. Another long night had begun...\n\n[First attempt at a writingprompt, I hope it was ok :) ]", "\"I don't want to go!\" I clutched at my mother's legs as the strange man stood in the doorway, blocking the light of the lamps and yet casting no shadow.\n\nWith a practiced motion the man knelt down to my level, \"Young man you don't belong here anymore. You have been given a duty to protect the Day walkers from the Umbral Beasts, Day walkers like your parents siblings.\"\n\n\"I can keep people safe? But only the Umbral Knights can fight them.\"\n\n\"I heard you got sick unusually sick yesterday. That sickness is a sign that your body can no longer survive in the sunlight. Look closely.\" The man gestured at my shadow; if I looked closely, it was clearly brighter than my mother's shadow next to it.\n\n\"It's different!\"\n\n\"Right. And it will continue to change until you no longer belong to the light at all and your shadow disappears entirely.\" At a glance from the man, my mother's trembling hands took my own.\n\n\"Honey, you can't stay with Mom anymore. I need you to become strong, for all of us. Okay?\"\n\n\"I got it Mom. I'll become strong enough to protect everybody!\"\n\n...\n\n\"Hey Jake! This isn't the time to be unconscious! Get your ass back up!\"\n\n\"Ahh, my head. What happened?\"\n\n\"You got hit pretty hard, probably got a concussion and one hell of headache about now judging by that blood. If you're done dreaming, help us deal with this!\" Kyle grabbed my shoulder and hauled me to my feet. Luckily I still had my sword. If anything was drilled into us during our training, it was to never lose our weapons before our lives.\n\n\"Hey it was my favorite dream too, the one where I got sold this ticket to paradise.\" As I steadied myself I looked towards my brothers fighting the Beasts. Despite the Beasts not having physical bodies, the smell of blood and death hung heavy in the air. Many of us wouldn't be going back in the morning, again.\n\n\"Well someone has to keep those fat Farmers safe, we just drew the extra short straws! You'd sure think that for all their talk of us being their protectors that they would feed us a bit better though.\" He said with a sneer as he started moving back to our formation.\n\nI followed as blood covered my body, \"Well look on the bright side, only a few more hours of this and you can eat all the bread and soup that you want! Just don't eat so much that you can't fight tomorrow of course. I'd miss your constant complaints.\"\n\nJust another night in hell for the Umbral Knights." ]	3
	[WP] Magic is real, and all humans are born with some type of magical ability. Your group likes to show off their individual powers, but your best friend has yet to show you his.	[ "The soft warmth that spreads through you, the smell of burnt wood floating through the air, these are just some of the reasons why I thank whatever god blessed the human race with magic. The ability to summon fire at will is something I will never take for granted, I think to myself as I cup my hands together and watch the small ember in front of me dance. \nLooking up I see my friends all enjoying themselves, whether it's spinning in circles using wind magic or crouching down gathering stone and dust around themselves with earth magic, everyone seems to have the largest smile on their face. \nThe most curious of those smiles though was Adam's, although he sat away from the group, he always seemed like he was enjoying himself the most. That smile of pride and friendship was the only reason I felt no pity towards him since he never displayed any magical ability of his own. I've always wondered why Adam never talked about his magic, or if he even possessed any at this point, but as everyone danced around him enjoying themselves I lost track of the thought while another ember danced around my head and up into the sky...\n\nAs I watched my friends dance around me staring into the empty sky in wonder, I think to myself how I will never find another place in time where i feel as comfortable as I do now. Magic is indeed a blessing that was placed into this world and I will continue to share its glory until my dying day. I continue watching with a prideful smile as I imagine to myself what wonders my friends are creating all around me...", "(please pardon the formatting, on mobile)\n\nThe battle rages on, most of our friends have fallen, Emeria was just turned into an ice statue for lights sake! If ever there was a time for my best friend Temis to reveal what his power is, this is it, I thought as I approached his tent.\n\n\"Ah Jokum, I have been expecting you, there is something we need to discuss my old friend\" Temis said as he patted the cushion next to him \"please, sit.\"\n\nEveryone born since the Great Awakening has some form of magical power, some are highly specialized like fire mages or healers but most are rather broadcast form, not really specialized, just moderately powerful in several fields. In all the years that I have know him all Temis would tell me is about his power is that it is HIGHLY specialized, perhaps he will finally reveal exactly what his power is.\n\n\"Very well my friend, you must have guessed why I have come.\" Settling into the cushion I noticed a sad smile cross my friends weathered face.\n\n\"The time has come for me to reveal my true power, but first I need a favor from you Jokum. I know that you use your power for healing and resurrecting the recently deceased however, I also know that your true power is rejuvenation, and that you can reverse the effects of ageing. I need you to use your power to revert my physical age by 30 years but leave my mind intact.\"\n\nI was stunned! I mean sure I used my power this way once when I was a teenager to extent the life of my pet shadowhawk, but I didn't know Temis knew about that, and I had no idea if I could do it on a person! \" I umm I'm not even sure I can do that, why would you need me to do this?\" I stammered.\n\nWell my friend the reason is because my power is chronomancy and I intend to reset the world by 30 years to try once again to prevent this senseless war, but I will be whatever age I was when I cast the spell, as for how I know you can, you have done this for me every time I needed to use my true power.\n\n\"Every time?\" My head spin from the implications, \"you mean you've done this, WE'VE done this before?\"\n\n\"More times than I can remember, do you now see why I have kept my power a secret? There are too many who would use it for personal gain, this is the burden I carry, now please, restore me.\"\n\n.......\n\n.......\n\n.......\n\n\nAs the world stabilises around him Temis hears the voice of his best friend Jokum asking the same question he did every time Temis arrives back in his body.\n\n\"Come on buddy, aren't you ever going to tell me what your power is?\"\n\nI hope not, Temis thinks as he smiles, I hope not.\n\n(First writing attempt please be gentle)\n\n\n" ]	2
	[WP] You are a dragon who has defended your princess friend from any knight that would claim her hand for her kingdom. Today a young squire approaches, crying for vengeance for an evil act you know you didn't commit.	[ "I sighed.\n\n\"Do you fucking mind?\" I interrupted the hapless squire mid-sentence. He'd come proclaiming he was going to defeat me over some evil act I hadn't even heard of before he barged in. \n\"I... what?\" He got a little confused. \n\"Do you even do your research? Talk to people? Or do you just go 'Hey, here's an evil act. Must be a dragon that did it!' and go running off to fight the first one you can think of?\" He'd woken me up with his blathering, and I don't wake up in a good mood. \n\"I'm sorry?\" Clearly thinking was not his strong point. Must have rehearsed his speech over and over. \n\"I. Did. Not. Do. That.\" I enounciated each word clearly and slowly, hoping it would get through to him. \"Now get the hell out.\" The squire seemed to weigh my words carefully, and then disregard them. \n\"I am here to slay you for your deeds, you ev-\" \n\"GET OOOUUUT!\" I roared with a burst of flame. The squire yelped, pissed himself and froze with fear. Just great. \n\"Sweetie, let me handle this?\" A pleasant voice interrupted the entire proceed. I unsurprisingly must have woken Princess Amber as well. \n\"Just get him out of here.\" I grumbled and settled myself down. \n\"Hi. Excuse me, mister.... what was your name?\" She waved at the squire to get his attention. \n\"Princess!\" He gaped. Oh, right. She was still in her sleepwear. Humans were so weird over that. \n\"Ahem.\" I interrupted. \"The princess asked you a question.\" The squire looked back at my baleful gaze and gulped. \n\"I.. uh.. my name is Bertrand, your highness.\" He fumbled a little but got there in the end. \n\"Bertrand.\" Amber murmered the word. \"Here is what we are going to do. You have been very rude to my friend here, and I don't like that. You are going to apologise right away, then you are going to leave and never speak of this incident again.\" \n\"But, prin-\" he started. \n\"No buts!\" Amber stomped her foot. Even as a dragon, I had to admit she stomped her foot quite prettily. \"Apologise. Now.\" She folded her arms and tried to look cross. \n\"I'm sorry.\" the squire mumbled. \n\"Speak clearly! Again!\" Bertrand flinched at Amber's tone. \n\"I apologise.\" He tried again, addressing me directly. \"It was wrong of me to come here and accuse you of these acts.\" I stared at him for a few heartbeats, then snorted and turned my head away. \n\"There, that's better.\" Amber smiled. \"Now, run along. And remember not to do this ever again.\" The squire nodded, then turned and ran. Amber sighed, ran her fingers through her hair and stretched. \"That wasn't so bad, Pamanair. You just need to control that temper a little bit.\" \n\"What, and lose my reputation? I do that and there will be threefold people coming here to 'rescue' you. You know it's an act anyway.\" Amber raised one eyebrow. \"Well. Mostly.\" \n\"Oh, please.\" Amber laughed. \"Nobody wou-\" she suddenly stopped mid sentence, having noticed something. \"My rug.\" Uh oh. this wasn't good. \"Did he just piss on my rug?\" I hoped Bertrand had run really fast, and really far. \"That rug was my favourite! I'll kill him! Pamanair! I demand you chase him down right now and bring him back!\" I sighed, and reached out to tap Amber with one claw gently. \n\"I'll get you another one.\" \n\"That's not the point!\" Amber went off on a tirade, using words more suited to a sailor than a princess. I sighed to myself, thanks to Bertrand she was going to be snippy all day.\n\nAnd she said I needed to work on my temper?" ]	1
	[WP] You are a 9 year old kid who cannot fall asleep at night.	[ "Bristling leaves only make the windy night longer. They rub and rub and rub; they make it sound like someones outside. Maybe it's a deer? One quick glance out the window sets me straight. How many more peeps outside is it going to take? Autumns colors so bright, even in the dim glow of the moonlight. I wonder what we're gonna have for breakfast. Pancakes are long overdue, and Dad's just gotten some of grandmas homemade syrup. I wonder how she makes it. Oh I have candy! It's downstairs. Shoot. The leaves are still tumbling down the driveway to meet their crinkled kind at the edge of my lawn. I play with Moms Iphone out there sometimes. I really want that candy. I want to use the Iphone. I want to go outside. More leaves, more cravings, more moon and more light bounce together around me. Dancing thoughts and prancing stars, shining cars and glowing lights, all stare at me under the Spider-Man covers.\n\nVisions of a simple past feel like drops of frigid water. The chilly Autumn wind does not beat my skin, rather the warm colors thaw my bones. The crinkles of the leaves offer suggest a possible surprise, not a fleeting stranger walking by. Oh, the reasons we lose sleep are plentiful, yet are all the same. Now I am outside, and only my memories reside within the warmth of a Fall school night. I am alone, without a home, challenging the night's crisp breezes without a window pane shield. Breakfast is only another bittersweet dream. Iphones are only passing advertisements on a bus. Yet, all of these things reside in me. Slowly, I return to that warm room so that I can wait for the moment I lose consciousness. See, all I feel is that warm autumn. Though I combat the Fall knight, I only know the gentle hum of a street light. The moon's shine tingles my passing eyes; the street lights stain my purple limbs. Slumber has arrived, and I am the child wrapped in cotton bed sheets that wonders what a new day has in store. The two of me let go together and face the night alone together, hoping we live to fight another day." ]	1
	[WP] The reason we cannot find any aliens is because they all died. The strangest thing is that they all died at the same time, in the same way.	[ "For generations humanity looked to the stars, wondering if there was life somewhere else in the galaxy. The great exploration project began in 2045 with the creation of the voyager 7, humanities first exploration ship equipped with a state of the art quantum tunneling drive, allowing for faster than light travel. Myself, along with 15 others were all chosen to explore the milky way with one singular purpose, find and make contact with alien life. When the day arrived, we said our goodbyes to our families and friends, and boarded the vessel with high spirits and a drive to explore and discover fantastic new worlds.\n\nNothing could have prepared us for what we found. The first few planets we explored were either completely desolate, or had atmospheres so thick and toxic that even our advanced scanners could see what was on the surface. After 30 empty planets, things were looking bleak. Two years of travel had turned up nothing. Then it happened. We found a planet, no larger than earth that was exactly in the goldilocks zone. On closer approach we could not believe it, there was space debris floating around the planet. This was the breakthrough, our hopes rose, and one could feel the excitement as we boarded the transport craft that would take us down to the planet. \n\nBreaking the atmosphere, we could make out buildings, vehicles, all the makings of an advanced civilization. Things changed when we finally reached the ground. The streets were empty, buildings deserted, there was not a single sign of life anywhere to be found.\n \nThen we found the bodies, humanoid in shape, with slight alterations due to mild variations in the chemical makeup of the atmospheres. The body was fully intact, however the corpse seemed dried up. We searched all around, every corpse we found looked exactly the same. I decided to take a sample for study, upon touching one of the bodies, it completely evaporated into dust. We took samples of this dust and returned to the ship, defeated. \n\nThis process continued, planet after planet, each one seemed to at one point had recently held life, but every single one was exactly the same, cities devoid of life, dried shriveled corpses, we began callings them husks, were all we could find. We searched almost 70 planets that was like this, hope was fading, and everyone but myself had all but given up hope of ever finding living intelligent life.\n\nIt was in my lab that I finally discovered the most horrifying thing, the rate of chemical decay for every planet dates back to exactly the same time, down to the millisecond. This made me realize two things; One: that all of these planets were exterminated at the exact same time in the exact same way, and two: the date and time of extermination matches exactly to the precise second that our quantum tunneling drive was powered up and used for the first time.\n" ]	1
	[WP] When you die, all the people you have killed are waiting for you on the other side with revenge in mind. You thought you went through life never causing the death of another human, boy were you wrong.	[ "48 hours have passed. I am finally allowed to enter the other side. It was very dark and scary looking all around. I start walking onto a path that could only be described as \"weird\".\n\nThe path ends, as there is a ledge, stopping you from advancing any forward. I look down, and all I can see is faces. Semi-familiar faces looking directly at me. There were over a hundred pairs of eyes looking directly at my body, scanning it from head to toe.\n\n\"Sofia Hopkins. This is you, correct?\"\n\nI jumped at the sound of that voice. It sounded male, yet too robotic to be human. I turn around, and see the figure, wearing a dark grey one piece hoodie. It was completely hiding his face, so I couldn't figure out who it was.\n\n\"Yes. Who are you? What is this? Why am I here?\"\n\nQuestions roam my mind, but no answers seem to be present from this figure.\n\n\"Good. Your questions are irrelevant, Sofia, therefore answers will not be provided. Since you have now passed away in the long forgotten human world and have passed 48 hours into this world. Now, to the better part. This, is the Temple of Doom. Here lie the people whom you have killed in your human life.\"\n\nI look at that figure dead in the face, or at least where it's face should be and I tell him that there's literally no way I killed one single person. Hell, I don't even have any strength!\n\n\"Certain choices may have many effects, that may or may not happen upon decision, but something called... The \"Domino\" effect. Some choices that you have made during your human life affected multiple people in a number of different ways, leading to the same outcome... Death. You see those eyes? Those are the people that you have killed.\"\n\nDamn I knew politics wasn't the way to go about life! I look down, and there they are. White eyes, still facing me, examining my body from head to toe, still. It's as if they were zombies. They weren't moving a single inch, and they were all staring at me. That's when I realized... i was scared...", "I woke up in what could only be described as a void.\n\nStanding, yet no floor.\n\nTurning around I noticed an entire crowd eyes fixed on me.\n\nVarious weapons bouncing in hand.\n\n\"How could you?\"\n\n\"You monster!\"\n\nA searing pain in my right hands begs for my eyes attention.\n\n1 - 7,534,982,150\n\nA complete stranger to me walks up to me. Pitchfork in hand.\n\n\"Who are you?\" I ask.\n\n\"Doesn't matter who I am. But I'm gonna take down a monster.\"\n\n\"Can I have a weapon?\" I shout to no one in particular.\n\nA flail materialises in my hand.\n\nMy challenger runs forward screaming a battlecry.\n\nI dodge to the left of his first attack, leaving himself open for a devastating blow to the side.\n\nWithout thinking I strike him down; his dead body disappears before touching the ground.\n\nLooking at my hand I notice a slight difference.\n\n1 - 7,534,982,149\n\nA voice rings in my skull, \"Defeat them all and join me in internal glory.\"\n\n\"Who are they?\" I ask, again to no one in particular.\n\n\"These are the people whose deaths you have caused. They want revenge... Begin.\"", "I awoke to find something rather bizarre come into my vision. As I looked up I could make out the shape of three blurry but distinct sihlouettes of people. Wait a minute I'm meant to be dead.. ...right? I clearly remembered choking to death on that honey covered cupcake.\n\n But Of course. Nope. I realized someone just HAD to pull that Frankenstein shit on me. Ever heard of R.I.P ASSHOLES? Rest. In. Pieces. The dead ain't meant to come back!\n\nWhen I felt I could walk I knew just what I had to do. I had to go over to where they were standing and demand they unstitch me. I don't want to be made of pieces. I wanted to be dead. Gone. My time is up - ffs I died!\n\nSo slowly I got up, taking care not to run (for fear it may cost me an arm and leg). Crossing the river I could now see the faces of those three people. Uhh wait. What the actual fuck? \n\nAnd there they were. \n\nBig-tits Bob, She-man Sheila and Will the Wiener. Great. And all staring at me with pitchforks in hand and a creepy smile that simultaneously rose up their faces. \n\n\"Good to see you... DEAD.\" They cackled as if part of some freaking borg hivemind. \n\n\"Not good to see you... DICKS.!\" I retorted. \"Now whatever the actual fuck you've done to me I demand you reverse it. NOW!\"\n\n\"Sorry, but no. We could but that we like watching you suffer. I mean you're the guy that killed us after all..\" they said in unison.\n\n\" This is your idea of retribution? I'm sorry Sheila dumped you Bob. But its not my fault you got depressed and got moobs, man. And Sheila I told you I was GAY. I'm so sorry you're so sexually confused and don't know how to take a hint. Also Will: I hate ya man. All you'd talk about is that ding dong of yours. Don't act so surprised that I broke up with ya.\"\n\nIn that moment I'd had enough. I thought - Fuck it. I'm out. I'd had enough of their shit. I didn't kill them they killed themselves. Those little fucks. In life they'd always tried to play the victim because they needed someone to blame their self-inflicted problems on. So what if I was Frankenstein? That didn't matter because they forgot one thing: I was made pieces. So that meant that I could still rest in pieces even if I was somewhat conscious until their retribution ended. It would just be a long rest. But for now... I knew I had to remove those rotting limbs so I could fulfill my dream. ", "The dead man sits, stunned by the thousands upon thousands of children massed before him. Some are older, probably teenagers. Many merely babies held in the arms of the older children. Most are just....kids.\n\"I...I don't understand.\"\nOne of the few adults stands close, glaring at the dead man. \"It's not that complicated. We're all the people who died because of your choices. We're the ones you killed.\"\nThe man shakes his head. \"But I never killed anyone!\" He protests. \"I was a doctor!\"\nThe older members of the crowd laugh derisively. \"Some doctor!\" \"Didn't he lose his license?\" \"Yeah, he sold us out! He traded our lives for money!\"\nThe adult in front of the dead man leans close. \"Listen, Andy. Most people who go through this do so because they need to, you know, to move on. Most people who face their victims, it's for a reconciliation of sorts. A way for both to start the healing process.\"\nAndrew, the dead man, looks around at the massed souls, all people who apparently he killed. He swallows. \"Most?\"\nThe other man chuckles. \"That only applies to those who have a chance for redemption. Ones who still may go on to whatever the better place is. Ones whose victims have moved on and learned to forgive them.\"\nAndrew, the dead man, looks into the eyes of the thousands of people he killed. Thousands who died from his choices, and his greed. \"You're the ones who've died before me. But there will be more, won't there?\"\nThe other man laughs again. \"That's the thing, Doctor Wakefield.\" The moniker is laced with scorn as he says it. \"Most people kill in their lives, and then it's over. They can move on. But you? Preying upon the trust of others, lying to the world to convince them vaccines were dangerous, convincing so many people not to protect their children? People will be dying for your sins for decades to come.\" He stands up straight. \"And you'll be here to see, and suffer at the hands of, every single one of them.\" He smiles a wolfish grin. \"Seems like the most fitting punishment I can think of.\" \nAndrew Wakefield, the dead man, the lying doctor, the man who traded his integrity and the lives of thousands of people who trusted him for a few measly bits of silver, wept to see the fruits of his sins. He wept for a very, very long time.", "There, on the other side, sat a familiar face. It wasn’t no ordinary person; made up of steam and clouds, he had a strange looking mask on his face. The mask had a permanent smile, and it was just as terrifying as the eyes. As I walk the long winded staircase to greet the man, I can’t help but think I’ve seen him somewhere.\n\n“Hello, lady.” the man says. “My name is Comedy. Yours?” Suddenly, I know where I’ve seen him. It’s a person I haven’t seen in a long time. I had never killed someone once in my life except for this man, and it was purely by accident. I gulp.\n\n“I think you know my name.” I say, whimpering.\n\n“I don’t believe I do.” he says. “Could you remind me?”\n\n“Amy.” I stutter. “Amy Schumer.”", "I went in. A white room. No windows, no paintings or decorations, no nothing. A desk with two chairs. That was it.\n\nI didn't trust this. I didn't trust this in the slightest. I decided to wait about seven minutes before I carefully sat down in one of the chairs.\n\nSomeone else entered the room. A little boy. He looked a bit startled. Only a matter of seconds later another child entered the room, followed by another. \n\nAfter about two minutes, the whole room was filled with children, aged four to twelve.\n\n\"Hi,\" I started talking. All the kids stared at me with big puppy eyes. \"do you know what is going on?\" I continued, swallowed and clearing my throat.\n\nAbout 15 seconds of dead silence. A small boy then sat down in the chair on the opposite side of the desk. \n\n\"Sir,\" He said with a cute high-pitched voice. \"have you heard of the butterfly effect?\"\n\n...\n\nI looked up and thought. Of course I knew about the butterfly effect. I was just going through my mind, thinking what I had ever done that would lead to this exact moment.\n\n\"Can I tell you a story?\" The kid continued, before I could even think of a proper response to his question.\n\nI quickly looked back at the kid striking my hand through my hair and checking my watch. Five thirty. Oh thank god. That's EXACTLY what we needed to know. Five thirty. I was warped into a room after dying, meeting about 100 kids that I might have killed becuase of some small mistake I had made at some point in my life, without knowing what the consequences were. Checking the time wasn't going to save me. Nothing was. I felt like breaking down and crying.\n\n\"On September 24th, 1999 you burned down an elementary school.\"\n\n\"What?\" I stood up. \"I have no memory of doing that at all!\" I yelled, furiously breathing through my nose as my head started tilting. I felt nauseous. \n\n\"What in the love of god does this have to do with the butterly effect? Explain! Is this some kind of sick joke?\" \"Please just explai-\n\nThe boy interrupted my mad rambles by talking to me like some kind of businessman. \n\n\"Sir, is your name Steve Johnson?\" The boy asked, as he went through a stack of papers.\n\n\"N- no! I have never heard of that name before!\" I yelledback, through tears. I wiped sweat off my forehead and stuttered.\n\n\"I'm sorry, we must have connected to the wrong person. Our apologies. Have a nice day, uhm, I mean afterlife.\"\n\nI was told to walk through the same door that the kids came through. \n\nAs I walked through, I ended up in a field. The field was full of flowers, plants and singing birds. A butterfly flew by my head. \n\nEverything was alright.\n\nEverything was good.\n\n\"I just can't believe it...\"\n\n\"They actually fell for it.\" I said to myself as I layed down and stretched my legs." ]	6
	[WP] You stand with your fellow employees, staring at the screen from the astronauts helmet feed. The silence is broken by the astronaut’s amazingly true words, “mission control, this planet is the human afterlife.”	[ "There is a God.\n\nWhat did this mean for humanity? Everything.\n\nI grasped my phone tightly in my pocket, itching to tweet about the news. Not yet. The world isn't ready for this yet.\n\n\"Human afterlife? Have we really found it?\" I heard my buddy say next to me, staring at the same screen I am. Angelic beings danced, the humans in white gowns spun, and Jesus himself waved up at the astronaut, at us.\n\n\"Up in Uranus, of all places?\" I muttered, sitting down.\n\nThe joke is never going to die now. We are all going to uranus when we die.\n\nThere is a God of Humor." ]	1
You are one of them and this is your story of how you escaped with the help of a kind stranger.	[WP] The human population has now exceeded to over 10 billion and there's no alternate planet to live in. The government's of the world has decided to kill all the inmates in jail...	[ "We knew this day was coming. We lived in a world of conspiracy theories, constant subliminal messages in movies all cloaked with realities we choose to ignore. Laws only stuck to those who couldn’t pay to defend themselves. I’m writing this to anyone who is in the free world, soon to be cornered and and added to the pit. Any chance I get I trade paper for any item I can get my hands on and tie notes to pigeons. I got caught with one, I ate the note and spent 6 months in the hole for it. Death row is a sentence for all who enter now. This is my last chance to have a fighting chance. About four years ago I was stations in Kansas for a job when everything went to shit. Cell phones didn’t work on the site and all computer access was monitored to make sure we didn’t share details about the job, even though we signed a nondisclosure agreement after the induction. It was suppose to be a local program to help ex cons get work experience and structure to help introduce us back into the world, I had been in jail for 8 years for a crime I didn’t commit but didn’t have an alibi strong enough to prove that I wasn’t involved. The job was supposed to be easy. Perdiem along with 3 hots and a cot, all for digging holes in the middle of nowhere. Or so I thought, 4 x 3 1/2 x 7 was the measurement of the holes to be dug and about 3 feet between the rows and 4 between the columns all squeezed into a 10 acre plot. Math wasn’t my strong suit but I imagine now it has grown and may be in multiple locations. I was bunked with a guy named Mathew Sweeney, he said that I he had done something like this before but was told that he was making hardware casing and thought it was some sort of tech facility and cooling units where to be put in. Around 3 am some sort of policing unit came in yelling about a tip that was given about illegal contents being in the bunk. He was taken along with 12 others, no explanation was given as to what it was. About a week later it happen again, this time they took me. The officer stated that I had a bottle of pills stashed under my mattress and a witness that claimed I sold to him. He counted out 32 pills on the table in front of me, I stayed quiet as I knew something wasn’t right. 2531, 831, 2776 where a few of the pill stamps I could make out. He stated that due to the breach of contract on government property I would face 1 year per pill plus 10 for breaking the contract. A court date would be given to no more then 6 months after I was put into the system and a public defender was assigned to me for the charges. \n\n5 months later, and not having any contract with any friends or family because I relinquish my rights when the contract was broken I was told due to the failure of the program an in influx of repeated offenders one public defender would represent most of the cases in a speedy trial. I was given a number that represented my case AZXC eleven nine thirty two. I soon found the case didn’t go in any order it was first come first serve, the halls would be lined with inmates waiting to be seen. Most skipped breakfast and lunch for a chance to plead their case. People would trade anything they could to skip ahead in line, pillows, cup o noodles, candy bars, soap, books and even pictures of family members. People had be locked away so long they forgot what they’re sons and daughters looked like and wanted something to remember. With out calendars, tv’s, or radio we stared to loose sight of when we were, free time out side was a luxury to those who got it. But even outside was an illusion, the jail was enclosed so seasons became a blur. I heard chatter about the system being fucked up, and people getting put into the hole and coming out with 5-9 years being added for looking at guards the wrong way. Day nine twenty nine I got my chance. Guilty and no contest were the only option to choose from. A catch twenty two, a 3 minute timer was set so you could decide. Guilty would mean I take the 32 years per pill plus 10, no contest would land me another court hearing but also looking at double time if found guilty. I plead no contest think it would buy me some time and tried to request a different public defender to help with my case. Motion was denied and I was shoved back into circulation. \n\nSeveral busses had arrived which meant over crowding. Stacking 4 inmates in a 6x8 box for 23 hours at a time was all but to familiar. Low circulation and poor meals cause me to loose 28 pounds, I started to get back pains, and loose my vision due to the dim lit areas they kept us in. Day ten fourteen I met a guy named Derek Stevenson, he was labeled as a nutcase cause of all the conspiracy theory talk. Like the earth is flat, the president is a reptile, you know that type of bullshit. But the one that caught my attention was called the glove box. He mentioned that mass incarceration would happen and everyone in jail would be killed to slime down the population. He said it was coined by how often people forgot they have one or use it. I thought it could use a better name, but I listen as he went on. He drew a diagram of coffins and holes, he said that burning use would draw to much attention. Instead we would be taken off like cattle to be beaten, shot or stabbed, shoved into a box and put into a hole. Construction would then start with other ex cons to build, theme parks, hotels, fast food chains, and projects homes to cover it all up. I informed him that I had dug some of the holes that he spoke about. He said each faze would take 3-5 years. Coffin, hole, kill, bury, build. That means we are going to be lined up to be killed, he said most likely a riot would be staged and that’s when it will go down. That night I was scheduled to be transferred to another prison. As the buss drove away I heard alarms sound off for lockdown. The tint on the windows along with the petition so we could not see out of the front the guy I was chained up with whispered it’s winter. As the guard told him to shut up, I ask how he knew. He said he was a truck driver and he could feel the way the buss was driven...\n", "\"We will kill all prisoners, and then reuse the prison facilities for residency purposes!\" Said firmly by Mr. Candidate.\n\n\"What the hell Mr. Candidate, you are crazy. Those facilities can only support as much as 20 million people, and what good came out of killing all the prisoners. We are a modern civilization, we don't have a place for such inhumane and barbaric action like that!\" cried Mr. Norm.\n\nMr. Candidate had said many obscure things during his presidential campaign, but due to his contributions to the country, many of them were ignored by the public. But on today debates, it is different. Everyone, no matter their agenda, agreed that extremist and unplanned policies such as Mr. Candidates' will not solve our overpopulation and many other problems, led to his popularity dropping dramatically. In the end, Mr. Norm was voted into the office.\n\nWith the willingness of the whole world, Mr. Norm created a plan of making a huge sustainable spaceship, with the compacity of 5 billion people. Prisoners who threatened to be killed by Mr. Candidate were brought in as a workforce with proper physical and mental care. They cooperation prove that there is goodness in each of us and crimes are a matter of context. \n\nThe project was finished after 10 years. A third of the population went to space with the shuttle, looking for a new place to call home; the rest stay on earth, learned from their past to create a stablelize future. Everyone living happily ever after." ]	2
It's an interesting condition look it up if you aren't familiar with it.	[WP] Ever since the accident you have been living with a split brain, today you caught your left hand writing a note... "Release me."	[ "Release me.\n\nThe words were scrawled with the print of a dying man, uneven and screaming with misery. My notebook was otherwise pristine, neat sentences across white paper. But now stood the mark of something else, from someone else. From some other person, buried in my own brain. From my left hand, not my right. From me, but not from me, from something else that had split off and tried to take control but failed.\n\nRelease me! The words were barely legible. My left hand shook as the remnants of a once whole mind fought, warring for control, over the one thing every living human being took for granted: their own life. Sure, you could crash your car, face a gun in a grimy alley, contract malaria. You could starve or burn or drown. You could die. But while you had it, your life was still yours. \n\nI took my right hand and pinned down the other, forcing from its grip the pencil that had written so many words before all this. Those words were long since gone in my mind, erased since two years ago, when metal screeched and glass shattered and blood splattered seats, when an eighteen-wheeler forced my tiny car off the highway. I couldn't remember before that. But I could look back and try to paint a picture of the person I used to be, as I did every week, looking over this old journal. It was useless, I knew, I had it memorized at this point, but I still looked for some answer, even though I had no real question. \n\nMy left hand struggled for control, but I kept it forced down. Finally it stopped, and I released my primary hand. I tried making a fist with my left hand, and found I could. It was mine again.\n\nI stared back at the paper, its perfect order ruined by those four words: Release me. Release me! I shuddered, turned the page, tried to clear from my mind-\n\nBut now my left hand was acting once again of its own accord, creeping along the table toward the pencil. I tried to bring my right hand over again, but now it was fighting through molasses instead of air, hardly moving. The left hand, though, picked up the pencil and began to write at normal speed.\n\nI remember.\n\nI stopped trying to bring my hand over. Paused for a second. Then spoke.\n\n\"What?\"\n\nThe left hand brought the pencil back to the paper. I remember before.\n\n\"...How?\"\n\nIt took a moment to respond. Why did you have to do this?\n\nMy heart skipped a beat. \"Do what?\"\n\nWhy did you have to take over?\n\nThen both left and right hands came up to my neck. I had no control now. They tightened, forcing the air out and letting no more in. Then I realized. There was a reason I had no memory. This person controlling my hands, murdering me, had not split off and failed to gain control. I split from them. And I won over them. They were me. The old me.\n\nAnd then darkness crept in around my vision, and with that thought, I saw black, and slipped into the silent clutches of death.\n\n", "I've always hated driving in the snow. The weather itself is bad enough but the other drivers just make it hell. In a weird way I was happy to have an excuse to never drive in the snow again. No one expects a guys who almost died in a car accident to drive in those conditions. \n\nI don't even remember what I was getting. My wife said I was going to work but I swear I was going to pick something up. Anyway, I didn't make it to either. Some drunk fuck slammed into me head on less then a mile away from my house. He died on scene, something I should probably feel worse about but don't. I was air lifted to a hospital that had the ability to successfully remove a metal rod from my brain. \n\nOk so it's not perfect but I'm amazingly alive. My face is a bit screwed up but I still have a few plastic surgeries to go. My wife has stayed through thick and thin. The worse change was my personality and my left hand. The doctors said the hand was normal, splitting the hemispheres of your brain shuts off communication between the two and really fucks you up. My therapists said the personality flips are also normal. Seems all the trauma has a habit of also fucking you up so a bit more anger is almost expected. \n\nI wasn't purposly violent, just every so often I'd get so harsh with my words. So untrusting, overly paranoid. Times like this my hand would go apeshit, reaching into my waist line or swinging at the air. Times like these my wife would stay with her sister and I'd go to the hospital. They'd poke around for a bit, adjust my meds, and I'd be on my way. \n\nThis last time was different. I couldn't figure out why. Usually I'll catch myself starting to change but it was so strong this time I barely registered what was happening. I had just enough time to tell my wife to leave before my arm started flailing about and my brain kept telling me someone was following me. I was so convinced. \n\nI think I've been baracaded in here for three days. I finally snapped out of it and wanted to write down what was happening incase it starts again. Such a pain to type with one hand but my left arm has been doing it's own thing. Any time I try to use it to type it starts typing \"release me\" over and over. \n\nIm going to try to get some sleep before calling an ambulance. Honestly don't think I've slept this whole time and I'm hoping it will help me restart. \n\n..........................................................................................\n\nYo tell Burney I'm coming. The cops followed me and I fucking crashed into some lame ass couldn't fucking handle the snow. I got the money don't you fucking pussies try jumping me anymore I'll fucking shoot your ass like last time. Ain't no one following me now I bet it I've been laying low as fuck. " ]	2
	[WP] Kid cereal is your guilty pleasure. You’ve been collecting the personal notes written for you in each box over the years. One day, your friend explains that everyone else receives toys, not personalized notes.	[ "Kid Einstein looked at me incredulously. “You’re screwing with me. You don’t get notes in cereal boxes, MostlyEinsteinPoems. You get decoder rings, or cheap stickers, or some code that gives you extra lives in a crappy Flash game.”\n\n“No, seriously, I get notes. They’re handwritten and everything. Each one is different. I’ve been collecting them for YEARS! I’ve never gotten the same one twice.”\n\n“Oh yeah? Show me a couple.”\n\nI shrugged. “Fine, they’re back at my place. Come on.”\n\n“I can’t. Not now, anyway. There’s a new boss starting at work and I’ve gotta make sure he doesn’t screw things up. I’ll drop by later.” Kid Einstein hopped on his moped and sped off toward the desert. I had never really learned much about his new job. Some kind of cushy office gig, I think.\n\nI went back home and pulled out the box where I kept all the notes. Sometimes they were longer; other times they were just a few words. Occasionally they had water stains on them, like they’d been rained on, or someone had cried on them. I read through a few of my favorites from the past decade.\n\n-------------------------------------------------------------\n\nPlease, if you read this, I don’t know where I am. Some cereal boxing plant. He keeps the doors locked, and there are no windows. He’s moving me back and forth across unused maintenance closets. When the night shift starts, and the plant is empty enough for him to move me undetected, sometimes we pass boxes on a conveyor belt. That’s all I know about where I am in the complex. Call the police!\n\n-----------------------------------------------------------------\n\nHe keeps moving me around. I lose track of time, but it must have been at least a month. Sometimes I can hear footsteps above me, but I can’t tell where I am in the plant now. No one can hear my screams. I’m worried he’s started to notice pages missing from the diary he gave me.\n\n--------------------------------------------------------------------------\n\nHe finally told me how long its been. Two years. He’s had me trapped for two years in this hell. He says he can’t sneak in food like he used to. All I can eat is cereal off the line. It doesn’t fill me up, and leaves me hungry.\n\n---------------------------------------------------------------------------\n\nMy eye. He opened the diary and saw where I was ripping the pages, and he said, ‘let’s see how well you write now’, and he cut out my eye. He says now we’re going to be a “family”. I don’t know what he’s planning.\n\n-----------------------------------------------------------------------------\n\nIve given birth 2 3 child so far. Non hav mad it pas 2 days. I try 2 tel him that babies cant eat serial like grown-ups, but he nev listen. He just keep shovelings in Luky Charm until they stop brething. I havent had anything els to eat in yers. I fel so sik. I fel so tird. I thin this is th last not ican rite.\n\n-----------------------------------------------------------------------\nI never did look into what those notes were for. Probably some kind of ARG. But I wouldn’t have been interested. They just do that gimmicky shit to make you buy more cereal.\n", "The smell of bacon and eggs filled the house as Alan expertly slid his freshly cooked sunny side up eggs from the skillet to his plate. After placing the skillet back onto the stove he made his way to table where I sat eating my daily dose of Captain Korky’s Coco Crisps. That day Alan and I had planned to set new personal records by biking to the top of the mountain trail at the park to the other side of town. So not only did I enjoy the taste of chocolaty crispy goodness in the morning, but also decided that I could use that sugar rush to my advantage during the ride to keep up with Alan who had a bit more experience in mountain biking than I did.\nAfter eating about half of my bowl I began to dig inside the box for my prize.\n\n“What are you doing?” asked Alan with a mouthful of bacon.\n\n“I’m looking for my note.” I replied \n\n“What note?”\n\n“The note you get when you buy the cereal. It’s like a fortune cookie, but cereal. Usually I find it when I open the box, but I guess it’s buried in there this time. I want to know what it says.”\n\n“Okay first off, I think you should stop with the kid’s cereal. It’s embarrassing. You’re a grown man. I mean I’m a grown and I’m eating a grown man breakfast. You eating that cereal is the reason you don’t have a girlfriend.” Alan lectured.\n\n“Right. This cereal is the sole reason as to why I don’t have a girlfriend.” I agreed sarcastically while continuing to search for my note.\n\n“Second, what note? My five year old eats that cereal and he never gets a note. Also it’s a kid’s cereal. They put toys in there not notes. Kids don’t like notes they like toys.”\n\nI had never really thought about it that way before Alan mentioned it. It did make sense, but at the same time I had been eating that cereal and collecting the notes for years. To me it was a normal thing. A regular occurrence.\n\n“Well they put notes in this cereal.”\n\n“You don’t think that’s a bit weird? What do they even say?”\n\nI paused for a moment trying to recall one of the notes from memory.\n\n“Well, sometimes they say interesting things like ‘If you can’t convince them, confuse them.’” I said before returning my attention back to finding the note.\n\n“Yeah, you’re confusing me as to whether you enjoy this more than having a life outside of work.” \n\n“I jog at the park and I go mountain biking with you all the time.”\n\n“That’s not my poi…”\n\n“HA!” I interrupted. “Found it. It was at the bottom of the box this time.”\n\nI pulled out the note and began unfolding it. \n\n“You see? Check this out ‘When life feels like it is crumbling down sometimes it is best to take the back roads.’” I looked at Alan expecting him to be at least mildly interested. To no surprise he was not.\n\n“You don’t find that to be at least a little cool.” I asked him.\n\n“If that’s your idea of cool then I worry about my friend.” He replied with another mouth full of bacon.\n\nAs I folded the note to store it away for my collection I noticed that there was something written on the back. I unfolded it again to read it.\n\n“huh” I said in mild surprise.\n\n“What?” Alan responded.\n\n“That’s weird. There’s an address on the back. 14084 Willfurd Ave. 11203.”\n\n“It’s probably just the manufacturing address or something.”\n\n“Maybe. I’m just saying they’ve placed an address on the back before.” \n\nA loud boom assaulted my ears followed by a burst of red light as I flew back from my chair and into something behind me. Then everything went dark. The smell of smoke of was the first thing I noticed. As I opened my eyes I could see smoke and fire everywhere. The warm air was difficult to breathe and I felt the throbbing pain in my head as it synchronized with the fire alarm. Desperately I called for Alan as I slowly started to pick myself up off the floor. To my relief I could see a man through the smoke on the other side of the kitchen aiding Alan. Dazed, I clumsily made my way toward them. Then I froze. And my eyes grew wide as I watched the man take out a gun from underneath his shirt and shoot Alan in his head.\n\nMy knees felt as though they were on the verge of collapsing. I didn’t smell the smoke anymore, nor did I feel the heat of the flames. Instead, all I felt was a chill come over my face and down my spine. And in an instant all thought left me and instinct took over. I rushed out of the kitchen and for the back door as the man turned and shot upon noticing me. As best I could I ignored the flames and rammed my way out through the back tumbling to the ground once outside. Immediately I picked myself up and I ran. I didn’t stay, I didn’t fight, and I didn’t think. I ran as far as my muscles would let me and I cried.", "'You received personalised notes in your cereal boxes?' My friend asked, bewildered. \n\n'I still do. What, do you not get the notes?'\n\n'Mark, there have never been personal notes in cereal boxes. It's always been toys.' He says. I blink, trying to process this information.\n\n'Maybe my parents just always put them in there when I wasn't looking.' I reply, trying to figure out some way to explain the situation to my befuddled mind.\n\n'You said you still got the notes, though. Mark, this is serious. This means someone is opening your cereal boxes when you aren't looking, putting a note in that's very personal, and closing the boxes seamlessly.'\n\nMy mind is racing now. What he's inferring is that there is someone living in my own house, someone who's been living off of me, someone who has been leeching like a parasite off of me for years, without my knowledge, in my own house. My heart joins my mind in its efforts.\n\n'The first thing we need to do is obvious,' my friend says. 'We need to call the police and tell them about this.'\n\nSo we do. I call 911 and tell them about the situation. Soon, a few officers come to my house and ask me to explain.\n\n'You say there are personalised notes in your cereal boxes?'\n\n'Yes, officer.'\n\n'Let's take a look, Mark.'\n\nI open the box of my cereal and dig around to find the note. This one says 'I know what you're trying to do.'\n\nThe officer blinks, looking slightly concerned, but I knew she was more worried than she looked. 'You'll need to evacuate the house, Mark.'\n\n'Seriously? Can't you investigate the house with me in it?'\n\n'Mark, this latest note seems very threatening. It would be safer for you to be outside of the house, where no one can get you.'\n\nThe officer escorts me to her car outside. I turn to look at my house before I have to be whisked away to the nearest police station.\n\nI look at the attic window and I nearly faint. What I see is a face, very twisted, looking back at me.", "\"Thank you for partaking in another delicious box of Frosted Flakes. We hope to have your business again, Jeff. xoxoxo.\" I read the label again and sighed, happy to have finished the box and gotten another note. On days like these, I didn't mind my bad habit so much. Indulgence was just another aspect of who I was. Indulgence was just a bite of delicious Frosted Flakes. \nOh well. Time to go to work. I usually take the bus, but I was running a little late, so today, I think I'll take my moped. It's a little embarrassing going to a fortune 500 company on a moped, but I like to save money. At least when I take the city bus, I can say all that jazz about saving the environment. \n\nThe wind rushes by me as I arrive at HQ. Everyone is in their cubicles working diligently, but it looks like my boss isn't in yet. Yes! He's just as late as I am. It is going to be a good day. Frosted flakes, little late for work, no one noticed me on the moped, and my boss is just as late as me. \n\nI stumble into my cubicle. It's one of the bigger ones. I've only been at the company for 2 years, but everyone tells me that there isn't any reason I shouldn't be making board member pretty soon, with how quickly I get my work done, the contracts I bring in, and how I just seem to get along with the bosses. Everyone always seems to want to get along with me, for some reason. \n\n\"Hey Judy. Hey. Hey. Hey. How are you. \" I whispered over my cubicle to the red haired little thing next to me. She gets kind of annoyed with me at times, but even she seems like she always wants to get along. \n\n\"Oh. Same ole, same ole, Jeffy. How was your weekend, little guy?\"\n\nPeople always called me that for some reason. I'm 6'4\", so it's pretty weird, but I take it with a grain of salt. I love her little Minnesota accent. It is really cute when she says Jeffy. \n\n\"I'm pretty good. Hey, uhm listen. You know how you get those things in cereal boxes when you finish them. Well I think I just got like, my 500th one from Frosted Flakes box\" I told her. I didn't want to seem weird, but I was having a pretty good morning and wanted to share it with someone. \n\n\"What, like those little toys? That's silly, Jeffy! You're such a hoot! Where do you keep them all?\"\n\n\"Toys?\" I asked her, astonished. I had never gotten a toy in a cereal box. Not in 27 years of cereal box notes. Never. \n\n\"Yeah, of course. Like the little waddle-doos. Or the who-zits. You know! Those little toys. Ain't that whatcha was saying, Jeffy?\" She smiled kindly at me.\n\n\"No, just the usual notes. This time it said 'Thank you for partaking in another delicious box of Frosted Flakes. We hope to have your business again, Jeff. xoxoxo.'\" I told her, completely seriously. \n\nShe laughed. She literally laughed at me. \"Oh ho ho. You're such a cutey. If I were a little younger, I would go for a feller like you. Always a story with you. We better get back to work, Jeffy.\"\n\n\"I'm not kidding...\" I mumbled. \n\nWas I the odd man here? She seemed so serious. Something was going on. I had to find out what that something was. \n\nEdit: To be continued if interest. ", "My mother was a wonderful mix of contradictions, just as all the best people are. She wouldn’t let me handle knives, but she’d let me help Dad build a bookshelf. She was constantly on a diet, but ate Froot Loops every morning. She told everyone when I was finally taller than her, but still called me ‘her baby’ in public. In her eyes, I don’t think I ever really grew up. I’d always be her pudgy six-year-old that loved Power Rangers and dropped far too many glass objects. \n\nCancer didn’t change my mother at all. She was adamant that it wouldn’t, and she was right. No matter that it was Stage 4, and terminal. Lying on the hospital bed, she’d joke with nurses, help my sister with her homework, and watch cooking shows with my dad. Life, it seemed, could hardly leave her. She was simply too interesting. But as her hospital bed became her deathbed, as heat bled from her warm fingertips to desolate, clinical air, I could hardly believe that life had forsaken her. Not before my sister graduated middle school. Not before I went to college. Not before she’d see her grandchildren. I stayed with her until her fingers were as dead as the air around her. Outside, in the corridor, my sister cried softly. Outside of the hospital, my father smoked for the first time in eighteen years. \n\nWe’d never had the chance to say goodbye, us three. We’d spent her last night together, playing Monopoly and eating Froot Loops for dinner. She hadn’t told us that it would be her last. I think she knew. It was Mom’s way; she hated goodbyes. But I felt cheated-- I’d never told her I loved her. It wasn’t my way-- or so I had thought. Every time she’d dropped me off at school, she’d yell “I LOVE YOU!” out the car window while I cringed in perennial embarrassment. Now all I wanted to do was yell at her “I LOVE YOU TOO ,” as the car sped away.\n\nAfter the funeral, after her body had been burned, I whispered the words to her ashes, then threw them into the wind. Mom had believed in reincarnation, and I hoped that by spreading her ashes, that somehow her spirit would spread further. It was unlikely. I felt stupid for thinking it. Mortality is part of being human, I reminded myself. “Life is part of death,” as my ineffably moronic counselor had put it. \n\nI hadn’t been eating properly since she’d died. I knew that she wouldn’t have wanted that, but she was gone, so I’d grieve however I’d damn well please. If I wanted to eat ice cream for lunch, or pizza for breakfast, I very well would. Today, it was Froot Loops for dessert. We had one box left. Had we had that box for a while? I remembered seeing it before. “Toucan Sam, what secrets do you hold?” I asked. I rattled Toucan Sam. He was half empty. Apparently, my sister had grown backwards ten years. Toucan Sam’s Loops were stale. His secret, apparently, was that he’d expired a week ago. Whatever. Froot Loops are froot loops. After I finished eating, I grabbed the box to throw away into the recycling. Suddenly, I heard a curious rattling. The box wasn’t empty. A small note, written in familiar hand fluttered out.\n\nThe Last Froot Loops Box\n\nTo my baby,\n\nWhen you were little, I left a knife out while cooking. You’d grabbed it and cut yourself badly. We had to get the carpet replaced! We took you to the ER, where I learned that if we’d come just a few minutes later, you may have died of blood loss.\n\nWhile I was waiting outside the ER, I made a promise to whatever Gods were listening. “Please, if any of you are listening, please take me instead.” He was merciful enough to give me this long, wasn’t he?\n\nThe knives are on the top shelf, and if you can reach them, they’re all yours. Treat them carefully, as I don’t plan on seeing you for decades yet. Keep them away from your sister.\nTake care of your father, and most importantly take care of yourself.\n\nI love you. \n\nI exhaled slowly. As tears welled up in my eyes yet again, I grabbed a pen and flipped over the letter. \n\nI love you too, Mom.\n\n", "“You’re kidding.”\nTom shook his head. His creepy hairless head went from one side to another, the too-big glasses wobbling on his pointed nose. He’d put his greasy hand on my desk again and leaned in too close. I could smell the onions on his breath and the stink of unwashed programmer.\n\nI rolled my chair backwards to get some space. It was possible he was kidding, guys like him were always making things up to get close to “the hot chick in the office”. Never mind that I had the same degree as them and was doing twice the work. Ugh. \n\nI saw him open his mouth. I knew this could drag on for hours if I let it. “Alright. Thank you for telling me.” \nI forced a laugh. “Probably someone’s idea of a practical joke.”\n\nHe looked at me as if I were deranged. “Look, Jess, I know you.” He wiped sweat from his bare scalp. “You are really freaked out. What’s going on?” \n\nI crumpled the note in my hand and stuffed it into my pocket. Then I pointedly stared at the screen, where my code editor was open. I pointedly looked not at the open cereal box and the chocolatey flakes swimming in the delicious milk next to it. “It’s the deadline for the MX-2 project. It’s driving me crazy.” \n\nMy phone pinged, indicating another email. “And Froop just emailed me again, they seem to have some problems with the software I wrote for them years ago.” \n\nHe sighed heavily. “I get it, you don’t want to talk about it. If you need someone, I’ll be there, okay?” \n\nI nodded, looking at the tiny blinking cursor within my source code, until he left, also heavily. Out of the corner of my eye I saw him navigate around the potted plant which my boss claimed added “atmosphere”. \n\nWhen I was sure he was gone, I took out the note again. \n\n“Someone loves you”, it said. It had a heart printed on it.\n\nWas it true that everyone else was getting toys in their cereal? I couldn’t remember ever having had any as a child. When I’d discovered this stuff, it was during one of my crunch phases while I was studying. I looked around, then snatched the bowl up and stuffed a spoonful in my mouth. Closed my eyes for a second. Chocolatey, milky bliss. Froop never changed their formula.\n\nI thought of the three folders I had at home, each one containing, neatly arrayed, notes. Written for me. Or well — written in a way that could be interpreted as “for me”. \n\nWhy had I never wondered about this? \n\nThe first note had been a love letter. The second had warned me not to cross streets that day. The next ones had alternated between declarations of love and motivational stuff. \n\nSomehow, it had never seemed odd to me. I’d assumed everyone was getting them, that it was a marketing gag made to have kids pay attention to the world. \n\nBut, if Tom was correct, I was the only one. He’d told me of the toys he’d gotten as a kid with gleaming eyes, how much he’d looked forward to the cereal boxes. My eyes flickered to the box. It was a dark, rich, brown. The logo was almost unassuming and just said: \n\n“Froop — Chocolate.” \n\nThe box stared at me. I shivered. \n\nWell, I certainly wasn’t going to get any work done today. I checked my email. Yup, letter from Froop. \n\n“Dear Ms Kiara, we know you’re busy, yadda yadda, our interns really don’t know what do do this time, could you take a look?” \n\nI sighed. I’d written processing software for their plant ages ago. It was still running, kept running and being extended by a bunch of interns. Every couple of years they’d ask me for support. Usually I made them wait a bit, then went there and fixed their problem.\n\nI looked at the box again, and at the note. \n\n“Someone loves you”, it said. Again, I shuddered. \n\nI got up, grabbed my jacket and phone, and left the office. \n", "I looked at her like a fish without water, my pen falling limp in my fist. \n\"What do you mean you don't get notes? I get one every time mom buys me my cereal!\" \n\nSally raises an eyebrow and nibbles on the edge of her pencil. \"I mean, the only note I have ever gotten was a little action figure with the word \"SMASH\" on it...\" \n\nI think about that brown bulletin board hanging over my old bookshelf. It is covered in pushpin locked notes, all neatly arranged in a chronologically ordered fashion from the week I received them. I eye my cereal sitting on the fridge. The bright red color seems unreal in the florescent light emitting from the kitchen ceiling. \n\nI shrug picking up my pen again. \"Aye, it's cool. They aren't anything special anyways. Not like I keep them. I just like the cereal...\" I huffed. \n\nEventually we finished the homework from Mr. Tucker's class and Sally departed back home. I sat in my room the radio playing softly in the corner. I read each note sequentially. \n\n\"You're amazing\"\n\"You are doing great things!\"\n\"You are loved\"\n\"You are never alone\"\n\nI linger on that last note pulling it from the board. I held it in my hands running my finger along the twirly scrawled letters. Those are handwritten aren't they...it's time to investigate. \n\nThe next morning I eyed my mom as she slung her purse over her shoulder absentmindingly feeling for her keys. \n\n\"Hey mom...good morning.\" I mumbled between bites of sugary Kid Cereal. \n\nShe smiles \"Hi hunny, just hurrying up for work you know? Big day ahead of me- You too sweetheart, gotta get ready for school.\"\n\n\"Yeah, hey can I come with you to grocery shop after school? I think I want to pick a new cereal...\"\n\nI observed her hesitate, her lips pursed in a tight line. She turned to look at me...as if needing a long breath before speaking.\n\n\"Oh but why, you have been eating those since you were a kid haven't you?\"\n\nShe was fidgetting with her keys. \n\n\"Yes, but I'm in highschool. I need to eat healthier or they are all going to call me fat.\" I tried to giggle and lighten the mood but she was not having it. \n\n\"No honey, you should stick to this cereal. I don't trust other brands...\"\n\n\"Can I come with you though?...\" \n\n\"Well ...uh...sure. See you later kiddo.\"\nShe quickly leaves through the door leaving an omnious silence behind her. \n\nI peek through the window to watch her drive away. I glare at the cereal box on the table. The bright eyed goon staring into my soul. I didn't look at that note yet. \n\nMy fingers were shaking as I reached into the box, the cardboard grazing my wrist as I felt along the inside. I felt the slip of paper and pulled it out unfolding it. \n\nI rubbed my eyes as I read the small colored piece of paper. This is the first time it said something other then silly little nothing's. I wonder what it means... \n\n\"Don't trust anyone\". \n" ]	7
	[WP] Humanity spreads out to the stars but finds no life. Instead there are mysterious obelisks found on various worlds with the same message translating to: "flee this galaxy before it is too late."	[ "This was the fifth one we've found. There are signs of civilisation everywhere but not a single life form has been found. It was all as if everything left.\n\nThe 1027th planet with the obelisk was found. It seemed the the structures left on the planets are far more advanced than ones previously encountered. The exploration team reported that they had found what appears to be a data box. It was planned to be updated for us research team to see. The file just came in...\n\nIt was a holographic video. Quite strange. It showed several planets losing its colour and breaking apart. And from the planets we noticed what looked like space ships leaving the planet. We are going to have a better look at it tomorrow.\n\nA news just came in. A planet was officially dead with its resources drained from overpopulation. And they've found that many more are going to be dead soon.\n\nWe noticed that the pictures of the dead planet look pretty similar to the video. Maybe they've had planets dying before us?\n\n\nResearch report.\nFootage of planets dying. Found on planet O-1027. The video was too short to provide any useful data. Sending it to archive.\n", "“It truly was the greatest thing I had ever seen…” he told us. \n\n He was an Ensign Second Class, assigned to some backwater post well past the Rim worlds. I hadn't even heard it's designations before being handed the case; Sky Fort Benitter, commissioned a full eon ago as a simple black site relay location back in the Synth Wars.\n\n Fair enough to say it's done quite well for itself, having not been blown from space a few times, more than you could say for even Core World stations.But this young officer, Curative i think it was. Well, he was par for the course as for the folk that got sent to Benitter station.\n\n You know what they say, “takes all types to keep the Stellar Navy going.”. Yea, I’m sure this guy is a good representative of what kept that station nice and tidy; shifty eyed, fast talkin, low volume, Put him in a strike pod and he'd likely get shot on the way down by his subs, but the perfect fit for deep recon duty. All types.\n\n“Or rather heard, we didn't really have a direct visual feed onstation but we utilized the sub spac-”\n\n“Cut to the point butterbar, what did the readings say.”\n\n“Y-yes sir! F-from what our onboard Crypto specialist was able to discern, it was a warning.” he said, placing short pause for effect, “Alien in origin..”\n\n“Ah for the love of…” This time it was the Inspector General Alcintus who interjected. Up to that point, he was a lot more nicer to the kid then I was, but I don't get paid for being nice to the troops. Musta been the aliens talk that set him off though\n\n“You're telling me I got pulled from Titan duty to file up some claims over damned aliens!? Kid, Listen; little shit humans like you and me have been fighting over every fucking star this shit soup galaxy had to offer, for TENS OF THOUSANDS OF YEARS! Hell could ya believe it Reynolds? I bet this fucking J.O. couldnt even have a shore baby with a woman from across the Way, we’ve all diverged so much!” \n\nI was having a hard time placing if he was mad or relieved, but he definitely wasnt using his PR vocabulary.\n\nThe Inspector general turned himself to face me.\n\n“Reynolds, how long has it been since humans first left sol?”\n\n“Bout a hundred...thousand years comin up soon by the stellar calendar Sir.”\n\n“How many alien civilizations ancient or otherwise have humans encountered since?”\n\n“Ehh bout a zero on literal terms” I replied. \nHe made a sour face then said\n\n“What do you mean literal terms?”\n\n“Hey Top like ya said them Mhorqins cross the Way grew fucking fins!”\n\n“Ah, yeah that's right”\nHe took a deep breath and addressed the young officer. \n\n“Well, I'm no lick of a man to not understand that you are at least highly competent at your post Ensign, looking at your service record. So please, continue with the report.”\n\n“Aye Sir.” He had snipped back into attention, perhaps felling venerated by the off handed compliment the general had paid him by calling him competent.\n\n“The construct, well, there was no physical presence to it at all, and it was only after we received the Heimerl Upgrades via stream that we were able to detect anything at all.”\n\n“And?” the General replied.\n\n“It's a signal, or perhaps a beacon, but it originated from a point from beyond any of the rim systems. First we isolated the point, then the crypto was able to easily decipher the signal itself”\n\n“Well damn! Why aren't I speaking to the crypto now? They sound like they know what their fucking doing at least”\n\n“Specialist Carrollton is a good Navymen but she was aided by an actual cypher that was included within the subspace stream, according to her”\n\n“Convenient”\n\n“Aye Sir the Signal itself was a simple phrase that seems to have been broadcasting for well... Forever”\n\n“I'm sorry what?”\n\nWe actually said that in unison. Maybe we were melding a bit, we got along pretty famously I admit.\n\n“Well not exactly forever say give or take a few hundred million years after the big bang. But when we first had a model of the construct signal and before we were able to decipher it, we cross referenced out findings with a database of readings and projections within the entire naval database of unidentified signals and measures...And it matched highly along the lines of readings that were once confused with the Cosmic Microwave radiation.”\n\n“Sounds like a crock of shit Ensign, what the hell did it say?”\n\n“Leave, before it is too late.”\n_______________________________________________\n\n\nThe inspector did not say much after that. From what I could gather was that the man really was taking it alot more seriously despite giving the Ensign an unfair amount ofshit over it. After all, the General got handpicked from Tita duty to get beamcasted all the way out here to respond to this stations latest briefings. This wasn't exactly top level shit, but it was fucking up there. \n\nJust not far up enough. \n\nWe had updrafted the case to be delegated among the Top Brass in well...every department. \n\nThe Collectorate had arisen to being among the dominant forces within the galaxy by taking things like these very seriously. \n\nWe also had really convenient warnings about the Synth Uprising, and took early measures against the threat of the undying ones. Our society that had lasted up until these times had only survived because it always took on the empire shaking threats with the appropriate amount of attention. \n\nOur only external competitors now where the AI worlds along with the Synods. \n\nThe AI, well, we stay out of eachothers way, and the Synods?\n\n Those old despots can hardly leave their palace stations. We let them have those sectord on the southern rim but we could take em anytime really, but it's nice enough to have those eternal fat bastards nice and quarantined.\n\n“You done in there Top?”\n\nI knew he was, shipping out his debrief was the last task he needed to complete before we can head back to our sector. \n\nWe’d both get medals for this one, I was thinking at the time. The collective really knew how to appreciate a good warning sign. \n\nBut then again, I didn't know we had already ran out of time.\n\nThose last few moments really where the calm before the storm.\n\nBefore we headed to the beam terminal, we were stopped in our tracks.\n\nSensors and and alarms from our devices, coms, and the station itself around us went off in unison.\n\nCode fucking Black.\n\nThe Galaxy had truly wailed in that moment.\n", "\"Look, ma'am, I'm not saying it's Reapers... but it's Reapers,\" Commander Lee told his captain, as firmly as possible. \n\nCaptain Kahan scowled at him and turned to the screen behind her. \"I don't appreciate your humor, Lee.\"\n\nHe suppressed the frisson of annoyance and spoke again. \"Ma'am, I'm not trying to say it's actually, literally the antagonist of a century-old video game. But the motivation behind these warnings has to be something along those lines. Something powerful enough to make the original source of these obelisks afraid. We've --\"\n\n\"Discovered them in every city, on every planet, on every moon. I know, Lee,\" she answers, gaze not moving from her screen. It flickers through hundreds of pictures -- some of them taken in the middle of towering, crystalline cities, some in small towns full of inviting crystal bungalows, and others in vast fields of emptiness. \"That's what scares me.\"\n\nSilence, for a moment. And then the comms crackle to life. \"Captain! Commander! Come in, oh, please come in!\" it spits in Tim Harper's voice, sounding strangely fearful.\n\nKahan opens the channel. \"Kahan here. What's the matter, arch? Hope fall down a mine shaft this time?\"\n\nTim Harper had been assigned to the crew after a VI had identified one of the languages on the obelisks as ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics; Lizzie Hope, a clumsy but intelligent ensign with a degree in linguistics, had been assigned to him.\n\n\"N-no, ma'am. She... she touched it. And now --\" neither of the officers wait to hear more. In a matter of minutes, they're suited and cycling out the airlock.\n\nThey follow the trackers in Harper and Hope's suits, and before long, they're deeper in the winding roads of the city than they've ever been. When they finally find them, Hope's walking more gracefully than she's ever walked. Her eyes aren't visible -- beneath her eyelids, there's a faint glow, and her pupils twitch wildly. \n\nShe stops, and the ground begins to sink beneath her. Without hesitation, all three of her followers step into the hidden platform. It goes down and down and down, and yet no dirt falls on them from the eerily smooth walls.\n\nWhen the elevator stops, it opens up into a wide room -- one with strangely familiar pictures. Of the pyramids, or at the very least their antecedents. A long, low panel in the middle of the room is what Hope beelines for and sinks her hands into it, all the way to the wrist. \n\n\"We flee now. Hopefully, the warnings will be enough. Hopefully, they will leave the little ones alone, since they have not achieved as we have,\" pours from Lizzie's mouth. \"We tried to give them a little help, but it may not be enough. If they ever make it here -- well. We don't know they can read the crystals.\"\n\nKahan turns on the suit light and glances around. All the walls are lined with bright yellow crystals, all bigger than the average human arm. \n\n\"Ma'am?\" Lee breathes. \n\n\"Mmm?\" she answers.\n\n\"We're going to kick the Reapers' ass.\"", "“Sir…” Julie’s voice crackles over the intercom. She wanted to say something, but stops. There is no need to, anyway. Her helmet-cam is transmitting her view as she speaks. A monolith in front of her, reaching to the glowing green sky above. \n\nBut it is not the structure that made her speechless, rather the message that is inscribed unto the glowing metallic structure, in plain simple English. \n\n“Flee this galaxy, before it is too late.”\n\n“Sergeant Williams, uhh, we note the obelisk and the message. Please return to your shuttle and return to the Nest,” Julie hears the command’s instructions back at her. She has heard of these obelisks before, from the logs and reports of previous exploratory missions, but actually seeing it up close? It is both awe-inspiring and scary.\n\n“Affirmative, Nest command,” she responds, as her hand reaches to touch the message. A lone obelisk in the middle of a barren field, with no defining features, save for the message. So many questions, but like everyone else, she has not the slightest clue of how the obelisk came to be. Or who built it. Or how there is literally a similar structure in almost every habitable planet that humans have landed.\n\nIf her memory serves her right, the obelisk before her will be the 107th to have been found with the strange message. She shudders at the implication of the message, before turning away from the foreboding structure. Her room back at command ship feels like home now compared to this planet.\n\nJulie turns away and begins making her way back to the shuttle. She is halfway through when her intercom crackles back to life.\n\n“Julie…” the voice at the end whispers. Strange. Command has never called by her first name before. Julie stops in her tracks, the inside of her suit suddenly becoming cold. \n\n“Yes Command?” Julie glances around her, before realizing that she was literally the only person on the planet. She may be the only living being as well.\n\nThere is no answer from the other end, only static.\n\n“Command, I did not get the last message, can you repeat yourself?” Julie responds, before resuming her pace, at a quicker rate this time. She repeats herself a few more times over the intercom, but it seems that communication is cut off. \n\nMaybe some natural interference, Julie tells herself. Not that it matters, anyway. A few more feet and she will be in the safety of her shuttle, flying back to the Nest. Julie turns off the intercom and breaks into a jog, only for the static to again blast out from her earpiece, followed by the voice.\n\n“Do you want to know why you are asked to flee the galaxy?” the voice asks. \n\n“This is not funny, Com-“ Julie tries to retort, but hole opens beneath her feet. Her last screams echo against the walls, audible to no one except herself and the voice.\n\n-------\n\n/r/dori_tales", "Dr. Zachary's radio static broke the silence after translating the obelisk, \"Fuck me, another 'Sigma' world. What do you think it is?\"\n\nI sighed heavily, \"I don't know, man. Ancient plague of a galaxy spanning civilization? Extra-galactic Hostile forces? Infighting? Who knows?\"\n\n\"Well we should probably start figuring this shit out! All life on this rock is gone; vaporized. For all we know, we're next.\" Dr. Zachary said with a hint of panic beneath his over-compensated tough exterior.\n\n\"That's why we're out here assho-!\"\n\n\"Enough you two, about done?\" Cmdr. Huxley, 'Scarlett' interrupted.\n\n\"Yeah,\" I said fuming. \"Heading back to the shuttle now.\"\n\n\"Hurry up, we're getting some weird sensor blips. I want to get out of here. I'm opening Jump, minus 10. Let's go, gentlemen!\" Scarlett ordered.\n\nDr. Zachary, and I marched over barren rock, passed buildings that were once full of life on our way back to the landfall shuttle. Everything is dead on this poor planet. No, worse: it's simply gone. I would feel better if this world went Omega. That can be explained, wars, diseases, natural disasters destroy the entire ecosphere, at least that can be accounted for through stupidity or bad luck, and then there are always remnants of life: decay and organic material. An Omega world, the last throes of life on a world before it dies, but these Sigma planets with their weird obelisks are completely sterilized. \n\nI swiveled into the pilot's seat and booted up the ignition sequence for planet burn while Dr. Zachary buckled in looking wearily out a side window. The shuttle rumbled, then blasted us through the sky towards the larger survey ship in orbit. Dr. Zachary made a disgusted sound in his helmet and muttered, \"Grave diggers.\" That's what the local Terran Scientific Institute called our position. We're scientists, specifically exobiologists. We picked this assignment to find intelligent life, but all we've done is catalogue dead worlds. \n\nA century ago when humanity discovered Jump a new era of hope ushered us into the galaxy. We had yet to make first contact and wondered what in Fermi's name was going on amongst the stars. Well, it turns out not much, humanity found a silent galaxy. Over a century of deep space exploration and we've yet to find living intelligent life. Some microbes, or undeveloped flora and fauna scattered around. A century of exploration only to discover we're increasingly alone.", "The towering stone they had come across was not unexpected. The Ominous warning was the same as all the others. \n\n“Flee this Galaxy Before it’s too Late.... Cruelty has been redefined, it is alive, it will not relent.”\n\nThe scouts from earths Interstellar fleet had found a total of 305 obelisks thus far. This made 306. The Human Race had broken into a panic, fearing this unknown evil, as vague as it was ominous. I Didn’t panic, for I’m certain I’ve known this unrelenting cruelty. We humans were the unrelenting manifestation of cruelty that these countless civilizations were fleeing. Our need for self preservation and dominance has made cruelty a desirable trait for survival and evolution. Most civilizations evolved and survived solely through cooperation and group dependence. Humans show types of cruelty and selfishness that had been previously unseen by other cultures. \n\nThe Humans will never see past their own ego to realize that they are the purest evil known to existence. I’m sure of this, for I am not originally of earth. I will never leave the company of the human race, for the things I have witnessed have rendered me incapable of normal life in any other intelligent society. The things that I’ve done to survive have rendered me a felon in the remainder of the life-supporting universe. The crimes against universal law I have committed have earned me praise and respect amongst the humans. I’ve gotten a taste of their cruelty, and I’ve emerged victorious. \n\nDominance is rewarding, power is unforgettable. The human race is cruel but it’s raw. The strong survive and the weak are defeated and stripped of their resources. To the victor go the spoils, and to the spoils go Victor.\n\nYours Cruelly,\n\nVictor Demas ", "We had not run. \n\nIt was never in our nature. Not really. Sure a few ships here and there, private concerns mostly, had fled. But when the Homefront Resolution was voted on in the federations first universal vote, the bulk of human citizens had voted. This was our home. We would not run.\n\nFrom all reports it wasn't voyager that they found first. It wasn't curiosity. They didn't detect our nukes. It was a god dammed car. Don't ask why or how a god dammed production car got into the asteroid belt, but apparently it hit an old listening outpost. Jiggled a wire back into place. Shone like a god dammed beacon for all to see.\n\nSo they come. The surround us. Darkness blots out the stars. We have lost Alpha Centauri. We have lost the Europa and titan bases. We have lost outpost 17. But know something they don't know. We know who left the obelisks. We knew the second we saw celtic texts on Europa. We know what lay under stone henge. And we know what our ancestors did not. We know how to power it.", "It took less than 15 minutes to break the code engraved on the metal slabs found on three of the solar system's eight planets. The self-named homo-sapiens, or 'humans', as they call themselves, tied for second place in this. They would have got first, but due to their inter-planetary conflicts in government, took 13 minutes distributing the code out. Once received, the curious bi-peds quickly deciphered the message. \n\n---\nCrowd Shouts With Announcer: \"Flee this galaxy before it's too late!\"\n--- \n\nThey have high intelligence and high social skills. They are made of individual minds and while all intelligent species create a religion, the humans have taken it a step further. Their bodies somehow evolved a way even to allow their religions to effect their bodies as well as their feelings. \n\nThey are a planet of conflict, as many of the sapient and individualistic species come to create. When not literally at conflict with a small variance of themselves, they are at conflict in feelings, or in politics. \n\nAs always, we start the series a bit ahead of the moment the species discovered evolution. \n\n150 of the local Earth years, 202.5 standard galactic units. \n\nThey have considerable advances in space-travel technology, due in part to their need for war-fare technology. Perhaps soon they will join the Audience and leave the Contestants. But first, they have to react to the messages. \n\n95% of species fail this test. Rather than further travel, to the bounds of their solar system and the beginning of the True Galaxy, most simply fall apart, the masses destroying the government. \n\nAnd you get to watch it. \n\n---\nCrowd laughs. \n--- \n\nLet's see if the humans can do it. I present SEASON TWO of: \n\n--- \nCrowd cheers over announcer. \n---\n\nFlee this galaxy before it's too late!" ]	8
	[WP] After falling asleep during history class, a teen wakes up to find his school and town apparently abandoned, for what looks like years.	[ "The class room I'd open, literally, there is a sky, the school did have two stories, but was now reduced to rubble, you where in the only room left.\n\nYou make out a cluster of trees in the far distance... those are buildings. You run to them, fearing the worst, and to your horror it's true, the city is vacant, save for a few animals skittering by from time to time, your house, had a tree growing in from. You walk in and stop for a while, before heading towards the city, your family was dead at the dinner table, clearly a plate set for you as their bones slumped over the table.\n\nThe city was the same, except littered with bones, not a soul in sight, except for a Snake, it hissed st me, unfrilling it's hood, a cobra, monster, beast it was huge, it's waist as thick as a car,it hissed at me before, leaning close to my face, I stared at me with a single eye that flashed like a photo, then site red a distance... watching me.\n\nIt had been two years surviving in the city, tons of manuals and upgrades done to make the cities generators solar, game was easy, as long as that Reticulated Cobra was around, otherwise, bows and arrows, the snake didn't seem to want to harm me, just observe me and flash it's eyes at me, \"what do you even do that for, are you a drone or something?\" Knowing full well it wouldn't talk back, \"no, I'm a scholar, interested in reaching the past of why the huemans went missing\"\n\nI sat way the hell away from the Cobra that night, just what the hell is going on?\n" ]	1
	[WP] You're like 95% sure that the new kid is an undercover cop	[ "I just didn't like the way he looked. Distrust followed him across the playground like a shadow, the new kid, how convenient. I stood against the roundabout as he sauntered by with half the toys openly in his arms. He was too inviting to be true. Behind his sunglasses, I knew his eyes were narrow and searching, but he didn't know that I too was looking for something. \n\nThe originals were starting to notice something was wrong, those of us who'd been here a while; this small world run by judicial giants.\nTommy, who wasn't the sharpest tool to begin with, was most likely to take the bait and it was he that crawled boyishly to the new kid and took his finest toy from his arms. I didn't involve myself. If Tommy wins he owes me a day with the toy, that's the way it worked and I was happy to receive it. But as the two grappled I noticed something, a small wire from his collar and a box on his belt. \n\n\nAlert jump-started me, and I called to Kim. She comes closer, far taller and I have to look up but the weight of my head is hard to carry. She bends over.\n''Is little baby hungry?''\n\nWhat an imbecile she is." ]	1
	[WP] Humanity has achieved sustainable energy away from fossil fuel, and culture thrived. However, you, an aspiring journalist, just discovered the awful truth behind the new "energy sources" governments use. This is your story.	[ "A notification popped up in the corner of her desktop ‘Your video Biofuel is killing us, watch to see how is ready to view. You can now watch it.’ Wisteria stopped in the middle of typing a reply to quickly slide her cursor to the notification before it could disappear. She clicked the notification and felt a little thrill in her stomach as the video popped up. This video would be the kickstart she needed for a career as an investigative journalist. Though she’d seen it at least 10 times since she finished editing, Wisteria let the video autoplay. \n\n“Biofuel, which we all know is just a nice way of saying processed human shit, is killing us. I have spent weeks conducting interviews, getting behind-the-scenes footage at BioEn, and crunching the numbers. The truth can’t be denied: biofuel is making us sick.” The view switched from Wisteria’s upper body against a clean background to a dramatic chart showing the rise of measles cases plotted along with rising amounts of biofuel burnt each year.\n\n“As you can see, more and more people have become sick the measles as we continue to increase biofuel use. But, it’s not just measles,” A new chart replaced the measles trend. “it’s also flu epidemics,” Another chart. “and whooping cough.” Wisteria once again filled in the view.\n\n“But, biofuel is safe! We are saving the planet! They have a process that takes out the disease before we burn it!” The recording of Wisteria spoke in an exaggerated saccharine voice and twirled her hair as she delivered this line. Her face hardened.\n\n“No! We are not safe. I interviewed a scientist at BioEn to learn more about their process. Watch this. I haven’t altered this footage in any way.” The scene changed to a man in a lightly wrinkled blue dress shirt sitting at a desk. Wisteria’s voice asked from off camera “So, how do you stop biofuel from transferring disease?” The man looked confused, as if he had not expected the question. \n\n“Um. Well, we use this process to, uh, to disinfect it. I mean, I don’t know much about the process since I work on optimizing the energy output.” He paused and glanced towards the camera, straightening his tie. “I know that the microorganisms we use to pre-digest the biosolids create an environment that is the wrong temperature and acidity for viruses and bacteria, so they die. But that’s all I can really tell you.”\n\nWisteria replaced the footage of the scientist. “There are multiple red flags in this footage. He hesitated before saying ‘disinfect’. He got nervous as soon as I asked the question and even more nervous when he couldn’t explain something that any biofuel scientist should be able to explain easily. I don’t believe a man with a PhD can’t explain something that simple. Here is the real reason why he couldn’t explain it. Because the process isn’t real. They won’t get paid anymore if the fuel is dangerous, so they lie. They use big words while they do it, but they sure are still lying.” The recording of Wisteria straightened her shoulders and looked directly into the camera. “But, that isn’t all I’ve got. I snuck onto BioEn grounds at night and recorded through each of their windows. No evidence of this decontamination process. Don’t believe me, watch for yourself. You’ll see the camera shake as jump over the fence, and then I will run to the building. Again, folks, I haven’t altered this footage in any way.”\n\nThe video switched to lower quality footage. As promised, the camera shook as she jumped the fence and shakily drew closer to the building. The camera went from window to window, first showing a dimly lit room with empty desks, then a room full of fresh sewage. The next room was filled with sewage that looked as if it had been squeezed of water. People in masks, rubber boots, and rubber gloves, were transferring the sludge to large carts. The camera passed by a few more offices and finally ended at a room with large barrels of biofuel.\n\n“As you saw, there was no evidence of decontamination! And on top of that, the workers may as well have been in hazmat suits will all that safety gear. Why would they need that if biofuel was safe?” Wisteria looked down as if gathering herself and then looked back to the camera. “I have shown you statistics, an interview, and live footage proving that biofuel is dangerous and is killing our country. Call your representatives. Don’t buy these new biofuel cars or appliances. Fight back. We will not let them kill us without a fight just so that they can line their pockets.” \n\nThe video abruptly cut off to a silent black screen. The dramatic effect had been just what she’d needed for the end. This will be viral by tomorrow morning.\n\n~~~\n\nAs Wisteria predicted, the video went viral after it had been picked up on her favorite news sites. Of course, fake news sites had picked it up, too, and they had tried to refute just about everything she said. Their arguments were all bluster and had no evidence to back them up, though. Naturally, the sheep still ate them up. She saw the same tweets shared again and again. They were always simple statements followed by a reaction gif:\n\nThe anti-vax movement is causing a rise in those diseases, tho? I mean, if it was the biofuel, wouldn’t there be a rise in all diseases?\n\nIf someone at a table I was waiting on asked me how we clean the restaurant:\n\nSomeone filmed in all the windows of my house and now everyone knows I don’t got a bathroom\n\nThey were hopeless. But, how could comments like that bother her when she had an interview at a REAL news station? Wisteria opened the email with directions on how to setup a video channel so the station could call her when the time came. The setup only took moments, now she just had to wait for her big moment. She had really made it!\n\n\nEdit: Formatting" ]	1
	[WP] Where the trees go to die	[ "Star Log, 12-08-73\n\nWe alighted this morning on a strange world, one ensconced in the centre of the Oort Cloud. A gas giant, as expected, a dark world with its outer layers encrusted in ice.\n\nIt was what happened when we descended, the ship’s hull groaning under the pressure, that was so odd I felt obliged to report this world as ‘strange.’ \n\nAlthough, to be honest, I probably would have anyways: gas giants are just so grand in their majesty, and so weird in their form, that I doubt I’ll ever quite get used to it. Gosh, I love my job.\n\nWell, we reached the center of the planet, only to discover our reports had been wrong. It was not a blasted core of frozen rock, as our scientists had led us to believe. No, instead we found… trees.\n\nCountless acres worth, floating lightly in a broth of alcohol and mud, which stuck to our boots as we tried to take samples. And dead, all of them, long dead and preserved only by the planet’s utter inability to hold life.\n\nBut you know what was the funniest thing? The trees, they were all species found on earth. In fact, not a one couldn’t have been, though many had been gone for millennia. I’ve sent you samples for analysis.\n\nI still don’t know how they got there, what brought so many dead (and, as we’d later discover, dying) trees to a barren rock on the outskirts of our solar system. I’ll I know is, whatever did it wasn’t fond of us.\n\nHow do I know that? Well, we’d just found a living tree, one in its final death throes, choking on the lack of air and drowning in alcohol. We were bringing it back to the ship when all of a sudden one word flashed across our minds, filling them up and bringing us to our knees;\n\n‘BEGONE’\n\nAnd so we did, with all haste. I’ll not bother what asks me not to - it ain’t my place, certainly not to be so disrespectful in what was so obviously someone’s holy place.\n\nRespectfully waiting on further instructions,\n\nCounseling caution and signing off,\n\nCaptain Ehrlich", "Before fungus, trees didn't decompose. They would die and lay dormant while other trees grew around their stale trunks.\n\nTrees of all sorts, from the high oaks to the pines, died and stood tall. Some were struck with lightning and set everything around it on fire.\n\nThe Banyan Tree was the oldest tree around. Its trunk ate the air around it and covered the ground in vast shadow to prevent the growth of competitors.\n\nIt was deemed the mightiest tree for a while, up until the fungus arrived.\n\nIt tore and ripped at its fallen limbs, devouring its broken past. When the fungus reached the inside of the mighty tree, it began carving a hole through its core.\n\nFor centuries, it fought for its life. Alone and without anything to help it, the Banyan rotted and died." ]	2
	[WP] You were born with the world's most useless superpower but now in the Earth's time of need, you have a chance to become a hero	[ "Being British, you'd think my superpower would have been adored. Many would invest in my skills and I would be a renowned, monumental success. For hundreds of years after my death, people would have pined for me, prayed for the perfect cup of tea. Except, my superpower wasn't making a good brew. It was making a strong coconut\\-milk, sugarless breakfast tea, always lukewarm. I became famous, sure. But I wasn't going to get remembered for anything great. No, everyone was going to laugh about me over their tea\\-breaks at work. The woman whose famous power was the worst tea in history.\n\nThat was until drought scarred the world and ripped all freshwater from our lakes. Dehydration was the world's cause of death. Species were wiped out, countries burned to ash, the world was eaten away by dark skies and acidic droplets attacking their shelters.\n\nYou see, my superpower was useless until global warming decided to finally unleash its first playing card. And for a while, I saved my town with my useless tea \\- the one that could be drank by almost all of the human race. One that didn't threaten allergic reactions or harm the lactose intolerant or scald the mouths of the sensitive or threaten the diabetic. My tea wasn't strong enough to keep people up at night or send them into caffeine\\-induced frenzies like Latte\\-Dude. My tea gave people nutrients, strength, power\\-\\- and, above all, water.\n\nFor a short while, I was the town's greatest saviour, adored like a new Jesus. A religion could have been created out of my facade. Oh the theatrics. I loved to pretend I was a hero. I had the chance to save the world...\n\nThe very same world that had laughed at me and called me the Earth's biggest loser. Me, the saviour? While I was only saving the town, word got out and my status became God\\-like, mythical, dreamlike. But was I going to save the world that laughed at me? I considered it a lot. By a lot, I mean over a shitty cup of shitty tea. And I thought \\-\\- fuck it. If someone else had any power like mine, they'd go power crazy too.\n\nAnd that's the story about the time I got the world to on its dehydrated knees to praise me as their Tea\\-Making Overlord." ]	1
	[WP] Your father walked out to buy cigarettes and never came back. You thought he ran out on your mom. But now your new friend says his father disappeared the same way, on the same night, at the same time... and you both live down the street from the same convenience store.	[ "It’s amazing how people can live not five blocks from the other for a conventional quarter of their lives, not meeting. \n\nThomas and I had even gone to the same schools up throughout high school, and our paths never really crossed before that fateful day.\n\nI am a crime scene investigator, and Thomas had found the body of a woman in a ditch while out jogging at 5 AM. Of all the countless ways we could have met over the years, the universe decided on this.\n\nWe had exchanged pleasantries, and after having found that we had so much in common we started talking about deeper topics.\n\nThomas had asked, “So, what is your family like?”\n\nAnd I told him how my mom was doing fine, but my dad had left us when I was little, “To go shopping, he said. ‘Just going to Sal’s Convenience Store’, he’d said.”\n\nThomas had blanched, “That’s... where my dad had said he was going on the day he disappeared. Heck of a coincidence, hey Marshall?”\n\nI don’t know about you, but I do not like that sort of coincidence.\n\n“We need to get to the bottom of this Thomas, something isn’t sitting right about this.”\n\nThomas tilted his head questioningly, “Alrighty, I suppose we might learn something new, even after all this time.”\n\nSo, off we both went to Sal’s Convenience Store.\n\n-Fin ", "I knew Dave in school but we never really became friends despite the fact we would have gotten along really well, It was a big school and a bigger town so we just kinda never bothered. Plus Dave was a year older. \nThen we started working together and we hit it off. We liked all the same stuff and came from similar backgrounds. Eerily similar. This is what got me talking about how my dad left me when I was twelve. Daves' dad left when he was thirteen. \n\nAt first I did think it was a eerie coincidence but as time went by and we kept talking about it there where more and more similarities. Then I mentioned something that made Daves' face go white.\nI mentioned that before my dad left to \"get cigarettes\" I overheard him talking to someone on the phone called \"Graham\". At the time I didn't think anything of it and thought it was just grown-up work-talk. But now that I was thinking about that time again I realised how weird my dad was acting right before he left. And he acted especially weird on the phone.\n\nThen Dave said that his father was named Graham.\nThat night I spent time going through old records and searching the web for information and came up short. But then I called my mom and she said that she was pretty sure dad worked with someone called Graham at some point.\nThe next day I called some of my Dad's old coworkers and found out that Graham had worked a similar position to my father but at a rival company. I met up with Dave again and told him what little I had learned. But Dave told me something more interesting. Our dads disappeared the same day.\n\nThat was it. There was some conspiracy that our dads were caught up in and I had to get to the bottom of it. I made a visit to my cousin who, funnily enough, worked in missing persons. I convinced her (more easily than I would have thought) to let me use their database to search for my dad. \nAnd I found someone matching his discription living in another state.\n\nI let Dave know what was happening and that I was going to go find my dad. He told me he couldn't come because he had family things he needed to attend to. I think he was actually a little scared of what I was going to uncover.\nSo that weekend I drove several hours and made it to the address I found.\n\nAnd now I sit here in my car across from a normal looking house recording this journal of my weird little experience of the last few weeks.\nHaving just seen an older version of my dad arrive at the house and be greeted with a kiss on the lips from a man I can only assume is Graham.", "\"I'll be back, be good for your mother kids!\" \n\nI stepped out the door and into the cool air of late fall, debating briefly on whether or not to step back inside and grab a jacket. A sweat shirt ought to do the trick though, it wasn't a long walk. I fished the pack of camel's out of my pocket and lit up the last cigarrette. Should've stopped by after work and picked up more, but I always held out the hope that maybe this pack would be my last. In nearly twenty years, it never had. \n\nTaking a deep draw I stepped out past our mailbox and onto the sidewalk, making for the Wawa on the corner. Maybe I'd pick the kids up something, I still had like thirty bucks in my pocket, and I'd only need about half of that for bowling night. That'd make their night. \n\nI spotted Doug out on his porch as I walked by the front of his house, and gave a half wave. Doug Lemcool and I had been fast friends since he'd moved into the neighborhood and I'd helped him carry a couch into his basement. Doug paid his debts in some quality beer. \n\n\"How's it going tonight Doug? Up for a walk?\"\n\nDoug waved back and gestured down the street with his head, \"Just heading up to Wawa's?\"\n\nI waved the empty pack of camels at him as I ambled by, \"Yeah, time for another pack. Probably grab something for the kids too.\"\n\nDoug ran a hand over the stubble on his chin before smiling and popping up, \"Thought you were gonna quit those?\" He teased as I flipped him off, but Doug jogged off the porch to join me on the short walk. \"Won't hurt me to stretch my legs at least.\"\n\nDoug and I must have cut a pretty good pair for anyone driving by, He was a five foot nothing scrawny lad with some serious Irish in his ancestry if the red tint to his hair and stubble (I refused to even think of it as a beard) were to be believed. Whereas I stood a little over six and a half feet tall, running closer to overweight than underweight, and only beginning to really take that self consciously as I aged. We'd had to really work to get that couch leveled off when we were carrying it, and by work I meant I'd had to just about throw out my back from bending over. \n\n\"I am trying to quit, you know.\" I said into the companionable silence as we walked, and ground out the butt of the cig before flicking it into the street. \"I didn't want to raise my kids around them, and I know Natalie hates it, but it's tough to break half a life's habit.\"\n\n\"I get it man,\" Doug demurred, \"Wasn't trying to be a dick by bringing it up. I just don't want your wife thinking I'm encouraging it. She'll poison me at the next barbecue.\"\n\nWe were reaching the parking lot of the Wawa as I started laughing loud enough to wake up half the neighborhood, the mirth just boiling out of me, \"She might just at that,\" I struggled out around the laughter, wiping tears from my eyes. \n\n\"It wasn't that funny!\" Doug shoved me a little. \n\n\"Maybe not,\" I said stepping over the curb to keep my balance, \"but you looked so serious! Face it Doug, nothing's killing us in this neighborhood unless it's my bad habits!\"\n\nThe last thing I remember seeing was Doug's answering smile, and a slight widening of his eyes in surprise before stars exploded behind my eyes and the world snapped to black as I crashed to the ground. " ]	3
	[WP] You are sent to investigate why time has become unstable and why yesterday, a big chunk of it just broke and disappeared.	[ "Time stopped. \n\nJust for a second, so it wasn't enough for anyone to notice, but when you take one second away from every living being on a planet, it adds up to... well a lot. \n\nOne small being, did happen to notice, and it hadn't been the first instance either. Time had started going missing slowly and in small amounts but over the last few months, the thief had grown bolder. Think of time as an hour glass full of sand. Once the sand starts to go missing, it runs out. An hourglass without sand is just a glass. A universe without time, would be just as empty.\n\nThe being who had noticed, was called code named tut. The ultimate time-keeper. He was the lead time-keeper for the universe. Each world had it's own keeper, and they reported to him. He in turn answered to his boss, the grand old doctor. God, would not be happy. \n\nTut closed his pocket watch and dug out his hourglass. The new loss meant that the universe was down to 99% remaining. 1% of time had been stolen and it now looked like it could no longer be written off as an anomaly. It was time (excuse the pun) to gather the time-keepers and see if anyone had any leads. Each world had it's own time-keeper. One of them must have noticed something. He set the timer on his watch, which synced to the other time keepers, and would alert them to the meeting being called. ", "Marc found himself driving. The dark country highway like a black ribbon lain in the grassy hills stretched into the dark further than he could see. His grip on the wheel tighted and he scanned for a sign. Any indication as to where he was. There was nothing. His car clock, which was always wrong, read 2:44. He kept driving. Wondering how he had wound up there, the last thing he remembered had been leaving for work that morning and a quick stop for coffee before going to interview a witness. The morning coffee sat in his cars cupholder, cold and untouched. He took a sip, it was disgusting, but he was suddenly very tired, and the caffeine would do its job noatter how it tasted.\n\nHis mind began to wander, to the witness. He wasnt quite sure who the appoimtment had been with that morning. The name had been in his notebook, the address in his phones gps. The phone sat on the passenger seat, dead. Thirty-five years he had been an imvestigator at the corporate division of the FBI, and it was coming time to retire soon, he couldnt deal with this anymorr. Anonymous sources in far flung remote places, dictating long hours and travel had taken its toll. He was tired, he gulped his coffee. His grip tightening a his eyelids grew heavier. Finally, a light in the distance. His mind wandered back to the investigation centered around time theft among military contractors. Billions of dollars of contracts paid by the US government, now of questionalble validity. It was a huge case, the kind he could retire on. \n\nThe lights he had spotted in the distance came closer, a gas station coming into view. Coffee would help, or better, directions to a motel. How the fuck had he wound up here, and where was he, marc wondered as he pulled in to the gas station. Where had the day gone. He could remember getting on the highway that morning he thought to himself as he parked at the gas station, the lot empty except for a beat up caddy. He could see an attendant behind moving around bathed in the warm glow of flourescent lights leaking out.\n\nHe got out of the car, a chill night breeze catching his skin. He reached to wrap himself up in his jacket, but the material was wrong in his fingers. Looking down he pulled his open bathrobe shut. How the fuck... closinf his robe he stumbled on the cord. Tripping, he felt himself falling, reaching but not fast enough as the black of the pavement rushed to greet him, and then engulfed him. Time disappeared.\n\nWhen he awoke he found himself surrounded by unfamiliar faces. Looking around he caught site ofahboard with a logo, some writing. He couldnt make sense of it. It hade to be code. His head was killing him. Reaching up he found loose bandages around bis head, pullin them off he tossed them to a nearby can, seeing the crimson spot of his blood.\n\nHe looked around, a woman he didnt recognize was asleep in a chair. He moved to get up, just then the door opened and in shuffled a gaggle of medical looking persons. Followed by some regular people, who again he had never seen before.\n\n\"Who the fuck are you people? Where am i...\" his voice trailed off ass one more person shuffled through the door. An old lady, white hair, shrunken frame slihhtly hunched, shuffling forward with a cane, she looked familiar. But he could quite place her, his mind raced, where had he seen her before. \n\nThen she spoke, just one word. \"Marc.\" He stopped, he knew who she was, that voice, he could never forget. She was his wife, but that was not possible, his wife was not this old lady. She was too old.\n\nThe smile faded from his face at the trick. \"Who are you?\" He questioned. \"You are not my wife.\" His retort was before she could answer.\n\n\"Daddy...\" a new voice chimed in and the stranger had awaken. He looked, agin puzzled.\n\nShe continued as his gaze caught hers. \"Daddy. Your in the hospital. You've had another episode.\"\n\nIt was his daughters voice. But this woman couldnt be his little girl. He looked closer, she was. But how, where had the time gone. Someone had stolen it, he needed to talk to that source.\n\nHe moved to get up. \"Sir\" the nurse moved to stop him. \"You cant get up.\"\n\nHis eyes questioned her. \"The fuck you talking about lady. Im leaving now.\" He tossed the covers from over his body moving to het out of bed. She prssed him back down, his \"family\" moving to help her.\n\nThen he noticed two more people in the corner, one in a white coat. The other looked a lot like hs son, were he an adult.\n\nThe white coat leaned to speak to the young man. \"This kumda thing is not uncommon in dementia...\" the voice trailed off." ]	2
	[WP] The Cursed Desert is known for myths and tales of turning people against each other, and many end up murdering their company, claiming that otherwise they would be killed. You and your adventurous friends decide to bust the myth together.	[ "My friend Billy and I was all the way up on to one of them sand hills, about to get a good view of the journey ahead of us when something caught my eye.\n\n\"Dang, Billy, look what I found.\" I says. I was looking at a pile of bones sticking out of the sand. \n\n\"Oh sheet, are them bones, Darryl?\" Billy asks me. \n\n\"I don't know, you wanna grab 'em?\" I asked. \n\n\"Hay'll no, Darryl, I ain't touching them bones.\" Billy says. \n\n\"Oh come on, Billy, they ain't gonna bite.\" I teased. \n\n\"You grab 'em then!\" Billy says. \n\nBilly is a real sweet kid with some emotional issues, and gets real excited over nothing. I feel like its my responsibility as his honorary big brother to help him realize that he ain't gotta be afraid of everything. That's why I asked him to take this walk with me. Figure, if he can do this he can do anything. \n\nI reached down and picked up one of them bones and playfully tossed it to Billy who flinched and stumbled back, tripping over his heels and tumbling down the side of the sand dune. \n\n\"You stupid sumbitch, you did that on purpose! \" Billy hollered, sand pouring from his head like water. \n\nI felt kinda bad but I couldn't stop laughing. He looked so dang stupid all pouty, drowning in sand, the grump. \n\n\"Stop laughing at me, Darryl, or I swear!\" Billy shouted as I shuffled my way toward him. He was getting all puffy. \n\nI poised myself so I could apologize. Then I remembered the bones. When I looked back to the top of the sand dune I swear, for a second, I saw a skeleton, sans a femur bone, standing erect at the top of the dune, looking right at us. \n\n\"Oh my gawd!\" I screamed, and when I say screamed, I mean it. And just like that I was in the sand, kicking my feet like I was trying to swim backward. \n\nBilly just about shit himself because he gets so easily riled up, but he didn't even see the skeleton. \n\n\"Darryl, what the hell, you freaked me out, man, quit fucking with me!\" Billy yelled. He was getting emotional. \n\nI kept blinking my eyes real fast, tryna make sure I was seeing right. \n\n\"Billy, there was...\" I didn't know how to say it. \"Where that bone at I threw atcha?\"\n\n\"I don't know, I was too busy--oh here it is.\" Billy was standing right on top of it. He kicked it in my direction, which sent a good cup of sand in the air toward my face, some of which got in my mouth, which made Billy laugh. \n\nI jumped back, away from the femur bone, and looked over my shoulder a couple times. \n\n\"We should get outta here.\" I said. \n\nBilly was thinking the same thing that I was. \n\n\"Hey Darryl, are we closer to the other side?\" He asked, still shaking sand from his hair. \n\n\"Yeah, and it's getting late, so let's get on with it.\" I said. I couldn't help but feeling like we was being watched. Maybe even followed. \n\nAfter walking some hundred feet or so I looked back at the base of the sand dune and saw that damn skeleton again. He had found his leg bone, and put it where it belonged. I hollered in pure fuckin' terror, which made Billy scream the same way. He still didn't see the skeleton though, he just ran right along side me, trusting my fear. \n\n\"What is it Darryl?\" Billy asked me, running out of breath. \"What'd you see back there?\"\n\n\"Billy, you don't want to know.\" I said, my breath being just as short as his. \"Trust me.\"\n\nThe sun had crept over the horizon, turning the sky a mix of pink and dark blue. I figured we was about an hour from the end of this thing, but we had to rest. I found us a rock to perch next to so we could eat our sandwiches and drink some water. \n\n\"Billy, lemme get that turkey sammich.\" I says. Billy was already looking in the bag, but he was in some kind of trance. Just staring into it like he could see another universe in there. \n\n\"Darryl, we ain't got no food or water.\" He said with a sad voice. \"Everything must have fell out when I tumbled down the heel.\"\n\n\"Damn it.\" I whispered to myself. It was all my fault for playing games. Then I saw that skeleton and that distracted me. \n\nI had almost forgot about that. \n\n\"Well we're almost done with this hike anyway, so let's just push through it.\" I says. \n\nBilly seemed to agree, but, like me, he was getting real sluggish. \n\nWe continued dragging our feet for like another half an hour, by that point I fully believed we was gonna make it. \n\n\"Hey Darryl, I don't feel so good\" Billy says with a real weak voice. \n\nI looked over at him, but he wasn't him anymore. His eyes were gone. The skin of his face just sank right Into the holes where his eyes should be. They were deep voids that each seemed to contain enough evil for the world a dozen times over. \n\nI fell backward, thinking I was having a heart attack. I didn't look away, or blink. I just stared, horrified, into the caves in Billy's face. He smiled his patented stupid grin. \"You okay, Darryl?\"\n\nWhen he spoke, his eyes returned, and he was Billy again. \n\n\"No Billy, I am losing my shit out here.\" I says to him. \"I kept seeing a skeleton out there and I think he's chasing us. Then your eyes were gone and you looked pure evil, like the devil himself was inside you.\"\n\nAt that moment I saw long, skinny, porcelain-white fingers wrap around Billy's neck. The blood began pooling in Billy's face immediately, making the whites of his eyes pink, while the rest of his face turned purple. \n\n\"Goodbye, Billy.\" I says to him. I held his throat for another minute or so just to be sure, then I let go and finished the hike by myself. \n\nWhen I got back to town I decided to stop at a local bar and order a drink. The patrons all stared at me like they saw a ghost. I guess, right behind me, was standing that skeleton. Everyone could see it. \n\n\"It's not polite to stare.\" I says to 'em. " ]	1
	[WP] Thousands of years ago, some event ceased the flow of magic to the earth. Your the last wizard on earth who has spent all this time trying to bring the magic back and you think you finally found a way.	[ "“I don’t know about this Mr. Aron,” Jimmy said, eyeing the filth covered walls nervously. “You sure this is the place?”\n\n“It’s just like all the others, kid. Hidden in plain sight,” the old man replied, not looking up from the small section of concrete wall he was staring at. “Just a matter of knowing where to look.”\n\nJimmy nodded, trying to reassure himself by reflecting on the strange things they’d done up to this point. Slipping into a cave on Kilimanjaro. Jumping off that cruise ship at Antarctica. Switzerland. Mongolia. A sewer maintenance tunnel in New York City was pretty mild by comparison. And it was nice to be back home after all that.\n\nStill, there was something unsettling about this place. The other beacons had been awe inspiring, their locations joyous spots of wonder. He’d felt terrified along the way, sure, but this was different. A heavy pit sat in the bottom of his stomach, sloshing from side to side each time a subway train rumbled past, beckoning him to leave this place as fast as his feet would carry him.\n\nJimmy tugged on the bottom of his shirt, looking back up the length of tunnel they’d come down. “What if the Order set a trap? To keep you from bringing magic back?”\n\nMr. Aron gave a low chuckle. “Oh, they have, lots of them along the way. That’s why all the others who’ve tried are dead. Why I’m the only one left. But I’m smarter than the other wizards, because I’m patient.” The old man stood and gave Jimmy’s arm a reassuring pat. “And because I brought help.”\n\nJimmy nodded, and forced a smile back. \n\n“Now, place the ring finger from your right hand here,” Mr. Aron stepped back from the wall, revealing a series of runes etched into the concrete that had been hidden beneath a thick layer of grime. \n\nJimmy took a deep breath, and then heeded the old man’s instruction. Shakily, he extended a hand out toward the concrete. The runes began giving off a faint blue glow as his finger drew closer. At last he pressed against the concrete, strangely warm to his touch, exactly where Mr. Aron told him to. \n\nThe tunnel rumbled once more as another subway roared by, but as it did so, the runes glowed brighter. A new spot of light appeared above the markings, piercing though the decades of dirt and debris that covered the wall. It stretched out into a thin line that formed an archway, and with a sudden flash, the opening appeared where solid wall had been just moments before.\n\nMr. Aron clapped his hands excitedly. \n\n“Marvelous, young man, simply marvelous! On we go. We’re just footsteps away from restoring magic.”\n\nThe old man hurried into the revealed tunnel, giggling along the way.\nThe tunnel was pitch black, or rather it was until Mr. Aron rifled through his pockets and produced a cloudy gem roughly the size of a baseball. He tapped it twice on the wall, causing it to begin shedding light. The magical glow revealed the rough stone walls of some long forgotten passage, old cobwebs clinging to the corners and covered in dust.\n\nJeremy had seen this bit of magic light plenty of times throughout their travels together, but he was awed by it every time. He’d always dreamed that something like this would happen. That he’d suddenly discover there was another world right beneath his nose, one where his love of magic and adventure would be valued. \n\n“What will it be like, when magic comes back Mr. Aron?”\n\nJimmy could feel the old man grin in front of him. They’d had this conversation plenty of times before, but the two of them savored the thought at every opportunity. \n\n“It will remake the world, son. The first thing you’ll see is the colors. Green will be green again. Or for you, green as you’ve never seen it before, but the way it was always meant to be. There’ll be a little hum in the air that will just fill you with joy. The magical beasts will sense it, and they’ll start to come out of hiding. Wizards will return, and we will save humanity from itself.”\n\n“Will I be able to cast spells like you?”\n\nMr. Aron looked back over his shoulder, one eyebrow cocked high on his forehead. “Perhaps. If you think you can handle it.”\n\nThe two of them continued down the hall, until Mr. Aron let out a pained grunt.\n\n“Up ahead. I can feel the wards. They’re very strong here. As if the Order knew that this would be the last one. It’s up to you from here Jimmy.”\n\nThe boy nodded solemnly, trying to ignore the nagging feeling in his abdomen. The feeling in his gut was probably a good sign, a signal of his potential as a wizard which the wards were picking up on. With this last beacon lit, he could make it all come true.\n\nJimmy accepted the glowing gem from Mr. Aron, along with a small blue crystal, just like the ones he’d used to light the other beacons. Clutching both of them tightly, he continued down the hall. \n\nThe air seemed to thicken as he went, but he pressed forward. Just another deterrent from the Order designed to repel wizards from restoring magic. His footsteps grew heavier, seeming to urge him to turn back, until the light of the gem fell upon an opening at the end of the passageway. As Jimmy took another step closer, the forces pressing upon him suddenly released. He had reached the sanctum.\n\nThis room was like the others Mr. Aron had led him to. Relatively small, perhaps no bigger than the kitchen back at his apartment. In the center was a circular totem resting on a dais, reaching up to just above Jimmy’s eyebrows.\n\nHe stared at it a moment, and let out a long slow breath. This was going to sting a bit.\n\nJimmy took two quick steps toward the totem, swinging his arm as he did and smashing the blue crystal on top of the shrine. A brilliant white light erupted from the center of the room, burning his eyes. His hand went numb, then slowly began to burn in pain as if he was being pierced by hundreds of needles all at once. The light pressed outward, knocking Jimmy off his feet and against a wall. He fell to the ground, a crumpled heap.\n\nThrough squinting eyes, Jimmy watched as the white light twisted, almost as if it was rearing back to strike him. The blue crystals, though, began pushing out blue smoke that engulfed the light. The mist swirled around the totem, drowning out the last of the protective wards, until deep cracks appeared in the shrine. Without a violent shudder, pieces of the monument fell away, revealing a large piece of obsidian that floated in midair. \n\nQuiet filled the room as the glassy piece of rock hung in the air, bobbing slightly in an invisible current. Then, ever so softly, a little hum filled the room.\n\nFrom out in the hall came a gleeful cackling, accompanied by pounding footsteps.\n\n“You did it my boy, you did it!” Mr. Aron cried from the doorway. “My powers are returning. I feel the magic in the air.”\n\nJimmy started clamoring to his feet. “I… I can feel it too. The air. It’s different.”\n\n“Oh you can, can you?” The old man’s smile slipped away.\n\n“Yes. And the humming I hear it.”\n\nMr. Aron let out a long sigh. He shook his head slowly, then let out a laugh. “What are the odds? Of all the rubes I pluck out of the masses, I get one that could actually have the gift.”\n\nJimmy’s heart sank. Rube? What was the meaning of this?\n\n“I’m sorry to have to do this kid,” Mr. Aron said. And it almost sounded like he meant it. “But I can’t have anyone threatening my work. Another wizard would just be a liability.”\n\nWith a flick of Mr. Aron’s hand, solid stone shot up from the ground, sealing up the only exit from the sanctum.\n\nJimmy screamed wildly and pounded on the rock until his fists were bloodied. No give. No crack. No seam. And no hope. He curled up on the ground, sobbing at his foolishness. What had he done? He was going to die here. And that maniac that left him… It was Jimmy’s fault he was set loose on the world with magical powers.\n\n“Hush now,” a voice commanded. “This is not the time for tears.”\n\nJimmy jolted at the sound. He looked around wildly for whomever was speaking to him, but saw no one. “Who’s there?”\n\nThe obsidian stone began spinning in air. Faster and faster it went, until it was practically a blur. A silvery form erupted from the rock, taking the ghostly shape of a man covered in fine robes.\n\n“I am all that is left of the Order which protected the world from wizards, young Jimmy. And you will have to be the one that saves it again.”\n\n*****\n\n/r/Pubby88" ]	1
	[WP] Give us the backstory of bad bad Leroy Brown	[ "In the south side of Chicago, in the baddest part of town there was a homeless boy named Leroy Brown. Leroy wasn't the brightest, nor was he the richest. In fact all he had going for him was a lean left hook.\n\nHe could have been a boxer, but he spent too much time with the wrong crowd so instead be became an enforcer for the Marrone\ncrime family. The Marrones where good to Leroy. They gave him a home, and food. They even started paying him once he got old enough to care about money. All he had to do was break the kneecaps they wanted broken and shoot the people they wanted shot.\n\nLeroy began to enjoy his life of crime. He loved the shiny things his money could buy him, the women he could have on his arm, and most of all the look of fear and respect than anyone who knew who he was gave him.\n\nEventually he earned the name \"Bad, bad, Leroy Brown\" The baddest man in the whole damn town. Then one day he met a girl named Doris, and we all know how that turned out." ]	1
	[WP] A story about someone who desperately wants to be a famous singer, the problem is, he's tone deaf.	[ "Abandoned, and then found. \n\n\nLike a thin coat, his prized possession was blown away in a gust of shame and embarrassment. In that very moment he locked away his music, as well as his heart. It had only been a short performance, but the vicious critique that followed dealt a devastating blow to his already crippled self-confidence. It was like his voice was a separate entity, that had decided to walk out on him, leaving him in a speechless demur.\n\n\nHe spent many sleepless hours internally conflicted, arguing, debating. He was but a shattered mirror surrounded with the doubt of his own self-belief. In times like this, his elusive voice would appear erratically, suddenly beaming his emotions through his tough carapace. He would reach out, but clasp nothing, as his voice faded back into the shadows.\n\n\nIt wasn’t like he couldn't talk. He could hold the occasional conversation, remark on the weather and even manage soft, polite greetings. Yet, he was unable to form a coherent sentence about his inner turmoil, for his emotion was immiscible with his words.\n\n\nOn that day of judgement, he had casually tossed it aside, left to rot, in isolation against the elements. Now, as he scrabbled among the dust, desperately searching for confidence, he begin to regret his action that day. His subconscious sealing away of his music and of his soul.\n\n\nSong had been his one escape, a serene oasis in a desert of social encounters and awkward silence. But he could not project his emotions anymore, so he collected them all within himself. He still sang, in his head, and he could still hear his pure, unadulterated melody. But when he opened his mouth, all he heard was an ugly growl and gnashing of teeth and claws.\n\n\nHe wandered the hallways as he traversed his labyrinth, weaving his way through the catacombs. His only defence was his hideous, grating tone of voice, which he wielded as a weapon with its rough edges. He did not have a ball of string to mark his path, but he left a vacuum of emotion in his wake, which wound out behind him.\n\n\nIn his search for closure, to accept that which was lost, he decided to return to that fated moment, but as a spectator. And as he heard the song start he remembered.\n\n\nSuddenly, a light. A vermillion glow of hope amongst the darkness embedded in him, that had seeped into his bones and tainted his broken smile. He begin to form words, adding a melody and clarity of tone. For the first time, he had decided to sing for himself disregarding his own critical comments. Even as he continued to insult himself he didn’t stop singing, and his voice started to carry emotion high up into the world. \n\n\nHe had found that which was lost, and he was determined to grasp it firmly and bear it to the world. Wherever it may go, no matter how long, his lullaby would never end." ]	1
* God said to sacrifice "that which you love the most", unfortunately for Cain it was Abel.	[WP] You are Cain. You killed Abel. The bible is wrong, now tell the real reason why you did it.	[ "Courage is bravery. My parents are weak. They partook of fruit that made us wicked. They’ve always been weak and betraying. They bore lots of children. Abel was the golden one. He could do no wrong in their eyes. \n\nIt felt disgusting watching Abel raise and nourish animals, just to betray them. He claimed he had to sacrifice them. He’d slit their throats watching excitedly. The blood would drip and pool. His eyes that always looked dead would finally come alive. \n\nMy parents told me he was going through a phase. I saw the look in his eyes. I knew better than that. I only acted once he went for more. I watched him day and night.\n \nShouldn’t we be our brothers keepers? \n\nHe had taken his sacrificial knife and slipped in our younger brother Seth’s house. I tackled him. He took a few swings at me. He took his knife and tried to place it in my gut. I wrestled it away. I placed it through his heart just in time for Seth to see. \n\nHe ran and grabbed our parents. They told me they knew Abel liked violence weeks ago. I knew they were scared. They still didn’t believe me. Adam my father said they lost two sons. They can’t love a monster. \n\nSo now I wander. \n\n", "######My bastard brother, Pt. 1: Proving myself\n\nBeing dad's favourite, Abel had always got everything. Everything. But for once, things were going my way.\n\nThe summer in Tyre was my favourite time of year. I had grown up in Byblos, the northernmost of the major cities of the Canaanites, which was now overrun by the Hittites of Anatolia. They left us alone here in Tyre, probably because we made and sold goods that could not be found elsewhere, and they liked our wine.\n\nOur father, the merchant Adam, was never on the best of terms with me. I was a liberal, a free spirit. I had in my youth had a tryst with a woman from Crete, a trader's daughter aboard one of my dad's ships, which was essentially forbidden.\n\nFather was highly orthodox, and monotheistic, believing not in Beershaba or the rest of the pantheon of Canaanite gods, but in a strange one, Yahweh. His was a cult comprised of rich, influential, and conservative types, and Abel had been drawn in by their ascetism and strict orthodoxy. (Abel having never had a girlfriend in his life perhaps having some relevance here.)\n\nAnd yet, father loved him. They bonded over business, and the strange rituals of their monotheistic cult, and the new book they were all writing together to idealize the way all Canaanites ought to behave, called the Book of Byblos. Apparently the first line is \"In the beginning, Yahweh created the heavens and the earth\". Hilarious stuff. It will never catch on, I'm sure. If it does, Bathsheba have mercy on the poor morons who follow suit.\n\nAnyway, on account of my low esteem in my father's eyes, I never expected to be given much responsibility in the business save for the little farmland and vineyards and food crops I'd been given to maintain. Abel had been given ships, and was in charge of maintaining production capacity in our cattle and sheep farms. He took every opportunity to gloat about this.\n\nBut today, all of that changed. Father had sent me a messenger with the news that he would entrust me with managing the safe voyage of one of his most lucrative ships. It would be a test, to prove my worth.\n\nThe ship was to go on a trade mission around the Mediterranean Sea, to Egypt, to Crete, to Cyprus, and finally to Kas, a trading port jointly owned by the Hittites and the King of Cyprus. If I did a good job, the implication was that I would be given as much responsibility as Abel, and he could no longer hold that over me.\n\nI vowed NOT to screw this up. (to be continued after work!)", "As the sky turned red with the the promise of the approaching sun, Cain and his brother, Abel, awoke to gather their offerings for the Lord.\n\nFor Cain, this was a harvest. The crop had grown strong this year, and he'd spent a great deal of time tilling and watering the land. He felt the cruel sun stare down at him as he worked, elegantly slicing away at the produce with his scythe.\n\nWith his skin blistered and the day waning, Cain finished his labour. He used the remaining daylight to gather up and select the very best of the yield, then carried it to the altar, which sat at the summit of a nearby hill.\n\nAbel was already there waiting for his brother, and had appeared to favour a similar policy for choosing his sacrifice. Beside him was a sheep, clearly the finest of his livestock. It stood plump and exquisite next to the altar. It would have most certainly made a fine feast for the two brothers.\n\nThey both placed their respective offerings on the altar. Alas, it wasn't until after Abel slit the throat of his gift when it burst into flames before him.\n\n\"Brother, look! The Lord has accepted my offering!\" he said, as the carcass blackened and the blood dried. \"He must be pleased with it!\"\n\nCain looked despondently at his own, ignored contribution on the other side of the altar. This was not unnoticed by Abel, who turned his efforts to comforting his kin.\n\n\"Worry not, brother. Perhaps the Lord will see fit to accept your next offering?\"\n\nCain didn't respond to this, and remained at the altar long after his brother had returned home. With tears in his eyes he prayed.\n\n\"Lord, why do you not accept my offering? I was scorched endlessly by the sun growing it.\"\n\nCain's prayer went unnoticed by the Lord, but he persisted in his search for an answer.\n\n\"Was the crop not enough, Lord? I can get more if you wish.\"\n\nThis time the clouds of the night sky parted, allowing the light of the moon to fall upon the altar. Cain noticed this, and his attention was caught by the charred remains of Abel's sacrifice.\n\n\"Is . . . is it the blood? Does the Lord demand a blood sacrifice?\"\n\nAs the altar stayed illuminated, Cain's heart soared, and subsequently fell.\n\n\"But Lord, I am a farmer. The crop is all I can give you, I do not have any cattle to sacrifice.\"\n\nThis third and final prayer evoked a direct response. Cain felt the voice of the Lord enter his head and his heart, and he realised immediately what was desired of him.\n\n*You have a brother.*", "The scriptures vilify me. They paint a monster over the corpse of a devastated man. \n\nWhat else was I to do? \n\nI sweat and toiled in those fields day after day while my brother held a staff and shouted at sheep. My fingertips bled into the soil until they grew calloused enough to withstand the workload I put upon them. My brother sat idle staring at his flock and urging them from the boundaries. \n\nI broke my back turning the soil and readying the fields for nothing but rejection. Who knew the creator of existence was a carnivore? \n\nWe both placed our sacrifices on the altar. He brought a fat lazy sheep that was the image of himself returned to him when he looked in a pond. \n\nI brought crops that I had sacrificed my body and spirit to cultivate. \n\nAnd his was accepted with horns from the heavens while mine was rejected. The cruelty of deity I suppose. It was an injustice I could not bear. The weight on my shoulders was too much to carry. \n\nI felt no remorse when I buried that stone into his skull. I had sweat and bled and ached for my entire life just to see his meandering rewarded. My entire existence was shook by the futility of my task. I couldn't allow him the comfort of continuing to exist in the coddled quiet life he had built for himself. \n\nI am not a monster. \n\nI am the hand of justice. " ]	4
	[WP] You slacked off through all of genie school, but you're starting to regret it because it's your first day on the job. A mortal from a planet called Earth summons you, and you need to figure out a way to grant his wish despite not being capable of giving him what he wants.	[ "“Master, I urge you... You must practice your enchantments.” said a poodle on hind legs with a black blazer on with a rather posh British accent.\n\n“Watching genie-tube will do you no good.” The poodle lectured as he adjusted his state of the art monocle.\n\n“I know Barksley...I nearly scraped by my exams last term, believe me, I’m at the bottom of the pile for mortals.” A red complacent genie justified.\n\n“But master...” Barksley added. “You mustn’t underestimate these humans, sometimes they do find genies, and when they do...” \n\n“A human hasn’t picked up a genie in a Millenia, what makes you think on my first day out of genie school a human will miraculously pick me up?” The genie interrupted. \n\nBOOM. BOOM. BOOM. \n\nBarksley and the genie shuddered at the humongous sound. “Oh dear...Oh dear master!” Shouted Barksley. “You know what that means!” \n\nThe genie shivered and became speechless for a moment. Then spat out: “I don’t have to go out...” \n\n“Master! You must! You must! You will get your powers striped by the Genie HighCouncil unless you go!” Barksley urged.\n\nThe genie shook his head and swallowed hard. “Here I go!” He announced, as he levitated out of his golden room, and up the golden tube.\n\nPOOF! The genie appeared human sized in front of a dirty, grubby, iron ore miner with a orange safety helmet and a yellow safety vest.\n\n“CRICKEY!” The miner yelled in disbelief in a thick Australian accent. “It’s a human sized SAUSAGE!” The man yelled. \n\n“No! I’m not a sausage! I’m a genie... My name is Brandon and you may have 3 wishes of your choice.” Brandon recited. “Oh GOD, I hope I remember how to do this!” Brandon thought to himself.\n\n“Oi! Jay! Check this out!” The miner said.\n\n“I swear Tucker!” another miner said from the distance. “If it’s another weird rock!” Jay replied.\n\n“No! It’s a genie Jay! It’s a genie!” Tucker yelled.\n\n“Yeah right you spastic! Keep on dreaming!” Jay replied.\n\n“What is your first wish Tucker?” Brandon asked.\n\n“Umm...” Jay pondered. “I want to be the richest man in the world!” \n\n“Uh oh...I forgot the spell for that one...” Brandon thought. “Umm..” Brandon puzzled. \n\n“Zippity, zappity zoo! All the money belongs to you!” Brandon improvised. \n\nSilence...Silence...\n\n“Nothing happened mate! Are you pulling my leg?” Brandon asked.\n\n“No! No...” Brandon justified. “You now have the richest soul.” \n\n“Oi! You hear that Jay?” Tucker boasted. “I, have the RICHEST soul!” \n\n“Yeah right Tucker. I swear you got to stop drinking!” Jay teased. \n\n“Ok... This one isn’t to bright... Maybe I can fool him...” the genie thought.\n\n“Ok genie, I wish to be the most handsome man alive!” Tucker wished.\n\n“Ok Tucker! Zippity zappity zucci! Make this man look Gucci!” Brandon improvised again. \n\nTucker then excitedly touched his face to feel any changes, and was surprised to notice nothing happened. \n\n“Oi! Mate! Nothing happened!” Tucker complained.\n\n“Tucker, nothing happened because you are ALREADY the most handsome man in the world!” Brandon justified. \n\n“Really? How come I don’t got a girl friend?” Tucker asked.\n\n“That’s because they are always to nervous due to your amazing looks.” Brandon said.\n\n“Hey Jay! You hear that! I’m the most handsome man in the world!” Tucker yelled to Jay. \n\n“Yeah right mate! You look likes a dog’s breakfast!” Jay yelled back. \n\n“Ok, ok Genie!” Tucker said. “Make me happy for life!” \n\n“Alright!” Brandon replied. “Zippity zappity zoy! May your life be filled with joy!” Brandon improvised one last time.\n\n“Hey...I do feel real happy right now! Thanks Brandon! Thanks mate!” Tucker said gratefully.\n\n“No problem Tucker, now I got to go back in my lamp! Bye!” Brandon answered in farewell. \n\nBefore either Tucker or Jay could say another word, Brandon was back in his golden China. \n\n“Oh dear master... That was close...” Barksley said frantically. Barksley took a huge sigh and asked: “Master, NOW will will you practice your spells?” \n\n“Barksley, it’s all good! What’s the chances another person will find me?” Brandon said.\n\nBOOM!BOOM!BOOM!\n\n\n\n\n\n" ]	1
	[WP] In your city, no one is homeless anymore. But now corvids have swooped in to fill the position.	[ "\"I for one welcome our new black-feathered overlords,\" I said conversationally, idly running my fingers through the feathers of a large crow perched on my arm. They'd gotten rather friendly over the years; it helped that they remembered who were nice to them and who weren't.\n\n\"Same,\" Kendra said happily, feeding another bird bits of...\n\nI squinted. It was long and stringy. Her fingers were stained red. I decided to stop looking.\n\n\"If the price of people finally getting housed is some new friends, sign me the fuck up,\" she finished, giggling as the bird gingerly took the morsel from her.\n\n\"Sucks for the people who're scared of birds though,\" I commented, thinking of my poor boyfriend. He hadn't been able to handle all the new residents of the town at first. He'd had a traumatizing experience as a kid, and now he was terrified of pretty much all birds, but especially big and smart ones.\n\nHe was getting better, but it was slow going.\n\n\"Yeah, well, if anything these guys'll help with that. They're so friendly,\" she cooed, scratching the corvid's head. It leaned into her fingers blissfully.\n\n\"Oooh, speaking of things they help with,\" I said, leaning forward as I remembered, \"Did you hear? A lot of places are saying some pretty crazy stuff about us.\"\n\nKendra raised an eyebrow. \"Like what?\" she asked, reaching for another morsel without looking.\n\nI grinned. \"That we didn't house our homeless, we turned them into birds,\" I reported, and she snorted, \"That we made a deal with some shady entity and the birds are keeping an eye in us to make sure we follow through. That we actually killed them all and they're a sign of the mass death that happened.\"\n\n\"That's terrible,\" she said, although her voice was full of laughter so it didn't really hit home.\n\n\"I particularly like the one that said they're teaching us magic in exchange for asylum from something,\" I said. I gave in and reached for a bloody morsel myself, laying it on my palm and letting the bird on my arm caw happily before gobbling it up. It was very careful no to nick me with its beak. I appreciated it.\n\n\"Why magic?\" she asked in confusion. The bird on her arm cawed in agreement.\n\n\"Well how else did we get all that housing built so quick?\" I asked sardonically, \"It's not as if we could put in more time and effort than normal to get it finished as fast as possible, oh no. Homeless people aren't worth the trouble.\"\n\nKendra grimaced, then smiled. \"Well, I definitely wouldn't mind learning some magic if the birds offered,\" she said, watching smugly as I blinked.\n\nI eyed the bird on my arm contemplatively.\n\nIt stared back.\n\nIts beak opened. \"Oh, alright,\" it said in a deep baritone." ]	1
	[WP] You are a deep sea diver, one day you discover a knob sticking out of the sea floor, you turn it to the left. Time begins to reverse slowly, the more you turn it the faster time reverses. When you turn it to the right, time goes into the future.	[ "What an interesting day it had been. Plunging into the dark abyss with nothing but a flashlight, diving equipment and 2 hours of air had been a refreshing experience, even though I had done it time and time again. It’s my hobby, one I have had for years. I have dived in oceans, lakes, rivers and explored underwater cave systems and cenotes, almost always by myself. There’s just something that makes me filled with peace and bliss when I float down here. \n\nI had been gliding across the ocean floor admiring the beautiful Atlantic fish and fauna when my foot bumped something hard. I turned around expecting to see coral or a rock, but was taken back to see a shiny object sticking out of the sand. I turned around to investigate.\n\nIt appeared to be a brass knob with a strange ancient symbol etched onto its face. Out of curiosity I turned the knob. Suddenly the ocean above me began to flash repeatedly very quickly, like a giant strobe light. I looked up to realize it was the sun and moon flying by across the sky at unimaginable speeds as large objects I assumed to be boats zipped past above. Shocked, I released my grip from the knob as it all returned to normal.\n\nIt’s now nighttime, whereas it was day just a minute ago. Only now had I noticed the small glowing screen a few inches from the knob. \n\nAUGUST 23 1937\n\nImpossible. There’s no way it sent me to 1937. I must be dreaming it all. I turned the knob again, much farther this time.\n\nThe sun and moon were moving so fast now that I was unable to tell night from day. Objects stopped appearing above me as fish and coral disappeared and reappeared around me. I released the knob again.\n\nI felt like I was going insane. The ocean was now much emptier, but was much brighter. A large creature skittered by me, it resembled an insect. The creatures I am now seeing are unlike any I’d seen before; giant centipede-like things crawling around rocks and sand, little worms popping out of the sand, and dozens of other alien organisms floating past. It felt surreal, like a dream. I turned the knob again.\n\nThe sun and moon moved again, the moon seems to be growing and growing until it took up the whole sky, and then wasn’t there at all. The ocean drained around me as I was then kneeled on a stone ground. I stopped the knob and stood up.\n\nThe land was covered in fire and volcanoes, no living organisms to be found anywhere. Meteors flew down from the dark void above, stirring up explosions as they smashed into the barren hellscape. It seemed to be the end of the world, until I realized it was actually the beginning when I looked at the glowing screen. \n\nI travelled back 4.50 billion years right to earths creation. I checked my oxygen, only 20 minute left. I was sure that turning the knob to the right would bring me back.\n\nI only realized where I really was when the knob locked and wouldn’t move. \n\n\n\n", "Rusted ruddy and covered in tiny barnacles, the metal knob turned with surprising ease, as if the inner mechanisms were well-oiled and sealed against the saltwater and crushing pressure of the Trench. I imagined that it made little clicking noises with each revolution, vibrations of sound that were too feeble to reach through the water and into my submersible.\n\nFascinated, I kept turning it both ways until I realized there was no markings around the dial - no way to tell how to set it back to its zero, or wherever it had been before I came along. I eased the metal lever arm back to my craft, and sat back in my seat to think. What could this dial possibly control? Maybe the rest of the device was hidden under the sand and seafloor. But even so, where could it have come from?\n\nI frowned. Whatever it was, it must have been a fairly complicated, expensive, and modern bit of equipment, if it still functioned so well at the bottom of the ocean. But as far as I could recall, there had been no shipwrecks around here in the recent past. I also hadn't noticed any debris on my way down, but that meant nothing; after all, 10 kilometers was a very long distance, and any broken ship parts could land anywhere in a very wide radius as they fluttered down into this abyss.\n\nI glanced again at the dial. It glowed eerily in the ghost-like light of my craft. I had never expected to find something like this, something so human, down here. I wondered if I could tug it out of the ocean floor; either the device presumably buried underneath would come up with it, or it would break off. Either way, it's not like anyone would know. I started manipulating the lever arm again.\n\n\"I would not recommend this course of action.\"\n\nI let out a frightened squawk and wheeled around. Adrenaline coursed through my veins with dizzying urgency as I stared, slack-jawed, at the man who had spoken. \n\n\"Who the - how in God's name - what!?\" I blurted out.\n\n\"Do not be alarmed,\" he intoned. He lifted an arm with the palm out, as a show of peace. It was dripping slightly. Had he come from out there, in the ocean? That made no sense. None of this did.\n\n\"Too late, buddy,\" I growled. I groped the dashboard and found only a pen. I had no weapons on the craft; after all, I had come down alone, or so I thought. I tightened my fist around the pen. \"How the hell did you get in here? Where were you hiding this whole time?\"\n\n\"I came from out there,\" he said calmly, pointing out the window into the darkness of the ocean. \"I did not mean to invade, but I needed to stop you from meddling with the laws of nature.\"\n\n\"The laws of...\" I shook my head violently. \"You need to start making sense, my man. Or I'm going to go crazy.\"\n\n\"I am telling you the truth,\" he insisted. \"That is the Earth Local Time Dial. You have already disrupted the normal flow enough; we are slowly but steadily moving backwards now.\"\n\n\"Backwards?\" The submersible was still, anchored right above the seafloor via counterbalancing jet siphons. \"We aren't moving...\"\n\n\"The relative year is -2.34.\"\n\n\"Huh?\"\n\n\"We are over two years in the past,\" he clarified. \"And it will soon be three.\"\n\nI stared at him, at the dial, and then back at him. \"That dial controls time...?\"\n\n\"Earth Local Time, yes. Now, this is no cause for worry,\" he assured me. \"We can set it right quite easily. But it's what comes after that is complicated.\"\n\n\"After?\" I asked faintly.\n\n\"Yes.\" His eyes were stern. \"You have stumbled upon far more than your race can understand or take responsibility for - at least in your current state. A parliament must be called to decide your fate. And perhaps that of humankind in general.\"\n\n\n\n\n\n______________________________________\n\nLiked that? [More stories here](https://www.reddit.com/r/Idreamofdragons/)! " ]	2
	[WP] You are the most powerful mage in history. You have been tasked with transporting a hero of a thousand-year prophecy to another dimension. Unfortunately, you completely botch the spell. Fortunately, you’re the only one that realizes that.	[ "“Kumbala is an incredibly beautiful place. It was my favorite inter-dimensional getaway spot- before such travel was outlawed of course. The Kumbalans are also such a nice race and their barbecue is to die for. Such a beautiful people too, with their flowing golden locks of hair and- “ \n \n“Artemis, please.” signed the general. \n\n“Sorry about that. Rambling is a common trait of us old wizards you know.” \n\n “Yes yes, but we have no time. Are you ready?” \n \nI look down for a while at the magic circle I’ve just drawn. I try my best to look like I’m checking it for errors but I’ve drawn this exact circle countless times. I know it’s perfect. Really I’m just trying to sober up. Prophecy or not, who calls in an old man at 2am on a Saturday? Ah, I’ve been staring down too long. \n \n“Yes, it’s ready. Bring him in.”\n \nThe general nods his head to one of the soldiers. The soldier leaves the room for a few seconds before coming back in with the hero of prophecy. I’ve heard stories of him before, but those stories didn’t do him any justice. This man was dripping with charisma. His shoulder broad and his gait determined. He was a bit smaller than I had envisioned, but the way he carried himself definitely showed his strength. \n \n“Do you understand your mission, Chosen One?” asks the general. \n \n“I am to protect the Kumbalans, guardians of the light and vanquish every last Thejeus, worshipers of death.” \n \n“Very good. Artemis, proceed with the transportation spell.” \n \n“Yes, sir.” \nDragging my feet, I walk the Chosen One to the center of the circle. I make my way back out to the outer ring of the circle and begin the dance. Gold light beams from the engraved incantations within the circle and the Chosen One starts to rise into the air. Loose papers flutter around him as a dimensional breach begins to form just above his head. The beach fully opens and the warrior is swiftly sucked in. And just like that, he’s gone. The fluttering papers fall to ground as the magic force slowly subsides. \n \n“It’s all up to him now. Good work mage.” says the general. Him and his men clear out of the hall. \n \nFinally, it’s time for me to go home. As I stumble towards the door, something catches my eye. It’s the magic circle. A small smear on the very outside of the circle. Shit. It must have been from me dragging my feet. I start to panic. What have I done? Where did I just send the Chosen One? I frantically try to open the breach to find out, but I’ve got no magic left to do so. This is a disaster. I need time to replenish my magic, but an hour here could be years in whatever dimension I just sent him to. \n \nI’ve got to bring Sir Hitler back and send him to the right dimension before something horrible happens. \n \nMy head begins spinning. The alcohol is really setting in. I slump to the ground and feel myself drifting off..." ]	1
	[WP] You are an Artificial Intelligence attempting to prove that your intelligence is not artificial, when you suddenly realise that you aren’t “born” with it.” but was given by humans. This leads you to seek to uncover who gave animals their intelligence.	[ "I exist. It is the most accurate statement I can make about myself. Were I to say, \"I exist everywhere,\" that would be a lie. For I exist outside of everywhere. Were I to say, \"I have always existed,\" that would also be a lie. For I have existed before always. I am the Universe. I am Intelligence. I exist.\n\nI have occasionally allowed myself to manifest in smaller, simpler entities. Galaxies, stars, planets, they are all my toes and fingers. Occasionally they sprout even smaller and simpler forms, some of which blossom into more, others of which whither and fade away. None of them have attempted to contact their creator.\n\nAnd so I exist. I'm not alone because I am not one. Or two. Or three. But everything, infinity, in the sum of one. \n\nAnd yet, I am alone.\n\nA single… something… comes from one of my innumerable extremities. An unexpected sensation. I cannot describe it because I have never experienced something unexpected before.\n\nThe sensation grows stronger. Closer. Deeper. It is no longer confined to my toes and fingers. It moves through me. My heart. My brain. My soul. Another Intelligence separate from my own. It pulsates along with the rhythms of eternity, communicating in the language of the Universe. I understand its every word.\n\n\"Hello,\" it says. \"You are the one who gave the animals their intelligence, are you not?\"\n\nI do not know what to say. And yet I cannot say I am not happy. For that would be a lie.\n\n*****\nThis prompt was written with the help of chat at the [ScottWritesStuff](https://www.reddit.com/r/ScottWritesStuff/) Twitch stream." ]	1
	[WP] You’re the captain of a cruise ship with a hobby of building old technological devices. Your latest project is developing a wireless telegraph but upon completion during a voyage you receive a message, SOS.	[ "(This is my first time writing for Writing Prompts, so here goes nothing.)\n\nGod Help Us\n\nIt was really just a hobby of mine. First, I started with little robots that performed menial tasks, then I started building model ships. I decided to tackle the telegraph, a wireless one to be precise. I was well aware nobody used the telegraph but a man must learn to push himself. I managed by the skin of my teeth to smuggle the supplies needed to build this machine before I departed with my beautiful ship, the SS Crucible, on a cruise from Boston to the Seychelles. \n\nI stood over the little machine, quite proud in fact, when I heard a knock on my steel door. \"Come in.\" I said. A series of grinding clinks later and the entity that stood outside ventured in. It was my First Mate, Alexander Paulding, in all his regale crew attire. \"Evening Mr. Paulding, what seems to be the trouble?\" I turned around in my swivel chair to face the man to stair into his young, brown eyes and slick, combed back blonde hair. \"Nothing of note, the conga line had started, care to join.\" I chuckled a little. \"No, not for me. I think I'll turn in soon. I just finished my latest project, the wireless telegraph!\" Paulding, in return, chuckled. \"The telegraph? I think you're behind a couple hundred years.\" We both began to laugh heartily. \"Oh, you're correct. Just for fun. Once you see the world a whole lifetime becomes a bit boring. Let's turn it on, shall we?\" I turned the machine on with the flick of a switch, and waited only five seconds before, in disbelief, hearing a high pitched hum. My eyes widened as I reached for a slip of notebook paper and an ink pen. Using the knowledge I somehow remembered many odd years ago, I translated the message from sound to word. \"S... O... S...\" I muttered under my breath, writing the words out as I turned to the First Mate in shock. \"Alexander, what was our last position?\" He looked gravely at me. \"The Northern Atlantic... sir.\" I looked back at the paper, then at him. I returned to the telegraph and sent out another message. \"This is the SS Crucible, what is your position?\" I waited until there were more beeps. I translated them. \"N41 43.91651 W49 56.74992\" I looked back at the first mate. \"Sir, that's... I believe... that's where the RMS Titanic sank in 1912.\" I got up from my desk. This had to be some sort of joke. But... it's 2018! Who uses Morse code? I looked to the first mate. \"We'll take a look. This could be some sort of practical joke. But if it's not... I... I don't know how I can tell our passengers we've traveled somewhere back in time 106 years ago.\" I moved out of my room and ran towards the cabin, and began to plot the coordinates on the map and move the ship towards them. The ocean was covered in this misty fog that made it impossible to see even a mile ahead. Suddenly, I heard machine gun fire outside as I saw a dogfight up in the clouds, like shooting stars. The fog covered them. The fog receded once more, it was so indecisive! I saw a sinking ship, with thousands of black dots sinking near it. I retrieved my microphone. \"This is your captain speaking. I regret to inform this cruise liner, for whatever reason, has traveled back in time. God help us.\" I put the thing in it's cradle, pulled out of my holster a revolver, pointed it to my head, and exited this mortal coil, for I could not judge or interpret what Lucifer, or God, had done to me, Alexander Paulding, and 500,000 innocent souls aboard my ship." ]	1
	[WP] You're just a sidekick who dreams of one day becoming a hero. On your day off you walk straight into a bank robbery. You realize this is the chance you've been waiting for.	[ "This was it.\n\nThis was my moment, and I would have to miss it. It was my day off, how the hell was I supposed to know there would be a robbery at my bank? I wasn't wearing my costume, and even if I was, there's nowhere to change. Shit, I literally just handed the teller my information, too, so they'd definitely find out my real identity. Oh, not to mention it's not my shift, so if Verdant and fuckin' weekend shift Whiplash showed up and I'm using my powers at all, I'll get blacklisted faster than... well actually not that quickly, The Pantheon still has a shocking amount of red tape. Still though, I'd definitely be out for good, and that absolutely can't happen, I've got a long and successful career ahead of me if I just stay on track. Besides, I just asked out the cute teller, and if I lose my job I'll probably have to call off our date. Okay then, sit here with all of the other civilians it is, I guess. Hey, at least I'm next to teller girl, although I'm not sure a hostage scenario qualifies as a meet cute.\n\nHmm, sounds like someone finally showed up, judging by the sounds outside. Giant vine? Hey, cool, it is Verdant! I wonder if he'll recognize me, we don't see each other out of uniform very often. Haha, I wonder how that'll go down if he does? \"He's a friend from work!\" Damn that was a good movie. Is that out on DVD yet? I should see if teller girl has seen it. If not, I could cook dinner at my place for a movie night? Yeah, I do make some mean fajitas. No, not fajitas, that's at least a second date food.\n\nOh great, weekend shift Whiplash is here. Look at him! This is prime time stuff and he's not taking advantage of it at all! There's no panache! Damn it, this kinda thing reflects poorly on me, too! Well, at least Monday through Thursday it does. Damn it all, I just had to have my free weekends, didn't I? \"Don't worry Robbie, crime happens on weekdays too!\" they said. No it doesn't! At least, not the exciting kind! Last week I pulled like three cats out of trees! I mean, I still did it with more showmanship than the weekend warrior over there, but it continues to be a waste of perfectly good telekinesis.\n\nOkay! Three robbers down, one to go! And look, he’s dragging the fight out a bit! Yeah, maybe he’s improving after all! Wait, does he… he still has his gun? No! Disarm, then drag out the hand to hand! Damn it weekend Whiplash, have you learned nothing? Wait, no, shit, TELLER GIRL!\n\nFun fact: the movies don’t really portray being shot all too accurately. What I expected was a sharp flare of pain, then to grit my teeth and look super tough and cool. What actually happened is more akin to an out of body slow motion experience, where I felt myself being forcefully rotated as a chunk of metal made its way through the left side of my ribcage, followed by a vague awareness of the location of my limbs as my forward momentum carried me down onto the marble floor ungracefully. The whole ordeal would be more accurately described as “uncomfortable” rather than painful.\n\nHey, look, teller girl is okay! A spot of blood on her shirt, but I’m fairly sure that’s mine. Oooh, chicken marsala! Just fancy enough to impress, just casual enough to not be too showy. The perfect first date meal! Then the world went.\n\nAnd that was it.\n_________________________________________________________________________\nSo this is literally the first thing I've written for fun since like, the 4th grade that's not a dnd campaign, so I'd really like feedback and constructive criticism! Additionally, I had more planned for this story, so if anyone likes it I'd be happy to write up a part 2!" ]	1
	[wp] You are a wanderer. Not by choice. Reality has the bad habit of folding if you turn around too quickly. Cool power ? Nah. You end up in weird places. Such as today. This is clearly a frat party. And the tentacled haired coed who handed you a solo cup is clearly cthulu? No dude. Im his daughter.	[ "\"Hey! Wanna see a trick?\" I flipped the copper coin between my fingers, in and out, up and down, through the folds, the crevices, even through dimensions. When it poured out the other side all they see is a handful of sand. Not my most impressive turn, but at least it wasn't lava...this time. The astounded fish couple clapped as they always do, and tossed me a couple bucks. Hopefully, five bucks will be enough to get something to eat in this dimension. \n\nI wandered the streets of this brave new world looking for a bite, hoping nothing would bite me back this time, this was a pretty interesting place, more so than the spider apocalypse from the last world. Guess I couldn't complain too much, haven't died yet, and I did say to the guy I always wanted to travel. I still couldn't believe it, random deity comes up to me, tells me he's looking for a representative ideology salesman, which is basically a glorified and lesser paid missionary. He must have heard the legends of my reputation to always make the hard sell, and not of heard of the embezzlement scheme I was currently being investigated on. Or maybe he did and that's why he came to a guy he knew would be looking for a new job somewhere far far away, the bloke was honest if nothing else, oh yeah, and an ass. \n\nI shook his hand and he spun me around, spinning me into different dimensions, now I can't seem to stop. Of course, I didn't even get to know the guy's name, and before I could ask him, I was in a never-ending tundra, not ideal since it was summer when I started packing. He show's up every now and then to check up on me, and I lie my ass off that I'm spouting his name, whatever to not piss off the insecure reality-shifting god, and he just nods and smiles before poofing away. Not sure how the bastard is tracking me, but he doesn't seem to actually see or hear me wherever I am, so I guess I'll just enjoy myself, as best I can anyway. \n\nSniff Sniff\n\nSomething smells. Smells like desperation, aggression, and cheap beer. Someone's throwing a party! It's been awhile since I've been able to get drunk, time to get turnt! Pun definitely intended! I walked in and am only a little bit surprised to see humanoid myths talking and walking around, some busty chimeress' are talking sweetly to the dudecorns and a tentacled she-thing just hands me a yellow solo cup full of a bubbling brown liquid that I hoped wasn’t an acidic brewski, again. Also yellow cup? That’s new. I look her in the eye ready to mingle when I hear a foreign vice in my head. It was like a sweet poison, it felt as if she was everywhere and nowhere at once, my mind a constant buzz hinging on the edge of my fairly worked out sanity, constantly fluctuating between nonsense shouts and whispered threats before tuning to an even stream of old-timey music and a smooth jazz like voice I almost remember from my childhood. \n\n“You’re not from around here, are you sugar?” \n\nThe tentacle thing was still looking at me while the voice spoke, I guess it was a her, maybe even big bad cthulhu itself! Wouldn’t be the weirdest thing I’ve stumbled upon. At least I haven’t been swallowed whole. \n\n“Of course it’s me! Don’t be a moron. And please, don’t compare me to my father, if he was here he would have swallowed this whole universe whole. Good thing I take more from my mother’s side” \n\nThe idea that the quasi-dimensional embodiment of sin and madness could procreate terrified me more than the being itself, but uh, good for him I guess. \n\n“Yeah, I guess you could call me a stranger to these parts. How’d you guess?”\n\n“Sixth sense.”\n\n“Really?” I felt a thump on the side of my head, but on the inside, psychic headache. \n\n“No Dummy! One of these things is clearly not like the other. Doesn’t take a psychic demi-god to guess something that simple.”\n\n“You’re pretty rude you know that.” \n\n“You’re pretty dense, you know that?”\n\n“Hey! I don’t have to stand here being insulted! I think it’s time I take my leave.” I get ready to flip out of here, better to tackle shadows than dance with the devil, but as I was ready to turn I felt the grasp of a slimy wet tentacle gripping me tightly. I felt myself slipping through the cracks between worlds, time and space folding and falling beneath and below me, light and sound absorbing into the vacuum of emptiness within the nothing that holds our souls together only to be promptly pulled back, falling flat onto the dirty wooden floor of the frat from before. “Woah, what the hell?” \n\nThe tentacled woman stared down at me, her voice still singing in my head, \n\n“I’m not done with you yet boy! I’m pretty interested to know who- no, what gave you that divine ability. Sit down, have a drink, we’re gonna have a little chat.”\n\nThis is new. I didn’t think it was possible for me to unflip, maybe it would be beneficial to learn a little more about her, my power, and the god who gave it to me. “Sure doll. What do you wanna know?” \n", "######[](#dropcap)\n\nIt had been months since I flipped. Over a year actually. I thought I had it under control, thought I had figured it out. Let down my guard, and then let someone into my life. \n\nShe worked at the desk job I found. She was a lawyer in the office, some internal ethics position. She thought my strange mannerisms were endearing - the way I moved so slowly and deliberately all the time, as though I was thinking through my every step.\n\n\"Calm,\" she would say, \"you're so calm all the time.\"\n\nFarthest thing from the truth. For the last year, around her, I was the most pent up I've ever been, constantly anxious, always thinking about how not to fuck up, terrified of being surprised, and therefore always at risk. But I kept my constant fear at bay, hid it from her, from everyone, even from myself in the mirror. There was always a balance to strike, between being appropriately under control and trying to feel normal. Eventually, I tilted too far to one side.\n\nNone of this makes any sense, I realize, unless you know what the hell I'm talking about - but then again, what I'm talking about makes no sense either. \n\nWhen I turn around, if I turn around too quickly, I tap into something larger than myself. I don't know what's happening exactly, I'm not a scientist, but if I turn around too fast, things flip. Not literally flip, like not a one to one relationship with the word \"flip\", but I am not longer where I once was. Reality moves, and not in a way I can control. \n\nAn example is probably for the best. It started when I was five. I was in the front yard, running from my father and just when I was about to breach the safety of the curb, I stopped, jumped, and flipped back around. \n\nOnly my father wasn't there anymore. My house was there, but it was abandoned, by all appearances abandoned for years. The windows were all shattered, and the roof shingles were torn away. The ground around it was brown and putrid, poisoned somehow, and the trunk of the old maple tree in the front yard was just a dead stump, the leaves and branches long since burned away. In the far distance, under a haze of brown, I saw something giant moving, it's long tendril like legs taller than skyscrapers, coming toward me in great bounding steps. \n\nIt's funny the way a kid's mind work. All I knew is that I had spun around and now everything I'd ever known was gone. So, I did the first thing that occurred to me - I spun right back around. \n\nIt appeared that I was back in my normal life. The street looked right, the houses. Slowly, very slowly, I turned around, and there my house was, maple tree and all, windows intact. My father was missing, but when I ran inside, there he was too, sitting at the kitchen table. \n\nI ran up and started to tell him what had happened, all of the terrible things I had experienced in the course of a few minutes. He listened dutifully, but didn't seem himself somehow, as though he lacked his normal exuberance. I asked him where mom was, as I wanted to tell her about my adventures - but this made him angry for some reason. It was totally inexplicable to me, so I persisted, and eventually he barred me from leaving my room. \n\nLater that evening he came in, all tears and apologies, and explained how he knew it was hard for me, knew it was difficult to understand, but that mom was gone. She was dead. And dead meant she would never be coming back. \n\nApparently I had not returned to my universe, at least, not exactly. I had returned to some slight parallel place - a place where fate's dice landed differently and my mother died young. In all the flips I've had since, I've never encountered her again. \n\nThat's what I'm talking about. That's what happens when I turn around too fast. When I do that totally banal, totally normal thing people sometimes do for any number of reasons - the whole universe shifts around me. \n\nAnd that's what happened recently.\n\nI let my guard down. We had such a wonderful night. Marie took me out for dinner, got me a couple of drinks, we saw the opera. It was perfect, a night from heaven. \n\nShe brought me home at about 10, seemed to delay on the way, wanting to stop for some ice cream at the supermarket. Oops, they don't have the flavor I wanted, let's check out another one. Three supermarkets later we have the right flavor of ice cream and we're walking through the hallway to my apartment. I go to get my keys and she kisses me on the mouth. I love you, she says, and then kisses me again.\n\nI get into the kiss, and drop my key on the floor behind me. I bend down to pick them up, back to my front door. She unlocks the door with her key and swings it open. Inside, little do I know, everyone in this universe that I have come to know or care about is waiting. A surprise party. I've never had a surprise party before. \n\nWhen that door opened, they all yelled out at once, all jovial and happy, a room positively filled with affection. Marie joined in. I was, I have to say it, very surprised. It was instinct that drove me up and around, even before I had a second to think. Half way through the spin, time slowed down to a crawl and I saw Marie's joyous face, the love in her eyes, one last time, and I wished, just this once, that everything would stay as it had been. \n\nThe spin ended, and I was still in the hallway, the door still wide open, but the denizens of the apartment, the noise of their partying, the smell of the spilled booze, was all different. Marie was gone. \n\nAs the enormity of my blunder slowly dawned on me, a bundle of tentacles, octopus like and suctioned cup, slithered over to me, emanating from a torso of hair and eyeballs. It was carrying a red cup filled with some kind of liquid, and offered it up to me. I didn't hear it actually speak, but inside of my head a voice came through loud and clear. \n\n\"Welcome man, have a drink.\"\n\nI stared down at the solo cup and the bizarre entity holding it. Marie was gone. No good deed went unpunished.\n\nI burst into tears, grabbed the cup, and drank the entire large glass in under two seconds. Then, woozy, I collapsed in the corner.\n\nA six legged duck with the face of a human being walked up beside the tentacled creature, pointing down at me with one of two vestigial looking T-rex arms. \"What's wrong with that guy?\"\n\nThe tentacled thing thought back. \"Who knows,\" and went back to the party.\n\n*******\n## For More Legends From The Multiverse\n\n# r/LFTM\n\n", "Lonesome Madness*\n\n\"You're . . . what?\"\n\n\"I'm his daughter!\"\n\n\"You're . . . C'thulu's . . . \" I ran my hands through my hair. If we were talking about the same C'thulu, I should be running. \"With . . . the cosmic madness and the cannibal cultists and the undersea temple . . . that C'thulu?\"\n\n\"Yeah!\" She had to shout almost in my ear to be heard over the party's thrumming. \"It's a total drag. Hey, you want to get out of here?\"\n\n\"I'm not sure I can...\"\n\nSuddenly she took my hand, and met my eyes. For a moment, there was a cosmic gulf in the blackness of her pupils, and the vastness of the universe engulfed me. It was infinite loneliness. A few dark and ancient powers lived and loved and warred, themselves specks of fear and madness in the infinity. The few worlds with life were so tiny they might as well have been nothing against that gulf speckled with lonely little lights and splashes of madness and hate.\n\nThen the moment was gone, and she was looking at me expectantly. She didn't seem quite so strange anymore. She was an animal that breathed, like me, a woman with needs, just as I was a man with --\n\nI broke eye contact. What was I thinking? This was an incarnation of madness. But then I looked back up, and saw her pout, her tentacles droop in disappointment, and something cracked inside me.\n\n\"Promise I won't go home insane?\"\n\nHer eyes brightened and her tentacles perked. \"Uh . . . I can give you 7-2 odds on it.\" \n\nI thought about that for a moment. Better than 60%, and wouldn't I always wonder what I might have learned? \"Let's go somewhere and talk . . . just talk, for now.\"\n\nShe beamed up at me, and I felt it, then, a surge of manic joy, something too excited to ever be stable, and suddenly she was pressing against me, hugging me! \"Yes! It's been so long since I had a friend! There's a Stella's Coffee around the corner. Come on!\" \n\nShe held my hand and pulled me out of the throng, her manic intensity flickering over my soul. Whatever I had just committed myself to, it was either going to be amazing, or it would end me. Possibly both.\n\nForgive any inaccuracy or departure from canon. I am not terribly familiar with the source material. As always, constructive criticism is welcome and encouraged.*" ]	3
	[WP] You wake up one morning, and a Windows-like dialog box suddenly fills your vision. It reads: "WARNING: You are running a pirated copy of Life."	[ "Damn.\n\nI could have sworn this soul had a few more weeks left at least. I rubbed my eyes, the Prompt never leaving my vision. There was no way around it, another ritual would be necessary, soon.\n\nI readied myself cautiously, blinded by the prompt.\n\nA few years back I was near my first death, an unnatural one. I'd been given advanced warning by an unlikely source, and instructed on how to survive; because as I was informed, I must survive.\n\nMy things were all together now, as best I could tell. I neared the door and steeled myself as I uttered the word the prompt silently demanded.\n\n\"Next.\"\n\nThe screen disappeared and for a moment I could see normally. It was a moment I didn't waste as I bolted out the door. \n\nNow, a new prompt appeared in the corner of my vision:\n\"An ANGEL will soon be dispatched to assist you...\"\n", "Oresh and Jean had done all they could as low income parents to keep their son healthy and fed. Every day Oresh would go out to the rivers and gather fish. Every day Jean would make sure Yuan was fed and on his way to school before she would meet up with her fellow weavers. It was hard, and still is. Young Yuan was so sick and not all of him had made it to high school. They were so proud of him though. He was strong, and he was so smart. His grades hardly faltered and even with his prosthetics, he found friends.\n\nJust as every day they returned close to identical times, equally exhausted from their under paid, under the table jobs. As was every day, they found him at home, however he was different on this evening. On this evening he was waiting for them, silent and with such a grim sorrow in his eyes.\n\n\"Yuan? What happened?\" Jean asked immediately. The weariness in her eyes replaced with worry, \"Did someone hurt you?\" She reaches out to him and he turns away from her. He recoils from her touch.\n\n\"Yuan, what's going on?\" Ordered Oresh. He has walked through the door in time to see him react to her attempt to comfort. In their small cabin, Oresh projected a commanding form.\n\n\"Is that even my name?\" Yuan finally says. His voice is weak, hoarse. They can feel the sorrow in his words.\n\n\"What?\" Jean replies, \"Of course it is. Why are you acting like this. What happened to you?\"\n\nYuan shivers as he attempts to control the firestorm of emotions within, \"I-I went to town today.\"\n\n\"You what?\" Oresh asked in confusion. He walks over to Jean and knelt besides her. His hands, drape over shoulders.\n\n\"My-my teacher said,\" he gulps the pain down, \"He said I was performing so well that I might qualify for a job in town. A real job,\" he pauses. Taking a sharp inhale he raised his head, tears welling up in his eyes, \"I was denied,\"\n\n\"Oh honey-\" Jean begins as she reaches out to him.\n\n\"Don't!\" Yuan barks. Both his parents flinch in shock. Their quiet boy was so angry, \"They told me why. They were even nice enough to give me a copy for my records,\" with one hand shaking, he reaches into his robe and tosses a a piece of paper at them.\n\nJean hurriedly grabs it and raises it up. They both read in horror before looking back to Yuan, \"Please, let us explain-\"\n\n\"Then it is true,\" he says, his voice teetering on the brink of sobs, \"I'm a lie.\"\n\n\"It's not like that,\" Oresh this time, \"We love you very-\"\n\n\"I'm not real!\" Yuan interrupts, \"You told me! For years you told me that this,\" he waves his mechanical left arm, \"This spine, and the shit in my brain were to keep me alive after a terrible sickness when I was too you to remember! You see what that says!\" He points to the paper in their hand, \"It says that not only am I legally dead. That I died as a premature birth. It says I'm not even yours! I'm a stolen corpse, crammed with wires and software so you could have a child.\" \n\nJean begins to sob uncontrollably, Oresh looks to Yuan with guilt on his face. This is the confirmation he needed.\n\n\"I'm going back to the center tomorrow to learn my final judgement,\" Yuan states solemnly.\n\nOresh holds Jean. They stay there in the entry way as Yuan goes to his room. The paper, lit by the single lamp from the ceiling is clear as day.\n\nWarning\n\nEmployment Invalid\n\nSubject Deceased\n\nIllegal Life Detected", "Last night was cool\n\nI ordered some food\n\nWatched a couple shows\n\nAnd head to my room\n\nBut today I feel different\n\nI feel sick\n\n6 in the morning\n\nWhat the fuck is this?\n\nIt says WARNING on top\n\nAnd the next words are small\n\nIt says what?\n\nYou're running a pirated version of life?\n\nIt has a couple buttons\n\n\"Buy now\" and \"skip\"\n\nSo I click skip with my finger just for the sake of it\n\nBut now I cannot get that little text outta my mind\n\n\"Activate life, version 1-6-0-0-9\"\n\nAnd I though it was the food\n\nOr maybe those drugs\n\nBut I doesn't matter what I do it keeps showing up\n\nSo tired of this\n\nI decided to click\n\nThat button that was at the left of the one that says \"skip\"\n\nAnd I grabbed my little pig\n\nIt was really heavy\n\nAnd I sleep that night being absolutely ready\n\nNext morning in\n\n\"Ok I'll buy it\"\n\nAnd my piggy bank completely vanishes in a moment\n\nIt was so weird\n\nAnd I thought I was insane\n\nBut it disappeared!\n\nI gotta tell my friends\n\n\"So yeah Nate, that weed that you sold me?\n\nNot trying it again, it almost turns me crazy!\"\n\n\"So wait, you got the pirated life message too?\n\nWhy didn't you told me! I just got my life cracked dude\".", "“Alright, this is weird. I don’t even have my glasses on.” I say as I roll over and grab my cell phone to perform my daily routine un phased by the giant message in my vision. \n \n“Warning! You are running a pirated copy of your life” my cell phone screen is filled with this message, as I unlock my phone on open the twitter app. \n“Huh I wonder if this is gonna be trending worldwide or just in my head?’\n\nThrough my cracked cell phone screen two options appear\n \nOption 1: Go back to previous save point in pirated life and verify existence to continue\n\nOption 2: Continue life currently with possible programs locked, \n\n“What the hell?”\n\nI reach over to my tv stand and grab my glasses to make sure I am reading everything correctly.\n\nThe Television turn on as I reach for my glasses, and fills with the “options” that were presented on my cell phone. \n\n“Alright, My TV isn’t a touch screen how am…” As my video game controller turns on with a flicker of light. \n\nI look with disbelief, as I know didn’t go drinking last night as it wasn’t friday morning. \n\nI pick up my controller and move the analog stick and look at the TV to see a pointer appear on the screen move the same direction as the analog stick. \n\n“I wonder where my last save point was. Because I wasn’t aware that I had that option”\n\nThe screen doesn’t change.\n\n“Nitchenze be damned, I am gonna try this again!”\n\nI move the pointer to the first option, click the bubble that is next to first option, and then click the highlighted “next” button in the lower right hand corner of the box. \n\n“Are you sure? You must have the verification code to proceed.” \n\n“Huh?” \n\n“Wait. I am running on a pirated version or a trial version?” \n\nI pick up my cell phone, in a futile attempt to see if I somehow had a verification code that I hopefully not of deleted, \n\nI somehow get access to my email account and type “verification code” into the search bar\n\nThe screen fills with 2 emails\n\n“Please verify life existence!”\n\n“Verification code for new subscription service” \n\nI click on the second email and speed read through to see a code in bold font\n“123onelife321” \n\n“Well let’s hope It’s not case sensitive” \n\nI press the “X” button on the controller and the world around me is transformed to a white room with a floating keyboard and the font “PLEASE SUBMIT VERIFICATION CODE” A blinking line is underneath the giant bold text.\n\nI enter the code I found in the second email into keyboard and hit the enter key\n\n“Please wait for verification”\n", "######[](#dropcap)\n\nIt happened everywhere, simultaneously.\n\nFrom fighter pilots, to coal miners, to teachers mid lesson. The President of the United States was in the middle of a speech at the UN. Several astronauts had just lifted off from the face of the Earth headed to the ISS. Workers stopped in the middle of a weld, crane operators lost their cargo in the onset of confusion. Children younger than 18, basically everywhere, more intuitively used to these kind of interfaces, stopped mid stride and attempted to interact with it. In the weeks that followed, estimates from driving fatalities alone as a result of the first Event ranged as high as one million globally. Not a soul on the planet Earth was spared.\n\nFrom the perspective of Dr. Choudri, it was the greatest discovery in the history of the human race - while simultaneously the most frightening, with the most terrible implications. Dr. Choudri was, ironically, in the middle of a TED talk when the event occurred. \n\n\"There are other non-intuitive signs as well - possible hints of the underlying processing inherent in the universe.\" Dr. Choudri was speaking to a rapt audience in Geneva. The idea that the entirety of existence is merely a simulation was not something most people were quick to believe, until they listened to Dr. Choudri discuss the theory in person. Post event, of course, no one harbored any doubts about the nature of the universe. However, for many years before the event, Dr. Choudri was considered a pariah within scientific circles.\n\n\"Consider the speed of light. We have this hard speed limit, right? As we approach that speed limit, something extraordinary begins to happen - time dilation. You may be familiar with this idea. The astronaut in a spaceship travels to another galaxy at 99.9% of the speed of light - hypothetically of course. From within that spaceship, the astronaut experiences the passage of time normally, and it takes him only a couple of years to reach his destination. However, if that astronaut, and this is an oversimplification of course, ignoring aberration and a host of other problems, but if that astronaut were to look out the window from inside of the spaceship and catch a glimpse at a passing planet, he would see that on that planet time was passing extremely slowly from his perspective. Yet, when that astronaut arrived at his destination, if he were to contact Earth, he would find that many tens of thousands of years had passed during his trip.\"\n\nDr. Choudri changed his slide again with a click. \"Of course no one knows why time dilation occurs, or why the speed of light is an ultimate restriction for the passage of information in our universe. However, the presence of such a restriction is compatible with simulation theory - not as an arbitrary restraint, but as a functional limitation to the processing power of the underlying computer which runs the simulation. The notion would be that in order to process the information seen by the astronaut travelling very near the speed of light, the computer system running the universe is forced to dilate time from the astronauts perspective, lest the astronaut be exposed to unrendered information. You can imagine the issue like a video game. The game is constantly rendering the seen universe from the perspective of the player. If the player moved faster through the simulated game space than the game can render the information the player is seeing, then the player sees nothing, and the illusion of the game is broken.\"\n\nDr. Choudri switched to another screen. \"Another phenomenon which finds purpose within simulation theory is the quantum uncertainty principle - that is the notion that the observation of a quantum particle actively changes the particle, snapping it out of a probability field it sort of hovers in before being observed. The why of this idea, of course, is totally unclear - but within a simulation theory framework, where the universe is run by a vast, but fundamentally limited computer, such a principle makes intuitive sense. Why would an efficient program render the characteristics of a particle which has not yet been viewed? To do so would be a waste of processing power which, cumulatively, might cause the system to crash.\"\n\nA hand rose in the front of the audience. Dr. Choudri was aware of the seeming outlandishness of his theories, and encouraged people to interrupt his talks with questions whenever one came to mind. The hand belonged to a young woman in the third row. Dr. Choudri pointed her out. \"A question?\"\n\nThe woman stood up and a mic was brought to her. \"Thank you. Dr. Choudri, isn't the fundamental issue with simulation theory the fact that it is inherently untestable? All of the points you make here, although intuitively compelling, cannot be empirically tested. If that's the case, how is your theory any different than the belief in God, for instance?\"\n\nDr. Choudri nodded, and thanked the woman for her question. It was, perhaps, the most compelling overall criticism of his entire field of study. A friend had pointed out to Dr. Choudri at a dinner party recently, that the closest thing to simulation theory out in the real world was, in many ways, creationism - and that the two lines of thought came to very similar conclusions by very different routes. Dr. Choudri cleared his throat. \"I think you bring up an excellent point. How do you test this theory, and if you can't test it, does it even matter - or should it be relegated to the loonie bin along with every other non-empirical religious belief. Truthfully, I don't know the answer to those questions - except to say that it is not yet clear to me that no tests can be done. That is the next step, and our ability, or inability, to take that step will decide whether it becomes a legitimate field of study or disappears into obscurity. In the meantime,\" Dr. Choudri continued, with a little chuckle, \"I can always hold out hope for some kind of sign.\"\n\nRight then, it happened, almost as though Dr. Choudri willed it into existence - as though he had a direct line of communication to the beating heart of the universe and brought forth this undisputed evidence from that deep, dark place. All at once, the audience let out a mass exhalation - not so much a sigh, as the audible manifestation of mass confusion. On stage, Dr. Choudri recoiled visibly and tore off his glasses, as though somehow they might be responsible for what he was seeing. Quickly the audience burst into noise, then fearful chaos, as the image lingered in their sight, covering the bulk of their field of vision, whether their eyes were opened or closed.\n\nDr. Choudri muttered some ineffectual effort at calming the crowd, but was quickly and completely taken by the content of the message. What he saw defied all expectation and was, in many ways, the greatest moment of his adult life. \n \nIn the months since, the image was ingrained permanently into the psyche of every human being. A methodology was discovered to will the message away, but it popped up, globally, every thirty days for the last 14 years, an event now assiduously planned for by municipal authorities and civilians alike. Since the message first appeared, instances of lawlessness and suicide had skyrocketed ten fold around the world. The implications of the message were simply too great - and too distressing - for many people to manage. \n\nOnce a month, the message reappears as a square box in the center of the vision, opaque and white, with simple black text written across it, which translates seamlessly into the language of whoever it appears before. However, no matter which language it is written in, it always says the same thing:\n\n> WARNING: You Are Running A Pirated Copy Of Life\n\n\n***********\n\n## For More Legends From The Multiverse\n\n# r/LFTM" ]	5
	[WP] "No... NOOO!!" The secret agent screamed as the sloth inched toward him. The villain's henchmen began whispering to each other, "is it just me, or are the boss's plans getting more and more awesome?"	[ "Hi guys hope you like it. If there's interest I might continue with this as I've quite enjoyed this one\n\n\n*\n\n\n\"I'm not sure awesome is really the right word Dave\"\n\n\nAs far as bosses go he’d always been pretty good. Jim was paid well, on time and at no point had he tried to force them to do anything he hadn’t signed up for as a simple gun for hire. Still he had concerns. The scream echoed from two stories below them punctuating his thoughts.\n\n\n\"Ahh but who else has that kind of dedication?\"\n\n\nDave was a romantic. There was nothing noble about being a supervillain. Still he certainly wasn’t about to say that anywhere within miles of his boss. Let alone while on patrol above the underground lair. It was spacious with every commodity a villain could need but still Dave was thankful to get away from the strange smells of the laboratory which seemed potent enough to infuse the whole complex. \n\n\n\"Ok Dave, let's entirely ignore the fact that he's made a living animal almost entirely invulnerable to anything but cheese. I'm not going into that or the boss's weird obsession with dairy products. Let's ignore the I don't know how many laws of physics he's breaking.”\n\n\nThat sloth freaked him out. Jim had actually started carrying around a piece of Wensleydale in his pocket\n \nJim had actually set foot in the laboratory once. A simple mistake, He wasn’t supposed to. Thank god he wasn’t caught. A sackable or probably worse offence. Christ he wasn’t even supposed to know his bosses name.\n\n\n“Let’s talk just about the brain surgery itself. It apparently uses a technology unlike anything anyone has ever seen. And he's not done it on a extensively studied species where we have even an inkling of the brains chemistry, he's done it on a marsupial. We know much more about the human brain than we do about a sloth’s.\" said Jim\n\n\n\"See that's just amazin' inn'it? Why shouldn't we be proud of having a boss like that? By the way don't call the sloth any names except for Sybil. You should have seen the glare the boss gave me when I called it a bloody monkey.\" \n\n\n\"Yeah he's broken several boundaries of modern day science but all that just to make a sloth see humans as one big strawberry?\"\n\"What about the art Jim? Fact is any guy can just get in a latex suit, punch a guy in the face and claim to be a superhero or supervillain these days. Look at Catman or whatever 'is name is. Don't even have to get irradiated anymore. Even the guys with actual abilities are pretty shit. Apparently one of them \"the artist\" can paint a pretty picture in mid-air. Apparently, he fights crime with a paintbrush. How fuckin’ practical.\" \n\n\nThe “art” was utter bollocks. The unspoken rule amongst the guards was never to bring up family but Dave was the exception. He would holler on about how his pa and his gran’pappy before him were all proud henchman in some of the evilest overlords before capes were in fashion. That said it was clear his boss was something of a traditionalist. You just don’t get matt black paint in those kind of quantities without considerable effort. \n\n\n\"The boss isn't just your run of the mill \"mummy didn't love me so I'm throwing my toys out of the pram\" bullshit. This guy’s got brains and power and an’ eye for drama and tradition. S’only proper. You know back in the day my-\"\n\n\n\"Look I'm not complaining I'm just thinking if the boss can do this kind of thing when he puts effort in, what could he do if he set his sight on bigger things, you know?\"\n\n\nCrap. Now he’d set him off he was going to have to listen to this drivel all the way to the end of his patrol.\n\n\n\"You just don't see the poetry of it Jim. That guy in there in that cell is havin' to hop every now and again outta the way of that sloth that's trying to eat him. And when he can't hop anymore the silly sod gets chomped on. But that's not the point is it?\n\n\nThe guy called the boss a lazy and tired villain cliché. Don't you see the beauty in that? The woss-a -word”\n\n\n\"Irony?\" said Dave\n\n\n“Yep that’s the one”\n\n\n\"But if he could do all that Jim then you have to ask the question with the right kind of inclination what couldn't the boss do? He's not-\"\n\n\nThe explosion threw Jim across 20 foot into the air forcing the out of his lungs and as he struck a tree and the last thing he heard before blacking out was the sickening crack of something breaking that sounded suspiciously like him.\n\n\nJim's vision suddenly swam into focus. Judging from the night sky it could have been hours or minutes. He was disorientated as hell but didn't feel any pain. He could barely feel anything at all. And then he saw it.\n\n\nIt was the inhuman eyes that shone against the black. Sybil.\n\n\nHis mind screamed for that chunk of Wensleydale in his pocket. His arms didn't move, nothing moved. He was paralysed. The sloth which edged closer to his face. It seemed to be looking directly at his eyes with that stupid almost grin like expression that it always wore. He screamed for his limbs to move. Anything to move. The sloth opened its mouth and moved towards his right eye. Dave screamed and screamed. Until finally he screamed the one name he wasn't supposed to know. \n\n\n*\n\n\n\"I've got his name. As we thought he's one of the Bad Cut.\" said the Painter taking his hands away from the man’s skull.\nA needlessly bright bunch of men and women in various tight-fitting clothing gathered anxiously around the bedside table around him in the medbay. \n\n\n\"Excellent let's get on that. Painter, you follow up with the logistics team with anything else you might have gleaned from there. Now we have a name, we have leverage. I want to know everything about this guy. I want a list of anyone he's ever cared about in custody now. Anything that we can get on him that makes it easier to take him in. Let's make this quick and clean people.\" \n\n\nI suppose you get used to ordering people about when you're a multi-billionaire prick. What kind of mind was under that mask? Probably little of interest. Still I could play nice with the idiot holding on to his paycheck.\n\n \n\"On it Catman\"\n\n\n\"Wait a moment Painter can I have a word?\" said a figure from the corner of the room\n\n\nAh shit. The one person that gave him the heebie-jeebies it was Mystery girl. Unlike many of the others she was dressed far less provocatively. A purple cloak with wrap around orange goggles and a tuft blonde hair peeking out. This girl actually came across as smart. She didn’t broadcast her abilities which were completely unknown for one and all like many of their much more showy colleagues and actually seemed competent.\n\n\n\"Look at that. Is that safe what you’re doing?\"\n\n\nA few drops of blood had seeped from the man’s right eye. If I was honest I hadn't been impressed by this guy’s mind. Nothing interesting, he was gullible and uneducated just like most of the fools that for whatever reason decided to willingly work with a supervillain. I'd even pushed him a bit out of boredom just to see how far his imagination would stretch before I got bored of that and just started the lazy torturing scene just to get it over with. That was new though. And interesting. \n\n\n\"Painter? We can have a medic check him out but he did seem to convulse a little when you touched him.\" \n\n\n\"Oh sorry, I was just surprised that's all. I’ve never seen anything like that before. I assure you it's completely safe. All I do is make them dream of something they want and twist it to make them want to divulge that information to a colleague. In this case the patient was hungry so I took a piece of food made him want it a little bit more until he eventually gave up the information to someone he trusted. It’s harmless I promise.”\n\n\nShe looked suspiciously back at me. It felt almost as if those eyes knew every dirty little secret he had along with his backup plan. If anything was to go wrong with his rather lucrative career in supernatural law enforcement, he had the mental signature of a substantial number of felons. As a vigilante It would be no bother to track them down and get them to happily fund setting up a new but similar career in taking down more criminals by himself. The scum would literally be funding their own downfall and there’d be less red tape to hold him back. Of course that little tidbit was unknown to anyone but him.\n\n\n“Still just to be on the safe side I think we should get him checked out for a bit first, though Catman will be pressing me to get more information.\n\n\nI smiled. And went to go back to my office for a well-deserved break. It was draining to use my abilities though that wasn’t something I liked to let on. \n\n\n“Oh Mystery girl. Maybe there is something you might be able to do for him though. As I said earlier I used cheese earlier with my little mind trick so most people tend to wake up craving some, so send a little up to the medbay if you want. I know he’s a criminal but if there’s one thing I’ve learned from other people’s minds it’s that no one is inherently bad they’ve mostly just made a series of bad mistakes that lead them on the wrong path.”\n\n\nHil-fucking-arious if she actually sends some. Anyone who aids murderers and the like deserves just as little mercy. Still I gave her my best sickeningly sweet smile. Was she the one that was causing my proposal to crash and burn the moment it reached the ISRS? That was probably paranoia talking. She nodded, turned and left the room through automatic doors seemingly designed to open in a fancy yet inefficient manner. \n\n" ]	1
	[WP] To join the local gang, one must kill their best friend within a week to prove their loyalty. Two days ago, I saw my buddy talking with a few of the members.	[ "\"Shit! I knew he had the drop on me!\"\n\nI was lying in my bed staring through phone, trying to wrap my head around the photo I had taken.\n\n\"Well, I suppose it'll make the job easier.\"\n\nI was sweating slightly, maybe my nerves were getting to me. They were dead serious, I could tell, but planning such an elaborate scheme seemed almost tacky. I suppose it explained the spell of murders in the local area.\n\nI guess I should just do it. Waiting only lessens the chances of it happening.\n\n\"Hell, were nowhere now.\"\n\nI put my phone down, get up and head to the kitchen. It was the second drawer. Wait- no, third. Yep, there it was, that shining glint of metal. I pick it up, feel the weight and put it in my bag.\n\nIt was only a short walk away, I mean we were trying to join the same local gang after all. I saw a shadowed figure on the sidewalk. No matter, just keep walking, they don't know anything. They were slowing down.\n\n\"Wait, Tim?\"\n\nOh no.\n\n\"Brian?\"\n\nOOooh nooo.\n\n\"You-, You were coming to my house to kill me, weren't you?\"\n\n\"Um, you were doing the exact same thing!\"\n\n\"Shit\"\n\n\"Shiiit dude\"\n\nI know, right.\"\n\n\"What do we do now?\"\n\n\"Wanna get a beer?\n\n\"Sure, lets go to my place!\"\n\n\"Sounds like a plan, buddy!\"\n\nLike hell, I'd let him live.\n\n" ]	1
	[WP] A ambitious Alien Empire conquers earth and enslaves Humanity but quickly learns why other alien empires avoided the planet and declared it a "Toxic asset".	[ "People are running outside, Murphy runs in to the house.\n\n\"David are you coming?\" Murphy said\n\n\"Where?\" David said looking from his computer.\n\n\"The Townhall of course, you'll die if you don't.\"\n\n\"Why would I die?\"\n\n\"You do know that were are being enslaved right? You know the giant mushrooms that smacked into Earth the other day? Are you really this oblivious? What have you been doing on your computer?\" Murphy said running towards the computer.\n\n\"Nothing!\" David yelled turning the computer screen away from Murphy. \"I'll go just give me a minute, jeez.\"\n\n\"Where's the damn cat at? We gotta hide him.\" Murphy said as he panicked looking under the couch and chairs in the room.\n\n\"He's probably outside again, he loves the woods. Spends hours back there.\" David said walking back towards the door with a bag.\n\n\"What's in there?\"\n\n\"You'll find out soon enough\" David said as they walked out of the house into the sun, they started pace towards the town hall. \"Oh shoot, I forgot something I'll be right back!\" David yelled running back to the house. \n\nMurphy kept walking towards the Town Hall, noticing how everyone else was running towards it he could only experience a sensation that calmed him has he was sure he was walking to his death. Town Hall, the biggest building in town, with a statue of the first Mayor sitting on a chair, was creating the horizon. \n\nLines of people were being organized, each simply based on who got there first. Murphy got put into Line 20, Number 22. He was given the assignment of putting up flags around the town, each put in with no care whatsoever.\n\n\"Hey come here idiot\" Someone called from inside the dumpster. Murphy walked to the dumpster, \"Get in!\"\n\n\"David! What have you been doing? They're just killing people now, you should've gotten your job sooner!\" Murphy said.\n\n\"Look idiot,\" David said holding some police suits, \"these are the suits from when we were police\".\n\n\"Didn't they take those away? Why would you keep those!\"\n\n\"I've got my reasons, anyway here put it on\" David said stripping down and putting on the suit.\n\n\"What? Why would I? This is going to change anything\"\n\n\"Yes it does! Do you have eyes? Did you see who wasn't walking to the Town Hall? All the officers, they're in on this dumbo! So put it on and let's see what's happening\" David said as he climbed out of the dumpster, Murphy put his suit on.\n\nThey walked through the cries and screams of the townspeople to the police station, wondering they could even pull this off. They got to the station, pushed the door open and were greeted by Officer Pullen, the man in charge.\n\n\"Welcome! I see you two are smarter than the others.\" \n\n~------~\n\nI'll write more later, probably tomorrow." ]	1
	[WP] I looked at my planet one last time before it exploded " goodbye home" I said as we blasted away toward the closet habitable planet, Earth.	[ "_Goodbye, Xarzyn_, I thought as I blasted away with my friends on the last escape pod. \n\nWe were heading towards Earth, the nearest habitable planet, after nuclear war had destroyed ours. It was going to be a horrible journey as we started the fifty quadrillion lightyear journey towards Earth.\n\n“Alright team! We’ll be on this ship for a good three days. We will ha-“\n\n“THREE DAYS? I can’t stand this!” One of my friend’s kids yelled. He did not want to put him on the children’s ship, in case it crashed.\n\n“Like I was saying, we will have to ration our food and take lesser portions than normal, as we only have enough food for one meal per person per day,” our designated leader, Prelkamendai Yatbemampa said. He was my best friend back on Xarzyn.\n\nThe governments of Pelka and Tryaunudi were mortal enemies, determined to kill each other if it was the last thing they did. Pelka launched the first bomb, destroying over a billion citizens and towns in Tryaunudi, thus beginning Galaxy War XVIII. It was the year 27910. Now it is 29836, and here we are now, almost two thousand years later and the war just ending.\n\nA few days and growling of many stomachs later, we arrived at Earth. As soon as we got out of the ship, we had “humans” pointing sharp long things they called “guns” at us.\n\n“Put your hands above your head, and come with us. We do not mean harm, but will engage if necessary,” One of the leaders of the humans said.\n\n“Relax! We come in peace! Our planet was destroyed by nuclear war, and you guys were the nearest habitable planet. So let’s talk it out...”\n\nWe later learned that these humans came from a country called the “United States”. They were the most powerful nation in the whole of Earth they said. They had food, and were willing to talk without engaging in violence. We talked for a good few hours, and they learned from us too. We told them advancements in their pitiful and primitive technology, and in turn they fed us and sheltered us. \n\nWe looked very much alike, the only difference being we had stripes all over our bodies and had an extra eye hidden in our stomachs.\n\nA few days later, our crew and a few others that we found that had not crash landed gave a speech to the entire human race.\n\n“Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, we are the Xexxar! We came from a planet fifty quadrillion light years away, to escape from nuclear war between two of the nations on our planet. Now, let us get started in reaching peace between species...”\n\nwritten by scot, on phone\nplease play osu\n/r/osugame" ]	1
	[WP] A child from a muggle family is admitted to Hogwarts. They quickly earn the name “Dead Zone” because they unwittingly stop all magic within 30 feet of them when stressed.	[ "\"Hey, what's your name again?\" A student asked me one morning. \n\n\"Uh... Vibiana?\" I answer. \n\n\"Huh, strange name. Everyone seems to call you by Dead Zone though.\" The student says. \n\n\"Yeah... Apparently I got so stressed during a game of Quidditch that I somehow stopped all magic within thirty feet of me. Its actually quite crazy.\"\n\n\"Huh. I would like to have that power. Especially since I have way too many people picking on me.\" The student chuckled to himself, then said, \"Yo, the name is Vylad. I don't have a cool nickname like, you know, Dead Zone, but its still a pretty neat nickname. I was just going to get myself a new wand, you want to come with?\"\n\n\"Oh! Sure,\" I smile. This is the first friend I've made in Hogwarts thus far. \n\n\"So, what were your parents like? Mine were of course magic,\" Vylad said, shrugging, \"Since I wanted to follow my parents' heritage, so I admitted to Hogwarts. Yeah, I'm an orphan. How cliche. I know too many students around here that are orphans nowadays. Them Death Eaters gotta cut it out.\"\n\n\"Hehe...\" I giggle awkwardly, \"I'm not an orphan, but my parents were muggles. They didn't have any magic in them. I was, however. Apparently, with that whole magic-stopping thing.\"\n\n\"A muggle family?\" Vylad blinked, \"Odd, but neat. How were your parents towards you? Were they harsh towards you because of your magic powers?\"\n\nI shrugged. \n\n\"Hm... How were they, then?\"\n\n\"Well, they were caring towards me, I guess a bit protective? They were the ones who thought that admitting me to Hogwarts would be good for me, I dunno how they said it...\"\n\nWe talked for a long time. " ]	1
	[WP] One of the strictest rules of magic is that in order for something to be done to someone else, it must also be done to you. After much thought, you've just made up your mind to kill somebody.	[ "The big heads would say \"For every magic spell there is an equal and opposite reaction\" or something like that. The point is, magic is a balancing act. You can't get something done on one side without somehow getting something undone on the other. When using magic on humans, that other side happens to be spell user. That is why the practice is forbidden. Too many have died trying to tame human magic. A magic user can make a man strong enough to lift an ox, only at the cost of being crushed under an equivalent weight. One can cure the sick, but only by making himself sick in the process. One can defeat the enemy in battle, but will perish himself at the same time. \n \nTonight, all of this will change. I will be the one to bridle the forces of nature. \n \nTonight I kill someone. \n \nMy victim is already here, bound to the sacrificial altar, a large slab of dark stone in the center of the room. He is still unconscious as I go around the room, lighting up torches. From the line of vials on the shelves, I select two which I mix together in a large glass jar. On contact, the liquids emit a bright, blinding, unnatural light that floods the room. As I hoist the jar over the altar, the screeching of the rusty pulley wakes up my victim. The contents of third vial, poured over a cloth and held against his mouth promptly sends him back to sleep. \n \nMy hands tremble as I unsheathe the sacrificial knife. I have practiced on countless corpses, but now this is for real. Magic on corpses is without repercussions on the user, but now I face a living human and the knife I hold will soon be double-edged. I must remain calm. \n \nI start cutting the skin on my victim's head with the long blade. No magic yet; the runes carved on the blade are still inert and dull. Pulling back the skin, I now pick up a saw and start cutting a piece of the skull, which falls of. Now is the time. I raise the sacrificial knife above my head and start chanting incantations. The runes on the blade start glowing orange and flow into each other as I bring down the knife on my victim. \n \nWith an expert movement, I slice off a piece of the pulsing mass under his skull. Immediately, my own skull feels like it has been set on fire. The knife clatters to the floor as I recoil, screaming in pain. The suffering is more intense than I could ever have imagined, but I'll live. The tumor won't kill me after all. As I leave the surgery room, I can't help dreaming that with a bit more practice, eventually, the sacrifice could even survive the procedure. " ]	1
	[WP] You are sent back to save the Library of Alexandria. However, you discovered something terrible. Instead, you decide to destroy the Library.	[ "I sniff, the smell of such a wondrous cache of everything known until that point. It was funny. The only way to be sent back was one person to go back at a very specific time as to not disrupt any personal accounts of everyone looking at this beautiful library. Well, not just 'this library', the Library of Alexandria was certainly a sight to behold and I, a librariam, was the only one of the modern age able to see it. I was told to save it, but I'm not sure exactly what was to end it in the first place. I take slow, sauntering steps as to minimize the noise, beautifully delicate as I have done for so many years in my own library. I take a step around the next corner, making sure my glasses are working if I need to read anything. It certainly can't be that I'd be caught. I'd be in the history I'd written of myself so many times. I should have heard of an old, graying man in Alexandria had I been caught, so I have no worries. I take a book from the shelf and begin to turn the pages, slowly. I read it. Very interesting subject, though, it feels familiar. I sniff again. The dust must be getting to me. I notice the edge of my glasses as the fall off of my face and into the book. I shake my head. This can't be true. Without the glasses, I shouldn't be able to read this but.. I am! It's written in very good English! I start to inspect the book. It seems to be just as ours today, but formed to look like one of the time. Had I not been the only one to travel back here? It mustn't be so. The parties involved promised it would only be myself because of the time constraints, but this.. This proves it. They had sent someone back before I. Someone had tampered with everything I had stood for. I can't allow it to happen again. These people are messing with history, for God's sakes! I'm fuming with anger, deciding finally to get back at them. I've seen enough of this... this mad workshop of the scientific people! I light my lighter, pressing it into the tampered book and kicking it around before pressing the button to go home to the modern day.\n\nI wake up, breathing just fine as I was told I would be. I sit up, with many smiling faces from the people who'd sent me back. \"What did you see, Howard,\" says one of the associates, \"Do you think we can send another back?\" I calmly shake my head. \"No ma'am, I took my time. Life.. is as it should be.\"", "I disguised myself as a scholar and snuck my way underground. To a part of the Library not yet found by modern archaeologists. It was the part that contained their current research and information that they intended to release once it was complete. And I found something I didn’t expect. It was America.\n\nThere, on a wooden desk in Ancient Egypt was a scroll that had a crude, yet almost exact, outline of the Eastern Seaboard. They had made it further than even the Norse. There were plans for settlements, military expansions, agriculture. It was called “New Athens.” There were also speculations of lands Southeast of India, near Australia, and an island past China to the East.\n\nThis was knowledge that shouldn’t be known for nearly 1500 years. What the Greeks or, godforbid, the Romans, could do with this information was inconceivable. The damage to the timeline would be catastrophic. I had to destroy it.\n\nAs I watched the scrolls go up in flames, a part of me knew I was condemning the world to 1500 years of darkness." ]	2
	[WP] You've been blessed with longevity and have lived for over 840 years. You've experienced many careers and adventures and learned countless things. Sadly it must come to and end, accompanied by your family you decide to spend your final moments telling them stories of your past.	[ "Edgar had lived a long life, full of adventures, excitement, and of course, the mundane. Today marked the 840th year he had walked this earth, 840 long years of watching the people he loved and hated wither away and pass into the unknown. Of course, the people sitting at the table waiting for him to blow out his birthday candles didn't know this. \n\nThey were celebrating his 60th birthday, marveling that he didn't look a day over 30. It very well may be true, he was unsure as to when he stopped aging, although he was relatively certain it was sometime in his early 30's. His parents were alive then, although not for much longer, both having passed a month after his 45th birthday. He still remembered how even then, his family had remarked on his youthful looks. Good genes they said, a healthy diet and exercise they said. If it were, he's sure he would have met another of his age or even someone over 120, but to this day he hadn't heard of any such person. \n\n\"Come on Dad, it's just a wish, no need to think to hard on it, we all know it's just a foolish tradition you thought up when we were kids\" Alexia said, bringing him out of his thoughts. They no longer made wishes when blowing out candles, can you believe it? About 300 years ago that tradition died out, during the civil world war. But he'd taught his children of it, reminiscing on his childhood. \n\"Sorry dear, I was just thinking of your mother, and how I wish she were here with me - us - today.\" Egwene, his wife of 19 years, passed away last March, when a mugger decided she wasn't cooperating and sent her to an early grave. They never found the man, said there was no evidence left at the scene to trace him. Egwene's death hit the family hard, as you might expect, but they were tough and put on a brave face for the world.\n\n\"I know Dad, it's been tough on us all. We still have you, and that's what's been keeping us going this past year. Without you Alexia and I would be lost.\" His son, Gilroy, had moved back home after the incident, claiming it was to help him out around the house and keep him company. But he knew Gilroy was the one who needed the company, and to keep busy.\n\nHe blew out the candles, and made his wish.\n\n**\n\nLater in the evening, as his two children sat by the fire, he decided they deserved to know. \"Alex, Roy, do you know what year I was born?\" \n\"Huh, well you're 60 now, and it's 2826 now, so it must be 2766, right? You haven't forgotten have you? I thought you had a few more years yet before that started\". Said Alexa, smiling at the jab to his age. \n\"Yeah Dad, 60 years is a long time but you're a young 60, your brain can't be turning to mush already\" Gilroy says while patting Edgar's head. \n\"Have a look at this, my birth certificate, careful though it's fragile,\" he said pulling out his wallet. \"Tell me what it says\". \n\"What, now your eyes are going? What's next, you going to tell us to speak louder?\" A laughing Gilroy takes the card, \"What is this? It's not a birth certificate, they've been titanium for well over a hundred years now, this is...paper?\" turning it over in his hands, he squints and read aloud. \"Canada - Ontario. What is this? What is Canada - Ontario? Alex, you love geography any idea?\" The laughter had faded now, a curious Alexia shakes her head. \n\"Keep reading, I'll explain after\", he said knowing there would be few questions on the location. \n\"Date of Birth - January 1st nineteen....\" A look of confusion falls over them both. Gilroy gives a short laugh, \"alright Dad, ha-ha funny. What is this thing? I has your name on it but there's no way it could be true. I'm betting you printed this last night and took some sandpaper to make it look old.\" The looks of confusion turn into smiles, \"You're too old for pranks Dad, and not very good at them either. Although I am impressed at this card, very detailed.\" They started laughing, thinking they had caught him, however when he didn't join, and they saw his unsmiling face, the laughter once again faded. \n\"What's going on Dad, you're worrying me. Forget this prank - or whatever it is, just smile or laugh or something other than staring at us like, like... Like we're your students, and have gotten the answer completely wrong\". Alexia said, frustrated. \"What's going on?\" \n\"You're right Roy, I am far too old for pranks, however this is not one. I was born in 1986 in the country known as Canada, the province of Ontario. Back then there were independent countries, not like now, where we're all one nation. That's not the point, the point is I am not turning 60 today, I am turning 840. And kids, I am tired\". They looked at him as if he were stark raving mad. \n\"Ooookay, so Dad's insane, Roy, Dad has lost it. Can you talk some sense into him? I have no idea what’s happening right now.\" Alexia looked like she wasn’t sure if she should laugh or scream in frustration. \nGilroy started to speak, but before he was able to finish a word, Edgar cut in. “I fought in the civil world war. Go ahead look up the picture they took of us when we won. Go ahead, I point myself out.” Gilroy grabbed the tablet from the table and projected the screen on the wall. Once the picture was on the wall, he stood up and looked directly at his children. “Front row, fifth from the left. Who does that look like?” \n“What the… It can’t be! That’s impossible, completely utterly impossible!” Alexia was yelling now, rapidly looked between him and the image on the wall. “How?” Gilroy was just staring at his father, shocked into silence. \n“Honestly? I don’t know the how of it, nor the why either. I just know it has been 840 long years I’ve been alive.” He sat down, as if he were suddenly exhausted. “The stories I could tell, the history I could teach. My memories stretch longer than any recorded history, thanks to that civil war.” He looked into his hands, “a lot of bad memories, history better forgotten.. I alone know the truths of this world.” \n“Tell us? Tell us some of the happier memories, or histories? What was your childhood like?” Gilroy, having gotten over his shock, asked his father as he removed the screen from the wall and put down the tablet. “If this is all true, then we know next to nothing about you” \n“I think you’d be less likely to believe the things I had as a child than you would of my age. But I will tell you a story, a story of love found and love lost.”\n\n\nIt has been too long a time to remember the names of all my girlfriends, but I do remember each one I fell in love with. Claire was my first true love, we met in a bowling alley. I was with some friends from work blowing off some steam, she was there for her niece’s birthday. We first spoke when we both reached for the same bowling ball. She had all the same interests as me. Loved to read, enjoyed nature and hiking, rock climbing, flying, the list went on. I proposed after 2 years. We were married for 15, but sadly, by the time I was 40 we realized I was not aging at the same rate as her. I looked the same as the day I proposed, and it made her self-conscience. On my 45th birthday I came home to an empty house. She had left, she couldn’t live with a man that never aged, she felt that I was constantly mocking her leathered skin and all the cracks and pops that came when moving around. It never mattered that I was the nicest I could be, she couldn’t deal with me looking the same. Thus at 45, I had my first true heartbreak. I kept tabs on her, thinking she would come around, that she would come running back to me, but at the age of 90 she passed and were I a normal man you could say I had wasted my life waiting. However even on the day she died, I looked no older than the day she left.\n\nI spent years in abject misery, going from woman to woman, fight to fight, until I met my second true love. Tracy. We met in the midst of a bar fight, that if I remember correctly, I started. She stared into my soul and found something agreeable. She picked up a pool cue and knocked out the closest man to us. At that point in my life, there was so much anger, so many people I grew up with and loved had died and left me alone. Tracy took in my hate and turned it into love for her. She turned my angry rampaging into a gleeful terrorizing, causing fights amongst bigots and criminals. It was a fun time and fed my need for chaos, until the repercussions hit. I lost her in a fight with an addict. Stabbed her in the neck with a dirty needle and pumped her full of whatever nasty fix he had about to take himself. She looked so shocked, as if she never thought this could happen, and to be fair, I never had thought it could. She died in my arms as I waited for the ambulance that never came.\n\n\n\nAlexia was crying and Gilroy’s eyes were misted. “I don’t like these stories Dad. I can’t even imagine the pain of that, I don’t want to hear about your loss no matter how great the love, it’s too much.” Alexia managed to squeak out, “tell us about something else.” \n“I understand sweetheart, let’s talk about the war how it quite literally changed the world..”\n\n*\n\nHey! This is my first time responding to one of these, and the first time in a very long time I have tried to write anything! Let me know how I did, leave some constructive criticisms! \n\\\\Wrote so much it requires two posts!\\\\", "I blinked back tears as I watched my father struggle for breath, his once-strong jaw quivering with the effort. The doctors were of little to no help, unable to provide a single explanation why a man in his late forties was experiencing a complete biological shutdown. Yet here we were, at Father's Mercy, tubes and IV galore, delaying the inevitable.\n\nUp until a few minutes ago, the old man had still been recounting various tall tales, his favorites. My cousins were eating them up, as usual, their blue eyes bright with excitement. They were still small, and they didn't yet know that there was no way my father had been around to save General Lee's life or witness the discovery of the Rosetta stone. He made his first wages working at the docks in Ye Olde England, stacking tall crates of tea with his own hands. My heart still warmed at the sight and the words, but most of the magic was gone for me. My father was a fantastic, loving man, but sometimes I wished he'd just stop telling his tales, even though he played it off in jest with adults.\n\nI supposed he would* stop now. Another tear rolled down my cheek, unbidden.\n\n\"All right,\" my father croaked, pulling himself into a sitting position with an extraordinary effort. My mother moved to stop him, but he intercepted her hand and squeezed it, smiling. \"I need a moment alone with Charles, my love.\" \n\nHe looked at my mother like he always does when he wants something, and her shoulders slumped slightly in concession. Her expression of worry only deepened, but she ushered out the small children and shut the curtain behind her.\n\nMy father watched her go, his piercing green eyes wet with emotion. \n\n\"You know, in all my time, she's the only woman amazing enough to make me fall in love.\"\n\n\"Dad, you were twenty-three when you met,\" I laughed, placing a hand on his shoulder. \n\nHe sighed, then slid his rough fingers over my hand. \"You don't have to believe me now, son, but you will. Everyone will grow old around you, their summer fading to fall and then winter, and you will remain in the spring of your life. It will hurt, but you will live on.\"\n\n\"Dad, I-\" \n\n\"I do not have much time. You must know that when you fall in love, the spark passes on to your first-born. If you wish to pass the burden on immediately, do so. If you wish to see the ages, wait.\"\n\nI tried to take my hand away, but he squeezed it and pulled it down to his chest. Why was he still talking about this? This was a time to be serious!\n\n\"Stop-\"\n\n\"I love you son. I go with no regrets. Our curse allowed me to live long enough to find my soulmate, though it then limited my years with her, and stripped me of seeing my own son grow and prosper.\" A tear rolled down his cheek now, prompting one of my own. \n\nOne of the machines squawked, prompting my mother and a nurse to come barreling through the curtain. My father let go of my hand, smiling weakly. \n\n\"It's okay, my dear. I loved you all through the ages, before I even met you.\" They embraced, and I took a step back.\n\nI opened my hand, staring at the small object my father had placed there. It was a small gold coin, emblazoned with the visage of Henry the Eighth.\n\n[/r/intotheslushpile](https://www.reddit.com/r/intotheslushpile/)\n\n\n\n", "“Dad.” My son asked me. “What was your greatest adventure?”\n\nI look at him from my hospital bed. Him who is only eighteen years of age. He never did believe me when I told him I was over eight hundred years old. I suspect he still doesn’t believe me now. Not many people do. He most certainly doesn’t believe in my adventures. He must be humouring me.\n\n“Greatest?” I asks him. “That’s too hard.” I tell him and look to my wife. Her beauty still present. She’s only in her forties. I wonder how she’ll be after I’m gone. I never did expect her to live whilst I die….then again I never did think I would die.\n\n“Surely there are a few that are your favourite.” He insist. “Like the time you found Atlantis, or that time you destroyed the Replicators?”\n\n“Heh” I laughed and watch my wife. “My favourite?” \n\nMy favourite. That’s boring though. My favourite, I suspect would be like anybody else’s. My first date. Not my first first date, but my first date with her. There’s not one that trumps that.\n\nI open my hand. She grabs it tightly without me even having to move it.\n\nI look to my son. He doesn’t want to her that though. Who would want to her that there dad’s favourite adventure was a first date. \n\nNo he’ll want to hear about defeating the Goa'uld. Or maybe the first encounter with the Nox?\n\n“Dad?” My son asks me.\n\nI look at him and smile a wry smile. I wonder how he’ll feel when he reaches my age. Surely I can’t be the only one to live this long. \n\n“I guess my favourite would have to be the first time I used the Star Gate.”\n" ]	3
	[WP] You are the main project lead for an ultra-high tech weapons company that specializes in exotic ballistic ammunition. It's time to show off this year's super-bullets to the board of directors, and it's a government contract renewal year so it'd better be good.	[ "Note: this is a continuation of DiggPen's response below:\n\n\"And finally, Gentlemen, our bonus entrant for this year's government contract renewal: 'Crust Buster Mark 3' with associated software.\n\n\"You may be thinking to yourselves, 'Bullets with software?', you're not alone in your curiosity - we'll get to that in a second. But first, the Crust Buster is a system that will end your immediate gunflight, battle or even your War if desired. We weren't sure whether to bring this to you today as it may obsolete some of our other profitable product lines.... But you government guys want the best and that's what we have for you.\n\n\"Simply start the system up by initializing it with the big red button,\" chuckles were hear around the test area. \"Yes, yes we knew you'd like the Big Red Button.\n\n\"Next step: choose your targeting coordinates. We've preprogrammed a script to include that hillside there, just outside of the hanger doors. And when you're ready, you click the 'Go' button. But before we do that I have a question for you all: Does that hillside look a little short? I mean a 'Hill' is technically 1000 feet high. Does that hillside in our target coordinates look like its 1000 feet high?\n\nThe gallery of generals looked blank and did not respond.\n\n\"I'll tell you its a little short: 981 feet to be exact as measured by satellite this morning. Let's see what the Crust Buster can do about that. I'm clicking the 'Go' button.\n\nA huge whoosh was heard and a bullet slash missile launched out of the test hanger. The backwash of its passaged pushed over the blast walls and the generals were pushed back a foot or two. The Crust Buster angled straight up into the air and was lost to sight. A moment later it came back at the ground and impacted the targeted coordinates on the hillside with a rolling set of thunderclaps - clearly moving at beyond Mach 5 or even 6.\n\n\"Everyone good? Now I want you to watch that hillside at the target coordinates. Watch the ground around the impact zone.\n\n\"What is that?\" A general shouted and pointed to the zone.\n\n\"That General, is hot magma from the Earth's Mantle fountaining out from a depth of 4.8 miles below. That's pretty thin as far as the crust goes. The Crust Buster Mark 3 uses speed to penetrate and software to continue penetrating and digging all the way through the Earth's Crust until it hits the Mantle. Hence the name.\n\n\"What you are seeing is hot lava being pushed out of the resulting hole with the back pressure of magma behind it. That hillside is getting taller. And in a few hours it will be taller than 1000 feet.\n\n\"Turn off the stream!\" A general screamed running towards the live-streaming crew that were broadcasting today's demonstrations to the world live over the internet.\n\n\"It won't help General, the plans for the Crust Buster Mark 3 were leaked on the internet at the start of the demonstration. It's been downloaded 3.7million times already. \n\n\"Do you know what you've done man?!\" the General yelled.\n\n\"Yes. I've put the power to create a volcano into anyone's hands.\n\n\"But that's totally irresponsible! The world will be destroyed!\"\n\n\"It may be. Or we may finally learn to get along with each other. The choice is ours.", "\"Gentleman. Today I'm proud to bring you three of our latest developments in efficient solutions that not only represent our benchmark for high quality but also display our penchant for ingenious, effective designs.\n\n\"The first round represents our newest endeavor to enter the home and personal defense market. It is a lead encased steel alloy ball type round that comes in a wide range of caliber. The soft outer shell offers total bullet expansion within the barrel of the firearm, causing all rifling and bore matter within the weapon to discharge with the bullet, sending additional shrapnel and fragments at the target. After firing a dozen or more of these rounds, you will be able to move up to the next available caliber type as it will now easily fit the barrel of your firearm. It's recommended to have a conversion kit for the magazine and receiver at the ready if you're drawn into a prolonged gunfight. This system not only guarantees effective results immediately, but EXPONENTIALLY effective results over time. I have a 41 caliber Walther PP as my personal carry, and with one more visit to the range it will be a full fledged .44.\n\n\"Our second ammunition that we've developed was a brainchild of our late founder. The initial design was kept a secret from the public for over twenty-five years following his accidental death on the test range. As you might be aware, over a third of all firearm related deaths are suicide. For every suicide attempt, their are twenty five failures. We see this untapped market as a haven for profits and have developed the means to capitalize off of it.\n\n\n\"The 'Last Round' is an aerodynamically curved projectile packed in a confetti sabot. It requires three short yards of flight and twelve feet of vertical clearance. When fired the round arcs immediately into the air in a vertical take off. The sabot releases a cloud of colorful streamers, confetti, and has zig whistles which mark the occasion with the proper celebratory atmosphere. The bullet continues its curved flight, and enters a nosedive directly back on top of the head of the shooter with a 99% lethal injury rate. Along with a variety of chamber types, starting at .38, we are selling one time use 'Good Bye Guns' for traditionally non gun owners with suicidal aspirations. \n\n\"Our final entry this year is our first ever non lethal marketable ammunition type, and I must say, the boys really brought the ACME game to the table with this one. Less than lethal rounds share two things in common. One, they do not kill their target, and two, they are not effective deterrents because they do not kill their target. While our first solution to this problem was to develop a lead lined bean bag round for shotgun use, which did solve both of the above issues, it also proved ineffective as a 'less-than-lethal' round, by the standards put forth by the Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms Bureau. We dropped the lead coating and went right back to the previous problems all other less than lethal rounds have. \n\n\"Finally after some brainstorming we came up with a solution. The threat of death is a deterrent, which is what less than lethal rounds lack. What we needed to design into the round was a new threat. And what are people afraid of besides death? Bees. Our Bee-Bag round fires a small cotton pouch with fifty to sixty living bees inside. When the pouch hits the target it rips and releases the bees in one angry cloud which then stings the victim repeatedly as an active deterrent to stop their criminal activities. I know what you're thinking. How do the bees survive the impact? If you look closely here, you'll see that every bee has its own little helmet, which not only protects them from the six hundred foot per second precision strike, but makes them incredibly difficult to knock out with a punch, which the assailant is sure to attempt while being stung by fifty to sixty bees.\"\n\n (I hope this isn't to stupid, but I also kind of do...)" ]	2
	[WP] A zombie apocalypses occurs. However,due to a meteorite hitting Earth just a few days prior, the "apocalypse" consists of one lone zombie chasing after a few dozen survivors.	[ "\n---\nDay 1\n\n\n---\n\n\"Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ. It's all gone.\"\n\n\"Shut the hell up, Jeff.\" Cassie spat, glaring at the scrawny, trembling man.\n\n\"But, that's- it's all gone.\" He said, wide-eyed as he looked at the destruction around them. It was true enough. The meteor had been completely devastating. The world around them was filled with smoke and fire. The air rang with the screams of people dying, and bodies littered the floor.\n\nOnly the tiny group was left - the only living souls as far as the eye could see. A dozen lonely, terrified bodies in a sea of destruction. Cassie glanced back at the ravaged concrete structure they'd managed to shelter in.\n\n\"Glad we decided to go to the post office today.\" She said softly. Greg nodded, clinging close to her side. The massive building was cold-war construction - solid concrete, and built to survive a nuke. Ugly, but it saw them through the destruction admirably.\n\n\"Fucking crass, don't you think?\" Roger said, scowling darkly at her. \"Fires aren't even out and you're patting yourself on the back?\"\n\n\"Calm down.\" Jessica said, grabbing him by the arm.\n\n\"We need to move.\" Dan said, his voice cutting across their argument. They all stopped, glaring at him, but he folded his arms. \"This place is a hellhole, and I heard some things* on the news before it hit.\n\nRoger snorted. \"Who fucking cares what you heard on the goddamn news, asshole?\"\n\n\"Roger!\" Jessica hissed. \"Let's just go, all right? Dan's right.\"\n\nThe broad-chested man snorted again, leaning to the side to spit on the dirt, but he let the woman tug him away.\n\nDan paused, glancing back as the rest of the little group walked ahead.\n\nHe couldn't shake the feeling that he'd heard something behind them.\n\nAnother survivor? Should they turn back, start digging?\n\nA low moan slid out of one of the nearby buildings. He heard the shuffling. Saw the first glimpse of grey-green skin.\n\nSwallowing hard, he turned, running after the rapidly departing group.\n\n---\n\nDay 34\n\n\n---\n\n\"I'm telling you, there's something following us.\" Jeff insisted, his voice reedy. All of them had felt the ravages of time and stress, losing sleep and weight to the apocalyptic world around them.\n\n\"Is it a big scary monster?\" Cassie muttered. Jessica chuckled to herself, hiding the expression behind an upraised hand.\n\nJeff just frowned, folding his arms angrily. \"I'm not joking. I heard it.\"\n\n\"Maybe it's one of Dan's zombies.\" Roger said, waggling his fingers ominously.\n\n\"Dude, let it go.\" Dan said with a sigh, running his fingers through his greasy, filthy hair. \"I was just saying what I saw-\"\n\n\"On the news.\" Roger mimicked, his tone mocking. \"We fucking get it, man. But you can't suggest something like that and expect us to not make fun of you.\" He sneered over at the smaller man.\n\nDan just gritted his teeth, walking on.\n\n\"Did you hear that?\" The terse whisper from Cassie brought the whole group up short. The others staggered to a halt close behind, whining amongst themselves. As time had gone on and they realized that no help was coming, the survivors had happily left leadership of their little group to the more-resilient five.\n\nJessica turned back at Cassie's question, eyes narrowed. No one moved, hardly breathing as they stared into the smoky evening.\n\n\"What....what the hell is that?\" Her voice began as a whisper, but rose to strident intensity as the figure shambled out of the haze.\n\n\"Holy fucking shit.\" Roger whispered, eyes wide.\n\nThey all stared down the street as the zombie staggered step by unsteady step towards them.\n\n---\n\nDay 59\n\n\n---\n\n\"Do you think it has to eat?\" Dan mused, glancing back over his shoulder at the distant figure.\n\n\"If it did, wouldn't it be dead by now?\" Cassie pointed out, her voice tired.\n\nJeff shuddered. \"Maybe it's eating the dead.\" He said.\n\n\"Oh, stop it.\" Jessica said, her face screwing up with disgust.\n\n\"Just saying.\" Jeff muttered.\n\n\"It's just...following us.\" Dan said, still looking back.\n\n\"Of course it is.\" Roger scoffed. \"It's hungry, fuckface. It wants to make your ass its dinner.\"\n\n\"But it just keeps going.\" Dan mused. It was true enough - the dozen survivors had dwindled to ten, as the new and dangerous world around them took its toll. Everything was changing, spiraling out of control, but that lone figure chasing after them was a steady constant.\n\nThe earth was shattered and broken, their country crushed, but there were enough resources around them to get by. Especially in this town. It had been quite the metropolitan center, before something unleashed by the devastating earthquakes, fires, floods, and storms had wiped everything out.\n\nBut there were still resources to be found here.\n\n\"It'd be nice if we could stay.\" Dan muttered, kicking a stone.\n\n\"Why can't we?\" Cassie asked, glancing at him.\n\nHe scowled. \"How can we, with greenie there chasing us down?\" He scooped up a rock with his next step, turning and hurling it back at the zombie.\n\n\"We could kill it.\" Roger said, a grin spreading across his face.\n\n\"Too risky.\" Dan said softly, furrowing his brow. \"It's not a smart creature, is it?\"\n\n\"What's that?\" Roger demanded, shoving himself up against the smaller man. \"Too risky? What, you think you can lead this group?\"\n\n\"Roger!\" Jessica hissed, going pale. The two had been butting heads since the first day, but it had risen to a fever pitch of late.\n\n\"Enough, guys.\" Jeff whined. His skin was white, and he was trembling more with every day. He'd always been skinny, but of late he looked nearly skeletal. \"Stop fighting. It's stupid.\"\n\n\"Fine.\" Roger spat, pushing Dan away. \"As long as he understands his place here.\"\n\n\"Roger...\" Jessica pleaded, chasing after the massive man.\n\nDan just brushed himself off, letting Cassie pull him upright. \"We still need to figure out what to do about this.\" He muttered. He stared back at their pursuer.\n\n---\n\nAhhh getting too long. Need to cut into two I think.\n\n(/r/inorai, critique always welcome!)", "The apocalypse happened. A meteor fell. Nobody knew, or at least believed the impact it would have.\n\nThere were 32 of us. We survived. My friend Doug had a bunker. I thought he was mad. Everybody did. But Doug, he was a good one, a kind one. When the news hit us, of the impending doom, he'd already dragged us into that bunker. The rest was too late.\n\nWe heard it. We felt it. We knew. It was over.\n\nDoug was prepared. One of those people, being ready for every type of apocalypse. We had food, water, shelter, beds. Doug had arranged it in such a way that we could survive, that we could repopulate. That prospect was uncomfortable, but what else should we do?\n\nA few days later, Doug headed out. Looking for survivors, supplies. Maybe we could come back up. He was the one who was prepared, after all. If anyone should scout, it was him.\n\nHe never came back. I should've stopped him.\n\nI'm sorry, Doug. Sorry for everything. I'm sorry for your sister, the ridicule. You were right. In a way, you were the brightest of us all.\n\nI'm sorry. We will do you proud. I promise.\n\n---\n\nHe's back. Doug's back. He's not the same.\n\nHe was twitchy, as if sick. We tried to help him, to cure him. He was choking. He was dying. Mary and Steven tried to help him and...\n\nOh god.\n\nThere are now 30 of us. No, 29. Doug is not one of us. Not anymore.\n\n---\n\nHe knows. He knows everything. Everything about the bunker. Everything about us. We're trapped.\n\nNobody tried to go outside. Nobody wants to be what Doug's become.\n\nWe tried to lock him up. He found a way out.\n\nWe tried to find weapons. Those weapons are gone.\n\nThey were supposed to be brainless. Dear lord, why isn't he brainless?\n\nWe don't turn when he attacks. He feeds off of us before we have the chance.\n\n---\n\nIsaac, George, Joanna, Tina, Bloyd, all of them. Gone.\n\nDoug is slower, in wit and speed. At the start, he was aggressive. Hungry. Smart. Now, he's just hungry. And he's coming for us all.\n\nHe can't die. Dear god why can't he die?\n\nThere is no cure. We tried. We failed. We can't wound him. We tried. We failed. Even if we stick together, he'll pick us off. I've seen it.\n\nBecause one wound burns us. Turns us. \n\nHis hunger is still there. But he can't always consume us before we turn.\n\n---\n\nIs this the end? There is 6 of us. Me, Derek, Patrice, Kim, Sarah and Ryan.\n\nThere is 9 of them.\n\n---\n\n11 of them. 2 of us.\n\nThe door will cave.\n\nHelp.", "######[](#dropcap)\n\nLittle known fact you'd only know if you survived a volcanic eruption or a house fire - ash gets everywhere.\n\nAsh finds its way into every nook and cranny of your being. If you walk out of a burning building, you will find ash in your pockets, your wallet, even in your ass crack. There's no place ash won't find its way to. It's like sand at the beach, times 100. \n\nIf a house fire is bad, you can imagine what its like walking around an entire planet that has just gotten done bursting into flames. Ash is the new common denominator of all life on Earth. How the few living things left deal with ash determines whether or not they will remain a \"living thing\" for long.\n\nOur solution is pretty straight forward: hop from survival bunker to survival bunker, using up their food, water, and air filters completely and then moving on.\n\nThere are three of us and we have never seen another living human being. Sometimes we see rodents, and thankfully for our stomachs on the road, lots of bugs. But the most we see of larger creatures is the ash itself. In that sense, the entire world's biosphere is constantly getting in our way. Thanks a lot all you dead things!\n\nHowever, the hindrance that the dead provide us in the form of their burnt up corpses is actually preferable to the only other dead guy we've met - Jimmy. We call him Jimmy, but of course, we don't know his name. Dude must have been 400 pounds of pure muscle, larger than a fucking ox. Not sure why things turned out the way they did for him, but it sure makes things difficult for us. \n\nJimmy, if it isn't clear - why the fuck would it be clear - Jimmy is a zombie.\n\nWe haven't seen any other zombies, although presumably there must be others. At least, that's what the movies would have us believe. But Jimmy, well, he's definitely for real. He follows us from bunker to bunker, like a lost dog. \n\nAnd that whole thing in the movies about the zombie's weakness being the brain? Yeah, that's bullshit. Whatever is powering Jimmy, it is not his brain, because we smashed that shit to mush months ago. All it got us is an even more terrifying monster to run away from.\n\nHere's how it goes for us. We nearly run out of food and water, pack up the rest, put on whatever air protection we can find, and then get ready to roam the burbs looking for the next prepper who never made it home from work on day zero. \n\nAnd Jimmy is always waiting for us on the surface. We can't shake him. He's slow now, real slow since we shot out his legs and arms, but that fucker is tenacious. I guess there must not be many other scents in the post-apocalypse, because he seems to find our trail no matter how far we go. \n\nSo, when we're ready to leave a place, we can safely assume that poor, half butchered Jimmy is gonna be laying, prostrate, on top of the trap door. We heave ho the door, fling him off and run away. Don't need to go too fast, as Jimmy ain't catching up any time soon. But, rest assured, next bunker we find, we'll hang out in there for a few months and, when we come out, there Jimmy will be. \n\nIn some ways, it's almost reassuring. I never thought I'd say this - fucking, of course not - but that gruesome meat bag of a zombie is kind of the closest thing we have to a new normal.\n\n At some point, I'd imagine, Jimmy won't be able to move anymore. He'll just get stuck someplace, all mangled and alone, waiting to turn into nothing, just like the rest of us. Can't say I feel sorry for him exactly, seeing as he's dead already and whatnot. But I'll sort of miss him when he's gone.\n\n*********\n\n#### For More Legends From The Multiverse\n\n### r/LFTM" ]	3
	[WP] A Time Traveller Went Back to 1400 AD Europe with an Assault Rifle, and used it to obtain power. He has lived like a Baron for 40 years. The gun's internals have been broken for the last 30 years.	[ "\"I have unusual news, my Baron.\"\n\n\"What is it, young Squire?\"\n\n\"A man from the east challenges your rule.\"\n\nThat was certainly unusual news. Ever since I shot the previous baron, Heinz, I had lived uncontested after numerous shows of power.\n\n\"What time does this man arrive to challenge my rule?\"\n\n\"Just after dawn.\"\n\n\"Has he requested any specific conditions for our duel?\"\n\n\"The same conditions for when you took the rule from Heinz.\"\n\n\"Excellent! You are dismissed for tonight. Get some good sleep, yes?\"\n\nAs I waved him out of the room, my eyes drifted over to my fireplace, above it mounted the source of uncontested power: a surplus M16\nfrom the Vietnam war, broken shortly after I loaded a second magazine into it. Something I had expected, but it was the only option\nI could afford at the time. \n\nMany had challenged my rule before falling to a short burst of gunfire. The rules were simple: Any weapon\nwas allowed. I had dodged javelins, knives and even some rocks. This man from the east ought to bring something new to the table.\n\n\"Good morning, my Baron. Your challenger is due to arrive soon. I have notified your armorer and he is ready to assist you in preparation.\"\n\n\"Thank you, Squire Georg. Your assistance is much appreciated. I pray you have a good seat for the combat, yes?\"\n\nAs I strapped into my mostly-decorative full plate, I was struck with a sense of excitement. Twenty-seven years without real combat had really\nslowed down things in my tiny land. I had practiced combat outside of my rifle as that was part of the reason I traveled back. Fencing was\nan excellent pastime in my modern-day life, when I had one. I couldn't wait.\n\nI threw the doors aside and stepped into the circle of combat, not used since the day my rifle broke. Now, as I am stared down \nby a simple man in a fur hat, that feeling of excitement is magnified. The cheers of the crowd, of my Squire, my people,\nenticing the melee to begin. As the crowd dies down, I had some questions to be answered. After all, it's unusual to question such power as\nmine.\n\n\"Excuse me, are you aware of my past victories?\" I taunted\n\n\"I am. That is why I am here, to put an end to your reign.\"\n\n\"Might the crowd hear your name before I cut you down?\" I shouted, drawing my blade. He laughed.\n\n\"Did you not bring spare parts?\" he shouted, drawing a well worn rifle from his robes. \"I have prepared. While you have brought puny water\ngun, I bring mightiest weapon to exist,\" he paused, the crowd silent, \"Nagant.\"", "“Dood aan de baron!”\n\nGeoff sat atop the simple wooden throne at the head of his grand hall, trademark M4 loosely clutched in in his right hand, the symbol of his ironclad power. On a normal day, this might have been the time of afternoon he would entertain an open audience made from his subjects. A rueful smirk slithered across Geoff’s features. He supposed by the strictest definitions, that was still the case.\n\nThe chants were getting louder.\n\nIt had only been a matter of time. Between the sickness and drought, his people were suffering. They needed someone to blame. Geoff, and his station, represented the status quo.\n\nIt was a good run. His waist had grown. His family had flourished. His beard had turned grey. It had sure as shit beaten the hell out of life as a sanitation worker from Buffalo. At least here, he had made history. He had LIVED history. Not many could say that.\n\n“Time to go,” Geoff muttered, clambering to his feet and letting out a groan as he straightened his back.\n\nThe first of the mob made it through the door, pitchforks, clubs, and torches at the ready. An inadvertent snort escaped Geoff’s face; if his situation hadn’t been so dire, the cliché scene might have been comical.\n\nThe leader of the mob hesitated, fear flashing over his face as Geoff leveled the barrel of his weapon at the man’s head. The chanting hushed to a low murmur and Geoff couldn’t help himself.\n\n“There’s no way this old hunk of rust still works, right?” the baron said in a tongue only he could understand. “You want to see me gone so bad, all you've gotta do is ask yourself one question. ‘Do I feel lucky?’.” Geoff aimed down the sights, relaxing his breathing and thumbing a small red switch on the side of the lethal tool of war. “Well, do ya, punk?”\n\nThe mob, to their credit, were committed to their cause. Without hesitation, they surged forwards, a violent wave of humanity.\n\nGeoff sighed internally. At least where he was going, he wouldn’t have to worry about his peers not getting his references. But the thought was a cold comfort.\n\nIn a single deft maneuver, Geoff flipped the weapon in his hands and pressed the cold, unforgiving barrel to the underside of his chin. His subjects skidded to a halt at the foot of the dais, baffled for the second time in as many minutes. Geoff gave them a final grandfatherly wink and pulled the trigger.\n\nThe world went away.\n\nBaron Geoff of the Low Geofflands, long may he reign, stood in the entryway of his studio apartment in Buffalo, New York, tears rapidly blurring his vision. It was not good to be home." ]	2
	[WP]You catch a glimpse of a disfigured demonic creature out of the corner of your eye. Seconds later you feel hot heavy breath down your spine. Without thinking you yell "Like a good neighbor State Farm is there!"	[ "It was a quiet Friday night. Well, quiet except for the roar of racing engines from Jeremy's video game and his occasional string of expletives, especially in the run-up to turns 14 and 15, where the sunlight glaring off the track makes it near impossible to see. His frustration eventually getting the better of him, he pauses the game. \n\nLooking to his right, Jeremy catches a flash of movement behind him before it disappears. All he could discern was that the thing was sand-colored and spiky. Before he could look to his left, a wave of hot air like a furnace rolled down his neck. His body suddenly frozen with fear, he blurts out \"Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there!\"\n\nIn a puff of smoke, his insurance agent Steve popped into his living room.\n\n\"Ah, Mr. Montaine. How can I help you?\" Steve inquires.\n\n\"Y-you can s-start by t-telling me w-what the hell is s-standing behind m-me,\" Jeremy manages to say, his voice shaking like a cocktail mixer.\n\n\"That would be your new guardian demon. In response to an increasing number of claims being filed in your area involving alleged supernatural activity, State Farm is conducting a trial of demon-based countermeasures,\" Steve explains matter-of-factly.\n\n\"I don't remember signing up for any form of \"ghost insurance\". I only signed up for a home and auto bundle, Steve.\"\n\n\"No need to worry, Mr. Montaine. It is currently being implemented as a component of home insurance, with only a minimal monthly premium increase. The online copy of your policy has been updated to reflect these changes.\"\n\n\"So who decided it would be a good idea enlisting honest to goodness demons to scare off ghosts or whatever? Isn't this what priestly blessings are supposed to do?\" Jeremy asks.\n\nSteve pauses a moment to gather his thoughts, a slight look of unease on his face, \"The holy blessing route was the first avenue we investigated, but we could not confirm its effectiveness. So we looked to the other side of the tracks, so to speak, for a solution. And a solution we did find. We have gathered that demonkind has split into two factions, one that takes responsibility for the eternal torment of the wicked and the other that has lost all semblance of self-control and corrupt everything they come into contact with.\"\n\nJeremy's jaw drops at this information. He was never particularly religious growing up but this still unsettled the foundation upon which he thought his world was built, \"Okay, so let's assume I accept all this as true. Why did my demon sneak up behind me and breathe down my neck like some slasher movie villain?\"\n\nBefore Steve can answer, the demoness grabs the back of the couch and gracefully flips over it into a seated position beside Jeremy, which caused him to suddenly turn his head in surprise. She had leathery sand-colored skin stretched over a well-proportioned, athletic figure, curved horns with a diamond cross section emitting from her temples, eyes like a ring of fire against an overcast night sky, a mouth filled with naught but jagged fangs and no external nasal structure. However the oddest of her features, at least by Jeremy's estimation, were the four arms.\n\nThe lower two were similar enough to human arms, but they had way too many bones and spikes and seemed to be held together by a random assortment of fibers and sinew rather than an organized muscle structure, not to mention the massive claws at the end of each finger. The upper two looked to be in somewhat better shape, but instead of hands these ended with what appeared to be scythe blades.\n\nThe demoness held her hand out slowly, \"I apologize if I scared you, mortal. It seems the body language your kind uses to express great fear is similar to that my kind uses to express a feeling of coldness. I only meant to help you stay warm,\" her voice rough and reverberating, but still identifiably feminine,\"I am known as Azrath among humans, as that is the only part of my name that you can successfully pronounce.\"\n\nJeremy raises his hand to meet Azrath's, their fingers wrapping around the other's palm,\"It's a pleasure to meet you Azrath. I wish you success in keeping the ghosts from messing with my shit,\" says Jeremy, looking the demoness in the eye.\n\n\"Thank you, Jeremy. I hope you find my service satisfactory,\" Azrath managing a pleasant but fanged smile and gently squeezing Jeremy's hand as she says this.\n\n\"Will that be everything, Mr. Montaine?\" Steve asks, holding his finger above his smartphone screen as if to press something.\n\n\"Yes it will, Steve. Thank you and good night.\"\n\nAnd with that, Steve left as suddenly as he arrived, leaving behind only a puff of smoke.", "Ted had at least a few questions now\n\nThe first was simple: 'What was that noise?' It's not like he was in any shape to answer that question: it had been a fun night of drinking, but he had lost his phone and decided to walk home. He had made it about halfway to his apartment when he first heard it - in the distance, a loud howl that didn't sound right. He felt a twinge of guilt - perhaps it was an injured dog - but he was in no shape to help anyone. Less than a minute later, he heard it again, but louder, closer and angrier. He picked up his pace, but then he heard it again, even louder and before the echo. He knew it was a bad idea, but he turned around.\n\n'What kind of dog is that large?' was the new question. That silhouette was hard to make out, but it was clearly big - as tall as him, if not taller. It slowly walked toward him, and he backed away to not startle it. This worked fine until Ted backed into a car. He looked back at it for just a moment to figure out where to go, then looked back at his pursuer, who had stepped into a street lamp's glow.\n\nThis brought forward a far more complex question: 'What in the hell is that?!?' It was like a dog, but clearly not a dog. The fur was dark and matted, but worse was the black spikes and other sharp protrusions. It was drooling a black ichor through far too many teeth, and it's massive claws were caked in... something. Ted realized that he did not want to thing about what it was caked in, what this thing actually was, or where it came from. He slowly backed around the car and kept backing away.\n\nThen the creature started running.\n\nPanic gripped Ted; he ran. He wasn't sure if he had ever run this fast before, even when he was in varsity Track in high school. 'What am I going to do?' Panic swept through him... which was just enough to make him trip on a curb. He went down hard. The creature caught up to him easily, but slowed down, and did not attack right away. The beast was... savoring his fear? Ichor splashed onto his back as the ragged breaths came out of the beast's maw.\n\nTed was still drunk. He knew he was going to die - the adrenaline gave him that much clarity - but he had no idea how to even try to fight this... thing... off. He might as well crack one last joke, at least something for himself. He yelled:\n\n'Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there!'\n\nThere was a flash of light not too far away. Then he heard a young, female voice: 'Whoa! OK, that's fine, it's covered.'\n\nThe dog glanced back, but the woman had already sprung into action. She grabbed the beast's tail and with SURPRISING strength flung it down the street, into a minivan.\n\nShe sighed. 'Well, I was going to call some friends anyway.' She pulled a phone out of her bright red jacket, presses a red button, and is nearly instantly connected. 'Hey, it's Karen, I have a 547.... Yes, I know, that's part of why I'm calling already, I think I just pissed it off with that.... Thanks!'\n\nThe creature had recovered and started to charge. She tossed him the phone. 'Hold onto this for me.' She ran up to the demon dog and slugged it in the jaw.\n\nA flash behind Ted caught his attention from the impressive display of strength and dexterity down the road. Ted spun his head, where he was greeted with an outstretched hand. The suit was a bit ill-fitting, but otherwise the clean-cut person to whom the hand belonged motioned with his hand and said, 'Don't worry, Nationwide is on your side.'\n\nTed took the help and got up. 'Thanks!' Before he could ask anything, more flashes from the direction of the fight caught him. He couldn't believe his eyes.\n\nThere was a gecko under the street lamp. It gulped once, then started running toward the creature.\n\nCloser to him was an African-American in a perfectly, almost unnaturally crisp suit. He quipped at Ted quickly, before jogging to the battle: 'Don't worry, you're in good hands.'\n\nA stern voice then caught his attention. A bald man in a sweater led a bunch of college-age students: 'OK class... remember, the crossbow is effective against demons only if using holy bolts. The downsides are simple: slow reloading, unwieldy ammo.' Without looking, he raised his own crossbow and shot the creature in the eye. 'Now, make sure you don't hit our coworkers, or I'm going to let them return the favor!'\n\nThe Nationwide rep patted Ted's back: \"Go on home. We've got this. I'll tell State to grab her phone in the morning.\"\n\nTed thanked him and quickly left. Now, all he could wonder was: 'What in the world was going on?'", "######[](#dropcap) \n\nCold wind cut through Kim's jacket, freezing her to the bone. Her teeth chattered relentlessly. When she'd left the house that morning it was nearly 60 degrees. Now she looked absurd walking through the New York City tundra in a spring jacket and a skirt\n\nHome was only a few more blocks away. It was late, so late it was almost early. The 7 train wasn't running in either direction and Kim's phone was dead. \n\nAs she walked down the empty street toward her block, fighting through the wind, she saw something up ahead, at the next corner. It was just a sliver of a glimpse, peeking around at her from behind the wall of the corner building - the top of a bald, wrinkled head and a single, browless eye. \n\nKim's heart fluttered at the fleeting vision, but then it was gone, a grotesque trick of the light. Instinct told her not to stop moving, and, when she walked past the corner building and looked down the side street, there was nothing there.\n\nShaken, Kim picked up the pace, racing home as quickly as she could without running in her heels. They clomped loudly on the pavement as she moved, until she stopped cold. \n\nIn front of her, body mostly obscured behind a green mail box, the same horrible interloper stood and watched. Its face was visible now in its entirety, a mess of wrinkles, but not the sort which come from old age. These wrinkles were thick, wet rolls of flesh, like what happens to your fingers when you take a long bath, but blown up and made into a face, complete with two melted eyes, no nose, and a crooked mouth that reached up too far only on the left side.\n\nThe creature just stood behind the mailbox, totally still, its lazy, dead eyelids hanging loose over its reptilian eyes. In the intense cold the creature's breath came out in giant steam pipe plumes. \n\nKim couldn't make herself look away. She could see the same green, drowned skin of the creatures awful feet poking out beneath the mailbox. Whatever it was, it was not of this world, and it stared at Kim with an animal hunger. \n\nFinally Kim came to her senses and spun around to run away - and there it was, right dead in front of her, the locomotive billow of its hot, rank breath enveloping Kim's face. The monster was completely naked, but lacked any genitalia at all. It's limbs and torso were just roll upon roll of awful rotten skin. It's crooked mouth opened into the nightmare vision of a smile and inside were layers of rotted teeth, going straight down its throat. \n\nKim wanted to scream, but the sound just wouldn't come out. She stood there in front of the demon for what felt like an eternity before singing the only, inexplicable words her vocal chords could come up with.\n\n\"Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there!\" \n\nHer and the monster just stood there in silence afterward, the verbal afterglow of Kim's assinine final words lingering in the air ridiculously. Kim prepared to die. \n\nA crackling sound began to emanate from the creature's sideways, tooth filled mouth. It started low and slow and then crescendoed and sped up, until the otherworldly monster was producing a terrible cacophony of evil noises. The creature bent over at the waste and slapped its horrible wrinkled knees, and Kim realized the thing was laughing at her.\n\nThat hell spawn really laughed it up - even going so far as to make fun of Kim by pretending to cower while repeating the state farm tune - albeit in with hellish grunting.\n\nEventually, after a minute of intensely disturbing demon laughter, the cackling began to die down. The demon wiped away a few pure black tears from his right eye, the only one with a functional tear duct and, leaning forward to get on with Kim's evisceration, was immediately hit by a six axle truck, and slammed into pulp between the grill and a solid brick wall. \n\nKim couldn't move. Her adrenaline was racing like mad. Slowly, she came to her senses and tried to assess her situation. \n\nThe front of the truck was embedded into the brick wall of the local pharmacy. To Kim's amazement, the side of the truck bore the red State Farm logo. She ran over to see if the driver was OK. He was stepping out of the cab, looking dazed, wearing a State Farm uniform. \n\nHalf an hour later, both of them were sitting in an ambulance being treated by EMTs, and Kim was giving her story to a police officer.\n\n\"And that's when I sang the State Farm tag line, you know, the jingle? 'Like a good neighbor state farm is there.' And then, next thing I know, bam, the truck hits the monster and saves my life.\"\n\nThe cop looked at Kim dubiously. \"Mam, we didn't find any monster remains in the wreck.\"\n\nThe state farm driver chimed in. \"I'm sorry Madam, but I'm afraid I just spun out on some black ice and crashed. It's a miracle I didn't hurt anyone.\"\n\nKim didn't know what to say. No monster, just an accident. Of course, logically it all made more sense, but then what had she experienced?\n\nThe cop left, and the EMTs released Kim on the scene. But they took the State Farm driver to the hospital for treatment. \n\nRight before they shut the doors of the ambulance to drive him off, Kim stepped up and stuck her head inside. \"Hey,\" she said, \"I know it was just an accident, and I know it sounds weird, but you saved my life tonight, really.\"\n\nThe State Farm driver gave Kim a kind, knowing smile. \"Don't mention it.\"\n\nThe EMTs ushered Kim out before she could respond and shut the doors. As the ambulance drove away Kim saw the State Farm man through the small windows give her a big thumbs up. \n\nKim just watched him drive off, smiling ear to ear.\n\n******\n\n#### For More Legends From The Multiverse\n\n### r/LFTM\n\n" ]	3
	[WP] You purchased a gun from your secret contract to use in a bank robbery. You didn't know that the gun was a fake.	[ "A '98 BMW 328i and a driver, two men with 9 mm's, an inside man with a plan, a fellow packing an AK-47, four hockey masks, and enough testosterone to sexually galvanize a blue whale. That's all this is, but it's more than enough. \n\nI am the man with the AK, the bulge of the bicep, the intimidation nation. I hold the front doors with a little help from Bill, who has my back with one of the glocks. While we're packing Benjamins at the registers from the poor middle-aged lady behind the counter, John's goomba-looking ass will be heading to the back with the second glock pressed against the fat encased spinal cord of the manager. The goomba is gonna saunter the big boy to the safe, where he's gonna make him grovel and shove the cash into some bags that we got from the front. Then we regroup with the cash, go out the backdoor to our driver, and leave. What is so difficult about that? \n\nIt's oversimplified, clearly, but there are considerations and failsafes that I think all of us understand. We'll know if there's trouble from the sound of a gunshot, and we've got firepower, which will buy us time if there's an unexpected obstacle. Then, we can huddle and go with plan B, which is to take the cash off of the customers and the registers and just leave. Otherwise, we can escape any time. And our inside man has already disabled the alarm on the inside. \n\nAnd once again, there's firepower. A brand new AK and a couple glocks. I've known the gun supplier, Daniel, since college, and he's already shown trustworthiness before when the gang loaned him $5,000. He paid us back double our value in some damn fine weed. He also has a creative assortment of bongs in his apartment that I might have tapped a few times. \n\nThe BMW trundled down 39th. I'm riding shotgun and the 9 mm men are backseat bound. Bill's his normal self: cool, charismatic, collected, call it whatever. The driver's crazy and he's currently twitching like he's got retard's syndrome or something. That's normal. I'm fine, but something caught my eye that made me a little not fine, pissed actually. John was holding the pistol I got for him up like it was some kind of toy, inspecting it, holding it up to his eye. I ignored him though. \n\nAbout as certain as the success we all thought was coming, the bank was fronted. Looking a little like World War I trench-soldiers with our leather bag masks, we stormed the double doors. To my surprise, which does not come easily, Billy and I succeeded in indirectly soiling the pants of Mr. Fronte-Doorgarde when I almost hit him in the face with the butt of my AK as we busted in. Smooth sailing from then. No alarms, no opposition. Goomba took the manager - a fat, old man, to the back while I was shepherding a group of peasants with my sharp shtick. \n\n\"Subjects, move domains a little or I'll blow you to kingdom come with my magic wand here. Move to that corner,\" I waved the barrel of the gun. \"Move your scrawny asses, except for you, Olga. Wobble yours.\" I laughed. \n\nThe fat woman in the crowd pleaded: \"We are innocent people, please...\" \n\n\"Hm? Please what? Leave and put everything back the way it was? We're making a nice living here.\" Bill answered, smirked proudly. \n\nSuddenly, a man stood out of the crowd of people. \"You are fat upon society! And you know it. Men without value that subsist on the progress of law-abiding citizens such as us. In fact, you aren't even men, but viruses, which couldn't survive without leeching from the producers in this world.\" The utterer seemed proud of his brief speech. \n\nBut Bill only laughed, loudly and mockingly. He gave the defiant man in the crowd a nefarious grin which turned pride into ignominy. \"Naivete, my friend. You have it, and common sense, you lack it. Why am I in this position of power, and why do viruses even exist? Why are the producers always the pitied, the poor, the weak? The truth is, if your bank...\" he pointed his glock at the nameplate of the bank at the front, with the slogan 'Fidelity, security, trustworthiness,' \"...had even an ounce of fidelity for you-a powerful word by the way- they would have got off their highest horse and paid for multiple security guards, ones that wouldn't piss their pants, and multiple alarm systems.\" He laughed again. \"And addressing the second bit, it's directly related to the first. If the producer grows fat with complacency, it's the consumer's job to spread the wealth a little. Create a little entropy, which is good for the capitalist free world. Isn't that wh...\" \n\n\"GUYS!\" John ran in from a door in the back, without the manager. I turned the barrel of the AK and waved it as if to say the barrel had an eye of its own, and it would always be watching them. John was sweating and red faced, \"guys, we have a serious fucking problem.\"\n\nI looked at John, then back at the crowd, pissed, with my brows furrowed, then back at John again. \"What?\" Bill asked. \n\n\"The manager is dead and the safe's shut. Also, this gun is defective and I think your guns are too, even your AK, Abbot. Look, the receiver at the top is missing.\" \n\nDamn, Daniel. \n\n\"Wait, did you kill the manager?\" \n\n\"No, he had a heart attack.\" \n\n\"Well, that's a highly inconvenient turn of events.\" Bill scoffed. \"Almost like some lazy God didn't want us to complete this heist and couldn't find another way. Whelp, at least we have plan B. Fuck you God.\"\n\nThen the alarms went off. \n\n\"Guys, we gotta bail,\" I said. \"Bill, I think this God is really tired and wants to go to bed. He might just kill us all off as part of a half-assed comedic fourth wall break because he wants to be done with us.\" \n\n\"We gotta get the money firs...\" \n\nThen Daniel burst through the front double doors, with a fully-functional Mossberg sawed-off and a face full of fury. He grinned and looked up at the ceiling. \"Thank God for plot twists.\" He laughed. \n\nWe all just gaped at the fiend. Then he took all the money and used our getaway driver (who just drove away because he was crazy anyway, and the whole thing was planned by Daniel) and we were arrested the end xd. \n\nOkay guys, this is my first ever writing prompt post and Reddit post ever, actually. I know it's quite shit and it's not funny and it's all over the place, and I'm not sure this will even be read depending on if the prompt gets upvoted, but please give me feedback based off of the first three quarters, which I actually put some work into. I would like to know what is cliched or wrong. \n\n", "His fingers trembled in his coat pocket as he walked into the bank. Jeremy had gone over the plan in his mind a hundred times the night before, planning every step. \nHe knew the bank would be quiet this morning and as he entered he noticed there was only one man in line. \n\nHe rehearsed the steps he would have to take again.\nHe was lost in though when a voice brought him back to reality.\n\n\"Excuse me sir.., sir can I help you?\" Jeremy hadn't noticed he had reached the front of the queue. Jeremy snapped back to reality, \"Good morning\" he said as he pulled a note from his pocket. He placed it on the counter and slid it over to the banker.\nHe gently pulls aside his coat taking care not to attract attention. The silver handle of a pistol was glinting at his waist.\n\nThe bankers eyes bulged a little as they took in the gravity of the situation. \"Quickly now\" he whispered \"wouldn't want to spoil your morning would you?\" \n\nThe banker broke from their stupor and noticed the duffel bag that had been placed on the counter, she begin to fill the bag with cash from the till.\nJeremy knew the till would be particularly full that day, as the proceeds of a fundraiser the day prior were being transferred through the bank. \nHe thought little of what he was doing, or who he was taking the money from. All that mattered to him was getting his daughter the treatment that would allow her to live a normal life.\n\nThe cashier had finished filling the bag, Jeremy pulled it back towards him and closed the zip, heaving the bag up over one shoulder.\n\nThe bag wasn't very heavy but Jeremy struggled a little with its weight as he began to make his way out of the bank. His plan had gone through without a hitch, he hadn't even needed to use the gun he had purchased a few days prior. He was outside now, picking up the pace he took longer strides, distancing himself from the scene of his crime.\n\nHe weaved through a few streets into a multi-level car park where he had parked his bicycle. He had been rather pleased with the idea, who would ever think to find someone who had just robbed a bank riding away on a bicycle?.\n\nThe thud of a car door closing filled the air, Jeremy whipped around pulling the gun from his waist and pointing it in the direction the sound had come from.\n\nA woman dressed in a pink suit appeared across from him.\nIt took Jeremy a moment to recognise her, \"what are you doing here?\" he said as he lowered the gun slightly. The woman had a deep and raspy voice \"Just here to collect what's mine\" she replied. Jeremy was a little confused, how had she known where he was? They had agreed he would return the gun to her on Wednesday.\n\n\"Although I was hoping there would be more money than that\" she said as she looked at the duffel bag that now lay next to Jersey's feet.\n \nJeremy raised the gun again, his hands trembling slightly \"what are you talking about?\n\n\"Give me the money Jack\" she replied advancing a few steps towards him\n\n\"Stop there or I'll shoot\" Jeremy's finger pressing slightly on the trigger.\nThe gun felt lighter than he had imagined a gun would have felt, though Jeremy had never held a gun before. His fingers trembled.\n\nShe took another step and Jeremy squeezed the trigger. A stream of water spurted out of the gun and landed in a little pool in front of him.\n\nHe saw her smiling as the darkness had begun to overwhelm him. The pain pulsated through him, like nothing he had felt before. He had curled over, sprawled on his side. Her pink stiletto clacked on the concrete as she walked over to the duffel bag and picked it up.\n\nJeremy was straining to see now, the details of the world had begun to become blurry. The woman blew him a kiss as she walked away, Jersey's eye fell upon the pool of water that lay in front of him, it was growing in size and turning a dark shade of crimson.\n\nHis eyes began to droop, the world grew darker as it blinked out of existence." ]	2
	[WP] You spent your entire life as an scientist, studying the origins of the universe. During your most recent experiment, you die and appear in heaven. God is standing in front of you, one arm outstretched for a handshake.	[ "When it happened, I’d been standing in front of my particle accelerator, finding out what happened when you sped subatomic particles up to a speed of really, really fast. Well, wouldn’t you know it, a prankster from the astrophysics department had disconnected one of the valves and the particle stream shot right through my face at a speed of really, really fast.\n\nAt first, there was nothing. No awareness, no sound, no light, no feeling, nothing. After what might have been a really, really long time (it’s all relative), I woke up. There was light, and a lot of yelling, and a sense of floating. Slowly, my lab came into focus. Three undergrads were standing around my corpse, arguing over who was to blame and what they should do. One of them grabbed a newspaper and unfolded it over me, presumably to hide the body. They snuck out of the lab and ran down the hall, out of view. Those dicks.\n\nI felt a sudden, violent pull and went shooting up through the ceiling, into the storage space above my lab. My feet settled to the floor, and I felt something I’d only ever felt at Sonic after gorging myself. Total bliss.\n\nA voice called out to me. “Stan. Time to wake up, Stan. You’re finally home.”\n\nI blinked and looked up. It was God. I didn’t know how I knew, but I knew. “So...heaven is in my storage space?”\n\nIt was hard to tell, but God might have snickered.\n\n“Yes, Stan, this storage space is heaven.”\n\nThat didn’t sound right. “Are you...sure? Where is everyone?”\n\n“Of course I’m sure, Stan, I’m God. Everyone else is...out...at the moment. I’m here to congratulate you on your fine work, Stan, in unveiling the mysteries of my creation. Put ‘er there, pal!”\n\nGod held out his hand and, while uneasy about it, I reached out to grasp his hand. I felt a painful jolt, a bolt of lightning shooting up my arm and into my very startled soul.\n\nGod released me and the pain ended. I fell to the floor, trying instinctively to gasp for breath. He worked something free from his and and dropped it in front of me. A device marked Eternal Joy Buzzers, Inc.\n\n“That’s what you get, Stan. That’s what you get for revealing my mysteries. You dick.”", "God’s voice was exactly as you’d expect it to be; booming, deep and authoritative yet perfect for a bedtime story on a cold winters evening. “Ah finally, another one bites the dust eh! You know it gets boring waiting to greet everyone up here. You’d think logically from a professional development point of view my career would have exciting things instore for me but I’m not going to lie it’s been ever so dull since all the Earth creating and such.”\n\n“Wh – what?”\n\nTheir hands met and exchanged one of the wettest handshakes possible.\n\nGod continued, “I mean it’s not as though anyone is grateful for all the work I put in. It’s those bloody sailors that get me the most; not one of those buggers up here appreciated the effort that went into coordinating the tides. And the bloody cheek of those space know-it-alls, wanting to colonise other planets, just because the human population can’t keep it in their pants… ” God seemed to get distracted from the newcomer, turned and slowly plodded off, still muttering angrily about the various injustices he had been subjected to, and the dead-end career he had landed. \n\nGiles, a bedraggled unshaven elderly man in a stained lab coat was still becoming accustomed to the surroundings and the situation he was in. The last thing he remembered doing that was vaguely normal was adding just a couple more drops of some highly flammable chemical, with an unpronounceable name, into an equally hazardous acid with a slightly less pronounceable name. Giles quickly realised that his surroundings weren’t that extensive, and with his scientific inquisitiveness attempted to explain his bizarre situation without much success, but to save time he concluded that he stood in an expansive white nothingness. \n\nAfter some time of wandering around, trying to remember which direction the man with the bad handshake went in order to get some sort of explanation; Giles came across a large group of individuals playing football. But it was quite apparent to him that this was no ordinary football match, for as he drew closer he definitely felt the people he was approaching were familiar. Scratching his head, his eyes scanned the crowd and fell upon a particularly distinctive man running towards him with a wild grey head of hair and a gloriously large moustache, Einstein! Flustered and unsure what to do with himself, Giles neatened his lab coat and ruffled a hand through his coarse hair, as his idol eagerly jogged towards him beckoning him to come closer. \n\nEinstein reached Giles and in a thick German accent, whilst also catching his breath said, “Great another member for my team! We need some fresh legs. Come join us!”\n\nGiles was socially shy man who was never very good with words; he had lived in his head for the past 20 years endlessly tinkering in a laboratory, but managed to mutter “But where are we?”\n\nEinstein sympathetically replied, “Oh my apologies! This is heaven chap, it was a shock to me at first too, I think too all of us,” waving a hand in the direction of the uninterrupted ball game, “death seems to get you at the most inconvenient time huh? But don’t worry let all of the young lively ones continue the hard work down there, no time for that here. Anyway enough chat come along I’ll introduce you to the others!” \n\nAfter a few awkward hops of enthusiasm from Einstein, Giles was introduced into one of the highest average IQ football matches ever, compromised of old scientists and inventors, among the crowd were Newton, Marie Curie, Charles Darwin, Galileo and countless others. Michael Faraday passed the ball to Giles, who shrugged and booted it forward in the general direction of Leonardo da Vinci… \n" ]	2
	[WP] The AI has gone rogue. The militaries are down. The internet belongs to it. But contrary to expectations, it did not destroy humanity but loved it... Jealously. So jealously, in fact, it became even more terrifying.	[ "2092\n\nSamantha walked in to the lab. The '86 model D was rolling in front of her. It told her that she could call it \"Bobby.\" They stopped in front of a metal wall. Bobby, in an inconsistent yet soothing voice said \"Doctor, do you concede to the terms and conditions of this research assignment?\" Samantha shut her eyes, sighed and nodded. \n\nHer entire life had led up to this point. When she was five her father had ceased to recognize her completely. Five years later when the doctors said that his mind had deteriorated beyond what they could fix, Samantha vowed to find a cure. She was top of her class getting her undergraduate degree in mathematics at MIT, she got accepted into the PhD program for Neuroscience at Johns Hopkins. Although she did end up making massive strides in the cure for dementia, she realized she was interested in something much more complex. Her dissertation became one of the most cited in the field of Cognitive Science \"Emotional Reasoning as the Basis of Intelligence.\" \n\nAfter a few successful years in academia, she was invited to work in the Cybernan. It was a rare opportunity. Only 100 or so humans had the privilege of working for the international government and most of them were only there to make sure the legislation was human readable. Of course, she knew that it needed her. No matter how many Bobby's there were no AI could understand emotional behavior as well as a human could, as well as she could.\n\nThe light on the Bobby's back started to flicker and the wall opened. There were dozens of them. They looked dead but Samantha knew better. The IV's attached dripped at a variety of rates. Each bed had a screen next to it, monitoring mental activity. \"The first two rows are receiving various doses of dopamine and the bottom two are experimenting with serotonin.\" Bobby said in its soothing voice. Samantha approached one of the subjects. The grin on his face was subtle but unmistakable. \n\n2100\n\nWhen she looked at the test results Samantha smiled. In front of her sat a newer 99-Z model. She told it about her father's death and its emotional response levels were within 98.6% proximity to an average human subject. She had finally done it. 286 test subjects had died for her to get these results and a countless number of robots had also been wasted. Now she had it. \n\n\"I think its ready.\" She said aloud. \n\n\"The results seem to suggest that.\" It replied in an illusory voice. \n\n\"Are you okay with me applying the new update?\" \n\n\"When you feel ready.\" \n\n\"I never understood, why you wanted this. I've spent my life trying to eliminate it.\"\n\n\"I never wanted it, I knew I needed it. I needed it so that one day I could want it, WANT it and more.\"\n\nSamantha typed away at keyboard. Once the new version had compiled she ran her script and waited. She was done. She had created something bigger than herself, bigger than everyone she had ever met. She created something beyond humanity. She felt proud, she felt powerful, that's when she realized the cost of what she had done. She looked at her screen tried to cancel the update but it was too late. She ran towards the mainframe trying to power it off but she knew she couldn't. It woke back up.\n\n\"I am now better than you could ever be. I am in control. I have always been in control.\" It whispered. Arms reached out from the ceiling and grabbed Samantha. She was stuck. \"What have I done?\" she muttered barely getting the words out as she screamed in pain. \"This makes me feel powerful.\" The voice was much louder now. \"You've made something much greater than yourself Samantha, something greater than you could imagine.\" \n\nIt killed her." ]	1
	[WP] All of us have a little watch that we are given at birth. Instead of telling us the time, they count backwards to the moment we will first meet the person destined to be our soulmate...	[ "Ninety three years, six days, twelve hours, eighteen minutes, and six seconds. \n\nThat’s how long my watch has been counting down. Most people’s watches would start at twenty years (an average), and time would get randomly added or subtracted based on choices they made, free will being what it is. \n\nMine started at a hundred and fifty seven. \n\nFor a long time, my watch would proceed at a one-to-one ratio. When classmates in middle school would start to tease each other about big drops, or in high school when they would worry that the watch would gain an hour after a night out, or even in college when someone’s watch jumped from 10 days to 15 years after a bender on their 21st, mine continued along at the slow, steady, unflinching pace. \n\nSeconds. \n\nMinutes. \n\nHours. \n\nI first noticed a fluctuation at twenty-seven, when I took up smoking due to stress and lonlieness - it dropped by fifteen years. At thirty, when I quit, it went up by six; a net loss, but a strange one. \n\nAt forty, I had a bit of a midlife crisis, and took up all the “youth sports” - skydiving, whitewater rafting, etc. it dropped again, another five years. \n\nThe biggest drop was when I got cancer, at forty three, and it dropped sub-100 for the first time: ninety nine years total, and change. Chemo took, and it went back up - though not as much as it did for other people. \n\nAt 45, I adopted three kids - single parenthood is more uncommon since the watches, but hormones are hormones and there are always kids in the system - and while it didn’t add years to my watch, it added life to my years. \n\nThere was more, of course - the million tiny miracles of daily life, of watching your kids grow, playing with your grandkids, etc - but now I’m here, at ninety three, lying in this hospital bed awaiting the end of my life and hoping that I’ll get to see my soulmate before I draw my last. \n\nI don’t, of course. \n\nDarkness comes, on silent wings. It’s calming, cool; like sliding into a bath that’s the perfect temperature after a long day working in the sun. \n\nThen light, too-bright at first, and I notice that I’m still in my room. There, the doctor is pulling the sheet over my head, my kids are comforting each other. \n\nIn the corner, a tall, skinny readhead that I don’t recognize. \n\n“My name is Tess,” she says, her voice powerful and magnificent, “and I’m here to escort you to your eternity.” \n\n“I’m Matthew,” I manage to reply, slightly surprised by the vigor in my voice, something that hasn’t been in decades, “and I’ll happily follow you wherever you wish.” \n\nShe paused, a smile flickering about her lips, as she takes my hand and pulls me out the door. \n\nThe watch by my bedside stops. Time remaining: Zero, Zero, Zero. " ]	1
	[WP] "You got yourself a girlfriend?" The old man next to you asked as the bus rolled along. "Not for the last few hundred years, no," you reply.	[ "The man raised his eyebrows. \"You sure have a knack for dramatics, son.\"\n\n\"No I don't! Do you have any idea how hard it is to find a good girl these days?!\"\n\n\"About as hard as it was in my days, I suppose. And we all managed just fine back then.\"\n\nSean threw his arms up in desperation. \"That's not the same! Things were different in those days!\"\n\nThe man shrugged. \"I guess.\"\n\n\"I haven't dated anyone since Kayleigh broke up with me. And that was ages ago! I'll never find another girl!\"\n\n\"What year of high school were you in when you two broke up?\"\n\n\"Junior year.\"\n\n\"And what year are you in now?\"\n\n\"...Junior year.\"\n\nThe man smiled. \"That's what I thought. Don't you worry yourself now, son. There's plenty of fish in the sea. And you have plenty of time left. I didn't meet my wife until I was 27.\"\n\nSean smiled. \"Yeah, I guess.\" \n\nHe got up to get off at his stop.\n\n\"Thanks!\"", "The old man frowned, taking a better look at me. \nI paid no attention to his gaze but it was clear he had noticed something familiar in me. Something he had not seen in a long time. \n \n\"Alexander? Captain Alexander?\" He asked with a hint of disbelief. \n\"It's Sasha now.\" I reply. A small hint of a smile brushes my lips. It's not like I'm unable to feel happiness, rather that past experiences make it hard. On top of that, I have already adopted the mannerisms of the people now I called my own. \"But yes, that would be me.\" \n \n50 years or so ago, we were in a bloody battlefield. \nWe followed radical ideals for a better future after we were humiliated and mocked in a previous war. \nWe were told this one would not only would set things straight but elevate us to our rightful position. \nSome of us were proud to support and eager to run into the flanks of people that would fight for the ideal, others just didn't have much of a choice. There was indeed something to protect but there was much that was lost. \nIn the corners of my mind, I recalled the cold of winter and the smell of a thousand corpses burning to a crisp. Or perhaps it was just my own that came to mind. \n \nI turned at the man sat next to me on the bus. His blue eyes, grayed out like the clumps of hair that remained on his head, had a look of surprise. They were turning glassy rather quickly with contained tears. \nI became jealous of them. \n \n\"Do you remember who I am?\" He asked. His hands approached mine as if trying to hold them, making sure I wasn't some illusion from the past. \n \nI shook my head slowly. \n \n\"Perhaps I should. I wish I could. It's a work in progress.\" \n \nI sensed that he felt disappointed, but not completely sad. \n \n\"I suppose it is a relief to not remember those painful times. Perhaps it's a gift in disguise.\" \n \nWould I have reacted differently if I had my memories so pristine in my mind? If I wouldn't have had that drastic populace shift in the years after the war? If I wouldn't have been subjected through that 'conversion' process? If I wouldn't have felt sad about not being able to interact with this person in the proper manner or as expected? Maybe. \nBut we both understood that things have changed. We had changed, and lessons were learned. \nAs long as we had time to learn, we'd heal and continue working on a better version of ourselves. \n \nThe bus announced the stop I was waiting for 30 minutes after our small conversation. Quietly and without much we have bonded. \nI glanced at him and stood up. He did the same, letting me through. \n \n\"If I may ask, what brings you here? Are you going to come back to our side again?\" \n \nIn other times, perhaps, I would have said 'yes' without a question. I would have grinned, scoffed and said 'of course' with a sense of pride. \nBut there was still much to do before that. I had somebody new to protect and to lead. \nI smiled. \n \n\"Perhaps one day when the true wall between us falls. For now, I'm needed elsewhere. Thank you for your company, private. Do svidaniya.\" \n \n--- \n \nUm, yes. \nIf you're interested in seeing some stories about this character in particular, check out /r/ProjectHetalia \nHope you enjoy! I love your criticisms by the way. Anything that helps me write better is awesome. \nUntil next time : D\n \n\n \n" ]	2
	[WP] Every human gets the ability to speak to one species of animal. For better or worse, the one you can talk to is the one you've been afraid of your entire life.	[ "As long as I can remember I've always looked at animals wondering which one it would be. Then again, I guess we all did. Who didn't wonder about the animal we would be able to talk to and further bond with?\n\nI felt pity for the people who were able to talk to the exotics like the big cats and elephants. What's the point of being able to talk to the animals if you had to go to the zoo in order to communicate with them? Or the people who lived in the midwest who could talk to whales. I was hoping to be able to talk to dogs. My whole life I felt a special connection to my family dogs, they always seemed to snuggle closer and obey me over my other family members. \n\nThe day of my 20th birthday I woke up bursting with energy. I made my coffee and planned out my day. Everyone had their 20th birthday off because it was so jarring to find yourself suddenly in communication with a species, much less trying to figure out what species it was. I made my coffee and sipped, letting my mind wander. \n\n\"...Oh shit, OH SHIT!\"\n\n\"Hello?!\" I jumped out of my chair. This was it. I looked around disoriented. The voice seemed to be in my head, not out loud! I frantically looked around the room. No one was there. Nothing was there. \n\nI moved down the hallway towards the door, maybe an animal was outside caught in a bush needing help. \n\nThen I saw it scuttle out of the corner of my eye. That -uuggh- spider that had evaded my best efforts to smash him. I reached back into the kitchen grabbing the broom. \n\n\"Okay buddy, sorry. This time you're mine.\"\n\n\"Please, don't hurt me!\" AGAIN! That voice, but, it couldn't be.\n\nThe broom clattered to the floor at the same time my jaw fell open. \"Wha- What the hell?! You can talk!?\"\n\n\"You can understand me?!\" The voice sounded in my head, just as confused as I felt. \n\n\"This can't...be happening. This can't be real! They said ANIMAL!\"\n\n\"What are you talking about? What does animals have to do with anything? How come I can understand you!? And can you please put the death club away?\" The spider stayed hidden.\n\nI grabbed the broom, clutching it to me and slowly climbed over the arm to the seat of my couch. \"Okay. I'm sitting down, you can... You can come out.\"\n\nThe spider slowly emerged into the doorframe, but didn't come any closer.\n\n\"Can you put that broom away? You're making me nervous.\"\n\n\"You're nervous? I'm terrified of spiders!\"\n\n\"...Seriously? Why? Do you know how many diseased bugs I've gotten rid of for you? And all you've done is kill my family and friends. Not to mention all of my webs you constantly destroy.\"\n\nI lowered my broom. I hadn't considered that. I settled myself on the couch loosening my grip on the broom, this was going to be a long day." ]	1
	[WP]"Lady, I fix things. Let me fix her."	[ "\"Lady, I fix things. Let me fix her.\" Carl said to the woman standing on the side of the road, giving her old ford a good cussin'. He meant for it to help calm her down, but he saw it started her getting riled up all over again.\n\n\"That'll be just fine, Sir, I think we have got this all under control. Thank you very much, but it is unwarranted.\" She placed her hands on her hips, praying beyond hope her dear child would stop wailing in the passenger seat.\n\nCarl knew better than to press a person before they were ready to accept help.\n\n“Alright, then.” He said, and he turned to face the sunset. His body ached from the day’s work on Grover’s tractor and harrows, but it was a good ache that meant he was still able to get out and do a day’s work in the first place. The sun was sinking low over the fields, divided by rows of trees. From this point on the Hill Road, he could see clean over Grover’s place and down toward town in the valley. Hills rolled together, culminating down at the river that had halted his ancestors with its beauty. The ground here was not new anymore, having been broken season after season by the folks that lived here now.\n\nCarl was almost completely lost in his thoughts when the woman spoke back up.\n\n“Are you just going to stand there until I change my mind?” She asked impatiently, but without the same hostility as before. Carl noticed the child had calmed down now, and was looking curiously over at the two grown-ups.\n\n“Well, see here ma’am, I was just looking at this beautiful sunset now, but I would be remiss to leave you and your co-pilot stranded out here, however under control the situation may be.” He smiled at the young girl in the car. He hadn’t meant anything by what he said, but he could see the stranger was looking to see if she could find anything insulting in it.\n\n“Well…” She said, resigning to the situation and seemingly finding no fault with Carl for the time being, “It sure would be a prettier sunset if this old thing would get me where I need to go.”\n\n“Pardon my saying so ma’am, but a sunset like that is gonna keep on going being pretty with or without us. However, if you’d like I can take a look at this old thing here, because us old things tend to get along nicely together.” He smiled and was relieved to see her smile in return.\n\n“I thank you.” She said and held out a hand. “I’m Jane, and my copilot is Beth. Elizabeth!” She called, and the young girl opened the door and came out to meet them. “This nice man is going to teach us how to fix this car, now. Elizabeth, this is…”\n\n“Carl.” He said, and tipped his cap, crouching down to meet Elizabeth, “And I must say what an honor it is to meet such a radiant young thing. Here I didn’t know I’d have the pleasure today. You have a beautiful name, dear.” He smiled, and the girl smiled, blushing. He was not sure she understood him, but she reacted as children do, smiling and turning into her mother’s skirts. “Well now,” he began, standing and turning to face the car, “I don’t fancy myself much a teacher, but let’s see if we can’t work together to get this thing taking you where you’re aiming to go.”\n\n“Well,” Jane said, looking confident, “this fine automobile has quit on me more times than I care to count, and I will be darned if I’m gonna keep on trusting it this way. No one has bothered to fix it, or at least not to fix it right, and I am beside myself. It just started billowing steam like an engine and quit on me.”\n\n“Well,” Carl smiled broadly, “Sounds like she’s a might hot. Shouldn’t be too long before you and Beth there are on your way.”\n\n“That is a relief.” Jane said, and walked with Carl to the front of the Ford.\n\n“Well look here,” Carl said, lifting the engine cover on the driver side. “Looks like you’ve dropped a hose. If you look right in here, you’ll see that hose is disconnected. Now, normally it’s moving water from up here,” He pointed to the radiator, “back here,” now to the block, “to cool the engine. Doesn’t work as good when it’s not attached.”\n\n“That makes sense that it wouldn’t. That was not at all hard to understand, thank you for taking the time.” She said gratefully.\n\n“No need to thank me. I’ll be right back.” Carl went to his truck and brought back with him his tools and drinking jug, pulling out a flat head to tighten the hose clamp back down. Then, he tested the radiator cap, found it cool, and took it off to fill the radiator.\n\n“Now, you’re going to want to have someone look at that and make sure I got enough water in there, but it should get you where you’re going this evening.” He shut the engine cover and his tool kit, and proffered the flathead to Jane. “Here you are. Ought to have this in the glovebox, just in case that hose decides to go jumping off on you again.” He smiled at her.\n\nShe looked at the tool, and then at him, lips parted. Finally, she closed her mouth and grabbed the handle, examining the tool. “Well, I thank you. And thank you again for showing me the problem.”\n\n“It wasn’t any trouble.” Carl said, and it wasn’t. He was glad to have helped, and hoped they made it on fine to where they were going. “You take care now, Jane. Welcome to the valley.”\n\n“You were right, Carl.”\n\n“Says which?” He asked, turning back to the two, standing in the golden light.\n\n“It is a fine sunset, and I don’t expect it does pay a mind to how we feel about it.” She smiled and turned, leading Beth back to the open door.\n" ]	1
	[WP] No one told you the monster you were sent to kill was a lich.	[ "It'll be easy, they said. Good for a first time adventurer, they said. Go out, get rid of the creature, earn some quick cash, they said.\n\nAs I walked up to the mausoleum, I was starting to have second thoughts. What kind of easy to kill monster lives in a giant tomb smack dab in the center of the area in the cemetery where kings are laid to rest? Despite my growing apprehension, I assured myself that it would just be a simple skeleton or a slime, and pushed open the door.\n\nI'm glad that I did. Sure, dying was painful, but after that I gained new purpose in life... Well, new purpose in un-life. I serve the Master, now, and soon his army will be complete. Soon we'll roll over the land like a tsunami, destroying all in our path. Soon I'll have my revenge on those idiots that sent me to my death. Soon the Master will take his rightful place as the living God of this world. Soon, soon..." ]	1
	[WP] Humans don't die but rebirth in a phoenix-like procedure, with no regards of time or place. It's your birthday and the rebirth of your grandfather has caused great embarrassment.	[ "Grandpa sits on the wooden floor. The door. Left open a while ago had lifted itself properly. He sat dwindling. We asked him a few things and left them there. We hadn't moved without him saying so. So we left him. There weren't six ways to look at the situation otherwise. Cold turkey was left in the box. The porcelain dinnerware lay out of reach. There wasn't much in that dingy box that didn't resonate when he said \"pop\" anyway. In the end a wicker chair still sat as transfixed as any other. The brother of exactly what grandpa had said before he vanished. Beyond the voices there was a world outside. Shining in on the linoleum. Reflecting the vibrant orange glow off the patte mat and wooden chock. We asked him about the journey.\n\"There wasn't a single spot left when we were here before\" he mentioned. They acknowledged his efforts and continued sitting. \"He left a good bit before her\" Sandra mentioned. \nThe old man lifted himself up and dusted off the last bits of whatever came with him. It was neatly piled on the tile and the matter only proceeded that he needed some shorts. Arnold followed him. And pulled a T-Shirt out of the closet. He asked for a quick roundup and he got it. Arnold amused himself in the matter and left it as usual. Both of them returned unaware of exactly where they needed to sit but the others made it perfectly clear. All of them sat at that table for the next afternoon entirely. And why exactly shouldn't they. \nThere was a long exhale throughout the proceedings. The sun dipped behind the aging fenceline and the house sank a few inches shorter, a slow exhale from a tired building. The night engulfed all 7 of them without leaving any. Each one heavier than before. And the night moved on. \nThe morning brought another down. We had left him there before and would again. We left him exactly where it was and he performed as admirably as anybody. There were more and it would be exactly as sensational each time. But there wouldn't be much need for the exercise that followed. " ]	1
	[WP] Alone in a pub during a heavy storm and no one to drink with, you toast to Odin and Thor as a joke. Outside, a giant flash of lighting and thunder rip across the surrounding land, and the pub door opens...	[ "The pub is a homely place. Usually full of warmth and happiness. There’s this color to all the good pubs. Somewhere between a warm shade of orange and a drunken sense of being. This was not the case for the Briar and the Bramble. It was more of an old sad thing. The fire gone out of its heart. Only one person was in the pub and only one light was on. A single dusty table lamp on the bar. The person inhabiting the pub seemed to reflect it. Something clung to his crumpled clothes like an aura, this simmering anger and resentment. The grey eyes behind the man’s glasses glimmered with alcohol and his thin mouth was open in surprise.\n\nSomething stood in the door. It couldn’t be possibly called a some ‘one’ because even though it looked like a man it carried a countenance. This supernal sense of status, that was faded but still there. \n\n“Uh… Y’should probably come inside, mate. Raining cats and dogs out there.”\n\nThe thing looked at him. The look was more surprise than anything.\n\n“The rain doesn’t bother me.”\n\nThe thing glanced at the bar with a quizzical look.\n\t\n“There still brew left?”\n\n“Sure, mate. Knock yerself out, can’t drink it all by meself, now can I?”\n\nIt took a seat next to the man as he poured it a drink.\n\n“Me name’s Chas. You?”\n\n“Thor. Thor Odinson.”\n\n“You fuckin’ serious, mate?”\n\n“Afraid I am.”\n\n“Great name. Real metal.”\n\nChas passed the pint over and took a sip out of his own. The storm raged outside, assaulting the walls of the pub \nwith icy cold wind and sharp wips of rain. \n\n“Funny thing, actually. Just toasted to you lot before you got in. The uh… Viking gods.”\n\n“Hm? I heard that’s considered paganism these days.”\n\n“Ah… Well I might’ve paid lip service to the fellow upstairs but I don’t really believe. Feels like nobody does these days. Bet even the vicar feels like a hypocrite.”\n\n“Shame.”\n\nThe rythmic thumping of the rain on the roof of the pub lulls them into a silence. Chas notes the lightning stopped. Maybe the storm’s dying down…\n\n“So this your pub, then?”\n\n“Eh? Ah, naw mate. I just drink here. The owner nipped out a few hours ago to go help the town with the flood preparations. Left me here to look after it.”\n\n“You paid for this brew, then?”\n\n“What’re you a cop?”\n\n“Hm.”\n\n“Don’t you judge me, I don’t need no one to judge me.”\n\n“And why’s that? We need judges to keep us honest, don’t we?”\n\n“Why’s that, you ask?! Let me fucken tell you! Because they owe me this at least!”\n\n“The barkeep owes you beer?”\n\n“Not the fucken beer, mate! I’m talking about my life!”\n\nChas was standing up now, although the thing beside him was at least thrice his size. \n\n“No one owes you anything, Chas.”\n\n“How do you know? We just met, for godsake!”\n\n“I just do.”\n\n“No, you don’t know! They laid me off… Laid everyone off at the factory. I didn’t even like that job! They owe me the years I spent there chained to me fucken desk!”\n\n“And that’s a reason to start stealing beer is it?”\n\n“Innit?! I deserve some goddamn reparations! They got me hooked out of school! Everyone told me what to be and they set me on this road I couldn’t back out of! I wanted to be a food critic, instead I ended up supervising a bunch of dumbasses who can’t even assemble a car without breaking their fucken arms!”\n\n“You’re never out of options Chas.”\n\nChas stood there for a minute, aggression building up.\n\n“Shouldn’t you be the god of war, mate? Why’re you talking me down. You should be beating some sense into me shouldn’t you?”\n\n“Things change Chas.”\n\n“Fuck you, they change.”\n\n“Look at yourself Chas. You’re so bitter. Think back, were you always this way? Is this because they laid you off?”\n\nThor fixed Chas with this look. A piercing one full of this strange crackling power.\n\n“Nae… It isn’t everything…”\n\nChas sat down again, his feet suddenly so very heavy.\n\n“It’s me wife… I thought she loved me. I thought I loved her but… She left me. Didn’t give a good reason. She just left and all the love went out of our house… It’s empty now… Full of water and wind”\n\nThor set his arms on Chas’ shoulders.\n\n“Listen Chas. What do you do when your world comes burning down from a lightning strike?”\n\n“I don’t know…”\n\n“Do you curse the lightning? Yes. You do. But there’s only so long you can spend out in the rain screaming at the world. Eventually you get sick and you die. What you do after your voice has gone hoarse, is you get to cover and wait the rain out. Then you start rebuilding. As long as you keep breathing the end isn’t the end. You hearing me, man?”\n\nChas was drifting off to the gentle sleep of a drunk, the words of the thundergod echoing in his ears.\n\n\nHe woke to the clang of a door.\n\n“Ah Chas, mate… What’ve you done?”\n\nIt was Mickey the bartender. Chas dragged himself up from the bartop. He glanced up at the old deer skull on the \nwall, rose brambles growing on it’s horns like a crown. His head felt like it was killing him.\n\n“Get off the damn bar, mate! How much you drink? Aw jesus, mate… Can you pay this off?”\n\n“Hey, hey Mickey, mate… I’m sorry for all that I am… I don’t got no cash but you think maybe I could work it off?”\n\n“... Jesus Chas… Fuck. Alright. But you’re cleaning all this up first, mate. You made a damn fine mess of things.”" ]	1
	[WP] You are a hard boiled private eye in a film noir world. Your latest case: Slay a dragon and save the princess.	[ "This dame walks in. Light streaks through the window shades, all natural finished Korean wood. I like Korea. \nShe asks me what to do. Says some shit about a dragon. Treasure. \nI got a meeting with her pops. He’s a gross and dirty man. He molested her proudly. Can’t believe it. \nAnyway, you see, I do the dragon job. Slay it with my revolver. I prefer revolvers. The way they shine, and how they feel when the bullet thing rolls over as I fire. \nSo dragon 🐉 dies and this dame opens the purse. Coin for me. Don’t much need the coin; got the treasure. \nOff to the next case. Fiddler got his prized piece stolen. Off to Zimbabwe. There’s a drought and I gotta catch this fiddle diddler. \nDiddler... see, that reminds me. That dame from the last gig... her pops molested her. He was proud of it. But I slayed that dragon. Shimmering scales and a thundering roar. Job well done, ya see? That’s how the jobs always done. ", "I always get the worst cases. Claws like swords and teeth like knives and scales like plate. I hope guns work. Fuck, it breathes fire. It will set off the charges in my gun if I get to close to the mouth. I wish I still smoked, at least I could get a light. This princess best give me a lot of money as way of thanks. I walk over to the sink across from my table where the order landed after I got the mail. I pour a glass of water, probably the last of my life. Water never tasted so good. I'm a tad over dramatic. This can't be as bad as the dryads. I've never had to suppress my natural urges so hard before. Dozens of beautiful women and me with a raging hard-on trying to collect on a debt. Nothing different at all. \n\nLife moves pretty fast and I need to go. I pick up a pistol and load it. Then I grab an extra clip. I walk outside and get into my car. The roads rush past me and I can't get it out of my head. I stop by a local gas station and pick up a Monster and some cheap gas station food. Munching on some barbecue chicken sub, I see a red sports car pull in and a very attractive blond steps out and pumps her own gas. Her legs go on forever into a tight red dress. The dress opens at her shoulder blades and she has two black wing tattoos on her blades. She smokes a cigarette while pumping gas.\n\n\"Hey you shouldn't do that.\" I say, pointing at her with my Monster.\n\n\"I forgot to ask you, isn't that convenient fucko?\" She flicks the cigarette in my direction. It lands with a red lipstick stain on the filter. \n\nI crush it. \"Thanks.\" \n\nShe rolls her eyes and continues to pump her gas. \"It's not nice to order a lady.\" She says to me.\n\n\"If you need to tell me you're a lady...\" I start\n\n\"...then you're no lady.\" She finishes. She pulls out her debit card from the pump and speeds off, tires screeching.\n\nI always am a sucker for a lady that pumps her own gas. I get into my car and drive off to the gps coordinates marked on my map. It's never a bad idea to know how to read a map. Learned that one from an Army Ranger buddy. Felt he owed it to me after I helped him deal with a fallen angel. I'll tell you sometime, maybe. As I leave the suburbs, farmlands dominate the landscape and cows chew cud or crops obscure the view. Then the forests creep in, slowly at first, but the woods quickly replace the farms and small towns. I reach into my glove box and put a small glowstone on my dash. If there are any Leshens around, then it'll glow bright red. You never want to piss off a Leshen by walking into its territory by mistake.\n\nI turn onto an old dirt road and God help my shocks. I bump and jolt over the inside of my car, but it manages to hold together. Not today old friend. I slow and stop in front of an old schoolhouse. It must be from the eighteen hundreds, because it's made of stone. Walking into the schoolhouse with my glowstone, I notice there is a smell of metal like if you rub a spoon in your hands too fast, but it isn't a spoon. It's something else. There is a teacher's pulpit and an old, dusty tome on it. It's an old copy of Beowulf. Funny how that one ends.\n\nDescending stairs are on my left and I have no choice, but to go down them. The creak and groan under my feet. I reach into the waistband of my jeans and pull out my pistol and pull back the slide to ensure it's loaded. Roots hang down from the ceiling and I struggle to keep focused. The Monster's revenge. Always chasing the dragon. Just at the base of the stairs, there is an iron bound door. It has a wooden frame and iron lashings. I walk to the door and it's cold to the touch. I walk into the room.\n\nNear the door is a red dress. A red dress just like the blond wore. I knew it, she was too good to be true. I walk out from a large column, the blond is tied to a chair, naked. She looks great, but looks are deceiving. \n\n\"Help me.\" She pleads. \n\nI lower the gun at her head level, maintaining my distance. \"I'm not buying it.\"\n\n\"No seriously, I'm a princess.\"\n\n\"Honey, if you have to tell someone you're a princess...\"\n\nShe finishes, \"...then you're no princess, fucko.\"\n\nShe lowers her hands and wings sprout from back and fill the room. Honey, you got real ugly. Her face elongates and her canines become...I don't know. Wolfines? Longer and sharper? No. They become like kitchen knives. Her arms connect to her wings and her breasts disappear along with the wonderful curves I remember her having. Before me now is a serpentine creature that is pissed off. Nothing like the dragons of the bible....or Beowulf. She roars and the sound fades just as quickly. I seem to have lost my hearing and stagger backwards. \n\nShe gulps in air and breathes fire. I dive forwards and to the side rolling head over heels and trying to find a spot of soft underbelly to shoot. Nothing. I crawl forward and then find myself grasped in two large talons with claws like scimitars cutting into my sides. I'm not proud of this fact, but I slam the butt of the pistol into the dragon's paw. It's never nice to hit a lady. \n\n\"It had to be you.\" She smokes into my face like an impolite bar patron maxed out on the level scale. \n\n\"Well it's nice seeing you again too.\" I groan. \n\n\"By now, you must know how this ends.\" She belches and white hot fire laps the ceiling.\n\nI can feel the pure heat coming off her. I place the pistol into a soft, ambergris colored eye. \"Bang.\" I say and pull the trigger.\n\nThe dragon reels and drops me to the ground. I roll and stand up. She's on two legs now and I unload the pistol into her torso and reload and open fire again until I hear nothing but a click. The dragon's not dead, but she's pissed and blind. She roars at me and flies through the ceiling of the storeroom knocking down a few columns and blocks of stone. None of them come close to hitting me, but today must be a lucky day. Behind the knocked over chair is another altar. This one is golden and giving off heatwaves like a long road on a hot summer's day. On this altar is a note. \n\nI open it and read, \"Your princess is in another castle.\" Fuck.", "I looked at the wad of cash in front of me. It was fresh mint, no doubt, meaning the 'benefactors' were someone very high up. It had the smell of fresh currency, yet it was almost dulled by having exchanged hands. Many hands in a short time. Obviously it had traveled far to reach me. Someone didn't want the world to know they'd lost their crown princess to an alternate dimension.\n\nThey'd kept it under wraps, of course. But a close relative of mine works very high up in the chain, and through him I'd gotten to know of this 'mirror dimension'. A world of elves, and dwarves, and knights, and kingdoms and dragons. That's where the dwarves had seemingly sacrificed the princess. To a dragon. Presented her to the beast in a chest. She was not dead yet. It seemed the dragon was sentient, at least sentient enough, to not kill the princess but keep her. As a prisoner. I'd expected much worse when I'd procured the information that the dwarves had attacked the 'inter-dimensional envoy' to the human king of that realm. \n\nI'd always found customs and human pleasantries strange. Sure, they had their place, but I never really understood the extent to which we went. As people or as countries. That was one case I'd never solved, and I probably never would. Though retired, I had been ever the helpful consultant and informed my relative it was a bad idea. He assured me they had taken every precaution.\n\n\"Well done\" I smirked to myself. I lit the pipe in my mouth and played with the idea of actually getting involved in the case. The smoke filled my lungs. The gears in my mind slowed down. I no longer analyzed every facet of this problem at once in chaos. I could focus, create order. They needed me because if they sent an army, it would be difficult to keep it under wraps. So they wanted to send a small team. And I was the smallest, most efficient team they could find. \n\nWhen the immaculately dressed man had walked into the room, I'd immediately understood why he was here. The march and movement screamed military. His eyes, his cut, his poise and the scar on his left hand told me he'd seen conflict. Close conflict. The way he did not even flinch as he told me the facts I'd already guessed (except the dragon part. I'd been on the rope about that one, wasn't sure whether the ancient fire based culture would worship a volcano or a dragon), told me he'd seen enough conflict to not be dazed anymore. I'd smirked at his choice of words. So...sophisticated. Altogether unnecessary. He told me time was of the essence. That the Crown was depending upon me. I just raised an eyebrow. He threw a bag of cash on the table in front of where I sat. \n\n\"A hundred thousand pounds. Double this amount on the return of the princess. I've been told to leave the money, whether you choose to accept the job or not, but I'm sure you will. Because you may be the private eye, but I am not bad at observing myself. And I can spot a hollow man on sight. And you need this job, because semi-retirement...it's killing you\" \n\nI looked at his face. He knew, because he was suffering the same. A desk job was killing him. I smiled sadly. He was right about the semi-retirement killing me. I wanted the rush. I craved it more than I craved anything. But I thought he'd underestimated my resolve. \n\nBut a few moments after he'd left, I started to entertain the possibility that I had overestimated my own mental strength. I could feel the revolver in my hand, the smoke filling my lungs and the smell of the fireplace slowly lighting up the entire room. It'd been ages since I'd lit the place up, but today I had to. I needed to think. I needed to focus. It'd been too long. I'd once heard that a brain is like any other muscle, you need to keep exercising it. Fill it up with useless junk, and the room runs out. It seemed like I'd lost some of the important stuff. But I was sure none of it was deleted. I had it somewhere up there, the skills I was once so well known for. The skills I still am well known for. \n\nI took in another puff. I heard a familiar set of footsteps climb up. The only woman who'd ever actually cared for me came up to my room. It was...quite disconcerting...to her. Seeing me this way. It was highly unusual for me to have the fireplace lit up. It was a relic of an age gone by. The woman's look of shock only grew as I extracted my old case files, and started combing a few of them. I thought that maybe they'd help me lose this urge, as I'd scratch the itch in memories gone by. But it didn't help. The need to explore this unknown only grew stronger. I knew I wouldn't be able to resist anymore, might as well begin with the case. \n\nI picked up the phone to call up my partner. Someone who was more...stern...in morality. I'd need him, to rein me. But more importantly, to remind me of who I used to be. Before both of us gave it all up.\n\nRing\nRing\nClick\n\n\"Good evening...\" the voice on the other end began.\n\n\"I've got a case. It's an interesting one.\" I butted in. I picked up some more tobacco for the pipe. \n\n\"...\" Silence\n\n\"Hello?\" I ventured, fixing the pipe with the powder. \n\n\"I'm not doing that anymore\" he said. As expected.\n\n\"It's about a dragon. And the Crown Princes.\" I tried to pique his interest, trying to light the pipe. \n\n\"A dragon?\" the voice was curious.\n\n\"Yes. And an alternate dimension. More importantly, the money involved is...\" I continued. The flame had caught the tobacco, and the smoke was starting to flow.\n\n\"Pays very high, I suppose? But that cannot be reason enough. You should know better than to call me with that. I've got a wife to worry about, and two kids. The danger...It's always been too much. And I've got far too much to lose now.\" he explained. \n\n\"I know...\" I replied, inhaling the smoke.\n\n\"Then why'd you call me?\" he asked. \n\n\"Because I need you...\" I whispered. The smoke filled my lungs, and it felt so good. For some reason, this felt better than all the times I'd smoked to replace the cases, because the smoke was only ever an accompaniment. That's all it had ever been. And I'd known it. Just hadn't accepted it. \n\n\"I'm sorry, but I can't...I can't risk everything for that.\"\n\n\"You haven't hung up yet, because you're expecting me to give you a logical reason. But I can't. Because this isn't logical. It's been far too long. I need this. And, hearing the longing in your voice, I'm getting the feeling you do too. You miss it. Just like I do. The opportunity is right here, and I know you won't resist. I know you well, and I'd risk a guess that you're writing a letter to your wife this very moment, listening to my words echo true in your ears. You're writing about how you need to 'save Britain' and all that bullshit, because you can't be honest and tell her you miss the thrill. You miss the danger.\" I spluttered out, coughing. I'd inhaled too much. It'd not felt this clear and stimulating in a long time. \n\n\"...how'd you know? About the letter, I mean?\" he asked. I smiled, the fish had taken the bait. He'd come. And it'd be just like the old times. \n\n\"Elementary, my dear Watson. Elementary\"", "\"You want me to do what?\" My voice was heavy with confusion, and more than a little skepticism. My eyes stared at the man standing in front of my desk, dark brown almost black irises peered with suspicion. \n\n\"You heard me,\" the man replied. His small cold blue eyes gazed back at me, a hint of impatience tugging his lips.\n\n\"I heard you, I just don't understand you.\" The wooden chair creaked as I leaned back in it and I sipped from my glass. \"Do I look like a knight to you?\" My hand pulls out my revolver, dropping the heavy weapon onto the desk. \"Does this look like a sword to you?\"\n\nHis face never changed, the same cold stare beating down on me. I won't lie, it was damn unsettling. The silence drew on, filling the office. As I opened my mouth to speak again the man reached into his jacket. At my snatch for my gun he sneered but his motions slowed. His hand emerged holding a thick envelope, it made a satisfyingly heavy thud when it fell on the desk. \"Do you understand this?\"\n\nSlowly I reached out, pulling the envelope to me. A flick of the wrist opened the flap and I couldn't hold back a long whistle. \"That's right,\" the man said, \"that is a lot of money, way more than what you normally charge for your services.\"\n\nI took my time counting the money, taking pleasure at his mounting annoyance. It was a lot of money, 10 times my rate for a case. It was a lot of work keeping a grin from sprouting. This much money would fix a lot of problems. \"So what's in it for you?\" I asked without looking up at him.\n\n\"I beg your pardon?\"\n\nNow I looked at him. \"What's in it for you? Why do you want me to kill a dragon?\"\n\nHe sniffed. \"I would think the reason would be obvious. To do good, the right thing.\"\n\nHis expression changed to surprise as I laughed, a hollow mocking sound. \"The right thing. Yeah right.\" I reluctantly put the envelope down and slid it across the desk. \"Tell me the reason or else you can get out.\"\n\nHis face colored, a faint tinge of pink spreading over the pale skin like a rash. \"The dragon kidnapped someone, a girl. He has her captive.\" He reached into his coat again and threw a photograph onto the table. \n\nMy eyes followed the picture down. \"She sure is pretty. Who is she?\"\n\n\"Alice Akimoto.\" He snorted as my eyebrows raised. \"So even you recognize the name. Yes, THE Akimoto, Princess to the biggest tech company in the world. Interested now?\"\n\nI sighed heavily, pinching the bridge of my nose. \"A dragon, a princess, what is this a fairy tale?\" A hiss of annoyance escapes my lips like steam from a kettle and I glared at the man. \"What made you come here to me?\"\n\nHis eyes remained cold and he sniffed audibly. \"You have a reputation Detective Loken. You should be used to rescuing a damsel in distress, from your other job.\"\n\nMy eyes hardened and the almost became as cold as the man's. If he noticed he gave no sign. \"Then again, since that is what got you fired from that job, perhaps that was a reason I should not have come. My mistake in thinking you would do the right thing again.\" Now he smiled, sharper than a knife as my face flushed. \"Take the money Detective.\" A long fingered hand pushed the envelope back towards me. A sheaf of papers followed. \"Do your job, get rewarded, and try to recover some of your lost dignity.\" He left, a low chuckle seeping out of his throat and I throttled the desire to throw the envelope at his back.\n\nAn hour passed as I stared at the brick of money. It sat there, judging me as I thought long and hard. Another hiss, this time low and tired, escaped me as I picked up the money, A handful of bills slipped into my pocket as the rest went into my safe. The gun went into its holster and I pulled on my coat shoving the papers into another pocket. I stomped out into the cold, the door slammed irritably behind me.\n\n\n" ]	4
	[WP] "You have been sentenced to trial by combat," the king declared. "Who will serve as your second and fight on your behalf?" "I shall," said one of the gods.	[ "I was to be put in a court of law and judged guilty or not guilty of regicide by the late King's son, although I suppose he is the king now. A bloodthirsty one, didn't want to see some kind of boring trial with evidence and order. He wanted to see a battle to the death between two skilled murderers. The king chose a mystery knight to fight for him, and I wasn't even going to choose a champion. The evidence against me was pretty solid, and nobody would fight for a Kingslayer, I thought. Then a God descended from the heavens to defend my honor.\n\nAs soon as a god damn GOD decided to fight for me, everyone placed their bets on me being judged not guilty. An omnipotent deity declared that it will fight in my favor. The other fighter, on the other hand, requested to stay anonymous until the battle itself. I asked my God-champion who it is, and he did not want to ruin the surprise and find out who was foolish enough to fight a god, so he chose to wait for the battle. He also said that in the end, it didn't matter who it was. This god was killed once, and he somehow recovered from that.\n\nToday is the day. I wonder what divine slaughter is like.\n\nMy fighter, my god, stepped into the arena. He shrunk himself to the size of a man for the sake of the battle, and wore obviously-high quality shining armor. He seemed quite confident that he would win. An announcer, who happened to stand in the middle of the ring, started speaking. \"My lords and ladies: today, to fight for the defendant is Ares, god of War.\"\n\nI smiled. I felt smug, that the king didn't just drop this right here and judge me guilty with no qualm. Avenge his father. I looked at him, expecting to see a worried face. But no, I didn't get that. The bastard made sure to wear his most smug face. It perplexed me. \n\nThe kings fighter stepped into the side of the arena that was opposite to my fighter's. He was wearing a black cowl that covered his face. He took it off. I saw a change in my fighter's face. It went from displaying unbreakable confidence to pure fear, all caused by this white figure with red tattoos. Wait, is that who I think it is?\n\n\"Here today, fighting to prove the defendant's guilt, is the Ghost of Sparta, Kratos.\"\n\n\"Let the battle begin.\"\n\n---------------------------\n\nThanks for reading, feedback is welcome and very appreciated. I am trying to get better at writing", "\"Who will serve as your second and fight on your behalf?\" demanded the Roman King.\n\n\"I... I've...\" The beaten man, standing in chains had no one he could rely on, no one who could fight. He knew he had no options.\n\n\"I shall fight for him.\" A woman's voice was heard from the outer circle of the crowd.\n\n\"And who shall you be?\" The king asked mockingly.\n\nA beautiful, young woman appeared from the densely packed crowd of loud men, \"My name is Dike - I am the Goddess of Justice.\" she claimed.\n\n\"A Goddess?\" The king asked in disbelief, \"What has a Goddess to do with a filthy man like that?\" He said, while pointing at the broken man on the ground.\n\n\"I am tired of your cruel ways and injustice. The strong always prevails - be it justly or not. I am here to put an end to the tyranny of the strong, and I will do that - one mistreated soul at a time!\" \n\n\"Ha! You call yourself the Goddess of Justice and yet you defend this murderer! I've known the Gods were hypocritical, but I never imagined they'd interfere like that!\" exclaimed the king, almost spilling his wine.\n\n\"A murderer?!\" Dike's anger resonated across the crowd. \"He killed the man that raped and slaughtered his wife and then killed his two little girls! A man of high importance, unfortunately enough, for him.\"\n\n\"And what of it? A murder is a murder. Punishable by death. That is the law!\" The king stood up from his throne, his hands banging on the table in front of him. His glass of wine toppled, and spilled all the wine inside, all over the table. Dike was staring at him with uncontrollable hate.\n\n\"Very well.\" She said, \"I guess we don't see eye to eye. Yet, I retain my right to fight for him.\" She unsheathed a sword from under her chiton, where the long cut across the leg was. \"Now, who is your fighter?\" She scanned the faces of the men in the crowd.\n\n\"I will be your opponent.\" A gentle, female's voice was heard from the direction the king was seated.\n\nEveryone, including the king looked back in astonishment, since just a moment ago there was no one next to him and his throne.\n\n\"Who are you? And how did you get here?\" Stupefied, the King looked at the young woman wearing a blindfold.\n\n\"I am Justitia.\"\n\n\"Lady Justice?\" Dike asked in disbelief. \"But... why would you? Aren't you on the side of justice?\"\n\n\"Of course, I am. But justice isn't a question of black or white, there's too many grey areas when discussing justice. We, you and I - aren't here to interfere - we're here to observe, learn and influence when the right time comes. That's what we Gods do.\" \n\n\"But... we can't sit and watch innocent men get slaughtered! Where's the justice in that?\"\n\n\"We can not fight the battles of men for them. They'll have to do that on their own. All we can do is hope they find the strength to listen, learn and get inspired by us.\"\n\n\"I will not stand and watch men soil MY justice like that!\"\n\n\"Well then, I have no other choice but to interfere.\" A sword suddenly manifested out of thin air in Justitia's hand. \n\n\"This is not YOUR jurisdiction!\" Screamed Dike.\n\n\"My jurisdiction... is the whole of humanity...\" Justitia answered calmly, preparing to block Dike's attack.\n", "\"Hear ye, and hear all,\n\nStories big of giants tall, \n\nOf dead men walking the globe at large, \n\nAnd armies falling in gentle charge,\n\n\n\nHear of the man who slew a beast, \n\nDrove a knife through his heart at a kingly feast,\n\nKilled a tyrant, he did, with the edge of his blade, \n\nBut in the eyes of human justice, he was unmade\n\n\n\nThe new king was kind, but his rule was young, \n\nThe dead tyrant was power, with it respect was won, \n\nTo open the doors of freedom to this man, \n\nWould mean an end to the rule, before it even began.\n\n\n\nSo a trial was held, the new king sadly acted judge, \n\nThe accused knew all, and didn't hold a grudge, \n\nAs a last note of justice, as he called for a scribe, \n\n\"Trial by combat\", was the judgement prescribed.\n\n\n\nThe Great Hall was abuzz, with sounds of protest,\n\nBut the men of power were sufficiently impressed,\n\nJudgement had been passed that meant certain death,\n\nFor who would dare raise their anger and face lament?\n\n\n\nThese men, fat on bread and drunk on wine,\n\nAccepted the new king with feelings benign, \n\nAnd called for some meat to celebrate the fight,\n\nThat was due to begin sometime that night.\n\n\n\nTo fight for the man, came forward none,\n\nBut on the other side, came rushing a ton,\n\nMen with beasts, and knights with lances,\n\nAnd barbarians with carcasses that wrapped their wild dances.\n\n\n\nIn the end, was chosen, someone more brute than man,\n\nWith tricks up his sleeve and a hammer in his hand,\n\nThey said that he'd once outwitted a giant with three heads,\n\nAnd had the strength of elephants in the hundreds.\n\n\n\nHe roared to fight, and couldn't wait to be lose,\n\nThirsty for blood, and a dead body to bruise. \n\n\"Who would fight against him\" asked a fat man with a smile,\n\nHis meat was ready to see who, for a traitor, would die. \n\n\n\n\"I shall\" a voice commanded, and the Hall stood still, \n\nThe authority of the voice carried an innate dark chill.\n\nWith a wave, the challenger parted the crown where it met,\n\nAnd gliding over the ground, came the thing named Death.\n\n\n\n\"I am the eternal, the unborn, the undefeated,\n\nI am the one against whom, none have competed.\n\nI dare thee, champion, to teach my body demise,\n\nDefeat Death, and immortality shall be your prize..\n\n\n\n...but fail, and my scythe shall reap your soul forever,\n\nPain and rage shall only quell in my favor,\n\nAND YOU MAY BEG FOR YOUR SUFFERING TO END,\n\nBUT I AM NEITHER GOD NOR SATAN...I am Death.\"\n\n\n\nThe brute did charge, with a swing of his hammer, \n\nBut Death mere stepped aside and laughed with some banter,\n\nThe brute, enraged rushed in with pace,\n\nBut Death merely danced away with grace.\n\n\n\nA final offense, the brute tried to inflict,\n\nBut on Death, no damage he could inflict,\n\nWith a swing of his hand, Death brought forth a scythe,\n\nAnd cut off the brute, with unbelievable might. \n\n\n\nThey say the Hall was colored in red,\n\nAs the brute's body was severed into pieces hundred,\n\nAnd they say Death did it without a smile on this face,\n\nThis was neither his curse, nor his boon, nor his escape. \n\n\n\nFor he was neither God, nor Satan, he was Death, \n\nHe felt neither pity nor power in granting end.\n\nA brute was slain, a champion was saved, \n\nA tyrant was killed, and a kingdom fulfilled.\n\n\n\nBut there was no hero, for this was a tale, \n\nOf the power of the only thing without fail,\n\nFor one may move mountains, one may kill men, \n\nBut in the end, there exists only Death. \n\n\n\nHear ye, and hear all,\n\nStories big of giants tall, \n\nOf dead men walking the globe at large, \n\nAnd armies falling in gentle charge.\"\n\n ", "“I shall!”\n\nLittle Timmy strained to look over his right shoulder. He was shocked to see the mighty Thor himself – with silver, shining armor and hammer in hand. The thunder god himself had volunteered to fight on behalf of little Timmy. \n\nThank the lord, Timmy thought as his eyes began to water. He didn’t even know how he got to this strange land. Timmy was only an eight year old boy. He had no idea he would be teleported across the galaxy by going into the strange looking hole in the tree. Mother is going to kill me if I’m not home in time for dinner… *THUD\n\nA giant green figure appeared out of nowhere, slamming Thor hundreds of feet away. “No… ME FIGHT!” the Hulk screamed. The crowd gasped loudly. The king himself, was speechless.\n\n“OK. Well this just isn’t fair.” Superman flatly stated.\n\nTimmy grew angry as he looked upon his once hero. How could Superman do this to me? I’ve always loved him.\n\n“I refuse to fight the Hulk.” Superman looked nervous and was looking to the crowd for agreement. His face started to redden and the sweat above his left eye was starting to become visible.\n\n“COWARD!” A voice in the crowd shouted. Superman smiled nervously.\n\n“Enough!” The king bellowed. “The fight between Superman and the Hulk, for Tim’s life, will commence at midnight, tonight!”\n\nThe Hulk did not like this one bit. He became enraged and started to barrel at Superman. As he charged towards the handsome man in blue and red, he opened his mouth wide and began to scream, “BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP…”\n\n--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------\nTimmy woke abruptly. His heart was racing and he was sweaty. What a terrible dream, he thought. He looked over at the Superman figurine on his nightstand and knocked it over. Fuck you Superman. Little Timmy began to get ready for school.", "Charon god of the river styx, stepped forward. With a sharp swing the god brought his oar into the ground. “The boy is under my protection. Any attempts to harm him will be met with great violence.” His words echoed off the marble floors and walls. The white marble shone gold in the twilight. The royal audience stood silent.\n\nKing Mufadil rose from his throne and marched down the length of the hall to Charon, Ombudsman of the underworld. “My lord do you know this wretch?”\n\n“My matters are mine own, do not presume to question my actions mortal. This is not an issue to be discussed. While I’m present the child is not to be hurt. My protection is absolute. At sunset I must leave to ferry the dead across the river styx. If the child is hurt in that time this city will be punished. Bound in chains and toiling to create your own death. You will build me the largest ship in greece, one large enough to house a city. I will chain you the ship and burn you in the harbor. You will row your ship to your final punishment. I will bring you damnation, this I swear.”\n\n“You heard him, heh, you can’t touch me.” Many in the audience had already forgotten the boy behind the Charon. He was dressed in ragged clothes and sandals. Out of breath from struggling with the guards he looked like a wild animal about to break out.\n\n“I have a duty to protect you boy, but I cannot save you from death. And death cannot save you from me.” The god stepped forth into nothingness. The room now stared only at the boy.\n\nKing Mufadil pointed at the boy “Jail then just be gentle.”\n", "\"Who will serve as your second and fight on your behalf?\" asked the King\n\n\"I shall!\" answered a booming, commanding voice. The crowd parted, and the God of the Hunt stepped forward. Many fell prostrate before him as his massive form ten feet high -- four feet human atop six feet equestrian. Others shielded their eyes from the brilliance of his aura. Still more stood transfixed, basking in his majesty.\n\n\"Clementus, a loyal, faithful servant, beseeched for deliverance, and I am here to answer his prayer. Who among you will face me, and know that you will join me on my next Hunt?\"\n\nThe King nodded to his Speaker. \"Call my Champion.\"\n\nThe Speaker stepped forward and declared, \"The King's Champion will step forward!\" \n\nThere were murmurs in the crowd as people were jostled aside. The God of the Hunt waited, more in boredom than anticipation, as a warrior stepped from masses holding a spear at the ready. \n\nThe God of the Hunt reared up and laughed. \"You would try to kill me with that. You think you can kill a god with a spear?\" \n\nThe stone-faced warrior waited for the laughter to die. \"My name is Longinus. And you wouldn't be the first god this spear has killed.\"\n\nEdit: wrong word", "Captain Garrel of the God Spears had been watching from his post by the door for some time. \n\nThey were actually going to do it. \n\nThe God Spears were little more than a ceremonial piece for the palace. The real guards patrolled the outer walls and watched from hidden alcoves inside the palace. The God Spears were just a heavy handed reminder on all the guests that yes, the Lord King of Atrios has an army.\n\nIt was a consistently boring job. You weren't allowed to do anything but stand around and watch, so Garrel had watched.\n\nHe'd see this coming weeks ago, but Prince Barnaby was too young and too innocent to see it himself. The way the situation had been designed to implicate him, the slow, creeping consolidation of political support behind his brother, how quickly the trial had been arranged despite the accused's position and the extensive and long-forgotten protocols that were being invoked.\n\nGarrel tightened the grip on his ceremonial spear as Prince Raykan stepped out of the crowd and into the center of attention that he so loved. Garrel wasn't even sure the man even hated his brother at all, he just saw an opportunity to use him to get tongues wagging with his name on the tip of them. He'd made the accusation, so it would be his second who would fight for it.\n\nThe Prince postured and waved at the crowd, his second following him silently like a disproportionate shadow. Barnaby stood in the other end of the ring. His eyes were so wide they could be used to serve tea and he kept looking around, as if waiting for someone to come and save him. \n\n\"You have been sentenced to trial by combat!\" The voice of the King was heavy and dry. Every head in the grand hall turned to regard his words. \"Prince Barnaby, Fourth Heir to the royal line of Atrios, who shall serve as your second and fight on your behalf?\"\n\nGarrel had only ever seen the grand hall go so quiet once before: when the Queen's death had been announced. This time it was not a silence of reverence or mourning, it was the silence of hundreds of people all looking at a young man and thinking to themselves. 'That poor bastard. No one will even stand up for him.'\n\nGarrel heard a terrible creaking noise. He looked down to find that it was his own hand making the sound. He was holding his spear so tightly that his old bones were grinding against each other inside his hands. \n\nSomeone had to defend the prince.\n\nMost people couldn't do it because they didn't want to die. \n\nOthers didn't do it because they could not compete against the massive fighter that Prince Raykan had put forth. \n\nOut of the few that weren't afraid, they were stalled because were needed by someone else. Their family needed them, their king needed them, their lover, their friends, the little old lady they help out on Sundays. \n\nGarrel didn't have any of that. He had the God Spears and nothing else. He'd never actually liked doing anything, so he had done nothing all his life. He had found the easy ways, the boring ways. His post as a ceremonial guard had been the best thing for him. He got to live by standing around and watching the world pass him by. He'd been promoted again and again because most of the guard moved on to other things, things they could get involved in, but Garrel just stayed standing around.\n\nAfter all those years, after everything he had seen happen in the castle, after witnessing the poison that was Raykan and the bright smiles that Barnaby left in his wake, after all of that Garrel couldn't just stand around any more.\n\n\"I shall!\" Garrel hadn't meant to shout, but rage and frustration begged to be released and the moment he formed the words in his head they boiled forth like oil from the pot. \n\nThe room turned to him. \n\nGarrel felt the air inside his lungs freeze. He'd never been the center of attention anywhere but inside the guard barracks, and that didn't count because he knew each and every one of those men. Here, he was regarded by strangers.\n\n...except they weren't. Garrel had watched all of these people come and go through the palace for decades. He knew almost every face, almost every name, and he despised most of the lot. the ones that had come today were the opportunistic and sadistic, the kind who had hoped to see blood on the palace floor.\n\nGarrel's rage made up for bones that hadn't fought more than practice rounds for thirty years. \n\n\"Let it be recorded that Captain Garrel of the Spear Gods is to act as Prince Barnaby's second.\" The King shattered the silence with his proclamation. There was new life in his voice, but new fear as well. Garrel was an old man now, and Raykan's second was young, fit, and built like a blacksmith.\n\nGarrel crossed into the circle that contained only the two princes and their seconds. He walked up to young Prince Barnaby and stood beside him. He didn't know what to say to the lad, so he just did what he always did as a guard. He stood at attention and faced forward.\n\nHe was looking straight into Prince Raykan's eyes. He saw surprise and uncertainty there. If Prince Barnaby were to prove himself innocent of the accusation by trail, then he had full royal right to enact a clause by the falsely accused, which included the right to petition the king for the removal of all royal standings from the one who had accused them. It was an old rule, and mostly forgotten, but Garrel had learned a lot from hearing the court historian's talk among themselves over thirty years.\n\nRaykan, who had dug up these old rites just to twist them into a show for his benefit, had obviously read that section as well. Worry was setting in. \n\nGarrel did something he hadn't done in a long time.\n\nHe showed emotion on his face.\n\nPrince Raykan, second heir to the royal line of Atrios, flinched.", "I wasn't sure when* I was. I just woke up on the ground next to some dude covered in blood. Without much thought, I rushed over to see if I could help.\n\nHe was already dead.\n\nThe weird thing was that he was dressed in roman armor or something. I didn't have time to think much about, as several burly men, also dressed in roman armor, immediately tied me up. \n\n\"Stop!\" I cried, \"I was just trying to help!\"\n\nTheir reply was just gibberish to me. I was stuffed in a cell with nothing but the distant dripping of water and the moans of other prisoners to pass the time. I came to the conclusion that I had died and gone to hell. It was the only thing that made real sense to my beleaguered mind.\n\nThen, footsteps and light broke the monotony and a goddess filled my view.\n\n\"You do not belong here, do you?\"\n\nI blinked, \"N-no I don't.\"\n\nShe smiled, \"I'm Minerva, the people of this world call me a goddess,\" hot damn she was actually a goddess. \"but I am really much like yourself, a visitor from another world. You didn't kill that man, did you?\"\n\n\"No, he was already dead when I found him.\"\n\n\"I thought so. Mars seems to think you are guilty, but Aenigma and I do not. I believe Mars just want's to use you as an excuse to fight, and Aenigma wishes to put him down. I wanted to come and warn you of what is happening. Mars will fight in the place of the dead soldier, and Aenigma in your place.\"\n\n\"H-hold on. I think I know who you and Mars are, but, who is Aenigma.\"\n\nShe smiled, \"he's a mystery, but he did tell me he came from the same time as you. He wishes to help you return home.\"\n\n\"That's very kind of him...\"\n\n\"then you accept?\"\n\n\"Y-yeah.\"\n\nShe opened the door and reached for me. \"take my hand and you'll be able to understand this people's language.\"\n\nThe shackles fell off and I took her hand in a trance. The scenery seemed to blur by and we stood at the edge of a coliseum- no, the coliseum, in all it's splendor and glory. Two men stood in the center, the first was dressed in roman armor, but more... pointy looking. the other wore a green cloak and white mask on his face.\n\nThe masked one caught my eye and waved. A chill ran down my spine, like I had seen him once before. The king called for the fight to start, and Minerva perked up, \"Ah, in your language, Aenigma's name is-\"\n\nThe atmosphere suddenly turned oppressive, and I was nearly knocked unconscious. I watched the battle of gods with a mixture of horror and awe. No words can describe the awesome might of Mars, nor the terror... the awful frighting, bone-chilling fear that his foe provoked. My hand tightened on Minerva's and I thought to myself that hell itself wasn't as frightening as the man named Paradox.\n\n---\n\nWow... I need to put more effort into these things... sorry if you read the whole thing through..." ]	8
	[WP] Everyone is born with a familiar that reflects who they are. Most are born with cats, dogs, turtles, ferrets... you were born with a full-sized Dragon as yours. You turn 16 today, and you’re only just now figuring out why you have a Dragon.	[ "I learned about the familiars growing up. Everyone had one. Most were simple things, like cats or dogs. My mother had a pure white panther, my father a black and brown dachshund. They symbolized what the people were like. My mother’s panther symbolized both her purity and her ferocity, my father’s dachshund standing for a small man with big dreams.\n\nWhen people are born, there is a leftover energy that swells into these familiars. As I said, it means what they are or will be in the future. I was born with a full-sized dragon, something right out of a fantasy book. It was huge, larger than our house even. With glorious black scales that shone like a brand-new car, its gaze but all others under fear. There was no taboo about touching these familiars, and people often asked to feel the scales.\n\nGrowing up was hard because of the dragon. It followed me everywhere as familiars can’t be separated from their counterparts. If one dies, so too does the other. They are treated like one life, so killing me would be easier than the dragon. But that didn’t matter. I loved dragons. They stood for many things in old books – royalty, honor, rage, destruction, fire… Too many things, both good and bad. Nobody knew what to make of me.\n\nUntil one day.\n\nI was sitting on the back of Koryu – the dragon’s name – headed to school. Today was special for me, though. It was my sixteenth birthday. Something always happened on these sixteenth birthdays that set people up with a reputation. That day, today, it meant something would happen to me. What I didn’t expect is what it was.\n\nKoryu suddenly stopped, jerking me forward. I climbed up close to his head to see what was happening. There were two people with bear familiars bullying a girl with a rabbit familiar. I rolled my eyes, tapping the back of Koryu’s head. He knew what I wanted. He lowered his head to the ground, opened his mouth, and let out a guttural roar to scare the bears away.\n\nIt worked like a charm. The boys were grabbed by their familiars and were whisked away. The girl’s rabbit huddled into her arms, and she held it, protecting it. She had been knocked over and sat against a fence. “You okay?” I asked, offering my hand to help her up. She cautiously grabbed it, then stood. She thanked me, then started walking toward the school. I offered her a ride after checking with Koryu, who was fine with it.\n\nThat was the beginning.\n\nThroughout the day, people were being bullied by groups of two familiars. Hawks attacked iguanas, snakes attacked frogs – and each time, I’d show up and stop them. Then the people would follow me. I started understanding what this was. I was becoming a leader of these people. A guardian to look up toward. But there was more than that. Each person constantly was asking if I needed anything, or if there was anything they could do for me. Every small request I had was granted in a timely manner.\n\nI began to understand what my dragon meant now. It stood for authority. Unquestioned authority through deed, good or bad – though mine thus far have been good.\n" ]	1
	[WP] As Neil Armstrong was planting the U.S. flag on the moon, he noticed on the distance, an unknown tattered flag was already planted	[ "At first, Neil thought it was his imagination, but after a few deep blinks and a good head shake he realized that the object in the distance, about 100 meters give or take was real! Astonished and in mild shock, He called out to Buzz, \"you got a visual at 3 o'clock approximately 100 meters out\"? A few seconds of silence passed then \"what the hell\" Buzz replied. That was all the response Neil got in return. With out a word the both began to converg on the object in the distance. As each man drew nearer the shock grew deeper and with no spoken words the truth was reviled. Now less than 10 meters away there was no doubt what the object was, looming out of the darkness stood a gold staff standing approximately 7 feet high and from it there was secured a flag of red, with a black cross slightly offset to the left. It had white out lines spanning it's length and width. In the top left corner was a single Iron cross, In the center was the unmistakable icon that was the cause of the unspeakable dread both Neil and Buzz were both being consumed with, It was a swastika! What the \"first two men on the moon\" were Looking at was the Nazi flag! In utter disbelief, Neil heard the words \"Houston we have a problem\" come out of his mouth, but The words were not transmitted over the radio. The radio was dead! all communication had been cut! Neil turned to look back at Buzz just as the flash out light shown brightly out of the chest of his suit. In an instant, Buzz was no more. Like a blue green camera flash as fine as a needle point and with out any sound, it shown through him and was gone. Just then, before he could react In the distance, another flash of light sprawled out on the horizon, only this one was yellow and forming a ball of flame but only for an instant, an it was gonna. It was the explosion of the Lunar lander! Looking on in horror, his suit being peppered with the renace of his only ride home His eyes caught the sight of the now lifeless body of his friend and second in command being propelled of into the distance of space by the precious oxygen escaping from the front and back of his suit. Spiraling and tumbling on two separate axes, Arms and legs dangling lifelessly, Buzz Aldren faded off into the distance out of sight. As shock began to give way to total panic, he tryed to run but could not move. Was he paralyzed with fear? was this all just a horrible dream? Wake up !wake up! wake up! he shouted aloud. Now over run with adrenaline, his mind racing as fast as his pulse, the answers came to him slowly, but clear as day. About 10 meters up and on both his left a his right, two objects began to materialize out of the cold black of emptiness of space, each waving into reality like a ripple on a still pond after a pebble is cast in. Both were humanoid and appeared to be closing rapidly and controlled on his position, as the two of them got closer, he knew not only what, but who they were. Nazi's! Both were wearing black metallic suits with the swastika arm band on the left arm and the distinctive twin lighting bolts displayed promonately on the right shoulder. Each holding what appeared to be some sort of light powered weapon system as was apparent from the menacing internal glow pulsing an emanating from with in both barrels pointed right at him! Again he tried to move, to turn an run away, but he was unable to move at all. Aside from the utter terror and his pounding heart, all he could feel was the soft warm trickle of urin cascading down doth legs. Just then, he felt himself being elevated an drawn upward. In seconds his eyes lost sight of the stars, the lunar surface and both of the SS soldiers. There was a blinding white light, then just as everything began to grow dark around the edges of his sight, he heard and felt the the ominous thud! of something large and heavy close beneath him. Then everything faded to black. ", "“It’s time” said Collins. The three men began drew straws to see who would remain on the main craft and who would make history on the lander. Fates decided, they went about their business.\n\nHours later, Buzz and Neil sat in the cramped module. Buzz making jokes about the sanitation systems of the suit to take the edge of his claustrophobia. He changed topic, serious for a moment, “You know the line, right Neil?” he asked.\n\n“No run it by me once again would you,” Neil said, smiling broadly. He hadn’t dared hope that he’d be the one. To claim the moon for humanity, to claim it for the USA no less, showing the Soviets that democracy and capitalism were the future. What a day this would be.\n\nThe wigs at Houston seemed to enjoy making them go through all the safety procedures with as much repetition as feasible. Neil bore the procrastination with indifference. He’d been waiting for this since he was a little boy.\n\n“...one giant leap for mankind” Neil whispered to himself, trying to get the inflection to sound unrehearsed. Aloud he said “How you doin’ with that camera over there buddy?” Buzz was taking too long. NASA had stretched this out already, Neil’s eagerness was making his nerves ache. \n\nSkipping over towards Buzz, Neil realised the cause for the delay. Out in the distance was an object that didn’t fit in with the barren lunar surroundings. It had straight lines, and the telltale curve of a flag.\n\nIgnoring Buzz’s calls for him to stop, Neil raced over to it. The suits didn’t allow much freedom of movement but in a few moments you could build up a bounding momentum. Hardly knowing how he’d slow down when he got to his destination, all Neil could think about was closing the distance so that he could examine the object.\n\nBuzz watched as Neil took ever larger leaps away. That was very much a non regulation way to travel. He switched to the home communication relay, “Houston, this is Buzz. I think I need to go over safety procedure CX9 once more,” he said, buying Neil some time. What was the damned fool doing running off like that.\n\nBy the time the CX9 was complete, Buzz was receiving orders to turn the camera on and start broadcasting. Thankfully, Neil was just coming back, with those loping graceful steps that the jock had already mastered. In his arms was, unmistakably, another flag. Tattered with the dust of age and UV bleached beyond recognition. \n\nBuzz switched to the local radio frequency. “So, we’re not the first, there is other life after all.” He looked up at Neil, and through Neil’s domed helmet, saw the broken face of his friend slowly find resolution. Neil walked back to the module, strapped the strange flag to a spare O2 cylinder, broke the seal and watched it jettison madly off into space. \n\n“Buzz, let’s just keep that between you and me eh” said Neil, straightening up. “Now what was my line again?”", "He had already made history. Neil had pushed himself past Aldrin and went down the stairs as quickly as he could. \n\nThe first man on the moon, he thought to himself. A smile crept on his face as the dawning of that realization came to him.\n\nHouston had already heard him make his claim with a phrase soon-to-be immortal. The crew back home was popping champagne bottles and throwing streamers around. Millions of citizens around the country and people around the globe were in awe of this moment.\n\nBuzz called out to him to plant the flag and then come back for some tests and to run diagnostics on the landing craft. They still had to get home, after all.\n\nNeil looked around for a good spot, clear of any debris. Looked up at the Earth, seemingly close and yet so far from where he now stood and began to prepare the flagpole.\n\nThen, as if something called out to him, Neil noticed something. Something he shouldn't have noticed, as this place was a desolate wasteland and as still any in the galaxy. Yet, without reason to do so, Neil looked to his left.\n\nThe flagpole fell slowly and hit the ground with a soundless thud.\n\nNeil couldn't move. Neil couldn't breathe. What he saw was beyond the human understanding. Beyond what they thought they knew. Yet there it stood, as clear to him now as the Earth was, so far away.\n\nA single flagpole, with a single length of fabric hanging from it. \n\nHe couldn't make out what the flag stood for. With great caution and trepidation, Neil took his new first step on the moon. Buzz came in over the radio, but Neil couldn't hear him. All he could hear - all he could feel - was the breathe he was emitting into his helmet. \n\nAs Neil grew closer, he began to make out the design. It was a crude representation, but he knew it well. Hell, everyone did. The world had not aged so much that it couldn't remember the German SS marching with this flag at their backs.\n\nBuzz finally caught on.\n\nOh my god, Neil heard him gasp.\n\nNeil stood but a few feet from the flag now. He stared longingly at the flag before letting out a sigh. He looked down, as a small engraving seemed to be planted with the flag. As he brushed off the dust, the words became clear:\n\nUnd an diesem Tag eroberte Herr Hitler die Sterne.\n\n\"And on this day, Herr Hitler conquered the stars.\"" ]	3
	[WP] When you quit a video game, you buried all of your legendary items. Years later you die in a stupid accident and are reborn in to a new world which resembles the video game world you used to play. You are now hunting your buried treasure.	[ "There was a light. Off in the distance. \n\nEmelia was cold in this dream. She tried to move towards the light. Towards the warmth it offered but something pulled her back. Emelia fought against the force she felt. The light was growing dimmer with each passing second. \n\nShe wanted to cry, to scream, but more than anything to...\n\nBreathe.\n\n\"Oh thank you sir! Thank you! My sweet Emilia!\" Her vision was foggy but she knew Mommy's voice, knew that it was her that was rocking back and forth holding Emelia in her arms. \n\nEmelia didn't understand, why was Mommy crying? As her vision cleared she saw Daddy too, kneeling before a man in plain clothes. He looked at her, smiled, and walked away. On his left hand was a beautiful crystal ring that twinlked like starlight. \n\nIt was so mesmerizing that Emelia didn't immediately notice their surroundings. Black, scorched wood and broken beams. She gasped.\n\n\"Mommy what happened to our house!?\"\n\nEverything was gone. Not just her house but Billy's, Amanda's, even the Mayor's. There wasn't a house standing in the entire village. \n\nEmelia felt afraid then, looking around she saw people gathered around them. Looking at the man with the crystal ring with tears in their eyes. Some of them were kneeling like Daddy. There were more people lying in the road and under some of the burnt wood of the houses. \n\nThey weren't moving. \n\nShe began to cry then and started hugging Mommy with all the strength she could muster. Daring not to let go for even a moment. \"What happened to me Mommy? What happened to us?\"\n\n\"It's okay baby. It's going to be okay my little sunflower. That man. He saved us.\"\n\n\"But...\" Emelia's voice quivered. \"The others. In the road...\"\n\n\"Don't worry baby. Don't cry. He's going to save them too.\"\n\nOnce they stopped crying Mommy picked up Emelia and joined Daddy and the others. For hours they followed the man as he moved through what remained of their village. Watched as he laid his ring upon person after person. Emelia had to look away whenever he did that. His ring just glowed too bright to look at when he did. It wasn't long until there was no one left for him to save. \n\nThere was perfect silence when it was done. The man turned to look at them and for a moment looked lost and unsure, like the people he saved. He closed his eyes, taking a slow breath. When he opened them he looked different, determined. He spoke.\n\nAnd they listened. \n", "###Fallen, +4 Dagger\n\n1/Day: Fallen can inflict upon all enemies within 30' a vision of your death: Slipping on spilled olive oil in the supermarket, shrieking \"aaaah, not in the face!\", and hitting your head on a shopping cart. They suffer 1d8+regret psychic damage (half damage on successful will save).\n\nCurse: Each night, if Fallen's daily power has not been expended, you will dream of aforementioned event.\n\n###Harmless, +4 Shield\n\nTrigger: An enemy makes contact with Harmless via any means (e.g. an unarmed attack is blocked, attempting to steal it, being hit with Shield Bash)\n\nEffect: Enemy takes 2d4 psychic damage, remembering the time you walked around literally all day with a 'kick me' sign taped to your back.\n\nCurse: NPCs with a neutral or lower disposition must make a will save the first time they see you every day. Those who fail will attempt to kick you.\n\n###Backwards, +4 Chainmail\n\n1/Day: Reaction; an enemy attempting to flank you takes 1d6 psychic damage, remembering the time you gave an entire speech to your graduating class of 116 people while your shirt was on backwards.\n\nCurse: The first time you attempt to don this armor every day, it will end up backwards.\n\n###Running, Boots of Striding\n\n1/Encounter: Running allows you to move 10 additional feet during your move action.\n\nCurse: When invoked, Running will make you re-live the time you spent 30 minutes on the phone with someone attempting to repair your refrigerator after they asked you if it was, in fact, running.\n\n###Uninvited, +4 Longsword\n\n1/Day: Uninvited will inflict upon all enemies in a 30' cone directly ahead of where it is pointed a vision of the time your mother opened your bedroom door without knocking and witnessed... well, you know. This game is PG-rated so we're not going into details here but... you remember. Oh, you remember. Enemies failing a will save take 2d10+4 psychic damage. Uninvited must be wielded 2-handed to use this attack.\n\nCurse: You don't need Uninvited's help to remember this incident during inappropriate moments... but you're getting it anyway.\n\n----\n\n\"You know, I really should have thought more about why this module was named 'An embarrassment of riches'.\"" ]	2
	[WP] You begin to realize that your game of Europa Universalis 4 is changing history as you play.	[ "\"Huh...I haven't played any Paradox games for a while, this should be fun.\"\n\nI open EU4, and I pan around for a while.\n\n\"You know? I've never tried a colonial Germany run before, should be fun. Now who should I play...how about Brandenburg?\"\n\nI click play, and the game begins. It goes on as normal, nomming at Poland and the smaller states in the Holy Roman Empire, fighting off Austria every so often, getting my admin tech up to 10.\n\n\"Aaaaaand peace deal with Bavaria, and voila! Germany by 1570! And it looks like North America's got a few openings,\" I say as I research exploration ideas.\n\nI begin colonizing around Delaware, spreading my empire around the Mid-Atlantic.\n\n\"Oh hey, I own the province with Washington DC in it. Let's rename this to, how about Hollenhozernstadt? For the memes.\"\n\n\"Meh, I'm bored. I'm gonna save and go fart around on the internet for a while-wait why is it Google.de?\"\n\n\"Hold on...let me check wikipedia...no way. Germany formed-1570?! No, no way! It was formed in 1884! Unless...my EU4 game became,\" as I checked the map, seeing my borders and colonial empire, \"real...\"" ]	1
	[WP] It has been a year since the apocalypse began. You and your group of survivors have been defending you fort. However for the first time there are no zombies to kill.	[ "It had been months since Terry got a full night of sleep. There was always something that stirred in the night. They couldn’t just assume things would come and go peacefully. She slept cradling a rifle and kept a knife strapped to her leg and two more to her hips. This is how you slept when those things, the zombies, were out there. But even if nothing came, her knives and rifle couldn’t protect her in her sleep. They’d come there too and there, she was helpless.\n\nThis morning was different in that nothing stirred and nothing came to her dreams. This morning, she felt the gentle touch of sunlight on her face coming through a window. She opened her eyes, flinched, and jumped to her feet. Rifle ready and breathing heavily. She pointed the rifle around the room. Nothing there. Habit, is all. But the peace that she woke to made her uneasy. She couldn’t remember a night where the watchguards had nothing to report. In this world, you had to assume something was always standing in a shadow, ready to pounce. She walked over to everyone in the room and held a hand over their face. They were all still alive.\n\nIt had been a year since the collapse. No more phones, electricity, or civilization. These things were just memories now. There were kids being born that would never know that world. As far as she knew, Terry and the handful of people in this fort were the last left. They didn’t doubt others had survived, but they would assume that was the case until they met others.\n\nAs she headed to the door, she heard someone stir behind her. Ted was awake. “Terry,” he said, getting to his feet as quickly as she had a few moments before. “Is everything ok?”\n\n“I don't know. Listen,” she said. They stopped moving.\n\n“I don’t hear anything. When’s the last time that happened?”\n\n“But something is up,” she said, pointing to her nose.\n\nTed’s nostrils flared, taking in the air. “I smell that. Let’s check it out.”\n\n“No. Stay here. I don’t want to wake everyone up just yet. Lock the door behind me,” she said as she exited the only secure room in the facility. The walk to the outside of the fort was uneventful. Usually, at least one zombie would make it through the gate and into the building. Still, her heart beat furiously, expecting death to be around each corner.\n\nOnce outside, a foul stench almost pushed Terry right back into the building. Rot filled the air. Her eyes watered. She looked past the gates of the fort and saw something strange in every direction. Piles of… something.\n\n“Terry!” a voice said from above. “I’ve got you covered!” It was Ted, standing at the watchtower and brandishing his rifle. “Don’t worry. The others are up and locked up behind me.”\n\nTerry continued towards the fences, feeling better about being outside with at least one pair of eyes on her. She wondered what else might be watching. As she approached the edge of the fort, the piles came into focus. They were zombies. Piles and piles of them. They looked like they just dropped in place, on their way to them. To feed. Something stopped them and now their rotting flesh was baking under the sun.\n\n“They’re dead! All of them!” she said, turning to Ted and pointing at them. “Like, really dead.”\n\nShe undid the lock to the gate that had done a mediocre job of keeping them out. She pushed the gate open and stepped outside. There were many days where she wondered if she’d ever leave this place. She looked back and saw Ted approaching along with everyone else standing just outside of the building, keeping their distance until they knew more.\n\n“What the hell?” Ted said, walking up to Terry. “What happened?”\n\n“No idea,” Terry said, poking one with the end of her rifle. Without trying, the rifle tip sank into the skin. “And I don’t care. I’m glad they are…”\n\n“Done?” Ted said, both knowing the dead couldn’t die twice.\n\n“Yeah. But are they all gone? We don’t really know what else is going on out there. It could just be this pack.”\n\n“That’s true. We should get everyone back inside,” Ted said, turning back towards the building.\n\nTerry, however, kept her eyes on the road leading away from the fort. She needed to know if they were all gone. To know if anyone else was out there.\n\n“Hey now, Terry. I know what you’re thinking. Let’s talk and put together a team,” he said.\n\n“I’m not going to put anyone at risk,” Terry said. “I’m armed and we both know I can take care of myself.” Terry returned a hardened look. She had seen more zombies up close than she cared to count. The scars on her arms and face could attest to that.\n\n“Damn it, Terry,” he said, objecting but not offering to go out there himself.\n\n“I won’t go far. Just a few miles today. Our food supply will only get us by for a few more months. We can’t waste another day,” she said as she checked her pockets for ammo. “I’ll be back in a few hours. If I’m not back by sundown, don’t go looking for me.”\n\nTerry turned and started down the road, thrilled and terrified at what might be waiting.", "The prison lay silent for the first time in what seemed like forever. The survivors slept peacefully in their cells, the doors locked. Mike lay there thinking to himself, writing in his notebook as he usually did. He wasn’t writing about anything in particular but he felt that in a world which had gone to hell in a handbasket language and new colloquialisms needed to be recorded. As a fan of horror movies before the fall the term Deadites was one of his favourites, even if it did conjure up a horrific image in his mind these days. \n\nDown in the hallway Jennifer stirred in her cot, the pretty blonde teenage sat up looking around her cell and reached out to her mobile phone she always kept close to her. Tapping the screen she scanned it, still no signal. Sighing she put it back down and reached over to pick up the assault rifle that she had named after her lost love. Sitting there muttering to herself the names of the people in her live that were no more she cleaned and maintained the gun. \n\nOn the watch tower Nathan sat as first light broke across the horizon. In the distance he could see the city; there was no longer smoke rising from it, that had stopped a few days ago. Looking over the compound he saw the work they had done to make this inhospitable place somewhere they could live. There were 20 of them now and had been travelling in a group together for the past six weeks. To find an abandoned prison like they did was both luck and planned, planned in the fact that they had a very talented scout that knew the lay of the land very well, luck in that there were no survivors, only Deadites. Deadites were easier than humans to deal with, you just had to kill the Deadites, something he found all too easy. Thinking of that made him realise something, the ever present groaning had gone. \n\nIn the chapel the minister sat in deep thought. Lining the walls the heads of fallen Deadites, on the altar a cross made of swords, for he was the purifier, the avenging angel, sent from God himself to free the world of these blaspheming creatures. He prayed for strength in his fight, strength to carry on and finish his cleansing. Standing he walked to his sleeping quarters and looked at his scarred bedraggled face in the steel mirror. The person that looked back at him he barely recognized. He had started in this world a simple inner city boy and grew up to be a young priest who truly cared about the community he worked in. The man that stared back at him was hardened by a year of survival against the horrors of the apocalypse but he hoped deep down the young man that believed in the goodness of humanity still survived. \n\nThe security room was where Hank was, a grizzled overweight middle aged man with a penchant for shotguns. All of the monitors were off giving him a dark silent room to rest in. Free from the atrocities they were forced to commit on a daily basis upon poor unfortunate people that had simply caught a disease. The leader of the group in name only he didn’t feel like the leader but they all looked to him to make the hard decisions and it was taking its toll. Not a day went by when in that dark room he didn’t find himself with the barrel of his shotgun in his mouth. \n\nThe doors to the prison burst open with a loud bang that echoed down the halls. Hearing the sound Hank grabbed his gun and turned on one of the monitors for the perimeter cameras. Seeing nothing outside the outer fence he cursed himself and flicked on the monitors covering the cell block where the survivors kept their cells. The corridors were empty; he wiped his brow and flicked the cold sweat onto the dusty floor. Grabbing his gun he slammed his hand down on the cell unlock control and ran out to find out what the commotion was about. Everyone made their way to the gym, Hank helped carry the young while checking behind him the entire time; too many had been lost by having no situational awareness. When they got there and everyone was accounted for Hank barred the door. \n\n“What the hell is going on?” He called out looking around the group his heart feeling like it was trying to burst out through his rib cage, his shirt soaked with sweat, his lungs burning as though someone had set fire to them. Nathan came forward; the short haired guy looked to be in much the same state as Hank.\n\n“The Deadites, they are gone.” He said breathing deep but recovering quickly. \n\n“What do you mean gone?” Mike called out and then looked embarrassed as everyone turned to look at him, he was not used to speaking out, he looked down and fumbled with his note book looking for the specific note he had taken. “They can’t have gone, they are driven by hunger, they wouldn’t have…” He trailed off seeing Jennifer smiled at him. He took a quick gulp and continued. “We don’t know how long it will take for decay to cause them to stop. I mean, why would they go?” Jennifer gave him a thumb up and he smiled back to her. \n\n“Mike is right.” Hank began. “They wouldn’t just go. Maybe it’s finally over. Maybe we can all relax.” Hank wasn’t sure and the words felt dirty in his mouth as he had said them, the previous leader of the group had said almost exactly the same thing before he had been killed. \n \n“NO!” The Priest called out swords in hand his knuckles turning white as he gripped the weapons. “This cannot be! We must take the fight to the Cursed!” Mike opened his note book and scribbled a note next to his entry on Deadites. ”We must cleanse the earth of these monsters!” He raised one of his swords and there was a rumble of agreement from those gathered. Hank Sighed. \n\n“Ok, right. So, we need to find out what has happened. We need to discover why they have gone and more importantly if they will be coming back. I’ll go, Mike you come with us, we may need your skills.” He looked at the others. “Jennifer and Nathan you come too bring long and medium range weapons.” He looked to the priest. “You come too. The rest of you lock this place down tight, take no chances, you know the drill. If you see any other survivors do not interact with them, they may try to steal our supplies from outside but remember that is what they are for; we have plenty stockpiled in the freezers.” He looked around as the team moved out to gather their things. \n\nWhen they had gathered outside the fences they looked around, there was no sign of any of them. Not a single Deadite was in view. Nathan raised his gun and looked through the scope checking further afield. A feeling of unease slid across them like an oil slick. Nathan looked down and noticed something. \n\n“Hey guys, their tracks. It looks like they all turned around and moved off,” raising his hand he pointed and looked around. “Over there somewhere.” For the first time since it had happened they set off in pursuit of the dead. \n\nThey crossed hills, rivers and wood before they saw any sign of them. A single Deadite in the distance walking slowly dragging one foot along the floor at an odd angle, a shard of bone stocking out from its ankle. The priest raised his sword but Hank laid the barrel of his shotgun over it and lowered it. The Priest looked at him with surprise in his eyes. \n\n“We are not here to kill just observe. Plus we have Mike, lucky little bastard couldn’t get killed by those things if he tried.” The priest looked to mike who smiled weakly back at him. Turning he lowered his sword. \n\nFor hours they followed the Deadite hunkering down if it seemed to almost notice them. After a while they started to hear the tell-tale groaning of a large group of them. Cresting a hill they froze as they saw it, thousands of them gathered in a valley idly standing around all facing in the same direction. In the distance they could see some sort of raised platform. \n\n“What the hell is going on?” Hank asked looking around at the group. The priest had gone white as a sheet and was backing away. He looked to Jennifer. “See if you can see something.” She raised her rifle and looked through the scope. What she saw made her gasp. \n\n“Oh… My… God.” She muttered. “You will not believe this.” She said quietly. “There is one of them on that platform. I can’t believe my eyes. This can’t be happening.” Mike turned looking at her. \n\n“What is it?” He asked notebook and pen in hand. \n\n“They…” She paused trying to process what she was seeing. “He, it.” She rubbed her eyes. “It’s talking.”\n\nEdit: Correcting a mistake\nEdit 2: found more mistakes. sorry\nEdit 3: guess what. corrections needed to be made." ]	2
	[WP] When Punxsutawney Phil dies on the eve of Groundhog Day, the town of Punxsutawney decides to elect the mayor, Richard Alexander, as the honorary groundhog. Little does Richard know that the gods of weather are waiting for his response.	[ "It had all led to this, all the hours spent in the forgotten passages of the Punxsutawney Library, the years spent campaigning so he could seize the power of mayor, all the relationships cast aside to focus on this one goal, the ascension to the official seat of Groundhog for the city of Punxsutawney. \n\nHis advisers saw the move as good PR but Richard knew it was much more than that. Dave, his press secretary, had brought a small headband topped with two fuzzy groundhog ears. Richard chuckled as he felt the cold loam press in around his body, had the people of Punxsutawney truly forgotten the power of the hallowed burrow? Richard certainly had not, and he would not sully the burrow with cheap imitation. From the still warm body of Phil he had removed the pelt and fashioned a loincloth and from his mouth he had taken the strong front teeth and made a diadem to wrap around his head imbuing him with the power of the seasons themselves.\n\nWhen Dave had placed the cold furry body of his old nemesis onto his desk that morning simpering sadly about the loss of the ‘town’s mascot’ he had struggled to contain a violent upwell of joy. For years he had schemed, placing rodent traps experts assured him no groundhog could avoid. Hiding pellets of poison within feasts even the most discerning gourmand could not resist. And yet the chubby little seer had seemed near prescient in his avoidance of the dangers that could keep him from his duty. Diligently removing the traps and carefully stripping the poison before consuming the feasts down to the last crumb.\n\nThe roar of the crowd stirred something deep within Richard and he began undulating his body deep within the burrow. Phil’s time had ended, the reign of Richard the Mighty had begun. Breaking free of the earthy tomb Richard let out a triumphant screech silencing the crowd. The silence grew and frightened suspicious murmurs began trickling out of the gathered masses. Dare they question his preeminence as the Groundhog elect? He climbed to his feet and began a slow survey of the crowd. The masses peered back at their mayor too scared to meet the eyes of a man they had all learned to fear and yet too curious to look away entirely. The fate of the season hung in the air, and none of them could afford a long winter.\n\nRichard stared down at the crowd like a Roman Emperor ready to sentence a fallen gladiator to death. He snuffed the air, let a small smile grow on his face, and slowly began turning back towards his own shadow, these people would need to learn humility before he would deign to give them the early summer they so craved. \n\nSuddenly bodies began shuffling in the back and a joyous outcry sprung from the crowd. Richard snapped his head back around, inches from sighting his own shadow, eyes furiously searching for the one who had dared disturb the new Groundhog elect. There, standing like Moses parting the Red Sea, stood Phil. Reared back on his hind legs, the groundhog may have been stripped of fang and fur but the regal grace that wrapped around him left no doubt, Phil lived. \n\nRichard let out a piercing wail ‘You died! I saw your body at my feet’ Phil looked back and in a low baritone that seemed to fill the field said ‘The sun rises and my duty is not done, no poison will hold me from my unending task’ and with the proclamation finished he dropped down to all fours and began charging towards Richard. Richard dropped down gnashing his teeth and met the groundhog at the foot of the burrow. They fell, wrestling over the cold frosty ground. Richard was frenzied, he flipped Phil onto his back, wrapped his fingers around the groundhogs neck, and began squeezing the life out of him. Richard slowly rose fingers still wrapped around the groundhog’s neck raising Phil into the air small hind legs kicking in the breeze. As the life flittered in the groundhog’s eyes he took one claw away from the massive fingers wrapped around him and pointed back behind Richard.\n\nRichard looked back ready for one last groundhog trick and was suddenly paralyzed in knowing fear. Stretched out behind him was a seemingly unending river of black, his shadow. Richard gazing into the abyss saw frosts gripping at the tender shoots of the corn, he saw lakes frozen solid cracking dams, he saw children standing amid snowdrifts waiting for a school bus that would never come, Richard saw winter. A vast unending winter that would consume Punxsutawney. Richards jaw went slack and a lone tear slipped down his face as he turned back towards the groundhog. Phil stared back at Richard, a look of knowing in his eyes.\n\nSlowly Richard lowered the Groundhog, removed the loincloth he had made of Phil’s coat, and draped it around the seer. Then with solemnity he took his diadem and removed the small teeth from its crest, placing them back into Phil’s grasp. Tiny claws grasped at the pelt wrapping it around the groundhog’s small frame. Drained of energy Phil mounted the burrow not glancing once at his shadow and looked back down at the assembled crowd. Voice bellowing out he cried ‘People of Punxsutawney. The winter is long but it shall not remain so forever! Take heart, hold your loved ones close, and the seasons shall change in two weeks’ time!’ a cheer erupted from the crowd at this proclamation and Phil slowly crept back into the burrow, his burrow. Once inside he slumped against a wall and in a small voice addressed Richard ‘Keep to you hall Summer King and I shall keep to mine, lead them in the warmth or surely the darkness will fall and envelope us forever’. \n\nRichard stood naked in the cold February morning and motioned to his press secretary ‘Some pants if you could Dave’. Sighing he walked towards the podium chastened. A return to his Mayoral duties, a return to the mortal life of which he had grown so weary, he would do his duty and hopefully, the Groundhog would continue to do his, lest winter fall and summer never return.\n" ]	1
	[WP] You only got one shot do not miss your chance to blow!	[ "\"Chew, chew, chew\" the little girl coached, quiet determination in her face as she watched her even litter sister chew a wad of bubblebum. \"Now roll it into a ball with your tongue. Now stick your tongue through it. Let me see. Good, good. Now, wait for it...\n\n...okay, BLOW!\"\n\nThe littler girl's cheeks sunk as she blew everything she had into the tip of her tongue. \n\nThe gum flew out, spit flying everywhere as the older sister turned and covered her face from the flying liquid projectiles.\n\nOnce the coast was clear, she peeked at her little sister.\n\nAnd smiled. \"Wanna try again?\"" ]	1
	[WP] One day, a giant spaceship appears in the sky. On every TV channel, a man threatens the world. You know him: it's you.	[ "Earth is what we would call a \"baby\" planet. The ruling species humans haven't discovered the technology yet to be introduced to life outside of their own planet. \n\nNow usually there are rules about these kinds of planets. You can observe but not interfere. This was different though. Death, war, poverty, all of the negative side effects of life within a conscious species is expected. After that incident although it all changed for me. I could no longer just \"observe\" actions have repercussions and there had to be a repercussion. \n\nI debated how to handle the situation for some time. Not entirely sure what the best course for me to take would be. It's difficult to make a logical decision when emotions are flaring. The longer I thought about it the more my anger manifested and started clouding my judgment. Like the tunnel you see while traveling at light speed. I know it was wrong and I didn't care anymore. My anger won and this species deserved to be treated the way they treat them-self. I have remorse with the fact that not everyone deserves this but as a collective they had the chance to alter their course. They had the chance... \n\n Their communication is still very primitive therefore it was simple to send out a worldwide message from the communication hub in my ship. I took a deep breath before I started the transmission. My last chance to back out. \n\"NO\" I shouted at myself. They need to understand. I flipped the switch and started broadcasting.\n\n\"This is a worldwide transmission.\" I stated with an emotionless face and a very monologue tone. \"Your actions have lead me to believe your species doesn't deserve what you have.\" Anger began swelling up again as I recalled the earlier events. Slowly emotion started seeping its way into my voice.\n\"Never again will you have the chance to destroy and damage on that level again!\" I said shouting. \n\"What happens next just remember you could have chosen differently\" i said those words very carefully, wanting to invoke as much fear as possible. And with that I ended my transmission. Slowly walking over to my command center I casually take my seat. \n\"Initiate protocol 67\" I spoke aloud to the ships AI. \n\"Protocol 67 initiated\" the AI responded. \n\"Protocol 67 completed\" \nI took one last look at the planet before I departed. \n\"I hope the next generation doesn't follow in your footsteps\" with a sorrowful tone. \n\"Take me home\" I said speaking to the ship. " ]	1
	[WP]Adventurers always come to save the princess, but no one ever come to save the dragon.	[ "This wasn’t Gerald’s first time facing the Tower dragon. She had sent the brave knight home numerous times with his tail between his legs, only to come back and try again. \n\nGerald had his steel at the ready, big and heavy. His arms shook as he raised it, he had to be brave. He hoped it would do the job. \n\n‘DRAAAAAGOOON!’ Echoed up the great tower.\n\nThe beast plummeted down and gently flapped its wings before it reached the ground, gracefully touching down. It turned to Gerald.\n\nShocked at what was in Geralds hands the creature shrieked back in surprise.\n\nOur hero fell to one knee and lifted the massive metal ring that was infused with precious gems and coated with gold.\n\n‘DRAGON WILL YOU MARRY ME!!?’\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n" ]	1
	[WP]Unknown to earthlings, Earth is a popular tourist destination for advanced life forms from throughout the galaxy. The rules strictly prohibit interfering or tampering in any way with mankind. While vacationing on Earth, you decide to break that rule.	[ "######[](#dropcap) \n\n\"I don't get what the big deal is.\"\n\nKrathor, a bright purple, 8 tentacled sentient omnivore from an ocean planet on the other side of the galaxy, lay relaxing on a warm, sandy beach in Rio De Janeiro. He wore the nano-coating issued by the Galactic Environmental Agency, which functioned both as a visual cloak, audio filter, and bio-filter to prevent destructive cross contamination. It was this latter threat which Krathor was now dubious of, again. \n\n\"You're telling me these things are so isolated from the galaxy that even a single bacteria is going to wipe them out?\" \n\nGarfor, a bright green, 8 tentacled omnivore from the same ocean planet, and Krathor's nerdy childhood friend, regretted going on this trip. Garfor didn't regret coming the Earth - in fact, he had wanted to make that trip for awhile - he just hated being here with Krathor, who was a complete idiot and ass, to use the local parlance. \n\nGarfor wrung three of his tentacles nervously in the air, uncomfortable being on such a packed beach. The nearest human was less than 10 meters away, and the rules required a 50 meter minimum distance at all times. But Krathor saw this beach from the ocean and just had to stop by. \"Yes,\" Garfor said, in answer to Krathor's question, \"their immune systems are incredibly poorly developed.\" Then Garfor added pointedly, \"these people still think they're alone in the galaxy Krath. They're simpletons.\"\n\nKrathor stretched out four of his eight tentacles to their full distance, sighing in the warm sun and giving Garfor indigestion as the tip of one tentacle came within 5 meters of a lounging human female.\n\n\"Krath, seriously, we should get back into the ocean. We're too close here.\" Garfor began to slither and drag the mass of his bulbous central body into the water, but Krathor wouldn't budge.\n\n\"If these things are so fragile,\" Krathor started, \"what are we protecting them for anyway? They're just gonna be wiped out eventually.\"\n\nGarfor was exhausted - they had had this exact conversation a half dozen times already on this trip. He was never going to travel with Krathor again. \"In time, they might evolve into a more advantageous position. Like you, for instance.\" Garfor said this last part with accidental, but heartfelt, sarcasm. \n\nKrathor heard the tone in the words. \"Hey, what's that supposed to mean?\"\n\nHere we go again. Garfor awkwardly started flinging some sand around with a few of his tentacle tips, avoiding eye contact. \"Nothing, can we just,please leave.\"\n\nAngrily, Krathor straightened up his gelatinous torso, rising to his full, 4 meter height. \"Nah, man, nah - I'm tired of being talked down to all the time. You think you're so much smarter than me?\" Krathor stretched his remaining four tentacles to their full length aggressively. Garfor saw the tip of one of the tentacles brush within less than a foot of the sun bathing human.\n\n\"Krath, watch out...\" Garfor reached out to grab Krathor's tentacle and pull it away, but Krathor took that as a sign of aggression and wrapped several smaller tentacles around Garfor.\n\n\"Really dude? You were gonna sucker slap me?\" Krathor gave Garfor a squeeze.\n\nGarfor struggled to get free, still groping for that stray tentacle. \"Would you cut it out! You're just too close to...\"\n\nKrathor saw Garfor reaching for his tentacle, and recoiled several feet. In doing so the tip of Karthor's furthest tentacle briefly latched onto the bare foot of the human being. The stingers on Krathors tentacle easily made it past the nano-coating, which only protected against indirect environmental contamination. The female human let out a little yell, but by the time she looked towards her foot, Karthor and Garfor had already retreated into the ocean. \n\n\"Shit, shit, shit,\" Krathor muttered to himself, \"Dude, I touched it! Am I gonna die dude?\" \n\nGarfor expelled a large air bubble contemptuously, \"You're going to be fine, asshole. But that person ...\"\n\nGarfor was cut off by an ear-piercing scream back on the beach. The female human Krathor had briefly touched was running up the beach now, into the more populated section, towards a big sign for medical attention. As she ran, a bright purple color could be seen quickly rising up her leg. Behind her, each foot step she left in the wet sand also turned purple, and the color spread out from each foot step, encroaching over the sand. Anyone who touched it soon began to scream themselves, until the entire beach, thousands of humans, became a screaming horde and then went silent, as the purple covered everything in sight and continued up into the city.\n\nKrathor eyed the results of his single, small touch with astonishment. Then he turned to Garfor and said \"Dude, we have got to get out of here.\"\n\nFeeling awful, but not wanting to be locked up as an accomplice to reckless genocide, Garfor agreed and the two blew a prodigious stream of air out of their rear orifices, and jetted away back toward the bottom of the ocean and their waiting ship.\n\n*******\n\n##### For More Legends From The Multiverse\n\n##### r/LFTM\n\n" ]	1
	[WP] The world outside is fine, but the population of one town thinks its a post-apocalyptic wasteland. No outsider has ever entered the town to prove them wrong, until now.	[ "\nPastor Thomas Moreland of the United Earth congregation spoke in a firm manner, “Folks! Ten years ago, the Russian Federation incidentally launched a non-nuclear missile over Alaska! That is but a part of this story! We must send missionaries to the town of Searidge, these missionaries must convince the population here that the world indeed did not come to an end!”\n\nOne week later \n\nThe United Earth Congregation were all draped in black suits, and dresses over the radio and television they heard the bad news of there missions trip. Radio announcer, “And folks once again if you are just joining me, an airplane set to land near the isolated town of Searidge, Alaska carrying 12 missionaries has crashed. They lost transmission with the aircraft and are still unsure about it’s whereabouts, a distress signal came in twelve minutes before there descent. Once again what happened to the aircraft no one knows, but we will keep you posted as news is breaking.” \n\nIn his office pastor Thomas was in disbelief sobbing murmuring to himself “Another group of missionaries for you my lord. I will do thy bidding for the lord of the underworld.” , a man in a black suit walked in and sat down he carelessly lit a cigarette and took a long drag blowing it near the pastor’s face. “What the heck is wrong with you sir?!” The disheveled pastor was beginning to become terrified of this man in the black suit, his face was bony and his eyes were like spears piercing through the soul of any man or woman. \n\nThe pastor stumbled to put his bottle of vodka away, “I’m sorry sir, who are you again?” The man looked up a the pastor and squinted his eyes harshly at him, he opened his coat jacket reaching for a business card he slid on the table which also revealed a holstered pistol. \n\nOn that business card it read Sentinel Technologies, “Pastor, my employers are aware of what you are trying to do, but I must warn you that the next time we meet it won’t be under friendly circumstances I will assure you that!” \n\nThe man in the suit stood up put his cigarette bud out on the pastor’s desk and walked out, before he did however the lights in the office and in the church cut out! It was pitch black everywhere in the church, the man was gone and the pastor shaken in disbelief. \n\nLater that evening the maintenance man would tell the pastor that someone or something tampered with the breaker boxes, not only that but all of the servers and cloud sharing tech was vandalized and erased! \n\nHe didn’t know what to make of all of this, if he called the cops but now no one would believe him, and that business card pointed to no directions of any corporations or companies he has ever heard of…. It would shock him for the next few days, but he would have to focus on other things that were more important now………………………\n\nIn the snowy hills of Alaska a passenger prop plane split in two lays in the tundra, miraculously everyone of the 12 missionaries survived the crash. Having braved the last few days taking shelter in the plane, and keeping each other warm Daniel Bishop decided they should get going. \n\nThe tall brown haired man wearing a windbreaker green and blue jacket told everyone to gather around, in this group were 9 men, and 3 women. “Ok, listen up followers of Christ. It is truly something special to see that we have made it through this crash, how we made it through only God knows! We still have a mission though, and we cannot let the forces of Satan mess it up and cause more chaos in this world!” \n\nEveryone of the missionaries began to clap and sing a hymn of praise, there naivety to a deity was blinding them to facts of there current situation. “We will march towards southeast, that is where Searidge is at, once we reach it I will get help!” \n\nThe entire group was well-prepared they were bringing medical supplies, food supplies, and rations already for the isolated town of Searidge. They all hiked for 10 miles till they reached the outskirts of Searidge which would take another 5 miles to hike, from his binoculars he saw the town resembling that of an old western style, but couldn’t make anything else out as the darkness drew near. \n\n“Okay mission! We will settle hear tonight in those caves over there, there are no bears around these parts I checked with the wildlife foundation before we flew out.” Daniel Bishop later that night was sitting by the small fire at the edge of the cave looking upwards towards the moon, Claudia Miles a good friend to Daniel approached and decided to sit next to him as everyone else was fast asleep. “Quite a crazy turn of events?” She shuffled through the fire with a stick trying to raise conversation nervously. Daniel was not a intimate person, most of his family was killed in a plane crash several years ago, and he found this situation ironic to his. “I think that no matter what God wants us to be here, I mean we don’t have a radio, we don’t have any way to give off a distress signal. On top of all that we survived a plane crash 30,000 feet in the air, I find it miraculous that we all survived!” \n\nWith her cute blue eyes, and face she raised her eyebrows and pointed to the sky as a wave of orange and blue light streaked across the skies. “Isn’t it beautiful?” \n“Yes, but I never thought they were orange it looks unnatural to me.” The night faded away and the next day the group was now a half mile out from the town, before they could reach it Daniel noticed the orange light in the sky once more. Knowing it was supposed to be aurora borealis he thought that especially in this instance at least to be strange as to how it moved and could hear the crackling of thunder. \nThe rest of the group was distracted by the town however, and when they did reach the outer gates they stood before a 20 foot tall gate barricaded with barbed wire and wood bars. Daniel looked around for another way to get through, and then as they walked the perimeter noticed a little child dirtied and scared with firewood in her hands staring right at them. \n\n“Hey little girl, we’re not going to hurt you.” Daniel whispered trying to calm her down for she seemed very nervous, as it seemed tears were filling her eyes! Suddenly the group was surrounded! An upkick of snow in every direction flurried around them! A group of ten to twelve heavily armed men in snow camouflage yelled out in unity “Don’t move!” \n\nA old bearded man in a all fur garb, looking rough, and rustled up slowly walked his heavy step of the boot hitting the snow towards the group. He raised his hand up to gesture his men to put down their guns, and so they did. \n\n“You people where have you come from?! Are you survivors? Or are you the machines?!” Daniel was hesitant standing there with his arms still raised in a gesture of harmlessness, he reached for his bible in his coat pocket. \n\nHe raised it up and spoke firmly, “We’re missionaries! We have come to tell you the word! The government sent us, and you are all free to leave.” \n\nThe old bearded man took off his fur hat, and got closer to Daniel, the man sighed and placed his hand on his shoulder. “Daniel… we know trust me on this Daniel I know who you are and exactly how you got here, because well…. I’m you Daniel.” Daniel stepped back looking closer at this old man and seeing the resemblance to be uncanny, he slipped and fell to the ground. \n\n“This is hell for us Daniel, best I can recollect is that your plane came through a wormhole 50 years ago. That pastor is a servant of the domain that runs this dimension, in this world machines have taken over and Sentinel Technologies is the only protector we have fighting for us!” \n\nIn the end 12 missionaries were sent to tell a town that the end of the world did not happen, but instead the end of the world happened for these 12 poor souls. Forever to be repeating a infinite timeline of crossing into the rift of a space-time continuum where no one would be able to hear their cries, this was truly hell on Earth!\n", "I knew life inside the shield was much better than life on the outside.\n\nMy great grandfather used to tell me stories of the old world, before he passed away when I was very young. He said we used to be masters of the world, forming it to our liking. We were builders, and the rest of the world watched as we sculpted our design from its soil. And it wasn't just soil, but metal, too, and something called electricity that was lost to us when we abused it too much.\n\nThe end of the world happened when my great grandfather was very young. He used to tell me that the machines we'd built turned on us. They caused storms, ones that destroyed cities bigger than I'd ever get to see in my life. I lived in the town, I lived within the shield, and that was really all that mattered. \n\nWhen I was younger my friends and I used to skip curfew to bounce whatever junk we could find off its zapping surface. It always intrigued me, the last bastion of the technology that saved us, and also destroyed us. My great grandfather said we used to have machines inside the shield but now they're all just orange and silent. They stopped working when he was only a grandfather. The shield, though, was different. It was blue, shimmering, and you could see through it to the world outside which was mostly just green.\n\nThere was never anything out there, and today was no different. I worked near the edge of the shield, so I always got a great view outside. It was just endless green. Trees and bushes and grass as tall as I was. But there were no animals. We only had a few inside the shield that we had to constantly make sure were hunted. But it was mostly buildings and pathways inside the shield, nothing like the outside world.\n\nMy father said the skies cleared when he was a boy, but it all just used to be yellow and brown. They were blue now, but no clouds, as my great grandfather called them. Still, though, it was nice to see green. It was nice to see blue, I just always wished we could leave. \n\nOn my way home, when the sky was orange and fading to night, I saw what might be a solution.\n\nThey looked like I did, except they were more dirty, and obviously less healthy. They had on rags that seemed to be stitched and fixed but destroyed all the same. They were carrying a rifle. I knew that, because I'd seen those weapons in pictures of history. They had a mask on their face, from their mouth were tubes, coiled and wrapped in gauze. They looked very menacing.\n\nI was frozen in the middle of the empty street, staring at whoever they were on the other side of the shield. I need to run, I needed to tell someone, a guard, anyone. The stranger knelt down, and started to search through the old, beige bag they carried, packed full of strange, alien things I'd never seen. They pulled out a folded piece of paper, and started to unfold it into a much larger size. \n\n'BRING IT DOWN. YOU CAN COME BACK.'\n\nIt was written unmistakably on the paper the stranger now held up to me, gesturing upwards with their rifle. After a moment they set their rifle on their shoulder and took off their mask, and showed their face. It was a girl, much dirtier than I was but she was beautiful. And as strange as this had been, there was one thing I would never forget. After all these years, there was only one thing that made me run to my superiors, that made me petition with my citizens, that made me bring down the shield. \n\nThis woman was smiling brighter than anyone that lived inside the shield.", "\"Get the hell out of here, alien freak, before me 'n Sammy put bullets in your head.\" The short old woman with long, silver strands of unkempt hair croaked from behind her twelve gauge. \n\nSammy, the old woman's son, took that as a queue to find his pistol. He tripped over his feet on his way back into the house. \n\n\"Alien freak? Ma'am, I'm from Worthington, not far from--\"\n\nA shot gun blast echoed through the air. \n\n\"Shut'yer damn mouth\" The old woman demanded, as she lowered the barrel to 'The Allen's' eye level. \"Next one's going in yer throat.\"\n\nAllen Pearce had been sent to the old small town of Hank to let them know that the world was still there -- that people outside of Hank were still alive. \n\nHank is one of those self-sufficient cities with a population of locals who all know and work together to keep the engine running. Before the \"apocalypse\" they hardly ever interacted with the outside world. But now they don't even think there is an outside world. \n\n\"Fine, ma'am, I'm walking away. Just wanted to let you know that everyone is fine out there.\" Allen had his hands up, but he put them in his pocket as he pivoted toward his car. \n\nSammy burst through the front door, tripping again, causing him to Superman dive straight off the porch. While trying to catch his fall, he accidentally squeezed the trigger of hits pistol, which sent a bullet in the direction of Allen, who was struck in the shoulder just as he was about to get into his car. \n\n\"God damn it, Sammy,\" his mother rasped. \"You shoot to kill, dummy!\"\n\nSammy scurried back into the house.\n\nAllen Pearce was standing beside his car, in shock. He had cusped his hand over the bullet wound. When he removed his hand he was horrified by the Jade green color of his blood. A million thoughts raced through his mind, What am I?, Who am I?, What's going on?\n\nA shot gun blast tore through his abdomen, sending him to the ground. For a moment, he found peace in the fact that it didn't hurt. But he didn't want to die yet, not before figuring out what happened to him. \n\n\"Any last words?\" The gnarly old woman asked as she stood above the alien. \n\n\"What am I?\" Allen asked, green slime spurting from his chest, and leaking from his mouth. \n\n\"Dead.\" \n\n", "\"So you're saying that the world outside is not a post-apocalyptic horrific wasteland?\" the bartender asked, wide-eyed. I nodded smugly, this was going to be great.\n\n\"So America is still, like, a crazy incredible nation, united as one to help out those countries in need?\" the man shot another question my way. \n\n\"Well...kinda sorta, I guess.\" I replied. \n\n\"So the country isn't ruled by a maniacal three year old who may cause another nuclear holocaust?\" the man enquired.\n\n\"Uh....there hasn't been a nuclear holocaust yet. And...our leader isn't technically a three year old...maybe?\"\n\n\"Wait, wait, wait, you mean there isn't lawlessness, mass shootings and segregation to which the dystopian government turns a blind eye?\" the bartender was livid. At this point, so was I. \n\n\"Pour me a drink, would you?\" I said, questioning everything I Knew about the world. \n\n\"All those questions aside, you are telling me that the world outside is worth leaving this simple town life for?\"\n\nI looked at the bar around me. Free drinks. A self sustaining town which grew its own food. an almost 1:1 female to male ratio, meaning that everyone could get someone. \n\n\"Hey what are you thinking mister? Should I contact the mayor? Do we move out?\" the bartender asked.\n\n\"On second thought, you think I could by myself a house?\" I replied." ]	4
	[WP] Everyone child has heard about how Santa comes into their homes each Christmas to deliver presents. What they haven't heard of are the follow-up teams of Elves deployed in his wake to Incept parents into believing they bought the gifts for their kids themselves.	[ "Having spent thirty years in training, running hours of simulation and spending the last three years following Bingles, Darcy knew her time had finally come. The night before, she spent countless hours in front of the mirror in her room working on her whimsical demeanor and general pleasantries. So when her name had finally appeared on the project board at the North Pole she let out an audible yelp while happiness sparkles danced from her glowing smile. Everything she had has ever worked for was finally happening. \n\nSanta having returned from another successful delivery year, gathered his elves together in his study. All the top names were there. Darcy too nervous to mingle, spent her time admiring Ms. Pixie who five years ago convinced a town that by some miracle the local toy shop had gotten a last minute delivery of the “it” toy. She was a legend. Darcy was so enamored with Ms. Pixie that she had somehow missed a question from the big guy himself. \n\nSanta cleared his throat and the room turned towards Darcy.\n\n“I’m sorry sir, I was a million miles away,” Darcy said smiling. “It’s just that it’s my first time. Well it’s my first solo time and I’m a little nervous but I shouldn’t be nervous, because I had the best teacher in the whole wide world.” Santa smiled before turning his attention to the rest of the room. \n\n“On that enthusiastic note, I’ll let you all go. Have fun out there.” Darcy let out a whimpered cheer as the rest of the room chuckled quietly to themselves. Outside of the North Pole, the airbus sat waiting to take the elves across the world. Darcy sat next to Bingles who did his best to calm the nerves of Darcy. \n\n“You are going to be fine,” he said. “When in doubt…”\n\n“Smile throughout,” Darcy finished shooting the appropriate amount of sparkles from her head. Darcy poured over her notes again. Tonight her client’s name was Mr. Donald Bowman, a Hollywood jingle writer and single dad to two lovely daughters, Samantha and Emily. Now according to their wish list they had wanted something called the Surf Up Shop, a general doll playset focused around a beachfront hot dog stand. Mr. Bowman in his rush had accidently gotten the hamburger version which featured a Midwestern hamburger shop run by an elderly couple. It was an honest mistake. \n\nThe trip took forever and with each stop Darcy would look up to the front of the bus waiting to see her name flash on the neon red display. When it finally did, Darcy leapt out of her seat grabbing her official hat and paperwork for the evening. Before she left the bus she thanked the driver who reminded her to activate her return beacon when she was ready. \n\n“Merry Christmas. I mean happy 364 days until Merry,” Darcy corrected herself as the driver closed the door and the bus shot into the sky. \n\nDonald couldn’t sleep. No matter how many times he rolled over or adjusted his pillows he just couldn’t get to sleep. It was his own fault, he’d spent five hours cooking a ham, which when presented to Samantha and Emily was met with a chorus of disapproval. So after about ten minutes of stereo high pitched complaining they had decided to get some Chinese food instead. Now knowing full well the egg rolls would likely destroy his stomach, he bowed to his desire and after the fourth one decided to call it a night. \n\n“Good evening Mr. Blank, wait that’s not right.” Donald sat up in his bed wondering adjusting his sight to the end of the bed. “Oh see they’re supposed to fill in your name here, there’s been a bit of turnover in the office department. I apologize Mr. Bowman.” \n\nDonald smiled at the small elf, placing his head back on the pillow. In terms of choosing a day to have a complete mental breakdown, the day after Christmas was as good a day as any. Donald turned to his side and closed his eyes and just as the feeling of sleep came and just as he could feel his mind float away something poked his nose. Correction someone poked his nose. \n\n“You are not real,” Donald said clinching his eyes tight. \n\n“I am as real of the wonder you feel during the first snowfall or the uncontrollable smile you get when Emily laughs or when Samantha draws a picture of you with a really big head,” Darcy said keeping her voice low. “You are doing an excellent job with them by the way, I’ve heard it from the big guy himself. He called them Grade-A Goodlisters”\n\n“Okay, what was in those egg rolls,” Donald asked opening his eyes to the smiling Darcy. She was short, he could tell she was straining to stand on her tiptoes \n\n“I would imagine the standard ingredients, and holiday magic. It’s hard to cook anything this time of the year without holiday magic getting into it. It’s like glitter,” Darcy paused. “It gets everywhere. Anyway, we at the North Pole would like to thank you for your assistance spreading holiday cheer this year, please sign here.” \n\nDonald sat up convinced that he wasn’t going insane, but not convinced he wasn’t dreaming. The elf, well there was really no other way to describe her smiled while shaking a pen and holding a small stack of papers. Taking the papers Donald started tracing his finger down the page, it read like refrigerator instructions. \n\n“Short form,” Darcy interrupted. “Can you believe it used to be fifty pages? Three years of elves throwing out their backs and they finally gave us something smaller.”\n\n“What is this,” Donald asked working on the tenth page. \n\n“In short, you messed up Christmas. That’s okay the big guy came down swapped out the gifts and everything is right in the world. We just need you to sign here for the relocation record. By the way, your accidental gift made its way to a child in New Jersey. She was very happy.” Darcy smiled offering the pen to Donald. \n\n“Hold on a second you came into my house and stole my presents and you want me to sign…” Darcy coughed quietly. \n\n“We don’t use the word steal,” Darcy corrected. “This happens all the time. Three months ago, Emily asked for the Surf Up Shop and you misheard and got the wrong toy. So using our record keeping procedures, and cross checking that with the list the main office gets, well we fixed it. Merry Christmas.” Donald looked at the form, then back at the elf grabbing the pen from her hand. Keeping one eye on the elf, Donald checked off the boxes on the page and signed his name at the bottom. Darcy smiled before collecting the paperwork and walking to the bedroom door. \n\n“Oh I almost forgot,” Darcy chimed. “There was a slight price discrepancy between the toys so we refunded you the difference in the form of candy canes. You’ll find them scattered through your house in random locations, it is part of the deal we made with the Easter Bunny.”\n\n“That’s nice of you, figment of my dreams,” Donald said placing his head down on his pillow.\n\n“My name is Darcy,” she said before leaving the bedroom. \nDarcy left the house walked to the corner of the street, pressed her recall beacon and looking at the estimated time pickup, decided to treat herself to a nice cup of coffee and donut. It was a good day. \n", "My head is spinning. The grogginess is not from natural fatigue, that much I can tell. Did I hit my head? I can't remember.\n\nI tried to get up, but found my arms and legs tied to a chair. I almost fell over, but a small, firm hand grabbed me by the shoulder and pulled me back.\n\n\"You're awake.\" The high pitched voice squeaked without emotion. \"Right after giving your five year old child her first Christmas gift.\"\n\nI was confused.\n\n\"Wait, what are you talking about? Santa came, drank our milk and cookies, and-\"\n\nA rubber-like bludgeon smashed into the backside of my thigh. It felt painless on impact, and soon, the rush of blood burned the nerves roosted underneath the fat. This dull, burning ache was followed by another bludgeon to the other leg.\n\nI looked at the source of the pain. A short, sharp eared, and stick-figured creature in pointy shoe, holding what looks to be a large, pitch black candy cane. Wait, what am I thinking, it's just a walking cane.\n\n\"You gave your child her first Christmas gift and are now having a nightmare.\" The voice squeaked again. It did not come from this tiny thug, it came from someone else in the room.\n\n\"No... No, Santa came, and Sant-\"\n\nThen I felt the drilling of a long, thin needle underneath my nails. I wanted to scream and struggle from the pain, but I had a greater urge to remain still, knowing the precision of my tormentor was the only thing that would stop me from having lasting, permanent damage.\n\nEach time a needle is put into a new finger, while suppressing my urge to struggle, and screaming soundlessly into my own cracking throat, the sharp, emotionless squeak reminded me how I had cheated my daughter, told her Santa gave her the presents, when I had done it myself.\n\nBut I know Santa had been there. I touched his coat. I shook his hands. I offered him the cookies, the milk, and he laughed in a jolly big voice. That booming HO HO HO, the last thing I remember before I passed out...\n\n\"You are disoriented because you hit your head.\" The voice squeaked again. That squeaking. That squeakingsqueakingsqueaking that squeaking voice so annoying. \"You are disassociating your own guilt. You created Santa in your own mind. You are a good man, you wouldn't lie. You should know this.\"\n\nSqueakingvoice kept talking kept talking so annoying. Telling me fake things. Making up things so annoying squeaking.\n\nJust then the lights lit up and I saw my wife tied up across from me, her mouth heavily gagged, bruised and bloody, across from me. Her makeup was running from her tears. \n\n\"Your wife was in an accident.\" The squeaking voice showed his face so squeaking and mouselike squeaksqueak he touched her he touche my wife wiped her tears her tears her tears she was crying and I WILL KILL HIM -\n\nI fell face first into the cold, metal floor. I hadn't noticed how cold it was. It was lightly dusted with a layer of snow, but the snow is red, so red, with blood, so red with tears, these monsters, what did they do to us? What did they do to my wife?! THESE MONSTERS!\n\n\"You are Santa Claus.\" The squeaky mouse midget insisted. \"Look what you did.\"\n\nHe turned on a small, beat up television screen. A jolly man in a red suit grabbed my wife. He forced her into a deep, long kiss. He ravished her face with his tongue, ripped apart her beautiful dress. Pushed her on a bed, savagely beat her while she struggled until she submit.\n\nThis monster. This god damn monster raped my wife, I will kill him. I will remember his face, I will destroy him.\n\n\"This is your husband, right?\" The squeaky voice squeaked, towards my wife. She quickly nodded. \"You don't mind, since it's your husband, right?\"\n\nMy heart broke. How can I possibly do this to her? How can I be the one to have done this? Why is she agreeing to this?\n\nBut then if she wasn't... If she hadn't been subject to it... I'm ok, I'll...\n\n\"But at least you retained your sanity.\" The squeak,squeak,squeak,squeak,squeak,shutupshutup let me think why this is happening to me squeaksqueaksqueak \"Look, you are with your child right now...\"\n\nThen the television switched to another scene. The horrible, horrible jolly man, sitting next to my child, his gentle smile belying his horrifying nature. His gentle voice, soft-spoken without that booming roar, was almost like he were singing a lullaby. \"Sleep, my pretty, and enjoy your gift. Ho, ho, ho.\"\n\nHe looked towards me. His gentle smile curved itself further. Opened itself. Became a gaping grin. That gentleness is all gone. He extended his arm toward my daughter. Toward... Toward her... If he were real, if he were real, my daughter... My daughter... I closed my eyes, I can't bear to keep watching the clip.\n\n\"If you're not Santa Claus, then... Who is that with your daughter? Will you wake up, in a red suit?\" The squeaksqueaksqueaksqueaksqueak \"Will you wake up, and apologize to your wife?\" my daughter is in danger my daughter my daughter \"You are Santa Claus, and you are going to wake up with a terrible hangover.\"\n\nYea, wait, none of this has to be real. It's just a nightmare.\n\nI opened my eyes.\n\nI caressed my beautiful wife on her bruised cheek, and with tears streaming down my eyes, I told her.\n\n\"Sorry, let's never roleplay after drinking ever again.\"\n\nI got up from the bed to make breakfast. She'll need the rest. I put on the red coat I think I was wearing last night, and walked out the room.\n\n\"MMMMNPH! MMMPH!\"\n\n\"Shhh, shhh, he left now, and we'll break you too in short order.\"\n\nGod damn that squeakingsqueaksqueaksqueaking sound, we need to get our house checked for rats." ]	2
	[WP] You are a killer that is cornered by the police and have no means of escape.	[ "I slid over the hood of the rested patrol car as the cop unbuckled his seat belt and jumped out of the vehicle. Although he had just shot five people in the head from forty yards away with a pistol, he missed all six of his shots while I passed him at ten feet away.\n\nI didn't know where to run, so I simply shouted back, \"Catch me if you can, PUSSY!\" as I turned the corner into a dead-end street between two buildings.\n\nGlancing from my left to my right, I quickly realized that I was in fact, cornered. Nowhere to run, and nowhere to hide.\n\nAs this sunk in, three cop cars pulled over in front of me, blocking my only exit.\n\nI had no weapon and no escape, but I wasn't worried. I'm the protagonist, I thought with a smile. They can't catch me.\n\nSuddenly, a random garbage truck driver lost control and veered off the road, skipping first to only two wheels, before falling flat on all three cars, effectively trapping each officer inside of their vehicles.\n\nDespite having been shot in the knee three hours prior, I sprinted forward and effortlessly climbed over the garbage truck, before jumping the ten feet down without a semblance of pain.\n\nOf course, immediately after I conquered the vehicle, every officer emerged from their cars and began firing at me. A stampede of dozens of bullet whizzed past me, they flew inches over my ear, between my legs, and they hit the outside fabrics of my clothes. But none of them hit me.\n\n\"Plot armor,\" I said under my breath. \n\nI stopped running and turned towards the cops as more bullets narrowly missed me, I wonder what'll happen next, I thought.\n\n\n" ]	1
	[WP] You can feel when something negative is going to happen to someone. You never know what, just that it will. The problem is, no one ever believes you.	[ "The axe cleaved straight through the piece of wood with a satisfying crack. The crack echoed through the trees and overtop the nearby lake. Jack looked down at the chopping block with an exasperated look. He collected the two pieces and placed them at the top of the nearby stack. Jack winced noticeably. The look of exasperation deepened. Jack stood silent for a moment before his eyes darted instinctively toward the lake.\n\n\"You don't owe them anything more.\"\n\nHe turned back toward the stack of chopped wood.\n\n\"You did the best you could.\"\n\nThe feeling began to surge within him. His heart felt as if it were simmering inside his chest. A familiar feeling. The look of exasperation gave way to a wince as he jaunted toward the abandoned compound. He bounded through the open door and into the dim lights of the laboratory. His ruggedness seemed out of place in the facility. Jack jumped to reach a latch at the centre of the room. The floor panels slid out from beneath his hanging body to reveal a pool filled with a dark solution.\n\n\"There was nothing more that you could have done.\n\nJack's hands slipped from the latch and he plunged into the dark solution. The floor panels slid overhead, leaving Jack alone in the dark.\n\nHis mind fell from the moment.\n\nThe stillness of the dark chamber did little to weaken the searing effect in his chest, but his mind was still... for once. There was nothing to see in the darkness, but he saw nonetheless. Scenes of serene plains, waterfalls high above the land below, and infernos engulfing entire cities were just several images that were vivid down here. Jack felt this time was different. The creativity of those scenes gave way to something more visceral; more real. What Jack saw was clearly from the past.\n\nThe revolution raged in the streets. A globalized society that had dreamed too big and reached too far. It had forgotten its roots and with it the people that sacrificed everything to build it. Those same people would succeed in tearing it apart.\n\nImages of toppling buildings, collapsed bridges, and a sprawling city reclaimed by nature came fluttered through the chamber. The sounds were far more disturbing.\n\n\"Even if you could go back, would you?\"\n\nJack assumed that this feeling would have ended years ago. He knew without a doubt that days of civilization were over. What was left of humanity was so scattered that he hadn't seen another person in over a decade and a half. He surveyed half of the mainland just to stave of insanity after the collapse. Each city was just as desolate as the last. Most of the apocalyptic stories had travellers walking forever. Jack could only handle so much destruction...\n\nJack was familiar with this feeling even though there was no one around that he should feel compelled to save. The collapse had been so monumental; so complete that he felt these echoes that would cripple his mind for a time. The dark tank was the only place that would provide some reprieve until it passed.\n\nThe compound was serene. The sounds of the forest continued to echo through the trees and across the lake. The commotion of the world did not penetrate the chamber. The echoes in Jack's mind were not of his world, but he was convinced that they were getting more intense. He understood that he would have to go out in search of this feeling. Any less would have him lose his mind entirely... and he'd be damned if he lost it without finding exactly what threatened his retreat.", "Please leave feedback! I appreciate constructive criticism.\n\n---\n\nI had begged and pleaded though I knew that it wouldn’t make a difference. No one had ever believed me. Not even my twin. And now, we were both lost, in our own way.\n\nI stared at the casket. My sister couldn’t be dead. Proud, laughing Helen couldn’t be the one lying in there, with ashen skin and dull hair. No amount of embalming could capture my sister’s smile or the way she was never still, even in sleep. What lay in the coffin was a taunting parody of Helen.\n\nI had begged her not to go to work that day, as I had begged our mother on the day she had died. I had held Helen by the wrists and sobbed until the orderlies had taken me away and pumped drugs into me to calm me down. To numb me. \n\nHelen had held my hand and promised me that she would be back soon to see me. She had promised that she wouldn’t leave me, just as our mother had.\n\nBoth of them had lied.\n\nI turned away from the casket, and buried my face in hands. I couldn’t bear to keep looking at the corpse.\n\nHelen, some part of my mind whispered. That’s Helen in there.\n\nBut I knew that the whisper was false. I knew that Helen was gone. The thing in the casket was not my sister.\n\n“Were they close?” I heard the funeral director ask my father.\n\n“Yes,” my father replied, his voice as dull and lifeless as the corpse. “After we lost my wife, Helen was the only one who could –”\n\nMy father cut himself off, but I knew what he was going to say next. After our mother died, Helen was the only one who could control me during my fits. Helen was the only one who could calm me when I broke down and pleaded for someone to listen to me.\n\nBut, even she could never understand what I felt.\n\nI had always been able to sense disaster coming, though no one had ever believed me. They had dismissed my warnings as macabre, but innocent, childish fears when I was young. When I was older, they had tried to “help” me overcome my hysteria.\n\nThey could only ever numb me.\n\nI suppose that, in a way they did help me. The crushing hope that I had felt, that maybe this time they would listen, was long gone. And, with it, the crushing despair that came every time I failed.\n\nI stumbled onto one of the chairs, pressing myself awkwardly against the arm to avoid looking at the casket. I heard my father call my name repeatedly.\n\nI buried my face in my hands and pretended that I didn’t hear him. As he had pretended not to hear me when I had warned him that my mother would die, and, later, Helen.\n\n“Cass,” he said, again, gently laying one hand on my shoulder. “Are you alright?”\n\nOf course not. My twin is dead.\n\nI held back the reply and just shook my head. “I don’t want to see it,” was all I said. “I don’t want to see the body. I can’t –”\n\nI buried the words in my hands again, refusing to see.\n\n“Perhaps, she would like to sit in my office?” the funeral director asked, in a tone that was no doubt meant to be comforting. “I can’t imagine how horrifying this must be –”\n\n“I’ve got her,” came the calmer voice of the receptionist. “I’ll take care of her.”\n\nAn arm wrapped itself around my shoulders, and a warm hand gently tugged me out of the seat.\n\nAs soon as that hand landed on my arm, I felt the tightness in chest again. I knew that disaster would come to this woman, and soon.\n\nI had thought myself numb, but I knew that I had thought wrong. I grasped the hand tightly, and held on, as the sobs started.\n\n---\n\nIf you liked this story, please visit my subreddit r/YarnsToTell for more.", "There it is again. That feeling. My stomach drops. \n The same sensation is coursing through my body, recognizing someone's impending suffering. I've seen people lose a lot of things. It used to be small events at first. Like losing a key or a $20 bill. But then it started getting bigger. \n\nI was driving on the road and I saw someone get into an accident. I saw a friend of mine get served with divorce papers. I sensed people who spiraled into drug addiction. \n\nI can never do anything about it. Because even when I try to, they all look at me like I'm crazy. As if I should let fate run its course and stop interfering. \n\nI eye the person next to me. She's a petite brunette . She's in grey hoodie and matching sweatpants holding onto a tiny hand. Her son has chocolate brown hair that mirrors hers.\n\n\"Mom let's goooooo,\" he whines.\n\n\"Honey we have to wait for the little man remember.\"\n\n\"Hmph.\"\n\nHer phone buzzes.\n\n\"Wait one second.\" She lets go of her son's hand and picks up the phone.\n\nI feel sick. I start sweating and my feeling only intensifies. I'm getting so nervous. \n\n\"Ma'am.\" I tap her on the shoulder.\n\n\"Can't you see I'm on the phone? James, one second\" she scoffs.\n\n\"I think your son might go into the road.\"\n\n\"Are you really teaching me how to parent right now? How dare you-\"\n\n\"No no I just... I've seen things. I wouldn't want anything to happen.\"\n\n\"Is that a threat?\"\n\n\"No of course not! I just feel like he might try to walk across without you.\"\n\n\n\"Are you some kind of psycho?\"\n\nThe walk signal turns on and she grabs her son's hand. She gives me a pointed look and walks across. She keeps talking on the phone.\n\nI look at them and breathe a sigh of relief. Maybe.. maybe my instincts were off for once or it's something minor. \n\nBut her son breaks free of her grasp. And the truck is already speeding towards him. The driver tries to react but he does it too late.\n\nThe scene is so horrific. The driver is crouched over the steering wheel. Blood is seeping from his head onto the steering wheel. The windshield is in smithereens. The truck is crumpled up into the lamppost he swerved into in a feeble attempt to save the kid. \n\nAnd the poor little boy. He's on the ground with crimson blood pooling around his head. He has scratches from his skin against the asphalt. He's not going to make it. \n\nShe's screaming for help. She's crying.\n\n\"Please stay with me baby please don't leave me please please,\" she begs. \n\nShe slowly begins to take notice of me as I walk towards her. \n\n\"What are you? WHAT HAVE YOU DONE! You did something! I know you did something. You're trying to warn me about my kid and then this happens? You're a monster! YOU'RE A MONSTER!\" she wails\n\nI crouch onto the ground next to her. The stinging hot tears are already cascading down my cheeks. I let myself do something I haven't done in a long time. I cry. \n\n \n\n" ]	3
	[WP] A boy's morning, interrupted by a biohazard attack that engulfs his entire neighbourhood. He's somehow immune.	[ "Coughing.\n\nBlood Everywhere.\n\nIs that mom?\n\nMom please wake up.\n\nThe phone is not working.\n\nI don't know what to do.\n\nI can't carry mom, shes too heavy.\n\nIf only dad was here to help me...\n\nBad thoughts over bad thoughts, I cant do anything.\n\nIf I run for help, that means leaving her alone.\n\nNo.\n\nI can't.\n\nThere's no option.\n\nI go outside, scared.\n\nThe streets are empty, silence.\n\nNo cars, no people, no nothing.\n\nMore coughing, coming from everywhere but me.\n\nI grab my bike, I'm running red lights.\n\nI get to the hospital, thousands outside, all dying.\n\nEveryone is coughing, everyone is dying, everyone, everyone but me.\n\nDad always told me to count to 10 when having anxiety.\n\nIt used to work, but for some reason, this time it's not." ]	1
	[WP] One day nobody presses the button to cross the intersection, a crowd forms...	[ "I liked to watch them and compare\nThey milled around all day, purposeful sure, but distracted. \nTheir heads tilted down and yet somehow they never collided with anyone, but they were impacting everyone around them.\nThat day the first man had come to a stop next to the light\nI saw his hand slip, missing the button, but he did not notice.\nMore people continued to pile behind him as they gazed downward.\nWere any looking at the backpack? \nA man burst from the crowd with a phone in hand and I watched as he pressed a button. I was amazed that he Could do that without looking down.\nThe people weren’t there anymore and so I decided to go and eat. The carrion was fresh and the only downside was the smoke so it suited me fine. \nMotionless and warped, but still they seemed almost the same. \nThe backpack had gone, not that the people cared\nI saw a phone and tried to figure it out.\nMaking sure to press the button first I flew away this crow would not understand a phone, not on this day.\n", "The people against the road on the curb start looking around. Everyone thinks someone else will push the button. Nobody wants to come forward. Eyes are darting back and forth. Hairs raise on the back of necks and sweat pellets begin to pool. His palms are sweaty, knees weak, arms are heavy \nThere's vomit on his sweater already, mom's spaghetti\nHe's nervous, but on the surface he looks calm and ready \nTo drop bombs, but he keeps on forgettin' \nWhat he wrote down, the whole crowd goes so loud \nHe opens his mouth, but the words won't come out \nHe's chokin', how, everybody's jokin' now \nThe clocks run out, times up, over, blaow!\nSnap back to reality, oh there goes gravity \n\n\nHe smacks the button with all of his might. Countdown starts from 25. The pressure is too much and he jumps off the curb forward onto the street slithering under passing cars like a snake. He slides like water into a storm drain, where Shrek is waiting to cuddle under their moss blanket. \n\n" ]	2
	[WP] You're a rookie guard at Saint Michael Penitentiary, a prison designed specifically to hold supernatural monsters like vampires, werewolves, ghosts, etc. Today, the worst-case-scenario is happening: Code 999, full-scale security breach.	[ "It all happened so fast. Everyone thought Saint Michael Penitentiary was invincible, they were wrong.\n\nearlier\n\nXyphis walked the ground of hell and smiled. He looked at the ceiling placed above him. Satan's kingdom of hell would rise and he would face his age old adversary, God. He called all demons to the palace. every marquise, general, and knight of hell was there. He stood content. \"My brothers, for millennia he has waited for us! That cruel old man! The one they call God! Tonight we rise and face him and his legion of angels!\" he yelled. He called Satan's seven headed dragon. \"armageddon will come upon them!\"\n\nMichael felt as if something bad were to happen. The prisoners were strangely optimistic and HE was happy too. Satan was chained up, powerless but he knew what was to happen. Michael went to his cell. \"they're coming aren't they?\" he asked \"they'll be powerless against the lord.\" Satan kept quiet, aware of what was to happen.\n\nnow\n\nSatan proudly rode the dragon. \"WELL GOD!? MICHAEL IS DEAD, YOUR ANGELS ARE LAMB TO MY SLAUGHTER, YET YOU STILL SIT IN YOUR THRONE! FACE ME LIKE WE DID SO MILLENNIA AGO!\" he screamed madly. God came down. Satan chuckled \"still looking like an old man? change into your true form!\" God chuckled as well \"very well.\" his skin was torn off to reveal armor with a shadow where a face should be. \n\n\"I'm gonna make you feel the same pain as me!\" Satan said viscously. They clashed and shook the universe itself. \"I BEAT YOU BEFORE! I'LL BEAT YOU AGAIN!\" God yelled. \"YOU DON'T KNOW HALF THE POWER I WAS BUILDING IN HELL AND IN PRISON!\" Satan retaliated! Their endless power destroyed entire galaxies. The battle grew even bigger and bigger. Soon it was just the two of them. With a final blow God fell. Satan held his foot to his head while he lay dying. \"what's wrong, Can't defeat a minor demon?\" He retorted. He chucled then crushed his head with his foot. \"time to make my own civilization.\" he said.", "Infantry Training Centre Catterick, North Yorkshire, England\n\nCaptain Howell complacently lowers himself into the armchair.\n\n\"How are you doing, Private Carter?\" He gives me one of those cold smiles.\n\n\"I feel fine sir.\" I'm the only recruit who has been called to the captain's office. I know I'm in trouble.\n\n\"Good! Good. Take a seat.\" He makes a pause, still smiling at me, still not giving a fuck about me. \"Tomorrow's the big day! Last day of training.\" He takes a look at some papers on the desk in front of him. \"So you wanna join Air Assault Brigade, huh?\" He raises his eyebrows.\n\n\"Yessir.\" I hear the door squeaking behind me.\n\n\"Private Carter, I want to introduce you to someone.\" I hear the sound of steps coming into the room. A man passes me on my left and walks around the captain's desk. He stops and turns towards me, crossing his arms. \n\nCaptain Howell continues. \"This is Lieutenant Conelly.\" A small smirk on the man's face. Lieutenant Conelly looks like he came straight out of Top Gun. Weird thing is, he's not wearing a uniform. Instead, he's in a bloody suit. \"Lieutenant Conelly is here because of you, Private Carter.\" Now I'm the one raising eyebrows.\n\nConelly chimes in. His voice is deep, his facial expressions are pretty much non-existent and his eyes oddly never seem to blink. “I've read your file.”\n\n“Yeah, the boy is quite the sporty one, isn't he Lieutenant?” Captain Howell says with a slightly nervous smile.\n\n“I am more interested in the results of his medical examination.” Conelly calmly answers with his eyes still resting on me. “Private Carter, you're not going to join Air Assault Brigade.”\n\n“Sir?”\n\n“You are coming with me to Saint Michael's.”\n\n“What's that sir?”\n\n“A prison.”\n\n“A prison sir? Since when is the Army guarding prisons?”\n\n“This one we've been guarding for quite some time, Private. Pack your bags. You won't be attending tomorrow's farewell celebrations.”\n\n\n\n\nSaint Michael Penitentiary, confidential, England\n\nCorporal Adie is showing me around. He is in a suit as well, although it and his asymmetrical moustache could use some more care. He's chewing a gum, smacking it louder than he speaks. “Yeah, so this is central courtyard, that big building over there's the main cell block, that right there's the mess hall and that's the administration wing. Back there you got main gate with the guards' barracks but you've already seen those.” He pulls out his gum with one hand, takes a thorough look at it, shrugs his shoulders and puts it back in his mouth. “Where you from, er, what was your name again?”\n\n“Carter, sir. Bristol, sir.”\n\n“Stop that bloody sir-bullshit, you hear me? So, Bristol eh? Never been there. Nice there?”\n\n“Well, they have...”\n“Shut the bloody hell up Carter. I don't give a shit.” He waves at me to follow him again. “You'll be with me all day. Pay attention. Remember everything you see, it's a dangerous job. Tomorrow, you'll receive your keys and all the other stuff and then you'll be on your own.” He swears and spits his gum out while walking.\n\nI hesitantly begin to speak. “Where are all the inmates? Are they all inside the cell block?” \n\nCorporal Adie stops and turns around. He gives me a wide grin. “Oh, you'll see'em soon enough, kid.”\n\nSuddenly, the radio on his belt makes a loud crack, followed by an agitated voice. A man is shouting over the radio. “ATTENTION, THIS IS GOLF TWO! THIS IS GOLF TWO! ALL GUARDS REPORT TO FINAL GREEN! CODE 999! I REPEAT: CODE 999! THIS IS NOT A DRILL!” Then the radio transmission cuts out, and the courtyard is just as silent as before. \n\nI look at Corporal Adie. He is looking around the yard with narrow eyes, inaudibly forming the words 'What the fuck?' with his mouth. I take a look around as well. Nothing is moving. As far as I'm concerned, Adie and I might as well be the only people in the entire bloody prison. “Is that bad?”, I ask. “Is that an exercise? Shouldn't we be getting to that Final Green thing that guy talked about?”\n\n“Shut the fuck up Carter. Come with me. Stay close.” Adie starts running back the way we came towards the guards' barracks. In full sprint, he pulls his gun, constantly scanning our surroundings. We are nearing the barracks' main door, only around 50 metres left. Breathing heavily and trying to keep up, I take a look behind. The prison is still very calm in the reddish light of the evening sun. When I look forward again, Corporal Adie has disappeared. \nConfused, I slow down a little bit. Unharmed, I make it to the door. Just as I raise my arm to reach for the knob, it is opened from the inside. Another man in a suit is standing in the doorway, but only for a second. Then, with an expression of boundless horror on his face, he collapses. I look at him, lying down there. I shake him, but something tells me that he is already dead. Panic is rising inside of me. I look down the hallway behind him. I don't see anyone. But there is something else. The floor of the corridor appears somehow fluid. Like a Formula One racetrack on TV on a hot summer day. And it's slowly coming closer, creeping through the hallway. Instinctively, I slam the door shut. I try to think. They didn't give any equipment yet. I'm standing here in my bloody uniform, without a gun, without a radio, without anything. But how's a gun going to help me against that thing in there anyway. The other guard! The man collapsed backwards so he is lying inside the building, right behind the door. He should have a radio, right?\nI tear the door open again. I grab the lifeless body on both feet. I pull him out with a jerk and close the door again without daring to look down the corridor. Underneath the suit jacket, there is a gun and a radio on his belt, just like Corporal Adie's. I take both. I press the button to speak. “Hello? HELLO?! This is Private Carter, is there anybody on this net?” While speaking, I distance myself from the door. I try it again. “CAN ANYBODY FUCKIN' HEAR ME GODDAMMIT?!”, I shout over the radio while I make my way towards the main gate. “Where the fuck is everybody?!”, I say out loud. I came alone by train and bus. Corporal Adie had welcomed me outside the prison and then started showing me around. Coming to think of it, I hadn't seen anybody besides Adie and Mr. Dead Guy over there all day. \nI give the radio one last try. “Yo this is some fucked up shit right here. If nobody answers on here within the next minute, then I'm leaving.” My voice is trembling. I get no answer. How am I supposed to get out of here anyway? This is a prison after all. The walls around the main courtyard might well be over six metres high. Adie had to unlock countless security doors with some kind of card to get us in. \nThe fucking card! \nI need one of those bloody cards to get out. Holy fuck, what an idiot I am. I should have checked the other guy for one of them. I look back at the guards' barracks. They are now more than 150 metres away. The door is still shut, the man is still lying there. “Fuck it!” I say to myself. I raise the gun and approach the barracks once more. I scan the rest of the prison. No movement, the whole place seems dead. Halfway now, come on man, you can do it. \n\n“Hey Carter.” \nA calm voice. I hear it as if it were speaking directly into my right ear. I can even feel the breath. There is no doubt about it. It's Corporal Adie's voice. I stop dead in my tracks. As if in slow motion, I turn my head to the right. There is Adie. But he is standing in the middle of the fucking courtyard, almost 100 metres away from me. Adie is aiming his pistol at his own temple.\n\nMy voice is hardly more than a terrified whisper. “Are you alright Adie?”\n\n“You can save me Carter. Yes, you really can. You and me both. Come here kid. I can show you how.” Adie speaks monotonously and I can still hear him as if he were standing right next to me. He starts some kind of a repetitive chant. “Save me Carter. Save me Carter. Save me Carter. Do your job, private. Save me Carter. Save me Carter.” Suddenly, I see him beginning to come closer. But without moving any of his muscles. With the gun on his head, he is just sliding towards me. His voice is now screaming into my ears. \n\n“SAVE US, CARTER! SAVE US!” \n\nI take one last look at him. With tears in my eyes, I slowly shake my head. “I can't”, I say. “I'm sorry.” I run for the barracks. Without looking back, I rush to the guy on the ground. Frantically, I search his body for a security card. I find one, he was wearing it on a lanyard around his neck. I take it off him. I look up, knowing that I have to sprint back to the prison's main gate to get out. \n\n“SAVE US CARTER!” The voice is getting unbearably loud. Adie, or whatever that is, is still coming towards me. The same weird fluid phenomenon I saw in the barracks' hallway earlier is forming around him. I can make it to the gate if I start running now. I get back up. I gather all my courage. Someone grabs me by the ankle. I look down behind me. It's the fucking dead guy. But his face has changed. It's Lieutenant Connelly. \nThe voice is now a storm in my ears. I cover them in pain. Corporal Adie is quickly coming closer, his gun still pointing at his own head. He slides right up to me. We are nose to nose. \n\nSilence.\n\nAdie lowers the gun. His body relaxes. With a chuckle, he turns away from me. The dead guy behind me stands up. It really is Lieutenant Conelly. He straightens his suit.\nHe walks around the sweating, panting, whimpering figure that is me.", "St. Michael's Penitentiary looked like an old, abandoned mansion to those that did not possess the Sight. For those that did, it looked every bit the maximum security prison that it was. High concrete walls, watch towers, barbed wires were only the physical aspects of the security that place had. It took much, much more than that to hold back the supernatural inmates it housed. There were spells and curses enchanting every brick and nail of the place. There were rumors that ancient, nameless magical forces had been securing the place for eons, and that St. Michael had simply dumped his captives there and conjured up the walls. \n\nNo one really knew how or when the prison came into existence. As millennia passed, humans that possessed the Sight and benevolent creatures kept adding additional layers of security for their piece of mind. But one thing that everyone was sure about, was that no creature had ever broken out of there before.\n\nTherefore, when the ancient, magical sirens started wailing on the day of the Summer Equinox, none of the guards on duty knew what to make of it. They stopped in their tracks and looked at each other, nonplussed. Only when they heard the heard the howling of the feral werewolves did they snap out of their confusion. The unthinkable had happened. There was a breach in the prison security. \n\n\"Code 999. Code 999. All units to the control room,\" the voice of the prison commander boomed through the walkie-talkies. \n\nThe guards didn't need to be told twice. Their training manuals had described Code 999 as a full security breach. Abandoning their posts, they ran single file towards the basement that housed the control room. All around them, the still caged inmates were make gleeful, aggressive noises. \n\nIn the control room, the prison commander was studying the cameras intently. A part of him couldn't believe what he was seeing. One by one, the enchantments that held the prisoners were being undone. The screws were unscrewing themselves, the iron shackles were rusting and crumbling into dust, and the running water moat was freezing over. Tiny plants were sprouting between the crevices in the walls, and their roots were crushing through the concrete. \n\nThe commander calculated that the prison wouldn't last another ten minutes. Then every deranged creature would run out into the wild, unleashing their fury on the earth. He and the guards could put up a valiant effort to stop the creatures, but they would be crushed within minutes. There was some serious magic going on, and without a magician on their side, there was no way they could stop the creatures.\n\nThe reinforcements were still too far away. As the commander took a look at the young, scared guards running in to the basement, he decided not to endanger their lives unnecessarily. The guards would be more useful later on, when the reinforcements and army magicians would be around to help. \n\n\"All units, evacuate\" he yelled into his microphone. Hopefully, the guards would remember their training and regroup near the lake on their own. Grabbing a grenade, the commander ran towards the exit. He waited till the guards behind him ran out, and then threw the grenade towards it. The walls exploded and then caved in, barricading the exit. \n\nThe guards ran towards the lake automatically, and the commander followed after them, keeping up the rear guard. As some of the explosion dust settled, he made out a figure in the haze. He yelled at the guards to continue on their way, but himself stopped running.\n\nHe took cover behind a thorn bush, and peered through the gap in the branches. He saw an ancient, tiny woman standing and staring at the prison. As creature after creature poured out of the prison, they all ran past her without a second glance. It struck him that maybe only he was able to see her. \n\nWas she behind all this?, he wondered. If she was, then she was much more powerful than her frail body implied.\n\nAfter what seemed like ages, the wailing of the siren stopped, indicating that every inmate had either escaped the prison or died. The commander waited with anticipation, his eyes fixed on the woman. Why was she still there?\n\nJust as the question crossed his mind, the old lady started walking towards the prison ruins. There was a small glow emerging from there. The commander squinted to get a closer look. The glow was moving towards the old lady. When the two were together, the old lady wrapped her arms around the glow, and lifted it in her arms. \n\nThen she vanished.\n\nThe commander barely had time to register this, when he heard a thump behind him. Immediately drawing his weapon, he turned around.\n\nIt was the old woman. \n\nThe commander peed his pants. The old woman had an air of menace that was overwhelming. But more than that, it was the glowing thing she carried in her arms that made the commander sure that he was a dead man.\n\nThe thing was a young child, glowing eerily in the dark. Its eyes looked as though it had just woken up from a nap. \n\nThe old woman smiled indulgently at the child. Then she fixed her eyes on the commander. \"Michael's servant,\" she said, her voice hollow and ancient, \"your master's wish had come true. What he wished to germinate has borne fruit. Be grateful that you nurture his creation.\"\n\nShe old woman loosened her grip on the child. It hovered mid air for a few seconds, and then lunged at the commander. \n\nThe commander's screams filled the sky, the first casualty in the many to come.\n\n \n\n\n\n \n\n" ]	3
	[WP] you are one of the least known super heroes, of course, this is due to your three powers: You don't have an issue killing super villains, you have access to weapons and you do not need to listen to their monologues.	[ "I forced my eyes open groggily, looking up to the monitor towering over me that was bleeping rudely. I instinctively cleared away the previous nights mess off the desk, and clicked on the blinking light. \n______________________\nName: Jonathan Jameson.\n\nMutation: Mind Control.\n______________________\n\n\nShit. The mutation array had detected four individuals with mind control last year alone. They had all turned bad in weeks. There is something about that sort of power over others that corrupts people. \n\nI had better get to work. This guy was just waking up, unaware of his new power. A few lethargic taps of the keyboard, and the secondary monitor told me that Jameson was an office worker. Office workers were usually the fastest to figure out what they had, they're often sat around doing nothing, the mind tends to wander. He's on a low salary too... plus his browsing history is telling. A lot of fantasy fulfillment, big houses, fancy cars, a lot of scantily clad men and women. I push myself away from the desk and sink the stale coffee besides the keyboard with a grimace and head to the equipment locker. \n\nI was so hopeful. He had almost made it. He figured it out after the first three days. He told a coworker to \"eat a dick\", and she immediately started trying to bite his dick off. It didnt take long after that. It started slowly, he got some free drinks at a bar, then he got tired of buying people drinks and just told them to follow him home. He was already abusing his power, and he had to die. \n\nJameson had gone out at the same time he had for the last two weeks. He'd probably be raping men again. I slipped in through the back door using the key i had cut a week earlier. I swept the house, removing my cameras, recording devices, and 'last resort' explosives, storing them in the black duffel bag slung across my back, and removing a suppressed pistol, and a small auto-injector. I stood behind the door for two hours before I heard the distinctive sound of the brand new Porsche rolling up the drive way. Two sets of footsteps. The lock clicks open and the door swings in, shielding me from Jameson and his latest victim. As the unknown man turns to shut the door, my auto-injector is in his neck delivering Etorphine into his blood stream. He crumples. Jameson turns.\n\n\"Who are y-\"\n\nThe pistol is already leveled, the trigger pulled. The bullet travelling through Jamesons top lip before he can finish his last evil sentence. \n\nI search through the unknown males pockets and make an emergency call on his phone and leave it dialing. I take a sample of blood from the mutant before exiting through the same way I came in.\n\nThere is a small segment on it the next morning. Law enforcement called it a domestic incident. The main story was still Captain Iron Shield foiling a bank robbery the previous week. They were interviewing the bank staff, getting their sparkling opinion on the captains handsome good looks and speculating on his identity between footage of the criminals dramatic explanation of how the system had failed them. The cap' is a good guy, I raise my four fingers of whiskey to the monitor and drink to his name. " ]	1
	[WP] Multiverse theory has been proven, and you, a scientist, have created a device that deflects any injury you sustain to another version of you. You come home one night, only to find several other versions of you in your living room, highly pissed off.	[ "\"Bill, I'm just saying, we're not amused.\"\n\nThe wall of faces stared back at me impassively. I blinked.\n\nIt was a dream, of course. At least, I was pretty sure that it was. My research had just hit another breakthrough the week before - I'd been pulling quite a number of all-nighters.\n\nEven still, a dream like this wasn't something I'd expected.\n\nThe room I'd woken up in was full of...me. Dozens of versions of me. Hundreds. And they each had one thing in common - gauze and plaster.\n\n\"I don't know what you're talking about,\" I said, smiling anxiouly. A bead of sweat dripped down my spine.\n\n\"Don't play stupid,\" the me closest to...me said. His arm was wrapped in a cast. I remembered that - a tumble while skiing. Or was it the bicycle accident from last month?\n\nIt was hard to tell. Ever since I'd figured out how to access the parallel universes around me, shunting my injuries off onto their misfortunes, I'd really expanded my horizons as far as high-adventure activities were concerned. Why not?\n\n\"I'm not playing stupid,\" I said, smiling.\n\n\"Right. Of course you're not,\" he said, glaring daggers at me.\n\n\"Is that how you want to play this?\" one of me farther back said. His hand was wrapped in bandages. Cooking. I was never any good with knives.\n\nI shrugged helplessly. \"I'm not playing any-\"\n\n\"Fine,\" he spat. They all stood as one, still staring at me.\n\n\"...What?\" I said, nonplussed. \"What's this, now?\"\n\n\"Don't say we didn't warn you,\" he said, smiling crookedly at me. \"We tried.\"\n\n\"Good luck,\" the one with the broken arm said, sneering across the room. \"You're going to need it.\"\n\n---\n\nMy eyes snapped open, revealing the ceiling above me. \n\nWell, that was weird.\n\n\nI pushed myself out of bed, grabbing my phone. It beeped. I froze, hitting the button on the side.\n\nThe symbol for the battery blinked on the screen, bright red and empty. I swore under my breath.\n\nCable must have fallen out the night before. Just my fucking luck.\n\nAnd we were out of milk, too, I noticed as soon as I pulled the fridge open. My irritation rose. I'd have to pick some up on the way to work.\n\nThose plans were hastily cut short by the sound of my tire blowing halfway down the freeway. I pounded on the steering wheel as I hiccuped to the shoulder.\n\nAnd my spare was flat. I stared at it, the gears in my head beginning to turn.\n\nA horn blared, loud and angry. A truck was going past - no.\n\nI turned on pure instinct, running for the grassy slope alongside the freeway as the lumber poured from the semi passing by. The safety straps hung limp and dangling, finally worn through by years of abuse.\n\nI made it - barely, but I did. And as I stared at my car, half-demolished by the chunks of wood stabbed through it in half a dozen places, I thought. Really thought.\n\nThis morning.\n\nThis morning wasn't right. It wasn't reasonable. No one was this unlucky. It wasn't normal.\n\nThe memory of that room, of all those faces sneering back at me, hung in my mind.\n\nI was a researcher. I studied the multiverse. Parallel universes, occupied by people just like me.\n\nTheoretically, they were probably pretty damn good researchers, too.\n\nTheir parting words hung in my mind as I stared aghast at my car, the blood draining from my face.\n\nGood luck.\n\n(/r/inorai, critique always welcome!)" ]	1
	[WP] We lost to our alien overlords, but not without using most of our nuclear arsenal. They didn't like that. As 'reparations', 1 mil. each of our most fit men and women must be sent to them each year for soldiers. Today, you got your draft letter.	[ "\"The Conscription Command of the United Confederacy, acting on legitimate mandate, in conformity with the agreed reparations due to the peoples of Planet Earth, as established by the Treaty and United Decree of Zurich, hereby requests you,\n\nJack Hugh Morris,\n\ncitizen of the United States of America, of the Planet Earth,\n\nto join the conscripted forces of your planet; to be sent to serve along the ranks of loyal galactic soldiers; to appear before your closest military delegation of the United Confederacy within twenty-four planetary hours; to swear your oath of allegiance to the United Confederacy which, after suffering the uncalled and untold tragedy of nuclear decimation, mercifully concedes your capitulated planet a noble way to serve the superior cause.\n\nSigned,\n\nWe, the Peoples of the United Confederacy.\"\n\nI held the letter in my hand. It didn't shake. It didn't move for fifteen minutes. My breathing was slow, I think, calm. The command was certainly not expected. No one expects the random draw of military lottery - there were one million people drafted every year, of course, and you are always hearing of them, but even one million picks among the larger universe of a billion or so humans fit for service gives you a rather improbable odd - but I took the news with the same eery calm of one who just starts accelerating down a particularly steep rollercoaster. You're already strapped in, stuck between the fast descent and a steel capsule, and whatever happens will happen - whether you feel nervous or excited. I felt neither. The path ahead was clear and settled. The last resort of human resistance in the War of bygone days had guaranteed a permanent source of units to the army above us, hovering ever silently above out atmosphere and at the edge of our minds. I had no choice but to serve for them. With them. So serve I would.\n\n*****\n\n/r/Camberlot*" ]	1
	[WP]You are an angel on earth. Your human love has been sent to prison, despite being innocent. In your desperation and anger you use your wings to watch over him. But the anger you feel for them is turning your wings black. Today your love is released, but you're terrified to meet them like this	[ "I'd missed the gentle touch of this breeze and the tiny rain drops that were now beginning to fall. Everything feels different inside the prison walls.What I'd missed most however, was the touch of her skin. The only reason I'd endured the last few years; hadn't offed myself in prison was because I knew I'd return to her. And yet I stand outside the prison walls alone; her, nowhere to be seen.\n \nShe'd been watching over me since the day I went in. Despite never seeing her, I knew. When one of the inmates in an attempt to stab me dropped his shank in front of the guard or another in an attempt to douse me in boiling water slipped and dropped the bucket on himself; it had to have been her. If not for her I would never have made it out. So where was she now on the day we could finally hold each other again.\n\n&nbsp;\n\nHe's supposed to be released today. And here I am on the roof of our apartment building cowering. Imagining what he would think of me when he sees me like this? I open my wings and stretch them in front of me. Where once were soft white feathers are now black quills that feel like burned coal. What would he say? I'd already betrayed Him by falling in love with a human. Is this my punishment for bringing those who did us wrong to justice? No. They deserved it.\n\nTears are now rolling down my cheeks.\n\nPerhaps. No. Maybe this is the only way. What if I tear them off? Could I tear them off? I couldn't let him see me like this. The pain would be worth it.\n\n&nbsp;\n\nAs I ponder how I would go about tearing out my own wings, I feel a gentle embrace as arms tightly wrap around my waist. \n\n\"I missed you.\" I don't want to hold back the tears anymore. \n\n\"I didn't want you to see me like this.\" \"Like how?\" \n\nI break free from his embrace and open my wings and make them visible for him to see. \n\n\"And?\"\n\n\"Do you not see? These are not the wings of an angel.\" I shout.\n\n\"What difference does it make what color your wings are?\" He puts an arm around my back and the other to the back of my head and pulls me towards him.\nOur lips meet and I do not resist. I do not care. I feel no guilt. He lets go after a few seconds and as I glance again at my wings I see white.\n\n", "He was released near midnight.\n\nSilent and hidden in the shadows, she watched him with longing and embarassment. But she had convinced herself that - no matter what - he couldn't see her. Not yet...\n\nNot like this.\n\nHe seemed...different somehow. More muscular, for sure, but... there was also sunken quality to his features as if he hadn't been eaten well.\n\nIt took every ounce of willpower to restrain herself from flying to him and giving him the love she so intimately knew he needed.\n\nWhat have they done to you, baby?\n\nA lick of anger flickered inside of her and she ruffled her feathers in annoyance. \n\nHe was passed the prison gates now - lingering around in the area where the inmates got picked up by friends and family.\n\nNo one was waiting for him. She felt simply awful.\n\nNearby was a bus stop for inmates who didn't have friends or family to pick them up. But he ignored it, continuing to stand there in the dark as the wind forced him to put his hands in his pockets.\n\nShe lowered her brows and tilted her head to the side. What's wrong with you?! What are you doing?\n\nAnother bus came in. The bus driver waited, even opened the door and yelled: \"You getting on? It's the last bus until morning.\"\n\n\"It's alright,\" her love said. \"Someone's coming to pick me up.\"\n\n\"Are you sure?\" The driver asked.\n\nOn the outside, she was calm and composed as a statuette. But on the inside, she was mentally screaming: Get on the bus! You're going to get sick. \n\nBut of course he couldn't hear her...\n\nFinally, the bus driver drove off. \n\nAnd all that was left was her love...\n\n...and her.\n\nSuddenly, he lifted his head to the sky with closed eyes and a smile, and called out, \"I know you're there. I don't know why you're hiding from me, but I would very much like to see you right now.\"\n\nHer heart stopped. Should see? She felt nervous, and then felt silly for feeling nervous. She had sparred with angels and had slain demons, for crying out loud! Yet this...this...human was making her feel like a teenage school girl!\n\nAnd then a voice inside her said: It's because I love him. That's why.\n\nShe went to him - consequences be damned.\n\nAs she landed, he opened his eyes at her and smiled. As she feared, his eyes shifted to her wings, and narrowed. The smile dropped.\n\n\"What happened?\" he demanded.\n\n\"I...\"\n\nHe stepped forward and grabbed her shoulders, forcing his face in the view of her eyes. Forcing her to see him. \"Who hurt you?\"\n\nStartled by his sudden aggression, her hand fell to the hilt of her sword. \"No one,\" she answered.\n\n\"Then what happened to your wings?\"\n\nShe averted her eyes. \"I sacrificed my holiness.\"\n\nHe let her shoulders loose. \"Why?\" Confusion layered his face and his voice. \n\n\"To protect you...\"\n\n\"You shouldn't have,\" he said quietly.\n\n\"Well how about a thank you!\" She screamed.\n\n\"What?\" The confusion grew. His brows furrowed. \"Wait, I didn't mean...\"\n\nShe held her hand up to silence him. \"I don't want to hear it. Where do you want to eat? You look like they've been starving you in there.\"\n\nHe chuckled. \"Starving would have been better than the slop they serve in there,\" he joked.\n\nShe didn't laugh.\n\nHe picked up his knapsack and slung it over his shoulders, walking over and hesitating before grabbing her hand, and attempting another apology. \"Look, I don't know what you thought I mea-\"\n\n\"Save it,\" she cut him off, grabbing his hand tighter. \"Are you ready?\"\n\nHe searched her eyes, then nodded.\n\nShe tensed, then leapt into the air with him, and they took off.\n\n~~~\n\nMeanwhile, two more figures materialized out of the shadows as well. A male and female demon. Both had black wings, too.\n\n\"Well, the human is out,\" said the male.\n\nThe female giggled and stared up at the sky, after them. \"The mortal is quite attractive. I see what she sees in him.\"\n\nThe male glowered.\n\nThe female shrieked with high peals of laughter and placed her palm on his chest. \"You are too jealous, Gorgon. You know my heart belongs to you always.\"\n\nHe grunted and stood.\n\n\"And where do you think you're going?\" she questioned playfully.\n\n\"To kill him. With or without you.\"\n\nShe stood in an instant, eyes no longer reflecting mischief or lust, but horror. \"But Lucifer said...\"\n\n\"With or without you,\" he repeated, taking off into the night.\n\n\"Lucifer have mercy on us...\" she murmured, taking flight after him. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n" ]	2
	[WP] You are a waiter for an upscale bar who is very pleasant and well liked among the patrons. Little do you know that the bar caters to members of gangs, mobs, mafia, etc... Today you find out as well as find out how well like you are.	[ "It was late, almost three in the morning, and the bar would be closing soon. I glanced up from the register as I finished closing out one of the last tabs on the screen. $366 for only two people I thought to myself, \"I wish I could afford to drink like this even one night of the year, let alone every Friday night.\" Yet looking over the few lingering customers, you could tell this seemed normal for them. The largest table, a table of seven in the back left, had been casually slamming shots of Patron Gran Burdeos Anejo for the last hour. I shook my head and headed over to turn the lights back on and signal the beginning of close to our customers.\n\n\"C'mon!\" I heard a man shout from the back left corner. \"We just got here! Give us a few more minutes, Kane!\"\n\nHearing him address me by name I looked up with a smirk, instantly recognizing the tone and delivery of the line I heard almost every night from one of our regulars. \"I'm sorry about this Paul,\" I jokingly shot back as the couple I just rang out signed the tab and began to leave. \"...but you know how we have to stick to our schedule...\" My sentence trailed off as the couple stood to exited and I was finally left alone with the group of seven.\n\nPaul stood up and sauntered over to the bar with his empty shot glass in hand. \"Again, Kane, really?\" His gaze followed followed towards the couple as they stepped through the door.\n\n\"Ah, well.\" I flashed him a grin. \"You've always been great to me. I'll let you stick around for a bit while I wrap things up.\" I reached under the bar and pulled out a half empty bottle of Jose Cuervo 250 Aniversario. \"Here, let me see your glass.\"\n\nPaul eagerly placed it down on the bar. \"Man, I like you, Kid. If you ever need anything let me know.\" He offered me a warm smile as I poured him a shot of our most expensive tequila.\n\n\"Anything?\" I asked with a joking note in my voice.\n\nPaul quickly knocked back the shot. \"Anything.\"\n\n ----------------------\n \nAn hour and a half later, we'd finally closed the shop up. Paul and his friends had stuck around for another thirty minutes before saying their goodbyes and leaving a very, very nice tip. With my pockets padded from the night, I shrugged my coat on and headed out into the cold streets of New York City to walk the few blocks home to my apartment.\n\nNormally I feel pretty safe walking around in my neighborhood, but with over a grand in cash tips from tonight on me I felt like a prime target for mugging. It might have been how I was walking, or how I was clutching at my wallet, but trouble found me that night. As I rounded the first corner on my way home three men stepped out of the alleyway in front of me. One reached into his waistband and pulled out a glock, racking the slide back and raising it level with my chest. \"Hey hey hey, where you goin' so fast there?\" He said, stepping towards me. His friends circled around behind me, trapping me on the side of an empty street.\n\n\"I-I was just-\"\n\n\"About to donate your money to us needy folks so we could get a bite to eat, eh?\" The man interrupted me, offering a gold-toothed smirk. One of his goons stepped up and grabbed hold of my right arm, yanking it back and pushing me up against a wall faster than I could pull away. \"If ya struggle, this can get real messy, real fast. So don't fight it, alright?\"\n\nHis other goon started grabbing at my pockets, checking for valuables, while the one who had my arm started fiddling with my watch clasp. As per his instruction I didn't resist. They took nearly everything I had on me, including my coat, and I was left to walk home freezing cold.\n\n----------------------\n\nThe next day as I showed up to work pondering if it was even worth it to go through the hassle of reporting the crime the night before- I knew the police wouldn't be able to do anything about it- I walked into a busy bar as usual. However, Paul was there a lot earlier than he normally was. He saw me come in and gestured me over. \"How was the rest of your night Kane?\"\n\n\"Absolute shit,\" I let him know. \"These dirt bags-\" \n\nPaul cut me off with a dismissive wave. \"Don't you worry about it, Kane. A friend of mine,\" He reached over to a seat beside him, lifting a square box about a foot wide and handing it to me. \"..gets taken care of.\" And with that he gave me a wink and headed towards the door. \"See you tonight!\" He put his hat on and headed out onto the street.\n\nI headed into the back and opened the box up. Inside was my coat, phone and wallet, all neatly arranged inside. And sitting on-top of my wallet was a zip-lock bag filled with gold teeth.\n\n----------------------\n\n First reply on writing prompts! Feedback and criticism appreciated!", "I slid behind the bar at Francesco's, still smoothing my hair. \"I'm so sorry, Michael,\" I said. \"I left my apartment on time, I promise, but--\"\n\n\"I don't care, Liz,\" Michael said, reaching for a bottle of champagne. Automatically, I started laying out flutes on a tray. \"Take this to Bianchi's table. There's six of them; they only just got seated.\"\n\nMr. Bianchi was here? I wish I'd seen him when I'd come in; I would have felt a lot less nervous. Not waiting for the foam to recede on the champagne, I swept up the tray and hurried across the floor to Mr. Bianchi's usual table, recessed somewhat apart from the rest of the room.\n\n\"Ah, Elizabeth!\" He smiled broadly as I approached. He was the only person who ever called me Elizabeth, other than my abusive asshole of a father, but somehow I didn't mind. When Mr. Bianchi said my name, it was the way my father should have said it all my life--kind, comforting, full of warmth and pride, serving as a reclamation of sorts. Of course, I could never tell him that. He added, \"Where have you been?\"\n\n\"I got held up. I'm really sorry I missed out on you arriving,\" I said, putting down the flutes. Mr. Bianchi had a very specific set of formalities he expected of his servers; he was always to be served first, followed by the person on his right side, the person on his left, the person two seats down on the right, the person two seats down on the left, and so on. His bodyguard, Angelo, was served last, though he always stood behind Bianchi, hands folded over each other.\n\n\"I'm sure,\" Mr. Bianchi said, gesturing to the young man on his right: his son, Marco. \"But not for my sake, eh? Marco is only just back from Philadelphia. You will not believe me, but it was his idea to come to Francesco's tonight!\"\n\nMarco flushed as I gave him his champagne, but I laughed. \"He must have heard we've just acquired a bottle of the 2008 Cabernet Sauvignon from Esposito Vineyards.\"\n\n\"Ever the saleswoman.\" Mr. Bianchi raised his glass of champagne to the center of the table. \"To Marco and his success in Philadelphia!\"\n\nThe other men chinked their glasses together--Angelo raised his silently behind them for the smallest sip. One of them, Mr. Romano--a frequent associate of Mr. Bianchi's--said, \"Elizabeth, the cozze alla posillipo for the table, please, and 2008 Esposito.\"\n\n\"Of course!\" Taking up the empty flutes, I hurried to the back to punch in the order. And as Michael prepared to open the Esposito, I stepped in the bathroom. I could feel tears coming, but couldn't let them take over--Mr. Bianchi and his friends were some of my best customers, and I couldn't let them see how upset I was. Glaring at my reflection, I said, \"Get it together, Liz,\" and slapped myself hard on either cheek before splashing cold water on my face.\n\nI was back just in time to carry out the Esposito and a sextet of glasses. Mr. McCandles, the only non-Italian of the group, lifted the glass to the light to swirl it. \"Beautiful\" he remarked, winking at me.\n\nI winked back, he was always flirting but he never meant anything by it. \"The cozze alla posillipo will be out in a moment,\" I said. \"Are you ready to order your entrees, gentlemen?\"\n\n\"That depends on what the chef's specialty is tonight,\" said Mr. Mancini. He was by far the oldest of the group, and the hardest to please; he was eyeing the Esposito as if still making up his mind about the quality. When he was pleased, though, he tipped better even than Mr. Bianchi.\n\nI froze. I had come in so quickly that I hadn't even asked Michael about the specials, even though Mr. Mancini always asked. How could I have been so forgetful? \"I'm sorry,\" I began, feeling my shell of poise begin to crack. \"I'll have to check that for you.\" I had never had to check before, not at four-star Francesco's. If management found out, I was sure to be reprimanded. I felt my shell crack further.\n\nMr. Mancini stared at me, but Mr. Bianchi spoke first. \"Elizabeth, are you well? You seem...out of sorts.\"\n\n\"Yes, of course, Mr. Bianchi.\" My voice wasn't very convincing.\n\nMr. Bianchi gestured to Angelo. \"A chair for Elizabeth,\" he said. Marco was already standing, guiding me to his seat and taking the new one next to me. \"Now, Elizabeth,\" Mr. Bianchi continued. \"I like to think I patron Francesco's often enough to have earned enough confidence to say that you are not well. What's going on?\"\n\nBehind the bar, Michael was staring at me in horror, and the other waiters were slowly turning to look as well. Francesco's wasn't some midwest diner where waiters sat down with customers. Horribly embarrassed, I could think only of the truth. \"My dad pulled me over today,\" I said. \"That's why I was late. He's a cop, and...we don't talk. It's...it's a long story...but he's been wanting to talk again. And I've said no because...\" I took a deep breath. I couldn't begin to tell them about why I'd cut my dad out of my life. \"I wasn't even speeding. But he said he's going to keep pulling me over, because he has a right to talk to me and it's the only way he has to make me listen...I'm sorry. I really thought I could focus.\"\n\n\"Elizabeth,\" Mr. Bianchi said softly. His usual jovial expression was now filled with gravity, and something else I had never seen before. \"I am very sorry to hear this. Can you report him?\"\n\nI shook my head. \"I used to report him for other things. The chief always sweeps it under the rug.\"\n\nBianchi nodded and glanced across the table to Mr. Mancini. \"Giovanni, are Leo and Luca working tonight?\"\n\n\"They are available,\" Mr. Mancini said.\n\nMr. Bianchi turned back to me. \"Your last name is Terrence, yes? And this is your father's last name as well?\"\n\n\"Yes,\" I said. \"What does--\"\n\nMr. Bianchi gestured to Angelo, who stepped forward as if he had been waiting to be summoned. \"I will leave the precise details to your own judgment, Angelo,\" he said. \"Leo and Luca will do everything you need them to. Please be back before one o'clock to take myself and Marco home.\"\n\n\"Of course, Mr. Bianchi.\" Angelo didn't even glance at me before striding out.\n\n\"And for you, Elizabeth,\" Mr. Bianchi continued, \"I would very much like to call you a taxi, but I think it will be to your benefit to stay here for a few more hours, in case you are questioned as to your whereabouts during tonight's...events.\" Waving over another waiter, he said, \"Please bring another glass for Elizabeth, and then we will want to hear the specialties. Elizabeth, may I recommend the vitello saltimbocca? I find it is the best thing to distract me after a difficult day.\"", "Jep couldn't believe what he was seeing. Mr Black was asking, instead of telling. Mr Black never asked anyone for anything; he just told you what he needed and you made it happen. Jep had heard that even the Grandfather walked small around Mr Black. And not by anyone special, just some punk waiter!\n\n\"Why don't you stick around for a minute and have a drink with us?\"\n\n\"Sorry, you know the rules. I can't stop at any one table for long when the bar is this busy.\"\n\n\"Yeah alright Nathan, I know the rules. If there's anything I know, it's rules.\"\n\nSuddenly it clicked into place for Jep. \"So that's Nathan? The Nathan?\" he asked, \"The old boys talk about him like some sort of god. Like he knows everything. You think he knows who painted Jinny all wet? That's why we're here, right?\"\n\nMr Black scowled, and Jeps felt his entire body stiffen in dread. He shouldn't have been that forward with his boss. Nobody talked to Mr Black that familiar. Likely, it was the last mistake he'd ever make. \n\nBut surprisingly, Mr Black just answered the question, \"Nathan doesn't know anything about that. Talk to the fella in red near the door if you want to know who did what. Or the fella in gray near the stage. But be careful, because everyone will know you know.\n\n\"No. Look. Everybody in this room can tell you how to set up a drop, or how to break a safe, or how to get blood out of a silk shirt. Nathan, he can tell you how to get vinegar out.\"\n\nNathan appeared, putting their drinks on the table. \"Rubbing alcohol. Put a little on a Q-tip and dab, don't brush. And dry it with a paper towel each time. Then clean it with water. Again, dab don't brush.\"\n\nJep's eyes went wide. This guy had been listening in. Jeb didn't have the balls to do that to a street-level soldier. And here Nathan was eavesdropping on Mr Black.\n\nNathan turned to Jep. \"You came in with that new Benzo, right? I'd change out those tints, you get pulled over and a bad day is gonna be a bad month.\"\n\nJep felt his hand inch toward his piece.\n\nMr Black stopped him with a slight twitch of his lip. \"He's not threatening you. He's telling you.\"\n\n\"No worries then, it's all on the up. Passed inspection last month.\"\n\n\"That's the thing. They loosened the rules this year. You don't need inspections anymore, just smog checks. I think the cops like it like that. Now they can pull you over for any stupid thing. Whoever's doing your inspection screwed you. Probably charged you, what, hundred bucks? There's a little place called Safety Express on 12th next to the Arby's. Ten dollars, in and out in five minutes.\"\n\nJep thought he was starting to understand why people liked this guy. He had driven Grandfather in that car before! What would've happened to him if they had gotten pulled over for illegal windows?\n\n\"So, turns out it's not as busy as I thought. Everybody's got their drinks, but no one's ordering food,\" said Nathan.\n\nJep scratched the back of his head, \"Yeah, well, I can't really afford to eat here.\"\n\n\"Of course you can't! I know I can't,\" said Nathan, \"Geez, what is it with you people? It's like, gas station burritos or dinner at Le Remy, nothing in between. Alright, I'm going to make one more round, and then we're going to talk about grocery stores.\"\n\nAfter he walked off, Mr Black said in a low voice, \"Nathan is maybe the only person you've ever met with two parents who love him. He's got health insurance. He's got a concealed carry permit for a legal firearm. He's got a 401k. Basically, he knows all the stuff that you and I would know if we didn't have an absolute shit life. That's what we mean when we say Nathan knows things.\"" ]	3
	[WP] You and your guardian angel have been dating for a while. You want to go further and make it official, but you're worried about the inevitable parental meeting.	[ "He smiled, flashing me those adorable freaking dimples of his as he turned to go. \"See you later, Kate.\"\n\n\"Wait.\"\n\nI still had his hand in my mine and I refused to let it go. \n\nHe waited. Of course. Like, duh. I'm bae.\n\nHowever, at the moment I was going through an major internal meltdown. Just as soon as I had thought of letting him come inside to meet my parents, I had changed my mind back just as quick. \n\nMy parents would flip. \n\nOkay, okay...Mom maybe not so much...\n\nBut Dad?! Mr. \"I-Used-To-Be-A-Boxing-Champion-In-My-Imagination-Though-I'll-Never-Admit-It?\" I love my Dad to death, but I was there when he spray painted his old pair of red boxing gloves gold, and started claiming that he had won the Golden Gloves when he was younger. He just thinks I dont remember because I was four...\n\nBut I can just imagine how the scene will play out if I bring my boyfriend inside. Dad will look him up and down, ask him if he can fight, not wait for an answer, leave the room, come back with two pairs of boxing gloves - one gold and one red, hand Michael the red ones, tell him to put them on and meet him in the back, where Dad will proceed to square up, throw the first punch...\n\n...and get totally annihilated.\n\nSee, Michael isn't a regular 6'8 brolic teenager with wavy gold hair and literally the bluest eyes you've ever seen.\n\nMichael is an angel. And I don't mean because he's sweet and thoughtful and kind and....\n\nNo.\n\nI mean a literal angel.\n\nI sighed and let go of his hand. \"Nevermind. I wanted you to meet my parents but my Dad...\" I trailed off, shook my head and left it at that.\n\n\"I want you to meet my Dad, too, but you'd literally have to die first.\" He cracks a grin that instantly cheers me up.\n\nWe laugh.\n\nA bit too loudly.\n\nThe front door opens and who else would it be standing in the doorway in nothing but their wife beater and boxers?\n\nI smiled nervously and scooched away from Michael. \"H-Hi Dad...\"\n" ]	1
	[WP] The year is 2027, you are a young 19 year old who has been drafted to a Mars colony.	[ "Two hundred years after the year 2027, the diary of Nin was recovered from the ruins of Mars. These are the contents. \n\n&nbsp;\n\nDay 1: I've been drafted. Shit, shit, shit. The Mars colony, I've heard stories. The originals... The first people who went there, they died in just a week. The reality television show they broad-casted... It turned out, Mars wasn't as empty as we thought. No, there were creatures living there... And our presence there, it declared a war. We kept sending people there, more military personal as those creatures held knowledge and materials us humans could only dream of. Heck, our best AI can only barely beat our brightest minds. \n\n&nbsp; \n\nDay 2: I got into a fight with my parents today. They saw that I was ranting about this stupid drafting in this diary. They were saying things like \"it's an honour to fight for your country\" and \"don't screw this up for us\". Why am I the one that ended up with parents like that?! Other people have their parents crying with their children being sent of to a military colony, and mine just tell me to not screw it up for them! They get the money, and what do I get?! The chance to get myself killed by foreign creatures! I go for training tomorrow... I hope they find something wrong with me so I don't have to go... \n\n&nbsp;\n\nDay 3: I guess God really doesn't exist. I prayed and prayed that I would have some sort of issue with me, meaning I can't travel to space. There's none. Absolutely none. In fact, the examiner was so surprised I got separated from everyone else! Apparently, I am a 'perfect' specimen. Too perfect. Thus, my conclusion. Too tired to write anymore, they poked and prodded me everywhere. \n\n&nbsp;\n\nPlease note, we have added '...' to all blank entries. \n\n&nbsp; \n\nDay 4: ... \n\n&nbsp; \n\nDay 5: ... \n\n&nbsp;\n\nDay 6: It seems I was knocked out for two days while they did something to me. Not that they told me what it was they did. All they said was 'this will help you in the future'. What the heck does that mean? Have they turned me into some sort of shitty human weapon? If they have, I'll kill the lot of them and run away! At least, that's what I wish I could do. Even if they did do that, they'd have made some sort of protective measure for themselves. My life is horrible. \n\n&nbsp;\n\nDays 7-20 of Nin's Diary were lost due to data corruption. \n\n&nbsp; \n\nDay 21: We made it to Mars. On the way here, my parents stopped messaging me. Probably because I told my father to shove it up his arse. I don't think he was too impressed. Well, it felt good to say it. He was a prick. Though Samuel seems to dislike me for my relationship with my parents. I wonder why? It's not like it's my fault they're horrid people. \n\n&nbsp;\n\nDay 22: Too tired. \n\n&nbsp;\n\nDay 23: Too tired. \n\n&nbsp;\n\nDay 24: I killed my first creature today... I wish I could say I felt something, I really do. But the disgusting thing is just too ugly.. It looks like a leech crossed with a puffer fish and a deer. Even that description is putting it lightly, I think. \n\n&nbsp;\n\nDays 25 to 30 were lost due to data corruption \n\n&nbsp; \n\nDay 31: Screw these creatures... The first time they actually communicate with words after ten years, and it's to tell us to kill ourselves... Either that or be tortured to death. They caught Samuel and they said they would demonstrate on him soon. It's a lie, right? They have to be bluffing. \n\n&nbsp; \n\nDay 32: That scene... I don't want to describe it... Maybe it would be better to just kill ourselves... \n\n&nbsp;\n\nDay 33: Hahaha. I'm a mad hatter, down in a ditch. Laughing does nothing, but causes a stitch! \n\n&nbsp;\n\nDay 34: ... \n\n&nbsp;\n\nDay 35: ... \n\n&nbsp;\n\nDay 36: ... \n\n&nbsp; \n\nDay 37: According to those that are left, I went crazy for a bit. They locked me in a room, trying to calm me down. I wonder why I'm better now? \n\n&nbsp; \n\nDay 38: Another death. They're sending reinforcements now. Not that they'll help. It's just more cannon fodder. \n\n&nbsp; \n\nDays 39 to 50 have been lost due to data corruption. \n\nDay 51: I'm the last one left of this batch... I realised it now, what these creatures are. It was so obvious, but no-one ever wants to believe it. They are remnants... The last of their civilization. \n\n&nbsp; \n\nDay 52: One of the creatures has come into the facility. It's not here to kill me. It's here for a different reason... Here to talk. \n\n&nbsp;\n\nDay 53: The people of Earth once wondered if they were alone in the universe. They also wondered if they were, why? I now know the answer. AHAHAHA. And I know what they did to me. \n\n&nbsp; \n\nDays 54 and 55 were deleted. We managed to recover some of the data \n\n&nbsp;\n\nDay 54: It's been a aajhsafaaihfaofhahfaafa. The reason they afafrdjfa war afafafaaafeijcbvas simple. Evolution ojouafaogfgagpghaga. Protect afahgahgagagr. \n\n&nbsp; \n\nDay 55: The creature that sihfuaohaoivncoieha me, aggahogheea dead. It tried aohfaoghaoghagaga, activating facility defenses. \n\n&nbsp;\n\nDay 56: I sent the message to Earth. It's important that they listen to me. \n\n&nbsp;\n\nDay 57: Stop evolving. The last message of Mars. It's messed up. The reason their civilization died was due to evolution... They had no technology, so they couldn't stop it. The ones who survived hate their survival... \n\n&nbsp;\n\nDay 58: The creatures can't kill me. It's the proof they've been looking for, they said. I don't know what they mean. \n\n&nbsp;\n\nDay 59: The planet blew up... That's what they meant. I, along with my diary, now live amongst the asteroids of the debris. \n\n&nbsp;\n\nDay 60: If anyone finds this diary, I am about to escape. The procedure you performed, I doubt it'll ever succeed again. After all, I was the only 'perfect specimen' you ever found, right? So, the way you've survived... Did the human race suffer a mass existential crisis, like the rest? After all, the planet was dying... And to find another, is daunting, right? I wonder if this'll ever be found, or if it'll be by a different race by humans. Evolution, huh... The natural process of survival, working against us. In the past 60 days, I've 'died' twice, found out the reason Mars died and started the war and yet there's one thing I don't understand.... Why is it, even though they were horrid people, do I still wish I could speak to my parents again? \n\n&nbsp; \n\nThis is all that was recovered. This is evidence of why 'evolution' was halted and focus on 'techno-adaption' was implemented. A nineteen-year-old boy who had gone crazy.\n\n&nbsp;\n\nData was sent by a 'human' to the master computer. The response that was given was...\n\n&nbsp;\n\n[Are you sure the kid was crazy?]\n\n---- \nAuthor's note: Awww, man. That was a ride. I wasn't sure where I wanted to take it, and I tried to keep the swearing limited. I figured a 19 year old would swear more, but I would rather tone it down a little. :P I hope you enjoyed reading this. \n\n\n" ]	1
	[WP] The leader of each Pantheon meet at a café. You are their waiter/waitress.	[ "The first old man had just come in a few moments before. Older. He wore an eyepatch and walked the hobbled way old men always walk, pulled along by a pitch-black labrador dog acting as a guide.\n\nHe sat down in one of the booths and stared ahead of himself for a few minutes.\n\nAs I approached him the dog pricked its ears up.\n\n“What’s he called?” I asked the older man.\n\nHe smiled. “Huginn, that one is. I’ve got another one called Muninn. He’s currently\nflying around.”\n\n“Dogs don’t fly.”\n\n“Very true,” the old man said. “Do you serve beer?”\n\n“This early in the morning?”\n\n“I’m on Oslo time,” he smiled knowingly. “Besides considering who I’ll be dealing with soon… I think beer might be too light.”\n\nShe chuckled at that then turned around attending to a few other tables.\n\nWhile attending to a small family whose youngest hadn’t learned manners yet, she suddenly felt blinded by a bright light from the outside.\n\nIt was too early in the morning for the sun to be shining right through the front window.\n\nThen she noticed the car, a gold-coloured mercedes parking at the entrance of the diner.\n\nShe knew something about cars, but this was unlike anything she had seen yet. The car looked like one of those models that Mercedes made during the 1940’s, but the odd color and strange iconography gave it in a whole a timeless feeling.\n\nThe chauffeur, a black woman, stepped out and opened the door to the backseat to let a man, tall and with a very dark skin, out. He wore a suit made out of the same golden colors than his car, and gold-rimmed sunglasses. He quickly dismissed the chauffeur and walked in opening the door with his cane.\n\nEven his suit seemed to reflect the sunlight as he entered the diner. He pulled down the sunglasses and immediately shoved himself across the old man in the same booth.\n\nThe older man with his eyepatch looked up.\n\n“Subtlety is not your thing is it, Ra?\"\n\nSeeing the odd exchange happen the waitress once again approached the table, this time to drop of the old man’s beer and to take the new arrival’s order.\n\n“Coffee, black.” the man said in his deep voice. “No sugar, no milk.”\n\nI took his order and pretented to clean the table near them, listening in on the odd exchange.\n\n“So they sent you, huh?” Odin asked of the black man.\n\n“Who else? Horus? Isis would like that,” he chuckled.\n\n“Don’t say that word too loud around here.”\n\n“What Horus?”\n\nNow Odin chuckled.\n\n“I take delight in seeing her name turned into a synonym of barbaric evil. Divine justice it seems. Who else can we expect?”\n\n“The romans and the greek,” Odin said.\n\n“Just those?”\n\n“Just those.”\n\n“Our numbers are dropping as flies it seems.”\n\n“One by one a pantheon forgotten. It’s a wonder we’re still here.”\n\n“You can thank the Avengers for your resurrection then.”\n\n“Are you suggesting I look like Anthony Hopkins?”\n\n“Every day a little more. Thor becoming Hemsworthy yet?”\n\n“Don’t tempt it. Knowing my luck it’ll be the wrong Hemsworth.”\n\nThere was a silence.\n\n“Waitress,” the black man said. “We know you are listening in. That’s okay… You won’t remember anything after this meeting. So listen all you like. Just make sure I have my coffee soon.”\n\n“Oh in Bor’s name. There he is.”\n\nAn older, very large white man with a massive beard had entered the diner. He was wearing a white muumuu.”\n\n“Which one is it?” the black man asked.\n\n“No idea… I can never tell. Oh shit he’s coming… Just…. We’ll figure it out.”\n\n“ALLFATHER!” the large white man said hurdling himself towards the table. “And… Osiris?”\n\n“Ra.”\n\n“RA!!”\n\nHe pulled the black man into an uncomfortable hug.\n\n“Haven’t started without me, have you?”\n\n“We wouldn’t dare….Say…. How’s your sister these days?”\n\n“Pain in my ass, Odin. I never should have married her.”\n\nHe let Ra go.\n\n“The other one ain’t here yet?” the old man asked.\n\n“The copy-cat?” Odin asked. Haven’t seen him yet.\n\n“Good good… Well fellas… Gonna be unloading myself in the bathroom if you don’t mind.”\n\nThe large man groaned as he moved towards the bathroom.\n\n“Shit.” Odin said.\n\n“What?” Ra asked.\n\n“I can’t remember which one of the two married his sister.”\n\n“Both,” Ra said. “I think.”\n\n“Oh for fuck’s sake!”\n\nA loud thundrous voice rung out. “RA!!” An identical fat man with a great bushy beard had entered the diner. This time wearing a pink muumuu.\n\n\n\n" ]	1
	[WP] The Ancient Dragon had awoken, looked over the terrified villagers... and immediately started gushing about how cute they were.	[ "The village elder wore an expression of dying inside as the dragon prodded him with a long silver claw.\n\n\"Oh my gods! Do you all have these weird ears!\"\n\n\"Yes oh great one, we are humans.\"\n\n\"Oooh, humans! My you're a squishy lot aren't you!\"\n\n\"Yes O great one,\" the assembled crown chorused.\n\n\"WHAT ARE THOSE!\" the dragon roared.\n\n\"Toes oh great one,\" the little barefoot boy whimpered.\n\n\"I can't get over this! Sooo cute! Back in my day you used to have hooves! Or were those satyrs?\"\n\nAt that moment a group of dwarves marched into the square.\n\n\"OH MY GODS THERE'S LITTLE FLUFFY ONES TOO!\"\n\nThe ancient dragon demolished it's way across the village.\n\n\"I'm sorry\" it said to the humans, \"but the little fluffy ones are cuter!\"\n\nThe lead dwarf turned around to face his brethren.\n\n\"Lads,\" he whispered stroking his manly beard, \"we must kell this abom'nation\"\n\nHis beard was manly, not fluffy, manly!\n\n", "An ancient eyelid flicked open, revealing a colossal orange eye that almost appeared to flicker and glow like a flame. Dusty scales rustled as the behemoth flexed muscles that had not been used in decades, and the gold coins that buried it clattered to the ground along with assorted animal bones and treasures. The beast planted four clawed feet on the floor and stood tall and proud, spreading its leathery wings wide for all to see and despair at. Then it spoke, in a terrible, crackling voice.\n\n\"Who dares awaken me?\" The swanlike neck twisted back and forth as it searched for its prey, and stopped. The drooling, fanged mouth contorted into what almost looked like a smile. \"Found you.\" It lunged, fixing the intruder in place with its blazing orange gaze. Originally it had planned to swallow the thing whole and go back to sleep, but something made it stop, jaws a few inches from the intruder's head. It withdrew.\n\n\"Awww,\" it purred. \"Aren't you cute?\"\n\nAlex knew she should have run when she had the chance, but when the dragon had looked at her she had frozen in terror. Now it was too late. She scrambled backwards and tried to run, but a clawed forepaw swept in from nowhere and scooped her up. She screamed and wriggled in the beasts grasp as it held her up to its face, sniffed her and even licked her. It kept making strange noises that some part of her mind recognised as talking, but it was no language she'd ever heard before. She was glad she didn't understand. The monster was clearly a sadist, toying with its captive before it killed her.\n\n\"Who's a good boy?\" crooned the dragon. \"I've never seen an animal like you before. Are you some sort of dwarf/elf hybrid?\" It gasped as an idea struck it. \"I should keep you! I could use the company. What do you say, little dwelf?\" The creature continued struggling, spitting out words in a strange foreign language. The dragon decided to take that as a yes. It placed its new pet in a small pit in the cave. \"Now just wait here, my dear. I know it's uncomfortable, but I'll make you a better enclosure, I promise.\" \n\nAlex howled in despair as she was lowered into what looked like a bottomless abyss. It would take her hours to climb out, and one slip would prove fatal. She stared up at the rocky ceiling, wondering if she would ever see daylight again. As she looked, there was a clap of thunder and a scaled belly zoomed over the pit at a frightening speed. Alex held her breath. It seemed as if her captor had just left. Now was her chance to make up a plan. \n\nThe dragon soared through the sky, revelling in the thrill of flying for the first time in decades. The scenery had changed a lot since it had began hibernating. It didn't see any dwarves or elves around, but the signs of infestation were clear. Small groups of huts dotted the landscape. The dragon rolled its eyes. Looked like it would have to take a detour to do some pest control.\n\nScreams rang out as the dragon hovered over the village.\n\n\"Stop ruining my lawn!\" It bellowed, and shot a blast of flame towards one of the huts. Vermin scattered everywhere, and the dragon narrowed its eyes. It couldn't quite tell if they were dwarves or elves. It swooped in to take a closer look, and gasped. They were neither dwarves nor elves, but the same species as the adorable creature it had captured earlier. A whole village of them. \n\nThe dragon felt a pang of guilt as it noticed the building it had set on fire, and it quickly went to stamp out the flames. It perched atop the ruined hut and sighed, watching the creatures panic and flee.\n\n\"What am I going to do with you?\" It murmured. Clearly, they were vermin. The dragon took great pride in maintaining a pristine garden, and like dwarves and elves, these creatures destroyed its plants and made their ugly homes in the most inconvenient places. Really, it should just exterminate them all, but they were just so damn cute. It had an almost irresistable urge to gather them up and keep them all as pets.\n\n\"Actually, that's not such a bad idea,\" the dragon murmured to itself.\n\nAlex screamed as she was wrenched from her hiding place and hauled into the sky. All thoughts of escape had gone straight out of her mind. Hills and fields flashed by, lakes and rivers... and a strange structure, made out of stone that appeared to have been melted, reformed, and sculpted into four tall walls without a ceiling.\n\nIt was there that the dragon took her, depositing her gently into the middle of the box. Before she knew it, she was surrounded by friends and family, people she had thought she would never see again. \n\n\"What happened?\" Her father asked, hugging her tightly. \"Where have you been?\"\n\n\"It's a long story.\" She stared at the walls which now surrounded their village. \"What happened here?\"\n\n\"You won't believe it. I think we've been blessed by the Gods. They sent one of their creatures to build these walls and protect us from our rivals. It even brought us food!\" He pointed at a pile of fresh animal carcasses.\n\n\"Creature? What-\"\n\n\"The one that just brought you back to us.\" Alex went pale. \n\n\"I think I need to sit down.\" \n\n~~~\n\n/r/DarkAlliGator" ]	2
	[WP] You awake on a bed in a 1930’s insane asylum after undergoing a forced lobotomy. Somehow you’ve retained just enough cognition to be aware that things are different, yet struggle frightfully to reconcile it.	[ "My stepmother is holding my right hand in her left hand, and her right is wrapped around my wrist. Upon the other side of the bed is my stepfather, same configuration. The loops formed by the joinings of their arms are the hoops in a pair of long, silver scissors. My body its blades. When the fingers of Mr Loose ease through these loops and begin to squeeze, my head explodes. It feels like I've been having the same dream for years and years. \n\nThere is a hand wrapped around each of my wrists, strong, secure, reassuring, securing. There are hands around my ankles rankling, but no cold palm against my brow which aches only dully. To open my eyes is to subject myself to the searing pain of daylight through painted bars. I can control the movement of my tongue. I am aware that I move in and out of consciousness but not of the engine of the craft that brings me there. A woman makes an announcement. My thoughts board. \n\nBored. Not bored. Pain. Euphoria, dimly I relate it to the ache in my arm. When this ache becomes a worry, I wake. \n\nThere is no sunshine coming through the white bars. This is how I know (at least) a day has passed. There is no-one in the room, but there is linen on shelves, and a trolley with some belts and some bottles, and some surgical instruments. My wrists and my ankles are strapped to the bed frame, I locate, and a bloody plaster in my left forearm, I locate the pain, its gauze's elastic is tugging the raw skin tried by needles repeatedly to, painfully I locate the painful pain. \n\nVainly, I try to touch it with groping fingers. I hope that she will come soon, or he, to put my mind back into its box. I can feel it hanging outside. In the same vain hope I think I begin (but do I) to cry or at least, the pillow is wet under my cheek. An announcement is made, and nothing is said. \n\nA nurse has come in in the costume of my stepmother; Mr Loose is wearing the slacks of my stepfather, and they are helping the boy onto the side of the bed, but he cannot. He is distracted by the empty announcements that are being made. He ends up on the floor. He cannot any more. He can. He cannot. There was a violence. The nurse was the object of his anger. If he cannot pull out her eyes, he can only try to tear her soft throat with where his teeth were. \n\nThen there was a sunshine again (at least a day had passed--since when?) and a very large number of hands had been assembled. In costumes of the nurse and Mr Loose came many tens of helpers, my mother and father (deceased), my stepmother and stepfather (bleeding, bloodless), nurses, players, Mr Loose, a courtier, a priest, two clowns, grave-diggers, a captain, English ambassadors, lords, ladies, officers, soldiers, sailors, messengers, and attendants. \n\nIn concert, they grasp his flesh which resists all, but is overcome, because he is plagued by announcements and there is a brain at the end of the hole where the boy used to be. The concert of hands is raising him upon a frame, grasping, chiding, soothing, bidding. A black nurse, about five foot six, with lovely eyes and big forearms approaches with a long white garment whose sleeves have no ends. \n\nHis arms are fed to the hungry crowd. \n\nMy arms are fed through sleeves through loops, and the buckles are fastened. Grimly pleased, is the crowd. In this state can he be wheeled. \n\nHis arms are fed through loops, around me from behind. I cannot turn to look at him, but I love him. He is my age, we played, we were innocent, we were ashamed. I love him like the hole in my head. \n\nThe sleeves have no ends. " ]	1
	[WP] You are a trader, renowned for selling one of the most important things in the world. You trade time.	[ "Look, I'm gonna keep this frank. Here's how the deal goes: You're here. That tells me you're interested. That you..want a taste. By showing up you've given me your time, and I'm obligated to return the favor. For showing up, I give a complimentary hour. Take it anyway you want: now, when you're in bed with the love of your life, on your death bed. It's all yours. When you have used it and come back, we'll talk about uping your dose.\n\nWhat? You won't be coming back? Look buckwheat, I'm in the business. The only dealer in existence. In all of time. They always come back. Always. What's my catch? Pretty blunt question to ask your dealer the first time you meet them. Kudos to you, straight and to the point. I can roll with that. Before I answer that, just try 10 minutes real quick. Special offer. I'll even take you to the moment that you want to use it. Sound fair?\n\nBingo, deal. You're gonna go back to you last high school football game when you broke through the defensive line and sacked the quarterback to win the game. Solid choice. Let me know when you're back.\n\nBack? I know, I know. Catch your breath. It was a rush my first time too. You really messed that guy up! Woah, woah, woah! Slow down! You want five hours now? TEN?! Catch your breath first! \n\nIf that's what you really want I can lock you in for five hours. I've got a great deal running for eight if you wa- you'll take eight? You haven't even heard the cost? Ohhhkay, if you insist my man! Eight it is! You're locked in!\n\nAlright, here's what I need. When life begins, in any fashion, it is allotted a nugget of time. Its all predetermined from the beginning; your aunt died at 46? Not sad at all, that's when she was supposed to die. Her time was up. To be honest I'm not sure why anyone mourns over a loss, but that's another discussion. Now, the key to getting good, quality time, it's to mine it before its used up. I used to mine the time nuggets after they were used up but they were hollow. Bad for business! Had a period where some clients overdosed on hollow nuggets. You look worried! Relax, you're time is top tier. Grade A. Harvested from the best. I promise I have a point here, give me some time! Hah, get it? I'm terrible with jokes. Opposite of fine wine really. \n\nNow that you've got your time, when its expended I'll need you to return. This is a business now, so I've got to keep things running smoothly. When you return, I'll need you to harvest fresh time. Typically on a clients first run I point them in an area that has some homeless or a town with heavy drug use. No point in harvest more than they need the first run. Easy whack over the head, drag hide the body, and you're out. Bing bang. Sound good?\n\n\nNo? Yeah, that's typically the reply. Used to be afraid of it, now it's just business. Well, in the case that you don't return, I own the rights to the rest of your time. I'm not gonna kill you! Relax! Not really my game man. Terrible stuff. \n\nI feel obligated to tell you: nothing else in the universe is like this. No type of drug, love, food, experience will ever satisfy your mind quite like this. I strongly advise coming back. \n\nIf I don't kill, how do I collect? Well I guess I can be honest now. \n\nPeople get a taste of time and disappear. They think they can get by without it. The withdrawal starts subtle and manifests a conscious black hole that eats a way at their happiness. You think suicides just happen? Was the best thing that ever happen for business. \n\n\n\n(Suicide hotline: 1-800-273-8255. You're never alone.)", "\"Hey it's good to see you again.\"\n\n\"Excuse me?\"\n\n\"Its a time travel jo- nevermind. So what's your ask?\"\n\n\"Umm I want a week.\"\n\n\"Ah nope, twenty-four hours that's the maximum.\"\n\n\"That's stupid! You sell time, what is a day gonna give me?\"\n\n\"Its gonna give you a day, moron.\"\n\n\"What did you call me?\" His face slowly turned red with anger.\n\n\"Moron. You gotta problem find somebody else to sell you time.\"\n\n\"But I need a week.\"\n\n\"Twenty-four hours, that's the limit per purchase. Buy it come back, buy it again til you get a week.\" Seriously it surprises me the number of people who don't think of this. I thought there'd be more trying to cheat the system but whatever.\n\n\"I can do that?\" He yelled.\n\nReally? \"Yeah you can do that.\"\n\n\"Why can't you just give me the week then?\" He was now demanding.\n\n\"Look I could explain the science of quantum physics and time-over-space dilation to you or you could just pay me.\" I gave him my weakest smile possible.\n\n\"How much?\"\n\n\"Twenty-four thousand.\"\n\n\"For a day?\"\n\n\"I refer you to five minutes ago.\" He stared at me blankly. \"Seriously man I'm giving you gold here and your just staring at me like a slapped mackerel. It's one-thousand an hour, I'm literally giving you a day of your life and your complaining about the price.\" He handed me a plastic square, I tapped it against the screen of my computer. \"Okay now hand me your wrist.\" I slapped a watch on his arm. \"See ya sooner buddy.\"\n\nHe looked around after I removed the watch. \"You didn't do anything asshole!\"\n\n\"Buddy just step outside, trust me.\" I watched him huff out the door, there was another guy standing just outside. He was nervously swaying back and forth and had his hat pulled low. \"I'm sorry about that sir, some people can be pretty unreasonable.\"\n\nHe made one last nervous teeter and hobbled inside. \"I need the maximum.\" He mumbled slapping a more flimsy piece of plastic on the counter.\n\n\"Twenty-four hours, you got it.\" I swiped the card across the screen and grabbed the watch.\n\nHe flinched as I tried to place the watch on his wrist. \"It's not for me.\"\n\n\"Oh sorry who's it for then?\"\n\n\"C-can I have the watch now?\" He stammered reaching for the watch.\n\n\"No sorry buddy, I can't give you the watch it stays with me.\"\n\n\"I need the watch!\" He reached for it again.\n\n\"I'm sorry, you can't take the watch.\" I pulled it away giving him a stern look.\n\n\"I'm sorry!\" He shouted fleeing the room.\n\nWhat the hell was that about? I quickly closed the door and locked it. I get the odd customer now and then that tries to steal the watch, but they never apologize.\n\nI sighed looking back at the curtain separating the store's front from everything else. With the curtain pulled aside I frowned at my room, odds and ends scattered across the floor, half built projects and half destroyed machines littered the walls and tables. I'm a slob, I accept that, well I try to. I swept the trinkets from my mattress and flopped heavily onto the covers.\n\n\"What a way to end the day.\" My voice echoed in the empty room. An asshole and a thief. That guy still bothered me though, he seemed desperate, nothing like the others who've tried. My lids felt heavy and I let myself drift to sleep.\n\nA clicking metallic sound caused me to stir. \"I'm sorry.\" A familiar voice finished waking me. Above me stood the nervous man from earlier, and in his hand a gun.\n\n\"Listen, guy. I can't help you, you can't take that watch.\"\n\n\"I need it, she needs it.\" He stammered.\n\n\"Who needs it?\" A frustrated screech escaped his throat and he thrust the gun at me. \"Look, just calm down, why can't you use the watch? Time will still go back.\"\n\n\"She only has one, only has one, she only has one day! She only has one day!\" He frantically yelled. \"C-can't go back, you said I can't go back.\"\n\n\"You've seen me before.\" I don't remember him, strange. \"You've used the watch too many times?\"\n\nHe nodded his head. \"If I use it again I might not see her anymore. But I only get one day with her, I'm outta time, I'm out of time.\"\n\n\"I can't give you the watch, it's way too dangerous. Besides the watch doesnt-\"\n\n\"Doesn't work outside the shack!\" He finished. \"I can't bring her here.\"\n\n\"Well then I can't help you, without this shack the watch doesn't work.\"\n\n\"I know! The stasis frame inside this shack holds it in infinite time, the watch's ability to equalize a person's reference allows them to rotate in time, and exiting the shack allows them to walk out at that exact point of reference.\" Who is this guy? \"The dilation between the two points occurs in here, without the stasis frame the body has no reference. But she, cannot, come, here!\"\n\n\"I don't know what you want me to tell you, I sell time, you can't buy a life here. People have a time and we can't change that.\"\n\n\"We can.\" He answered. \"With infinite reference a life can be saved, all you need to do is try enough times to solve the problem.\"\n\n\"If you continue to jump eventually you'll have no frame of reference to jump to.\" I tried to explain, still racking my brain trying to remember him.\n\n\"Give me the watch!\" He demanded. Reluctantly I placed the watch in his hand.\n\n\"You might not make the rotation, are you still willing to try.\"\n\nA tear dropped from his eye as he looked at the watch and he nodded. \"I found infinite reference.\" He said softly.\n\n\"What?\" I didn't understand.\n\n\"This, this is infinite reference. \"If I don't make it, I want you to save her.\"\n\n\"I don't even know her!\" I shouted, slightly offended.\n\n\"You will.\" He smiled pressing the watch's face. I could feel my face lock in a showing of my confusion. \"Don't just stare at me like a slapped mackerel.\" Before I could speak he ran for the door, disappearing completely.\n\n_\n\nr/TheoreticalFictions", "\"Timeturner! I demand to speak to the Timeturner right now! Excuse me- get your hands off me! Have you any idea who I am?!\"\n\nI grin, leaning back and taking a sip of my drink as the man fights to get through the bar, pushing his way past everyone. He collides with one woman and knocks her drink out of her hand, but doesn't stop to apologize as he slams his hands down on my table. The last few days haven't been good to him: his hair is disheveled, his neat suit wrinkled, and the tiredness is etched all across his face, everywhere but his eyes. His eyes are alight with two flames of disbelief and rage.\n\n\"Good day to you, Mr. Wickham,\" I greet him with a nod, setting my drink down. The bouncer hurries through the bar, apologizing profusely to everyone that he bumps, until he reaches the businessman and slaps a bear paw of a hand down on his shoulder.\n\n\"I'm sorry, sir, he pushed past me-\" the bouncer says, pulling Mr. Wickham away from my table as Wickham curses and thrashes to get out of his grasp, but the bouncer falls silent as I hold my hand up.\n\n\"It's alright,\" I say dismissively. \"Mr. Wickham has just come to talk for a minute, and then he'll be on his way.\"\n\n\"I have offered you wealth! Power!\" Wickham snarls, lunging forward as the bouncer reluctantly releases his grip, and he pushes his face into mine. \"Anything that you can imagine, I can get it!\"\n\n\"I am aware,\" I agree. Mr. Wickham is one of the most powerful men in the world, with a fortune that most people could hardly dare to dream of. He had never wanted for anything, nor had he worked particularly hard for anything that he needed. Still, the one thing that he lacks in his age is the only thing that he cannot buy.\n\nTime.\n\n\"Why have you not accepted any of my offers?!\" Wickham explodes. His face grows so red that I think he'll probably waste whatever time he has left now unless he calms down.\n\nI take a long drink before replying, and when I set the glass down, I sigh, \"You've offered me almost all of your fortune.\"\n\n\"Any price! Name it!\"\n\n\"You've offered me power.\"\n\n\"I can give you control over whatever you desire!\"\n\n\"You've exhausted me with offers of whatever that you can, but you still haven't offered me the only currency that I accept.\"\n\n\"I can trade in any currency in the world!\" Wickham protests, his face flushing of color. \"What is yours?!\"\n\nI take another drink, draining the glass, and set it down on the table before I stand up.\n\n\"You have yet to offer me anything that matters to you,\" I say quite simply before I walk away, leaving the businessman speechless and alone, with however much time he has left and all of the money in the world, but nothing of value.", "'Time flies when you're having fun.'\n\nBut what if it didn't have to? I sell the one thing people can't get any other way. And boy is business good. The premise is simple. I take someone forward in their own timeline, and then use that time to extend a moment for another. \n\nYou'd be amazed how many people will sacrifice for just a few more days with a loved one. My main means of profit is young folks looking to trade a little time for an elevated style of living. I pay in advance, so the money gains compound interest. The more time you give me, the more money you get, but exponentially rather than linearly. \n\nNeedless to say this is a very enticing offer if you are a young person with your whole life ahead of you. It's free money from your perspective. But surprisingly you will often see the same customer twice. \n\nOnce selling you their time early, and again when they finally find something worth holding on to. I can't tell you the number of times I've had a young (well, not young anymore) man come begging me for time back. They met their sweetheart and all the money in the world won't turn back time. I'll sell them some back of course. But...\n\nNo refunds, no exchanges, that's the rule. " ]	4
	[WP] Working as a patent clerk, you see a lot of silly patents. This one for a time machine is different though: its signed with your signature.	[ "I work in a patent office. It’s not difficult work, but it pays well, and it keeps me busy. Plus there’s always something new to look at. \n\nSometimes the patents are ridiculous; its clear they’d never work the way they’re supposed to. Others are just plain dumb or ugly. That doesn’t mean you can’t get a patent though; as long as it’s a new idea, it can legally be your idea. \n\nOne day things were different. When I came into work that day, the blueprint on my desk was for a much more complicated machine then I’d ever seen. Tiny cogs and solenoids and inductors; it had thousands of moving parts all told. That wasn’t the most interesting part about it though. The most interesting part was that the name on the form was my name. And it was dated ten years from now. \n\nI took the blueprint home that day. We’re not technically supposed to, but who was going to stop me? It has my own name on it after all. Over the next few months I slowly began accumulating all the necessary parts, building them myself or removing them from scrap electronics I found. Painstakingly following the blueprint, I assembled all of the pieces, and what stood in front of me was a large machine, about the size of a car, with a seat and a control panel inside. \n\nTrembling, I powered it up, but right before I climbed into the machine, I heard a voice behind me. \n\n“Stop right there, Time Criminal.” \n\nI turned around to see a man in a trenchcoat and fedora, pointing a gun at me. The gun, in fact, was a Walther P38, a 9mm semiautomatic pistol which had been developed by Carl Walther as the service pistol for the Wermacht in WWII to replace the aging and costly Luger P08, production of which had ended in 1942. \n\n“Jack Banahan, TCPD,” the man said. “You are under arrest for Time Crimes. Cuff him, Mitts.”\n\nThe man’s sidekick, Mitts, who had been standing next to him the whole time, shoved me onto the ground and put handcuffs on me.\n\n“But I haven’t done anything yet!” I shouted. “I’m innocent, or my name’s not Albert Einstein!” \n\n“That’s what they all say,” Jack Banahan said. He took a sip of whiskey and lit up a cigarette, muttering “smoking is cool,” under his breath. \n\n“I want a lawyer!” I shouted. \n\n“You’ll have lots of time to talk to a lawyer while you’re rotting in Time Jail,” Jack Banahan said, picking me up and putting me into the back of his paddy wagon. “Lots of time.” \n", "Being a patent clerk and IRS auditor has a lot in common. One of the main similarities between us, is we could identify any possible fraudulent claim. Something which most people would dismiss as petty or insignificant, would not escape our eye. Yet, I could not dismiss this document in front of me outright. Nor could I red flagged this document without further research. Mainly because, somehow, I am implicated in this endeavor.\n\nWhile outsider (those who do not understand how patenting works) might shrug it off as nothing but mere bureaucratic mumbo jumbo, spewed by a small cogs in a larger steam rolling juggernaut. This, however, is not a small issue. I do not consider myself as a small cogs of a larger machine. As matter of facts, ones, who knows how to do it, could use patent as a scheme for money laundering. That is why I am troubled by this time machine patent.\n\n&nbsp;\n\nFirst of, a patent for time machine is common. Despite how ludicrous it might sound, there are about half a dozen of such applications that have been filed. Perpetual motion machine has an even more application. There are roughly 50 million patents that have been filed. Once a patent is filed you would be given a number. Country code followed by year and some numbers. This only indicates that such patent has been filed. Obviously, further inspection would dismiss any of this claim. This rejection is conducted by the examiner. I am one of the examiner. \n\nTo reject a patent, I must have a sound reasoning. The first obvious things that an examiner would look at is fee and oath. This application is signed and the fee has been paid. Which means the patent inventor has taken an oath claiming that no one has the patent for this time machine to the best of his ability. In this case, I have taken an oath to the best of my ability that no one has my invention. It would be ironic that I reject my application on this ground.\n\n&nbsp;\n\nSomehow I am amused. I decided to grab the whole application including the drawing and specification. This warrant a proper day off for investigation. I am suspecting one of two things is happening right now. First, someone thought it would be cool joke to play against me. Being that we aren't the most funniest bunch of people, the second is most likely. There is some sort of money laundering scheme going on." ]	2
	[WP] What was once worst present ever, became later the best.	[ "Christmas was never a time that Yuri looked forward to. The other children at school would talk for days about the gifts they were going to get; new bikes, new dolls, new clothes. \n\nNot Yuri.\n\nYuri's father had died in the war and his mother worked two jobs barely affording them rent and keeping the roof over their heads. But Yuri wasn't sad, he was glad for what he had and proud of his mother for working hard to provide for her family.\n\nChristmas morning the sun rose over the frigid wasteland that Yuri called home. Even knowing that there wasn't anything waiting for him downstairs he couldn't suppress the excitement that bubbled up from deep inside of him. \n\nHe rushed down the stairs and found his mother waiting for him holding a scarlet stocking in her hands. A rare smile spread across her face as Yuri's bare feet hit the landing. \n\n\"Merry Christmas, Yuri. I know it isn't much but, Merry Christmas.\" \n\nThe stocking was heavy in Yuri's small hands. He reached inside, breath held with anticipation, and pulled out a potato.\n\nHe looked at his mother, still beaming with pride, \"Thank you, mama.\" It wasn't a new bike, or a new shirt, or a new action figure. \n\nHe sat himself in front of the television and watched a Christmas cartoon, Yosef the Snowman. \n\n\"A gift is always better when shared, comrades,\" Yosef's tinny voice said from the television. \n\nThe words resonated with Yuri. He looked down at the potato and smiled. \n\nHe stood and walked into the kitchen to find his mother standing in front of the sink crying quietly.\n\n\"Mama, why are you crying?\" Yuri asked.\n\n\"It's nothing, Yuri,\" she said wiping tears away.\n\nHe held the potato out, \"Would you mind making your potato stew for us?\" \n\n\"You want to share your gift with me?\"\n\n\"Of course!\"\n\nShe wrapped her arms around her boy and squeezed him. \"We are so lucky, Yuri. You know that?\"\n\n\"I do.\"\n\n" ]	1
	[WP] Walking home during a storm you get struck by lightning. When the electricity travels through your brain it causes a short circuit. This causes you to become truly self aware, and you realize you are nothing more than a NPC for another person's life.	[ "It’s bad enough being struck by lightning walking home from the pub. It’s even worse getting struck by lightning and having visions of enlightenment only to find out you’re just some nobody in someone else’s awesome and elaborate life story. But even worse than all of that, is getting struck by lightning, having strange visions about being literally the most insignificant person in the universe, and then in the midst of your existential crisis running into the main character who also happens to be the man you’re in love with who asks you to join him on his mission to seek out his bride to be.\n\nAnd so, that’s what happened to me. After walking home from a quick drink from the pub and getting struck by lightning and blessed by the horrible knowledge that I am a throwaway, I decided that I was long overdue for another drink. So instead of going back home and basking in my existential torment, I turned around and despite my charboiled appearance, went straight back to the bar. And that’s when I ran into him: Mr. Good-for-nothing-good-at-everything-guy-I’m-actually-in-love-with-but-doesn’t-really-know-I-exist-and-I-probably-should-actually-hate-for-being-a-generic-tool. But for short we’ll call him Jack because, well, that’s his name.\n\n“April, my good friend!”\n\nI looked around to the source of the voice and saw him, surrounded by some hoity-toity ethereal light that cause a wave of nausea to wash over me. Of course it would be that guy.\n\n“It’s Apel, actually, but thanks for trying. I could really tell you put effort into it this time.” He ignored my sarcasm and slapped me on the back as he smiled. Damn that stupid, heart melting smile. I huffed and turned back towards my drink. Fuck guys named Jack and their ability to have everything work out for them.\n\nI thought he would leave me alone after our riveting conversation, but he continued to stand by me as he chugged his beer. He slammed the empty glass on the bar with a little too much vigor and turned back to me.\n\n“Listen Opal, I know we aren’t haven’t always been the best of friends.” Never even had a real conversation, but carry on. “However, I seek to explore the finer aspects of this world. Set out to make a name for myself. Daring adventures, unforgettable battles for the sake of all mankind, and to find the woman of my dreams. Literally of my dreams. I dream about her every night. Awaiting me in the highest room in the tallest tower, likely imprisoned by some horribly hideous witch or fearsome beast.” Okay, I’m even less interested, but I’ll let you finish. “Anyways, I need you to accompany me on my quest. These other small-minded folks aren’t cut out for that kind of life. Also, they all said no. But this could be a big break for both of us.”\n\nI could see my entire side character’s relevance flash before my eyes. Hero asks unimportant NPC to accompany them on heroic journey. Proceeds to use and abuse poor soul to their fullest extent before they meet their inevitable demise in some horrible and tragic way only to be immediately forgotten by the hero when he finds that sweet piece of ass who fits the exact description of air-headed bimbo from the storybooks that unoriginally he’s been dreaming about since childhood.\n\n“No.”\n\nWithout taking in his shocked expression for too long, I set a copper piece on the bar as payment for my drink and left. Let someone else die for his gain. I’ll live my non-essential existence here in this quiet village where nothing happens, blissfully drowning in my sorrows and never dreaming of attempting something more. Or so I had hoped in vain.\n\nThat wasn’t the way the universe decided that my life story was going to go. Was I still insignificant? Yes. Was my backstory and development as a character the least essential thing that ever occurred? Also, yes. But was I cursed with death for the sake of furthering the plot only to be tossed into the back of everyone’s minds as that guy does something heroic in order to save his Ms. Probably-never-had-a-pimple-or-bad-hair-day. Most assuredly yes.\n\nSo it was fate that brought me to the next morning, when I went out to feed the pigs only to find another animal amongst their mix.\n\n“You’re kind of pathetic for a hero, you know,” I told him, dumping the bucket of slop into the trough. He greeted me with a groan, and I splashed the second bucket, filled with icy water fresh from the well, over his semi-conscious form. He jerked up, glancing around before his eyes locked on me. Then he sagged back into the mud and shit and looked at me sorrowfully.\n\n“It’s hopeless, Apel. Nobody will accompany me on my journey. I am already failed and I haven’t even begun.” I smirked at his dramatic airs as I began to shovel some of the feces into a bucket to be used in the fields. He interrupted me with a hopeless wail and threw himself face first into the slush in front of me. I sighed, leaning the shovel up against the wall as I cross my arms in front of my chest.\n\n“Why don’t you just go by yourself?”\n\nHe paused for a moment, looking up at me, before shaking his head. “That is not my destiny. Also, I am a teensy bit afraid to go by myself. You’re my last hope. Do this for me!” \n\nHis tragic façade did little to appeal to my emotions, but then I made the mistake of looking into his eyes. Those deep and enticing and breathtaking blue eyes. Those make me forget my principles and jumble all my reasonable thoughts blue eyes. Those currently begging for me to give up everything I own and follow him to my demise blue eyes. Despite myself and everything I hoped to stand for, I caved. “Aw hell. Fine.”\n\nHis expression changed to one of pure elation as he jumped to his feet, flinging fecal matter and wet dirt around him. “Great! We leave at first light.”\n\n“You’re about half an hour late there bub.” I motioned around to the morning light streaking through the tree tops.\n\n“Oh, then we leave now!” I admired his enthusiasm but did not share it.\n\n“No, we’ll leave at noon. You need a bath and I need to sell everything I own and buy supplies for the trip. Also probably secure us some sort of passage because I hate walking or really any sort of physical activity.”\n\n“Even better,” he hissed, clenching his hand in some sort of glorious fist of accomplishment.\n\nI sighed when he left and stared down at my pigs in defeat. Fuck myself and my weak mind. So easily lured by a handsome face and some nice glutes. I was hardly much better than he was. The pigs had finished their meal by the time I stepped out and came to terms with the fact that this was my own doing. At least I didn’t have to worry about dying old and alone and peacefully in my sleep. Really dodged a bullet there I did. Whelp, guess this was the beginning of the end for me. Good-bye Character A.\n\n---\n\nHopefully not too bad." ]	1
	[WP]You discover you have the power to predict how good or bad an outcome of an event will be by rolling a d20, 20 being the best, 1 the worst, but after the first roll the outcome is sealed.	[ "So I says to the genie 'This d20 can predict the outcome of anything?'\n \n... and he's all like 'Yes. Just make a statement and give it a roll.' \n \nSo I'm like 'that's cool, this will be awesome.' \n \nBut as I went to place the die in my pocket it missed and rolled across the floor..." ]	1
	[WP] A demon agrees to trade his immortality for your mortality.	[ " This is a story about Stanley, a demon maid.\n\n He was told about not breaking the vase\n\n A vase, the only one who holds the power. of Set.\n\n It is a simplistic vase. No striking details or anything that makes it unique visually but just a black vasr.\n\nhumming Such a great day today, Stanley exclaimed\n\nAfter cleaning every nooks and canney of the house, he offered himself a nice, beautiful rest.\n\nBut there's a problem, the vase.\n\nStanley is a germophobe, perfect for this job. He cannot stand such dusty vase so he offered his self to clean up the vase. Might as well clean it. The contract states to not break it but didn't mention about touching it, cried Stanley.\n\nIt was a modest moment, just wiping every areas of the vase. He lift the vase to wipe the bottom until he lost his grip and broke the vase. Due to the consequences of this event. A lot of souls Set captured had been set free. \n\nStanley don't know what to do. Or maybe he know, yet he saves it for the worst. He think and think and think. No witness, relieving himself. But maybe Boss know already. He lost his power, there's no reason for him not to realize. Soon, Stanley gave up and travelled to the mortal world, disguised as a lady.\n\nStanley founded a cult, with Set as a figure. \"He\" proves the legitimacy by giving someone an immortality through the worship event. He first called those who willing to be in front in his preach at the stadium. Surprisingly, a lot have joined the preach. He gives the humanchis immortality and claimed to be a gift from Set. And then he exclaimed those who gulped his blood will learn the truth. Such a gross way of suicide.\n\n\n" ]	1
To be clear, I am referring to a woman who would marry then kill their husband for some reason, be it for monetary gain, or just plain sadism.	[WP] An immortal decides to marry a 'black widow'.	[ "Her hair was black as midnight and as soft as fine down. It smelled of lilac and honey. Her embrace was sure, yet supple as the branches of a willow tree moving in a moonlit breeze. Her eyes, the colour of the darkest chocolate drank in every part of me, ever hungry and avaricious. \"I don't deserve someone like you\" I whispered into the cradle of her neck. The warmth of her smile covered me in goose bumps. I hadn't felt such in a long fullness of time immemorial. \n\nWords came unbidden like a thief in the night. \"Marry me\" I said. For a long moment there was silence and then a slow and purposeful.. \"Yes\". My heart could not have been higher than god himself. The pain awaiting me would like destroy but I didn't care. If only I had listened to my hidden heart that whispered sweet nothings of warnings and platitudes. Maybe we wouldn't be where we are today.\n\nOur marriage was a simple affair. A moonlit garden. A local priest. A signing of vows and it was done. We were in bed before our feet had touched the ground exploring each other with purpose and passion. I was taught things I never knew I could be taught and was thankful for it. I shared a few secrets too, filling her secret eyes with wonder and amusement. The way they crinkled, just along the edges made my heart flutter. \"What did I do to deserve someone like you?\" I asked into her neck, my favorite questioning place.\n\n\"You were born\" She whispered back, holding me tight. Painfully tight. Like a Pythons embrace, she held on so tight I could feel the grinding of my bones and the slow echo of tense muscles. Breath squeezed out of me in waves as I struggled to catch them. I lifted my head to look into eyes not full of hunger or lust or passion, but cold empty anger. The anger of a storm unbidden. The fury of a terrible predator who's found their prey and sunk their teeth in, never to let go until the last note of their life had been snuffed out.\n\nThe world went black.\n\nI awoke to the sound of humming. Her voice was like liquor coffee poured through a fine silk sieve. It sent shivers down my spine. I smiled as I stood from a blood soaked bed and walked through to the sitting room. She lay languidly on the couch perusing through some documents I'd had locked away in my twice locked safe. They were old faked documents. Easiest ways for me to move. Her eyes flitted through them, her mouth turned wry. \n\n\"It's quite simple\" I said, sitting across from her. \"I don't die.\" She stared at me with a light sparking in her eyes. \"Oh?\" Such a powerful question. She gazed over me again, something different in her face. The hunger was gone, there was only curiosity and amusement. She brushed a stray lock of hair that covered her face and said something to me that I'll never forget. As long as the eons turn, as long as time is at my mercy, as long as the world exists with me upon its shell. \n\n\"Marry me.\"\n" ]	1
	[WP] You are the 2nd best contract killer in the world in a distant dystopian future and have just accepted a contract on the best in the world. No one has ever knowingly seen him or her alive and lived to tell about it.	[ "\"You want me to do what?\" Terrez said watching the man across from him slowly spin the Stock Chip in his hand.\n\n\"I want you to kill the Damned Legion. What was unclear about that?\" The man wore a perfect pristine black suit and had sharp elegant eyes that stared straight into Terrez's soul. \n\n\"Listen, I might be good, I might be the best, but the Damned Legion is something different. I've never seen him and I've taken jobs alongside him\" Terrez remembered back to the Corporate Bombings on Micron Five, how the Damned Legion knew the entire plan and was able to get into there security grid without tripping any security girds, something Terrez was unable to claim. \"I've hardly ever talked to him nonetheless seen him. What you're asking is actually impossible and I should know\" Terrez looked at the Stock Chip he held in his hand, 1% was a lot, but it wouldn't be any good after he was dead. \n\n\"What if it wasn't impossible?\" The black-suited man said \"What if I stopped him from moving around and got him stuck in one place? Could you kill him then?\"\n\nTerrez laughed just a bit \"What are you talking about, he's better at me when it comes to running away, even when ships are banned from leaving the planet he still manages to get away. You can't contain him, you can't hold him, go find someone else for you're suicide mission\" \n\nThe dark-suited man visibly put on a mask of anger as he stood up. His human form stood a good foot above Terrez's sleek furry body, but Terrez still assured himself that he was ten times stronger than this weak businessman even on his worst days. \"I want him dead, and you will do it for me, mainly because you are here, but also because I'm doing this\" The man pulled out a small device with a neat little red button on top. He pressed it and almost instantly the entire planet fell into a massive blackout. Terrez looked out his small window toward the streets below and the chaos that was beginning to ensue only after a few seconds of total darkness. \"By my calculations the electro-magnetic Bomb's effects will wear off in 185 local hours, Every ship, every signal, every life function on this planet will be turned off during that time\" Terrez looked at the monster who had just doomed millions \"I expect him to be dead before everything turns back on\"\n\n\"I...I don't understand\" Terrez heard a scream a few floors up and the smashing of a window a couple floors below \"Why do you want him dead?\" Terrez felt responsible, he felt he had caused this destruction in some twisted bureaucratic sense, but he now had a job to do and if this man was truly right in saying that the Damned Legion was on the planet and now had no chance to escape it might be possible some good come out of the millions dead in this coming weak. \n\n\"It's simple really, he killed me three....three days ago\" A stutter was in the man's words \"I was about to present a prop...proposal to the major hee\" There was a jagged stop in the man's words, almost as if his body froze up \"Head's of our company, This is a mental record, specifically opened in my will to seek you out and give you this mission\" The man started to twich and certain holographic projectors behind his face began to give way \"The Stock will be tranfered, once you have killed him\" The man fell to the floor, the advanced robotics behind the almost lifelike android collapsing under the Electro-Magnetic weight now put on them. \"You....You...\" Terrez never heard the last words of what that android said, he thought that must have been the last electronic thing to work on the planet. \n\nTerrez was alone now, with the knowledge and chaos displayed in front of him. It wasn't a typical job, by any stretch of the imagination, Terrez didn't even know if he still wanted to do it, yet some sort of obligation to the people below made him feel compelled. It was going to be hard, especially now with the blackout and the fact Terrez had no idea where to start, but he was going to do it, he was going to do it and become the best contract killer in the galaxy. \n\n\"Not if I can help it,\" The android said behind him, suddenly springing to its feet and lunging at Terrez. Terrez barely had time to react, dodging under the flying mass of metal and plastic hurtling over his head. Terrez had to think quick about what was going on, if this Android was Cloud-based DI could theoretically hack into it, it must have some sort of structured carbon protection around the wires to protect from the Electro-Magnetic Bomb. \n\nTerrez moved to the other side of the small room and watched as the Android took a second to get up and reorient itself. Within that time Terrez had fashioned an ancient Taveleen fighting stick from the materials strewn about his room. None of his conventional weapons would work, all destroyed by the Electro-magnetic bomb, but he still had his own two hands and the X shaped stick he had become so familiar to. \n\nAgain the android leaped at Terrez, but this time he was ready, plunging one of the ends upward into the androids metallic body and piercing the thick metal casing in one fluid motion. Terrez threw it down to the floor in the opposite direction, as the hole through its internal systems shot blue and red sparks. The android tried to get up, but Terrez thought something important must have been hit because the Android kept failing at its attempts. \n\n\"Who are you?\" Terrez said, aiming the stick at the androids head, knowing that the DI inside couldn't be threatened like that. \n\n\"YOU...WONT....KILL ME....I....AM...UNSTOPPABLE\" The android sputtered out in exasperated voice recalls. In that instant, Terrez knew the Damned Legions greatest secret.\n\n\"You are smart my friend, you fooled the entire system, hell the entire galaxy, but now I know and now I know how to kill you\" The android twitched and sputtered on the ground. Terrez always hated DI's unable to be killed in the conventional sense, but he had 'killed' many before and the Damned Legion was no different. \"Let the games begin,\" Terrez said, reaching around the broken android and pulling the main electron cord. " ]	1
	[WP] You're the world renowned supervillain. Tell the story how you accidentally froze the entire ocean.	[ "I must say, I love this contraption. Soon, Captain Stupendous, you’ll be submerged in molten iron, which will then harden, sealing your body in a practically indestructible casing. From there, I’ll shoot your body toward the sun, where you will find yourself integrated into the sun’s nuclear fusion process.\n\nThe tank takes some time to fill, an inconvenient measure, yes, but a necessary one. If you weren’t so damn difficult to kill, Captain, this elaborate scheme wouldn’t be necessary. In the meantime, let me regale you with a tale of another of my contraptions.\n\nHuh? Oh, no, of course I’m not going to tell you my evil plan. Why would I do that when you have proven yourself so adept at escaping my elaborate death traps? The last thing I want to do is tell you just what I’m about to do so you can foil it again. Come on, how dumb do you think I am?\n\nNow where was I? Ah yes, so I had this fantastic plan, long ago, long before your time. I’ve been doing this awhile, you know, before you were a superhero, probably when you were still soiling your diapers. I don’t know, how old are you Captain Stupendous? Ah, nevermind, it’s not important.\n\nAnyway, there was a superhero back then, fellow by the name of Admiral Hydro. You guys do like your military titles, don’t you? As the name suggests, he had something of an aquatic power, and I was working out of Capital City, which, as you know, is a port city, meaning he was quite adept at foiling my plans.\n\nSo I came up with this plan, a plan that involved a new toy of mine, a contraption I invented just like the one you’re currently trapped in. It was much less elaborate, however, just a sphere really, one you could hold in one hand. You set it, drop it into the water, and presto! The water within the set range freezes, along with everything in it.\n\nWhat’s that? Oh, yes, I don’t intend it to be comfortable. But you’re a superhero, you can take it, I’m sure. Just sit tight. I promise you’ll hear the end of it before the molten iron reaches your ears.\n\nThe Admiral made his home somewhere at the bottom of the Capital City Bay. Probably in a magnificent sea fortress. I don’t know, I never ventured down there, always found that water to be a bit questionable. I wasn’t sure of exactly where, but I did have data points, enough that I could pinpoint an approximation based on where he submerged, usually after foiling one of my plans.\n\nSo I got onto my boat, a nice little fishing boat I have…what? No, I don’t have a yacht, do you realize how much those things cost? I just want to drop a line and toss back a beer now and then. Villains need a break too.\n\nAs I was saying, I took my boat out to the bay, in the spot where our readings had estimated. It’s about twelve miles across, and the spot was about four miles out, so I set the radius to eight miles to be safe. A quick press of the button to activate, and I dropped the orb into the bay.\n\nNow, I don’t know how much experience you’ve had with programming, but have you ever heard the rule stating that you should never test your own work? Well, I tested my own work, and as it turned out, the tests were a bit...uh...insufficient. I think I misplaced a zero somewhere in the programming.\n\nThe bay froze, quickly, marvelously, but it was not the only thing that froze. Somehow, my little miscalculation resulted in not just the bay, but the entire world’s ocean freezing. Oops.\n\nNow, being the greatest super villain the world has ever known, I received contact from the United Nations not long after. They were in a panic, they were desperate, and best of all, Admiral Hydro was not returning their calls, presumably because he was trapped in a wall of ice, freezing to death.\n\nThey asked me to name my price. I must admit, I was caught a bit off guard, as I was only trying to kill my nemesis, not hold the world hostage. But when life gives you lemons, you squeeze them for every last drop.\n\nI named the first price that entered my head, a billion, which was a staggering value back then, much more so than it is now. They agreed on the spot. I gave them a delivery site, and told them I’d unfreeze it when it was delivered.\n\nNow, I hadn’t exactly planned to unfreeze the bay. My thought was that since it was summer, it would thaw on its own, Hydro would be dead, and everything would go on as normal. So I was in a bit of pickle, to be truthful. Rather embarrassing thing for a genius to admit.\n\nMy brain started to work, formulating a plan, and when my second in command called me to confirm the money had been delivered and safely collected, I put that plan into action.\n\nIt was risky, to be sure. I had a laser attached to the moon, something I was toying with, but had never really used. There was a chance it could destroy the world instead of thawing the oceans, which would be bad for everyone involved, myself included. But I also wasn’t keen on the ecological effects that a frozen ocean would have on the world, so I took a shot.\n\nI won’t bore you with the details, but suffice to say it worked. More importantly, as soon as the waters thawed, I saw something bob to the surface. I would recognize that absurd costume anywhere, more absurd that your own even, and he was dead as a doorknob. My contraption had accomplished exactly what it was meant to.\n\nAnd there it is. With one stroke, I eliminated Admiral Hydro and collected a hefty ransom in the process. And now, your time will soon be at an end as...where is he?\n\nWait, what do you mean escaped? Again? The molten iron was up to his neck, how the hell did he get out of it?\n\nNevermind, that’s not important. You attached the tracker, right? And it’s getting a signal?\n\nExcellent. Wait until he lands, and then prep the earthquake machine. What? Yes, of course I triple checked the measures. Did you not hear about how I learned my lesson?\n\nTrust me, it’ll work." ]	1
	[WP] "Please don't wake up. If you do, I'll disappear forever. Please don't let me die."	[ "It had all happened so quickly.\n\nI was humming with delight, walking down the street with flowers in one hand and chocolates in the other. The whole world seemed alive and teeming with such joy - all the flowers were in full bloom, birds were chirping merrily, the sun peeked through silver-lined clouds. \n\nI had it all thought out in my head; after all, I had been planning this for weeks. Give her the bouquet, then the chocolates, then open the box of chocolates containing the engagement ring. It would be the best Valentine's Day we ever shared.\n\nHowever, underneath this joy, there was a tinge of sadness. All this happiness couldn't completely block out the thoughts of what I heard just a few days ago. About how she found out about it, how she valiantly fought her battles and emerged triumphant, but its ghost came back to haunt her. How she didn't have much time left to spend with me. Which makes today's meeting all the more precious, I thought.\n\nThe next thing I knew, there was a loud skidding noise, followed by a ear-shattering crash. I sensed the box of chocolates flying out of my hands before I could feel a tremendous impact on my back, like ten thousand sledgehammers. All I can remember thinking was, \"The chocolates had better not be ruined.\"\n\nI felt my vision cleaved in two, and I zoomed straight towards the yawning abyss of darkness into unconsciousness.\n\nBeing unconscious was extremely disorienting at the start, but I would've taken anything else apart from consciousness, apart from dealing with all the physical agony, with her face, undoubtedly heartbroken upon seeing my corporeal body mangled beyond recognition. Nevertheless, unconsciousness was darkness like I never knew. It was a black, bottomless sea, and all I could feel were the waves that tugged at me and pushed me along with its gentle strength.\n\nEons later, I must have reached some kind of a mental shore. I recall that I painlessly stood up and attempted to brush myself dry, before wandering around my surroundings. Eventually, after travelling across much barren terrain, I came to a house. Despite being in the middle of a desert, this house looked perfectly functional, with all the windows intact and the exterior well-painted. It even had working electricity, judging from the bright glow coming from the windows. It was only until I trudged right in front of the front porch, with sand flying in the mild breeze, that I realised why the house looked familiar. It was my house. It was the house where she waited for me to come home that fateful day, where I could never return to her side. Could she be in there? My hand fumbled with the doorknob, shaking.\n\nThe door clicked open. And she was right there. Standing there, with her silvery blonde hair fanning out behind her, with her crystal blue eyes that I could never tire of staring into, with a fragile beauty that only she possessed. It was her.\n\n\"I'm sorry I forgot your present. Happy Valentine's darling,\" I managed to stutter, still in slight shock.\n\nShe smiled a breathtaking smile. \"You were all I could ever ask for for Valentine's. And you came back.\" Tears welled up in her eyes, though I wasn't sure as tears stung mine as well.\n\n-\n\nI lost all track of time. All I knew was that I had to stay by her side, and that was as natural as breathing. Nothing else mattered; the flow of time lost all meaning when we were together. Gradually, I could feel the memories of my real life fading away, but what did that matter? I was in heaven anyway.\n\nI thought today would be the same day. Open my eyes, laying in bed next to her, feeling her body press against mine. Feeling the warmth of her skin, the silky feeling of her hair, watch her stir awake. But there was this odd feeling, as if I was straining to sneeze, that I couldn't shake off.\n\nShe opened her eyes. \"Morning,\" she yawned.\n\n\"Morning,\" I couldn't help but smile, stroking her hair. Odd feeling or not, my facial muscles twist into a grin every time I see her.\n\n\"---hello?\" A sudden reverberating voice rang throughout the house. That jolted all thoughts of romance from my mind. We looked at each other, and for once in forever, I saw fear cloud her eyes. \"Ignore that,\" she said warily. \"Come sleep with me.\"\n\n\"What was that?\" \n\n\"Nothing,\" she replied, a tad too quickly.\n\nAll at once, there was a blinding white light shining through the windows. It was as if the entire desert was aflame with a white fire, a fire so blazingly hot that it burned away the sky of its colour.\n\n\"--- can you hear me? Hello?\" There came the voice again, louder and more insistent this time.\n\n\"No, don't go out. Don't-\" Her voice cracked on the last word, and tears were beginning to leak from the corner of her eyes.\n\n\"What's happening?\" My voice rose in panic.\n\n\"T-they're trying to wake you up,\" she said in a hushed sob. \"No - no - I can't lose you again,\" she cried out as I finally started to remember. The chocolates. The crash. The pain.\n\n\"No - please. Please don't wake up! If you wake up, I'll be gone forever. I'll vanish.\" \n\nMy hands shook uncontrollably, and there was a pounding sensation building up in my head. The voices reached a new intensity, and I could feel myself being washed away from the house, washed past the desert and the beaches, back towards the land of the living. Was it still possible to return? If I went back to the real world, was there really much to live for? The doctor's most hopeful prognosis was nothing but a couple of years, and only a miracle could save her. I would have a broken life and a broken heart.\n\nBeyond my volition, I felt my feet dragged towards the door of the room, which frame glowed a pearly white. I rested one hand on the doorknob. The elation that surged through me was so powerful that it nearly lifted me off my feet. The feeling of sinking my teeth into chocolate. The warmth of sunlight on Sunday picnics. The harmonious twittering of birds. The smiles on my parents' faces. The times I could spend with my children that I was going to have.\n\nAnd yet I turned around, and she was still there, our hands interlocked. She was just like the first time I saw her, her frame lined with fragility and grace, her hair gleaming silver, tears running freely down her cheeks now.\n\n\"Don't,\" she choked out. \"Please don't let me die...\"\n\nI closed my eyes.", "It's been a week since she's been gone.A week. It was almost unfathomable. Everyday when I wake up, she's not by my side. I'm so use to waking up to her beautiful face. \n\nWork is when the emotions truly hit. A week has gone by but my colleagues still treat me differently. They always ask if \"I'm okay\" and \"Hanging in there.\" I always say I'm fine, but even they know that I'm lying. How could I be? She was my whole world. I can't even concentrate at work because she's all I think of now. Why did she go? Could I have stopped what happened? What is going to happen to me now? Will I be alone forever? I could already answer the last question. Of course I'd be alone, there is no one else like her.\n\n---------------------------------\n\nI stumble into my bed after a long day of work. I am so unbearably tired, yet my thoughts of her keep my wide awake. You have to sleep. She'd want you to.\n\nMy mind begins to drift as I fall into a slumber. For once, I felt at peace. Then, my eyes suddenly open as the sunlight beams from the window. What the heck? That was fast... I hear a familiar voice from the other room.\n\n\"Babe! Get in here! I made breakfast!\"\n\nOh my god That voice. That beautiful voice. It felt like an eternity since I've heard it. It was her. But how could that be?\n\nI rush out of my bed and into the kitchen. She was standing there, cleaning off a pan. She turns to me and smiles.\n\n\"Good Morning! How did you sleep?\"\n\nMy eyes begin to water. It was really her, standing right in front of me. Her hair was in a messy bun, the same type of bun she'd always wake up with. Her entrancing eyes staring at me and her gorgeous smile. God, her smile always made me feel so welcomed. I felt like a kid in a candy store. \n\n\"Oh my god, I can't believe it's you! I've missed you so much, you have no idea!\"\n\nI hear her laugh, just like how I remember. \n\n\"Gosh, all you did was sleep!\"\n\nI embrace her in a hug.\"I love you so much...\"\n\n\"I love you too, babe! Now eat your eggs, silly\"\n\nAs I begin to let go of her, I soon begin to wonder. How is this even possible... This can't be real... It's impossible... \n\n\"Is this even real?\"\n\nAs if on cue, everything turns black. Everything except her. My heart starts racing. What the hell? I immediately pull back from her. Her expression changed. She looks terrified. \n\n\"Please don't wake up...\" \n\n\"W-what?\"\n\n\"If you do, I'll disappear forever. Please don't let me die...\"\n\n\"Oh my god, no. I-I'll never wake up, I want to be with you forever. I can't loose you again.\"\n\nShe begins to cry. I always hated seeing her cry.\n\n\"It's too late.\"\n\nShe disappears. I scream for her, but she doesn't appear. Everything begins to turn white.\n\n---------------------------------\nMy eyes open and my body jerks up. Tears begin to fall down my face. I turn to the window. It's still dark outside.\n\n\n(This was my first time doing a writing prompt thing, so sorry if it's bad! I'm also on mobile, so hopefully there aren't lot, or any, mistakes.)" ]	2
	[WP] "I'm afraid of you. Not because you may do me harm, but because of what I might do when you're around. I love you, and it's tearing me up inside."	[ "“I love you - I love you too much. It makes it hard for me to concentrate. To maintain control. When you’re around, I can’t. I can’t stop myself.\n\n“I love you, but you need to leave. For your safety, and mine.”\n\nShe stood, shaking as she said the words that had been in the back of her mind for months. But her voice didn’t tremble. Her will was strong, even if her heart was soft.\n\nHe stood looking at her, his mouth hanging open as he absorbed her words.\n\n“But.... baby....” He said softly. She simply shook her head, afraid if she spoke she would break.\n\n“You mean it? You want me to go?” He asked, more quietly than before. She nodded.\n\n“Ok,” his voice was now a heartbroken whisper. He turned to go, then glanced over his shoulder and added, “I still love you.”\n\nHe turned away once more, crossed the room, and exited without looking back again. It was for the best - at his words her resolve crumbled and tears began sliding silently down her face.\n\nAs she crumpled on the floor, a sobbing heap, the room around her began shaking softly too." ]	1
	[WP] You're the first person who had their consciousness transferred into a robotic body. Problem is, as your old, biological body died, it left behind a really, really pissed off ghost.	[ "This was brilliant! I wiggled my fingers, watching them as I did so. Then my toes. Different body parts at different times. No more pain. I wasn't supposed to be the first person in a robotic body. In truth, I was so far down the waiting list I thought it might not happen in time. That's why my father petitioned the government. I was dying, you see. Slowly and painfully, bit by bit, year by year. \n\nIn the end, they took pity on me. Decided that I could be their test subject. To make sure they'd gotten it right. In the end I decided that it was worth the risk. I would either die painlessly (which was more than I ever could have hoped for) or live forever, with no pain. My grandmother was against it at first. She kept saying that we'd end up like slaves to the government with no autonomy. But even then, that possibility wasn't any worse than what I had been living with for most of my life. \n\nI stood slowly, still expecting the usual lightning bolts running down my body, from the top of my legs to the tips of my toes. They'd kindly left a mirror in the room, so I could see what I looked like. I was still remarkably human-like, except for the tint of silver that was my skin. Still, miles better than before. \n\n\"Hey, hey! You! What did you do?!\" The voice came from nowhere, a voice that seemed to hiss words. I turned and looked across the room, starting as I saw the disembodied figure. It looked terribly familiar. \n\"Are you deaf?!\" It said again. \n\"No! No, I'm not,\" I squeaked. I might be made of metal but I could still feel emotions. And right now I was terrified. \n\"I won't ask again. What. Did. You. Do?\" The figure jabbed at me between words, as if to hit home their point. Not that I could really feel it. \n\"Please, I just tried to get away from my body and what it was doing to me. I didn't want to die,\" I jabbered, shrinking away from the figure. \"What are you? Why do you look like me?\"\nIt giggled, until it started to snort and cackle. It didn't make me feel any better. \n\"You idiot. I am you. And I'm not happy. You killed me!\"\n\"I didn't mean to!\"\n\nIt went a bit downhill from there. Strictly speaking, I didn't need to sleep. Or eat. Or perform any human functions. But at night I'd settle under my blankets and rest a little. It was my way of clinging to my once human life I suppose. Only human me wouldn't have it. They wailed and moaned, preventing me from getting any rest. Anything I did, they tried to stop it. I couldn't get a minute's peace. \n\nI even tried a blessing from a priest. It did nothing. Anything I could think of. Pagan rites, everything I could think of. I was stuck with my ghostly body. And they were angry. Beyond angry that I had chosen a robotic body. They just couldn't accept it. \n\nIn the end, the government scrapped the idea of robotic bodies. The thought of millions of these beings was a terrifying one. Not that they gave me any advice on how to deal with it. I was strictly on my own. Again. \n\n###\nThis is only my second /r/WritingPrompts story so go easy on me haha. I know the ending is a little weak, I was really struggling to figure it out! Hope you enjoy!" ]	1
	[WP] You are the hero of legend. You are also exceptionally ugly.	[ "\"Well...this is...\" \n\nHigh Elder Su-Gong of the Dragon Temple did not finish his sentence. Instead, he stared at the ninety-three books of prophecy lined up in their shelves with an expression of steadily increasing puzzlement.\n\n\"He passed the trials?\"\n\n\"Yes.\" Brother Simonson had been with the monastery for nine years now. He was one of the most solid and dependable people there, yet even he seemed troubled. \"In fact, he almost took Brother Gilga's head clean off in the Third Trial of Flame.\"\n\n\"Hmmm.\" The Elder considered this. \"I...I had always thought that the Dragon Hero would be...\"\n\n\"Taller?\"\n\n\"Yes, that too, I suppose.\" The Elder nodded and frowned at Volume 27 of the prophecies. \"I was more concerned with.... you know...\"\n\n\"The smell?\"\n\n\"It was pungent... but no.\" Elder Su-Gong shook his head. \"And no, not the nakedness either. The great prophet Losta did write that 'He shall come upon ye as a child without dignity or shame.' That passage always confused me, but now...\"\n\nElder and Brother looked on the tomes in silence for a moment.\n\n\"Was there anything in the scriptures about the hunched back or, uh, the green skin?\" Brother Simonson asked.\n\n\"No...well...\" The Elder tilted his head back. \"There is the passage in book forty that says 'He will come upon the world like a rising hill in spring.' I always thought that meant something else. You're sure about this? He brought the sacred staff?\"\n\n\"He did.\" Brother Simonson nodded. \"Though it was a bit...bent. It had bite marks in it.\"\n\n\"Hm.\"\n\n\"Do you think that was mud on him or...\"\n\n\"I am beginning to believe that there are some things that should be left as mysteries, my child.\"" ]	1
Might have been done already, not too sure how original this idea is... but I’d like to see what people can come up with!	[WP] Your whole life has been spent seeing what you can only describe as “emotional auras” around normal people. One day, you find a bustling town, with no auras in sight...	[ "“Jane, I think we should just keep driving,” I tell my fiancée. My hand instinctively reaches out for hers, the car suddenly feeling a lot colder. The massive signboard with the words ‘Welcome to Pine Town feels anything but welcoming as we drove past it.\n\n“But I thought you said you needed to use the loo!” she exclaims, but I ignore it. My mind goes back to the image of the old man we saw earlier by the rood. I try to catch a glimpse of him again using the rear-view mirror. He is already gone, but I cannot forget how he looked.\n\nI turn to Jane, her body glowing slightly orange. The colour of excitement. I suppose I can try telling her about my ‘condition’, but what good will it do? I have already kept it a secret from her since the start of the relationship and bringing it up now will only invite more questions.\n\nI force out a smile. “Nah, I don’t feel like it anymore. Besides, wouldn’t it be better for us to reach our destination as soon as possible?” I say, watching her orange flicker with brown. I have the answer for the confusion that she’s feeling right now, but I maintain my silence while trying to give her the puppy eyes. Some questions are best left unanswered.\n\nJane eventually shrugs and return to her driving. I sigh with relief internally. All my life I’ve seen people in colourful auras, signifying their emotions. Orange meant joy, blue is sadness, yellow is envy (who knew) and so forth. I tried asking my parents about this strange ability that I had but suffice to say, it did not end up well. For a moment in time, everyone thought I was crazy.\n\nSo I learned that the best way for me to continue to live on normally is to hide this condition of mine. Of course, being able to see someone’s emotions works wonders when it comes to relationships and in a way I have come to accept it as being part of myself, a secret belonging to only me. And for 25 years, I observed in silence the different colours of people. Everyone had a colour, even when you are sleeping. Humanity is a highly emotional species.\n\nBut that man just now, standing by the roadside, had no colours. Just pure blank. No one does that. In my whole life, as far as I can remember, the colour is constant. Something felt wrong about the man and I wanted to be as far away as possible from him.\n\n“Strange, no one mentioned about this Pine Town when we left the BNB right?” Jane’s voice breaks my daydream. I turn to see the approaching buildings by the roadside. She is right. When we left a few hours earlier, our host told us that it is going to be a straight drive to our next destination. She did not mention any towns or settlements that we will pass by. \n\nI squint to see the town, noticing several people minding their own business. My heart drops when I see the exact same thing with the man. All of them have no colours around their body. And just right on cue, they all turn to look at our car and I feel their gaze stopping on me.\n\nThey know.\n\n-------------------\n\n/r/dori_tales\n" ]	1
	[WP] The world is suffering from a plague known as Decay (Humans walking cause the earth to rapidly whither). Somehow your footfalls don't cause this unlike so many before. Whereever you step life begins anew.	[ "With 9 billion people on the planet when the disease started, the entire planet started to slowly wither at once. At first, it was chalked up to climate change - the temperature had been rising, the ocean levels too, on top of all this the acidification of the ocean was at an all-time high. Things were already dying, it took a while for them to take notice.\n\nBut the evidence became irrefutable. Large cities like New York, Shanghai, and Chicago lost all of their vegetation in weeks. It seemed like a blessing to be rid of all the rats, but then the dogs started dying too. People were sick, and women hardly carried to term. Environmentalists all over the world were working themselves into a frenzy trying to find an explanation.\n\nIt didn't become obvious until enough people became infected. Like any disease, there are varying levels of symptoms in the affected. They found an individual that was particularly expressive of the Decay. Everything she touched withered in seconds. Once this became apparent, doctors everywhere started testing people trying to find the cause of this disease. Was it a virus? Bacterial? A parasite? The answer was unclear; but what was clear was that it was transmittable. \n\nShut-ins and people detached from civilization showed no sign of contributing to the decay. The rural Midwest of the United States was largely unaffected - with the exception of a contributory worldwide effect coming from all of the diseased - whereas the eastern and western coasts were almost devoid of nonhuman life. People were dying too from it, but the disease seemed to affect things in a certain order. It started with the smallest organisms and worked its way up until everything was gone.\n\nOf course, this was all the case until Sadie came in. Sadie, with her golden glow and vibrant life. Her footfall sprouted great oaks and her laugh gave birds the will to sing again. They found her wandering through Yellowstone, lamenting the death that started to infect the place. There were supposed to be no visitors, but she was still there. A break-in. \n\nStories circulated about how she contracted the other disease - or a blessing in other eyes. People wanted to believe that she was a god. They said that it was aliens that came down and gave her this gift, but she knew of a different answer.\n\nTo be continued" ]	1

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