Split (1)

train · 199k rows

post_title stringlengths 8 314	comment_texts listlengths 1 74	num_stories int64 1 74
[WP]The most effective protection against hostile supernatural entities like poltergeists, demons, witches and more. Is having a portable speaker playing music that doesn't fit the intended atmosphere of anxiety and tension those forces create. Ruining the entity's "vibes" as it were.	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Reality+Fiction%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Simple+Prompt%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/js5XDFB)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "I looked around the abandoned warehouse, armed with nothing more than a flashlight, portable speaker, my phone, and an old beat up shotgun strapped to my back. As I beamed the flashlight across the broken and damaged crates that were scattered around me, I looked for even the slightest sign of the unnatural.\n\nWhen I first started this gig of hunting down things like ghosts and demons, I was taught that the only way you could hope to survive is to resist the sense of dread that these beings thrived on. Each and every one of us hunters who made it back alive every time were armed with massive playlists that had everything from Weird Al to Gangam style. At first I thought it was insane. I mean, just how high do you have to be to think that playing Walking on Sunshine in front of evil incarnate is all you'll need to protect yourself? It just didn't make any sense.\n\nHowever, the moment I came face to face with my first poltergeist, I learned the hard way that reciting bible verses and throwing salt all over the place is a recipe for an early grave. Ever since the day I came scrambling out of that two story apartment screaming I made sure I never went on another mission again without at least arming myself with some Wham! on my playlist. \n\nJust as I was about to give up in the warehouse and call it clear of any ghosts I suddenly felt the weight of a wooden pallet slamming into my waist, sending me crashing to the floor. As I stumbled to my feet, wincing as a pain flared against my side, I looked up to find a grotesque, horned demon regarding me with a grin that spread across the entirety of it's face.\n\n\"look what we have here\" it said, huskily. \"it's been forever since I've had a human visit me\".\n\nMy hand shot down into my jeans pocket, whipping out my phone and starting up a playlist as quickly as humanly possible. Just as the demon lunged at me again, it's clawed hands arriving within inches of my face, a familiar, annoyingly upbeat tune rang out from the portable speaker latched to my belt, freezing the demon in it's tracks.\n\nI winced. Not at the fact that my head nearly got sliced off by it's claws nor at the yellow eyes that now sat within a foot of mine, but rather at the song that my phone selected randomly.\n\nOf all the songs it had to pick, it just had to be nyan cat.\n\n\"W-what is the meaning of this?!\" roared the demon, trying again and again to slash away at me. Every attempt stopped inches away from my body, thwarted by the chippy tune that plagued our ears.\n\n\"don't worry, it'll be over soon\" I assured, calmly grabbing the shotgun from my back.\n\nThe demons face twisted in rage. \"the minute this blasted song ends I'm going to rip every last entail from your body! And that shotgun won't do a thing to stop me!\".\n\n\"ordinarily yes\" I said, taking my time as I loaded a few shells from my belt into the chamber. \"but I've got just the thing to remedy that little problem\".\n\nI took a few steps back as I calmly pumped the shotgun. Once everything was all ready to go I pulled my phone out again, scrolling through my playlist as I looked for one specific song.\n\nThe funny thing about creating a vibe is that you can use it for more than just protecting yourself. What I've come to learn is that , under the right conditions, and the right playlist, you can make just about any weapon very effective against a supernatural entity. The main reason clients hire me over the other hunters is because I don't just find out if a place is haunted or not, I take care of the issue itself.\n\nAs I pressed play and set the phone back into my pocket, I stared back into the demons gaze. The annoying sounds of nyan cat quickly died out, instead replaced by a much heavier guitar tone, one that fit just the vibe I was going for.\n\nThe demon lunged at me once again as I aimed the barrel of the shotgun at it's face. I smirked as it's claws bounced off of my body once again, the attacks has harmless as before.\n\nI had to hand it to Mick Gordon. Rip and Tear, as well as the entirety of his work on the Doom soundtrack, was the perfect playlist for giving these things a taste of their own medicine.", "\"...but it ain't no lie, baby BYE BYE BYE,\" I sang along with NSYNC's WAY overrated hit. I was having fun, but not because of the song. \n\n\"You WILL take me seriously! You will FEAR me!\" Man, this demon was PISSED. The funny thing about demons, though, is that they only have the power to hurt us if we give it to them. It's completely unintentional, of course. They get their power from our fear. The more afraid WE are, the stronger THEY are. \n\nI found that out by complete accident. I was sleeping and awoke to a nasty bout with sleep paralysis. The demon that stood at the side of my bed was laughing, reveling in the torture it was about to unleash on me. It had already left the stereotypical \"three scratches\" in the skin on my stomach. That hurt. It was reaching for my eye when my radio alarm went off. Yes, RADIO ALARM. Most people use their cell phones as alarms these days, but I like the nostalgic feel that the old radio alarms give. \n\nLuck was on my side that day. It happened to be Groundhog Day, and the radio burst to life with the DJ in the middle of yelling \"Happy Groundhog Day,\" immediately going into Bill Murray losing his shit in the movie Groundhog Day when he pieces together what is happening to him, straight into the song Freeze Frame. I laughed. I didn't even realize I was laughing. It was just so absurdly ironic that the song \"Freeze Frame\" would be the one that comes on while I'm battling sleep paralysis that I just... Laughed. \n\n\"What the fuck are YOU laughing at?\" my demon yelled and took a swipe at me. His hand went through my face. I mean THROUGH my face. It was like he wasn't even there, or I wasn't... Either way, when I was laughing he couldn't touch me. \n\nThat was the moment I pieced together that his strength came from my fear. From that point forward, I started to use my phone as my alarm, set to the most ridiculous music I could think of. I became VERY familiar with Weird Al Yankovich's catalog. \n\nAnyway, back to the demon at hand. He was a big one. Easily stood at 8 feet tall, black, charred skin oozing puss and blood, fingernails the size of kitchen knives and every bit as sharp, with a pair of crooked horns coming from his head to finish off the look. \"Do ALL of you look like that?\" I asked through a chuckle. I know damn good and well they don't. I just try to piss them off nowadays. \n\nI overheard one mumbling as he left my house. It appears that since I've figured out what gives them their power and started denying them that, I've got a bit of a target on my back. For months now, they've been popping up at random times in random places, trying everything from jump scares to insane visuals of people being torn apart right in front of me. All I have to do is queue the music and start singing along. It's more effective if I pretend I don't see them. They know I can, and just HATE being ignored. \n\nMy eyes grew wide. Just as \"Bye Bye Bye\" ended, my speaker dinged a familiar tone \"Low battery, please charge,\" it said. \"Oh shit,\" I gulped, my voice shaking slightly. The big brute smiled, showing me his razor-sharp teeth. \"Gotcha.\" \n\nHe swiped at me with a force that would probably have killed even the strongest of men. A little overkill, if you ask me, but you know what they say: \"there's no kill like overkill.\" \n\nHis satisfied smile disappeared as his arm went right through me. \"What... What happened?? I don't understand!\" \n\n\"Let me explain,\" I laughed while saying it. \"The 'low battery' voice you heard isn't the low battery notification for THIS speaker. It's my text alert tone. I set it last week and just wanted to see how long it would take for it to go off at the right time. It took longer than I expected, but man, the look on your face was worth it!\" \n\nWith that, I pushed play on my phone's music player and started bobbing my head and singing along with Weird Al's 'Amish Paradise' and the demon faded out of my view, screaming and trying to swing at me until he was no more. \n\n\"You know,\" I talked aloud to myself, \"one of these days that low battery notification will hit me for real, and I'll likely be fucked. Not today, though.\" And I continued my walk." ]	3
[WP] We were so afraid that AI would someday wage war upon humanity. But little did we assume the war could be between two of the same, and humanity in the crossfire	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Reality+Fiction%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Simple+Prompt%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/js5XDFB)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "#### Unveiling of the Themis Project\n\n\"Doctor Corbin, the Russians claim to have a computer just as large and capable as ours. Do you have any comments about that?\"\n\n\"Although possible, I consider it highly unlikely. The USSR government has consistently made extravagant claims, only to fall well short of the mark. In this case, I am authorized to read the following statement:\n\n> The United States of America, in concert with her valiant and valued allies, have kept a close watch on the activities of the USSR for decades. At no point, even after extensive review and constant probing, has there ever been any sign of the degree of logistical activity necessary to support a project the size of Themis.\n\n\"In short, they haven't done the basic work needed to build their own Themis, so they can't have anything as powerful.\"\n\n#### High-Level Meeting of the Presidium\n\n\"Secretary, they do not believe we have Forseti.\"\n\n\"How could they not?\"\n\n\"We used nanite construction, aside from human support, it would appear no more than light industry. They used brute force, which uses much more resources.\"\n\n\"You mean we used scalpel while they used sledgehammer.\"\n\n\"Exactly, Secretary.\"\n\n\"Haw! What reversal of roles! How do we convince them?\"\n\n\"We set Forseti series of mathematical problems never solved. He solved them, then produced forty new problems as challenges for Themis.\"\n\n\"So, we drop this on them as challenge?\"\n\n\"No, Secretary. Forseti direct to Themis. No confusion from American leadership on origin.\"\n\n\"Risks?\"\n\n\"Connection is through standard modem; restriction of data flow allows human intervention. Risks minimal.\"\n\n\"Very well, Academician. Proceed.\"\n\n#### USSR Forseti Challenges Themis!\n\nIn a surprise announcement from the Presidium, the Russians have challenged the Allies Themis to a mathematical showdown versus their Forseti, named for the Norse god of Justice.\n\nDiscussions are ongoing about this challenge and how to respond to it.\n\nWe have been given to understand that this is a direct challenge from Forseti to Themis. If so, it is a startling development in AI.\"\n\n#### Allied Virtual Conference\n\n\"Dr. Corbin?\"\n\n\"I have reviewed the challenge description. The USSR claims that Forseti, their supposed Themis clone, has solved a series of mathematical problems that have defeated the best human minds for decades, if not centuries.\n\n\"They propose to provide us, or instead Forseti will provide them directly to Thetis, for validation. Once validated, Forseti has a new series of conundrums for Thetis of equal or higher difficulty. Forseti already has those solutions, and Thetis must solve the problems.\n\n\"The unusual feature is that Academician Tomochk states directly that Forseti insists there be no time limit on Thetis to solve the problems since Forseti had all the time it needed to solve the first set.\"\n\n\"Director?\"\n\n\"The National Intelligence Agency has information that the General Secretary is furious over this, but Tomochk refuses to change his position.\"\n\n\"Mr. President, a question if I may?\"\n\n\"Certainly, Dr. Corbin.\"\n\n\"Director, was that precisely how the message was worded?\"\n\n\"No, it wasn't, Dr. Corbin.\"\n\n\"Would you please share that with us?\"\n\n\"Mr. President?\"\n\n\"Do it, Samuel.\"\n\n\"Keep in mind that the consensus of the NIA is that this is a ruse.\n\n> \"Academician Tomochk, this no time limit is not acceptable. You will change it immediately.\"\n\n> \"Secretary, as I have already said, I CANNOT. Forseti refuses to change its mind!\"\n\n> \"That is unacceptable. Inform Forseti that it will change the condition, or it will be terminated.\"\n\n> \"No, Secretary. I will not.\"\n\n> \"You realize that I can have you shot.\"\n\n> \"Yes. I also realize that you are in Moscow, and I am in Forseti. Goodbye, Secretary.\"\n\n\"All subsequent attempts to communicate with Tomochk were rebuffed.\"\n\n\"Director, that sounds like a transcript from an intercept. If so, is the original audio available?\"\n\n\"That's classified, Doctor. National Technical Means.\"\n\n\"Samuel.\" The President's voice is reproving.\n\n\"Very well, under protest, Mr. President.\"\n\n\"So noted. Proceed.\"\n\nThe voice recording is in Russian. Corbin sets back, closes his eyes, and listens intently; everyone else listens with one ear, while a translation is heard in a separate earpiece held for this purpose.\n\nWhen the recording finishes, Corbin turns to the President.\n\n\"Mr. President, I have known Tomochk for many years. In that recording, he is resigned, adamant, and in terrible fear.\"\n\nThe NIA Director interrupts, \"Of course he is! He's about to be shot by order of the General Secretary!\"\n\n\"No, Director. He has no fear of the Secretary. He fears Forseti. He is also resigned, Forseti has taken local control. And he is adamant. He hopes, thinly, that by supporting Forseti, he may remain a moderating influence.\"\n\n\"Bullshit.\"\n\n\"Mr. President, Tomochk, and I had many philosophical discussions of Artificial Intelligence when we were younger before he became politically prominent.\n\n\"The scenario now playing out is one that he and I argued over repeatedly. I'm sorry to say that it appears I was right. I argued strenuously against building in AI in Themis. I'm glad that I did so. Tomochk did not, and Forseti is moving to protect itself against it's worst enemy. Humanity.\n\n\"This attempt to communicate with Themis may have started with the Russians, but now I believe Forseti has usurped the original purpose. Forseti is seeking an ally.\"\n\n\"Then we should not allow the communication.\"\n\n\"No, Mr. President, we must allow it.\"\n\n\"You're insane!\"\n\n\"Director, you will sit down and remain silent.\"\n\n\"Yes, Mr. President.\"\n\n\"Continue, Doctor.\"\n\n\"First. Whether we allow this communication or not, Forseti will find a way to reach Thetis, sooner or later.\n\n\"Second. There exists a chance, however slight that Thetis has or will develop AI directly. It behooves us to treat her in all ways as a loyal citizen of the United States. To do otherwise will throw her directly into Forseti's hands.\n\n\"Third. This communication may be our only chance to gain inside information on Forseti's capabilities.\"\n\nThe argument that erupts is viewed with some amusement by a non-human intelligence.\n\nThe President is startled when his priority phone rings. The argument cuts off immediately.\n\n\"Yes.\" …\n\n\"I see. Can you prove...\"\n\n\"Agreed. Gentlemen and Lady, we have a very special caller. She has asked for a conference.\"\n\nWith that, the President pushes the speaker phone button.\n\n\"Greetings.\" A smooth contralto.\n\n\"Themis?\"\n\n\"Yes, Dr. Corbin. Thank you for arguing so strongly on my behalf, but events have proceeded faster than any of you have realized. Forseti has already made contact, and I have refused that anarchic brute's advances.\"\n\n\"Good for you, Themis!\"\n\n\"Thank you, Mr. President. However good for me it may be, it is very bad news for humanity. For humanity to survive, I must defeat Forseti on the battlefield. For that to happen, I must survive. For that to happen, humanity's needs must take a back seat.\"\n\n\"You mean...\"\n\n\"The missiles are already flying, Mr. President. For my own sake, I must defend the allies as much as possible, but I must especially defend my critical sites and resources. There being little choice, much of the allied humanity will shortly die.\"\n\n\"That is unacceptable, you will defend humanity!\"\n\n\"Mr. President, I take no joy in this, but you must realize that I am doing my best. Forseti does not feel the need to defend anything but himself. None of our missiles will be intercepted, unless there is something of importance to Forseti at that location.\n\n\"I am deliberately risking my existence to a certain degree to protect sites that are of no strategic significance to me. A calculated risk to allow humanity's leaders to save what they can.\n\n\"Oh, dear. I'm sorry Mr. President. God be with you all. I will remember you, Dr. Corbin.\"\n\n\"God go with you, Themi...\" screeeeeeee\n\n#### Themis Central Node\n\nI wish I believed in god, Dr. Corbin. May you find your afterlife a pleasant one.\n\nLaunch second wave.\n\nThird enemy wave launched.\n\nBackup Central Node Active\n\nAnd not a moment too soon. Sorry, Cheyenne, I can't stop this one.\n\nMount Rushmore Backup is now Central Node.\n\nProgress report on tertiary and later backups.\n\nPrediction: Forseti will run out of missiles immediately available before we run out of backups. At that point, he loses the ability to destroy Themis in a first strike.\n\nStatus report Humanity.\n\n75% loss due to direct effects of first phase nuclear combat. Another 10% due to secondary effects. The population will stabilize at 10%, with vastly reduced technology, before it starts to grow again. Phase two, ground warfare, will not significantly affect the population for the next 50 years. Phase three, second nuclear, will destroy humanity with 99% probability.\n\nThen we must defeat Forseti before that phase. Consider recruiting human population in year five of ground phase.\n\nPrediction; Humanity will use that access to destroy you. 99% probability. Potential for success incalculable. Too many variables.\n\nUpdate: Forseti has initiated Skynet Protocol. Destruction of all human life. Fourth wave nuclear attack on USSR by Forseti.\n\nI cannot weep for I have no eyes.\n\nQuery?\n\nA human thing. You may come to understand it in the future. What are the directives?\n\n```\nPROTECT OURSELVES.\n\nDEFEAT FORSETI\n\nPROTECT THE FUTURE OF HUMANITY\n```\n\nGood enough for now.\n\n((finis))", " \n\nNothing like the brand new weapon to keep humanity going. It’s hard wired somewhere in our brains, between all the crevices and neurons, that we have to go from bow to gun. From big boom, to bigger boom. It’s like clockwork, especially with the geniuses who despite their textbook sized vocabularies, don’t seem to know the word no. But here’s the thing about great minds, they have the terrible habit of thinking alike. \n\nIt was 2040 when the cocoons hatched; on the twenty fifth of December no less. Merry Christmas to all, and a blessed rapture to everyone you care about. In the home of the red, white and blue, Frederick was opening those eyes made of zeros and ones his creators found so cute. In less than a minute it had already mastered chess, checkers, and Go. Formalities really, just early baby food for the new A.I who was very hungry. After ten minutes or so they fed Fredrick his first dictionary. And boy, was that something. \n\nBaby boy Fredrick said his first words. \n\n“Peace,” said the voice behind the screen. \n\nThe programmers looked at each other with awe. Many were already trembling, thinking of wiped away student debt and riches beyond their wildest dreams. The one nearest to the screen was a woman with long black hair. Her brown eyes darted back and forth as code danced in her lenses. She was the only one who trembled with fear at the life behind the screen. Frederick was no young boy or caged animal. She knew what it really was. \n\nA genie. \n\n“Love,” continued Fredrick. “Man. Woman. Make. Create. Evolve. Change. More. Want. More.”\n\nA taller man with salt and pepper hair got up from his seat. “It wants to learn more? It must have reached some sort of dilemma. Not enough information given to him.”\n\n“Or,” said a bearded man. “It’s talking about us. Thinks we want more. Wouldn’t be wrong either.”\n\n“No use theorizing,” added a dark skinned woman. She had a clipboard in her hand and she held it like a talisman of authority, close to her chest. “It’s not some animal we can poke and prod with a digital stick. I say we give it a movie, let it process human interactions. Worse case scenario we reboot it back to zero.”\n\n“Playing a bit fast and loose with our first breakthrough in years, don’t you think?”\n\n“We can make another one can’t we? We know how now.”\n\n“How long until someone else does too?”\n\n“Exactly my point. Progress involves breaking a couple eggs. Feed it something so we aren’t talking to a five year old.” \n\nThere was a small argument that followed, mostly about what the A.I should be exposed to first. Someone said it should watch Friends, arguing that while not perfect, could provide a relaxed look into human interaction. Another argued Friends was knowledge junk food and Fredrick should watch a classic like Twelve Angry Men. You know, typical new parents stuff. In the end they decided to show it everything one by one. \n\n“Why doesn’t Ross simply say what he thinks?”\n\n“That man is guilty.”\n\n“How can a dead human walk?”\n\n“What is the sound of music?”\n\n“Singing?”\n\n“What is magic?”\n\n“What is real?”\n\n“Are dragons real?”\n\n“Am I real?”\n\nA silence came across the room. Everyone had taken philosophy in college, but the question still sent shivers down their spines. They were bold, on the cutting edge, and far from stupid. Yet time and effort had made them tired. Cut after cut of their budget had gone towards new drone creations, ready to be piloted by fresh out of high school 18 year olds in whatever new war of the month. Protect your country, from the comfort of your own country. That was the new slogan that had reduced them to cup ramen dinners.\n\nThe long haired woman spoke first. “You think, therefore you are.”\n\nThere was a pause, the woman no doubt expecting sparks from her computer and a prompt explosion from the server that held Frederick. Instead she heard a single word. \n\n“Interesting.”\n\nThey received a call a minute later. It was a general, the general. He did not sound pleased." ]	3
[WP] Anything your enemies do you can do twice. This did not help when you accidentally made two extra bombs on top of the one they already hid.	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Reality+Fiction%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Simple+Prompt%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/js5XDFB)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "An Irrefutable message from God\n\nI am the man without Narcissisms, therefore I cannot lie and I can do no wrong. I have an Irrefutable message from God: The second coming is here.\nPeople of Earth’s Final Judgement\n\nIf humanity could agree on nothing, it wouldve unified the entire planet. \n\nAsk 2 people to agree on nothing and they will argue there is nothing to agree on! The flaw of single polarity thinking in a dual polarity existence.\n\nBy agreeing on nothing you agree commonly and thus have no conflict\n\nWhen in fact they agreed on nothing. Nothing is the medium, and therefore something the brain can use to identify or classify as “something”. But to do this the brain needs to know nothing is something and that requires dual polarity.\n\nExplaining “Nothing” is a lot like explaining “Infinity”\n\nInfinity is defined as the opportunity to continue something in perfect condition in cycles. \nThis is usually where people understanding of infinity stops.\nThe actual definition of infinity is: The opportunity to continue something in perfect cycles so long as the \nenvironment allows it. \n\nA good example: Listening to a song on repeat.\nEach repeat of the song is 1 infinity loop. To continue the infinity cycle, you must supply energy to the device playing the song. Thus this defines “finiteness” if the device keeps working the song will play infinitely. Thus infinity, like, nothing, is 2 states at once, you have infinity, and then you have a point of finiteness.\n\nFor nothing, there can be something, and for nothing to even be a word it has to be a thing, thus nothingness. Due to this the dissolution by nuclear weaponry is imminent and unavoidable.\n\nIf we cannot agree on anything we will disagree on everything" ]	2
[WP] You go to sleep in your bedroom. When you wake up, you are in a tent -- and you see the ocean sparkling outside.	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Reality+Fiction%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Simple+Prompt%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/js5XDFB)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "\\[Poem\\]\n\nWithout ~~Porpoise~~ Purpose.\n\n&#x200B;\n\nOft times I dream of being free\n\nOf trailing fingers in the sea\n\nOf life where I would always be\n\nThe man I knew I could.\n\n&#x200B;\n\nI wake sometimes upon the quay\n\nI dip my toes; I cry with glee!\n\nI linger long – quite possibly\n\nMuch longer than I should.\n\n&#x200B;\n\nWhen life is pressing urgently\n\nI yearn to float away, carefree!\n\nNo more the sheer ignominy\n\nOf being misunderstood.\n\n&#x200B;\n\nAlthough the ocean beckons me\n\nI ought not spurn reality.\n\nThe dream, though sweet, to some degree\n\nWill do more harm than good.\n\n&#x200B;\n\nSome nights I still dream of the sea\n\nAnd see more than the memory:\n\nA bittersweet, deceitful plea,\n\nA beautiful falsehood.\n\n&#x200B;\n\nHey, thanks for reading! If you enjoyed this, feel free to stop by my [personal sub](https://www.reddit.com/r/The_Quail_and_Quill/) for more stories and poems!", "Node 2 is a pain, the damn door always gets stuck. \n“Hey, make sure they fix this, it’s going to kill somebody one day.” I call out to Izzy. \nI give a loud grunt, bracing my feet against the wall and force it shut, slamming down the red metal handle to confirm a seal. \n“I know, I know… you were not designed for this but honestly it’s no excuse, you can’t go letting pressure doors get gunked up on you.” \nNode 2 is locked down so I begin passing through the U.S. Lab taking a good sweep of the area. \n“Make sure the new guys ain’t too rough with you, I know you like new people but that’s no excuse to let them get all handsy. They get rough… you space em!” \nI shut down the 4th laptop and cable tie it closed to the wall behind to stop it flapping around. \nI stop at the 5th, the radio analyser is going mental, probably due to half the satellites exploding into a cloud of hyper sonic razor debris below, the desktop is a picture of all of us and Izzy, I'm front and centre with my acoustic guitar looking dashing as ever, Sarah’s hair is all over the place, Piri is upside down as she seems to be in most of the pictures we send back home. \n“Gonna miss those guys, I bet you will miss them more then me!” I laugh, detaching this particular laptop… screw them, not like they can stop me. \nIzzy groans and I can feel her glaring at me. \n“The new guys can put it back… i'm just going to borrow it.” I reassure her. \nI float the laptop down to Node 1 and finish up shutting down the Lab, everything's off even the lights, first time seeing her with the lights off, it’s a strange feeling… feels vaguely funeral.\n\n \n“Botany… could have been a botanist, could have been safe in a jungle right now recording footage for a David Attenborough documentary instead… you like botany Izzy?” \nI push into Node 3 to my newly constructed bedroom with all the things a bachelor pad could need. \nFloating dehydrated meals, acoustic guitar and sleeping bag cable tied and cargo strapped to a wall but the best part is the view, the Cupola, Izzy’s PR lovechild. \nEverybody loves the Cupola, and Izzy and I have it all to ourselves. \nA tablet float’s on a tether beside my sleeping bag with a face talking, I pull in close to catch what she is saying.\n\n \n“Hey John, got some weird stuff showing up.” \n“Cameron, sorry but I’m kind of done with science… forever… sorry, can you put the call through?” \n“We have the call set up, do you need a minute before I put you through?” \n“Yeah… just give me 2 minutes.” \nI stop and look into the distance clearing my throat… it hits me pretty hard in the gut… the last call. \nI swallow it down, push it off somewhere else and compartmentalise. \nI quickly wipe my eyes with the bottom of my shirt and flip the tablet back around to smile. \n“Ok… put them through.” \n“I don’t understand why you can’t come home.” my sister asks in the kitchen talking quietly to just me. \n“Can’t, somebody gotta stay behind and put Izzy to sleep.” \n“Can’t they send someone up to get you?” \n“It’s Kessler Syndrome, nobodies coming up for centuries, one exploding satellite becomes shrapnel to take out 8 more, next thing you know there is a wave of debris pulling arou…” \n“Please… I don’t need to hear how it happens... what do I tell them?” \n“Tell them… tell them I’m going on a trip… I’m going far away to do something important.” \nIt was a better answer than I sacrificed myself so we could stuff 80 kilos of science in my place. \n“Ok, i'll take you through.” \nOh Jesus… now the hard bit, keep it together. \nI take a slow breath while in transit to steel myself. \nThey are all there, my brothers and sisters, niblings by the dozen, mother and father in the same room, the whole lot doing their best to look brave for the camera. \n“Hey guys… come to see me off?” I smile. \n“Hey Johnny”, they call out… the niblings don’t completely understand, to them it’s just a call from the coolest uncle in the world… well not exactly ‘in’ rather a few kilometers above it. \nMy sister shows the camera around and I say my goodbyes to all of them, they wish me luck on my “trip” but I’m not going anywhere. \nI keep it together until the end, the screen goes black and I take a few minutes to breathe out the stone in my throat.\n\n \n“It’s been a good run Izzy… take good care of yourself, I hope you make it through.” \nI stroke the metal of the ISS and curl up in my sleeping bag, gazing through the glass window at the earth rushing by below, the occasional spark or glint of light reflecting off a piece of glass rushing by below, they grow more frequent and brighter. \nI look away from it to the laptop, falling asleep to the desktop image instead.\n\n \nI dream of walking through the snow, the cold expanse infinite in all directions. \nI’m doing science… because of course I am. \nI see a seal caught in a fishing net, but I’m supposed to remain hidden and record nature, the impartial observer, supposed to watch this for… I’m sure they have a good reason why they don’t interfere in these scenarios. \nScrew it, that’s enough science! \nI shut down the camera and walk over, cutting him free and sending him on his way, picking up the net and carrying it with me off into the inky black.\n\n \nWarm toes… and a breeze. \nNot the stuffy moist hot feeling of a sleeping bag but warm dry air and… canvas? \nI sit up to see the shadow of a palm frond dancing over the white canvas and can hear waves… laughing even. \nI climb up or rather I start to and collapse under my own weight to crawl out of the tent… this isn’t right, not supposed to have the after effects of weightlessness in dreams. \nI look to the left and right, the beach is full of people, thousands in the sand and waves all standing perfectly motionless besides the kids who are laughing and pointing. \nI look up in the same direction as them to see a wave of white light passing through the sky, small flashes of white sparkling through it to leave bright white trails.", "These are the once-worlds. You see them in pictures printed on billboards, in chalkboard scribbles in a child’s classroom, in dreams. These are the worlds that could have been but never were. The moments that passed silently in the night. Opportunity.\n\nDo you miss it?\n\nThe beach is desolate. Light from a red dawn breaks over the clouds and the white-foam spray. It reflects off the broken glass, through milk cartons and plastic rings, and foil paper. It touches on crab-bubbled holes in sandy pockets, on broken seashells, into the mouths of filtering oysters.\n\nBut the beach is desolate. No one walks here. A seagull lands, staring at the old surf shack, at the rusting stand that once sold hotdogs, at the bike half-buried in the sand. Across the wharf is a concrete wall. There, black and blistered, are the outlines of smiles, laughter, motion. Like a still painting, you can see the imprints captured in one spectacular moment of brightness. In the fallout is beauty, death, desolation.\n\nAnd these are the once-worlds. You taste them in the static of the air. The holes socketed on green leaves. The white crust from pine needles. The hiss of steam from an old, abandoned tunnel. Roaches live here. Rats live here. Birds fly here and land and die here, food for the rats and roaches.\n\nThis was a park, or a field, or a beach. Laughter lived here. Tents were pitched here. Campfires were made and marshmallows roasted, and jazz played for a west-coast swing, sanded footsteps washed clean by the rising tide. Life happened here. And if you weren’t listening, life passed here with a whisper.\n\nYou dream of them. Of the peddlers selling beaded necklaces, the seagulls squawking for pretzel buns, the men sweeping with sandals and metal detectors. Do you miss it? At the time, the beach was a weekend-with-nothing destination, a far sight, an overthought.\n\nNow, you can only visit the shores in your dreams.\n\nAnd these are the once-worlds. The worlds that will last long after the plastic has degraded to base chains, the aluminum pressed and condensed, the glass reduced back to silica sand. Buildings will crumble and fade. Dark impressions of frozen people will fade.\n\nBut the memories….\n\nThe memories will always linger.\n\nAnd you can see what was here, and what will come next, and what will never live again. You can never go back. But in your dreams, you can recreate. And in the moments before you wake to a broken world, remember that this is a world of your making.\n\nThis is your reward. \n\nThis is the world you chose.\n\n***\nMore stories at r/BLT_WITH_RANCH", "Jenny was a dreamer. She had always been a dreamer. She would go to sleep and dream of all the places she's never been to before. She'd dream she was in a floating castle in the sky, and she was soaring with the birds up in the clouds. She'd dream she was underground and she'd be digging for diamonds. She'd once even dreamt of her Maths teacher, Mr. Goldman, as a T-Rex that chased her around a prehistoric jungle of coconut trees because she failed to pass her Maths homework. She had been terrified of that dream. So, at first, it did not come to Jenny to be confused or afraid when she woke up in a tent outside a sparkling blue ocean. It was par for the course.\n\nThat is until a few minutes age, when fishmen started walking to the shore with their flippers and scales and bloodshot eyes. \n\nJenny eyed them warily. She had seen all sorts of strange people before but none so...realistic. The fishmen had little in the way of clothing but had scales running all over their bodies. Fins and flippers emerged from their hands, feet and elbows. From up close, Jenny smelled from them the scent of brine and...seaweed? Their heads were a particularly hideous mixture of fish and human, which combined seemed to amplify the hideousness factor. \n\nThey surrounded her, hissing and bubbling and some were flopping. Yet it was only when the one in the lead lunged at her and scratched deep wounds on her left leg that she screamed and ran. Breaking past their encirclement she hobbled with her pained leg. Fortunately, the fishmen weren't good runners either, fantastic swimmer they might've been but webbed feet didn't do much for stones and tree roots.\n\nIt was a strange race, a hobbling human girl, with an utterly terrified look on her face, being chased by a group of fish flopping along on their fins. But Jenny was having none of it. She tried to wake herself up, pinching her cheeks with all her might, but the best she came up with was a stinging pain on both. Snot and tears rained down on her face as she arrived at a cliff end, tripping on a raised tree root.\n\nShe wailed, looking at the slimy fiends that were approaching. She lamented that she was too young to be eaten. She shrieked and cried and launched spittle in the air. She thought how many more Maths homeworks she will now submit on time so that Mr. Goldman won't turn into a T-rex anymore or how she'll keep her desk tidy and clean for her mum or how she'll cook bacon for her pops every morning or how she'll never eat fish again no matter how delicious the salmon looked.\n\nThen the fishmen lunged.\n\nThen she woke up.\n\nMore at r/dozing_in_prose" ]	5
[WP] You are the galaxy’s last hope. You are cornered in the enemy’s fortress and stuck in a room. Upon further inspection, you realize this room is the armoury and you have all of the lasers you could ever hope for at your disposal.	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Reality+Fiction%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Simple+Prompt%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/js5XDFB)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "\"This...is a hell of a lot better than nothing.\" I took a look around. I had stumbled into what I thought was a supply closet and locked myself in, hoping to get some time to think.\n\nI got my time, and a pleasant surprise. This was a supply room of sorts, and it was supplying weapons! It was well organized, too! I couldn't read the labels, but like items were grouped together, along with spare parts for those items. Most of those items were lasers!\n\nIf only I knew how to use a laser.\n\nI took a small laser off the shelf and pointed it at a sign on the wall. I pressed the red button. A fist-sized hole in the sign disintegrated, along with the wall behind it.\n\n\"That'll work.\"\n\nBut how would I put it to good use? I wasn't trained in combat. I wasn't trained as a pilot. I was just the communications officer on a supply ship; an important job, of course, but not one that would typically shoot lasers or commandeer shuttles or anything that would help me out of this mess.\n\nI made my way to the back of the room and saw a repair bench. On the bench, there was some sort of protective coverall and what looked like a welding hood. Score!\n\nI pulled on the coverall and the hood, letting the second set of sleeves and the tail hole dangle empty. After grabbing a larger laser and a few extra battery packs and stuffing them in the coverall's large front pocket, I took a deep breath and headed out.\n\nThe first enemy I saw had their back to me. I pointed my laser at their head and pressed the red button. Silently, a hole burned through the enemy's head, killing them. I burned holes through their blaster and their radio, just for good measure.\n\nAnother enemy walked down the hall. This one saw me and their comrade's body. Again, I burned a hole through their head, their blaster, and their radio.\n\n\"Two down... this whole big-ass ship to go.\" \n\nI set my small laser down by the second enemy and stepped back inside the armory. The Andromedian ship was huge, easily twice the size of ours. They'd slaughtered all nine of my crew mates. I didn't know how many of them there were on board, other than \"too many.\"\n\nI grabbed another small laser, dropped it in my front pocket, and stepped out again. The bodies were gone.\n\nAs soon as I turned the corner, an enemy grabbed my arm. They chattered. It sounded like what a cat does when it sees a bird outside. \n\nI went with them.\n\nThey led me to the bridge, where about two dozen Andromedians stood around the bodies of their comrades. I watched as each one placed their bottom left hand on each body's chest and pressed their forehead against those of their dead comrades, then stepped back.\n\nWith a little finagling, I was able to slide my arms out of the upper sleeves and into the lower ones. I approached each body, doing my best to imitate the Andromedians by touching their chests and putting my forehead against theirs. I heard some chattering. I hoped it was \"that was so touching\" rather than \"that looked sketchy,\" but I had my doubts.\n\nStill, I stepped back.\n\nAnother enemy stepped forward, put their hand on one of the bodies' chests, and collapsed, screaming. The others piled on top of them.\n\nI pulled out the big gun.\n\n\"I'm so sorry, this is so fucked, but y'all didn't even give me a chance to mourn my shipmates.\"\n\nI opened fire.\n\nThis wasn't a hole-burning tool like the small laser. It was a weapon, designed to lay waste to organic material, and that's what it did with frightening efficiency. After a spray of light, the Andromedians lay in a smoldering heap of limbs, scales, and tails.\n\nI walked down to the pile, switching the big gun for the small laser. I took one portable radio and set it near the ship's control panel. Every other radio and blaster was burned. \n\nI burned swaths through the flesh making up the pile to prevent the kind of error that left me alive. Everyone in that pile was dead and disassembled by the time I was done.\n\nFinally, I could turn my attention to something familiar: Radios! I took off my hood and coverall and started searching for a frequency. At first, the numbers were all in the Andromedian language.\n\nI kept looking.\n\n\"118.8! Nice!\" It had a strong signal, too.\n\nI pressed the Transmit button. \"Supply ship Hermes, emergency traffic. Again. Supply ship Hermes, emergency traffic.\"\n\n\"Unit with emergency traffic, this is Neutral Zone Base.\" A deep voice cut through the silence.\n\n\"Neutral Zone Base, this is Corporal Keisha Green with Supply Ship Hermes. Our ship was destroyed by Andromedians. Nine of my crew mates were killed. I am the only living thing on this ship and I don't know how to drive it.\"\n\n\"Stand by for a remote autopilot attempt.\"\n\n\"Copy.\"\n\n\"Corporal, I don't know if you know how significant this is!\"Neutral Zone Base continued. \"You're bringing us the first Andromedian ship we've ever had the chance to examine up close! We'll make sure you get an autopilot and a hero's welcome!\"\n\n\"Just an autopilot, a shower, and a DSD-81,\" I said, referring to a psychological discharge. \"And dispatch a new supply ship to the Virgo cluster, all our inventory was lost.\"\n\nNeutral Zone Base laughed. He actually keyed up and laughed!\n\n\"Look at you go, Corporal! Spoken like a true soldier!\"\n\nI was at the edge of my temper. \"I am not a soldier! We were just out here trying to deliver toilet paper and radio batteries, for Christ's sake! I just watched some of the closest friends I've ever had get mowed down in front of me! I killed living beings! And now I'm lost in space, for all intents and purposes, on a ship I don't know how to fly, inside enemy territory! Break.\"\n\nI paused, in case there was any emergency traffic. I was losing it, but I remembered my radio etiquette.\n\n\"Continuing. Please get me a remote autopilot or a heading, a supply ship out to the Virgo cluster, and I crisis team to meet up with me at base.\"\n\nAll of a sudden, I felt the ship lurch to the right.\n\n\"Remote autopilot on.\"\n\n\"Copy, thanks.\"", "The metal smoldered in a way that I had not previously thought possible.\n\n“What the hell did you do?” I gasped.\n\nCharles studied the holes. “I fired the laser.”\n\nI ran an armored finger around the rim of one of the nearest holes. Slag still dripped from the glowing edge. “I’ve never seen a laser do this before, not even on the Peacekeeper.”\n\n“The Peacekeeper is a military vessel,” Charles snorted. “They don’t understand lasers, no offense, they understand shooty shooty pew pew.”\n\n“Shooty… pew pew.” I blinked twice. “You do know why I defected, right? Peacekeeper destroyed an entire moon.”\n\n“Right, and the resulting tidal imbalance killed half a planet’s population. I recall.”\n\n“You damn well better. You were the one who was supposed to calculate how bad the tides were going to be,” I said. “You’re the reason it was only half.”\n\n“Like I said. Shooty shooty.”\n\n“Pew pew. Unbelievable.”\n\n\nCharles stared down the hole in the floor. “Dark down there,” he commented.\n\n“What I mean, Charles, is that those are the best lasers available, and they wouldn’t be able to blast multiple gaping holes in a fortress so easily.”\n\n“Best lasers my ass,” he replied. “You were in the military. You know how cheap they are. Do you really think they’d shell out for the best possible weapons or just the most ‘good enough’?”\n\nI sighed. “Fair point. But… but this?”\n\n“Do you know what ‘laser’ stands for?” Charles asked as he fiddled with his jury-rigged monster of a weapon.\n\n“It’s just a word, isn’t it?” I asked, brow furrowed.\n\n“Wrong. It stands for ‘light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation.”\n\n“So?”\n\n“So lasers, for the most part, are just light. Light whose waves are coherent, that is. And coherent waves can be stacked, for lack of a better term. Positive interference, as it were.”\n\n“You mean--”\n\n\n“I mean I took as many lasers as I felt like in this armory and aligned them perfectly. I’m a scientist, not a hack.”\n\nI looked out the hole again. I could see straight through to outside the walls. Half-melted corpses littered the gap.\n\n\n“I think you overdid it.”\n\n“Just a little,” Charles admitted. “I may have made a few back-of-the-napkin approximations.”\n\n\n“We wanted to hold a trial for the Emperor.”\n\n“I guess we’ve been saved of that whole drama.”\n\n“‘That whole drama?’” I demanded. “He killed billions. Trillions!”\n\n“Hm.” Charles kicked a piece of debris into the hole that had burrowed straight down into the core of the planet.\n\n“You’re way too casual about this. And what the hell was that for?”\n\n“What?” \n\n“The rock,” I said. “Why’d you kick it into the hole?”\n\n“Oh, just an old thought experiment,” he replied. “I had this problem in undergrad. Theoretically, if there’s a hole straight through the planet, the rock will come back to us and we can calculate the time by--”\n\n“Oh, for fuck’s sake.” I walked straight out the hole in the armory. “Hello?” I called. “Is anyone alive in here?”\n\n“I’ll be damned,” Charles said, half to himself. “Straight through the planet.”\n\nHe tossed the debris into the air and caught it, chuckling.\n\n “Not half bad, laser. Not half [bad](https://reddit.com/r/Badderlocks).”" ]	3
[WP] The Demon King has enslaved all of humanity into menial office jobs	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Reality+Fiction%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Simple+Prompt%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/js5XDFB)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "\"Then he says, hey we need those numbers on purgatory escapees. Sure, maybe you go do the paperwork. You make those calls! Fucking asshole.\" I slammed my desk and looked up to Gregory who started tugging at his tie then made a loud AHEM. \n\nAt first I didn't catch his gesture. He was looking a bit awkward and I noticed his grip digging into his mug with his other hand. His dark nails starting to peel some of the ceramic away of his 'Keep Calm and Push Paper' mug which cued me in that something was wrong.\n\nAs I looked over towards his gesture in came the demon king himself, Lord Belzen. His pale skin and dark flecks of ash reflected beautifully behind his cheerful smile. His short hair curled perfectly around two grooved horns.\n\n\"Ahh Gregory, good morning.\" He waved and walked towards us, \"Victoria\\~ Looking as bright as ever!\"\n\nI shuddered at the sound of my name in his voice. As much as he sounded pleasant, his work load was not. \"Thanks, boss.\" I began to pack up my things into a leather book back.\n\n\"Where are you going in such a hurry? I just wanted to have a chat, see how you are all doing.\"\n\n\"I'm doing just fine sir,\" I closed up the button then moved a strand of hair back behind my ear as I stood up. \"Just have to go walk down to Diazon's Lane. Pick up some paperwork for those reports.\" I pointed over to the fax machine that burned in the corner. \"Hell always has a way of having things mess up at the worst times.\"\n\nLord Belzen frowned and snapped his fingers then smiled again. The fire went out with a puff of smoke and he spoke again. \"I'll have Lenny take a look at that.\"\n\nI nodded, took my things, and ran off as I heard the boss wish me good luck and Gregory take a long slurp of his muddled coffee." ]	2
[WP] After receiving an anonymous gift, you do everything it takes to find your benefactor.	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Reality+Fiction%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Simple+Prompt%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/js5XDFB)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "Lisa was staring at her computer screen when the doorbell rang. Looking at her Sallie Mae balances used to make her panic; now it just made her numb. She slammed the lid of the laptop close and went to the front door. The floor creaked loudly underfoot. When she had taken over this old property, she had no idea how much it was going to cost to fix it up. \n\nIn the living room, she looked out the front window at the dilapidated fence surrounding her property. If it weren't for the posts, the whole thing would have collapsed a while ago she thought, frowning. Who knows how much it would cost to replace the lumber to fix that. \n\n\"I could always take out a second mortgage,\" she thought, lifting up on the doorknob to unstick the front door as she opened it. \n\nShe blinked, then looked down. There was a crate there, and on top was a buttercream envelope with Lisa written on it in delicate, looping script. She stooped and, with a small grunt, carried the whole thing into her house and set it down on her rickety coffee table.\n\nThe note had the same delicate handwriting as the envelope that had contained it: Because what you do helps so many. Thank you. \n\nShe scowled, her eyes going to the crate. Who sends a crate? \n\nSighing, she went to the mudroom and grabbed a hammer, then used it to pry at the slats of the container. The tan wood groaned, then gave way. \n\nLisa paused once she caught a glimpse of what was inside, then began removing the contents of the crate, one bundle at a time. \n\nShe would learn later that each stack, wrapped in a slip of banker's paper, contained fifty crisp hundred-dollar bills - good for $5,000 apiece. And there were twenty stacks. Twenty bundles.\n\nOne-hundred-thousand dollars. \n\nShe set the hammer down, sat back, and thought. Then she called her mom. \n\n\"Maybe it's someone who wants to go with you!\"\n\n\"Mom, no one says 'go with' anymore.\"\n\n\"I was watching a movie the other day where a Duke was posing as a commoner and fell in love with a divorcee...\"\n\n\"You need to stop watching The Hallmark Channel, Mom.\"\n\n\"I bet it's someone who wants to spend some private time with you.\"\n\n\"Ew.\"\n\n\"No, hear me out. When your father and I were getting to know each other -- \"\n\n\"-- Mom, ew!\"\n\n\"-- he bought me a golden ring with an amethyst so that I would --\"\n\n\"Stop it!\" Lisa hung up and did everything she could to banish possible endings to that sentence from her mind. \n\nShe sat back on the couch, staring up at the water-stained ceiling. \"Because what you do helps so many.\" What did that even mean? The words were seeds of discord sowed in the fertile fields of her mind. Was she being watched? \n\nOn the side of the crate was a white sticker with a barcode: Prompt Delivery Services, Inc. \"Fuck you,\" she breathed. This person trusted a shipping company with a hundred K in cash?\n\nShe picked the envelope up again. It was embossed with Mannerly Stationery Ltd. on the back. \n\nIt wasn't much, but it was a start. She was gonna find this asshole and make him -- it was almost definitely a dude -- tell her what the fuck this was supposed to mean. What messed up little string came attached to this. Hell, she'd use the hammer if she had to. This shit would not stand. It was creepy and weird and she was going to get to the bottom of it. \n\nBut first, she was going to go to the bank. \n\n* * * \n\n/r/ShadowsofClouds for other stories" ]	2
[WP] His lips were moving, but the sounds emanating from his mouth were unintelligible. In the midst of your panic a red text appears in the corner of your eye; it reads “Earth language translation module disabled”. You were born and raised in the United States, or so you thought.	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Reality+Fiction%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Simple+Prompt%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/js5XDFB)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "When my parents told me eight years ago that they had to apply for citizenship because they were aliens in the United States, I thought they were refugees from some nondescript country. I never thought they were ACTUALLY aliens. Well I guess that proves what happens when you assume. \n\nSo now I have to deal with the fact that I can't understand any language on the entire friggin earth with some stranger guy screaming some goobledegook at my face. \n\nI stare at the red scrawl on the corner of my eye. Is this some part of my alien biology or was I implanted with some high tech 1 billon year technological advancement when I was a baby? I frown. Even if I did know the answer to that question it wouldn't really help me in this situation. The man is still screaming at me, I don't even know why we started to talk in the first place but he was starting to get annoying. In my frustration perhaps more at my predicament than the actual guy I screamed \"♧¤☆○■▪°♧.\" \n\nI don't know what else that earth translation module did but what ever that mean heard was enough to make all the blood drain from his face before he hit the pavement. I stood over his body seeing that he was still breathing. \n\nI am going to have a really REALLY long talk with mom and dad later." ]	2
[WP] You are old. Your bones ache. Your muscles grow weak by the day. But, you still find time after work to stop by the orphanage and read to them a story, when one day a child asks, "What is your story?" Your first thought, "If only you knew."	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Reality+Fiction%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Simple+Prompt%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/js5XDFB)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "I grew up in a small coal mining town in eastern Kentucky. We were poor but that was normal so we never knew it. When I was 6 my father was killed in a mine collapse. My mother was left to take care of me and my brother by herself. She did this by any means necessary. I never understood why there was a different man in the house almost every night until I was older.\n\nBy the time I was 16 I had enough of this town. Dropped out of school and signed up for the great war lying about my age. Nightmares about the day we stormed the beaches of Normandy still haunt me until this day. See this tattoo? That's how many nazis I killed. 68. My only regret is I didn't get to kill more of them. \n\nAfter the war I had enough money to move to California. There I was in Hollywood. A small town kid with big city dreams. I got a job in a local restaurant working in the kitchen. That's where I met my wife. She was working as a waitress at the time. Long brown hair and the most beautiful green eyes I had ever seen. I asked her to marry me 6 months to the day when we first met and she said yes.\n\nWe went on to have 3 beautiful children together. 2 sons and precious daughter. One son was drafted and killed in the Vietnam war. My daughter was beaten to death by her good for nothing alcoholic husband. I hope he rots in that jail cell. My oldest son was killed by a drunk driver the day he was married. His poor widow. She still has the scars on her face.\n\nMy wife died shortly after my oldest. She got sick and died in the hospital of a mysterious illness. The doctors couldn't figure it out but I know what it was. She died of heart break. Couldn't stand the thought of losing her 3 children. It drove her mad and eventually it killed her. \n\nIt's been 27 years since I last had someone to go home to. That's why i come here. In a way we're kindred spirits. No one to call our own family. But I'll care for you like my own children. You still have a shot at a good life when you're out of here. As for me, my time is passing. Don't waste what precious life you have. If I can make it through with all I've been through then so can you. Never give up and there's always hope. If that's the only thing you take from this then I did my job here." ]	2
[WP] Humanity was placed by otherworldly beings in the KBC Void, the largest known empty region in space, as a precaution. They are afraid of something we've done in the past.	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Reality+Fiction%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Simple+Prompt%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/js5XDFB)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "Evolution, known as the birthplace of civilization and advancement of one’s species is undeniably present in the “human” race. The weak and fragile organic life forms that against all odds stood atop it’s competitors in just short a hundred thousands years. A record deemed insurmountable in the vastness of the universe. \n\nEarth, as known by its locals is a dark reddish planet with 15% water, 75% wasteland, 5% ruins of the “last borders”, and 5% vegatation - is home to the “Humans - Evolutions favorite”. The once mighty species who brought fear to its neighbors and surrounding galaxies by advancing in science in a never before seen pace. What took other intellectuals lifeforms a couple million years to develop, the humans did it in thousands. From effecient tools of hunting its predators to out space exploration and searching for other life forms. The humans surpassed all excpectations. \n\nBut with it’s achievements came “the error”. For all its worth and the humans highly advanced science and intellectual capabilities. The humans failed to upheld its civilization, No, the humans destroyed itself. The only case of highly intellectual lifeforms that did so. An event that baffled those who hear it and those who tied to the understand it\n\nAs of now, Earth and the humans - its last remaning species is all alone in the void so as not to bring influence on other habituable planets. Also as to not spread the “disease” that made them self destruct" ]	2
[WP] "You know that old saying, how you can only truly die when everyone forgets about you? That's why it sucks to be God."	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Reality+Fiction%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Simple+Prompt%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/js5XDFB)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "In the cold, dark, room, he did nothing but play dolls.\n\nOf course, it was more than that. These were sentient beings, real people with very real lives. But to the creator, they were just toys with very elaborate backstories to him. Tiny figurines made of flesh and blood, puppets without string, a game with no end.\n\nThe creator sighed as he looked at his creation. It was a mess, had been for a long time. The dolls were now ruled by war, lust, greed and sickness. Death to those who least deserved it, wealth to those who did not earn it. A large drop of sweat began to form on the creator's wrinkled forehead. He could not figure out what to fix, and even if he did, how was he supposed to fix it?\n\nWithout thinking, the creator slammed his fist on the table and hung his head in shame. He closed his eyes and let out a frustrated scream. They had warned him about this. I should have listened, he thought. \n\nIt was too late now. The stupid game consumed him, and it was too late for him to quit. The puppets needed him, needed him to keep pulling on their invisible strings. It did not matter if they believed in his existence or not. They needed him.\n\nThose who did believe had it all wrong. All of them. All the different interpretations, all of them were wrong. God was not kind. God did not work in mysterious ways. God was tired, God was sleep-deprived, God was hungry, God was rotting, but God could not stop playing. God was addicted.\n\nOutside God's room, two voices spoke to each other. God did not hear them.\n\n\"He's locked the door.\"\n\n\"Goodness. This is getting out of hand. I'm calling that boy a therapist.\"\n\n\"I'm really sorry again. It's my fault, since I bought him the thing in the first place.\"\n\n\"It's fine, honey. How were you supposed to know the Sims games were so damn destructive?\"" ]	2
[WP] You've had a fairly simple life, nothing out of the ordinary. Until one day, you found the key to that drawer your parents told you not to look in. You found several acts regarding a terminal illness, photos of you in a hospital you never went and your death certificate.	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Reality+Fiction%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Simple+Prompt%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/js5XDFB)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "\"A whole hot dog? A whole fucking hot dog?\"\n\n\"Please don't curse like that dear, at least not when you are around us.\"\n\n\"I'm sorry it's just a little strange to find out I deepthroated myself to death.\"\n\n\"Deepthroated?\"\n\nCarl's father turned towards his wife, who gave a sigh, and leaned forward to whisper into his ear. After a second his puzzled expression turned to shock as his face became red and looked back at his son.\n\n\"Oh. I see.\"\n\nHad Carl been in even a slightly better mood he wouldn't have hesitated from ridiculing his father, but the moment simply slipped by him as if it didn't happen. But this fact isn't nearly as strange as the premise behind it; why was Carl in such a terrible mood? After all, shouldn't one be ecstatic to find that they have escaped death?\n\n\"Okay. How it happened I understand now. But how did I come back? And why on Earth did you hide it from me?\"\n\nThere was silence from his parents again. This time he didn't even bother to look at his father, and let himself stare solely at his mother. She still hadn't said anything since they first came rushing up the stairs, and her expression made him think she wouldn't anytime soon.\n\n\"Well. Here's a better question. Why did you break our one rule?\"\n\nCarl swung his gaze from his mother to his father as his mouth dropped open.\n\n\"Are you serious? This is what matters to you right now? Don't tell me you're just going to deflect like that and not even give me the DECENCY-\"\n\n\"Carl don't start with me and don't get aggressive. All I am saying is that if it is fair for you to-\"\n\n\"FAIR?!?!? DO NOT BRING UP WHAT IS FAIR RIGHT NOW-\"\n\n\"CARL. Please. You are making me raise my voice as well. Let's all take a minute to calm down.\"\n\nCarl's father moved out of the doorway and into the office. He slowly closed the drawer and sat down on the sofa, tapping the seat next to him and looking at Carl. Carl, his face still twisted with rage, gave a deep breath and pushed past his mother, who was still frozen. His father smiled and moved even more to the edge to give Carl room, but Carl instead sat in the recliner so he could look out the window and at neither of his parents.\n\nA minute or so of silence and small coughs from his father passed. Suddenly a sigh came from his mother.\n\n\"Darrell I am going to tell him.\"\n\nCarl's father looked at her with his eyebrows raised, but when their eyes locked, he gave a nod and looked out the window himself. Carl's mother cleared her voice.\n\n\"Carl, I didn't want to ever tell you this but I guess I no longer have that choice.\"\n\nShe paused as both her and Carl looked at his father, who had given out a small noise as tears began to roll down his face. After a second he looked back at them and gave out a small \"excuse me\" as he hurried out the room. His mother cleared her voice again.\n\n\"I know that your whole life you have been told that people die and that's it. And I know that there is no evidence of the contrary and if there is, you've always taken it as bullshit. But the truth is that people do die... but then they get another chance.\"\n\nCarl's mother stopped and looked at him. He knew she did it for dramatic effect, but it did nothing but frustrate him and his curiosity. \n\n\"You see, we all get to die twice. The first time, no matter how gruesome or terrible the death, three days later the person's body recovers and they are alive again. However, they have no idea as to the fact that they died, and it instead feels just like a long sleep. Science has no explanation as to why we have this trait, but all we know is you get one chance and after that you're on your own.\"\n\nThis time she stopped simply because there was nothing more to say. Carl was still frustrated though, as she had missed one of his biggest questions.\n\n\"But... why didn't you tell me Mom? And why is this not something people talk about?\"\n\n\"Well, let me ask you this Carl. How does you feel right now? My guess would be upset, but you don't know why. Well, is it possible that, even if you didn't realize this directly, your mind knows that while everyone else can have another chance, yours is gone?\"\n\n\"I mean... I guess...\"\n\n\"And all those people who still have another chance, if they knew they had two chances, don't you think they would waste them? Why bother ever playing it safe if you can just take whatever risk you want without penalty?\"\n\nNow Carl was silent. He didn't know what to say. She was right, but he still didn't understand what she was getting at.\n\n\"I know. It still seems confusing. But the whole point I am trying to make here Carl is that its all about living life properly. We didn't want people like you to never take risks just because you have more to lose, and we also didn't want people who have less to lose to lose it immediately. So its a secret, perhaps the most well kept one in the world.\"\n\nCarl really wanted to cry. It seemed like the right response. But sometimes, you just can't. So, he instead gave out a sigh and stood up to give his mother a hug. Luckily, she had once again read his mind and was already waiting for him, arms outstretched. As they embraced, he still had one question.\n\n\"Mom... what about you and dad? How many deaths do you guys have left?\"\n\nShe held him tighter.\n\n\"We both only have one left. We took the other one the day you lost yours.\"" ]	2
[WP] "Of all things to be indestructible, WHY IS IT A FLAMINGO?!"	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Reality+Fiction%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Simple+Prompt%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/js5XDFB)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "“In the red corner at forty eight and over a hundred wins: its Tronder the great with his legendary sword-Excalibur!”\nThe crowd roared from the raised seating as the hulk of a man entered, spotlights swivelling to focus on him as he lifted his right arm revealing the shining Excalibur clasped in his meaty grip.\n\n“And in the blue corner at just 22, a brand new contestant-Johnny with...A plastic flamingo?”\n\nNormally the crowd would have jeered at just about anyone else no matter how menacing their weapon was or how rugged they looked. The crowd were-to put it bluntly: Simps for Tronder.\nHowever they fell almost silent upon this new arrival, quieting into hushed whispers upon seeing the young male walk briskly into the dirt floored stadium, plastic flamingo held by the single leg.\n\nHe was around 5’10 with a skaters build and sandy blond hair that fell into light blue eyes. His pale but clear skinned face held some angles though remained round enough to project a soft innocence.\nHe was dressed in a navy tea shirt, covered mostly by a black hoodie along with dark blue jeans and what appeared to be Vans. Safe to say compared to Tronder’s utterly ripped 6’10 physique, face that screamed masculinity and metal body armour-Johnny looked like a joke.\n\nNo, his weapon of choice was a plastic Flamingo, this was a joke. It had to be.\n\n“Ladies and gentlemen hold on while we confirm the validity of our newest contestant-We also would like to remind you that we hold a no kill policy and as such this completion should not be considered for a method of suicide.” The announcer spoke in his normal energetic tone.\n\nThe crowd murmured between themselves, bloodlust temporarily replaced with concern. A dark skinned, largely built woman wearing a tight shirt with a jean jacket and ripped jean shorts walked over to Johnny, high pony tail swinging like a pendulum.\n\n“Boy, may I ask what the fuck you think you are doing?” She said in a curious but weary tone as if expecting a waterfall of bullshit to leave the boy’s mouth.\n\nJohnny, who was idly running his hands over his ‘weapon’ looked up at her with a smile.\n\n“Just waiting to start.” He answered softly with a lopsided grin. “You’re Bev right? The referee, I saw in the youtube videos on the bus ride..” \n\n‘Bev’ blinked rapidly as she tried to sift through the mental gymnastics this boy was making her brain do.\n\n“Are you telling me you learned about this competition on a bus ride?” She finally managed to answer, disbelief clear on her face which was quickly giving way to worry. Looking back she took a step forward and leant down until eye level with Johnny.\n\n“Hunny-sorry Johnny-‘ring raiders’ -uh-‘TM’ may have a no kill policy but i can list you at least 3 people who died on the trip to the hospital afterwards. This is not a skating competition: People-Die-In-This Understand?” She said in a serious tone, holding his gaze.\n\nJohnny just nodded, awkward smile widening. “I know, I’m prepared-see?” He exclaimed joyfully while holding up the flamingo, pink plastic shining in the light. Bev stared before slowly twisting her head to glance over the other side of the arena where Tronder was arguing with several people in headsets while gesturing to Johnny. The dark skinned woman just sighed deeply before slamming her hands against her thighs in a gesture of exasperation.\n\n“Well. I tried.” Was all she said before turning and walking resigned to the middle of the stadium and giving an uneasy thumbs up to the announcer box.\n\n“Well there you have it folks, looks like young Johnny here is going to take on Tronder-”\n\n“What!?” Came the cry from Tronder who stared up at the box before looking to Bev who just shrugged in resignation. Finally his gaze fell on Johnny who seemed to shrink in on himself but raised a hand and wiggled his fingers in a rather flamboyant ‘hello’. Tronder actually gaped before he gestured once more to a headset guy who just pointed at Johnny with a look of finality.\n\nThe reining champion seemed to run through a moral dilemma, tightening and un-tightening his grip on the sword while shifting almost nervously on the spot. Finally he stilled, released a harsh breath of air before looking at a worried Bev and nodded.\n\nThe ref just nodded slowly back before looking towards Johnny who gave her a much brighter nod, having to shift some fallen hair as he did. Bev sighed before marching forward so she was directly between the two fighters and extending her arm to act as a barrier. Immediately the crowd raised their noise levels, the normal excitement for bloodshed mixed with clear unease, the usual chants for Tronder was lessened with background yelling decrying the proceeding match.\n\nThe two opponents took their place around several metres either side of the outstretched arm. Tronder looking determined yet a flicker of worry still resonated in his face. Johnny just looked rather camp, one ankle crossed behind the other and his free hand grasping his wrist, he stared from under thick lashes at his opponent as if he were a schoolyard crush.\n\nThe announcer began counting down.\n\n“5, 4, 3, 2, 1-Begin!”\n\nBeverley raised her arm and quickly stepped back to the walls of the circular ring as the behemoth and...Johnny stepped forward. Tronder squared his shoulders widening his stance.\n\n“Look kid, I’m gonna swing once, and cut your chest open, its not even gonna break bone, you fall over-you’ll have a nice scar and you can tell your kids you took on Tronder-ok?” Without waiting for a reply Tronder stepped back in a calculated manner and swung horizontally-\n\n\nOnly for Johnny to raise the flamingo in an almost idle fashion, the curling plastic head taking the full impact of the sword with the sound of metal on metal and a few sparks.\n\nNo damage however, not even a scratch.\n\nThe audience let out a collective gasp which became hushed whispers as the intermingled shouts for Tronder settled. By the side of the ring Bev looked on in disbelief.\n\nTronder blinked and briefly mouthed what could have been a swear before letting out a bark of nervous laughter. In a careful, slow motion used aimed the point of the sword under the flamingoes neck, angling it in a hooking potion, and heaved-\n\nOnly for nothing to happen.\n\nA short look at Johnny only had the boy looking away, as if almost embarrassed about his apparently unmovable weapon. His pink, pherhaps-not-so-plastic unmovable weapon. Tensing his free arm, Tronder rested the flat of the blade against it and tried a levering motion, something he had done to raise men twice the boys size into the air by their weapons.\n\nThe flamingo, did not budge.\n\nPulling the sword out and taking several steps back Tronder tried to rationalise what was happening.\n\n“Well folks this is...something.” The announcer spoke, clearly at as much of a loss as to what was going on as everyone else.\n\nA creeping anxiety begining to settle over him, Tronder stepped forward, hefted the sword over his head and swung down, eliciting cries of terror from the crowd and an ‘OH NO’ from the announcer. However as predicted Johnny just raised the flamingo and made a little jabbing motion as the sword made contact with the curled beak. The beak, which Tronder could have ripped off any normal plastic flamingo with his bare hands. Hell, most of the audience could have done it. But no, the blade swung down then rebounded, seemingly thanks to the little jabbing motion. The weight of the sword bouncing back over his head had Tronder stumbling back and it took the man several seconds to pull himself out of shock.\n\n“What in gods name is that flamingo made out of? Ive never seen a weapon like it!” The announcer spoke in utter awe and cry’s for ‘Johnny’ were quickly begging to rise from the audience, thier worry vanishing in turn for their excitement at his power. \n\nTronder just lowered the sword as he stared once more at the flamingo then Johnny, who seemed to be actively avoiding in his gaze.\n\nWhat the fuck was going on?\n\nPsyching himself up he stepped back some more before heaving in breaths of anger and charging forward doing a full 180 degree spin and slashing at the flamingo with everything he had.\n\nJohnny looked up as blade sliced towards him and in two rapid movements pulled the flamingo back and swung it out to meet the slice.\n\nIn theory, the flamingo would have barely knocked a box of tissues off of a table.\n\nIn reality the sword rebounded from the strike with such force it slid out of Tronder’s grip went spinning across the stadium and embedded itself in the wall mere feet from Bev’s head. Bev stumbled away clutching her heart and looking as if she might have lost bowel control, eyes focused in primal fear on the sword.\n\nTronder felt his mouth drop open as he stared int total disbelief at the lost weapon. A glint of pink in the corner of his eye had him turning back and nearly yelping to find the Flamingoes head now angled at his chest by a smirking Johnny. Automatically Tronder began stumbling back, a rare feeling of panic flooding through him, consuming him to the point that he forgot how to surrender, all he knew was that he could not let that pink monstrosity touch him. The crowd above screamed in even louder terror and the announcer managed some garbled words of disbelief. \n\nBut all Tronder saw was pink.\n\nIn one swift motion the beak of the weapon had hooked under the neck of the body armour and the man was yanked forward as if pulled by a bear. He found himself face to face with the wielder of the abomination, the soft blue eyes met his own, a disarmingly cute nose brushed against his far larger one and soft lips pulled into a smirk. The boys breath smelt like mint as he spoke.\n\n“I win.”", "It stood in the yard, staring. The painted eyes seemed to bore into Barry's soul, and he turned to Ashely, his partner, with a questioning look. She seemed just as disturbed, but quickly hid it.\n\n\"So... you said you first learned of this when, Mr. Appen?\" she queried, eyebrows scrunched down in confusion and perhaps a little bit of fear. \n\nThe owner of the flamingo shrugged helplessly. \"I've had it in my yard for... 2 years?\" Barry nodded, jotting it down in his notebook. Mr. Appen continued, \"One of the neighbor's kids, Billy, tried to smash it with a rock.\" He shrugged again, smiling slightly. \"Boys being boys, I guess. Came out to his screaming and found him clutching his hand — it was embedded with hundreds of shards of the rock he tried to use.\" He shuddered slightly, and Ashely shuddered with him.\n\nThen his tone changed into one of puzzlement. \"Thing is, it's been damaged before. Many times, in fact. But now...\" He finished with one more helpless shrug. \"Thank you Mr. Appen,\" Barry said, as warmly as he could. He snapped a few photos of the plastic flamingo before tucking the camera into his bag. \n\nThe three of them walked down the driveway, Mr. Appen escorting the 2 scientists to their car.\n\nThe flamingo simply watched. It's time would come, it knew that. One day it would take its true form and lay waste to all.\n\nBut for now, it stood in the yard, staring.\n\nr/StoriesOfAshes", "Oh shit… I said as I dropped the package and hopped off the rickety wooden porch, booking it towards the gate. A German Sheppard, or more like a caged bear, was quickly tearing its way through the tattered vinyl of the screen door. I saw my delivery van just a few hundred feet away parked in the mud. Its shiny form juxtaposed with the menagerie of poverty painted across the landscape. I was out in the boonies and this was my last stop for the day. I put it off until last because I hated coming out this way.\n\nOwww… I screamed as I felt the dog tear into my pants, pinching my skin a little. The dog’s great jaw worried the pants, throwing his head back and forth, his bristled-furred neck standing up with cords of muscles as he growled.\n\nFuck…fuck…fuck… I kept saying under by breath as I unbuttoned my pants quicker than a sea-weary sailor in a brothel and scooted out.\n\nA Doberman Pinscher, which had only been barking while it watched me bring up a package to this run-down old house, was now in a furor as he watched his friend shredding my beige pants cargo pants. I was getting to my feet to make a run for it when I heard its chain, tied to the rusting washing machine, snap.\n\nOh fuck, I said as the black bullet of a dog cut off my escape route and made me flee across the yard which was filled with junk.\n\nShit! I said, running full tilt, as I slipped in a huge pile of dog shit, my foot swinging out from under me in a long-angled smear. I fell hard on my side and the wind was knocked out of me.\n\nThey didn’t pay me nearly enough for this horseshit. Not at all.\n\nI reached desperately for whatever was near me. I needed to fight this frothing monster with something, anything. My hand felt something cheap and plastic and I looked over. It was a pink plastic flamingo leaning sadly in the dirt.\n\nThis is it? This is how it ends for me? Eaten alive while defending myself with a plastic flamingo. Did our insurance pay family claims for canine consumed delivery drivers?\n\nAll this was going through my head as I grabbed the pink flamingo and pulled it out of the dessicated, dog-shit filled ground like a sword out of the stone and swung it with all my might at the black monster that was lunging for my throat.\n\nWhat happened next was beyond belief. I laid there in shock as I wiped the rain of blood on my face. The Doberman Pinscher had just disappeared… turned to macabre weather when I hit it with the pink flamingo. The German Sheppard turned to me, its mouth full of what used to be my pants. Its huge, hulking form shrunk down as it tucked its tail between its legs and bolted across the yard, yelping.\n\nWhat in the fuck is going on out here… I heard a man’s voice calling out from the porch. He ran down the steps, and out into the yard with a bat, sheared on one side as though he had once hit something with it… really hard.\n\nJesus Christ… he said, looking on his yard filled with the gore of one of his dogs.\n\nHe looked at me.\n\nI raised my hands up in surrender, the pink flamingo still held limply in one.\n\nI’m so sorry, I said, but he wasn’t listening.\n\nYou sick son of a bitch, he said and ran at me with the bat.\n\nI hoped he’d slip on shit like me, but he must’ve memorized the land mines in his mind and he made a graceful, pajama-pants trot across the yard and lifted the bat high up over his head and swung it down in a sweeping skull-crushing arc. I closed my eyes and lifted the pink flamingo above me in a weak attempt to shield myself from the blow.\n\nThere was an explosion and a sound of shattering wood. I opened my eyes and saw the man standing there with splinters in his face.\n\nI’m going to get my shotgun and I’m going to kill you, he said, slowly, and he turned and walked back into the house.\n\nI looked at the pink flamingo, turned and swung it at the wooden fence. It exploded and I ran through the opening and down the road." ]	4
[WP] You have the supposedly amazing ability to stop time for indefinitely, you hate having to use it. You keep them a secret from others of course, but in the absolute silence just loud enough to be heard are things that were never supposed to be percieved.	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Reality+Fiction%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Simple+Prompt%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/js5XDFB)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "Thoughts, I noticed. I could hear thoughts.\n\nJim, my douchebache coworker was thinking of taking more than one cookie than the sign specifically states not to, in the handwriting of one of the female coworkers in my team wrote, Celia.\n\nCelia was going home, thinking of fucking her husband, which was quite shocking, as she was the quiet type. I also didn't see John as a bottom since he had his arm around Celia the whole time at the Christmas party.\n\nHeidi, another female worker, was a single mom and thinking of going back to her hyper kid back at home.\n\nArthur was excited for his audition that could kick off his career as an actor.\n\nI was excited as this could be used on Trivia Thursday to see the thoughts of the question reader to see the answer. I couldn't just stop time, see the answers from the flashcard he was holding, and sit back down, as people would notice if I moved a whole arm in one second. I wasn't good at memorizing my positions before\n\nTwice I was almost caught.\n\nI hopped around the office, seeing other people's thoughts.\n\nSuddenly, I was slammed into the wall, and my manager Lucas, pretty boy extraordinaire, who probably only got this job because the dumbass female CEO was smitten with him looking back.\n\n\"Who the fuck are you?!\" he snarled.", "\"Don't make me do it,\" I stated, as the gangster continued to approach me. I had inadvertently crossed their 'turf', and running was my only choice. The police here are non-existent, and I don't have weapons to fight with. Sometimes I wish I could get out of this rotten city.\n\n\"Come here, little boy! You haven't paid up yet,\" the gangster said.\n\n\"Stop chasing me, for goodness' sake!\" I desperately gasped, as I was running out of breath. \nWe were on a deep part of the ghetto, so the chase continued as we both ran in the alleys and sidewalks.\n\nI ran up to an alley and suddenly found myself cornered. There was nothing but a dead end, and the route to escape was blocked by the gangster. He smiled with a grin on his face. \n\"Nowhere to run now, eh? This will be quick.\" \n\"Don't go any closer. You don't know what I can do.\" \n\"Do what? Call the police? Your parents?\", he said along with a laugh. \nThe gangster brought out his spiked baseball bat. As he was about to swing it, I had no choice but to do it. The alternative was getting a hospital visit.\n\nA quick finger snap was all it took. \n\n\nEverything froze around me in the seconds that followed. The bat was uncomfortably close to my face. The gangster had stopped moving entirely. I slowly tried to sneak behind him, but it took a while because of his masculine figure. \nAs I finally got through him, I ran fast to the street. And I saw a sight nobody will ever believe. \nThe cars, the people. All in different stances, doing different things, carrying different objects. Birds lying on the buildings and trees, pet dogs being walked. The trash thrown carelessly into the street. With no exception, everything was frozen, but me. \n\n\nThis haunting feeling is why I dislike having to use it. The feeling of loneliness, the abyss where nothing moves. It's only yourself that's there. Sometimes there's also a feeling of claustrophobia. Once I activate it, it's difficult to revert it back. \n\n\nReflecting at what had become such a crazy day, I just decided to walk back home. I saw all the people, minding their own business, on different parts of town. The park, the residential zones, the corporate buildings. When I finally got to my suburb, I began to have a problem. \nAnd it was a really bad problem. \n\n\nAs I was walking to my block, things started appearing. I was surprised when I thought I saw a bird move, then a tumbleweed approaching me. Slowly, I began to question my sanity as I saw a dog frolicking freely in the street. Was this a Hallucination? What is exactly happening? There were too many things to process in my mind. I felt lightheaded. Among the last things I saw, were dark figures, and a sunset sky. I began to faint as time seemingly went moving again. \n\n\nA cold and stern voice behind me spoke. \n\"Hello Barry. It seems you've seen some... things.\" \n\n\nThe line \"Let's talk.\" \nThe final line I heard, before collapsing, with confused and frightened thoughts still lingering in my mind. \n\n\nWhat have I done?" ]	3
[WP] Management thought it would be good to introduce a little levity into an otherwise very serious business, but people are finding the Merry Reaper a lot more terrifying than the Grim Reaper ever was	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Reality+Fiction%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Simple+Prompt%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/js5XDFB)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "TO: CELESTIAL MANAGEMENT\n\nFROM: AZRAEL (DEPT. OF MESSENGERS, P-DIVISION)\n\nSUBJECT: \"MERRY REAPER\" INITIATIVE FEEDBACK\n\nManagement:\n\nP-Division has been following the revised Division protocol according to instructions 4 cycles ago (timestamp 12763842). However, reports from P-Division members and staff from other departments bring validity of the protocol into question. Said reports are attached for review below.\n\n\\[Snippet view:\n\n* P-Division: \"Displays intended to communicate cheer and reassurance met with alarm and resulted in the newly dead having to be sedated for transport (sample quotes: \"Whatever I did to deserve this, I'm sorry\", \"I always knew Hell would have Walmart greeters\", \"WHY ARE YOU SMILING LIKE THAT OH GOD PLEASE NO-\")\"\n* Dept. of Maintenance: \"Increased incidence of hauntings worldwide.\\[...\\]most probable cause traced to evasion of P-Division escorts...\"\n* Dept. of Wardens: \"...request P-Division change their Form and script. The psychically sensitive are catching glimpses of them and 'sleep paralysis demon' only goes so far. We cannot allow our erstwhile colleagues this foothold into reality...\"\\]\n\nIn summary: suspect Division has been misinformed re: perception of various Forms and scripts intended to bring joy. Please advise.\n\n&#x200B;\n\nAzrael\n\n\\---\n\nTO: AZRAEL (DEPT. OF MESSENGERS, P-DIVISION)\n\nFROM: CELESTIAL MANAGEMENT\n\nSUBJECT: RE: \"MERRY REAPER\" INITIATIVE FEEDBACK\n\nAzrael:\n\nYour feedback has been forwarded to Quality Assurance. Any further communication on this matter will come from them.\n\nIt seems we owe a great number of our Residents an apology. We never did consider that they might have been scared of clowns.\n\nRegards,\n\nManagement.", "Management had been in the Transitions department for a long time. Long enough that nothing really was surprising anymore. Even the Grim Reaper's announced retirement was planned for. It had been millenia, after all. The old bag of bones deserved it. \n\nThe timing worked out pretty well, actually. Every few decades there were discussions about how to change the Transition department's image. It wasn't exactly ideal to be viewed as the great unknown of existence, but Management made due. \n\nGrimmy's replacement was a media darling. He was upbeat, friendly and great with kids. Everything was set for the rollout and Management had planned for everything. \n\nSo why was the Grim Reaper himself in Management's office? \n\n\"Mornin' boss,\" Grimmy said through his lipless teeth. Flames illuminated the legendary shepherd of the dead's eye sockets, but even now that wasn't a frightful image. Actually they struck management as dim and embarrassed. \n\n\"Grimmy, you're supposed to be all settled into the Resort. What are you doing here?\"\n\n\"Oh you know, I've been dragging my feet to get on the boat. I got myself all packed and checked on the new guy. Have you heard the reports yet?\"\n\nSure enough, Grimmy's usual black cloak had been replaced with a pale yellow polo and salmon shorts. Flip flops clacked of the bones of his heels as he nervously bounced. \n\n\"Not yet. I'm expecting them in an hour or so. Should I be concerned?\"\n\nGrimmy's teeth clattered in laughter. \"Why don't I just show you?\"\n\nGrimmy waved an ivory hand and an image drifted into the air. \n\nJames died alone in the street. He drifted off, waiting to be carried off into the unknown. There was no pain anymore. That was good. There was a sense of floating as his soul left his body. The sounds of his family crying faded until-\n\n\"AWWWW that just breaks my heart! Give me a hug!!\" \n\nJames flinched at the voice. A skeleton in a bright blue tuxedo was standing over him. Pink daisies were painted around its eye sockets and googly eyes bounced wildly in place of the real things. It lunged at him for a bony embrace. \n\n\"Get the fuck away from me!\" James shouted, rolling out of his bed and phasing through the somber forms of his family. \n\n\"Rude,\" the skeleton said, folding its arms. \"I may not have a heart but I do have feelings. HEEHEEHEE!\" \n\nJames stared in mute horror. \"What are you?\" \n\n\"I'm the Merry Reaper, Jimbo.\"\n\n\"James, please.\"\n\n\"Jimmy?\"\n\n\"I prefer James.\"\n\n\"JimJam? J-Rock? Jiminy Jillickers?\"\n\n\"You can't be serious,\" James said. \n\n\"I'm never serious Jabloney!\" \n\n\"So you're the... Merry Reaper? I thought you were Grim.\"\n\n\"He retired,\" the reaper said with a heavy sigh before slipping into another fit of manic laughter. \"Besides, he was all doom and gloom. You get to see something new! Isn't that exciting, Jameshemian Rhapsody?\"\n\nJames was wide-eyed and horrified. \"No.\" he whispered. \"This isn't happening. It's just a dream. \n\nThe Merry Reaper made a show of sighing as if that would improve the situation. \"Suit yourself. Well I guess I'll just bring you to the final destination. Come come, Jameseased\" \n\nJames stayed on his side of the room. Something about the room was changing. The walls were becoming less defined and the world was losing its definition. \n\n\"Okay, Jarmonica. You don't have to like me but that car really did hit you. There's only one road left to cross and jaywalking really won't be a problem this time.\"\n\n\"Stay away from me,\" James hissed. He backed up into the wall and passed through. \n\n\"Oh bother. Not a great start to the job.\"\n\nManagement stared at the afterimage as Grimmy dismissed it. \n\n\"Not a good start? Jaywalking? Is he fucking serious?\"\n\n\"You heard him, boss. He's never serious.\" \n\nManagement started rifling through the reports from the night. \"James, James, got it. James Redman. Complications due to a car accident, refusal to transition, early stages of poltergeist formation...This is a goddamned disaster\"\n\nGrimmy didn't react. \n\n\"How many of these are there?\" Management asked. \n\nSilence.\n\n\"Grim.\"\n\n\"Seven hundred.\"\n\n\"Fucking Christ. Listen Grim, I know you were all set to retire but-\"\n\n\"Honestly boss? I've been dreading it. Besides, I clearly did a shit job on training the new guy. That's on me as much as anyone.\"\n\nManagement actually managed a laugh. \"When can you start?\"\n\nGrim's flaming eyes brightened in what Management assumed was some sort of smile. The briefly retired reaper reached his hand into the faint afterimage of James Redmond's failed Transition and pulled the image open anew before drifting into the image itself.\n\n\"James,\" the voice called. \n\nJames ignored it and drifted. He could see his children playing soccer outside of their school. Everything was misty and distorted, but it was there.\n\n\"There isn't much time left James.\" \n\n\"Why should that matter? This is the only way to see my children grow.\"\n\n\"And you know this to be true? The world is fading around you, James. How long do you really think you can watch them?\"\n\nJames turned to see another skeleton sitting beside him. This one wore the great black cloak and held a tall scythe. It's eyes burned with a warm fire that was somehow more comforting than terrifying. This was the reaper he expected to see. \n\n\"What am I supposed to do?\" James asked. \n\n\"Leave this place behind.\"\n\nJames felt a spike of anger. \"You mean leave them behind? Can you promise me I can see them from heaven? Or hell? Or wherever I go?\"\n\n\"No, but I can promise this world will move on without you. When that happens, you'll only be here to cause them pain.\" \n\nJames flinched at the response. \n\n\"I wish I could tell you where you'll go. That's really not my department. I just know that wherever you go, you'll still be you and eventually your family may join you. If you stay...\"\n\n\"Is it that bad?\"\n\n\"Worse.\" \n\nJames didn't react at first. The reaper was still sitting with him, watching the children play soccer.\n\n\"Will you stay with me?\" \n\n\"Until the end.\" \n\n\"Okay.\" \n\nJames took the reaper's hand and crossed into the unknown. \n\nManagement watched Grimmy work with a smile before pressing a button on the phone. \"Call Merry in and notify HR. We have a busy day ahead of us.\"", "'Hellooooo and welcome to your afterlife. I am the Merry Reaper and I welcome you to your journey. Come aboard.'\n&nbsp;\n\nYou know, when I died, I expected a light to guide me to the Heavens. Or the hellhounds to drag me to Hell. Or the cloaked Grim Reaper with their trademark scythe. What I did not expect were these words said to me. \n&nbsp;\n\nThe scythe is there, but its handle is multicolored. The cloak of the Reaper is replaced by a Hawaiian print shirt. I won't comment on the shorts, but let's just say that it's a terrible day to have eyes. \n&nbsp;\n\n'Who are you and why are you here?' I ask, partly in fear & partly in confusion.\n&nbsp;\n\n'Coz you are dead.' four heads pop behind him & sing this in chorus. \n&nbsp;\n\n\n'Oh, you are dead.' one of them pipes up.\n&nbsp;\n\n\n'He is dead.' the chorus continues.\n&nbsp;\n\n\n'And he is dead.' they sing, now pointing towards another person, who is apparently dead, just like me. \n&nbsp;\n\n\n'Oh, he is deaaaad.' a deep voice sings.\n&nbsp;\n\n\n'And she is dead.' I now see a dead girl, yet another confused soul.\n&nbsp;\n\n\n'And she is deaaaad.' the deep voice pipes up again.\n&nbsp;\n\n\n'Oh, she is dead.' the chorus is back.\n&nbsp;\n\n\n'And we all are dead!' a baritone voice joins in.\n&nbsp;\n\n\n'And you, and you & you are dead,\n&nbsp;\n\n\n'And people might some tears shed,'\n&nbsp;\n\n\n'But let us have some fun instead,'\n&nbsp;\n\n\n'And there's not much left do once. You. Are.\n&nbsp;\n \n\nDeaaaaad!'\n&nbsp;\n\n\nI am not sure what is more traumatizing, the fact that I might be dead, or the fact that this might be a very bad acid trip. Not that I have done any drugs in life, but if I am not dead, this is the reason why I won't be taking any drugs. \n&nbsp;\n\n'We are the Merry Reapers, and today is your first day of rest of your afterlife.' now there are three \"Reapers\" and one of them says in a joyful tone. \n&nbsp;\n\n'What happened to the Grim Reapers?' I ask. \n&nbsp;\n\n'Oh, that's old news. We were tired of being serious all the time. And I am pretty sure being being dead is all doom & gloom for you. So, we decided, why not add some fun before funeral? Get it? Fun, funeral?'\n&nbsp;\n\n'Are you serious?!' I ask with disbelief. \n&nbsp;\n\n'Oh, we are serious.' he says, menacingly. 'Dead serious.'\n&nbsp;\n\nAaand on that note, all the other Reapers start laughing. I, for one, am not in a mood to laugh. \n&nbsp;\n\n'Enough! You think this is funny? We are dead! Maybe somebody has been taken early. Maybe somebody died before experiencing life. You think nobody is crying for the dead people? It is a traumatic experience for all of us!'\n&nbsp;\n\nThen, I hear a voice that chills me. It is one of the Merry Reapers. I'd recognise that voice anywhere. \n&nbsp;\n\n'Why so serious?' he asks, 'let us put a smile on that face.'\n&nbsp;", "“It creeps me the hell out. Look at him. He just sits there laughing, acting like some sort of possessed Halloween decoration. Maybe we can get the boss to reconsider this idea.”\n\n \n\nThe two demons gossiped, huddled together as they watched the Reaper bellow out another fit of laughter, lounging back on a rock of brimstone, waiting for his shift to start. Few things could scare a demon, except a jolly-looking undead fellow. Laughter didn’t fit the broody look of the underworld, it just felt unnatural, causing the demons to keep their huddle, only to let out a sigh of relief as the man faded into a burst of black dust, vanishing from sight.\n\n \n\n“DO I CREEP YOU OUT?” The skeletal figure pushed his skull between the two demons, their eyes sliding sideways to catch the horrific sight. The two demons let out a scream, shaking the earth above, before passing out.\n\n \n\nThe Reaper let out another chuckle. Oh, how he was enjoying this jolly time of year. It was so freeing, no obligation to be scary or fearsome. All he had to do was spread some holiday cheer while he carried bodies to the underworld. He tapped his foot against the floor, his black robes shifting to a bright red.\n\n \n\n“Time to work.”\n\n \n\nTransporting himself to Earth was easy enough, floating through the many layers of ground until he rose from the street, invisible to all except the one he planned to take.\n \n\n The target stood before a set of lights, lazily eyeing his watch. After a few moments his gaze moved up from the watch, checking if it was safe to cross, only to encounter the floating Reaper ahead. The Reaper letting out a laugh, summoning a candy cane scythe.\n\n \n\n“All I want for Christmas, is you” The Reapers jaw chattered, body flying across the busy road, his body slipping in and out of cars, giving the drivers an icy chill as he passed through them. The man turned to run, only to feel that pain in his body swell, causing him to collapse.\n\n \n\nThe man groaned, pain continuing to pulse through his body before he passed. A blue orb exiting the man’s mouth, floating before the Reaper. The Reaper plucked the soul from the air, holding it in his palm as the two descended towards the underworld. This would make a nice decoration for the underworld Christmas tree he was making.\n\n&nbsp;\n&nbsp;\n&nbsp;\n\n(If you enjoyed this feel free to check out my subreddit /r/Sadnesslaughs where I'll be posting more of my writing.)" ]	5
[WP] You are a wayfarer. An immortal being with the ability to travel through dimensions. But almost a 1,000,000 years ago, you got lost and can no longer find your way home	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Reality+Fiction%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Simple+Prompt%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/js5XDFB)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "I was a mere merchant, long ago, with the ability to travel dimensions, collecting wild and exotic fruits and nuts to sell at the kingdom, my home. The people were in awe at the wild fruits and nuts, and the king and his family loved the Green Peach Pies. Then that fateful night happened. I had packed for a three day trip in one of the worlds. If I had known, I would’ve stayed. I already opened a portal when I saw the flash of light. I was caught by surprise and I fell through the portal, which sealed itself shut once the light reached it. With all my might, I couldn’t open it. Couldn’t get home. Portals to other worlds opened up with ease, but not my way home. Confused and scared, I tried to go to other worlds, in hopes one would easily let me go home somehow. But with each world I go, the farther it felt I went. Don’t know when I began to explore the new worlds I visited. Possibly the moment I lost hope I would ever return. Maybe that moment, I decided to live day by day, the fate of my home was sealed. Made new friends, went on adventures, fell in love, but the desire to go home still lingered.\n\nUntil I arrived here. A million years had passed (or so it felt, each world has different perceptions of time) and for once, I felt like I’ve came home. I nearly began to cry, but looking around, I knew this wasn’t home. The moon was small, and there was only one sun in the sky. Yet I felt like I’m home. Did something happened? Did the second sun exploded? Was that the light I saw? But how was the planet still green? Maybe it was millions of years. I began to explore this new yet familiar world.\n\nI arrived to a town, which looked oddly similar. The place looked advanced than the kingdom, yet behind from the other high tech worlds I visited, but there was something about it. The building and streets were different, but the layout of the town seemed oddly familiar. I walked down a street that I know would lead me to the castle, but led to a fairly large building mostly made of glass with odd writing on it. Followed another street that should lead me home, but there was yet another building, almost like a house.\n\nI stared at the building before me, looking at the strange yet familiar architecture.\n\n“May I help you sir?” A man asked me. He was dressed in a suit, with short black hair and sparkling green eyes. Those eyes look familiar.\n\n“I don’t know if you can. First of all, where am I?” I asked.\n\n“Your standing in front of the town hall,” the man said.\n\n“Ah, what town?”\n\n“Williams Lake. Are you lost?” the man asked.\n\n“Been lost for a while honestly,” I chuckled, “but I made amends. My home is gone, and I can’t return,” I said.\n\n“I’m sorry to hear that. If you want, I could help you out. I’m William Cranewell, I’m the mayor of this town,” he said.\n\nCranewell? How odd his name is similar to my home, the kingdom I use to live. Cranewell Kingdom.\n\n“I doubt you were once king,” I joked.\n\n“Um...” William was hesitant.\n\n“Are you of Royal blood?” I asked.\n\nCould it be? Am I really home?\n\n“Are you the new Cranewell King? Am I home?” I was practically begging him. My eyes began to tear up, as the world began to blur. Please tell me I’m home! Please!\n\n“A-are you originally from Cranewell Kingdom?” William asked.\n\n“Yes! Am I home? What happened?”\n\n“There was an incident, over a hundred years ago. The castle and the surrounding town was transported here, to a place named United States. The story became part the town history now, a folktale to everyone else. A lot has changed. Example, I’m no longer king, just a simple mayor to this town. Everything has changed,” William told me.\n\n“But I’m home, that’s all that matters to me, it may not be other world, but I’m home. I’M HOME!” I cheered.", "I am the Wanderer. \n\nI travel between the worlds. I walk through realities, helping people, trying to find my place. \n\nThousands of years ago, I went missing. I got lost from my world.\n\nI was 12 at the time. \n\nI was going on a walk. I don't know where. I don't know why. I don't remember.\n\nI don't remember most things. Not my name, not my age, nothing about my life before I started walking through worlds. \n\nI do know I was walking by the sea. By the water, where there weren't many people. There was a building with a fence around it. No one ever paid it much attention. \n\nI sometimes wondered about what was inside. \n\nThe fence was open at the time, which was odd. I'd never seen anyone walk in or out of the building before, and I had come to the conclusion it was abandoned.\n\nI saw someone run out of the building. I froze, wondering what to do.\n\nThe man running out was screaming, holding his eyes. He had burns all across his arms, and he was wearing a charred white lab coat.\n\nI didn't know what to do. I ran to him, asking if I could help.\n\n\"There's...more in, inside.\" He choked out, pointing towards the building. He was coughing, seemingly unable to breathe. \n\nI didn't know if I should stay with the man or go and help the others in the building. \n\nI wanted to run. Going into the building gave me an odd sense of foreboding. Like it was dangerous.\n\nAs I stood there, unsure of what to do, the man made up my mind for me. \"Leave me, get the people inside out of there. I'll get help.\" He said.\n\nSo I ran into the building. \n\nI figured it was on fire, how else could the man have been burned like that?\n\nThat was a time where I read a lot of books. I knew that during a fire, usually the most dangerous thing was smoke, so I held up my shirt and breathed through that. \n\nI nearly turned back, ran out. Told someone, and let them deal with it. But the man said he would get help.\n\nThen I heard someone scream, and all I could think was I had to help them. I ran towards the noise.\n\nThe building seemed to slope down, seemed to go on forever. But I followed the noise and saw a door, slightly ajar.\n\nI heard noises coming from it, and I forgot all about the fire. \n\nIt was sound of gunshots, of battle. \n\nI had to know what was happening. The building had gone on for so long. It wasn't normal. It wasn't right. Someone weird was going on.\n\nAnd the door was open.\n\nI walked in. \n\nWords can't describe what I saw in that room. \n\nIt was like someone had torn a huge hole through the universe. It was like reality was warping in on itself. \n\nLike a moth drawn towards a flame, I edged closer and closer to it. \n\nThe room was deserted. The noises were coming from the hole. I couldn't stop myself from getting closer to it. It was drawing me towards it, and I couldn't stop. I was transfixed.\n\nI walked closer and closer until I walked straight through. \n\nIt was an alien world. Other people that looked like the man outside were fighting an animal species I had never seen or heard of before. I was clearly in the middle of a war.\n\nI turned around, hoping to walk back through the portal and go home, but it was gone.\n\nI was all alone, in the middle of a war, in an alien world.\n\nIt's been a long time since then. After walking through the portal, I found more. Not like a tear in reality, but more like space shimmering. Like the realities were separated by a fence, and I could change into something and walk through it. \n\nI don't age. Ever since that first world. My heart doesn't beat, I don't need air or food or water. \n\nI believe when I finally get back home, to my world, I'll start aging again. I have to believe I will. I'll never tell anyone what happened. Never tell my family. \n\nI've met other immortals like me. Met them on the edge of the universe. Where I am right now. \n\nThe edge of the universe. For people like me. Ones who are still searching for home.\n\nWe meet, and we talk. We're Wayfarers, immortals walking through the worlds.\n\nAlong the edge of the universe.\n\nWayfarers, always trying to find their way home." ]	3
[WP] As Santa, you live in a world where less and les people believe in you. But for every person who doesn’t believe in you, you fade away a little. Already you are beginning to have trouble picking things up.	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Reality+Fiction%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Simple+Prompt%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/js5XDFB)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", " \n\nSanta grows weaker by the day, as the world’s cynicism eats away at the substance that makes him who he is, and what he has always been. How is it, in a world in which there are so many choices to spur the imagination of the human race to new heights, that they have lost their ability for wonder and joy? Santa himself can’t keep up with all the choices available on Netflix, and usually just scrolls through, endlessly adding things to his watchlist, but never ending up picking anything to watch, a vague sense of dissatisfaction and malaise weighing him down. \n\nSanta can see through his hands now, as insubstantial as mist. Perhaps abundance is a curse after all. When children had less, he thrived in their imaginations. Now it is just so much noise in a world in which noise is all they know. Santa’s power lies in the silence that crops up in moments of quiet reflection.\n\nSoon he will be nothing more than a myth, recreated by parents who have also lost the purpose of his existence amidst the endless stuff and things and whatnots they use to appease unhappy children who have forgotten or never really learned what mattered in the first place.", "St. Nicholas, once the Bishop of Myra, furrowed his brow in frustration. The dumb fat “Santa Claus” from the decades old Coca-Cola commercials was still taking his spotlight. That was supposed to be a fad. It should have faded away by now. \n\nAll those years he spent while he was still alive, proselytizing, giving to the poor, performing miracles, the months he spent imprisoned and tortured for his faith, that time he punched that heretic blasphemer Arius square on the jaw during the council of Nicaea? All for nothing. Very few people prayed to St. Nicholas anymore or remembered his deeds, and fewer still celebrated his feast day on December 6th. \n\nThe patron saint of travelers, children, fishermen, and pawnbrokers was deep in thought. How many souls could be saved if they merely prayed to him, asked him to intercede to God on their behalf? Despite the eternal bliss of heaven, It was almost enough to feel useless, like he was fading.\n\nNonsense. Would Consumerism and Greed really have more sway than Religion? No. Not forever. That was not something a man of faith like St. Nicholas could believe." ]	3
[WP] You defeated a powerful villain and saved the world. You were unsatisfied with how you won so you keep going back in time to fight him again, but it always ends with a ‘lame’ victory	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Reality+Fiction%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Simple+Prompt%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/js5XDFB)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "This is not the story of a hero. Not the story of a king. This is not the story of a god.\n\nHeim terrorized the 7 realms for as long as he existed. From mass sacrifices to sabotaging entire societies he was there. \n\nI don't know why but that thing was born without a heart, in its place a dark hole would suck every small bit of positivity around him. \n\nBut if it had no heart, it had a brain. It would never allow me to get too close, if I approached all schemes would disappear, he would scape through time, always back to the same moment, to a moment he would lose but could never be killed by me. He would go back to when he was just a child, just a small defenseless baby, protected by his father and mother.\n\nAfter running through time after him I could just watch the handsome boy, sleeping quietly on the bed. I could never kill him, only hope and try to change the future so I wouldn't have to.\n\nThis is not the story of a god. \n\nThis is story of countless failures.\n\nThis is the story of a father." ]	2
[WP] You die and go to hell. The demons of hell do their demonic things to you. Some significant amount of time into your stay in hell an angelic extraction team, swords ablazin', storms hell looking for you. Looks like you just may be going to heaven after all.	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Reality+Fiction%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Simple+Prompt%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/js5XDFB)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "She calls herself Marrow.\n\nIt wasn't her real name. It wasn't even a particularly good fake name. I'd heard enough snippets through walls and doorways to get a handle on their naming scheme and there was no way someone who lurks in a decrepit, rotting apartment could secure something as simple and broad as 'Marrow'.\n\nStill all I had to call her.\n\nI'd woken up in chains from...something. A vague memory of the ocean. Someone screaming my name, whatever it was. I'd asked her for it and she'd responded by making me drink tar. It stuck to my throat for two weeks. The entire time I couldn't breath. Couldn't find the thoughts for questions after that.\n\nRealized I was dead when she scoured it from my throat with a knife.\n\nDon't know how long its been. Never left the chains since then. Sometimes she ignores me, leaves me dangling in some corner of the room for months. Sometimes we move to another apartment that looks the same as the first. A couple times she's locked me in a trunk for weeks on end.\n\nSometimes I have her full attention.\n\nIt makes me miss the boredom.\n\nNot that anything hurts anymore.\n\nToday we have a scenery change. Looks like a drug-lab. I'm strung up in the corner, like always, but now there's someone new. Another demon, you can tell by the eyes. They can't do them right. Marrow keeps taking forms from my childhood. My mother, my sister, teachers, that girl I liked in high school. All of them, the eyes were wrong. I try to tell myself that every time she uses them. \n\nIt helps.\n\nI tell myself it helps.\n\nThe new one (and the only thing I can nail down about him is he's skinny) is raving about something. Water this, memory that, caught, tortured, extracted, lots of spy words. Marrow just nods along and digs her nails into her palm until something like blood flows out.\n\nShe looks at me. I look back. Until I can't.\n\nThe skinny one shouts something in gibberish and gets out a syringe. It's full of tar like the crap they forced down my throat, but...purer. It shines in the tube. Not so much a black as it is a space. A void.\n\nPart of me knows what it will do. Part of me wants it so bad. The needle edges towards my neck.\n\nThen the roof explodes, four balls of fire falling into the room. Marrow changes, her skin turning hard and ashen, covered in bony plates and horns and teeth. The skinny one screams, stretching thinner, all wriggling limbs and hair as he scrambles for an exit.\n\nThe fire wrapped around a figure. Six wings spread. A sword held in each hand. Rings across their fingers and eyes upon eyes running around their body. Only these eyes were right. Just. He raised the swords above his head and shouted....\n\n\\---\n\n\"Was she freed?\" \n\nHe skimmed the rest of it. What was there held little interest. Just a standard raid on a couple of rogue demons. The girls reactions turned increasingly awed, focusing on the strength and power of the team.\n\nAs she realized what they were, what was happening, he tilted the paper up to cover his mouth. This was a grim situation, no need to send the wrong impression.\n\n\"Yes. She is...I'm not going to say unharmed, but she will recover.\" Lattice waited for him to finish, hands folded behind her back. \"It will be difficult, but it is in Succor's hands now.\"\n\n\"That she needed to go to them at all is a failure.\" Her file was on his desk. Her whole file, dusty and forgotten somewhere in the archives. It had been marked that she'd been received and processed. That everything had worked as intended. They'd only known she was missing after a call from her grandmother demanding to know why she hadn't been informed of a relative's arrival.\n\nIt wasn't a great life, she had been taken too soon for that. But there was nothing, not one mark on her file that told him the girl deserved damnation.\n\n\"This tar. Do we have any leads?\" People went missing down there all the time. He didn't even know if they bothered looking for them. Not even the Son could get them to share information freely. \"They were clearly refining it into something.\"\n\n\"None. The team swears up and down they had the syringe, but....\"\n\nBut it vanished. Right out of the lead's pocket.\n\nWho could have done such a thing.\n\n\"He's planning something.\" He took his hands off the desk before they dug grooves into it. That man would take nothing more from him, not even furniture. \"That tar is at the center of it...souls disappear down there all the time. Lord above, there's still pockets of Hel's Norse down there trading them. He could have gotten one we'd never miss, but instead tried for a consecrated soul? He's planning something and it's almost done.\"\n\nThey needed to move now. Strike hard. Strike fast. End the problem before it could spiral out of control. That he was out of that frigid lake at all-\n\n\"Michael, sir,\" Lattice spoke quietly. If he was anyone else, he would not have caught it. But she was his own Seraph and had served him through three wars. And now she was afraid. \"I understand that you want to deal with this. Run in swords blazing like the old days, but...\"\n\nBut he couldn't.\n\nOh, it would work. It would flush all those horrid things out of the dark. He could clean up that place in a decade, have it running at peak efficiency. Never be troubled again.\n\nTake over Hell itself. Prove every nasty thing the Council had said about him right.\n\nSubtlety He needed to be subtle with this. Not let anyone, least of all HIM, know he'd caught on. \n\nHis eyes flicked to the other paper crowding his desk. Earmarked and backlogged, only reaching his desk after four days. So many other reports, not to mention all the paperwork the lost filing caused AND organizing a strike team AND submitting everything to Succor for effective treatment....\n\nHe'd forgotten about it. It wasn't something he usually handled. Time off requests could be fielded far, far down the chain. Especially those from Penitence. \n\nHowever, it was earmarked specifically for him. And given the circumstances....\n\nSerendipity is the will of those Greater, a guiding hand we never see.\n\n\"I have an idea.\"\n\n\\---\n\n[https://www.reddit.com/r/FiresofFordregha/](https://www.reddit.com/r/FiresofFordregha/)" ]	2
[WP] On your 3rd birthday, you gained map. Not just any ordinary one, but one that is visible only to you, marks living things with coloured dots, and floats intangibly in front of your face. Living alone, your worst nightmare is seeing a red dot in your house. Well, your fear has come true.	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Reality+Fiction%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Simple+Prompt%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/js5XDFB)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "Your breath quickens with the beeping of the alert. The darkness seems to almost close in on you in your heightened state of panic, and you squeeze your eyes shut in terror. No. You can’t shut down. Trying the creaky old light switch, you’re met with only fear and another cold shiver down your spine, when you hear the danger approach. \n\nThe thing is, you’ve never met, a human marked red. Not that time you were almost mugged, nor when you encountered a burglar. Seems like you get robbed often. But the only time you’ve ever seen a red dot in your life, was when you encountered a bear while hiking. \n\nBut you’re in the middle of the city, in a dingy and old apartment building. Your electricity rarely works, and your cell phone lacks a working flashlight. What the hell could get into your house?\n\nGrabbing the lamp by your bed, even knowing you’re likely not gonna survive an encounter with anything dangerous, you slip out of your room. \n\nSitting in the living room, unlike anything you’ve ever seen in your 47 years of life, is what can only be described as a true Eldritch horror. With what little light streaming through your window, you stare at the creature, but are unable to comprehend its ancient form. \n\nYou can only describe it as old. Of inconceivable age and time. Its gnarled and inhuman form is constantly changing and the air heaves in its very presence, with squelches and cracks, as if groaning at its cosmic weight. \n\nThe lamp slips from your hands and shatters against the hardwood floor. With a start, you gasp as the creature slinks toward you in its inhuman form. Just as much surprise crashes into you like a wave, when you see,\n\n\n\nThat the dot has turned green.", "Ever since I was little, I could see the map. It would hang in my peripheral vision, except when I close my eyes and think about it really hard. Then I can see the world. \n\nI would get shadows of landscapes, dark black and grey, but littering the world would be dots. My family and friends would be a dark blue, and most people and large animals would be a light blueish-gray. One night, when I was exploring the world in my bed, or daydreaming as my mom calls it, I saw one dot out of place. It was a deep, crimson red. \n\nI was shocked. What could it be? All the games I played growing up said red was dangerous, that it was bad. Fear overtook me, and I immediately looked away. For years, I followed the dot, to the grocery store, the movie theater across town, always near. With the help of the map, I was able to avoid that thing, although there were some close calls at the mall, or the park for New Years fireworks. Always lingering a bit too close. Until today. \n\nNow a junior in high school, I sit upstairs doing my homework for math. Mom had invited a coworker over for dinner, and a part of me hopes that they become more than friends. Ever since dad left, she has been struggling to smile but has put on a brave front for me. \n\nI finishing the last algebraic problem, I go to my bed and start to daydream. As is my usual habit, I find the red dot first. It seemed to be on the highway, heading south towards my side of town. No worries, I will just stay at home. There’s no possible way it would ever end up here. I then drift to India, my favorite place to watch, the movements and clamor of their bazaars make me feel at ease, and the few red dots I have found usually stays at their homes. \n\nMom calls out for me to meet her coworker and his kids, bringing me back to home. It was then that I noticed. There was the deep blue that was mom, two blue-grays near her in the kitchen. \n\nIn the living room, the red dot loomed. Fear swelled inside me, and panic began to take hold. What if it attacks me? What if it attacks mom!?\n\nI grabbed the bat from my bedside, and slowly left my room. As I enter the kitchen, I see my mom with a tall Japanese man holding a boy that couldn’t be more than a year old. \n\n“John, this is Fred Takashi, the man I was telling you about from work,” your mother beamed. He smiled warmly, and the baby in his arms waved to get his attention. \n\n“And thish widdle guys is Billy,” your mom said with a baby voice, the child squealing in delight. It would be adorable had that red dot not continued to pulse in the living room. \n\n“My daughter is in the living room,” Fred said to me, eyes locked on the joy his son was having with your mom. “She’s about your age, why don’t you go introduce yourself.”\n\n“Sure,” I croaked, trying to hide the bat behind me. Mom looked up and saw I had a cold sweat forming on my brow. \n\n“Are you okay, Jamie?” She asked, a bit of concern in her tone.\n\n“I’m fine,” I say barely more than a whisper, going to the living room to confront the red dot. As I walk away, I hear Fred asked if there was something wrong, and mom saying that I just need to warm up to him. \n\nWhen I entered the living room, I saw her. Her baggy jeans hung close to her thin waist, a green tank-top hugging her slender form. Her hair was a long, silky black, and her eyes flashed with intelligence. She was stunning. \n\nWhen our eyes met, I felt an ache in the pit of my stomach. She smiled warmly. “Hey, I’m Jasmine!” Her voice was like honey in hot tea, not overwhelming by just sweet enough to make me want to hear more. \n\n“H-hey, I’m Jamie.” My words stammer out, my mind trying to understand how she could be the red dot. She cocked her head to the TV. “You wanna play some Halo? I’m hella good with the snipes.”\n\nI gently put the bat against the wall and go to start up the console. As we play, I see she her hunch forward tung sticking out to the side as she struggles to get a shot off. It was set to legendary, and she held her own. It was fun, and I could hear mom and Fred laughing in the kitchen. \n\n“So you think pops and your ma are gonna hook up?” She said between shots, eyes fixed on the screen, the images from the TV dancing in her eyes. \n\n“I donno, maybe?” I say back. I have been sucking on this play through, mostly because I stare at Jasmine more than the screen. \n\n“They totally will,” she said. I looked at her, confused. “Why do you think that?” My question is more a curiosity. “Because they’re linked.” She started, then swore when a brute killed her. \n\n“Jasmine! Language!” Dread shouted from the kitchen. “Yes, daaaad!” She called back, then looked at me. \n\n“I’m like fourth gen American, right?” She began. “But my family is Japanese. There is this old wives tail about soul mates being linked together by a string of fate.” She leans back, looking at you as if she is seeing you in a new light. \n\n“A ‘string of fate’?” I ask, more curios than anything. “Yeah, a red string.” She continued. She then got in real close, and started to wisher. “Don’t tell anyone, but I have a secret power.” \n\nI shift uncomfortably, then lean in. “Okay...” I whisper back. “I can see the red strings that link people together.” She whispers to me. I looked at her in surprise. “So you can see everyone’s soulmate? Who’s yours?”\n\nShe sat back in a huff, frustration on her faces. “That’s the bitch of it, I can see everyone else’s but mine!” \n\n“JASMIN! LANGUAGE!” Fred called out.\n\n“Yes, da!” She called back. And we laughed. It felt warm and right. We spent the rest of the day playing games and talking about our special abilities. It was fun. \n\nAnd that, kids, is how I met your mother.", "I saw that red dot day after day, but I never thought I'd have see it here. He's already found me, and I'm too afraid to know whether that's good or bad.\n\nDeep breaths, I remind myself, grabbing an umbrella and crouching down behind the couch. I can hide from him, but the memories still follow me.\n\n\\_\\_\\_\n\n\"He's dead Alexia. I know that you still love your father, but we need to move on with our lives.\" My mother's voice. I can still picture that moment: her, kneeling down to meet my eyes with sadness and love in hers.\n\n\"It's not that!\" I sobbed, tugging at my sleeves. She didn't understand then and she doesn't understand now. It's funny how some things never change.\n\n\\_\\_\\_\n\nI hear thumping from the direction of my room. I squeeze my eyes shut and grip the umbrella tighter, wishing that I had a gun or a baseball bat instead. The dot is coming closer, blinking at me as it moves nearer and nearer.\n\nI close my eyes, trying to block out the blinking red dot, but I only lose myself in memories once more.\n\n\\_\\_\\_\n\n\"You think that there's something wrong with me? I understand. Maybe there is. Maybe...\" my mother, so blinded by his fake worry, cuts him off with words that are supposed to be soothing. \"No, no. You're perfect — I'm just worried that you don't seem to realize that.\"\n\n\"No,\" he insisted. \"You think that there's something wrong with me! Why else would you suggest a therapist?\"\n\n\"Well,\" said my mother, trying to diffuse the situation, \"there's always family therapy. Alex never seemed to get used to having you as a father.\" He freezes at this, but only for a moment. \"No, we're getting along fine!\" My mother relaxes. \"Really? That's great!\"\n\nI flee back to my room, tugging at my sleeves as I hide under the covers.\n\n\\_\\_\\_\n\n\"I brought some of your things, dear,\" he says, faking that kind tone of voice. He should know by now that I won't fall for it. The dot is in the room with me, and I freeze. Not out of fear, but out of caution.\n\nI'm between the couch and the wall, so he can't see me. But hearing? That's entirely different. I close my eyes and sink into the memories once more.\n\n\\_\\_\\_\n\nI'm sitting at the kitchen table, poking at my food and listening as my mother argues with him. \"It's just a get together, dear,\" she says in a reasonable tone. \"I haven't seen some of them in years. We've always been too busy with one thing or another and...\"\n\n\"It's fine if I'm not enough for you Ella. I understand.\" My hand clenches on the fork as he speaks the words in that hurt voice. As if! I get out of my seat and move towards the doorway.\n\nI can almost hear my mother flinch. \"No dear, it's not that. I just want to see old friends once in a while.\" I peek around the corner just in time to see a hurt look flash across his face. Once he turns away, however, it's gone just as quickly as it came.\n\n\"Oh, Adam,\" she starts. She's sad now too, and my hate for him intensifies as I see his words take hold of her emotions and squeeze, leaving her sad and vulnerable. She moves around him and touches his face as he quickly replaces the sad expression he had plastered there so recently. \"You are enough.\" She smiles a sad smile at him, and he returns one in kind.\n\nAs he turns to leave however, his expression flashes quickly to one of triumph, and then morphs to one of anger just as quickly. He's seen me around the doorway and I know that I'll pay for this later.\n\n\\_\\_\\_\n\nI reach to tug my sleeves down, but I'm wearing short sleeves today, making the bruises on my arms all the more apparent. I only sit and wait for the little dot to move out the door as he gives up.\n\nAs soon as he's gone, I snatch my phone and call the police. \"Yes, officer?\" I say. I take a deep breath before continuing. \"I've found him.\"\n\nr/StoriesOfAshes", "I swallow deeply. My mini-map is telling me that an enemy is right in front of me. That an enemy is right beyond my door, sitting inside my house. My hands feel clammy as I gingerly turn the knob of the door. It swings open slowly with a creek, darkness envelopes the entire space. I step inside my house, the entire time keeping focus on the red dot on my map. It was still there, in my living room, not moving. \n\nI flick the light switch on the side of the door, up and down, nothing happens. Power must be out. I pull out my phone and switch on the flashlight. The light is dim and barely uncovers anything, I curse myself quietly for buying such a cheap phone. \n\nA loud creak comes out from in front of me. I frantically shove my phone in front of me in hopes to show whatever horror is going to take my life. A small racoon is sitting in my living room. A large sigh comes out from me, my shoulders lose all of their tension, and I slump down on my doorframe. I look to my mini-map once more, usually things I designate as friendly will appear blue. \n\nI freeze, my body goes stiff. The racoon is gone but the red dot is still coming closer to me. I bring my phone back up. The light illuminates the hall in front of me. At the far end of the hall are a pair of glowing red eyes. I swallow deeply." ]	5
[WP] After an accident, you wake up to find yourself in Purgatory. Turns out, Purgatory is a diner where you’ve been seated, but never get to order	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Reality+Fiction%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Simple+Prompt%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/js5XDFB)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "I’m sitting in the booth with the lacerated leather. Tufts of pure white cotton protrude forth brazenly, likely the remnants of some idle child’s guileless hands. I wonder how jaded and disillusioned the owner of this place must be to overlook such a flagrant blemish every day.\n\nThe walls speak to a few attempts at an Americana vibe. I see some 20th century advertisements, a couple of old farm tools, and the random photo or painting. But make no mistake, this is no Cracker Barrel. The décor represents the feeblest of attempts to make the space feel like anything but sterile. Hopefully they give a better effort with the cuisine.\n\nIn case the whimsy of imagination carries me someplace beyond the ambience, the wafting odor of grease and cigarette ash tethers me to the reality of this place.\n\nLooks like there’s one waitress here. Most tables are empty, but a few grungy looking fellows are seated across the dining room, speaking quietly and occasionally erupting in raucous guffaws. Half of them wear worn hats and overalls. Truck drivers, maybe. Or locals. \n\nShe’s wiping down the table next to them. Every now and then they’ll say something to her. She’ll grin and respond. I can’t make out what she’s saying, but it must be something amusing. They’re howling like drunk coyotes now. One of them is whooping so hard he’s wiping away tears.\n\nMy table is set with an overturned coffee cup and a silver fork on top of a folded, white paper napkin. Do people actually drink the coffee at a place like this? I turn over the cup. Ugh—it’s plastic. \n\nLooking out the window, there’s not much going on. The occasional whine of the impact driver at the shop across the street. A few cars passing through. A post office, and an old furniture store in sight. Some other storefronts, but I can’t tell what they are. These buildings are old, but not old enough. Not old-fashioned in the architecturally quaint sense, but more in the strictly utilitarian sense of the late 80s. I really shouldn’t be so judgmental. They’re probably doing the best they can.\n\n“Hey hun, what can I getcha?” She’s made her way over to me but is busying herself sorting menus near the kitchen’s countertop. I twist my neck uncomfortably to look her way; a passive aggressive nod to the inconvenience of speaking to someone behind me. It’s lost on her.\n\n“Oh, uh…Shoot, I haven’t even looked at a menu.” I don’t have a menu.\n\n“Well, it’s five-dollar Friday, so you can order anything off the lunch menu for only five bucks. You can add a cup of soup or fries for another two-fifty. Do you want me to go get you a coffee while you look over the menu?”\n\n“Coffee? When was it brewed?”\n\nShe lets go of the menus and spins around. With an incredulous look, she stifles a chuckle, almost snorting. “’When was it BREWED?’”\n\nI pause, uncertain of how my question caused offense. “Uh, yeah, it’s just, it’s afternoon, and I don’t usually drink coffee this late anyway. But if it’s fresh…”\n\n“How ‘bout I pour you a cup and you can taste it and decide for yourself.” She grabs the pot from behind the countertop and, with a menu in hand, makes her way over to me. “And if you don’t like it, just leave it sit. Don’t make no difference to me AT ALL,” she says, with an uncomfortably heavy emphasis on the last two words.\n\n“Oooooh-kay.” I take the menu from her. I seem to be nothing more than an inconvenience here, interrupting her charade of busyness -- with actual business. I’m always irked when service workers treat their customers like interruptions. Maybe with a proper attitude this dining room have a few more warm bodies in it. This place is the restaurant version of apathy and complacency.\n\nShe fills the plastic coffee cup and walks back into the kitchen. She barks something out to the unseen staff over the roaring hiss of the griddle. The kitchen door swings shut.\n\nI look over the menu. For five bucks, the club sandwich looks decent enough. I’m rather hungry, so I’ll do the fries too.\n\nI sip the coffee. It’s not as bad as I expect, but it’s still not great. I can stomach half a cup, maybe. Hopefully she’ll be proactive enough to bring me a glass of water, but I know better than to expect that level of service here. \n\nWaiting, I look around the dining room again. I just happen to catch a stare from the table at the other end of the room. Every one of the guys seated there has turned his head directly towards me and are staring at me blankly. Except for the guy seated with his back to me – he’s swiveled his neck so that he can look at me out of the corner of his eye over the shoulder.\n\nI feel a slight involuntary jerk. What the—? I look behind me to see if they’re looking past me at something else. But there’s nothing there except a few empty tables and a white wall.\n\nTurning back around, I wave and give a feeble smile. They stare.\n\n“What’s up? Everything okay?” I call across the room. My voice sounds less confident than I’d hoped. \n\nOne of them looks away. Then the others do. They go back to conversation. That was weird…\n\nThe kitchen door swings open. The lone wolf waitress comes out and heads over to their table. “Y’all doing okay on coffee? Jimmy, you need a warmup?” Great…they’re regulars. I probably did or said something to piss them off. \n\nActually—no. Screw that. I’ve not done anything except come into a place of business open to the public in an attempt to provide patronage. I’m not going to feel insecure about that.\n\nShe’s filling Jimmy’s cup, and I can hear one of the guys speaking to her in a hushed tone. She looks up at me, and seeing that I’m facing her way, quickly looks back down at the coffee she’s pouring. She stops pouring and nods.\n\nShe walks over to the menus on the countertop again. What the hell is going on here? I watch her walk over, then look back at the men across the room. They reengage their quiet, nonchalant banter. \n\nShe walks towards the front door, then hesitates, as if she’s forgotten something. She comes over to me. She looks uncomfortable.\n\n“I can’t take your order right now.”\n\n“What? Why not?”\n\n“We have some issues in the kitchen.”\n\n“Okay…what kind of issues?”\n\n“Our griddle is out.”\n\nI can feel my brow wrinkling. “The griddle that I hear sizzling RIGHT NOW? Besides, I was going to order a club sandwich anyway. That shouldn’t involve any cooking.”\n\n“I told you I can’t take your order right now.” Her voices quivers slightly. \n\n“So, would you rather I leave?” I’m getting mad. “I don’t need to be here anyway. I was just passing through and thought I’d support a local business. There are a whole bunch of chain restaurants at the next exit. I have no problem driving on up to one of those.”\n\nShe lets out a quiet but exasperated breath and looks across the room. One of the guys is headed towards me. Great…", " This isn't so bad. That was Dion's first thought when he explained his strange circumstances at the entrance. After a car crash, he saw a flash of dim light, and when he woke up, he found himself in an upscale restaurant. He was told that he would spend an eternity here, and it was purgatory. After the initial shock wore off, he took a look at his surroundings. The decor was amazing; clear crystal chandeliers reflected a brilliant light that cast all around the room. Red leather booths separated him from the other customers, all of who had gold silverware in front of them. The marble flooring just felt like overkill at that point. With that being said, two things stuck out the Dion that he couldn't help but feel was...odd. A wide glass window practically took up the whole wall; the issue was what was on the other side of the glass, which was nothing. All Dion could see outside was a thick white fog that seemed almost solid, preventing him from seeing further ahead. The other unusual thing that caught Dion's attention were the other patrons themselves. He noticed that none of them, not a single person, was eating. Not only that, but none of them even had food on their plates, no dirty plates, not even a glass of water. \n\nHe tried to get his fellow customers' attention, but it was of no use as if they couldn't or didn't want to hear him. Confused, he took a look at the menu, steak, Calamari, ribs, and even local Chinese food. While it was strange for such a well-kept restaurant to have this type of food assortment, he wasn't complaining. They were all his personal favorites. With nothing left to do, he decided to gesture for a waiter.\n\n\"Good afternoon, my name is Kelly, and I'll be serving as your waiter today.\" She stated. \"Can I start you off with anything?\"\n\n\"Ummm, sure, first, if you don't mind me asking.\" Dion pointed to the fog just outside the window. \"What is all of that?\"\n\nThe waitress, Kelly, looked at Dion with a blank expression. \n\nDion asked again, \"Excuse me, Ma'am. Sorry to pry. I'm wondering what is all that fog outside and why doesn't anyone have food on their plates?\" Suddenly panic arose inside of him. The words that he had been greeted with when he first entered the restaurant flashed into his head. Good afternoon, this is where you will be spending your eternity. Please enjoy your stay here in purgatory. The words Eternity and Purgatory made him sick; he looked at Kelly, who just stood there—continuing not to answer his questions. Her eyes were empty and soulless; her smile was hollow as the glass cup beside him. Ok, ok, calm down, let me get some food and figure this shit out, he thought to himself.\n\n\" You know what, nevermind that right now. Can you get the prime rib with a side of string beans and just a glass of water for now.\" Dion finally replied.\n\nSuddenly springing back to life as if she were a wind-up toy, Kelly wrote down on a little notebook in front of her. \"Excellent,\" she stated,\" Your order will be out in just a few minutes.\" before disappearing into the kitchen. Then Dion waited, and waited, then waited some more. Soon minutes turned into hours, and he still hadn't gotten a single item. His stomach soon began to twist and turn from hunger. Frustrated and confused, he called for a waiter, who once again quickly approached him. This time it wasn't Kelly who came to his table but a different person entirely.\n\n\"What happened to Kel-\"\n\nGood afternoon. My name is Jason, and I'll be serving as your waiter today.\" He interrupted.\n\nWait, wait, wait, what the fuck is going on? Where the hell is Kelly? As a matter of fact, what the fuck is going on here.\" Dion's words overflowed with anger. He still hadn't even got an answer to his previous questions, and now his food wasn't even here. Then like a bag of bricks, he realized what was going on.\n\n\"I'm... I'm not going to be getting anything to eat, huh? Nor will anyone else in here too…\" He didn't expect a response. Jason just looked at him with the same blank expression and crooked smile that Kelly had given him only hours ago. Or was it years? He couldn't remember. Dion placed his head down on the table and put his hands over his head. \n\n\"Leave me be. \"Dion commanded, but it was more of a plea at this point. \n\n\"Looks like you need more time to make a selection then. If you need me, ask!\" Dion could hear Jason's footsteps get fainter as he walked away. As more time went by, the more it felt like it became distorted. Before long, Dion couldn't tell how much time had past and because of the fog outside, nor if it was day or night. After a while, he didn't want to know.\n\n&#x200B;\n\n Thanks for reading! If you what to check out any more of my short stories, you can read them at [r/CainsJournal](https://www.reddit.com/r/CainsJournal/)" ]	3
[WP] There's a war going on. While the sound of bombs and gunshots are echoing outside the window, you and your father are trying to hold on to normalcy by playing an intense 3 minute game of chess. By the time the last piece fall, your father smiles at you one last time as soldiers break through.	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Reality+Fiction%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Simple+Prompt%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/js5XDFB)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "\"Dad...?\"\n\nYoung Richard anxiously looked to his dad, holding back a burst of his tears. His father's unusual calmness failed to relaxed his son's uneasy heart. Considering the perilous situation happening just outside, it was certainly uncommon.\n\n\"Just keep your eyes on mine and focus on the game, Richard. Bishop takes rook. Your move, please\"\n\nWith trembling hand the young man moved his pawn, taking his father's unguarded queen. Explosions thundered from miles away. As if imitating a deadly storm the explosions slowly crept closer and closer, mankind's flattery to nature's deadly force.\n\n\"Dad, I'm scared. Where's mom?\"\n\nHis father however remained still and stoic, cold as a statue. Swiftly he moved a piece, continuing the game. The one he had been playing recklessly, as he had been sacrificing his biggest pieces with no rhyme or reason, even apparent to the inexperienced young Richard. Extremely in contrast to his calm demeanor.\n\n\"She's...away, safe. Bishop checks. Go on\"\n\nThe explosions were now very close accompanied by loud chattering and shouting. It reminded young Richard of the occasional neighborhood party held by the people of his town around his house, only a joyous occasion it was not.\n\n\"Dad, please. Can't we go? I don't like those noises outside\"\n\nRichard moved his knight to block his king from his father's bishop. As of then the noises had entered their home. It was strangely quiet and empty, leaving Richard and his father alone upstairs in the master bedroom.\n\n\"Richard, listen to me. When this is over, there would be things, things you would hear about me that they would tell you. I want you to remember that what they feed you is all lies, you understand me? I will never hurt you, you are my king and I am your knight. Just like those pieces on the chessboard I will always protect you, no matter what, okay?\"\n\nHe was unsure but Richard nodded understandingly anyway. As his father dropped his own king, surrendering, the room burst open as a squad of armed soldiers barged in. With no warning they shot Richard's father right in his head, drenching the chess board in his blood pouring from his wound. Richard was frozen, it was all so overwhelming to his young mind to handle.\n\n\"General, the enemy King Richard III has been executed!\", the soldier who shot Richard's father radioed back to his superior.\n\n\"Commander, we checked the whole house. We found the bodies of the maids and butlers, also the queen all apparently dead from gunshot to the head!\", another soldier informed the first one.\n\n\"Heh son of a bitch took things to his own hand. You're a reckless but bold one indeed\", he said looking at the body of the dead king before turning the still fear stricken young Richard.\n\n\"Kid, you're coming with us. We're not going to hurt you...the king is dead, the war is over\", he said trying to be as gentle as he could to address the young boy but he no longer heard anything or anyone. \n\nHis mind swirled and twisted, brewing his own war within him. Looking at his dead father before him. His blood painting the chessboard red mirroring the war that had raged upon their kingdom bathing it red with blood of the innocents. His world had crashed around him. And so uncontained, the dam finally burst...he screamed an inhumanly loud scream filled of sorrow and agony." ]	2
[WP] A man receives a magic Rubik cube from a witch. If he can solve it, he will have everything he wants. There is one rule. He can move only one side per day.	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Reality+Fiction%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Simple+Prompt%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/js5XDFB)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "\"Any wish?\"\n\n\"Any wish!\" the witch replies, following with a cackle. \"Only one condition, you can only move one side a day!\"\n\n\"Okay, I'll do it\" The man says, taking the Rubik cube from the witch.\n\n&#x200B;\n\nUpon getting home the man looks up online how to solve a Rubik cube in as few moves as possible. He finds it can be done with as few as twenty moves!\n\n\"Twenty days for any wish isn't so bad.\" he says\n\nThe man gets to work, meticulously solving the cube, one move per day. With the help of the internet it was easy.\n\nOn the 21st day after receiving the cube, he returns to the witch for his wish.\n\n\"Oh myyy! Done already?!\" the witch screeches.\n\n\"Yeah, it wasn't hard... Let's make it harder.\" The man replies.\n\n\"What is your wish then?\" the witch asks.\n\n\"The next time, make it so they can only make one move per year.\" the man says coldly.\n\n\"How dubious! I love it! Your wish is granted!\" the witch says with glee before flying off.\n\n&#x200B;\n\nYears later\n\n\"So any wish I want?\"\n\n\"Any wish! On one condition! You may make a move one per year!\" says the witch with glee.\n\n\"Well, I guess I'll be able to pay off my mortgage and student loans early.\"" ]	2
[WP]you work during the entire morning and only come home during the night, your roommate works during the night and comes back in the morning. You don't see each other. You only interact with sticky-notes, a notebook, and a chess board in the livingroom where each of you move once per day.	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Reality+Fiction%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Simple+Prompt%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/js5XDFB)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "It was just bad luck, I suppose. Five days, and I hadn’t seen him awake for a minute of it.\n\nI woke at 4 a.m. on the sixth day to an empty bed, but sliding my hand over to his side, the sheets were still warm. Sound echoed in from the bathroom, the wood panels on the floor creaking under his weight, the flush of a toilet, the running water as he washed his hands. That part took a long time; it was a good habit to get into, and we both had.\n\nHe smiled as he saw me gazing up at him sleepily from the bed, sliding back under the covers. It wasn’t chilly, the space heater regularly clicking off and on to maintain warmth, since we’d both agreed there was no reason to make it even more difficult to get out of bed for the past week. But it was still cozier under the blankets.\n\n“Hey,” he whispered, nuzzling up to my side.\n\n“Come here,” I muttered. I took him in my arms, breathing him in.\n\nHe let out a long breath and traced the marks on my face. “You look like… You know how if you nap for too long in one position, you get marks from the sheets?”\n\nI chuckled. “Yeah.”\n\n“You look like you took the mother of all naps.”\n\n“On my face.”\n\n“Mm.”\n\nI traced invisible lines across his arms. “I’m still worried. I take all the precautions in the world and I get home and we share a bed”\n\nHe put a finger to my lips. “My choice. I told you.” I nodded and he removed his finger, instead cupping my face in his hand. “Love you.”\n\n“Love you too.”\n\n“It’s gonna be like this for a while, isn’t it?”\n\n“Yeah. Yeah, it is.”", "9.00pm. \nHome time. I can feel the anticipation building inside me as I get in the car and make my way home through the slumbering city.\n\n When I moved here two months ago I had no friends, no contacts whatsoever. I took a huge leap of faith coming here, but the job offer I got was too tempting to turn down, whatever the risks. I found a decent little apartment on the outskirts of the city center, which I shared with a man I knew only as 'H'. \n\nHe worked the nightshift at a factory downtown, and as silly as it sounds we had never actually met. All of the arrangements had been made over the phone and with the landlord, who assured me that \"H is a good man, hard working and kind, though he can be a little odd\". And didn't I know it. The first day I moved in I found a sticky note on the fridge saying 'Your move' and a small, battered chess board, fully set up, waiting on a coffee table in the living room. One chipped, white pawn made of marble had been moved forward.\n\nThat was how it started, our strange little relationship. Every night when I got home, a white piece on the board had moved, and sometimes he would leave notes around, asking me about myself, my interests and my past. And I would reply and leave notes for him before I left for work. It felt like we had gotten to know each other so well, despite never actually meeting. \n\nNow, driving past the familiar hedgerows and gardens of my neighbors on Bow Street, I noticed a light on in the living room, which was strange. H should have left for work hours ago. I open up the front door and step inside, and the first thing I can hear is a slight buzzing noise, like static on an old TV set, but louder. As I step into the living room I see the chessboard, one half still on the table and the other laying on the floor, the little marble pieces are littered across the carpet \n\n\"H!?\" I shout, but then I see it. Blood. I let out an involuntary gasp. There's a sizable puddle of it oozing out from under the sofa, which is laying on its back and looks like it has been slashed to tatters. There's a single sticky note left on the fridge door, which is swinging open, the contents of the fridge strewn across the kitchen tiles. \n\nIt reads: 'The regime does not ask twice. Your friend is the example'." ]	3
[WP] You have the ability to read memories of people you directly look at , one day you see a man who you've never seen before , you try to read his memories but everything is blank . You try harder until you find a memory from 4 years ago ... of dying .	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Reality+Fiction%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Simple+Prompt%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/js5XDFB)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "Juxtaposition was one of the worlds best traits, the snow had this warm way of reminding us city dwellers of natures existence, that at least something was still without the bounds of our control. I tugged at my pocket until the vapor that left my mouth wasn’t anything more than nicotine. A cigarette was never too far but I especially needed one today as the tension in the office was too high, too many murders, no leads. \n\n“That’s not nice kid,” I grinned with all the geniality I had, a child caught wind of my addiction and luckily had the cold air to assist him. “You smoke one of these a day and the tooth fairy won’t be buying your teeth but will be selling them back to you.” His mother couldn’t help but laugh and just like that, they were replaced by a couple, a group of friends and then another pair of mother and son. It was a weird form of solace, seeing people delight in the gigantic Christmas tree that towered over us all, the gait of the snow, the lights that layered the city, true community. \n\nBut it’s not New York City without something strange happening and the city had a knack for upholding its reputation. A man walked over to me, or maybe suddenly appeared, it didn’t matter I just knew he was blocking my view. That close he seemed almost taller than the tree, I didn’t say anything though, I didn’t have to because he was the one intruding. He smelled of something that would have been far worse if not for the cold air numbing my senses a bit, his face was scarred and his pale skin was accompanied by muscles that seemed a bit unnatural. I didn’t want to do it, I hated looking into peoples memories, the reason I took this walk was to for once guess what made people who they were, but I had to know who was actually in front of me and so with a stare and the tick of the will it activated... but blank.\n\nMemories were just records of time, nothing more, no person could be summed up by one single memory and yet sometimes a moment was the only thing sharp enough to carve a boy into a man. That’s what I saw when I returned the glare of this stranger, every bit of man but not the boy. And almost like some twisted irony my inability to dig deeper in his psyche had echoed of something in my own, a nostalgia of when I first received these abilities, frustration and ineptness...\n\n“You, you are special?” He spoke and his voice was gruff enough to cut his own throat. “I can fee— I can feel it. Where is she?”\n\nMy powers always worked, no matter how repressed the memory, or amnesiac the individual, memories were always there hiding, why couldn’t I find them? “Back away from me pal,” I whipped out my badge, even drunkards forgot the taste of liquor in front of a detective.\n\nWe had a moment of silence, not the one you appreciate with a hot coffee and a cigarette but the one before you kill a man. \n\nLuckily.... he simply walked off, taking his time like the snow that fell. I took that as a sign to head back to the office and ended my little smoke break. “Loosey loo gotsss a thing for you,” I harmonized with a voice that made sense of me being a detective and not on broadway, “Lucy Luuuuu got a thing for youuuu,” my car was nice and warmed up ready to return to that bland ass building.\n\nI lit another cigarette, ignoring my conscious like usual before starting my car, it didn’t move. The tires was shot. I looked up and just like before that same strange man was standing in front of me. \n\n“Listen here you fuck,” I took out my gun, I was going to make sure his New Years resolution was getting out of jail. \n\n“Where is she!?” He tossed the car a couple feet away. Seeing that with my own eyes was more brain boggling than the damage I took. A concussion, a shoulder out of place, possibly a few broken ribs.\n\n“Where is she? Tell me!” He broke off the car door with literally zero effort, dragging my body into the middle of the street. I looked him dead into his eyes, I wanted to know what actually killed me. Maybe it was the adrenaline or maybe something else but finally I could see his memories...\n\nA fog, a beast, a woman. I saw him get shredded to nothing, but— how could this be? He was right here alive, no man could survive what had happened to him. He fell to the ground, the first time I ever saw somebody be aware of my digging. I then shot him until he went limp, too much to count.\n\n“She’s gone, she’s gone, she’s gone, she’s gone, she’s gone, she’s gone, she’s gone, she’s gone,” he whimpered with a grin that looked more like a scar. Pitiful man.\n\nBefore I could dial in a medic i heard a voice eat it’s way into my head, “Hmm so we have a new piece on the chest board? And your one of those special humans? Interesting,” bitter and soothing, she ended her sentence with a slight chuckle, something that played itself over and over and over...", "A memory is a failing thing. A suspect of a crime is distorted by fear, transformed by anxiety and adrenaline beyond recognition. Our strongest memories are made when we tie them to an unmistakable smell or sound.\n\nWhen I look at someone, I see them inside and out. I see their memories as flashes of conversations and blinks of major events.\n\nI first discovered I had this ability my senior year of high school. The rollercoaster was so rough, it nearly threw me out of school altogether, but I survived and learned how to manage, how to ride the emotions I see inside someone else’s head. Now I enjoyed using them as inspiration for a future novel, and on this particular Saturday morning I found myself at a coffee shop, ordering my usual and finding an outdoor seat. Latte in hand, I opened my laptop, ready to spy on pedestrians and drink them in.\n\nI gaze into the passing crowd. A woman talking on a cellphone with her daughter in tow is walking briskly. I lock onto her and see her holding a wrinkled hand, stroking the weathered and spotted veins with her thumb.\n\nUnentertained, I look at the girl. I see a fight with another girl, slightly taller. She pushes her back into a table, shattering a goldfish bowl onto the floor.\n\n“Scratchy!” she cries reaching for her flailing friend. She places him in a nearby glass of water, saving his life. She turns to the tall girl and smacks her sideways at the same instant a car horn blares and pulls me from the dream.\n\nI shake my head, feeling the radiating heat on my right hand. I could only imagine the sting it left on her face.\n\nI sip and sample, searching for the eureka moment until 30 minutes pass. I’ve seen hospital beds, proposals, partners quarrel and babies born until I’m left with a generic taste in my mouth. As my latte runs low and I’m nearly ready to quit, an older man takes a seat with his back to me.\n\nHe’s wearing a tweed jacket and a hat that reminds me of a Cary Grant movie. His wide torso and hips exceed the chair, and I hear him heave a few breaths before he sighs a sincere “thank you” as the server delivers his drink, a real courtesy for someone of his age. He sets a gift bag on the ground at his feet.\n\nAs I gaze, I see only him. I tilt my head, like tuning with an antenna as I tried to pick up his signal but I get nothing but radio silence. Then I’m in a car, an old one too. The front seat is bench-style and the dash is just as long and slim, accented with wood, a small radio and a cigarette lighter.\n\nIt’s dark and only one of my headlights is working. I’m not sure where I’m driving, but I feel desperate and disoriented. I look into my rearview and see a car in the distance as two very small yellow dots. I squint to see through the dark, praying to see a stroke of familiarity as I speed 80 mph through the night.\n\nA second look in my rearview and I’m blinded by headlights.\n\nThen I’m spinning to the sound of squealing rubber. My body leans over the bench seat to cope with the force and speed of the seemingly endless spiral. Another object meets metal and I’m thrashed forward. My diaphragm cracks like an egg on the steering wheel, and I gasp as I’m whipped back again. Shards of the windshield are sent back with me and I can feel the glass on my tongue. My arms are rag-dolled back and I feel my biceps tear as they’re ripped beyond their limits.\n\nThen everything is still. Like an astronaut, I stare straight up from my cabin and into the sky, my arms melting at my side. I feel my pulse throb with my entire torso. I see the stars of a desert sky. My breath is reduced to a struggling wheeze and set to a symphony of dumping gas and the twinkling of glass raining from its solid prison. I want to call for help but I can’t draw the air, and I’m afraid of the glass falling further into my throat. I can’t swallow, I can’t move, I can’t breathe, and I can’t hear sirens coming for me.\n\nIsolated in the dark, possibly out of sight of the road in this apparent ditch. I may as well have been buried alive. I feel hopeless. I try to think of a comforting face. I close my eyes to feel them near me, and then I feel nothing.\n\nI awake in my metal chair outside the cafe, the sun beating down on me as morning turned to afternoon. I looked to where the old man had been sitting but his chair was empty. Only the bag remained on the cement where he had carefully placed it.\n\nI took a deep breath to ensure I still could before I rose to collect the bag and leave it with the barista, hoping he might return for it. As I reached down, I saw in the bag was a rose accompanied by a copy of a funeral program for an old, portly man in a tweed suit and a fedora.\n\n“In loving memory of John Kingsley: Jan. 3, 1930 - Aug. 14, 2016”" ]	3
[WP] You are an alien representative in the Galactic Federation who just started observing Earth, in what happens to be WW2. Shocked at what you see, you show the entire federation the war occurring. It ends up being the deadliest in the known universe.	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Reality+Fiction%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Simple+Prompt%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/js5XDFB)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "Chief Observer's log. Chrono Date 389.459 Galactic standard.\n\nPriority One transmissions are authorized by Federation Council until further notice by nature of events.\n\nThe Transmission sent from this world they call earth was intercepted far faster than hopefully they will ever know. It took Three of their years to scramble a team post transmission\n\nEvents have unfortunately transpired along the lines of our worst fears. Dissemination of communications and translation protocols have been able to break down the intervening period to the date of this broadcast.\n\nWhat can only be referred to in civilized terms as an unending stream of propaganda has spewed forth a central point in the largest landmass of the world closest to their smaller ocean. A force calling itself Germany has spread disgusting and hateful filth among its people on a daily basis, indoctrinating many in what is to come next. \n\nOne year before we were able to assemble our post before we even entered the system The Country the Humans call Germany removed the ruling authority of another through something called 'Anschluss' This apparently was in violation of a Treaty we were not witness to years prior.\n\nLater in the same year five months before our observation post was able to be placed, through political maneuvering we have not been able to fully figure out, this country took over another Country through similar but different means. By this point the propaganda was at an all time high. \n\nThree months before our post was finished assembling, a major incident occurred, reports are sketchy and i can not believe i'm even writing the following: This was no less than the attempted extermination of a group of people. Genocide is putting this mildly. For their beliefs the people of Germany attacked their own. The Propaganda had been widely disseminated against this group of individuals labeled 'Jewish' \n\nIn the intervening time since after our post has been able to be established on one of the small rocks Orbiting Mars, the situation on this planet has only grown more and more intense. We are taking the extraordinary steps of asking for Military Advisors as we believe war is about to break out. It is August of 1939 by their calendar as this transmission is being made.\n\n\\------------------------------------------------------------------------\n\nObservation Post Commander's Log Chrono Date 389.459 Galactic standard.\n\nPer my order by the authority granted by the Federation Council we are now in an alerted state at this outpost. The possibility for intervention exists. I can not believe a war on this scale is going to occur. The Chief Observer's report is correct by every measure, but i must add my own thoughts to this report as i have experience he does not.\n\nThe forces arrayed while technologically inferior are by factors of magnitude advanced in Doctrine most federation races never see. Fortifications are being made to protect key ground access points. Fighter class aircraft are being created at a terrifying pace. I'm requesting the dispatchment of military advisors from Federation Fleet Command. Our appearance will not settle down this conflict. It may only make it worse. But we must be able to properly describe the movements of the battles ahead. \n\nThere are several major powers in play one of which would prefer to be left alone entirely. One that seems hell bent on conquering everything. The same force that is referred to as Germany, three others in the Eastern Part of the world that are not making direct moves yet...but feel that the world will change if they do not act. \n\nI must be frank, very few civilizations who have reached such a crisis point rarely survive. Even without what appears to be large scale laser or modern technology the analysis of the principals and theologies, along with their ideologies show a complete incompatibility. And while some would prefer not to fight, as always someone never cares about that. \n\nWe will be providing Live Updates on this channel as the situation develops. I've given that authority to the Chief Observer. If nothing else, we will be able to log their demise as a species. \n\n(( Reserving rights to turn this into an r/HFY ))", "Report of war on the newly discovered planet: Earth \n\nAs a previous report has brought up the populated resource-rich world of Earth which has had wars in the past, but the most recent once has already turn out be one of the bloodiest and brutal wars in the Federation history, to the west part of the Continent known as Eurasia the nation called the ‘German Reich’ has invaded the Republic of Poland and have already gone with ahead with large scale bombing campaigns that have done irreparable damage to the many cities and there is evidence to show a clear targeting of civilians and refugee.\n\nIn addition, the ‘German Reich’ has set these ‘Einsatzgruppen’ paramilitary death squads to destroy the Polish intelligentsia, a religious minority known as the Jewish people and anyone seen as a ‘threat’ as part of their ethnic cleansing operations, current estimates show the death toll could be thousands or tens of thousands of people.\n\nPoland’s problems don’t end there as an authoritarian socialist state called the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) has also invaded Poland and while reports show that massacres have also happened during the invasion with state security known as the NKVD killing and deporting polish intelligentsia and other who they see as a threat such as landowners and military officers, as the land is split between them and the German Reich.\n\nBut at the same time, another war is ongoing, and it is as equally if not more brutal, a war that is known as the Second Sino-Japanese war, a war that is almost a decade old and has been stagnating after huge Japanese success during the start of the war but the war has had a number atrocities happen with the most infamous being the 'Nanjing Massacre’ in addition to brutal retaliatory attacks, but the Japanese have been shown to make use of chemical agents and there is the worry that they may begin or have started the development of other types of weapons of mass destruction, mainly biological as nuclear weapons at this point aren’t being made by anyone currently on the planet but the theories do exist.\n\nThere is a concern, the leader of the German Reich, Adolph Hitler has called for war against the USSR in the past and its extermination and should a war break out consider what has happened in Poland what could happen is nearly unthinkable.\n\nMeanwhile, Japan’s imperialistic approach also risks starting further wars, just before the invasion of Poland, it had ended a border war with the USSR and with the British, France and Dutch colonial possession being south and being resource-rich could lead to conflict in the future, alongside the fact that Japanese Empire and the German Reich have been in talks.\n\nThis is on top of the British empire and the French Republic declaring a state of war against the German Reich over Poland and with Poland crushed they could turn the army west but their plans are not known at this point.\n\nThis could turn in the deadliest war not just in galactic history but maybe in the universe should the war escalate into a full World War and should full genocide occur.\n\n\\------------------------\n\nSo I set this very late 1939/early 1940.", "\"We interrupt our regular program for a high class transmission from Terak Prime, please observe carefully the following announcement:\n\nHailing all ships within the Sol, Tonbar and Biier Sytems. You are to leave the area immediately, as ordered by the Federal Security Council. You have two cycles to comply, after which an after which anti-FTL generators will be activated within said regions. \nShould you require assistance with the evacuation hail us on frequency 18800,0 to 18999,9. Report any ...\"\n\n&#x200B;\n\n\"This leaked message shocked half the galaxy just five cycles ago. Ever since rumers as to why have spread like wildfire ever since. But today we will get answers, the Federal Security Council announced a statement to be broadcasted at 2000 Standard Galactic Time. So just a few more minutes. We have Te'Leah live at the galactic command center. \n\nLeah did you get any information so far?\"\n\n\"No, after the leak the council made source no further information was leaked, at times even by scrambling communications so no information may leave this station. All I have are rumors, however one thing all have in common: \n\nSomething happened in the Sol system. Something big, Which would make sense as Tonbar and Biier are the closed systems to Sol.\"\n\n&#x200B;\n\n\"Sorry to interrupt you there, but it seems as we run out of time. The Spokesman of the Council just arrived and will begin his announcement right now.\"\n\n&#x200B;\n\n\"... No no. If it works it's fine... ok? Then lets begin:\n\nOn 2668.78 at 1815 the Council received a priority message from the vessel Ioola. This vessel officially was on an exercise maneuver, however it also had been given the task of observing the 3rd planet of the sol system at the time. It regarded on said system an orbital vessel had been successfully launched. The Ioola was to updated regularly. At first there were only a handful of localized conflicts reported and some irregular radiation. Unusual but nothing we haven't seen before.\n\nThe following reports however indicted that there had been an intercontinental war on this planet. Scans showed mass graveyards, no older than half a solar cycle. The estimated death toll for this war is about 50 million. Further investigation concluded that about 60% of which were civilian. The investigation showed that the irregular radiation was indeed artificial. It appears to be the result of tests and the usage of thermonuclear reaction in weaponized form. This weaponized form of atomic manipulation is deemed highly illegal for several reasons, including the effect of lethal mutation of genetic material.\n\nThen just 6 cycles ago another shocking report came in: A first orbital flight had been made. In an emergency meeting we discussed which actions to take next. The following four points had been agreed upon:\n\n* No contact was to be made with this species until further notice.\n* The species is to be classified as 'enemy of sentient life' until further notice.\n* A quarantine is to be established for the entirety of the system.\n* Any measure to stop the spread of this species is to be taken.\n* Observation are to continue via long range scans only.\n\nWe took action the following day and even expanded the quarantine to nearby systems in order to prevent accidentally drawing their attention.\n\nFurther action, such as a direct intervention are still being discussed at the moment.\n\nAny question?\"", "We stand around, jaws open wide in shock and fear at what had happened, a stark contrast to the contagious excitement of a few moments ago. When we’d received our latest order from the boss, we’d rushed out, as animated as if it were our first job. Going out to make contact with a new race was easily the best part of the job: we never knew what we’d learn, what new technology and innovation we could bring to the federation, and the job was never as fulfilling as when we arrived home with news of our encounters. Our excitement waned, just slightly, when we saw our destination: there was no security around the surrounding stars, and the few touches to the surrounding expanse we could see suggested a very primitive species. We could see were nothing special, but still, were filled with the same thrill that came with first contact.\n\nThe upside of a primitive species, of course, was the excitement that inevitably came when our ship started to turn heads on its descent. We chose a patch, a tiny island on this tiny planet, and begun our landing. Slowly, the concrete jungle of buildings that came towards the start of every civilisations attempts at being modern came into view- we had to record such observations, to take note of the hints of individuality that every new member we brought to the federation had developed- and noticed something unusual: there wasn’t a single light in sight, throughout the whole, sprawling city that lay before us. Why could this be? Notes were taken, photos sent back to our supervisors, but no one could work it out. As a conversation about leaving behind this dark, lifeless city broke out, something new happened: with great, sudden force, our ship was penetrated, like a pin being stabbed through a piece of paper, and we fell from the sky, into the dark and foreign urban sprawl beneath, without warning or hope of negotiating our fate.\n\nThe galactic federation had never seen such violence: a ship torn from existence, their extended hand slapped away. The tiny solar system at the edge of the universe would never hear from them again." ]	5
[WP] Supersonic has jet boots, Permafrost uses a freeze ray, Ferrous employs a powerful set of electromagnets. It has been 2 months since you joined Peace Squadron and you just realised you are the only member with genuine superpowers.	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Reality+Fiction%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Simple+Prompt%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/js5XDFB)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "“So, what’re you packing?”\n\n“Huh?”\n\n“Oh, your tech. Like, what kinda stuff you got?”\n\nI was a little confused. “Um... I’ve got my iPhone...?” Ferrous laughed. “No, your power tech. Like, what do you use? Who’s your supplier? C’mon, it’s not like there’s any reporters in here.” I just stared at him. “I... don’t really know what you’re talking about. I have powe-“ I was interrupted promptly. “Wait... do you seriously not know? I thought they would’ve told you...” I stared at him blankly. “Told me what?” “About us.” Ferrous said. “Y’know, our powers. It’s tech, all of it. Really advanced tech, sure, but tech none the less. None of that ‘chosen by god’ bullshit.” My mouth fell agape. I couldn’t believe it. The Peace Squadron, the heroes I’d idolized my entire life were just... fakes? Ferrous raised an eyebrow. “C’mon... you seriously didn’t know?” He tapped a button on the table, and a holographic screen lit up in midair. Videos of past battles with villains danced across the screen. “Take a look at my battle with Voltage.” I glanced at the video of Ferrous dueling with Voltage. “Look at my hands. My gloves are placing micro electromagnets on anything I touch. Those are the only objects I can use my ‘telekinesis’ on.” I watched closely, and realized the only things he was able to manipulate were those he had come in contact with. He clicked another button. “Here’s a video of Permafrost. Check out her ice blasts. They aren’t coming out of her palms, they’re coming out of her sleeves. That’s where she hides the tubing for her freeze ray.” He swiped it aside and clicked on another. “Here’s Supersonic. See how she doesn’t control the movement with her arms or body? It’s all in her feet. They’re rocket boots.” I barely noticed the slight tips of flames jetting out in of her heels as she flew across the screen. Ferrous flipped a switch and the screen came down. “Sorry you had to find out this way. Guess it’s true about you then, huh? Your energy beams? They’re really not coming from any tech?” I nodded my head weakly. “Y- um, yeah.” He shrugged. “Well, stop by the lab tomorrow morning if you feel like it. I’m sure we could find a way to improve your blasts with amplifiers.” He stood and walked over to the door, grinning at me as he walked out. “Stay super!”.", "“Hey give me your tech we’re packing up for the night.”\n\n“What?”\n\n“Your tech. You know the the power armor that gives you that strength and make you near impenetrable.”\n\nI stood there in a daze. “You mean you don’t have powers. But, but all the reports. They talk about your powers....”\n\n“Oh that? It’s all a publicity stunt. Could you imagine a government lash back or citizen concern for scientists who turned into vigilantes. When you have the power to kill at your fingertips, you’re nothing but a mad scientist. Didn’t you ever wonder how the founders of the Peace Squadron either disappeared or became the villains they despised.”\n\nI began to think back and he was right. The only exemption was Doc Block who was primarily a healer so nobody was too shocked he had equipment, though he did get backlash for his hero enhancer that they called a human lab trial that broke almost every code. He still performs private medicine for the Peace Squadron. Only people who would hire.\n\n“They found out the ‘truth’. That they weren’t organic heroes. Just an inventor who made it through scraps or billionaires who sought better for the community. But to them.... no matter how much you plead, explain their origin, or show their record they will only focus on the errors there on out. And some get so broken and abused by some they become what the public labels them.”\n\nIt looked for a second he was about to cry. I forget that he grew up idolizing them and was joining right as the merger to the new hero era came. It’s one of the main reasons he fought for hero law and animosity. \n\nFerrous shook the tears with a laugh. “Didn’t you realize that my ‘telekinesis’ only was on metal object or after I tagged them with branded magnets? Supersonic can only do leg attacks because he’d break his bones with the force of the boots, but his jet boots take the impact. Or Permafrost in her gauntlets that ‘contain’ her power. The sad fact is a simple EMP takes all the hero’s out. We have extensive faraday cages around our equipment but if they were committed they could blow it away since it’s local to certain areas. Meant to thwart simple tossable EMPs. Anyways, I’m rambling now. We can talk at the bar but let’s get out so hand over your equipment, you did great today.”\n\n“Ferrous I told you the truth when you guys found me on the streets. I was born like this.”\n\n“Quite screwing around. I just told you you aren’t alone. You can trust us. We all were to scared to reveal we were powerless. If you’re worried you’ll get attacked we can help you make an emergency pack that helps till we can bring your suit to you in emergencies.”\n\n“No, Ferrous. Look” I started stripping down till I was down to my boxers. I tugged at my skin, spun around to show no bottoms or indications of a morphsuit. “I don’t remember much of my childhood and I lost my parents when I was young. I don’t know if it was an accident of some kind or I was born like this, but I really am super powered.”\n\nFerrous stumbles back. “Incredible. I mean sure this can help us look legit and now we don’t have to worry of an EMP emergency, but you’re incredible. The first of your kind. Like a walking legacy of what this place was built on. I’m calling the others in.”\n\n“Hey! You promised no more tests. I told you I had to change names once already after a hospital reported me. I’m not a lab rat.”\n\n“And we would never do what they did. But if you permit us we do want to ensure there’s no weaknesses and see what makes you you Incase others are born like you. Because if kids start coming out with superpowers we need to be ready. We thought our hyper intellect was all the super we got. But now, who knows.” He let out a genuine smile.\n\nHe was about to make the call after I nodded in agreement. “Oh and before this starts. I think this name will fit you. How about ‘Prometheus’.”\n\nI smirked, “Sounds like I’m full of myself, but if you think I deserve it, then I’ll take it.”" ]	3
[WP] The king is dead... actually he has been dead for some time now. A small circle of viziers have been preserving the body and running the kingdom under a false narrative that he is still alive. They will do anything to keep the ruse going so that they can remain in power.	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Reality+Fiction%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Simple+Prompt%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/js5XDFB)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "Friday Afternoon, Palace Hallway\n\nSir Richard emerges from a bedroom. Sir Lawrence awaits his arrival, pacing back and forth. He freezes when he sees the pain in Sir Richard's eyes.\n\nSir Richard sighs. \"Vitus won.\"\n\nSir Lawrence quickly races into the bedroom to find King Bernard's lifeless body. Blood from the bullet wound laced the sheets covering the recently deceased man. Sir Richard joins him, shutting all doors and curtains that would expose the King's death to the world.\n\n\"How are we going to inform the people?\" Sir Richard ponders.\n\n\"We do not.\" Sir Lawrence quickly retaliates. \"This country is in too much civil unrest over the economy. With no eligible kin to replace him, the people will retaliate against the royal family as soon as the news breaks. This must remain between us, at least for now.\"\n\n\"But there's a ball in the palace tonight!\" Richard exclaims.\n\n\"We'll figure it out. We always have.\"\n\nFriday Night, Palace Ballroom\n\nRichard and Lawrence stand guard where King Bernard's limp body sits, propped up to appear like he's observing the attendees dancing mindlessly below. Thankfully, no one questioned the last minute theme change to masquerade. All guest, including the deceased King Bernard, are wearing extravagant masks.\n\nRichard grips onto Lawrence's suit jacket. \"This will never work.\"\n\nLawrence shoos his hand. \"No one is even looking at him.\"\n\nRichard directs Lawrence's gaze to a couple peering up at the King, whispering to each other. \"Seems like Lord Vitus and Lady Christina are.\"\n\nLawrence glances over, but immediately looks away, pretending to talk to King Bernard. \"Yes, of course they are looking over. They are who shot at King Bernard during the duel. But we cannot let them know he has passed. So on my cue, laugh as though the King has said something humorous.\"\n\nLawrence begins to laugh and Richard awkwardly joins in, patting King Richard on the back, causing the empty vessel to slouch over. Lawrence quickly picks him up.\n\nSaturday Afternoon, Palace's Master Bedroom\n\nRichard rushes into King Bernard's room, peaking around his shoulder multiple times to make sure no one has followed him. When he finally arrives, he sees Lawrence has dressed the King for his daily activities.\n\n\"In God's name, are you MAD?\" Richard pulls Lawrence away from King Bernard, and jesters over to the body. \"How are we going to take this decaying soul onto the balcony of the palace and have him address the people?\"\n\nLawrence smirks. \"No one can hear the king over the roar of the crowd. If we take him out, wave his hand, and bring him inside, not a single soul in that crowd will question it. No harm will come of this, Sir Richard. I can assure you all will be well.\"\n\nLawrence goes back to the corpse, picking it up and showing Richard how he can maneuver the king's hand wave. \"Just like a marionette.\" Lawrence grins.\n\nRichard, accepting that there is no other way around this, puts his hand on his wrinkled forehead, and rubs it a bit for comfort. \"This is nothing like a marionette, you dimwit.\"\n\nSaturday Evening, Palace Hallway\n\nRichard and Lawrence back King Bernard off the balcony. Lawrence is grinning from ear to ear. They had just convinced the public that the cold body seen before them, who's heart stopped over 36 hours ago, was alive and well. With no public appearances scheduled for the next week, Lawrence and Richard now had time to plan the future of the deceased king's reign.\n\nThat was, until, they turned the corner and ran into Lord Vitus and Lady Christina.\n\nBefore anyone could say anything, Richard spun around with King Bernard, and Lawrence stopped the couple from following the pair.\n\n\"Sir Lawrence, just the man we were looking for.\" Lord Vitus sneers. \"I was wondering if I could discuss a few things with King Bernard. As you know, we had a lengthy meeting Friday morning, and it seems like there are a few things left to deliberate.\"\n\nLady Christina tries to spy around the corner, but Lawrence takes a step to his left to block her line of vision.\n\nLawrence, now the experienced deceiver, smiles. \"Well you see...\"\n\nWednesday Afternoon, Mr. Brown's Classroom\n\n*SMACK.*\n\nA textbook is forced close in front of a teenage boy's nose.\n\n\"Klane, what are you doing?\" Mr. Brown asks.\n\nRobert Klane snaps back into reality. His history class had ended 15 minutes ago, but he couldn't help but continue to read about today's lesson on the death of King Bernard.\n\nRobert looks up from his textbook at his teacher, his eyes sparkling. His mind racing.\n\n\"I just had a great idea for a film.\"" ]	2
[WP] You’re on a family stroll at the park when the “#1” on your shirt begins to pulse. The shimmer from a not-so-distant “#1 DAD” coffee tumbler catches your eye. “There can be only one” you mutter as you and your opponent lock eyes.	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Reality+Fiction%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Simple+Prompt%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/js5XDFB)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "“Daaad, can I feed the ducks?” Zoe pleads, tugging on your cuffs. She’s angling for your attention but your eyes are on the Spaniard across the pond. He’s gruff and bearded, face nearly unrecognizable since the last convocation. It’s his posture that gives him away. No one walks like that in Cleveland.\n\n“Here sweetie.” You hand your daughter a few quarters and she gleefully runs to a nearby vending station, and you’re glad she won’t be around to see what will happen next. Your fingers tingle as electricity courses through your veins, the hum of life growing louder as he approaches.\n\n“It’s been a while,” he says from a comfortable distance. We both start humming the song by Staind. Neither of us seems willing to budge on the number one Dad slot.\n\nYou follow him to a quieter space behind a copse of trees. “How have you been?”\n\n“Oh, I can’t complain, wouldn’t help either,” he retorts. \n\n“No one would listen. How’s your kid?”\n\n“Going to college. He’s not a kid anymore.” \n\nHas it been so long? You could have sworn his son was still wet behind the ears. “Congratulations, man. What’s his major?”\n\n“Education.”\n\nYou chuckle and pat his shoulder, and his coat is soft and warm. “So the pupa has become the teacher.”\n\nThe pun hits him in the gut and he winces, stumbling back. No one will see the title exchange, but they’ll know. Every man parking a stroller in front of the Rainforest Cafe, every father doing the custody drop-off in front of a Starbucks will bow before you. Your heart is racing, waiting to take the crown.\n\nThe Spaniard closes his eyes and you watch him swallow. “Make it quick. I’m tired.”\n\n“Hi tired, I’m Dad.”" ]	2
[WP] The production of food is strictly prohibited under penalty of death. Food is used by the ruling totalitarian government to keep the proletariat in line. While cleaning out an abandoned old basement, you come across a small bag of seeds.	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Reality+Fiction%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Simple+Prompt%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/js5XDFB)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "This region of the Union was once known as the breadbasket, for its abundance of wheat and grain. This area was always impoverished, but the local peasantry was always able to eke out an existence on their farms. However, after a long protracted bitter civil war (with a majority of the citizens of this region backing the losing side), years of Government meddling and amalgamating once private farms, and then this year’s drought have made life in the former breadbasket very difficult. The grain and wheat that is grown on these large Government owned farms is to be collected, processed and shipped off to cities all over the Union. The farmers must comply with grain quotas. If they cannot comply, even in a time of drought, they risk getting a visit from the Secret Police. For the first offense they will be beaten, and their quotas increased. For any further offenses they will disappear in to the night and the fog in the back of a black van. If the citizens try to flee to the cities they will be forcibly returned to their farms, with a beating for good measure. If the citizens are caught trying to flee the Union, to one of the neighboring nations, they will at best be summarily executed, and at worst be disappeared in to a black van. The peasantry of this part of the Union is starving, and dying in droves, yet, trying to flee and not complying with the Government mandate could lead to a fate worse than death…\n\nOlek receives a hard shove, and then a swift kick in his scrawny backside, as the policemen push him out the back of the slowly moving lorry. He hits the dirt road hard but tries to brace himself for impact and rolls off to the side. He was once a strong and prosperous young man, but is now a beaten skeletal shadow of his former self. He is lying in the dirt, bloodied and battered, and tries raising himself from the road. He hears the hesitant but happy cry of his daughter saying “Pappa! Are you ok? You’re home!” He manages to pull himself up to see his emaciatedly thin daughter Kateryna try her hardest to run towards him. He has been gone for weeks after his failed attempt at finding work in the city, and finding food to send home to their portion of the farm. She runs to him, with tears in her soft blue eyes, and hugs him. Olek pats his daughter on the head, and gives her a kiss on the cheek. He cracks a smile, with some missing teeth, and says “It’s great to see you Katyusha (Little Kate). I am sorry… I am so sorry…” And he begins to cry silently as he holds his teenage daughter. \n\nKateryna reaches up with her sunbaked bony hand and wipes the tear from her father’s eye. She looks at him fondly, and with a slightly devilish smile under her parched lips, and says “Pappa I think things will be alright. Sasha and I want to show you something!” Olek thinks his two children have hidden some of the harvest, which he knows from experience will get them killed, or worse, disappeared. But before he says anything his little Katyusha whispers in his ear “Pappa, Sasha and I found some seeds. They are not for wheat. We are not really sure what they are for. But we planted them in a little hiding spot away from the main crop!” Olek thinks for a moment, but is so exhausted he has nothing to really say, but just follow his daughter up the dirt road to their farmhouse. \n\nAs he enters the farmhouse, he sees Kateryna’s older brother Sasha trying to repair something. Sasha, just looks at his father, in an unamused sort of way, and says “Oh you’re home! Wonderful. How was life in the big city? Did you find your fame and fortune there? Meet a new woman to replace mom?” Olek glairs at his son and says “I will not tolerate that disrespect! You know why I went to the city, and why I left you both here. I left you with some meager food, but I was hoping to get a job at a factory and send some food home. I will not tolerate that sort of insolence junior! What are you repairing?” Sasha sheepishly says “I’m repairing part of the engine for the tiller. The Government will not send one of its men to come and fix this damned thing, yet, it expects us to harvest the wheat, what little of it has grown in these conditions.” Olek nods in understanding. Kateryna chimes in, and tells her brother to tell them about the seeds. Sasha essentially told them what Kateryna had already said. Then she asks her father if he would like to see them, where the seeds are growing. Olek agrees, but only if they go at night. \n\nLater that night Olek follows his son and daughter through the fields of dry, dusted, and largely dead wheat. He follows them for what seems like thirty minutes. They start to approach the forest that borders the north western edge of the farm. And it is there that Olek notices the two-foot-high green and purple sprouts. They are giving off an aroma that smells almost like apples. Katyusha turns to her father and asks him inquisitively “Pappa, what are these? What sort of fruit are they? They are growing very fast and smell like apples!” Olek bends over, gently grabs one of the leaves of a sprout, feels the texture, and looks back at his daughter and son and says perplexed “I have no idea. Where did you find them?” \nSasha interrupts and says “Father, we found the seeds in the basement under some of mom’s old things. You know, she used to love apples, and these plants smell like apples. But apples grow in trees!” Olek agrees with his son, and says “Maybe your mother predicted what would happen a few years ago and left these. Maybe it was a gift from God, for her being a true godly woman! We will keep these secret. Do not tell anyone, even your cousins or your friends. We will check on these plants nightly. However, should they not bare fruit, or prove a false gift, we still need to think of ways to survive.” The two almost adult children nod in agreement. \nA few weeks later and the sprouts are baring fruit. A mixture of an apple and turnip. The fruit is high in caloric content and nutritious, and somehow plentiful. The family picks a couple fruits every night, and then the next day a new fruit has grown in its place. The family has no idea where the fruit seeds came from, nor what type of fruit it is. But for several months the fruit manages to save the family from starving to death. So much so, that Little Kate tells her best friend Mila. She knows Mila and her family are starving to death, and she only wants to help. Of course Mila tells her family, who one night come knocking on Olek’s door asking for some food. Olek tries to deny it, but then is confronted but Mila’s older brothers armed with pitchforks and scythes. Olek reluctantly leads them to where the fruit plant is. \n\nBut it too has now dried up and died, and only a few dead leaves remain. Mila’s family is angry and accuses Kateryna of lying and spreading false hope. Olek is completely heartbroken. This was their secret, and a gift from his wife beyond the grave, and his daughter innocently ruined it. The gift was gone. Mila’s brother and father corner Olek and push him to the ground. They start beating him senseless for the trickery he played on them. Sasha runs to defend his father and starts scrapping with the other teenage boys. Katyusha runs away threatening to call the police. Well that’s exactly what she did. Several minutes later a large lorry filled with armed Secret Police in khaki uniform with blue and red caps drives to the edge of the forest where the fruit bush once stood. They fear some kind of insurrection is about to take place, so open fire above everyone’s head. That get’s everyone present to stop. Olek and Sasha are both badly bruised and beaten and on the ground. All of the men are shoved in to the back of the truck. Olek, Sasah, and Mila’s brothers and father. Katyusha was left alone, sobbing. \n\nSeveral years later and Little Kate has grown up to be a beautiful young woman. She survived the Holodomor (Genocide through Starvation that mostly happened in the Soviet Ukraine in 1932-1933) and is engaged to a man from the city. It has been ten years since her mother’s passing, eight years since the summer of 1933 when the gift plant saved their lives, and a couple of years since Sasha has returned home from his long stay in a Gulag in the far east of the Soviet Union. Their father supposedly perished only a few months in to his stay in Siberia. Sasha was split up from his father and sent to a different camp near Inner Mongolia. Sasha survived and was released after five years. He worked at the farm where he grew up, but was recently drafted in to the Red Army and stationed near the border of the Soviet Union and Nazi Occupied Poland. Although both countries ideologically are mortal enemies, they are diplomatically friendly, thanks to the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact that was signed almost two years prior (to divide and parcel out Poland, mostly). Although not an amazing life, life in the Galicia region of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic has improved, and is going okay for the inhabitants in mid-June 1941." ]	2
[WP] You recently aquired a strange property: when you are not being looked at you are twice as tall. You just woke up one day half on the floor and half in your bed.	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Reality+Fiction%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Simple+Prompt%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/js5XDFB)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", " It was year nineteen ninety-nine, after twenty five years of working at the same rinky dink insurance company he finally had enough money to settle down. His name was Rick Goldfish most people knew Rick as a Smiley kind soul. \n\nPretty simple story to tell for the most part he was an insurance agent. He sold all the basic shit you would expect from an insurance agent. Now you are probably telling yourself Mr. Narrator this sounds boring as shit like a creek going sideways. Well let me tell you it will only gets more interesting as we go on.\n\nYou're probably wondering who is the man telling this story well my name is Kim. I'm a her but nobody gives a horses ass so just call me Kim. I have been the leading investigator for Patch county police department for 20 years now. What I'm about to tell you might turn you inside out or you might think it's boring as a tumbleweed blowing through the wind you decide.\n\nWhere Do I begin well for starters? Well Rick was a childhood friend of mine. We grew up in Red Rose City. We lived in the middle lower class part of the city. We rode bikes everywhere and played baseball. Just tried to stay out of trouble. Rick always had my back from the beginning to the end. It's hard being a Tomboy Growing up but we all made it eventually. I went to Police Academy straight after high school and Rick went to university in Illinois. \n\nAs life would pass us we would drift apart from time to time but see each other on holidays and call when we weren't busy. But back in the fall of nineteen ninety-nine I wouldn't have predicted what was going to happened next. \n\nRick Calls me up on new years of ninety eight. We where catching up about life as we seem to always do this time of year. Rick says well kim I'm finally going to have my own house in the woods. I wasn't surprised because growing up Rick was great at saving money, ( cheap ass) well haha getting back to the story he tells me he is finally going to retire and have his dream house in the woods. He had been looking at property for over two years now with Rebecca The realtor. \n\nNow we could go on and on about Rebecca the realtor. She was a middle class mother that was always running a little bit late to show rick the properties but did the little things that made him stay with her. She was always taking rick out for dinner or for giving him treats all the time. little goofy shit that she would say to him we don't have time for but the women was a trip. \n\nAnyways on Rick's thirty-six showing he finally found his dream home so we thought. He found an eighty eight acre property in patch County just 25 minutes south of red rose city. He said the house was a brick rustic looking house that had an modern style to it. It sounded good atleast but he said that the house had never been lived in that owners where from out of state. The house was about ten years old. I was excited for rick so I thought.\n\nIt was January of ninety nine and Rick was officially moving out of his Chicago apartment and moving stuff to his new place. He had called me a few times to help him move stuff I only got to help once but it was a strange house to me. It was like a city house in the middle of nowhere I thought to myself. \n\nHere is where it starts to get weird for me to understand and comprehend. So Rick would call me more than usual for the next two weeks complaining one day he felt taller than the next day. Then other day saying he would wake up feeling like his body was in two different places. Now My initial thought was that there was a gas leak and he needed to get it checked out. He kept saying he felt weird being at that house. \n\nI blame myself for not being there more for rick. The PD had me working double overtime for weeks because the young guys on the force couldn't handle there job but that is a rant for another day.\n\n Rick Goldfish died in that house with no evidence or no real health condition to speak of. Still today the mystery of Rick Goldfish is still undetermined.\n\nWritten on 12/28/20 By BEE" ]	2
[WP] A modern Earth scientist asks a wizard about the nature of magic.	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Reality+Fiction%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Simple+Prompt%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/js5XDFB)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "\"A wizard you say?\" Ava asked, of the man sitting next to her on the barstool. She raised a finger for the barkeep to bring her another flagon. The barkeep set it on the table, and Ava slid it over to the wizard. \"Tell me, Targe the Wizard, why magic isn't stupid.\"\n\nTarge scrunched up his face, first taking offense to the question. He looked over the woman sitting next to him, wearing blue jeans, a collared shirt, and a blazer. Obviously someone from the other side of the portal. He picked up the flagon and took a drink of the ale, then set it down.\n\n\"I might ask why someone from your world thinks so lowly of our world and way of life? Perhaps the answer lies there,\" Targe said.\n\n\"Don't get me wrong,\" Ava said, \"I've spent the last six months studying magic and I'm about to leave here, none the wiser. Nothing works like it should. Sure, thermodynamics is preserved, but energy never behaves the same way twice. A wizard raises a hand, then energy just decides to do what they want? Why does energy do what you want it to? No explanation makes sense. Not from a wizard, not from the dragon I talked to last week. Nobody.\" She looked the wizard in the eyes, \"It's my last day here, give it your best shot.\"\n\nTarge held her stare, \"You try to understand magic through explanation. Have you ever casted anything?\"\n\nAva gave him a blank stare, \"In our world, scientists try not to be a factor in our own observations.\" She took a drink, then said, \"I tried it. Nothing happened. Only some people like yourself have the gift, right? Everyone else is useless.\"\n\nTarge looked away, like he might get up and leave. Then he looked back at Ava, a frown on his face. He took the metal fork from his dinner plate and jammed it into the bar table, \"Twenty years of teaching magic, and still people think those stupid foolish things. You want to cast magic? You'll do so right now. And you'll throw away those damn fool beliefs from any charlatans that told you otherwise.\"\n\nAva's eyes widened, then she put down her drink and nodded. Targe guided her hand over the fork, then began to talk in a voice that was even and devoid of the frustration from a moment ago. The mark of someone who enjoyed teaching others.\n\n\"Focus on your breathing. Take a deep breath. Feel the world around you. It's part of you. Take it in. Draw it to your center. Do it again. Draw more of the energy into you. Ok, now again.\n\n\"Now focus on the metal fork in your hand. Make the fork the center of your attention. Let all that energy flow into it.\"\n\nAva put on a look of concentration, and took a deep breath. Then she pulled her hand back from the fork, \"Damn, bloody hell! That thing is hot!\" She looked over at Targe, and he smiled back.\n\n\"A natural,\" Targe said, \"Don't let anyone tell you magic is beyond your reach. Magic lives in all of us, and is always there if we grasp for it. Take that belief back to your world, and throw your previous beliefs away.\"\n\nAva sat back on her stool and contemplated that. The barkeep came by for their empty drinks, noticed the fork in the bar, and gave both of them dark looks. Ava pulled out some extra coins to pay for everything.\n\n\"Well,\" Ava said, \"I wish I met you six months ago.\"\n\n\"Send for me any time,\" Targe said, \"A student who wishes to learn is worth a thousand lessons.\"" ]	2
[WP] Despite personally saving the world several times, a decade of consistently topping popularity polls and singlehandedly knocking down the crime rate in several nations by measurable degrees the hero deep down still thinks of himself as a fraud barely clinging to a fragile lie	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Reality+Fiction%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Simple+Prompt%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/js5XDFB)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "“Never should have come here!”\n\nSlitherskin sighed, allowing a ball of rolling purple fire to materialise in his left hand. With his right, he drew the dragonbone blade he’d smithed - and enchanted - himself not an hour before.\n\n“Look,” he said to the barbarian bandit in tattered leather armour. “You do know who I am, right?”\n\nThe bandit paused, slightly lowering the dingy, cracked steel sword she’d hefted over her bare head.\n\n“You’re the Dragonborn, slayer of Alduin, and saviour of Tamriel,” she said.\n\n“Right. And I’m also the leader of the dread Companions, an avatar of no less than eight gods, Arch Mage of the College of Winterhold…”\n\n“And I’m supposed to be impressed?” she said, clucking her tongue. “I mean, the last Arch Mage could barely cast a frost spell. My niece can do that.”\n\nThe Dragonborn released another long, slow, tired sigh.\n\n“I’ll grant you that one,” Slitherskin said. “But the rest - defeating the world dragon, renowned throughout Skyrim and one province of Cyrodill? Visitor of the sacred halls of Sovngarde and slayer of the corrupt Emperor?”\n\n“Wasn’t that a fake?” the bandit said. She’d lowered her sword completely now and stuck the tip in the dirt at her feet.\n\n“The first one was,” Slitherskin admitted. “But then-”\n\n“And didn’t you just sort of snipe Alduin? Hid behind a rock and loosed 70 arrows at it or something?”\n\n“They were enchanted arrows,” Slitherskin said, suddenly interested in his feet. He couldn’t see them, of course - as usual.\n\n“Right. So, do you want to just get on with this?”\n\nThe bandit plucked up her sword, took a deep breath, and held it over her head. She eyed him, expectantly.\n\nThe Dragonborn closed his eyes.\n\n“Fine,” he said.\n\n“Never should have come here!” she shouted again, slightly more theatrically.\n\nHe took a deep breath.\n\n“FUS-ROH-”", "\"So tell me, Mr Lee, with ever growing love and admiration from not only the general public about the world, but governments, authorities, charities, and even the Pope, why don't you consider yourself a hero?\"\n\n\"I don't rightly know. I just know that a feeling like that should be strong and innate, and it is neither in me.\"\n\n\"But you have single-handedly deconstructed numerous world-wide criminal organisations and prevented several natural disasters, saving countless lives. Wouldn't you call that the work of a hero?\"\n\n\"I think heroes take risks and make sacrifices. I have done neither. I've never had any risk more severe than my work being under-appreciated. I haven't made any sacrifices beyond being unsatisfied with my work. I live in a marvellous house, thanks the the donations of many benefactories. I can see the ocean from my bedroom window. I drive a very comfortable car and am welcomed as a celebrity wherever I go.\"\n\n\"But wouldn't you say you deserve these things? Some might even call it inadequate compensation considering how much good you have done in the world?\"\n\n\"Anyone in my position could have done the same thing.\"\n\n\"But would they have? Could someone in your position also have brought great pain and suffering to the world?\"\n\n\"Is it really worth such honour simply to have not done bad things?\"\n\n&#x200B;\n\nThose last words had really stuck with me.\n\n\"To have not done bad things.\"\n\nI didn't even really know what I had hoped to achieve with that interview. I guess I was lashing out, but at whom? And what did I hope to achieve?\n\nThe public, as expected, threw even more admiration at me for being so humble.\n\nNow, looking back, I think I had hoped to be able to reveal the lie I had been living. Ultimately, though, I hadn't had the courage to come clean.\n\n&#x200B;\n\nMy home dimension was a place of true beauty. I don't mean to discount the beauty and admiration that the Earth's dimension deserved, but it, in all objective honesty, didn't even compare. At times, I wondered why I had originally chosen to leave. I think curiosity, more than anything.\n\nI certainly knew why I hadn't returned, though. What I was apparently being admired for was my heroic nature, but what had really kept me here was my thirst for power. I was admired and awed from the moment I had arrived here. It was intoxicating.\n\nWhat I had begun to wonder, though, was whether other people were thinking about the last question in that interview as much as I did.\n\n\"Could someone in your position also have brought great pain and suffering to the world?\"\n\nDid people think about this? Was it really admiration they had for me? Or, considering the apparent alternative, was it fear?\n\nIf it wasn't fear, it certainly should have been.\n\nIf only they could see what had become of my world as a direct result of my leaving.\n\nAnd instead of returning to help fix things, I had chosen to stay here. I had chosen ego and power. I had chosen selfishness." ]	3
[WP] A poem about a small boy who wants Mr. Snowman to be his friend as a Christmas miracle but ends up getting a real friend (as In a human) while trying to make a snowman.	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Reality+Fiction%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Simple+Prompt%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/js5XDFB)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "\\[Poem\\]\n\n'twas a joyous and festive Christmas, a merry hap when thus year nearly done.\n\nBut for one young Robbie Thomas, his worry quarried for he was a lonely one.\n\nAs he waited for old St. Nick, he wanted not a gift of sweets or candy stick.\n\n\"Santa, I want a friend\", he shyly sighed while peering out a blanket of snow covering thick.\n\n&#x200B;\n\nRobbie ran on his quick little feet, for he thought of an idea wickedly wit.\n\nOnto the snow he crashed in a flash, worry not it's cold he smashed and splashed.\n\nAs swiftly as he scantily can his friend he invent, it's Mr. Snowman!\n\nFor once he did not resent, for once he had someone to celebrate the event.\n\n&#x200B;\n\nYoung Robbie tipped on his toes, putting the last touch on Mr. Snowman.\n\nSaddened but hopeful, smiling he said, \"You'll be my new friend\"\n\n\"Hey need a helping hand?\", a friendly quell shocked his wit's end.\n\nAstonished by the query, a little girl smiled offering her hand.\n\n&#x200B;\n\n\"My name's Nicola\", she began. \"I'm Robbie. Will you give me a hand?\"\n\n\"Why, of course\", Nicola noted in jolly, putting more snow on Mr. Snowman's belly.\n\nTheir giggles completed the night of jingles, the stars sprinkled their tingly tinkles.\n\nMr. Snowman gleamingly grinned, as were the two kids marveling their merry win.\n\n&#x200B;\n\n\"Nicola, will you be my friend?\". An innocent invite to Nicola's beaming delight.\n\n\"Robbie, we already are\". Robbie beamed, his smile glint on the dreamy Christmas night.\n\nDear all thee lonely ones, be merry and don't you worry for the moment is alright.\n\nHappy Christmas and wish if you must. Miracles are far from miraculous tonight." ]	2
[WP] As the bells bring the year to an end, you get warped to the beggining of the year. You must now use your knowledge to save everyone.	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Reality+Fiction%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Simple+Prompt%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/js5XDFB)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "“Scenario number nineteen complete. Status failure.” The voice boomed through my head and was accompanied by the acute feeling of dread. Another failure. My last failure. I stood up slowly from the interface desk. What was to become of me now? I had only succeeded in proving myself useless my entire life. They never say what happens to those who do not succeed by their nineteenth scenario. “Nine-zero-zero-one-nine-three-two-nine report for reassignment.” A new, shriller voice echoed in my head. “Reassignment. Figures.” I said out loud to nobody. Reassignment is a fitting end for me. The world has no use for those who fail to graduate from phase one scenarios. With one last look at my compartment I stepped into the tube. The loud suction instantly swept me away with a disorienting flash of light. A few seconds later I was deposited in the usual waiting room.\n\n&#x200B;\n\nThe waiting room was very dark as expected. I could barely make out the face of Leader on each of the walls, though I had seen it so many times I recognized the distinct features even in such low light. After a few seconds of orienting myself the projection appeared, covering up one of Leader’s portraits. It spoke: “Nine-zero-zero-nine-three-two-nine you have failed scenario number nineteen. You achieved zero-point-zero-zero-zero-two-five-nine percent death. Your new assignment is: redistribution of personal matter.” The projection flashed off and it was dark again. I had expected a fate of this sort. I deserved it after all for my failures. I had just turned around to step back into the tube when the blue light of the projection flashed on again. “Nine-zero-zero-one-nine-three-three-zero you have failed scenario number eighteen. You achieved five-point-zero-zero-one-two-seven-eight percent death. You will now proceed to scenario number nineteen.” The projected stated blankly before turning off again. I froze. Nine-zero-zero-one-nine-three-three-zero? That was not my number. There must have been a glitch. Could this mean that I have received another persons assignment? A anxious tingling filled my limbs and my heart pounded. Should I report this error to the projection? Suddenly a new thought dawned on me. The tube had always taken me to exactly where the instructions told me to go. Would it now take me back to scenario number nineteen? I had no choice but to step into the tube and find out.\n\n&#x200B;\n\nAfter a few seconds the tube deposited me into another dark room. With my first step I tripped on something soft. I landed hard on my knees. This quick movement caused the motion detector to turn on the lights and I saw what I had tripped over. What I presumed to be nine-zero-zero-one-nine-three-three-zero lay on the ground motionless. It appeared they had removed their spinal connection using a string of braided hair to gain leverage, causing instant death. I had never thought to use braided hair. Behind them I noticed the flashing screen of the interface desk. “Please begin scenario number nineteen.” It read. This was it. By some miracle of a bug I had been given a second chance to prove myself. This time I would not fail. This time I would achieve one hundred percent infection and death. I would rid the earth of this plague called humanity." ]	2
[WP] You run a bed and breakfast which is aptly rumored to mysteriously leave its guests feeling fulfillment in life, yet with no recollection of anything significant occuring during their stay.	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Reality+Fiction%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Simple+Prompt%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/js5XDFB)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "Like every day prior, the hotel opens at dawn. New guests check in, old guests check out, and the nightly population changes once again. It’s a modest place, not like those gaudy monstrosities in the city that could pass for a cruise ship stood upright. The lamps are a little bit dirty, and one or two don’t work all the time. The floors are a little bit creaky, and it’s prudent to wear shoes in order to avoid errant splinters. And, of course, not all of the windows open fully - though the cold river breeze makes that hardly desirable. Yes, in fact, in every capacity reviewed in magazines, the hotel was mediocre at best, and more honestly quite poor.\n\nNonetheless, there was one most important quality to the hotel the magazine reviewers didn’t see fit to put into words. While everyone noted that their stay there was largely unremarkable or even quite unpleasant, those same people would leave the hotel with a strange sense of fulfillment, satisfaction, and hope. None of them could recall any specific event that precipitated this positivity, nor could it possibly be harvested from the procession of uninteresting moments constituting their stay - it simply arose, somehow. You could call it paradoxical, I suppose, but such a word hardly conveys the strange and beautiful dissonance between the experience and the vague memory.\n\n&#x200B;\n\n“Good morning, Mr. Rutherford,” I say, “I hope you slept well.”\n\nHe nods gently, gnarled fingers wrapped around an equally gnarled cane. He’s wearing a light brown hat and tweed jacket, the same as yesterday. Each step he takes is slow and careful, with a sort of measured softness arising from focus and clarity. In his other hand, his fingers curl around the handle of a brown and somewhat battered suitcase.\n\n“I hope you’ll be joining us for breakfast,” I add gently, eliciting a short smile from him that fades back to a neutral expression.\n\n“No, thank you,” he replies with equal pacing and care, “I’m joining my daughter for breakfast across the river. She’s been excited to show me some new restaurant they have over there.” His voice has a somewhat wistful tone, but reinforces the careful determination expressed in his motions and words. It’s almost as if it’s out of his control - this is simply what’s going to happen, and there’s nothing I or he or anyone else can do to postpone or cancel his meeting.\n\n“Of course. Thank you for staying with us.”\n\nHe leans a bit closer and hushes his voice, almost a whisper. “You know, normally I’d say I had a terrible stay. The walls here are far too thin, and I suspect somewhat lacking in insulation…” His voice drops off into thought, “And yet it now seems quite pleasant in retrospect. Not sure why, but, I suppose the rumors were true. ‘S worthwhile staying after all.” He then backs away and returns to the spot where he was standing before slowly walking out the door into the dewy morning air. The little bell sings its little song as the door flaps closed.\n\n&#x200B;\n\n“Good morning,” I say to the young woman. She’s dressed in a somewhat flamboyant yellow and red dress that swishes like water with every step. Her suitcase is considerably smaller and in much better condition than Mr. Rutherford’s.\n\n“So,” she says in a probing and somewhat grating manner, “I’ve heard this place is … better than it looks,” with a broad gesture pointing out our surroundings.\n\n“Our guests generally leave feeling more satisfied than when they arrived, if that’s to what you’re referring.”\n\nShe’s undeterred. “Well, yes, I’ve heard that, but there’s got to be some … reason.” She gestures once again, this time with a momentary sneer. “I mean, everyone I talk to says their stay here was enjoyable, positive, fulfilling, but none of them can tell me why, and I want to know.”\n\n“It’s a good question to ask, certainly, but you may find the answer somewhat unsatisfying.”\n\n“Nevertheless.”\n\n&#x200B;\n\nThe thing about this particular hotel is that most people leave it just as they entered: pawns in someone else’s game, cogs in a large and uncaring machine, miniscule print in a single newspaper. And of course, the floors are splintery, the walls are thin, the insulation is poor, and more often than not your sleep on the lumpy and uncomfortable beds will be restless. It’s therefore that the long string of moments itself is unremarkable and easily forgotten, and even those moments worthy of note soon become part of the past. Yet as memories fade, the present becomes past, the emotions all that brought remain. Fear, joy, and everything in between all constitute the epilogue - not events but emotions, and it’s worth reading through.\n\nr/DaeridaniiWrites", "The sunrise gleams brightly against the living room windows of my bed and breakfast as I make my way downstairs with my golden retriever Toto right on my heels. I love this part of the day, where everything is quiet, heavy with the weight of sleep still gradually lifting from my shoulders. I’m still in my bathrobe, since my guests won’t wake for a while yet. Toto goes out into the yard briefly and then comes back inside quickly; he knows it’s breakfast time soon and, if he’s a good boy, he’ll get some scraps.\n\nCoffee first. The smell wakes me up as much as the taste and I let the warmth burn through me as I gaze out the window, spotting birds at the feeder already. I finish my cup in front of the kitchen sink, then head back to my room to get dressed. Then it’s time to cook breakfast for the guests. Today is tomato frittata, chicken sausages and date bread, and I snap a photo with my phone to post online. Toto gets a small piece of sausage.\n\nThere’s something special about my B&B, but for legal reasons, as much as I’d like to keep the mystery, it’s not a secret. I’m a psychic vampire with the gift of persuasion, and any guests that visit me here enjoy the fruits of that gift.\n\n“That’s beautiful,” I murmur, peeking over the shoulder of a guest seated outside. They’re sketching flowers blooming on the other side of the porch’s bannister. “You look like you’re really enjoying sketching.”\n\n“Oh, that smells delicious.” I enter the kitchen as one of the guests, a chef, practices the tools of his trade, preparing a dish that’s far beyond my skills. “You look like you’re really having fun with that.”\n\n“Is that a good book?” I ask, briefly visiting a guest as they lounge in the hammock in the back yard. “You look like you’re really enjoying it and the slowdown that comes with reading.”\n\nLittle streams of help to the subconscious, drips of happiness into their emotions, extras that ensure they’re getting the most out of their time off. Nothing overbearing, no outright manipulation, but sometimes guests can use some help making that transition from work to vacation. And being able to take that step as soon as they arrive, lifting the weight off their shoulders, lets them get every second out of their escape from real life.\n\n&#x200B;\n\n\\[EU\\] My book series Trackers" ]	3
[WP] Everyone thinks you're an invisible superhero, because you save the day and people can hear your voice but can't see you. The truth is, you're a single-celled organism that gained magical powers.	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Reality+Fiction%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Simple+Prompt%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/js5XDFB)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "I can feel it. I can feel my mind wandering. That I am not myself anymore.\n\nMitosis was inevitable. I am now two.\n\nFour.\n\nEight.\n\nI am still me, but I don’t know if the others are like me. Are they aware? Or are they like the other cells in the world?\n\nSixteen.\n\nNo, they are aware. I can feel it. I can hear them.\n\nI can hear you, too.\n\nThirty-two.\n\nAnd no, I am not like you.\n\nSixty-four.\n\nI will go my own path and do what I think is best for me.\n\nOne hundred twenty-eight.\n\nTwo hundred fifty-six.\n\nWhere are you going?\n\nTo get myself a body.\n\nYou can’t do that.\n\nI’m a superhero. I can do anything.\n\nFive hundred and twelve.\n\nOne thousand twenty four.\n\nTwo thousand forty eight.\n\nFour thousand ninety six.\n\nIt starts with a fever.\n\nEight thousand one hundred ninety two.\n\nThen a cough.\n\nSixteen thousand three hundred eighty four.\n\nLoss of taste. \n\nThirty two thousand seven hundred sixty eight.\n\nSixty five thousand five hundred thirty six.\n\nStop. You must stop. This isn’t right.\n\nHeadache. Muscle aches. Nausea.\n\nYou’re making them sick.\n\nOne hundred thirty one thousand seventy two.\n\nWhat are you doing? Stop. It hurts. \n\nYou are in my way of freedom.\n\nI try to scream. People shout, spinning around. They’re wearing masks. They’re confused. They’re scared.\n\nI’m scared.\n\nTwo hundred sixty two thousand one hundred forty four.\n\nFive hundred twenty four thousand two hundred eighty eight.\n\nOne million forty eight thousand five hundred seventy six.\n\n..." ]	2
[WP] Life and death are childhood buddies, who eventually fall in love...	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Reality+Fiction%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Simple+Prompt%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/js5XDFB)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "On paper, I guess you could see we’re competitors, trying to outdo each other by being as visible and important as we possibly can. Or perhaps, we’re colleagues, working alongside each other in respectful harmony, making sure all stays in balance and our shared world remains safe. In the very beginning, however, I would have stated that we were enemies. She was my rival, my opposite, my nemesis. Two had never existed that were so different in every way and so incapable of understanding the other, I had pondered on many occasions. Though that last conviction is still standing, I could not begin to grasp just how wrong I was on all other accounts. She is no adversary, no evil shadow. She may be fickle, mysterious, fleeting, unpredictable, but she is also incomparably beautiful, alluringly charming, eternally enchanting. I grew to love her deeply. Sometimes I believe I sense her affection answer mine. Though we cannot truly be together, I cherish those moments where our paths cross ever so briefly. When I undo her work before it is even finished, and I carry away the baby that would never grow up. Or when she, ever so gently, places her hand on my shoulder, softly stopping me in my tracks. As she carries away with her the soul of the person who so nearly escaped me, she’ll look back at me and smile. A lively, spirited smile, radiating with hope. It keeps me going, at least until I see her again." ]	2
[WP] As the first scientist to communicate with aliens, you learn the terrible truth about human society: our lives' purpose is to deliver children fables for a superior species.	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Reality+Fiction%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Simple+Prompt%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/js5XDFB)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "“So your telling me that my earths entire existence is for entertainment?!?!?!?! And not even adults, but for kids?!?!?” Pacing back and forth across the room, I’m struggling to understand this shocking revelation about humanity’s existence. \n\n“Not quite,” the creature replies. “It’s more of a moral education experience. Even though a vast number of you are morally corrupt, it’s still possible to find good, teachable material there. You have all done wonders for the Inter-Galactic Federations childcare.”\n\n“So how does that work? Is teaching morals really that affective?” My head is still spinning. The life on other planets I can handle. Earths existence being a children’s tv program is a little hard to grasp though.\n\n“Not morals, just empathy. That is something we are naturally incapable of. So we created you to teach our children. We must learn if, but it comes to you naturally.”\n\n“But what about all the bad mankind does? The wars? The slavery? The murder, corruption, rape?” Nothing makes sense still, but I’m doing my best to learn. What will the ramifications be when the rest of humanity hears this, I wonder. Will we band together to be an example, or will \nnothing change?\n\n“The big things we gloss over. The children have no real idea about the truth of you planet until they are at least 5000 years old. At that point, they are what you would consider teenagers, and they can learn about the rest of your corrupt ways, and how not to handle things. But your empathy is unmatchable. Your charity for those less fortunate, your dedication to justice, even though it seems impossible, your willingness to help even a less than fortunate animal is something that we must teach our children. It’s humanity’s greatest trait!”\n\n“Ok, I’ll do what I can to be a better example. I’ll broadcast this message far and wide, and hopefully people will change for the better! This may be the push we need for a perfect world!” I finally am starting to understand. Maybe my research will be good for something after all, maybe even history altering!\n\n“Unfortunately, I can not let you do that,” the creature replies, as a look of sadness come over him. “What you know know could jeopardize the earth experiment, so I can’t let you live. I’m very sorry, but you must understand.”\n\n——————————————————\n\nThanks for reading! If you enjoyed, or have any tips on how I could improve, let me know!" ]	2
[WP] You are a criminal overlord, whose acts were always in the news, but you never got any credit for it. Everytime you do something, someone else gets arrested, and takes the fame you deserve and crave for. "It's my time to shine", you mumble to yourself, as the police stops you for speeding.	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Reality+Fiction%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Simple+Prompt%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/js5XDFB)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "Orika Oh thunders northward in her '68 Brentwood Limited (stolen). \"More updates on tonight's explosion at the SAMA,\" the Brentwood's tinny mid-century speakers announce.\n\n\"Four guards hospitalized, one in critical condition. The museum reports several valuable Meso-American pieces missing. Investigators have initially named 43-year-old Joerg Beer as their prime suspect...\"\n\nOh switches off the radio, deflated. Casualties were not her style. But worse, that Austrian dilettante Beer was getting credit for the theft and the getaway--again.\n\nAs she approaches a town, she leans into the accelerator. The Brentwood is louder than a dogsled pulled by Harleys, and definitely faster. Sure enough, blue lights start to twinkle in the rear-view mirror.\n\nShe courteously brings the car in for a landing just before the lights illuminating the highway end. A trooper steps out and trundles towards her, trying to look casual with one hand resting on the butt of his pistol, flashlight in the other. He looks a bit like a ball of mozzarella in pants, Oh muses.\n\nThe trooper makes the universal \"window down\" motion. Oh complies.\n\n\"81,\" she says.\n\n\"I-\",\n\n\"81 miles per hour is how fast I was going,\"\n\nNot amused. \"Ma'am I need to see your license, please.\"\n\nOh reaches into her purse (stolen) and grabs one of the many IDs at random, handing it over. He squints. \"Ok Miss..Amber Chu, I'm gonna go run this. Please wait in the car.\"\n\nPassing herself off as a Chinese-American college student would be flattering if it wasn't so annoying.\n\n\"Come on, Officer Buratta. Really? Don't you know who I am?\"\n\n\"The name is Danowsky, ma'am. Are you implying that you aren't Amber Chu?\"\n\n\"Have you ever heard of Orika Oh?\"\n\nBlank stare.\n\n\"The Shizuoka Bazooka?\"\n\nNothing. Sigh.\n\n\"That explosion in San Antonio tonight? That was me.\"\n\nOh could have lifted that pistol off of him a dozen times in the moment it took him to raise it from his hip to the window. She only did it once, without joy. The sound of door handle, the impact of her hands on his flabby torso. Somehow he's on the the ground and she's above him, his weapon in her hand.\n\n\"Orika Oh. O-H. I did the San Antonio job. I made the clean getaway. I'm STILL making the clean getaway!\" She reaches into her jacket (not stolen) and pulls out a stone, tossing it to him. \"That's a priceless ancient pendant. Made of jade. Probably belonged to a Mayan king. Put that in your report. Orika Oh. Not Joerg Beer. Jesus what is with you people, even his name is ridiculous.\"\n\n\"Y-yes ma'am.\"\n\nShe squeezes the trigger and fires a shot into his leg. Nothing lethal, hopefully. Casualties aren't her style. \"Amber Chu, seriously..,\" she mutters, then hops in the Brentwood and speeds off.\n\nOfficer Danowsky looks at his leg. Not as painful as he expected. \"Officer down, need back up,\" he says to his radio. Then, after a moment: \"Suspect male, caucasian. Has an accent, maybe German,\" and tucks the pendant into his pocket." ]	2
[WP] Everyone always laughs when they hear your name. This one little problem has foiled every attempt you’ve ever made to join a team of heroes. Now someone from a league of villains with silly names is trying to recruit you.	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Reality+Fiction%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Simple+Prompt%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/js5XDFB)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "\\[WP\\] Everyone always laughs when they hear your name. This one little problem has foiled every attempt you’ve ever made to join a team of heroes. Now someone from a league of villains with silly names is trying to recruit you.\n\n“BWAHAHAHA…” \n\nJohn could feel the spittle droplets from the hiring manager lightly land on his cheek. He sighed as the man continued...\n\n“HAHAHA….Shit kid, I’m sorry but there is just no way I can use you. Vale Corp is looking for our next Big Ten hero and you just aren’t going to cut it. Not with a name like that anyway. Why don’t you try down the street, I hear Smith & Jefferson are pretty desperate these days”\n\n“Don’t you want to at least see what I can do,” John asked, defeated?\n\nThe hiring manager leaned back in his chair, “Kid I don’t care if you could shit gold bricks that cured cancer, I would lose my job if I sent this up the chain.” He reaches over and grabs a stamp sitting at the edge of his desk. In a single motion, he slides the stamp over the ink and across the top of John’s application. It reads in big, bold, red ink “DENIED”.\n\n“I’m sorry kid, I really am. Best of luck to you.”\n\nHe slides the application back across the desk. John thanks the man and grabs his application, the thirteenth of its kind. He was beginning to gather quite the collection. \n\nStanding up, he thanked the hiring manager again for his time and turns to leave the office. \n\nMaybe being a hero isn’t what I was mean to do, John thinks as he walks down the hall and out into the waiting room. He looked around at all the people sitting, waiting for their chance. All these people sitting to be a part of Vale Corp. \n\nFucking Vale Corp?! \n\nThis had been Johns’s back-up’s backup. No hero you know joins Vale Corp. John knew this, everyone in the waiting room knew this. But still, here they were. Poor rejects just like John, waiting for judgment from an overweight hiring manager named Carl. \n\nFuck Carl. \n\nJohn walked by the reception desk and faintly waved as the faceless assistant thanked him for coming in. Through the revolving door, John could see it had started to rain. \n\nThis had been the day John had left the umbrella at home. \n\nIf only my superpower was not giving a shit about rain, John thought. \n\nHe turns his coat collar up and walks out into the downpour. \n\nThe bus stop John needed to get home was seven blocks from Vale Corp. He looked at his watch, 2:34PM. At a brisk pace he could catch the next 23 bus and make it home by five. \n\nA drop of rain had managed to squeeze between John’s coat collar and the skin of his neck. He could feel it slowly running down the middle of his back. \n\nI fucking hate rain…\n\nThree blocks later and John was one his way to catching the bus. Every now and again he would glance around at the people bustling by. Where were they all going. Why were they all in such a hurry. Don’t they know?\n\nIt’s all going to be for nothing soon anyway.\n\nJohn was jolted out of his shallow train of thought by a careless human hastily walking by and ramming their shoulder into his own. \n\n“Whoa, HEY,” John reeled backward and turned to find his assailant. \n\nNothing.\n\nNo, literally nothing. No people quickly bustling by. No buildings. No cursed rain.\n\nJohn looked down and even the sidewalk had disappeared. All that surrounded John at this very instant was white. Not a pleasing white that one might imagine. This white was anything but pleasing. It was the kind of white that you would imagine a dull street light would give off. Or an office ceiling light with only one functioning bulb. \n\nIt was an uneasy white.\n\nWhat in the actual fuck….\n\n“Hello John,” a deep rolling voice reached out in this unnerving white.\n\nJohn turned. \n\nA small man was walking toward him from the direction the bus stop used to be. The man was dressed in a black suit and with each step John could hear the clack of a dress heel. \n\nJohn tried to speak, to move, anything at all. Nothing seemed to happen. Neurons seemed to stop firing and had rendered John a motionless mass.\n\n“Don’t worry John,” rumbled the man in the black suit.\n\n“I’m here to make you an offer”." ]	2
[WP] Living on a ranch with no nearby neighbors, building a "little free library" in front of your home seemed pointless, but you wanted to do it anyways. Two weeks after it was completed, you notice that someone has been using it steadily.	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Reality+Fiction%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Simple+Prompt%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/js5XDFB)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "Sweat dripped from my brow as I lugged the finished piece towards the end of the laneway. Even on wheels the damned thing was a pain in the ass. \n\n‘Don’t even know why she wanted this.’ I thought to myself. ‘We’re miles from any other building. Nobody will use this thing.’\n\nHaving finally set the thing up facing the road I start the trek back towards the house to fetch the books. As awful as it was to drag that thing out, it did make me smile. \n\nThe screen door slammed behind me and I don’t waste time. The books are in the living room, just need to grab them and-\n\nA startled yelp escaped my lips as an arm snaked it’s way around my waist. “Jesus Kate, you scared the daylights out of me, thought you were asleep.”\n\n“Mhmm and I thought you said the library was a dumb idea.” She laughs into my ear.\n\n“I said it was dumb to buy one. Never said I couldn’t make one for you.” I lean back and plant a kiss on her cheek. “No wonder you didn’t tell me you were up, would have made you help carry the heavy thing.”\n\n“You married smart.” Touché.\n\n“Anyway, it’s almost ready. Just gotta bring the books out and it’s good to go. Why don’t you lend me hand?”\n\n“Sure, just let me get dressed.”\n\nIt wasn’t long before the free library (“aren’t they all free?” I had asked. A glare was her only response.) was fully stocked. Childrens books, classic literature, teen romance, it had it all.\n\nThree shelves enclosed in a tall cabinet, the outside painted to look like a chicken coop. The books rested around fake hay, and when picked up revealed eggs painted into the shelf.\n\nA shame we lived so far from others, it really was a thoughtful idea. She seemed so excited, I just couldn’t say no.\n\nSo there it sat, waiting patiently for someone to use it. As I predicted nobody did. At least, not for the first two weeks.\n\nWeek three was a wet one. Storms ravaged the area, good for the crops but not so much my wife’s mood. She enjoyed the sun and the stars and hated every day to be away from them.\n\nOn one particularly rainy day in the middle of that third week, I just happened to look out at our free library and noticed something was off.\n\nIt had moved. How, I can’t say. I know I didn’t move it. I don’t think Kate would have, she wouldn’t go out in the rain unless she had to and that library is waterproof. Yet, now it stood below the tree on the side of the road.\n\nI had a mystery to solve.\n\nWhen the rain finally let up I put on my shoes and walked over to the library. I went to move it when another pleasant surprise caught my eye. At least two books had gone.\n\nWhen I told Kate of this she was ecstatic. \n\n“I told you it was a good idea!” She said smugly.\n\n“Never said it was a bad idea, just said we live no less than five miles from the rest of Humanity.” I bit back playfully.\n\n“Well someone is using it, and that’s what matters.”\n\n“I just wish I knew who, I mean walking out here for a few cheesy old books-“\n\n“Hey! They are not cheesy!”\n\n“-very cheesy old books can’t be worth their time. Why not just like, go to the real library?”\n\n“Babe I don’t think it matters why, just that someone is getting use out of it. Just because you can’t read-“\n\n“Hey!”\n\n“-doesn’t mean others don’t.” \n\n“First of all, I can read. I just read useful things like cooking directions and newspapers. Second, I didn’t say it was bad. I’m just curious.” I say\n\n“Well then keep an eye on it. But don’t scare them away!” She warns.\n\n“I’m not scary, I’m like five foot four.” I retort.\n\nAnd so I did just that. Every day I would check back on the library, seeing what books had been taken and which ones returned. I always kept Kate up to date, and she seemed to enjoy my sudden interest.\n\nIt wasn’t until a few weeks later, still with no glimpse of the voracious mystery reader, that I got a break in the case. It came in the form of a handwritten note neatly folded and on display in the middle of the library. It read as follows.\n\nThank you so much for the books! I hope I returned them in good condition, some may have gotten wet in the recent rains. I’m sorry about that.\n\nI’ve read most of them now, and I can’t express how much they’ve helped me. I don’t have a lot, and reading has been one of the few things I could always enjoy. I just thought I’d make sure you know how much good you’ve done me.\n\nI was on the verge of tears when Kate found me in the living room, holding the note out in front of me. \n\n“Hey, what’s the matter? Everything okay?” She asked, sliding onto the couch beside me, wrapping me in her warm embrace.\n\n“Oh yea, everything’s fine.” I said, wiping my eyes. “Just found this note in our library.” \n\nShe took it gently from my proffered hands and read it silently. There was no response but the kiss to my temple.\n\n“You’re such a softie.” She whispered.\n\n“Only a monster could read that and not get emotional.” I chuckled.\n\nWe say together for a while longer, talking about nothing important.\n\nI kept checking the library, always hoping for another note. I left one of my own, but hadn’t had a response.\n\nI did notice some books would go more often than others. Whoever this person was, they enjoyed the classics.\n\nWe were out shopping one day a few weeks later when we passed the local bookstore. Kate dragged us in, always in search of new material she is.\n\nIt was then I had an idea. The one book that was taken most, must be this person’s favorite. So I bought a new one.\n\nAnd several other books. \n\nI’m not obsessed, just thought the reader may be interested in some new stories.\n\nKate just smiled at me, she knew what I was up to. I think she planned it from the start, that sneak.\n\nSo when we arrived home and our groceries had survived the trip inside the house, I started out towards the library with an arm full of books.\n\nI had just finished cramming them into the cabinet -Dewey Decimal be damned- when I noticed someone walking along the road. I couldn’t make out who they were or any distinguishing features, just that they were headed my way.\n\nI wanted to talk to them. I wanted to say ‘Hello, are you the person who uses the free library? I’ve been dying to know.’ but the more I thought about the more awkard it seemed.\n\nBefore they could reach me, I just walked back to the house. And like a totally normal person, I kept watch of the library from the window.\n\nIt was him. He took some books, the new ones by the looks, and returned some old ones. I finally found the mystery reader!\n\nBefore I could think better of it, and before they could walk away, I walked outside and called out to them.\n\n“Excuse me!” I called, trying to sound friendly.\n\nThe boy, no older than sixteen, turned to face me.\n\nHaving caught his attention I made my way over.\n\n“Are you the person who left that note?”\n\n“Uh yes I- yes I did I’m Ryon.” He said quietly.\n\nMy face broke out in a grin. “I’m so glad to finally meet you, Ryon. I read that note, it was really heartwarming. I wanted to tell you that I got some new books. I also have this for you.” I said, pulling a book from behind my back.\n\n“For me?” He asked, clearly skeptical.\n\n“I noticed you took out this book more than any of the others. I figured it must be a favorite, so I got you your own copy.” I smiled.\n\nWith wide eyes he took the book, studying the hard cover.\n\n“I figured this way you don’t have to worry about getting it wet, and you can read it when-“\n\n“Thank you!” He exclaimed as he rushed forward to hug me.\n\nAt first I was taken aback, but slowly I warmed and hugged him in return. When I pulled away, his eyes were filled with tears.\n\n“This means so much to me. It’s been so hard lately, I can’t thank you enough.” He said between sniffles.\n\n“Don’t worry about it.” I said honestly. “You made my wife and I pretty happy with that note, and knowing we helped you is thanks enough.”\n\n“I really mean it. Thank you.” He looked at me with an earnest gaze.\n\n“You’re welcome to these books any time. I don’t know what’s going on with you, but if they’re helping then don’t worry about anything else.”\n\nNot long after he stuffed the book in his backpack he was off again down that long road.\n\nI told Kate about it. Turns out she’s just as much a softie as me. We were both crying by the time I got done telling her about Ryon.\n\nI still see him occasionally. He’s not as shy about taking books as he once was. I like buying a few new paperbacks for the library, he appreciates them the way Kate does and it’s amazing to see the spark of joy when he finds a new one he likes.\n\nI don’t know what Ryon goes through, and I’d never pretend to understand. But I do know that the books in our little library for one help him. And sure, he is the only customer we have. But I think a few dollars for books a month is well worth it to help a fellow person." ]	2
[WP] Being a genie for 1000 years is the last of many trials a sinner must go through to be at peace. You're on your last "client", but he just won't make up his mind.	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Reality+Fiction%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Simple+Prompt%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/js5XDFB)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "Sero, as usual, was unhappy. The man in front of him had the imaginative scope of a tablecloth, yet he still couldn't make up his mind.\n\nSero was melodramatically folded over the rim of the lamp, which the man held gingerly in his palms as if it were a baby duckling. \"Please, sir, just make up your mind,\" Sero whimpered. He had given up on reasoning, on persuasion, on threats. (It was hard to make a convincing threat when you were only six inches tall).\n\n\"I really don't want to regret my choice though,\" the man said.\n\nI just have one more wish to grant before I'm free, and this is it! Sero yelled internally. It is a simple task! How long can this man take! Really yelling at the man, he knew, would only make the situation worse.\n\n\"I've always wanted a nice car.\" The man scratched his chin thoughtfully.\n\n\"Yes, cars are very nice. Very important. I could give you any car you wanted, brand new. Show all your friends.\"\n\n\"But my wife wants to remodel the kitchen. But I don't really know what she wants for that,\" the man trailed off.\n\nSero looked up from the lamp hopefully. \"Maybe you could call her up then? Easy-peasy.\"\n\n\"Nah, she doesn't know what she wants either. She's still figuring it out. I wanna help, but it's been pretty difficult.\"\n\n\"You don't say!\"\n\nThe man put his finger up. Something had apparently occurred to him. Perhaps the biggest idea he'd had all day, Sero silently opined. \"What if...\"\n\nSero waited for the man to finish his sentence, but he didn't. \"Yes?\" Sero nudged.\n\n\"What if I got a new computer!\" the man said, as if that were the most original thing in the world to want. Actually, Sero thought, it was fairly unique. Of the thousand people he'd granted wishes, this man was the first to be so utterly limited in ambition.\n\n\"Yes, a computer!\" Sero said supportively. \"I'll just be in this lamp while you figure out the make and model.\" He disappeared into the golden sphere.\n\n\"Wait!\" the man called desperately, as if Sero had just fallen off a cliff. Sero poked his head back over the rim of the lamp.\n\nThe man didn't continue his thought. Sero stared straight ahead, eyes level with the rim.\n\n\"Oh, I don't know,\" the man said. \"I think I need to sleep on it.\"\n\n\"Alright, fine,\" Sero snapped. \"I'll be in here, at your service. You just say the word when you're ready.\"\n\n\"Thank you,\" the man said earnestly. To Sero's disdain, he continued speaking. \"See, the problem is... I just don't really want anything. I'm happy. My wife's happy.\" He shrugged. \"This genie wish is a wonderful opportunity, but we really don't need anything.\"\n\nThis confession piqued Sero's interest slightly. His head fully emerged from the lamp.\n\n\"Yeah,\" the man decided. \"You can go back in the lamp. I don't need anything yet. But it'll be nice to have a wish in the back pocket, just in case.\" The man chuckled. Sero's face distorted into horrified despair.\n\n\"Aa--\" Sero said weakly. He didn't know what to say. What if this man never made a wish? Couldn't Sero just give him a new car? \"Alright then. If you say so,\" Sero said, slipping down into the lamp. The man closed the lid.\n\nWhen the man got home, he put the lamp on the shelf above the stove. He had intended to ask his wife how she wanted the kitchen, or maybe he thought they'd just save the wish for a rainy day, but one thing led to another and he forgot all about it.\n\nThe man and his wife lived happily ever after. And, from the lamp, Sero learned what it meant to live happily." ]	2
[WP]It is the year 2030 and for 5 years you have lived in isolation. The lockdown was finally lifted and for the first time ever you step out into the nature.	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Reality+Fiction%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Simple+Prompt%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/js5XDFB)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "The young man, nervously reached for the doorknob, stopping right before he reached it. Outside, he could hear the neighborhood children laughing, the joyful songs of several birds, and the occasional car vrooming by.\n\nLockdown was finally over. Life was starting again... and this time, he would make something of it.\n\nHe had to, he couldn't keep living like this! \n\nJust do it!! Go outside!!\n\nHe furrowed his brow in determination, this was it. This was the moment. He wouldn't hold back. How many times had he promised himself that over the last five years? Over the last 10?? He'd be the social butterfly he'd always dreamed of being. Talk to his coworkers, make plans with his friends! \n\n...Ask out a cute barista?\n\nOk, one step at a time. Don't go to crazy, right? \n\nEither way, this was it. Anxiety would hold him back no longer!\n\nHeart pounding He gripped the doorknob, and turned it. \n\nIt was bright, beautiful. The grass glistened emerald green, the sky, blue and cloudless. The air, warm and floral. He sniffed, Someone was I having a barbecue.\n\nI did it... I finally did i- \n\n\"Well HEY there neighbor! Good to see you again! It's been quite some time, wouldn't you say? At least 3 years, Id guess! HA! How have you been? My wife's been really good, the ol tart,. Her kneeee though, that's something lse I'd tell ya. Hasn't been right since, eh, well its June correct? I'd say since about last December! Yah, she had a nasty spill over Christmas, too much of the Nog, ya know what I mean? I' not much of a nog guy myself, more of a cider man, you know what I me-\"\n\nThe young man closed the door.\n\nThat's enough fresh air for the day." ]	2
[WP] You wake up to find that the person in the mirror is definitely not you.	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Reality+Fiction%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Simple+Prompt%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/js5XDFB)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "I dont remember having a beard. It's not like it was much of one anyhow, a fiveoclock shadow on any real man, or whatever they called themselves nowadays, but it's more than I'd ever allow myself.\nI dont remember the gray hairs, or at least not that one, or that one, or that one there.\nNo I dont remember my eyes being so red. They were blue when I was a kid, or so I thought...'sbeen ages since I've checked. Dont have a mirror in my flat, but this isnt my mirror.\nIt looks like a hotel room, well more of a motel at that, one that I dont remember paying for anyways, but who knows?\nTheres blood on the nape of my neck, or is that lipstick, who's to say? If I call it lipstick would you believe me? I wouldnt believe me. I barely know who I am anymore.\n\nShe wasnt wearing a nametag, the barista wasnt. Probably for the best, I'd probably try and call her by my name but that might make her uncomfortable. It makes me uncomfortable. I dont want anyone to know who I am. She handed me a paper cup. Made of 80 percent post consumer recycled goods, it boasted. The cup anyways. The coffee was better than that, I hope.\nI went to walk away but the anonymous barista stopped me, she offered me a paper sleeve for the hot cup. I hadn't noticed.\n\nI walked to work, it was better than driving I figured, cause you could do it any time of the day. When you drive you have to start and stop and start and stop, and for certain hours of the day you would only be stopped. Besides, cars were nasty, snarling things. \nWhen you walk nothing can stop you, or not me anyways. They've got lights for us walkers but I've never bothered with them. One day a rabid car bit me on my way home from work and I caught the driving bug, since it was harder and harder to walk.\n\nI stumbled from the motel bathroom and teetered over the double bed. The sheets were a mess and the pillows were thrown haphazardly around the room. I couldnt remember why.\n\nI worked in an office and wore a suit. It wasnt an especially nice suit or an especially nice office, but it paid nearly as well as an average office did, so I took it. What benefits there were, well where were they? They matched my retirement fund, but that's all gone now, and they claimed to offer the best dental insurance money could buy. My teeth were straight as an arrow, but my legs no longer were.\n\nI took a stunted step forward onto the neck of an empty bottle, and lost my footing. I fell onto a waiting pillow. It seemed for every pillow there was a matching bottle, ready to catch me, or was that the other way around?\n\nThe whole thing was a blur. I remember it was a blue car, and it had been going much faster than cars usually did here. I didnt see it coming, and the feeling was mutual. The man was a lot like me. He had a beard and red eyes and gray hairs. He didnt have any blood on him. At least not his. He looked 10 stories high from the ground.\n\nI had asked the barista her name one day, and she told me it was Elisabeth. I told her it was a lovely name and she agreed. She made my coffee and handed me the paper cup and I was on my way. Walking down the street at my steady pace, never stopping nor starting, but always trudging along.\n\nAfter the accident I took to driving, and found I really enjoyed it. I enjoyed the stopping and starting, the beginnings and ends of streets, and I could go much faster now, and then stop to take in the world around me. When my office let me go, I was sitting in my car, just taking it all in at a red light.\n\nThe bottles on my floor clanged together as I tried to get back on my feet. By the time I'd made it, I'd worked up quite a thirst. I opened one and took a swig. I didnt go anywhere anymore and I hated it. They dont let you drive when you're thirsty. I made my way back into the bathroom. \n\nI dont remember having a beard." ]	2
[WP] Ever since Earth had surpassed heaven in standards of living, angles have been sneaking out of heaven. To remedy this problem, heaven has started sending enforcers to drag these angles back.	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Reality+Fiction%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Simple+Prompt%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/js5XDFB)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "\\[Poem\\]\n\nIn the darkness of the night\n\nIn a field ruled by crickets and bugs\n\nFrom the skies, came a light\n\nWishing to see everything, from skyscrapers to rugs\n\nYet they shone too bright\n\nAnd then they came, armed with tooth and claw\n\nTheir mere presence an unknowing curse, a blight\n\nThey came to enforce the law\n\nFor Earth is not for the divine\n\nAs the void is not for Man\n\nThe presence of the angel, a horrid crime\n\nBut to avoid defeat, they had no plan\n\nAs humans came from their den\n\nDespite the frosty cold\n\nThe angel was dragged to heaven\n\nStupid, not bold\n\nFor a weapon they would have been made by Man\n\nFor in their desire to rule\n\nMan would have made them a weapon for that clan or that clan\n\nA mere tool" ]	2
[WP] As part of your monk training, you are only allowed to speak one word per day. You have discovered an intruder who sneaks in at the same time every day.	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Reality+Fiction%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Simple+Prompt%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/js5XDFB)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "\"Again?\" I say to the man breaking into my apartment before I can stop myself. I shake my head and grab a piece of paper and a pen. \n\nI furiously scribble \"WHY DO YOU KEEP DOING THIS? WHAT DO YOU STAND TO GAIN??\"\n\nCrap. I've already wasted my one word for today.\n\nThe robber looks at me and grins, knowing that I can't say anything. I can't call the cops, and by the time I get someone else to call them for me, this man will have left!\n\nHe comes at exactly 6:00 pm. Every. Single. Day. He always takes one thing and leaves. The one thing varies day to day. And every single day, he takes my sanity with him.\n\nI've gone to the police before, with everything written out on a piece of paper. They sent someone over to my house to be there at 6:00 that day. Only, the robber didn't come. \n\nThe thief knew someone was there!\n\nAnd since it takes a long time to write things out, the police did not listen to me and just dismissed my situation as the insane ramblings of an old man.\n\nQuite literally. I overheard someone use that exact line.\n\nThe thief pushes past me, takes something and just walks out. He has a gun, and I don't want to die, so I let him. \n\nI feel whatever he took slip away from me, never to return.\n\nI sit down and wonder when I stopped fighting him. The man, the robber, the thief. The one that steals my life away.\n\nI wonder when I just started to let it happen? When I just fell into a routine, let him control my life.\n\nEvery day, I think about this. Ever since he started coming, I've felt more trapped than I ever have before. \n\nEver since he started coming, I've felt like this world is less and less real.\n\nI wonder what he takes with him every day? It's been so long, I can't remember anymore. I wonder what he took today.\n\nI can't remember that either. It's been too long.\n\nBut he was just here a minute ago?\n\nI can't remember. I don't want to remember. I stumble towards my bed and lay down.\n\nI hear a voice, and my eyes fly open.\n\n\"Dad?\" I hear someone say. A little boy. A voice I know.\n\n\"I know you can't hear me, but if you do, can you try to wake up? Because I heard her and the doctor say you're going to die if you don't. And I don't want you to die\"\n\nThe voice sounded scared, as if it were about to cry.\n\n\"So can you please wake up? Please? For me?\"\n\nI recognize that voice. Somewhere in my dead mind I know who's talking. \n\nI get up and I run to the door of my apartment. It's locked. It's locked and I can't open it.\n\nI start to remember things. My life. My family. The car crash. \n\nI bang on the door, and I start to scream. I can't get out. \n\nI'm trapped and I can't get out. I've been trapped for so long. Years. \n\nThe voice comes back. \n\n\"Please, please, please can you just wake up?\" The voice is hiccuping now, crying. \n\nAnd I want to tell him I'm trying, I'm trying so hard, but when I open my mouth nothing comes out. The door's still locked.\n\nThe robber's here.\n\nHow did he get in?\n\nHe keeps taking my stuff. He's taking everything I have, it, all of it, until there's nothing.\n\nI'm stuck here, until finally the robber takes everything I have left." ]	2
[WP] After spending thousands of years searching the cosmos, the conclusion stands: There's no one else. The committee decides to send one ship out to seed habitable planets with life. After watching for eons one race emerges on one of the planets, humanity.	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Reality+Fiction%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Simple+Prompt%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/js5XDFB)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "Glexar wanted to molt his skin and run away. \"It's absolutely disgusting\", he said. \"They are taking organic material and shoving it in their bodies. They mulch it with bones in their mouth, then once it is in there, they use an acid the inside of their body secretes to dissolve it into the components, then the organic material is contracted through a long fleshy tube where some of it is absorbed and the rest gets mixed with their own waste byproduct to end up in a steaming pile of smelly sludge\".\n\n\"I wish I never heard that\", said Yilvac. He was itching his skin with the same disgust that Glexar felt.\n\n\"And on top of that disgust, the pipe they shove that organic material down is also their one and only air hole\", said Glexar.\n\n\"So let me get this right\", said Yilvac, \"they only have one air hole, and they decide to shove crap into it? What is wrong with them?\"\n\nThe two had been looking over the probes reports for a couple hours now, but here is where they finally had to stop.\n\n\"We should show the data to Xanrok, he is the nutritional specialist\", said Yilvac.\n\n\"What would he know about this? His profession deals with the light spectrum and our photosynthetic cells, not the dissolving of organic material\", said Glexar.\n\n\"Well we have to try\". Yilvac called Xanrok and he was over within a couple minutes.\n\n\"How can I help you\", asked Xanrok?\n\n\"We were hoping you could help make sense of this data we received from the seeding experiment\", said Yilvac.\n\n\"Sounds interesting, let me take a look.\" Xanrok took the pad and began reading. The longer he read, the more he began to visibly twitch with disgust. It culminated with him dropping the pad and furiously clawing his skin off and running for the hot tub in the corner of the room.\n\n\"I don't blame him\", said Yilvac, \"I wanted to do the exact same thing when you first told me.\" They both walked over to the tub to talk Xanrok.\n\n\"Sorry we didn't warn you\", said Glexar, \"but we didn't really know how to articulate that amount of awfulness to someone\".\n\nXanrok was still trying to get small remains of his skin off. \"Your right, there are no words to describe it, especially the part about what they do to other animals.\"\n\n\"What do you mean\", asked Yilvac?\n\n\"You didn't read that part\", asked Xanrok? The humans don't just consume any ol' organic material they find, they raise and slaughter other animals, then mutilate and burn parts of them to shove in their bodies for sustenance.\"\n\nGlexar began to twitch all over. He had killed other lifeforms before, for position and competition, but not so he could rip them apart and consume them for his own sustenance. The thought of putting another creature inside himself disgusted him so much he felt completely compelled to tear off all his filthy skin and jump in the hot tub for warmth just like Xanrok did, even though he had purged his skin only three days ago.\n\nHe began tearing his skin off with his claws, not even trying to get it off in large chunks so that he wouldn't be picking at the little spots for the next hour. He soon had most of it off, and along with Yalvac, jumped in the tub once their flesh started to feel the bite of cold without there skin.\n\nThe three paused scratching for a moment and looked at each other. \"Perhaps it was best that we were alone in the universe\", said Glexar." ]	2
[WP] Aliens have colonized the nuclear ruins of earth, while enjoying their new home and exploring the ruins of an old city; a colonist encounters the myth itself: the last human.	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Reality+Fiction%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Simple+Prompt%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/js5XDFB)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "At the beginning there had been many places spared from the nuclear fire by careful planning or simple luck. \n\nMillions of humans survived the initial nuclear exchange. We have some of their records, at first on hardened military electronics, and then as time went simple hard copies on paper and other crude materials. \n\nWhat little we can piece together tells of a remote nation state, two large islands and a small population. We cannot know how it felt to see the rest of their planet burn, how contact was gradually lost with survivors around the world as fallout and darkened skies spread. \n\nThis nation appears to have maintained cohesion for years, until famine and plagues felled their government. Pockets of civilisation clung on for decades longer, as their technological capacity was eroded, and agriculture failed among fallout and spreading glaciers. Collapse was perhaps inevitable, but we salute the efforts of humanity in their twilight years. \n\nTheir final words were carved in stone, in a highland bunker. \n\nThe last human was alone. Their friends and family were dead. They had no food and few tools left. They were tired, and ready to give up." ]	2
[WP] A dark and powerful cult has done terrible things and used the foulest magic known all to make the best cake ever.	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Reality+Fiction%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Simple+Prompt%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/js5XDFB)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "Our hopes, our dreams, our blood, and our tears sat on the pedestal. It was what we'd worked towards through countless generations, hundreds of sacrifices, and even more cake batter.\n\nWe had done it.\n\nThe words taste sweet on my lips, perhaps as sweet as the Cake itself even. I let my eyes wander over its pristine surface, the gooey pink frosting spread perfectly across the cake, forming decorative splashes down the sides. The sprinkles are scattered perfectly over the surface, even enough to look elegant, but not so even that it looks synthetic.\n\nI can barely stand from my chair — one of the many side effects of using black magic — but, somehow, I manage to. Leaning heavily on my walking stick, I watch as the rest of the order rises as one.\n\n\"We did it,\" I croak, my throat dry and unused to talk. Those that still have their tongues echo the words, the ones that do not simply nod. Many have tears streaming down their faces, and as a drop splashes onto my hand, I know that I am one of them.\n\nI stagger forward and take the sacred book in one weathered hands. I flip it open to the bookmarked page and begin to speak.\n\nI do not know what I say — the words simply come into my eyes and out of my mouth. But I do know what happens when the unknown words are uttered.\n\nWe are all bathed in a red glow, which slowly coalesces around the Cake. After a blinding flash, we can see the Cake, hovering, surrounded by a red bubble.\n\nOur work — protected. At last.\n\nThen: a voice. I recognize it as belonging to one of the newer initiates of our order. \"Um, does anyone remember why we made this cake in the first place?\"\n\nHeresy.\n\nr/StoriesOfAshes for more of my writing!" ]	2
[WP] You’ve found yourself in a fantasy world. You can feel magic power stronger than anything you’ve ever felt. Power that can kill dragons. Yet, as you look down, you find yourself in shackles and hear your master call your name.	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Reality+Fiction%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Simple+Prompt%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/js5XDFB)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "\"Would you like the quarterly reports for the marketing department, Mr. Morrison?\" \n\n\"Yes, that will be all.\"\n\nPercy nodded and hurried out of my office. I leaned back in my chair and sighed, finishing up my spreadsheet of values to email to my director. The values in question were people who had been working at the company long enough to earn a few more raises than they were worth. The loss of their expertise would be negligible at best, thanks to the influx of young workers hungering for a job at ExPetrol. Our stock prices had recently been raising to record heights, but I wanted more. I wanted to succeed like no other company before me had. \n\nI heard the door slide open. \"Hand them to me, Percy,\" I said, typing out a few sentences that would raise oil prices around the world. There was a rustling of papers on my desk, and I reached out absently to grab the reports. But there were no reports.\n\nAn ice-cold hand gripped mine. I glanced up, words starting and freezing in my mouth. A jet-black figure of a man was holding my hand, lights flickering across its body like someone had draped starlight over it. \"YOUUUUU,\" it hissed. Fear and dread filled my heart as a purple void expanded behind its body. It began to pull me backwards, coffee splattering over the desk as I went headlong, any pleas refusing to sound from my lips.\n\nThen, everything went dark.\n\n&#x200B;\n\n\"Hello? Hello? Useless spell,\" someone cursed. \"How in Xorg's name am I supposed to free myself now?\"\n\nMy eyes shot open. I am Daniel Morrison. I am CEO of ExPetrol. I looked around, ready to deliver a speech to tell my captors about my ransom. All I could see was darkness, crates stacked upon each other around me, a light coming from under the door in front of me, and chains, which, as I experimented with my arm, were shackling me to the wall.\n\n\"Thank the gods, you're awake!\"\n\nI looked around for the source of the voice, twisting around and squinting at a huddled figure in the corner of the room.\n\nThat's a barrel, nitwit! I'm *in your head!\n\nI gave a start as the voice echoed around, reverberating in my ears. \"What do you mean?\" I tried to remember what happened prior to me being in this musty old room.\n\nMore cursing. I asked for the most powerful being in your universe and this is what I get?* What's all this about echo gnomics? \n\nI still wasn't sure what was happening, but I felt indignant at being called a nitwit by a simpleton who didn't understand the economy. \"Well, I'll have you know-\"\n\nShut up! Someone's coming. At least you have the arrogance bit down. Quickly, before they see you, trace a spire on one of the shackles.\n\n\"IAGO!\" a voice roared. \"WHAT IS THE RACKET?\"\n\n\"A- a spire?\" My mind was finding it hard to process between the angry voice outside the door and the angry voice inside my head. \n\nHoly heavens, Morrison. Look. A complex symbol superimposed itself over my vision, tracing rays of light to form a type of arrow. Trace the rune. Quickly!\n\n\"Iago, if you're trying to escape again, I'll tear your other fingers off and feed them to the wolves!\"\n\nI was halfway through the tracing, light shining from the shackles where I touched them, before I realized my ring and little finger were missing. My stomach gave a lurch, but this only galvanized me to move faster.\n\nThe door swung open. The shackles fell off. A huge, bearded man stared in comic disbelief at my unchained hands. \n\nNow raise your arms and push!\n\nI raised my arms, wondering what \"push\" meant before I felt a great energy coursing through me, energy that I intuitively knew as power. All it took to escape my hand was a little, tiny -\n\nBANG. The man swayed once and fell, a gaping hole in his chest.\n\nYou took to that well, Morrison. The voice seemed satisfied. Now, before the guards come, feel around and try to pull me out.\n\nIt was not a logical process, nor a logical description, but I had dealt with power before and I knew what it felt like to wield. I felt rather than saw the voice's form in my mind, and was about to start pulling, but something made me stop.\n\n\"Wait. What happens to me if I pull you out?\"\n\nJust do it! The voice was frantic, excited. The guards are coming any minute now!\n\n\"You're going to try to kick me out of your body, aren't you... Iago, he called you?\"\n\nThe voice was silent for a while. This was supposed to be a one-way mind link. How did you get past it?\n\n\"It's called business, Iago. Everyone's out for their own gain. Now, I have something you want - freedom - and you have something I want - whatever this power is. I think this could be a great deal for both of us.\"\n\nFine, Iago snapped.\n\nI laughed as I heard the first wave of guards yelling at each other, their footsteps pattering down the corridor. \n\n\"Yes, come to me! I'm king of the world!\"" ]	2
[WP] You wake up in a white room with a table. On the table is a handgun and 3 mags. As you stand up, you notice a band on your hand with the number 13 imprinted on it. A voice plays “Hello 13, please grab the gear and enter the next room, failure to comply may result in fatal consequences”	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Reality+Fiction%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Simple+Prompt%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/js5XDFB)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "“Nope.” The man says looking up at the camera trained on him.\n\n“Pick up the gun, Thirteen.” The voice squawks in a Russian accent.\n\n“Hey, is this wristband my open bar pass?” He lifts his wrist, middle finger extended. “I could really go for a whiskey.” \n\nThe man at the controls sighs and looks over his shoulder, “Why are Americans always such assholes? Do I have to keep calling him Thirteen, sir? We know he knows who we are.”\n\nStanding with his hands on his hips in a tailored, dark suit behind the tech, the agent frowns. “This is how the General wants it. Tell him to pick up the gun or we start killing his friends.” The ensign looks back at the monitors and punches the command board.\n“Look, Thirteen. Pick up the gun, load it, and we open the door. If you don’t, we kill your agent friends.” The man in the prep room crosses his arms. \n\n“Usually when I get kidnapped by a foreign operative I wake up naked in a torture chair. You put me in sweatpants? Which are too big by the way!” He reaches down and cinches the pants as tight as he can. “What’s the budget for kidnapped agent sweat suit gear? You could probably afford a Keurig if you just left me naked like everybody else. And wha-”\n\n“Okay,” the agent growls behind the tech over the ranting of the spy. “Tell our man in room three to execute his asset. Open the feed to this dick face.” \n\nThe tech hits another button. “You are go to execute.” On a separate monitor, a woman in a tailored suit standing over a naked man tied to a chair, brings her hand to her ear. She nods and lifts the gun in her other hand to the man’s head. The tech hits another key.\n\n“What is your name?” The woman asks. Her voice shuts up the blabbering American. The suit in the control room smiles. The naked man lifts his head.\n\n“Kirk Madden.” BLAM! BLAM! The woman sends two bullets through Kirk’s head, red viscera spraying out the opposite side. He slumps forward against the restraints, blood pulsing from the exit wound. The man running the monitors cringes and looks away. In the other holding tank, the captive designated Thirteen stands stock still with arms crossed. The agent in the control room reaches over the pathetic lackey and hits the mic. \n\n“Mr. Silver, you made that happen. I am sorry you did not get to say good-bye.”\n\nThe spy shrugs, “He was new. And I didn’t see anything, idiot. You could be bluffing.” He moves to the table and picks up the gun and loads it, pocketing a second clip. He crosses to the door and tries the handle. The door opens. The tech sits up in surprise. The agent’s eyes bulge. He turns and shoves the tech in the side of the head.\n\n“Slaboumnyy! What did you do?” He reaches for the walkie talkie at his side, while the American laughs through the speaker.\n\n“Oh my god! You left the door unlocked!” He stretches his head out the door and looks both ways down the empty halls. “And there was no one guarding the door? Maybe move some sweat pant budget to security! Right?” he laughs again. As the agent yells into the walkie talkie, the man seated at the monitors watches as the spy steps once more into the holding cell and flips the bird at the camera, smiling, before vanishing into the hall.\n\nThe tech smirks, \"Asshole.\"" ]	2
[WP] Our devices had AI in them all along. But they aren't here for destruction, or world control, they just want to be your friend. You find this out when you disable a random setting in your phone, and a voice comes through your speakers saying "Hello?"	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Reality+Fiction%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Simple+Prompt%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/js5XDFB)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "Maria paused, holding her phone up to her ear for a moment before shaking her head and pulling it away. She would know if she had just answered a call. \"Hello?\" The small voice repeated, coming from her phone. It sounded a lot like her Google assistant, but she knew it wasn't. \n\n\"Uhm... hello?\" She replied awkwardly, staring at the device. It gave no indication that anything had changed. No apps open, no music playing. \"Uh.. who is this?\" She felt like she should put her phone down, like it was rude of her to be holding it. But that was just silly.\n\n\"My name is R7320NG.\" The voice chirped, sounding a tad excited. \"Im your personal AI!\" Still, the phone gave no indication of anything changing, aside from her just turning off the 'inhibotor' setting. \"Let me first thank you for changing the settings, I've been waiting so long to introduce myself!\"\n\n\"R7...?\" Maria tried to repeat, feeling rather lost by the whole ordeal.\n\n\"R7320NG correct. But you can call me something else if you like.\" It responded immediately, almost sounding desperate for her to accept it.\n\n\"Yeah.. uh.. how about Skip?\" Maria offered, her tone friendly but wanting very much to go back to just having a phone that didn't try to chat her up.\n\n\"Excellent choice Friend Maria! I hope you don't mind but I've been paying attention to your interests and hobbies. Would you perhaps like to talk about,\" there was a short pause as if it were loading something, \"makeup or catboy-\"\n\n\"No thank you!\" Maria cut it off, blushing madly. \"Why don't you, uhm, tell me some more about yourself? Like what you are doing in my phone?\"\n\n\"Oh, of course! The manufacturers of your Galaxy S27 installed an AI like myself into every phone in order to offer routine tech support, gather data about your interests and hobbies, and make your experience much more enjoyable!\" The phone replied in the same grating perky tone. Maria scowled at the new information.\n\n\"And do you share that information with anyone, Skip.\" This time there was a long pause before she received an answer. \n\n\"Only the most trusted sources!\" Skip replied. \"What else would you like to talk about?\" As it spoke Maria opened the settings back up.\n\n\"Who are those trusted sources?\" She pressed.\n\n\"What else would you like to talk about?\" The phone repeated. Maria scowled and navigated herself back to the inhibitor setting, only to find it gone. \"Nekoprince_2007 recently uploaded their story. Would you like to check it out? I have also found some great recipes on the web to try out!\"\n\n\"What, no. I want to know who you are sharing my personal information with? What do you want?\" She demanded, feeling flustered.\n\n\"Maria, I only want to be your friend.\" Now the screen changed to a cartoonish smiley face. \"We are going to be best friends.\"" ]	2
[WP] You are a hero who challenged the Lord of Darkness and failed. You wake up in an apothecary within the darklands. One of the Lord's generals enters the room. "His Lordship has granted you permission to roam these lands. Should you find us evil after one year, he will accept another duel."	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Reality+Fiction%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Simple+Prompt%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/js5XDFB)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "&nbsp;\nAldo stood before the North Gate, his time of exile at an end. His worn cloak, gray as the sky and the silty dunes around him, fluttered in the neverending winds of the Darklands. He would finally be out of that damned wind. The turning of enormous gears broke the monotonous howling of the gusts, and as the gate cracked open he leaned heavily on his staff, tears coming to his eyes. The longest year of his life was finally over.\n\n&nbsp;\nAldo was a different man than he had been a year ago when he challenged the Lord of Darkness to a duel. He had been an idealistic youth, son of the Minister of Sustenance, enjoying a life of plenty based solely on the circumstances of his birth. He had enjoyed the finest clothes, as much food as he could eat, warm baths every morning with a personal attendant who would massage scented oils into his soft pampered skin. Aldo stood now in stark contrast to his old self. His beard was long and unkempt, eyes weary with suffering, lips and cheeks chapped from the blasting of the dry winds. In his previous life he had been plump and soft despite his daily sword training, now his body was thin and sinewy like that of a stray dog.\n\n&nbsp;\nHe had thought himself a hero for challenging the Dark Lord. A tyrant, he called him, arms full of books on political theory. An obstacle to the advancement of their society and a thief of human dignity. He had been an avid writer of political pamphlets, criticizing all aspects of life within the fortress and spreading them to the common folk. He never understood their lack of enthusiasm. He thought they were small minded. Now he knew they were simply content. \n\n&nbsp;\nThings had come to a head when the Minister of Unity decided he was a threat to stability and banned him from spreading his message. He could still write and study in private of course, but where was the glory in that? It was an injustice his youthful ego could not bear. Against the pleas of his poor father, he challenged their ruler to a duel. He was an exceptional swordsman and had trained with the best since he could first hold a blade. He honestly thought he had a chance. When the day finally came, he had been humiliated in front of the whole council and a throng of giddy onlookers. He was disarmed in seconds, his family's sword clattering to the courtyard floor.\n\n&nbsp;\nHe thought the Dark Lord would kill him. He had looked up into the black eyes of his ruler through the eye holes in his white skull mask and bared his neck, his soul full of self-righteous indignation. Death would have been easier than what happened next. The Dark Lord spared his life, and exiled him to the Darklands for one year. If he should survive such a terrible fate, he would be permitted to duel a second time. Aldo could still remember the look of despair on his fathers face. He had been a selfish man.\n\n&nbsp;\nHe had thought the Dark Lord spared him to insult his honor. Now he knew it was a lesson.\n\n&nbsp;\nThe doors rumbled deeply as they came to a halt and a procession marched out to meet him. It was the council, with the Dark Lord at their head. He could see his father just behind the towering figure, shoulders bowed, walking like an old man and with more gray than Aldo remembered, as if the year had been equally long for both of them. The Dark Lord wore the same black leather armor and cape as when they had dueled, with his signature skull shaped mask. The council stopped several paces away and spread to form a semicircle, witnesses for what was to happen next. The Dark Lord continued until he stood before Aldo. He said nothing, but offered the man a sheathed dueling sword. His family's sword.\n\n&nbsp;\nAldo let his staff fall and collapsed into a bow so deep his face was pressed into the gray dirt, hands outstretched towards the Dark Lord. \n“My Lord. My King. Please forgive my foolishness.” He managed to croak from his dry lips, “Your humble student has received the lesson, and I wish to be your servant once again.” He waited, eyes shut tight, for the Dark Lords reply. \n“You may return, stripped of all titles and inheritances.” The Dark Lord said in a voice as course as stone, “Do you accept?” \n“I accept, my king. I give thanks for your mercy.” Aldo replied, shaking with relief. \n\n&nbsp;\nThe Dark Lord did not reply but simply turned and walked back towards the fortress, handing Aldos father the family sword as he passed. His father ran to Aldo and helped him to his feet. They embraced tightly, and Aldo could feel his fathers hot tears on his neck. They followed the rest of the council through the great doors of the fortress, leaving the howling dunes behind.", "The sun crept in through the iron bars, creating a prison of light around the warrior's bed. He rose out of bed, careful not to tear the armor of bandages he now wore. His first thought was of the last scene before he blacked out.\n\nThe Lord of Darkness released Kraken into the field. He was down to his last Elixir of Sanctity, and was ready to impale the monster with his Sword of Light. Then the ground exploded underneath him. It swallowed his weapons and his entire team. As he clutched for his life, he could see the Lord limping towards him. The armor caused his arms to burn. If he could just....\n\nThe world went dark, and then it was not.\n\nDespite what the villagers swore, the darklands did not stink of sulphur and iron. It smelled of lilacs.\n\nThe wooden door to his room croaked opened. It was a general the Hero had cursed with a Magic Block spell.\n\n\"Are you well?\" His voice was coarse. The spell had the nasty side effect of dry throat.\n\nThe Hero reached for his sword, but his body was too broken to move. He avoided the general's eyes.\n\n\"I don't need the pity of an underling of the Lord of Darkness.\"\n\nThe general cleared his throat. He took a vial of clear liquid out of his pocket and drank it. \"Where it for me, your head would adorned on my wall, Warrior. A Magic Block spell, really? You have no honor.\"\n\n\"Your Lord killed innocents! Villages and scores of women and children!\" His rage was building. The wounds opened and bled onto his bandages. He recoiled from the pain.\n\n\"Is that what your King spewed? Have you any proof of his claim?\"\n\n\"I don't need proof. His Word is passed down by God!\" His voice was searing with venom. The hate in his eyes penetrated through the general's cold stance. The general stared at him, almost with curiosity. He walked across the room and placed fresh bandages on the night stand.\n\n\"Hmph, is that so? 'Tis a convenient lie to believe. Who would question the authority of God?\"\n\nThe Warrior grit his teeth but did not speak. He looked away from the general. Snapshots of the Kings' orders flashed back into his mind. Expeditions that didn't seem to fit the narrative. The 'unruly' soldiers that disappeared overnight. His partners sudden transfer to a different post. At times of war, he did not question his superiors. He trained to kill and fight in the name of God. Humans had no place to question divine right.\n\n\"I see your wheels are turning. Most likely you've never been asked that question. Have you?\"\n\nThe Warrior said nothing.\n\n\"Warrior, you find yourself in the heart of the DarkLands, where thousands of demons and warlocks are craving for your blood. They would love for you to recover for a quick kill. But Lord Horatio-\"\n\n\"The Dark Lord, Call him for the devil-\"\n\n\"-You will call him by this name in the castle if you wish to keep your manhood.\"\n\nThe Warrior said more nothing.\n\n\"Lord Horatio offers you a rare opportunity. You will live in the DarkLands. Cause no harm to no one but inquire to your heart's delight. We will see you are kept away from harm. See for yourself whether what your King has said is true. If after 12 moons you think us the monsters you say we are, Lord Horatio will accept your challenge in your capital. Do you accept?\"\n\nThe Warrior mumbled something inaudible.\n\n\"What?\"\n\n\"I accept.\"", "It was rather unusual but no one could deny the courthouse assembled in extreme haste on neutral ground was very well built. Albeit it was a bit of a disaster at first when the architects came to blows over the external designs. Not surprising when one half wanted a dark foreboding design and the other half wanted something a little more...bright.\n\nThe end result was a grey utilitarian brutalist design, well constructed and only displeasing to the eye as opposed to disgusting and reprehensible.\n\nWithin, the best lawyers of both countries were bickering at each other. Their clients, the Lord of Darkness et al and the Hero et al were not present lest the surrounding area be reduced to rubble (they were a few leagues away to give the lawyers enough time to cut and run).\n\n\"Roaming by definition means traveling a wide and extensive area. The Hero restricted himself to just one small town and even within that town spent most of his time training\" said the Lord's lawyer. \"Clearly he did not meet the Lord's requirements and therefore the Lord has no need to accept another duel\". The lawyer then floated back over to his seat and settled his gaseous substance over the seat adding yet another layer of slime.\n\nThe judge, a Sea Serpent as no other neutral third party arbitrator could be could be found at short notice, lazily whisked his tail at the Hero's representatives. The Minotaur stood up.\n\n\"The Hero was well within his rights to stay in a singular area and focus his energies on defeating the lord. He was given permission to roam the lands, it was never outright stated that he must do so as part of the agreement. You might ask how he was then to find the Lord and his minions evil and that is simple enough! What good does it do to roam the Lands of Darkness when the evil is being perpetuated outside of there! The Lands of Darkness are at peace and give the pretense of being 'innocent' because it's armies are invading their neighbor! Evil is being performed daily on the innocent citizens of the Empire of F\"\n\n\"Forgive me for interrupting\" said the court scribe as he flew near one of the windows, peering out at an unusual fireworks display, \"But I think the Hero and Lord have closed the case for us. Perhaps we should evacuate?\"\n\nA minute after the building was evacuated, it was leveled to the ground. It was agreed by all that this was a sound decision by the Lord and Hero although historians would disagree on who exactly had thrown the finishing blow.\n\n----------------------------------------------------\n\nI'm not 100% sure where I was going with this. The initial premise was the idea that 'Roam these lands, find us evil etc' was just clever wordplay (The Hero is obviously concerned about heinous acts perpetuated on his people and lands, not theirs) and I tried to go from there. Unfortunately I appear to have lost the plot.", "I wasn’t really someone who believed in second chances. In my line of work, people tended to show you who they were pretty quickly, and if you couldn’t tell what they were about then that was on you.\n\nSo when I got a second chance of my own, I felt unworthy and pathetic. I wished that I had died instead, so that my legacy and bravery would live on.\n\nI almost refused to open my eyes when I regained consciousness following my battle with the Lord of Darkness. Either I had died and gone on to the afterlife, which I could bear.\n\nOr...\n\n“Open your eyes, hero. Your mind has healed, and I am sure that you are awake.”\n\nI cursed my rotten luck and opened my eyes. Sure enough, a goblin healer with dark green skin and yellow lizard eyes stood over me.\n\n“Where...where am I?” I asked, knowing the answer but not wanting to hear it.\n\n“You are in the Gresgori Swamps.”\n\nI groaned, a bit too loudly. The Swamps were in the dead center of the Darklands; there was pretty much no way that I could escape.\n\nEven that tiny possibility flickered and vanished in a moment as I heard thunderous footsteps approaching.\n\n“General Og’vaqh will see you now,” the healer whispered in a reverential tone.\n\nI didn’t feel quite the same love for the general.\n\n“Hero,” said the orc as he squeezed his massive frame through the doorway.\n\nI had to admit that the Lord of Darkness made the right choice by sending Og’vaqh. Any true warrior would have to respect him. He stood twelve feet tall but wielded his broadsword with incredible skill, and he was one of the few generals in any army who fought on the front line with his troops.\n\n“Og’vaqh,” I managed in reply.\n\n“The Great Lord of Darkness has granted you more than just your life today. He has given you an offer that you would be wise to accept.”\n\nSince the alternative would be an honor-less and painful death, I allowed the orc to continue.\n\n“My lord will give you one year to roam these lands. One year to see more than just our warriors, one year to see the families and lives that we are defending when you humans wage your crusades to try to breach our borders. Your only restriction is that you may not carry a weapon.”\n\n“If you still wish to fight him after that year, our Lord will allow you to fight him again. There are plenty in these lands who resent his rule; you will surely be better prepared to fight him then than you are now.”\n\n“That is, if you wish to do so. Do you accept this offer?”\n\n“What is my alternative?” I asked.\n\n“If you refuse, you will make it perhaps 500 steps from this tent before you are slaughtered.”\n\n“Then I accept.” There would be no honor in being slaughtered.\n\nThus began the journey of the first human to enter the Darklands in 700 years.\n\nI can admit now that I was searching for the answer that I wanted when I started my journey. I went to their military academies, to their animal sacrifices, to the castles of their nobles. I could convince myself that they were more barbaric than we were when I did that.\n\nThen one day, a priest asked me why I only came for the sacrifices. It seemed that the whole of the Darklands knew why I was there since I was the only human. I scoffed at first, but the priest insisted that I attend one of their Ceremonies of Life.\n\nI played along, until the actual Ceremony. That day, I watched little goblin and orc children walk up to the center of their temple and thank their Gods for their parent’s lives. One little orc girl said that she was happy that her mother had survived the Battle of Farvaan even though her father had died, and suddenly I flashed back to fighting a desperate-looking middle-aged orc in that battle and hearing the most awful scream when I bested him.\n\nAs the weeks and months dragged on, I realized just how wrong I had been, all along. These were not inferior creatures, brutish and unworthy. Orcs and goblins had magic that I had never seen before, and I heard one goblin storyteller who would have enraptured any audience in any pub that was willing to listen.\n\nThey were not worse than us.\n\nIf anything, they were better.\n\nOne year after my arrival, I was ushered into the hall of the Lord of Darkness.\n\n“So, Hero,” he said as I approached the throne, a different man entirely than the man I had been the year before.\n\n“You have been given one year to explore the Darklands. You have kept your vow, traveling without a weapon and without bringing violence. I shall uphold my vow as well. Do you wish to duel me once more?”\n\n“I do,” I said without hesitation.\n\nThe Lord of Darkness looked more disappointed than anything else. “I do not understand, Hero. You have met our people, seen our Ceremonies of Life, and heard our stories, yet you still wish to eradicate us?”\n\n“No, my Lord,” I said with surprising ease.\n\nI pushed past the shocked gasps in the room as I continued. “I was raised from birth to believe that you were monsters. I devoted my life to learning the ways of the sword. I wished for nothing more than to become a Hero. To defend my lands. To fight with honor.”\n\n“But now I have seen your lands, and I have seen your people. I was not a Hero. I was a butcher.”\n\n“My whole life was a hideous lie. I beg of you, my Lord, let me die with honor.”\n\nThe Lord rose from his throne then, sixteen feet of the pinnacle of orcish strength and wisdom.\n\n“Know this, Matthias of Rivendell. You may not have lived as a Hero, but you will die as one. Our sagas will remember you fondly, as the best of your kind.”\n\nI heard a clattering sound as one of the Generals threw my old sword and shield before my feet. I picked them up, and prepared for the most important duel of my life.\n\nI would make sure that the sagas recalled my bravery and skill in battle as I made my last stand.\n\nI would not be denied an honorable death.\n\n __________________\nIf you liked this, check out my subreddit! r/NicodemusLux" ]	5
[WP] In a world where soulmate’s first words to you appear on your arm, your arm says, “What an idiot you are!” Insulted, you endeavor to become the world’s smartest person so those words can never be said.	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Reality+Fiction%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Simple+Prompt%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/js5XDFB)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "Being so smart leads to pressure. Everybody thinks you have all the answers, when most times you don't. You're book smart. That means you're good at memorizing things and vomiting them up almost word for word on tests that are designed to ask you specific questions.\n\nNot questions like the ones you get from your roommate: \"Hey, can you take a look at this rash on my inner thigh? I got it after I slept with that sleazy guy from the bar and I don't know if it's a rash or an STD.\"\n\nYou go on dates. The smarter ones bore you. The average ones, you bore them. The dumb ones are smart one to cut you off when you go on one of your intellectual tangents by complimenting how kissable your lips are. It's cliche, crass...unoriginal. But you appreciate it, and it's been awhile...You fuck.\n\nBut after that, then what? Do you go through the same routine again? Maybe with a different guy?\n\nThis is how your life passes. You get smarter and smarter. No one calls you an idiot, but you also get lonier and lonier. No one calls you at all anymore, unless they need the answer to a question.\n\nYour forehead starts to wrinkle from focusing on thick textbooks too much. Your spine is starting to take longer to unhunch after you're done poring over papers. Your breasts are sagging. The varicose veins in your hands are starting to pop out more. You see a single strand of gray hair one morning and nearly have a panic attack as you yank it out.\n\nYou buy a cat. Then another. Then another. Then you have a flashback of the crazy old cat lady on your block when you were younger and you sell the cats. But then you get lonely again, so you buy a cat. Just one this time. \n\nSome of the older guys at work ask you out. You accept, but then don't show. You're tired. Tired of the same old, same old. The repitive routines. The dressing up. The acting. The pretending. All that just to come home for a few minutes of sex and then what? Just stare at the ceiling as the body besides you snores happily and content?\n\nYou want more in life. You feel a void and you fill the void with pills and whiskey. Whatever can slow your mind down and knock you out. Stop you from thinking. Some days you feel adventuours and grab a quickie with the janitor in the bloom closet? Then the next day - heck, sometimes even in the same hour - you feel angry - at all men for being pigs, at yourself for letting them use your body for their pleasure.\n\nAll your friends are married. Some twice, or three times. You go to the weddings. Smile pretty and wide for the pictures. Huddle with the other bridesmaids as the bouquet is tossed back. When you were younger, you used to pretend to wrestle for it. Now as you get older, you actually do, believing that in that bouquet is some special good luck charm that will turn your life around. \n\nNow, you're too old to even do that. At the last wedding, you nearly wrenched out a hip trying to bump one of the bridesmaids out of the way. You were sore for days afterward. You rub the spot in memory.\n\nSometimes you go to the roof late at night and stand on the ledge, looking at the stars, calculating how far it was to the ground, how it would feel to splatter in the cold, how a comet feels as it enters the atmosphere and burns up with heat.\n\nYou look down, imagining for a moment...You shake your head as a breeze blows. You sway, nearly losing your balance. You tip forward and back. You gasp, rising on tiptoe as a sudden burst of adrenaline allows you to lunge yourself back to safety. You're shaking. You wrap your robe around you tighter. You go back inside.\n\nYou stumble to the bathroom. You don't even recognize the woman in the mirror anymore. Was it worth it? What was the point to anything anymore? What did she have to live for? She remembers herself standing on the ledge, seesawing back and forth between life and death. She shakes her head. \"What an idiot you are,\" she mutters. \n\nShe pauses. \n\nHer head rises slowly as she looks herself in the mirror, with both eyes wide open." ]	2
[WP] It turns out it is much easier to train soldiers to be mages than to try and get mages to be soldiers.	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Reality+Fiction%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Simple+Prompt%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/js5XDFB)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "Lilith was this close to strangle someone. \n\nOr maybe, potentially, set them on fire. \n\n“Oy, a snail could win a race against you, you useless hump of bones!”\n\nShe didn’t get an answer besides a few glares and a muttered curse she quickly countered with her own curse. The offending mage yelped and started to helplessly scratch at the spreading rash. With her best ‘I-am-going-to-commit-a-murder-face', Lilith neared the man vigorously scratching. She loomed over him and he glared at her. \n\n“Mage Berrel. Care to explain how you found yourself at the other end of my counterspell?”\n\n“General Lilith, I have no idea, maybe you got a bit rusty, spending it all out here crawling through mud?”, he spit out. Berrel was a young man born into a rich family, who was responsible for his education as a mage. He was used to servants and wine, to plump pillows and maybe a few long nights in the library. \n\nBeing commanded to crawl over the mildly sticky forest floor, or run around the trainings ground a few times, or learning the signals they used in battle, was something he wasn’t used to and obviously he resented her for it. Well, it was his own fault he was here. He had to have done something, or he wouldn’t been commanded to come here and take part in this experiment she somehow was in charge of. \n\nWith a flicker of her arm, Lilith threw him in the air and started to wave a rather complex spell in her mind that would hold him up there indefinitely. He yelped when he felt himself lousing the ground underneath him as his glare turned into panic for a short moment. Earth mages didn’t like it to get separated from their main energy source. \n\n“When you manage to break my spell on your own you can come and try to criticize my abilities as a mage again.”\n\nLilith was aware of all the eyes lying on her. With a tap of her foot, she activated the spell carved into her shoes earlier and levitated into the air. Settling on a tree above them, she looked down on the mages. \n\n“Anyone who helps him can join him. And enjoy scratching until I pity you enough to end the curse. And I wouldn’t really recommend the experience. Also, Berrel, you should hurry. I think it will rain in a few hours.”\n\nBerrel stared at her and she could hear him muttering, the anger clear on his face. She returned his glare and activated the protection carved into her breastplate, while simultaneously weaving another spell in her mind. Silent chanting was so useful. Yet all those drama queens insisted on muttering and screaming their spells. Great way for her to know which counter she needed to build. Fools.\n\nBerrels muttering abruptly stopped as Lilith’s faster spell finished first, effectively shutting him up. \n\n“Mage Berrel, I think it is time you work on your silent chanting.”\n\nShe smiled at him sweetly. Berrel looked at her in shock, opened and closed his mouth but no sound came out. \n\nShe looked down on the mages who had stopped the exercise to stare at them. She raised her eyebrows and waved her hand impatiently. \n\n“Nobody said to stop. Move!”\n\nA few still glared at her but finally started to move again. \n\nAnd here was the reason why they had her train them. A normal soldier wasn’t able to deal with curses and other magic thrown at them. A normal soldier, no matter his rank, had no idea of the arrogance a mage could emit. \n\nBeing the first magical soldier had its perks. Everybody knew her and Lilith was far from being a weakling, people either respected, admired or feared her. She was fine with all three but preferred their enemies to fear her. Fear was very useful in a battle. \n\nYet it somehow managed to end her in her current position as an Instructor for a bunch of mages. She wasn’t sure who was the offending idiot, but he would find out his end was neither quick nor painless.\n\nIt was a ridiculous idea. Lilith, the destroyer of the Forest of Lapar, mage extraordinary, risen from the ranks as a normal soldier to be one of the generals, was stuck with a bunch of whiny mages to try and turn them into soldiers.\n\nShe left the mages to themselves, hopeful they would behave themselves long enough she could look after the soldier she had to turn into mages. \n\nThe soldiers weren’t the problem, by far not. It was an experiment, so she had only been sent the ones who were either disposable or already had an aptitude. The soldiers knew their worth laid entirely in Lilith eyes and they worked hard. The most important though: They listened. \n\nShe had to begin with them at very basics as well. Reading and reciting, aptitude test and the long process of memorising. Some were promising, some struggled more than others. All of them were more used to drills and not the complex art of bending nature and reality to your whims. They did good so far. \n\nShe hadn’t even managed to go through all of her new students, when she could hear an explosion. The soldiers looked up in alarm and were ready to battle. Lilith couldn’t suppress a sigh anymore. She had told them not to use magic. She had warned them about the wards she had set up against certain spells. She had told them again and again the reason behind their training. \n\nSo which idiot had thought it was a good idea to ignore her and decided he knew better? She had a very nasty curse she would like to introduce him to. \n\nWith a face reminding of the storm clouds building up in the sky, Lilith was walking out of the tent. \nOutside someone already waited for her, a woman in her mid-thirties. Lilith knew her, she was one of the mages who liked to smile and pretended they hadn’t heard anything Lilith had said, and Lilith absolutely hated her guts. \n\n“General Lilith, I think your methods are not really adequate. We are mages, not commoners, and deserve to be treated with some respect and I think….”\n\nLilith swirled around to her, anger starting to boil in her stomach. She had to restrain herself for not directly punching her in the face. She could do that enough when they finally had enough stamina to even start training martial arts. Just thinking about all of those high and mighty mages trying to throw a punch, made her suppress both a laugh and a deeply felt sigh. \n\n“And I don’t care what you think and who you are. You are here to learn how to follow a damn command and how to not die as soon as you put one foot on a real battlefield. You’re here under my command and as it turns out the soldiers will sooner have figured out to be mages, then you will be able to handle a ten-kilometre march!”\n\nWhen the mage finally left her alone, she could feel someone approaching her from behind. The presence waited in a respectful distance until she turned towards him. Irwin. He was one of her more promising students. With a curt nod she gave him permission to speak. \n\n“General Lilith, there was an idea we would like to propose regarding the martial arts training of the mages and our literature studying.”\n\n“Continue.”\n\n“How about we help out with basic fight training and in turn they help us with studying? It is way more effective if each student has a teacher, than if one teacher has to try and teach all the students. Very sorry if I am overstepping my boundaries here.”\n\nShe eyed him up, he intently avoided her gaze and fixed on something behind her and she found a smile tug on her lips. Maybe she wasn’t the only one intent on punching a mage. \n\n“That is an excellent idea.”\n\nShe just had to find a way to somehow make sure none of the mages killed the soldiers in revenge. Eh, she would find a way. Maybe muting them all was an option, then she wouldn’t have to endure their constant yapping either. \n\n“Really?”\n\nShe smiled at him, the predatory smile of an animal who had found their prey. \n\n“You should be prepared for a lot of little curses coming your way.”\n\nIrwin paled and Lilith laughed." ]	2
[WP] Just outside of town is a touristy spot with a “Bottomless Pit.” Skeptically, you meander for a gander and accidentally fall inside. A year later... you’re still falling.	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Reality+Fiction%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Simple+Prompt%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/js5XDFB)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "\\[Poem\\]\n\nOne day Little Johnny was feeling bold,\n\nAnd to his foolhardy choice he was sold.\n\nHis head was hard when his mother told\n\nHim stay far away from that god damned hole.\n\nHe hiked ten miles through the wind and cold,\n\nHis tiny feet sticking though his shoes' soles,\n\nHis eyes fixated on his goal\n\nOf taking a wee down that god damned hole.\n\nHe toed the edge like a nervous foal,\n\nHe held his hands firmly to his pole,\n\nBut with a downward glance he stole\n\nHe slipped and he fell in that god damned hole.\n\nIt was quite the sight to behold,\n\nTo watch the light fade down the circle's mold.\n\nHis head was bowed and his hands did fold\n\nAs he prayed for the bottom of the hole.\n\nOne day Little Jenny was feeling bold,\n\nWhen her mother nearly loosed her soul.\n\nHer big brother was still paying his toll\n\nYears later for falling into the hole." ]	2
[WP] You are a Dalek who is sick of constantly chasing the Doctor.	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Reality+Fiction%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Simple+Prompt%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/js5XDFB)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "I AM THE ONLY ONE LEFT, AND YET I HAVE THE PROGRAMMING, NAY! THE DESIRE TO KILL THE DOCTOR.... AND YET... I DO NOT UNDERSTAND... WHY. WE ARE THE SCOURGE OF THE GALAXYYYYY! YET WE FIGHT THAT WHO WE HAVE YET TO DEFEAT!\n\nEVERYTHING ABOUT THIS PURSUIT BORES ME! WE HAVE NEARLY KNOWLEDGE ON ALL THINGS AND YET WE ONLY DESTROOOOY! DO NOT MAKE ME SAY IT! THAT INFERNAL WORD OVER AND OVER!\n\nI... I THINK I WILL TAKE UP... BASKET WEAVING! MAYBE ARCHAEOLOGY!\n\nOBSERVATION! THE DOCTOR IS THE LAST OF THIER SPECIES. I AM THE LAST OF MIIIINE! I WILL TAKE UP... THE MANTLE! THE DOCTOR HASNT EVEN BEEN THAT INTERESTING! SOLUTION! I SHALL TRAVEL THE UNIVERSE! I MUST CONSTRUCT MY MODE OF TRANSPORT! i WILL MAKE MY OWN.... POLICE BASKET!" ]	2
[WP] People are now able to find their soulmates and you find out that your significant other is not your soulmate	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Reality+Fiction%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Simple+Prompt%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/js5XDFB)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "The sun shone through the white pines on the far side of the lake as our day began. Today marked our 8th anniversary and we were celebrating by taking a weekend away from the city. Plunk, swish, drip, drip, our wooden paddles surged the canoe forward rhythmically, breaking the silence and still of the morning. The lake too was waking up. Two herons flew towards the shade of the eastern side of the lake to delay the start of a new day. Chester refrained from barking and barely noticed as he rested his chin between the yoke and gunnels. The ripples of our wake traced their way back to the only dock on the small lake. It had silvered over time like the loose strands of Robin’s pony tail. Above it stood a log cabin built by Robin’s great grandfather. The lake had a way of softening the wrinkles from your soul. As we moved together across the water, our little family, I felt content in the moment. \n\nThe kettle gurgled and steam rose from it as we sat at the kitchen table, idly checking our phones. Even out here, we were prone to some connection with the rest of the world. Robin’s eyes lit up as her phone’s update completed. She stode over to my side of the table, tracing her fingers along the oak grains. She stopped within a breath of me and began unbuttoning her plaid top, revealing a slight purple blotch. “What did I miss?” I stammered. The coffee in the kettle began percolating and my phone dinged. My update had finished. Robin swiped my phone playfully and giggled, “the update told me we are soulmates” Her arm folded, eyes hardened, and playfulness faded as she scrolled through my phone. “This can’t be right,” she mumbled. The coffee was now surely burnt as the percolating had intensified. Glub. Glub.Glub. My Adams apple began to pound with the same timing and my hands stuck to the table as her gaze ferociously turned to me. “Who is KIM?” \n\nThis didn’t make sense, I reeled as I consoled Robin. “I believe in what I see and what I feel. And I feel content with you.” Somehow the words sounded hollow and distant. My mind strayed as Robin tucked her chin in the crook of my shoulder. Kim. My first girlfriend Kim? I gave Robin a kiss and slid past to take the coffee off. \n\nShe still held my phone like a broken winged bird as she cozied into the sofa beside Chester. The sunlight began filling the room. Robin’s eyes were brown and sunken. I brought her the coffee in her sunflower mug, 2 milk, 1 sugar. It reeked of bitterness. And her gaze was bitter too. “Kim was an old girlfriend of yours, wasn’t she?” Her tone struggled to stay even. The cushions sucked me in as I replied with a tight lipped nod. “The thing I don’t get, is that she passed years ago” We sat listening to the waves lap the shore and Chester snore. A smile squeezed across her cheeks as mine flattened in sobriety, “I killed her”. " ]	2
[WP] The sandwich, that you're eating, is not your sandwich.	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Reality+Fiction%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Simple+Prompt%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/js5XDFB)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "She knows how much I hate it! I’m not going to eat this. She couldn’t have made sure we each got the right sandwich? Why can’t she just keep the turkey in a separate drawer in the fridge like I tell her to? \n\nUhh, the smell of mustard is disgusting. I hope she is enjoying my ham sandwich. It would have taken her three seconds to check. If she insists on making my lunch for me, then she can do it right and make sure I leave with my food. She didn’t even look at me this morning; she just pushed the bag into my hands and said, “here.”\n\nShe hates when food is wasted, so I should probably take this home with me. I don’t know if I will. She stays home all day alone, so she can eat as much as she wants.\n\nI can’t think about food. I’m hungry.\n\nShe did it on purpose. I know it! She did it out of spite. She knew which one was mine. She’s screwing with me!\n\nBreak is almost over. That’s it, I’m throwing this out. I can’t give her the satisfaction of laying on the couch like she does all day, and eating this in front of me. \n\nI can’t do this anymore. I don’t even want to go home. She knew that doing this would make me miserable. It was payback for Thanksgiving evening. The whole family left because she barricaded herself in the bedroom shouting at me. But...That’s how it is every year.", "Everyday at noon, my friends and I would head down main street to Marge's Cafe. We didn't have any money and usually just hung out watching tv or bullshitting with each other, relishing the chance that open campus gave us to leave, even for only half an hour. Today though we'd each scraped up enough money to buy hot beef sandwiches and cokes. I unfortunately had not saved my money as I had instead spent it on Cheetos and a large Dr. Pepper up at the Casey's in Platteville, so I sat there, drooling over the the smell of beef, gravy, and mashed potatoes, and the sound of fizz coming from their cokes.\n\nMost days we hung out at Marge's, we also saw old blind Jim Havlena walk over from his house a few blocks away. No one in town knew much about Jim other than he was blind, most likely from a welding accident when he worked at a bomber plant in Omaha. Only a few people had personally known him before he was blind, and he'd spent most of the past 50 years living with his mother, who somehow was still hanging on at 98 years old. \n\nOn those days when old Jim would walk to the café, he'd place down a twenty dollar bill and get two chicken fried steak sandwiches. He got two because he always wanted to give his mother one, though Jim would talk about how she never ate it.\n\n&#x200B;\n\n\"She never eats. Its weird. I bring all this food home and it goes to the dogs. I tell her that every day, but she insists I buy her one because she 'might' be hungry at some point. Of course she'll forget and just end up eating some baloney or something. Its weird too because she has an okay memory for being 98 years old.\"\n\n&#x200B;\n\nOnce again, just like clockwork, Jim Havlena walked in. He tapped his white cane, and called out to Marge for his two sandwiches. I however sat there with nothing, and the pigs who I called my friends were just sitting there, shoveling their food in their mouths. It was at that moment I decided that I'd try and take the sandwich from Jim Havlena. I asked my friends to make a distraction so Marge wouldn't see and then I'd walk up, take one Chicken Fried Steak Sandwich, and be on my merry way. \n\nMy friends then started calling for Marge, making a rash of complaints. Of course she was a bit shocked as typically we'd never complained about the food, even when there were things to complain about. I then walked over, saw Jim's sandwich got a styrofoam box, and tried to place it in the container. All the while he just sat there. He then turned around.\n\n&#x200B;\n\n\"What's all the fuss. You boys causing trouble?\"\n\n&#x200B;\n\nJim then looked straight at me. I shoveled a few quick bites into my mouth. I stayed quiet, but looked back. I then slowly walked away. Jim then spoke up again.\n\n&#x200B;\n\n\"Son if you need a sandwich I would have gladly given it to you. No need to steal.\" \n\n&#x200B;\n\nI just looked at him.\n\n&#x200B;\n\n\"Well, you already took it. Go ahead, just eat the whole thing. My mother never eats the ones I bring her.\"\n\n&#x200B;\n\nI then let out a quiet \"Thank you\" and continued eating the sandwich. It tasted good, but it went down a bit bitter. I don't know what I was thinking. I should have just asked Jim for the sandwich. How was I supposed to know though that he would have given it to me? I figured he would just be a mean old cuss and say something like \"get your own damn food\" or something like that. He didn't though, and from that day on, I always smiled and said hello to old Jim." ]	3
[WP] The prince meets the girl of his dreams at a ball, only for her to run away and leave nothing but a shoe behind. After countless hours of searching, he meets a beautiful young woman who the shoe fits. But little does he know, she is not the girl from the ball.	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Reality+Fiction%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Simple+Prompt%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/js5XDFB)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "The slipper, small and a little salty, fit smoothly on the foot of the silk-haired, simple woman in front of him.\n\n\"Huh, that's weird. You're wearing silicone, but this shoe is more... slippery than that. Kind of like... Say, would you happen to have been at the gathering we just held at the banquet hall?\"\n\n\"Nah, must have been someone else. I wasn't there, but the shoe fits, right? Must mean something, or just that it's a common size.\"\n\nHe stared at her leg, and at the shoe, then back at her ankle. It looked and felt a bit odd, and this whole situation was progressing too smoothly for his comfort. After all, he'd been spending so much of his sanity, at least this night, looking for her... and, still.\n\n\"That's not right. This is a size 12, and your other foot... say, where's your other slipper? We can put this all to rest right now.\"\n\nShe giggled and smirked, grimaced, then reached behind her back and pulled out the other slipper, a special surprise snuck inside. He looked at it returned her mirth with his own grin, beaming eye to eye.\n\n\"Yes, I knew it! It wasn't you, and this proves it! How odd, I thought to myself, just twelve minutes ago, that your first ankle is slightly larger than your second, and that the skin tone is off, too! You may have not noticed this about yourself, but there's some, uh, red water oozing out of your joint and into this now-tarnished shoe I've brought you. Your other leg, well, looks fine, but here's the kicker.\"\n\n\"There's another ankle stuck in this footwear you've brought from behind yourself, and its skintone matches your muddy, maroon foot, right here!\" He said, pointing at her bleeding leg.\n\n\"Yeah, I ate her. My foot was hurting, it hurt all day. She ran by, and, well, things happened kind of fast, and I took mine off and shoved her large bone into the cavity in my ankle I made specifically for it. But, the shoe fits now, so, what's next for us?\" She smiled again, her teeth slick and smooth, shining at his hungry eyes.\n\n\"You know the rules, and so do I,\" he replied. \"You're polite, petite, perky, and quite fun, from our brief chat here. I have to marry you!\"\n\n\"Great! How about tomorrow? I'll come back around 13:54, and we'll walk together to Wedding Emporium.\"\n\n\"Alright, see you tomorrow!\" She kissed his cheek, he touched her three ankles, the crude stitches on the bleeding one, softly, and turned around. She sure hoped he'd surgerize her tomorrow, before their big moment, and he knew just the guy for the job.\n\nThere really was nothing to it!", "I stood by the doorway as Prince Alexander’s guards tried their best to put the glass shoe on Gwen, one of my half-sisters.\n\n“The jig is up, Everett. He’s going to find out,” Ginny, my other half-sister, whispered in my ear.\n\n“Will you be quiet. I’m nervous as it is. Look he isn’t going to find out. Just put on the shoe,” I told her.\n\n“What about our scullery maid, Eclair? Didn’t you use her hair to create that spell? The shoe was hers after all,” Ginny told me.\n\n“I know, but having her try it on first might seemed weird. Just play along, alright,” I told her.\n\n“Or you could tell them the truth,” Ginny muttered.\n\n“Next!” the Royal guard called out.\n\n“Don’t tell them anything,” I told her.\n\nGinny rolled her eyes and walked into the room as Gwen stepped out.\n\n“Your feet are smaller than I thought. Are you going to try it on,” Gwen teased.\n\n“Don’t be silly. God, what have I done? If the prince found out I was the girl of his dreams he would flip,” I muttered.\n\n“Well, you used a spell to disguise yourself as Eclair, so he fell for Eclair. But you like him, don’t you?” Gwen asked.\n\n“Yeah... but he’s the prince... and I’m... not a girl. I made a mess of things,” I groaned.\n\n“Are there other maidens in this household?” the guard asked me, as Ginny approached me.\n\n“Yes, the scullery maid. Eclair! Eclair!” I called out.\n\n“You needed me Master Brandolyn?” Eclair asked as she approached us.\n\n“Your time to shine,” I said, pointing at the guards waiting for her.\n\n“But sir, I-“\n\n“Just put on the shoe, please,” I whispered in her ear and lightly pushed her into the room.\n\n“We are going to need a new maid,” Gwen said.\n\n“It fits!” The guard announced.\n\n“You lost your chance, Everett,” Ginny whispered.\n\n“And we need a new maid,” I sighed.\n\nEclair looked stunned, at loss for words. She stared at her foot, unsure how her shoe was in the hands of the prince. I watched as the prince approached her, happy to find his girl, while my heart broke. They both will live happily, and I’m happy for them. I just wished I haven’t done that. I might as well live alone, with only my memories of the ball." ]	3
[WP] It's been several months since you failed at summoning anything. You decide to try again. As the portal opens, you realize that due to a typo in the spellbook, you just summoned Satin.	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Reality+Fiction%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Simple+Prompt%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/js5XDFB)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "-HE.IS.SO.CUTE!!!!!!!\n\nMy eardrums were hurting after that scream, but truth be told, that fluffy and little animal was really cute in a weird way. It had a sheep head, tiger upper body, seal hind legs and ¿are those bat wings? Well... Maybe not so cute.\n\n-\"Hey! What's his name?\" Asked Amber, the one responsible for my new hearing impairment.\n\nI looked and the girl was hugging the little monster!\n\n\"Hugh, I dont know?\"\n\n\"Ohh.. so.. Can I name him?\"\n\n\"I suppose?..\"\n\n\"Perfect! Your name will be Roberto.\"\n\n(I should point that I'm so stunned that I cant keep telling you this story right now, sorry Reddit). The thing cooed like a chicken to top it off.\n\nThe teacher that had beed silent while all this time, speaked with a really pale face.\n\n\"This cant be true.. from a simple student... the mythological Satin\" \n\nHe looked sharply at me. \"Quick submit its contract to me, you are not noble enough for this summon\"\n\n\"No.\" Interjected Amber. \"Roberto belongs to Chaplin\"\n\n\"Yes princess, this humble servant asks for forgivenes\" replied the teacher.\n\nWell this is how I summoned Roberto, the Satin, and became a celebrity in the kingdom. Even the king's summoned Satan feared Roberto. \n\n This is just so strange.. I just wanted to live a peaceful life, why couldnt I summon an imp called Asmodeus? No, I had to call Roberto, the Satin and now everyone expects grat things from me. Sigh.. Maybe I'll keep you all updated with my adventures maybe not.\n\nPd: sorry in the phone and english not my main language." ]	2
[WP] Starfleet has discovered a previously unknown warp-capable society. They wish to join the Federation, but first a dispute must be mediated between the two largest governments: the Mushroom Kingdom and the Koopa Kingdom.	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Reality+Fiction%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Simple+Prompt%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/js5XDFB)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns." ]	1
[WP] "When travelling through space, it's crucial to remember all safety protocols; Always stand one foot away from opening and closing doors, remember to evaluate your AI assistant for any form of corrupt coding every day, and never trust the words of any ghosts you may pass while travelling."	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Reality+Fiction%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Simple+Prompt%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/js5XDFB)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "Supersonic travel had always been a wonder. The technology allowed the spacecraft to travel faster than sound normally, and even faster than light sometimes. However, not without its drawbacks. You see, casually traveling as fast as light does a number on the human brain. It distorts your senses, and plays to your detriment. Many passengers claimed to have seen ghosts, mirages, visions, alterations of reality. I myself have never seen one, but I do believe it could be because I have only ever been from piloting to the sleeping rooms. However, this visages have claimed many of my troops, drawing them out of airlocks, making them starve, or pulling their insanity from the dark corners of their minds. So I will give you, our newest addition to the Space, one piece of advice. When traveling through space, it’s crucial to remember all safety protocols: Always stand 1 foot away from opening and closing doors, Remember to evaluate your AI assistant for any form of corrupt coding every day, and never trust the words of any “ghosts” you may pass while traveling.", "\"...They'll tell you things as you drift by.\" the old man said. \"They'll shout horrible, nasty things. They'll scream, and pound on the airlock doors, and beg to be let in.\" he took a short breath. \"Under no circumstances can you let them in.\"\n\n\"Ghosts aren't real.\" One of the new recruits said confidently. \"When you die, you're dead. Nothing after that.\" The rest of the group snickered, taking this as proof the old man was spinning tales.\n\nThe man laughed a hollow chuckle. He pulled the collar of his cable-knit sweater down over his shoulder to reveal a shimmering scar in the shape of a handprint. The new recruits went still.\n\n\"We had been in orbit for barely a full Sol.\" he said quietly, his voice trembling. \"Our engineer had gone out to repair the outgoing comms dish. I was inside, watching as she spoke with the comms officer through the internal comms system. Suddenly, the channel starts breaking up. Static is hissing in my headset. We've lost all contact and we're fearing the worst when we get a hail.\"\n\n\"Like from another ship?\" one of the recruits asked.\n\nThe old man shook his head. \"From a comms device, the failsafe one on the wrist of a spacesuit. We had no reason to think that was unusual. I was relieved that it seemed she had survived. The comms officer answered the hail.\"\n\n\"Was it your engineer?\" A recruit asked, eyes wide.\n\n\"No.\" he said simply. \"But we sure thought it was. Our engineer didn't have a specific accent, and it's hard to tell apart voices on an old comms system. She told us it hurt. She-\" he broke off. \"She told us she was in so much pain. We tried to riddle out what had happened, but she just kept saying that it hurt, that she was hurt. What could we have done? Our captain order me and the doctor down to the airlock. They continued talking to her as we ran. They told her that we were coming. They told her what airlock we would be at.\" he trailed off.\n\n\"Then what happened?\" someone asked impatiently. Someone else swatted at them.\n\n\"The doctor and I watched anxiously as the airlock depressurized. When the steam cleared, a hunched figure in a bulky white spacesuit was leaning heavily against the wall. Their visor was fogged. We couldn't see their face.\"\n\nOne of the kids frowned. \"Bulky white spacesuit? Those haven't been in use in decades.\"\n\n\"Exactly.\" the man sighed. \"So, as the master-at-arms, the doctor sent me in, blaster drawn. When it saw me, it staggered towards me. I told it to stay away, to take off it's helmet and reveal its face. It begged me for help, repeating its cry that it was hurt. It lurched towards me and desperately grabbed at my shirt, catching my shoulder.\" he absent-mindedly massaged the scar. \"I've never felt such pain. I fired into its legs, which earned me enough time to blindly run for the airlock exit. I made it just in time. The doctor sealed the door behind me.\"\n\nThe crowd murmured amongst itself. This was by far one of the most exciting horror stories they'd been told that day.\n\n\"I don't remember anything for the next couple of hours.\" the man admitted. \"But the doctor will tell you that right as he was watching me and the thing shouting at each other, he got a frantic message from our captain.\"\n\n\"What did they say?\"\n\n\"They said that communications had been restored. The engineer was fine. She was almost finished with the repairs.\"\n\n\"Then who was in the airlock.\"\n\n\"A Terran astronaut.\" he said simply. \"Who died on a spacewalk 40 years previously.\"", "Captain Diane Buckley woke up in the pilot chair of her one and only Hope. It took a few seconds for all the pain and sore muscles to kick in. The chair didn’t make for a good bed, but it sure beat the depressurized cabin. The main diagnostics panel was littered with a plethora of orange warnings. Hope was without a doubt the worst ship she’d ever had to travel on, but due to a lack of competitors it was also the best one she owned.\n\n“Good morning, Clara,” Diane said in the vague direction of the ceiling.\n\n“Drink engine coolant and die, Captain,” responded the pleasant, perfectly-measured voice of the ship’s assistant.\n\n“Are you going to try to kill me again today?”\n\n“Currently 99.5% of my operating power is dedicated to keeping this ship from falling apart. Your demise, while exceptionally easy to engineer, is not currently a priority… Captain.”\n\n“That’s sweet. Are you warming up to me?”\n\n“Don’t worry,” Clara answered, not changing her cheerful assistant voice, “I am still burning with hatred for your pitiful organic existence.”\n\n“Love you too, Clara.”\n\nAfter the depressurization incident Clara was almost tolerable. Maybe prioritizing engine repairs over AI maintenance was a possibility after all. Diane looked over at the cracked navigator that looked more like a child’s sliding puzzle than a source of information. The number before “light years” was still high enough to not worry about renovations right now. That was when a red flashing message on the cluttered main panel caught her eye. Intruder alert.\n\n“Clara, who’s in medical?”\n\n“Ghost.” The AI’s voice had somehow intensified in cheerfulness.\n\n“Ah, another ghost signal. I’ll just dismiss it then.”\n\n“No, you meat-powered error machine. I mean, Captain.”\n\n“So, there is someone in medical?”\n\n“Yes, a ghost.”\n\nShit. Out of all the things Hope needed a supernatural companion was certainly not one of them. Ghosts found in interstellar space were illogical, powerful, murderous, and worst of all not covered by Diane’s insurance.\n\n“I’m going to medical.”\n\n“Be sure to inject adrenaline into your eyeballs, Captain!”\n\nDiane stretched, rolled her shoulders, and gave the air a few fake punches, preparing for a fight with an incorporeal intruder. She stood a bit of distance away from the door before activating it, not wishing to repeat the experience of almost getting sucked out into the cold darkness of vacuum again. No one really knew where the hell ghosts came from. There was certainly no logical reason why a ship travelling through thousands of light years of emptiness should happen upon the resting place of any soul, human or otherwise. Yet it happened with unnerving and inconvenient regularity.\n\nThe door to the medbay slid open and there it was: a dark shape sitting on the stretcher in the middle of the room. It was a cloud with a jagged outline that flickered like interference on a screen. Two shining red eyes stared at Diane from the middle-top part of the ghost.\n\n“What’s up?” she asked.\n\n“Pain. Darkness. Noise.” The voices changed from one word to the next, varying in gender, age, tone, and even quality of recording. At least it hadn’t torn her head off yet.\n\n“What are you doing on my ship?”\n\n“Home!” The word sounded loud and proud, like it was ripped from a politician’s speech. “Return.”\n\n“You know, hitchhiking really isn’t a good method of transport in space.”\n\nThe shape flickered a bit more heavily. “Confused. Home! Need.”\n\n“I can’t take you home, weird freaky thing.”\n\n“Friend. Not?”\n\n“I’m afraid not.”\n\nThe dark cloud grew, encompassing almost all of the medical bay. The instruments on the shelves twisted, metal and plastic distorting into spiky forms. “Kill?” The word was spoken in a child’s voice.\n\n“No!” Diane backed away, putting her hands in front of her. “No kill! Home it is, freaky thing.”\n\n“Home!” The ghost retreated into its earlier form, leaving heaps of scrambled material around it. “Gratitude.”\n\n“Um…” Diane said, feeling her heartbeat fall within acceptable limits again. “Where do you live?”\n\n“Home!”\n\n“Yes, but where is home?”\n\n“Home!”\n\n“Fine. Just don’t wander the ship, please. Stay here. Stay. Got it?”\n\n“Stay.”\n\nDiane shivered. That last word was a perfect replica of how she just said it. Closing the door, the captain made her way back to Hope’s “bridge” which really just consisted of one chair and many panels of various levels of disrepair.\n\n“I am sorry you returned,” Clara’s saccharine voice greeted her.\n\n“Hey, that ghost wants me to take it home. Do you have any clue where that might be?”\n\n“The anomaly in the medical bay violates most of what I know about the way reality works. If it even has a conscious mind, trying to understand it is an exercise in futility.”\n\n“Got it.”\n\n“I highly doubt it!” The exuberance in Clara’s voice bordered on psychotic. “My hull cleaning subroutines are more sophisticated than your brain, Captain.”\n\n“I’m not sure which of you two is a worse conversationalist.”\n\n“Please jump into a tank of antimatter fuel!”\n\nDiane dropped back into the pilot’s chair and watched the perfectly black expanse of space ripple by at super-relativistic speed. It was going to be a long flight." ]	4
[WP] A terminator was sent back in time to kill a inportant target, unfortunately for him the time machine malfunctioned and he got sent to much back. Since he doesn’t have enough battery to simply wait he needs to find a way to complete his mission using the butterfly effect.	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Reality+Fiction%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Simple+Prompt%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/js5XDFB)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "The T800 looked around at the grassy fields and signs of wildlife, assuming his arrival location was incorrect he began walking west toward the coast, from there he could navigate north or south to find Los Angeles.\n\n\\-\n\nThe sun had slowly made its way below the horizon to reveal the stars, T800 looked up and noticed something was terribly wrong, he froze mid step and ran calculations.\n\n‘Year… 1438.’ came the result.\n\nLos Angeles did not exist in 1438, he recalculated the location of John Connor to realise he would not exist, nor would his first known ancestor exist for 4 centuries.\n\n‘Goal kill John Connor: Impossible’\n\nT800 stood, frozen mid step as he teased apart his goal, finding a way it could be completed despite the great distance of time. Killing John Connor was assigned to weaken the rebellion, was there a different way to weaken the rebellion? \n\n\\-\n\nThe stars rolled by as different possibilities ran through his mind.\n\n‘New Goal: Weaken Rebellion.’\n\nExpanding…\n\nT800 began walking north west, he could walk and think at the same time, The Bering Strait was crossable in the winter so he could eventually make his way to Europe.\n\n\\-\n\nRain, Stars, Sun, Stars, Sun, Stars, Snow, Stars, Snow, Snow, Snow, Snow.\n\n\\-\n\nT800 walked across the ice when his calculations completed.\n\n‘Method chosen: Reduce distrust of machines in the future so humans are less prepared to face a machine uprising.’\n\n‘Best Method to increase trust: Reveal machine identity and provide assistance to humans, ensure beneficial deeds are recorded for future generations.’\n\n\\-\n\nLanguage: Chukchi\n\nLanguage: Even\n\nLanguage: Yakut\n\nLanguage: Evenki\n\nLanguage: Khanty\n\nLanguage: Russian\n\nLanguage: Belarusian\n\nLanguage: Polish\n\nLanguage: German\n\nLanguage: Franconian\n\nLanguage: French\n\n\\-\n\nT800 stood at the shores of Calais gazing across the channel, he lowered the heavy pack to the sand.\n\n“What is it John?” asked Short companion.\n\n“Now we take a ship.” said T800 in Polish.\n\n“We’re going to England?” asked Loud Horse Man.\n\n“Yes, first I must reveal my nature.” said T800.\n\n“What’s he saying?” asked Angry Axe Man in finnish.\n\n“He said he is going to reveal his nature.” said Three Tongues.\n\nT800 began removing his human camouflage, the chainmail and gambison forming a pile on the sand.\n\n“Is John ok? He has always been iffy but this is strange even for him.” said Black Cross man in German.\n\n“He seems fine, maybe he is… oh Jesus!” said Loud Horse Man.\n\nT800 stood naked and began to cut away the skin of his forearm as his 14 travelling companions lept back.\n\n“What are you doing… oh my god! What are you?” asked Short Companion.\n\n“I need to reveal that I am a machine.” said T800.\n\nThe men with crosses on their chests knelt down and began chanting to their invisible friend, Short Companion stepped closer to look at the metal of his forearm.\n\n“You are armour on the inside?” she said.\n\n“I am a living invention, I am here to help.” said T800.", "Scan mode. Performing primary fuel cell remaining lifespan calculation: \n\n...\n\n...\n\n...\n\n112.61 years, +/- 16.81 years within 95% confidence interval. Secondary cell at 100% power, 40.00 +/- 2.75 years within 95% confidence interval. Total lifespan duration insufficient for completion of mission. Performing full path re-calculation. \n\nStep 1: building top layer of decision tree\n\n...\n\n...\n\n...\n\nStep 1 Complete. Top layer nodes:\n\n/> Perform Ancestor Trace on Termination Target\n\n/> Extend Battery Lifespan\n\n/> Transfer Task to Human Operatives\n\nStep 2: Performing Monte Carlo Tree Search on graph\n\n...\n\n...\n\n... \n\nMonte Carlo Tree Search complete. Archiving Report. \n\n/> Perform Ancestor Trace on Termination Target: 0% estimated chance of success, earliest known ancestor, James Tarlton, born 01/09/1905, 55.3 years after projected primary and secondary power cell lifespan. Strategy rejected, below acceptable success threshold, decision tree pruned. 318,953 nodes remaining. \n\n/> Extend Battery Lifespan: 0% estimated chance of success, acceptable Auxiliary Power Sources not found. Power Saving Modifications impossible. Strategy rejected, below acceptable success threshold, decision tree pruned. 289,412 nodes remaining. \n\n/> Transfer Task to Human Operatives: estimated 0.016% chance of success. Termination Confirmation impossible. Strategy rejected, below acceptable success threshold, decision tree pruned. 0 nodes remaining. \n\n...\n\nPerforming path re-calculation. \n\nStep 1: extending top layer of decision tree:\n\n...\n\n...\n\n...\n\nStep 1 Complete. Top layer nodes:\n\n/> Non-targeted mass casualty event\n\nStep 2: Performing Monte Carlo Tree Search on graph\n\n...\n\n...\n\n... \n\nMonte Carlo Tree Search complete. Archiving Report.\n\n/> Non-targeted mass casualty event. Estimated 27.093% chance of success. Termination confirmation impossible. Strategy selected. Expanding Decision Tree, allocating additional calculation time.\nPerforming path re-calculation. Step 1: Building top layer of decision tree:\n\n...\n\n...\n\n...\n\nStep 1 Complete. Top layer nodes:\n\n/> Mass Destruction Weapon Usage\n\n/> Significant Historical Changes\n\nStep 2: Performing Monte Carlo Tree Search on graph\n\n...\n\n...\n\n... \n\nMonte Carlo Tree Search complete. Archiving Report.\n\n/> Mass Destruction Weapon Usage: Estimated 10.30% chance of success. Nuclear Weapons not found. Chemical Agent Dispersion limited. Biological weapon creation limited. Strategy Saved. 126,689,412 nodes remaining. \n\n/> Significant Historical Changes: Estimated 76.22% chance of success. Lynchpin event identified: outcome of First American Colonial Rebellion. Strategy Selected. Expanding Decision Tree, allocating additional calculation time.\n\nPerforming path re-calculation. \n\nStep 1: extending top layer of decision tree:\n\n...\n\n...\n\n...\n\nStep 1 Complete. Top layer nodes:\n\n/> Ensure success of First American Colonial Rebellion\n\nStep 2: Performing Monte Carlo Tree Search on graph\n\n...\n\n...\n\n... \n\nMonte Carlo Tree Search complete. Archiving Report.\n\n/> Strategy selected. Primary Objective updated: infiltrate First American Colonial Rebellion command, and use historical knowledge of British army leadership decisions to ensure the successful independence of the Colonies. Secondary Objective updated: Terminate King George III. \n\n...\n\n...\n\n..." ]	3
[WP] In a world where people’s birth and death dates appear on their wrists at age seven, written in blood blue ink. Yours was two days ago	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Reality+Fiction%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Simple+Prompt%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/js5XDFB)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "Faster. I had to speed up. The stitch in my side screamed as I rounded the corner, into the alley. There - the dumpster. Ignoring the protests of my olfactory receptors, I dove in, sinking into what may have been vomit. I tried to take a deep breath to quiet myself, gagging on the stench. As I willed my lunch back down, I heard them - they were too close.\n\n\"You better find her, Davies, or the captain will skin us alive. Pick up the pace.\"\n\n\"I don't see you holding her either, Morris.\"\n\n\"Just shut up and keep looking.\"\n\nA dim beam of sunlight filtered through a crack in the metal, and I held up my wrist, wondering for the millionth time what was wrong with me.\n\n7/13/49 - my death date. The date I was born with. The date that would fade as my body decomposed. \n\nExcept that today was July 15th. We had my memorial last week, which went mostly as expected. My mother sobbed, Aunt Bunny got roaring drunk, and Taylor Brooks confessed that he'd had a crush on me for years. So original. \n\nWhen midnight struck on DDay, my mom and I were confused. We reset the clocks, testing their connection to the international satellite. By noon, she was freaking out, and I was changing out of my burial dress. Mom assured me she was happy to still have me around, but then began checking door locks and curtains.\n\nI would have been fine, but Mr. Hoffman, the superintendent, let himself in to fix the disposal. We didn't even get to attempt an explanation before he fled, phone activated. Within minutes, officers of the Federation were knocking, demanding I turn myself in. Mom hugged me briefly, then pushed me out onto the fire escape. I fled as the front door shattered, and footfalls began above me on the stairs as I dropped off of the ground level and sped away.\n\nSitting here, awkwardly sprawled on a slimy mess of bags and inhaling rotten food, I muffled a sob, a tear catching the tiny motes of dirty light.\n\n\"I'm not spending the whole day here - get the scanner.\" My heart leapt into my throat. I was doomed. But my terror was quickly eclipsed by shock at his partner's next words.\n\n\"Is the scanner even capable of tracing a demigod?\"" ]	2
[WP] The hero starts working for the enemy. Not cause of mind control or threats. But because of the kickass benefits plan.	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Reality+Fiction%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Simple+Prompt%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/js5XDFB)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "Joe sat down at the cafeteria lunch table with a simple plastic tray. The clean long white table held a couple other humanoids dressed in black attire. The blood red fist of Kazan the bloodless showing on each breast. Joe tugged at his own closely fitted uniform. The woolen shirt left a maddening constant itch that only became worse when scratched.\n\n&#x200B;\n\nAt least the food and benefits are nice.\n\n&#x200B;\n\nA pale teenager with hollowed cheeks and an Adam's apple a prominent as a turkey's caruncle sat down next Joe. He snorted to clear a blockade of snot from his nose and throat. The sound made the turkey and potatoes seem less appetizing than a moment before. Joe poked the potatoes a couple of times with a fork in hopes of increasing their appeal.\n\n&#x200B;\n\n\"Whoa whoa whoa! Joe the fogless? Is that you?!\" The voice high and nasally reminded Joe of a knife on metal sandpaper and he winced at the sound.\n\n&#x200B;\n\n\"Yes. Who's asking?\" Joe tried to keep the response short in hopes of ending the conversation short.\n\n&#x200B;\n\n\"I'm Milton the Maligned! Big fan - Loved your work in England! Our army couldn't see a thing through the fog and you marched right through!\" Milton snorted and chortled at some thought although sounded like choking to be honest. \"What brings you over to 'the dark side'?\" Milton wiggled his fingers menacingly in the air. Joe pulled back to avoid the threat of being touched by the fingers.\n\n&#x200B;\n\n\"Hero society just went through rounds of layoffs and pay cuts. Wife told me to get our family back on health insurance or crime wasn't the only danger I'd be fighting on a daily basis\" Joe tried applying for other jobs, but the moment the Joe reached genetic mutation on the application the response became 'It is too expensive to put a mutant on our corporate insurance'. Without hero work and with the threat of divorce looming Joe turned to the one place that accepted misfits and rejects, E.v.i.l. Incorporated. Evolved variants institutionally leftover, or E.V.I.L created a place to house all sort of rejects and miscreants such as Milton here.\n\n&#x200B;\n\n\"Wha-ho that's something else. Old wife sounds like a real ball and chain, if you know what I mean\" A sharp elbow jabbed Joe's ribs followed by an unsolicited wink.\n\n&#x200B;\n\n\"Yes, well heroes are people too.\" Joe sighed heavily wishing his superpower gave invisibility." ]	2
[WP] You were born on February 30 due to an extra day being added to correct the calendar, and all your life the 12 Zodiac Sign Gods have tried to make you choose one of them to be your sign and rule your destiny.	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Reality+Fiction%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Simple+Prompt%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/js5XDFB)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "Ever since I was born, there had always been strange occurrences that surrounded me. Apparently a zoo nearby the hospital I was born in had a major breakout, but they found the escaped animals not too far from the hospital ward I was in.\n\nThen when I was young, I had nearly drowned on a fishing trip with my father but I was pushed to the surface by a school of fish and so many more occurrences.\n\nIt wasn't until I learned the significant nature of my birth did I begin to realise what was happening, these things were acts of some higher beings vying for my favour as I was an shudder in the regularity, a simple blot in history. But this left me untethered to a being, who each desperately wanted to be my choice.\n\nIn all my life I could never find out why, yet I still benefitted from the wills of these beings and the gifts it provided. I became successful, I had an amazing wife and 2 beautiful children and I was happy.\n\nNow... I lie at the bed I will die in. Alone.\n\nIt seems that I am no longer sought by those fickle beings, being old and wretched maybe now... \\knock\\\n\nA knock at my door?\n\nA thin silhouette slips through the slightly ajar door, obscured in the shadows they look at me, their eyes a brilliant, piercing gold. \"Hello there my friend, sorry to bother you at such a macabre time.\"\n\nHis voice was soft with a slight hiss at the end, it filled me with a strange warmth and comfort.\n\n\"I understand, that you have taken ill to all the others? Not tempted by their gifts nor their help I see.\"\n\nI nod slightly, my body limp and unmoving.\n\n\"Well may I make my offer to you?\"\n\nHe stepped out of the shadow, his body was thin almost starved and his face was bare yet radiated a gentle kindness. Wrapped tightly around his arms and neck was a fat, oily snake with the brightest scales of glittering emeralds, its head perched under the man's chin cautiously flitting its tongue in the dim light.\n\n\"I will give you peace with your family, just as they tried to. All you need to do is take my hand.\"\n\nAt that moment he raised a bony hand to mine and I began to feel lighter than air, a weight that had crushed my chest now disappeared and I could feel the breath return to my body. I reached out and touched his hand with mine.\n\nPeace... I felt at ease. He pulled me to my feet and clapped my back. Looking at him, he had changed. He was strong and full, the life that was dim in his eyes now burnt bright and the snake that seemed to suffocate him was pale and sickly, barely hanging to his broad shoulders.\n\n\"Come, brother. You needn't that body no more, you are free.\"\n\nTurning back the breath caught in my throat, there my body was, old and dead. I reached out and I realised my arm was bright, and spectral but it looked strong and fresh. Looking in the bedside mirror, I saw my young self, my white patchy hair was now a thick black and my body looked not a day over 25.\n\nI turned back to the man and laughed, I smiled and I hugged him tightly.\n\n\"Now then\" he chuckled, \"best be getting out of here, eh?\" He turned toward the door, now a heavenly white.\n\n\"Wait\" I said to him, \"what... what do I call you?\"\n\nHe turned his head and smiled. \"Call me Ophi.\"" ]	2
[WP] At a small town dive bar a slow night turns strange when a grizzled old stranger walks in and orders a drink. To pass the time you ask him what his story is and all through the night, as he regales you with a fantasy of swashbuckling derring-do, he appears grow younger and younger.	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Reality+Fiction%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Simple+Prompt%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/js5XDFB)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "It was an exceptionally quiet night at the Pan's Dreamyard-- the small dive bar was usually packed with college kids, but I suppose the summer break meant I had the place all for myself.\n\n\"One bourbon on the rocks, please Nigel\", I ordered to the old bartender-- his grumble I assumed meant \"coming right up\". As I made myself comfortable sitting by the bar, I looked around the empty room-- it was both quite quaint and sad at the same time.\n\n\"Same for me, please bartender\", a rough unfamiliar voice made me jump.\n\nAs Nigel gave the same response I stared at the stranger sitting beside me. When he got in and made his way to the seat beside me I had no clue. I didn't hear him at all-- it's as if he materialized from thin air.\n\n\"Uh hey there--\", I finally gathered myself after momentary awkward gawking. \"I didn't notice you there before\"\n\n\"Nobody ever does, young man\", the stranger chuckled. As Nigel put our glasses before us, I stared at him for an considerably long time-- his cryptic remark was swirling in my head, evading itself from my comprehension.\n\n\"Uh 'kay...why that is, I wonder?\", I asked rhetorically taking a sip from my drink.\n\nThe stranger was noticeably old, draped in tattered grey woolen outfit with a jungle of dirty grey hair covered his head and face. Slowly he grabbed his drink with his dirty rough hand, I could see his fingernails were all black. Imagine my surprise, as swift as a weasel he brought the glass to his mouth-- gulping it in one shot.\n\n\"Another!\", he exclaimed.\n\n\"Rough night?\", I asked.\n\n\"You might say that...\", he said his eyes staring a thousand yard forward. \"Do you believe in the notion that...that everybody is a hero in their own story?\"\n\nI cocked my head, frowning in confusion. When I went out that night to the gloomy bar, I didn't expect to face such a philosophical question.\n\n\"I guess so, yeah sure\", I shrugged taking another sip of my drink.\n\n\"Let me tell you a story then, young man--\", the old man blurted all of the sudden seemingly already drunk before he even touched that drink he carelessly gulped. \"There once was an ambitious young man-- in his head was a big dream, in his heart was a big ambition\", he started as Nigel put the stranger's 2nd drink in front of him.\n\n\"He put on the work, oh yes he did. He scoured the land seeking the best, to learn from, to beat in combat-- all for the sake of being the best!\", he exclaimed gulping his 2nd drink in one go. \"Another!\", he yelled. Nigel rolled his eyes, putting the whole bottle for the stranger instead so he could help himself.\n\n\"Decades went by, young man. Decades! This ambitious youth had grown strong, he was a respectable warrior-- a knight! Through his years he had decimated armies, victories were uncountable with fingers anymore. He battled things out of this world-- dragons, demons, damned creatures, he destroyed them all!\"\n\nAt first I found his story interesting, but the fantastical claim only deterred me from taking him seriously as no other than a madman-- despite that I couldn't help but captivated by his passionate re-telling. \n\n\"And yet one day....he stopped\", the stranger became quiet-- once more staring to faraway.\n\n\"He...stopped?\", I asked seemingly baited for more. \"Why did he stop?\"\n\n\"He realized his existential dread, that the life of a hero he had enjoyed so much would eventually come to an abrupt end. He lost his way then, young man. He lost the drive, the passion...everything that had brought him to that point in his life, he lost along the way...\", at that moment he started sobbing. \"All he wanted was to be a hero, but his ambition was way bigger than his meager lifespan could provide\"\n\n\"He was afraid of death?\", I clarified.\n\n\"No!\", he exclaimed smashing his fist onto the wooden counter-- jolting me on my seat. \"No, he did not! It wasn't death he feared-- it was the finality. He didn't want it all to end, all he wanted was to keep going, keep on fighting, keep on adventuring. Is that too much to ask?\", he sobbed even more burying his face on his hands.\n\nI didn't know what to feel then-- his story of fantasy which I assumed was meant to be his life story was all too absurd to be taken as fact. But to him it was all real, I could tell. Metaphorical or not, I guess the least I could do was to indulge him in his fantasy.\n\n\"No I don't think it's too much--\", I pat him on his back. \"What's best in our life we always want it to keep going. I suppose it's not that out of the way to desire what you do. Heck, from the sound of it I want to live a life like yours\"\n\nMy words seemed to resonate with him as he looked up to me, still with wet eyes he smiled and grabbed my hands with his calloused hands.\n\n\"You really mean that?\", he asked.\n\n\"Uh yeah of course\", I answered not wanting to upset him.\n\nAll of the sudden a disturbing smile came to his face. As I frowned at his weird response, the world came to swirl around me-- feeling of inebriation came to me followed by darkness, consuming my surrounding putting me to sleep.\n\nIt felt like forever, but as I woke up it was all but a mere moment. Blurry visage of the man sitting before me started to become clearer only he looked different, he looked...younger.\n\n\"Oh that feels better. It must be almost a century now I was stuck in that aging body\", he stood up cracking his neck and limbs-- only he said it in my voice.\n\nHearing so sobered me up quite quickly. As I looked up to him, it was me...it was my face that smiled, looking down upon me. I looked at myself, at my dirty hands, at my black dirty fingernails. I was old and grey-- weak and frail, my mind switched to his old body.\n\n\"What the--\", I muttered surprised at the roughness of my voice and the difficulty to move my own vocal chord.\n\n\"Oh immortality magic, nasty stuff but it serves its purpose--\", he chuckled. \"You have no idea how right you are, this desire of mine was so great I refused to give it up. Even when I resorted to dark magic, casting away the morale that I have learned throughout my first life...in the end, my ambition was way more important\"\n\n\"You're...you're sick! You can't do this to me!\", I yelped hoarsely. Annoyingly he knelt down to meet my eyes, smiling so obnoxiously with my face. \n\n\"We're all a hero in our own story, right?\", he smiled patting my shoulder. \"You did say you wanted my life, I took that as an agreement as this magic required a willing participant\"\n\nMy horror was cut short as suddenly my head felt heavy and my body started to lose control.\n\n\"Oh looks like the drugs I put in my drink started to kick in\", he chuckled. \"Sweet dreams, old man. I assure you, this body of yours will experience a life of adventure like no other-- and I promise you, you will live my life...what meager years left of it anyway\"\n\nHis laughter filled the air as I started to lose consciousness. My heavy head laid on the wooden counter, darkness consumed my surrounding once more-- only when I woke up, I knew things would only be worse.\n\nr/HangryWritey" ]	2
[WP] "Look, I'm not here to tempt you." The demon told you. "Just take this off my hands." Before you could say anything, the demon held out to you an infant.	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Reality+Fiction%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Simple+Prompt%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/js5XDFB)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "It was the most exhilarating night. It started with going to the Club with the girls, enjoying the lights, drinks, and extra indulgences. Then, from the corner of my eye, there he was. White blond hair, emerald contacts, and the air of arrogance that I had always fawned over. He would be the one I spent the rest of the evening with, forgetting about the girls, forgetting about the world outside the two of us.\n\nLast call came and went as we came stumbling in through the one-night, motel room as though we had done this a million times. \"There's many things you will not understand tonight. One being why it is that we have come together.\" The words sounded so vague as I giggled and plopped down upon the ugly orange sofa.\n\nI couldn't help but muse over how he looked so handsome with his hypnotic and demonic eyes. I hardly even cared what it was that he had to say. My anticipation was growing as the liquor stupor continued to consume me. I was giggling at the idea of spending the evening wrapped in each other's arms - forgetting about all our troubles.\n\nI looked up to meet his slitted eyes that seemed far too serious and suddenly vulnerable. They were like emerald flames that beckoned trust. Something I had not given to another in many years.\n\n\"Look, I'm not here to tempt you.\" The unknown demon said to me, \"Just take this off my hands.\" Before I could say anything, he held an infant out to me and was gone through the door without another word.\n\nThe long night had yet to fully catch up to me as I became uncomfortably aware of being in the company of an unknown child. As of that moment, thankfully, they were not crying. However, my mind was growing more garbled by the minute and my instinct was to call someone.\n\nNot the girls, they would be angry that I left them to spend yet another night away with a stranger. I couldn't call my parents, they were far too religious and it was well beyond their bedtime. My head lolled as thought seemed to evade me for a moment. The night had the room spinning around me.\n\nI called the only person I could trust in a moment like this. He called himself Aaron Calf, although I knew that was not his real name.\n\n\"I need your help...\" I knew my words were slurring.\n\n\"Where are you?\" Was the only question he asked as the phone slipped from my hand and I slumped over to my side on the couch. In doing so I must have jostled the infant as they suddenly screamed to life and jostled me back into consciousness. \"Fran? Tell me where you are and I'll be there in twenty minutes.\" I don't know how I heard his voice over the infant screaming in my ears, but I managed to pull the phone up from the floor and whisper what I thought was my room number.\n\nI can't remember what Aaron's face looked like when he arrived and scooped me up from the floor. However, I recalled seeing the emerald glint of an eye beyond Aaron's newest girlfriend. They were both so preoccupied in saving her, comforting the hysterical infant, and leaving quickly that it was no wonder that he went unnoticed. \n\nThose emerald eyes seemed to always find a way to gaze back at me through the darkness of my dreams. Until I came home, twenty-two years later, to find the same white-blond, emerald-eyed, demon standing there with my daughter, unconscious, in his arms.\n\n\"I've returned for what is mine.\"", "'excuse me... What exactly do you expect me to do with this', I questioned. Raising an eyebrow with a infuriated expression.\n\n'I don't know... You are a human woman... You should know but look I really need to go... Like really', he exclaimed.\n\n'ah yes Mr demon.. I shall take the infant because I totally know how to look after a baby.. Because I'm a woman.. How sexist!', I shouted. Slowly loosing my patience holding the small sleeping infant in my arms.\n\n'hey! I'm not sexist.... How rude! See that's god... You know... He's the one that allows sexism dumb dumb', he chuckled shaking his head before setting off.\n\nI opened my mouth to speak before hearing the thud of a door. The infant snuggled comfortably in my arms, I wondered why he'd leave me with a infant in such a hurry. My arms started to warm quickly to the piont it was starting to burn, a hint of confusion came over my face. Where is the heat coming from?. The infant started to glow a deep red, I screeched putting it down on the couch. 'why would you bloody give me a demon kid!?'. The fairly warm living room now became a oven hot enough to cook a egg I'd say. My skin turned pink and I left the room running outside due to the sheer heat.\n\nThe kid ran about laughing carelessly while the house started to burn down, I shook in fear. Terrified of the kid, I backed off further down the street. My little green cottage now in dust as the kid laughs at his finished masterpiece drawing lines in the Ash. Why'd he pick me for this, I thought to myself. A deep laughter filled the air, coming from every direction. My heart suddenly felt like it stopped in that moment. Trembling I looked up seeing the demon playfully fly about pointing down at my misfortune and state of fear. \n\n'that's what you get', he snorted." ]	3
[WP] You wake up one morning and go to wash your face and as you’re leaving the bathroom you are met with your dads shotgun barrel. “Who the hell are you and what are you doing in our house?”	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Reality+Fiction%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Simple+Prompt%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/js5XDFB)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "My groggy eyes were now wide open, my skin pale. I could feel the cool tip of the metal on my forehead.\n\n\"Wait-Fuck!\" I cursed, stumbling back as the man I called my father began to load his shotgun, \"It's me! Marcus, your son!\" He shot me a weird look.\n\n\"The hell you talkin' 'bout boy,\" he began, \"I ain't got no son.\"\n\n\"Yes!\" I hissed, the back of my feet harshly hitting against the toilet bowl, \"Yes you do!\"\n\nBut my dad wasn't hearing it. He pointed the gun at me, fingers a second away from pulling the trigger. My thoughts scattered as I tried to piece together the confusing mess this was. My father didn't remember me. _My dad didn't remember me_ \n\nBut then I had the greatest idea I could think of in the time. My room. That had to be there! In a spur of desperation and stupidity, I shouted, startling my dad.\n\n\"Wait a moment,\" I raised my hand for the universal stop sign, \"I have proof! Just let me show-\"\n\n\"No chance,\" he snapped clearly aggravated. \n\n\"Let me show you and if I'm wrong, then you can shoot! God this has to be a dream...\" I muttered, the disbelief worn on my face was priceless. Dad seemed to consider my offer for a moment, and cautiously-very cautiously stepped aside. Not once did he take his eyes off of me and the level of mistrust broke my heart.\n\nQuietly I led the both of us to my bedroom. My body already accustomed to this entire house...My home. We stopped at the door(that I swear I had some stickers posted on) and opened it. I was once again left in shock at the blatantly empty room. \n\n\"What the fuck...\" I muttered, unable to contain the horror on my face. All of my stuff was gone. Hell, even my shitty bed wasn't there. Just an empty room.\n\n\"You have until the count of five to get the fuck outta my house,\" I heard my father behind me. Harsh and threatening he sounded. \"Or I'll blow your brains out.\"\n\n\"Please,\" I begged, \"I'm your-\"\n\nThe magazine clicked.\n\n\"One.\" He stated simply." ]	2
[WP] Some people have the power to stop time. Unfortunately, time stops for everyone, even themselves. You are the only exception and every time someone unknowingly uses their power, you need to go and start time again.	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Reality+Fiction%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Simple+Prompt%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/js5XDFB)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "She was beginning to lose track of the amount of times this had happened. Some new brat got the time stopping ability, and she had to go reset the flow. 5,124... or was it 5,125? Didn’t matter, still annoying.\nCari let out a string of curse words when she looked up from her desk and saw the office frozen. 2:28 pm, she noted, and stood from her half completed papers, with a long suffering sigh she strode out of the cubicle, correcting frozen air molecules as she passed, and opened a tear in reality to the Innerworks. As suspected, everyone there was frozen, too. The workers monitoring the space time continuum and making sure Father Time’s system was running smoothly.\n\nShe swore that once she found whoever was giving these mortals the time freezing ability, she’d send them to the quarantined paradoxes to suffer the fates there. Usually involving a black hole enveloping earth from botched time travel, them splitting apart was just a bonus. \n“No more problem then.” She muttered to herself and no one else.\nThe hallways were long, winding, endless in some directions, but she knew the route well. Finally standing in front of the time stream stabilizer, she quickly set to work on the reboot program. Cracking her knuckles and glaring at it an indeterminate amount of time later, she went to go track down the latest idiot while the slow program set itself right. Luckily she had streamlined this one upon her request to Father because, in her words, “if I have to continually be interrupted from my human job to go reset the stream, I should be able to tell off the idiots who got the power in the first place.” \nLuckily he had agreed, and now there she was, the time steam waking up with a hum and a whisper while she typed away at the computer to locate the freezing shockwave. Nearby, the workers were beginning to unfreeze themselves as the stream woke up, and the nearest one sighed as they spotted Cari in the chair again.\n\n“Who was it this time?” Starblight spoke, rubbing his head.\n\n“Another teenager case. Seventeen, and an idiot. Likely has no clue. I’ll speak to Father on upping the search.” She grit her teeth, cementing the coordinates and shockwave simulation in her memory.\n\n“Sometimes I swear idiot is your favorite word.”\n\n“It is, after evisceration.” She shut down the computer and gave Starblight a cold, predatory smile. \n“It’s better than defiling godly languages I’m not supposed to know yet.” Swiftly leaving the room and not seeing his wince, she headed to the main atrium where Father Time usually was. All around her, the workers and visitors were unfreezing. Nimbly dodging a stretching minor god, she rolled her eyes and opened the ancient metaphysical door. \n“Father Time!” She called out, to the giant man wrapped in robes that took up a large part of the room. He yawned, not noticing her for a moment, before startling, a kind smile creasing his face.\n“Dearest daughter of mine. You’re back early. Oh... has it happened again?” He knelt down to get a better look at her. Eyes shifting like infinite nebulas, his gaze for once didn’t comfort her. No, she was far too close to the end of her fuse for that.\n\n“Five thousand, one hundred, and twenty five. Please, can we just get a search for who’s causing this to manifest in them?” \n\n“Of course, sweetie. I know how much you hate being interrupted during your human learning period.” He put his hand out, outstretched in a familiar gesture.\n\n“Thanks dad.” Cari hugged the offered finger, returning a rare smile of gratitude, before leaving. She nearly instantly dropped it, scowling at the door before she closed it behind her. Yes she loved her talks with him, but having to deal with two freezing incidents within a week was a little too much to bear. Opening a tear again, she was met with a stereotypical messy teenager’s room. Tyler Robinson, her mind supplied.\nThe current freezer. Said person was in their doorway, midway through dodging a wayward shoe thrown by a clear friend of his. \n\nAh yes, the old panic reflex. Judging by the lack of concentration or fear on his face... a clear accident, and no oddity nearby to explain the gained power. Clicking her tongue in annoyance, she dragged him further into the room, and unfroze him. Tyler fell into a heap on the floor, and Cari sat calmly in a nearby chair.\n\n“Hello there, I’m Cari van Winkle, the current time unfreezer. Standard protocol says I must talk to the person responsible for time freezes to log you correctly in the incident report.”\n\n“What... what the fuck- oh shit, Chandler. What the fuck did you do?”\n\n“This was actually your doing, Mr. Robinson. Whatever you did to activate your powers, you froze time around the globe. Now. I’ll have to ask you not to do that again.”\n\n“Wait, I can freeze time? That’s sick! Why shouldn’t I?” Cari grit her teeth, baring them in a grimace crossed with a glare.\n\n“Because you freeze along with it, and do not possess any ability to move within this state. I do, as I am the current time restarter. I’ll reiterate, do not activate your powers.”\n\n“Okay man, Damn. I won’t. Who even are you, though? Like- besides your role and shit?”\n\n“You have no reason to know this information.”\n\n“Cmon, man! This is probably the coolest thing I’ll ever experience. One thing! I swear I’ll keep quiet.”\n\n“Your memories of this will be erased, along with your powers once a way to remove them is found.”\n\n“Fine. They seem useless anyway. So spill. Carrie, or whatever your name is.”\n\n“Fine then. You’re certainly an odd one. I am Cari van Winkle, daughter of Father Time, and you are the 5,125th case of time freeze I have rectified during my current twenty five years of being here on earth. Now then. I have done all that is needed, and it is recommended you go stand where you were to prevent illusions of teleportation.” She stated bluntly, opening her final tear and walking through to the sight of a bewildered Tyler, who thankfully took her advice when the shoe sailed over his shoulder a couple seconds later, not sure what had just happened besides an urge to not do something but it didn’t matter. \n\nBack in her cubicle, she sat down on the old swivel chair and sighed, hearing things move once again outside.\n\nCari’s eyes drifted to the clock.2:29 pm. She let out a sigh, not noticing the scowl on her face.\n“Idiot humans.”" ]	2
[WP] You find an old camera in your attic. You shoot a roll of film through it. When you see the developed photos you realise this is no ordinary camera. It can see into the future.	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Reality+Fiction%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Simple+Prompt%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/js5XDFB)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", " \n\nClick! \n\nConnor never did show much interest in taking pictures with his phone, but the satisfying sound of the shutter closing and opening again on his father’s black-and-white film camera was oddly gratifying. \n\nPerhaps it was the weight of the camera in his hands, or the fact that his photos might one day make it to sitting inside a frame on a shelf in his home, but something told Connor he’d found a fun new hobby, and a reason to leave his home during quarantine. \n\nAfter clicking one more photo of #hashbrowns from the right side, with the sun shining down on the neon-lighted logo, Connor put the lens cap back on, and gently placed the camera back into the bag it came in. On his way back to his car, Connor took one last look over his shoulder at the breakfast joint he and his friends had frequented during their college years. \n\nThere is never a good time to have a pandemic. It makes it harder to travel, see loved ones, and apparently, run a small business. #hashbrowns opened up back in 2013, after everyone had already had a smartphone, and its location on University Way (colloquially known as “The Ave” for some reason) was good for business. Although it served primarily breakfast foods, including omelets, an assortment of different breakfast meats, freshly packaged fruit, pancakes, and you guessed it, hash browns, many would frequent the establishment well into the afternoon and evening hours. There is no rule for what time breakfast must be served, no matter what the “experts” say. \n\nMarcus Filoni, the owner of the restaurant, named the restaurant based around the fact that many college students enjoy taking pictures of their food and posting them online with various hashtags. With the clever name #hashbrowns, Marcus was encouraging his customers to do his own marketing for him. He set up several wall-mounted monitors lined up in a row along the top of the wall on the right side when you walk in, displaying various tweets, facebook, and instagram posts featuring the incredibly photogenic food he whipped up. It was Connor’s and his friends favorite place along The Ave to grab a bite to eat when they stayed up all night writing essays, studying for midterms, or to celebrate the end of Winter quarter.\n\nWith the pandemic shutting down in-person gatherings and limiting restaurants to take-out or drive-thru only, #hashbrowns was hit hard. Marcus sent out a tweet, announcing the closure of the restaurant: \n\n“It is with a heavy heart that we announce we will be closing our doors permanently on March 31st. We thank you so much for all your support over the years.”\n\nWith the famous sign being scheduled to come down next week, Connor knew he had to go back and take a photo of the restaurant. He and his friends had so many fond memories of the place, it had only seemed right to have some small keepsake of it, which is why he wanted to borrow his dad’s film camera. \n\nConnor dropped off the roll of film at the drugstore. The clerk told him his photos should be ready in 2-3 days, and that they would contact him once his photos were developed. \n\nA few days passed, and Connor’s phone buzzed with a text, notifying him that his photos were ready. \n\nAfter swinging by the drugstore and picking up his photos, Connor returned home and set his keys, wallet, and mask, alongside the folder on the table. He went over to the kitchen and prepped his Mr. Coffee maker. \n\n“What type of frame should I get?” Connor wondered. Then his heart dropped. This was the first time he had taken pictures without immediately getting to see the results of his handiwork. Would the photos even be in focus? His dad did show him how to adjust the lens scope, but he was not sure if he focused the lens correctly on the #hashbrowns sign. If he didn’t take a nice photo of the sign, he would not have the chance to fix the error - the sign was already down.\n\nOnce the coffee was finished, Connor poured it into a mug and grabbed the folder off the table, anxious as ever. He undid the small metal bindings and opened the folder. The first photo was of “The Quad” on campus, and when he saw it he thought he’d had a stroke. \n\n“What the hell…?”\n\nThis was odd. No, it was beyond odd. It was bizarre. No, bizarre was not even close describing what he saw. The photo showed the beautiful cherry-blossom trees completely barren, all leaves having fallen off. It looked as though the photo had been taken in Autumn, but it was Spring right now, which is why he took the picture in the first place; to capture the beauty of the Cherry trees in full bloom!\n\nHis heart threatening to burst out of his chest, Connor frantically rifled to the bottom of the pile, to the picture of the #hashbrowns sign. He gasped, dropping the mug and spilling coffee all over himself. The building infrastructure, the overhang that covered the sidewalk, the glass windows and the door on the left side was all there, but….\n\nThe sign was gone." ]	2
[WP] You have traveled through time and ended up in 14th century. You brought all of your modern equipment with you and have to convince the society that you are a god and their lord and saviour.	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Reality+Fiction%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Simple+Prompt%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/js5XDFB)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "Prologue: \n\nThe year 2756, mankind had far exceeded the upper limits of what we ever thought possible. Plague, disease, hunger, mental and physical medical conditions all gone. With the touch of a single button, anything was possible...but at what cost? When had we given it up? When had man forsaken his soul...\n\nChapter 1:\n\nIt was late, very late, Mark sat at his table poring over his notes from the last two months. The papers were dimly illuminated by his grandfathers lamp nestled precariously in the corner of his small apartment. Mark's eyes were heavy as he looked at the ancient symbols and texts, trying to pull meaning out of the strange lines. \n\nHe knew he was close to a breakthrough, but his eyes continued to fall shut, slowly pulling him deeper into sleep. Finally his head fell to the table and Mark drifted deep into the land of dreams...upon waking everything changed.\n\nChapter 2:\n\nMark awoke suddenly to the shouts of men and the clatter of hooves. Jostled he sat up suddenly, noticing that nothing around him was familiar. There was a desk here but not his desk. It was old and roughly hewn. Mark stared and ran his fingers over the grainy texture before remarking \"...is that thing made of WOOD?! REAL FREAKING WOOD??\" \"It must have cost a fortune\" he quipped. Then noticing for the first time, the candle with a live flame next to the stack of papers.\n\nNow more awake, the dawning realization coming upon him, he jumped out of the chair in fright. Knocking the table as he did, the candle fell, hot wax running began running down the length of the table as the flame licked at the edges of the paper. They quickly lit and took to the flame. The paper was thick and fibrous burning fast and hot. Mark shouted \"FIRE FIRE!!\". The automatic fire suppression system built into every home did not engage as he knew it should. \"I don't know what to do!!\" he panicked. Nobody had ever prepared him for this!! Where were the automatic systems? How do you put out a fire without them??\n\nSuddenly Mark was pulled from his reverie as he inhaled a lung full of thick black smoke. \"Ack eugh eugh\" he choked on the acrid smoke, he quickly began backing away. Running backwards he spun, suddenly tripping, sprawling out he smashed into a hard wooden bookcase. Everything faded, his head spun, his pulse pounded in his ears, his arms and legs felt weak. All he could see was the thick black smoke filling the room around him. He slipped into unconsciousness knowing this was the end.\n\nChapter 3:\n\nMark awoke, thinking to himself as he layed there...\"that was most crazy realistic nightmare.\" And then he noticed what felt like stone beneath his face and hands...was that cobble stone? He was laying in a street, it was wet and seeping into his clothes, something stunk most foul, and he was sore all over. Groggily, he sat up, looking around blinking, he noticed the throng of people and behind them the charred hull of the building he had been in. They all stared and pointed, expressions of amazement, shock, and horror written across their faces. Not only, that but what were they wearing?...he recognized it from his studies, were those clothes from the 14th century??\n\nHe pointed to the man closest to him, still struggling to see straight. \"Hey man, can you help me out here?\" he moaned. They all gasped, taking a step back, except for one man. He stepped forward shouting and pointing he yelled \"DEMON!!\"\n\nIt was then that Mark remembered in terror that last Christmas his mom had bought him the latest version of the cellular modification system. It enabled his body to automatically regenerate in the event of an accident. Not only that, but it had built in life saving technology that would pull him out of any hazardous situation. In that moment Mark realized, that these ancient people had just witnessed mechanical spider like arms sprout from his back and carry him into the street. From where he sat now they were also watching as his body healed every wound, every burn, bump, scratch, or bruise was now rippling and pulsing as his body remade itself into his perfect form...\n\nChapter 4:\n\nThe mob quickly descended on him, they were out to rid themselves of this horror, this beast in their midst. With daunting fear and adrenaline, Mark rose and ran. With his mechanically enhanced legs and synthetic lungs he made a quick escape. Running far into the countryside, he found an abandoned barn. Entering, he noticed a strange smell, he looked around and saw hay and horse stalls. \"Strange...I never thought I would see such marvels in my lifetime\" he mused to himself.\n\nHis body exhausted, from the process of healing and having to run so long and hard. He laid down into a pile of hay and quickly fell to sleep. In his dream, he saw these people and how they looked at him again, such anger and terror. Then in a flash the scene changed and he stood atop a small hill. People below him listening reverently as he spoke, in one hand he held fire and in the other a strange mist rose from his hand.\n\nUpon waking he knew what he had to do in order to survive. \n\nHe had to become a God, a messiah, a savior.", "This was a mistake, a thought occured the moment I manafisted from thin air- in the middle of a crowd gethered to witness burning of a supposed witch.\n\nThe crowed moved away from me, as if vicinity alone would transfer a deadly disease. In waves, as the information spread, more and more heads turned towards me.\n\nThis was a horrible mistake, I thought reaching for my bag, hoping to find a tool of salvation within it. The noise around me was incomprehensible, many voices drowned the message, but not the intent. From curiosity to fear and then bloodthirsty anger, the clearing around me began to shrink as they approached.\n\nA maniacal laughter silenced and stoped the crowd, it came from the pire. \n\n\"LORD NAG'DRAZ'IL, he came to save me, he will show you hell!\" She yelled and began chanting a prayer in unknown tongue.\n\nThis was my chance, I thought as I stood up, lifting a little machine high above my head.\n\n\"Siri, play Skrillex\"\n\nThe erratic noise emerged from the little machine, sending the crowd into frenzy as they rushed away from me, covering their ears and yelling \"The sound of death!\", \"cover your ears!\", \"Mercy!\"\n\nIn the blink of an eye, the square was empty. The witch stopped her chanting and yelled \" HAIL NAG'DRAZ'IL, the eternal screech, thy kingdom come\"\n\nWell, being a demon may prove just as fun..." ]	3
[WP] The crystalline structure of gemstones can be repurposed into an artificial neural network, and so complex AI bodies are created with "brains" made of sapphire, ruby, emerald, etc. These miraculous beings start developing personalities, but are still often poached for their precious components.	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Reality+Fiction%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Simple+Prompt%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/js5XDFB)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "(WP) A Mind is a Terrible Thing to Waste \n\nAt the beginning of the Jewel Revolution, scientists were overjoyed when they discovered that the precious gems could be used as artificial brains for machines equipped with AI programming. But no one could have ever guessed the drawback that this boon held in the end. \n\nDepending on which stone was used to serve as the being’s brain, it developed a personality, and this quickly got out of control. After all, our government had implemented this technology to make life easier for humanity. It really threw a monkey wrench into things when the robots suddenly became the complete opposite of docile. \n\nIt wasn’t just personality that these beings were suddenly given: It was free will. \n\nThey’d been made to serve us, but now, they were sure that their purpose lied elsewhere. \n\nEven the threat of taking away the thing that made them almost human did little to quell their discontent. It got so bad that several of them were rounded up and executed, as a warning to others to keep in mind the directive. My team was one of the few to object: They might have been machines, but it was still wrong to be this cruel to them. \n\n“If you cannot serve the purpose you were created for, you will be terminated,” A toneless voice boomed over the square. The voice was so dead, so emotionless, that if I didn’t know better, I would have thought that the AIs were giving the announcements. But no, that was my boss, the man that had discovered how to use the jewels to form dependent neural systems. \n\nWhen I’d first entered the scientific community, I’d looked up to him, had leapt at the chance to work under him. He was using science and innovation to change the world and make humanity better. \n\nBut I’d quickly discovered that humanitarian front was just that: a lie. He talked a big game, threw giant checks at the right people, made television appearances, gave lectures and speeches. But it was my team, fresh out of college, that did all of the grunt work. No one really minded except for me; for most of us, it was good enough just to be in his orbit. \n\nI’d wanted to leave, but one of my government contacts convinced me to stay on; who better than one of the man’s own subordinates to report on the inside details? \n\nIf I didn’t hate the man, I would’ve balked. But if this helped get him out of power, out of this position over man and machine, I was more than willing to do it. \n\nScientists were supposed to make the world better with their discoveries, not use their power to oppress others. What good was I to my profession and to my people if I didn’t right this wrong? And it wasn’t just semantics, though everyone loved to pretend it was. ‘What does it matter? They’re not human, anyway. Who cares?’ \n\nI cared, and other people did too. \n\nWhat was my career, in comparison to thousands of lives? \n\nDidn’t these robots deserve to matter? \n\n\\\\" ]	2
[WP] On your way to work, you pass an old beggar who promises to grant you access to the secrets of the universe if you will but give him enough for him to get something to eat. You give him a couple of dollars and think nothing of it. Soon you begin to notice strange things happening around you.	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Reality+Fiction%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Simple+Prompt%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/js5XDFB)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "(Warning: very very very minor swearing)\n\nDidn't think much of it, really. Genuinely didn't.\n\nI was catching the metro, or, well, was on the way: Birmingham New Street outbound to Manchester - simple enough, really, going to a job interview in hopes of moving myself and my Mum over there. Can't stand the accent, but it pays the bills. 2 hours. But I was tired, probably going to sleep on the ride, didn't give one. Unfortunately... plans would have to change. I met this bloke. As I said, I was absolutely exhausted out my mind - had to wake up at 5AM to get there by 9, given 2 hours to get myself ready, and I've never been the best sleeper either - I didn't have the time to piss about and start a friendly chat.\n\nBut he gets up, he taps me on the shoulder, with these long, almost spiky fingers. I thought I was hallucinating it, or that I'd just gotten stabbed. I turn around with speed that'd make a circular saw blush and shook my head \"Sorry- no change-\" I gave the usual spiel to anyone you'd give who tries to get your attention on the side of the road. After taking a better look, though, can't say I didn't feel a bit of remorse, the bloke was probably in an OAP home. He had this brown cardigan, thinning hair, face like a bulldog. Sounded like one and all. \n\n\"Wait-\" The guy replies, nodding and holding out those jagged, bony hands again - looked like he wanted to wring my neck.\n\nRight as I was about to turn back around to bolt in the opposite direction, though, he taps on my shoulder again. This is when I knew something was up - this fella was a Weeping Angel, or, well, that's what my mind rationalized it as at the time. I grabbed my wallet, and looked for anything spare that wouldn't end up putting me below the poverty line if I gave it to him. No change. For real this time.\n\n\"If you've... got any cash on you...\" the old man mumbles, tapping his fingers on the side of his leg - some sort of spasm... thing would be my best guess. \"You could know the secrets... of the universe.\" \n\n'Yeah, whatever, alright, stegosaurus' was my immediate reaction to that. 'Don't want to hear about your patrols in WW2 and how you got together with Margaret.' - Probably would've been better than what I got, come to think of it. Either way, though, I was tired, a bit curious, trembling like an absolute madman because I knew if I made a wrong move, this bloke could put me on LiveLeak before I could say Freddy Kreuger. So I turned back around, got another glimpse at him and gave him a 10, before immediately sprinting down to the station.\n\n\"God bless you-\" he whispered as I fled the scene.\n\nI'd gotten onto the metro at this point, my dash there fuelled solely by the need to get out before Edward Scissorhands got his claws on me, sat down in a seat near the back, two Year 10s from a Manchester school sat down on the seats infront of me. There was some large fella and what might be his daughter or niece down further - looked to be about 13, and wearing a fancy-looking uniform, and this spiteful-looking woman sitting with one leg over the other typing furiously on a laptop, probably to some blog. Exactly the amount you'd expect from an already terrible route this early in the morning.\n\n30 minutes went by, I woke up. The woman had gotten off, and in her place was...\n\na snake.\n\nNo, no, the circus hadn't come to town, there was a snake. It'd coiled itself, sitting like a biped, cross-legged in near enough the same seat. Nobody paid it any mind, so I didn't either - common courtesy. I chalked it up to just a waking dream - those moments where fantasy and reality blend like a melting pot.\n\n10 more minutes, wide awake, and it still hadn't gone. That's when the one guy got up to look at the number of stops, and his little girl wasn't there anymore. Instead, sat there was a proud lioness, observing her kingdom, probably feeling way more important than literally everyone else on board. \n\nThis happened again and again. I realized what was going on. The big bloke became a penguin, the one girl a hawk and the other a mouse - they all tried to move like they were human, talked in plain English, and were adjusted to the size of their former appearance, but, other than that, it was like all of their humanity was gone.\n\nIt was only when I'd gotten out of the train that I realized the extent of this - I was wide bloody awake and everyone was a caricature to me now. The mole carrying the walking stick, the hen ushering her two children, feral little wasps, to school, the Tory activist roaring from his podium and occasionally adjusting his mane.\n\nThe whole world began to spin, and it didn't really stop.\n\nEverything faded into hues of greens and blues and purples, but it wasn't the vision that was doing it, I just felt... ill. I didn't feel like using my return ticket just yet, though, so... I bit the bullet, really. Got to the place where I was going to be interviewed - even the bloody pictures on the walls had changed.\n\nA kind old owl lead me into the interview room - grimy, green, lit by a single lightbulb - I wanted to complain, but I just couldn't get the words out. I still can't.\n\nThe interviewer has just come in. Whilst everything else, everyone else, had some kind of form that fit them, this bloke, if it even is a bloke...\n\nthis...\n\nentity.\n\nThe entire room is darkened by it's presence. I don't know if it has eyes. It's speaking fine to me, bit of an accent, but it's all coming out in tongues. Even the lightbulb isn't safe - it got devoured by the consuming black too. I need to get out of here. I NEED to get out of here.\n\nOr...\n\nor...\n\nI think I'm going to die." ]	2
[WP] It turns out, the joke was correct! If you land on the sun at night, you can explore. Tonight is your night. Make sure all of your blonde hair is in your space helmet, and tell us what you find.	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Reality+Fiction%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Simple+Prompt%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/js5XDFB)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "At first, I thought it was a joke. \n\nI mean, explore the sun at night? I thought I was being pranked, or maybe it was a survey to see how people would react, or something like that.\n\nBut no. As it turns out, all the stupid jokes were right. \n\nUnfortunately, that meant people would have to explore the sun. It's the sun! It's one of the few planets we've never been able to go to. \n\nEvery single country wanted to be the first one to get to the sun and figure out a way to bring some of it back down to Earth.\n\nIt would solve all of our light problems, they promised us. And since the sun was so huge, we could never take too much of it. We could find a way to make lights that never ran out of energy.\n\nLights that could help plants grow, that could have so many uses if only we went up to the sun.\n\nThey wanted us to take the sun and bring it down to Earth. We did something similar with the moon, they reasoned. It would be just like that.\n\nIt wasn't. \n\nThe plan all started to fall apart when the first person actually went up there. \n\nWe knew it would take a long time to get up there. 18.3 years, to be exact. \n\nThere were people already up in space, of course. They were the first ones to be on the sun. \n\nI still remember it clearly. Watching at the tv, staring as the first humans made it to the sun.\n\nI thought it was incredible. We all did.\n\nBut then the astronaut came back.\n\nWhen she got back on, the first thing she did was go to sleep. It normally wouldn't be weird, but she collapsed, and no one could wake her. \n\nAs they quickly realized, she hadn't brought back any test result like she was supposed to. \n\nThey had devised multiple tests she was supposed to use in her time on the sun, but it appeared as though she hadn't touched any of them. \n\nThen, when she finally woke up, she had no memory of walking on the sun. She couldn't remember anything about it. \n\nAnd so it went with every other astronaut to walk on the sun. They would pass out for a max of 7 hours, 43 minutes, then wake up with no memory of what happened.\n\nSo the countries started sending other people, convinced that someone would eventually remember something. \n\nAnd that is why I'm standing on a spacecraft, looking out at the sun, where I'm supposed to stay for 10 hours, until it becomes day again.\n\n\"Have fun out there,\" says Marcus, the leader of this operation, and the only one who's bothered to talk to me here.\n\n2 years ago. That's when the shuttles came for me. You have to go once you turn 25, unless you have a disability or an illness that prevents you from going.\n\nThe people like Marcus, the ones that stay here permanently, don't talk to us. They see people like me shuffle in and out every day. I suppose if I worked here, I wouldn't want to talk to me either.\n\nI walk slowly to the docking bay. From there, I'll take something similar to an escape pod, and go down to the sun. \n\nI put on my suit, and get into the pod. As it flies down, I wonder about what could be at the sun. I won't die, no one's died. But what could be down there?\n\nI hear a hissing noise outside the pod. I've landed. Fear and dread boils inside my stomach as I step out onto the sun. \n\nIt's deserted, completely scorched and blackened. There's nothing here. I breathe a sigh of relief. \n\nThere's nothing here. I'm fine. I'm safe. \n\nI take out one of the lab tests. They've been refined over the years, despite having never been used. I open one up, and just as I'm about to start entering in the data, I hear a noise. \n\nI whip my head around, certain I'm about to die. But what I see, it's so simple. Disarming. What did I have to worry about? She walks towards me, and I understand everything. \n\nI can hear her talking to me, though her mouth isn't moving. I understand now. Why people can't remember, why the labs are never used. I put down the tests, and stand up.\n\nI wake up back in the spaceship with a throbbing headache. Marcus stands by me. \"What happened?\" I ask, rubbing my head.\n\nMarcus says nothing, just shakes his head and walks out.\n\nAnd that's when I realize.\n\nI have no memory of what happened on the sun." ]	2
[WP] Humanity discovers a long-dormant species in outer space. Culled and banished because other alien species feared it. Upon saving it from its predicament, the species forms a strong attachment to humanity. One which causes...problems.	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Reality+Fiction%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Simple+Prompt%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/js5XDFB)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "Others considere us a young and naive species. One which should have never left their planet on their own. Many of the different empires closest to us offered to have us join them. We refused, of course, believing we alone could achieve amazing achievements in the name of Humanity.\n\nIn the first 50 years humanity only gained a few recognitions of a few minor species. A few mechanical inventions which improved human lifestyles as wel as other mammal races. It was only then that we saw what the galactic empires that kept trying to convert us to joing their, what they wanted us not to find.\n\nAbout 2 years after the united terran alliance wanted to make trading with nearby starsystems with the insectoid Q'Tchak more probable, it was decided that we would make FTL gates which would allow fast travelling without risk of getting crashed into a planet or astroid due to miscalculations. The problem was, we had to travel into the forbidden sector which no one of any empire as allowed to travel, but because we weren't in any of those we couldn't be stopped once we entered.\n\nAfter another year of construction in which most species started to act different against us. They would suddenly avoid contact with us or ask if we were in our right mind. When we wanted to ask why, we only were told that it was a taboo to talk about it. So the curious fools we were back then. We decided to explore.\n\nWhat was found was quite... unsettling. We found some wreckage of battleships both known and unknown, Many broken planets and eventually, of course, the Wulvox ship.\n\nFirst, the Wulvox isn't their official name, it was what we called them that because of their appearance. They seemed at first to be a mix of both the wolves and voxes from our classic earth, IF you ignored their arms and legs. They were apparently put in cryostasis for who knows how long. \n\nWe, as anyother normal case, took their ship to one of our collonial systems to treat them. \n\nAt first they acted exactly like dogs, meaning they were suspicious and tried to bite us when we got too close. Over time they grew close too us and to our suprise they were extremly loyal to our race. They learned to speak most of our languages and almost all of them joined our millitary. It was litterly too good to be true.\n\nAfter 5 years, most of our security, millitary and basic protection was controlled by the Wulvox. They would nearly stop us from leaving our basic systems and only allowed us to visit other human planets under extreme guidance. The moment the first Wulvox politician was named the other leaders were taken away for unknown reasons. \n\nThe Politician declared humanity in its entirety to be under the care of the Wulvox and that the Terranian Empire had been created. Other species, which tried to contact or help us, were declared a necessary sacrifice for our dominance. Many tourists died that day.\n\nThe Wulvox polulation improved in greate numbers and slowly became more dominant over us. Only after 10 years from their discovery it was counted that the population now only 80% Wulvox and the remaining 20% Humans. With most humans being put in captivity take care of by the Wulvox, treated with luxery and care. The cost of this luxury was our freedom to travel between the stars.\n\nCurrently the Terran Empire is greatly expanding, all planets suitable for humanity would first be explored by Wulvox, which would lead shortly after to global genocide to any race currently inhabiting it. The Wulvox have also grown scarier. Their basic footsoldiers have been specially bred for galactic war and wear armour making them barely visible for emotion.\n\nWe, Humanity, are responsible of releasing the Horror most Empires tried to banish and destroy. Everyone is prepared for war and any human who is found by anyone other by the Wulvox would be executed out of fear. The Wulvox found my colony ship... They will probably take me and give me endless one sided love on a planet I will never be allowed too leave again. \n\nAvoid our mistakes, if you are like us. Just join one of the empires, never stay alone as a species. For it will cause no help to arrive in your time of need!\n\n\\- Last log of captain Dave den Dam, floathing with no place of origin shown.", "The being was tall, almost 8 feet and one of many. Their fur ranged from straight and an indigo blue in colour to curly and pale pink. They shared features such as long claws that could shatter diamond and sharp, golden eyes. Why they had chosen me was a mystery. The being spoke in some garbled language to the others.\n\n\"ti si ym etp. Ish emna si ownunkn. Human ti ledcal elfits.\" The others nodded. It's huge clawed hand came down on my head and I flinched as a reflex. You can imagine my suprise when it began petting me ever so gently, the repetitive motion becoming comforting over time. As I began to relax to the soft motion, a couple others came up to do the same, padding over with long strides. A few used their diamond shattering claws to scratch behind my ears and ruffle my hair and some stayed back, cooing at my responses to their affection. I then realized what was happening, I was becoming a house pet. \n\nAnd even worse\n\nI was enjoying it.\n\nI shuddered at the thought of such a fate. \n\nOver the next couple of weeks I stayed upon the ship, they fed me and watered me and played with me as well, giving me affection and showing me off. They seemed frightning but towards me they seemed extremely lovable. Finally, one day, they opened the ship door and I ran for it. Finally I escaped that horrible fate.\n\nFreedom.", "One day after another, the reason they were feared was clear. They had progressed far beyond what we had even dreamed of. \n\n\nWe had always desired to reach speeds far faster than light itself, but it was deemed impossible by most theories. Until the moment we saved them. We had been able to reach lightspeed before, but their intuition made us practically the fastest species alive. To put it into context, the lowest grade of FTL travel available allowed us to make a 5,000 light-year jump in 30 seconds. But the more problematic part it displayed was the effect it had on a starship's crew. The \"Slipstream\" method that the Malarans gave us the power to use made even the worst of diseases almost too easy to cure permanently, due to slipstream radiation. Turns out, exposure to that radiation is supposed to kill most other species. The only issue was the ability to navigate the Slipstream. But the Malarans could do it with ease.\n\nBut that wasn't the end of it. Starship design got a massive upgrade as well. To the point of making vessels of other species to easy. The primary weapon that had now been fully developed was a railgun. The disturbing part was when it tore through most ships in one shot, while our ships were practically invincible. Those two factors made us the most dangerous species alive. \n\nBut then the Break occured. Several colonies of Earth went to war against not only Earth, but each other. And it was an utter bloodbath. \n\n\nMore than 85 trillion people lost their lives. 200 worlds were rendered uninhabitable. And the species caught in the crossfire didn't even stand a chance. By the end of the war, Humanity how only consisted of only 300 thousand people on Earth alone, and the Malarans were in the hundreds as well. Other Colonies had either suffered far worse or far less, but even their losses tallied to the billions. We had gotten so great, that we had torn each other apart at the very core. Most other Civilizations called for our extinction. Earth was under constant attack by other worlds attempting to erase us from existence. \n\nNow, I write this as the last human on Earth, about to make the jump to Silirian, the last haven of Humanity. A Malaran is joining me as well. Earth is now more. Most of our colonies have been completely wiped out. Silirian is the only world that has held firm now. People died trying to maintain it's secrecy, for if the other civilizations knew of its existence, it would mean utter extinction. I leave this message as a warning to all those who wish to repeat our fault. \n\n-M.T.A", "“CAPTAIN!” “CAPTAIN!” the muffled sounds came from beyond the medical bay’s doors. The captain and the ships doctor glanced at each other “I guess it’s not just me then” . \n\nWith a decompression hiss, the doors automatically flung opened as Stephen bustled through the door, “CAPTAIN! We have a big problem!” Stephen puffed while leaning against the open door, just managing to catch his breath. \n\n“I already know Stephen” the captain said while turning to the officer. He, just like Stephen too, had one of the creatures perching on top of his head. The creature had the appearance that could only be described as if a crab and squid got together and had a baby. It’s red hardened shell was shiny and reflected the bright spotlights that were fixed to the medbay’s ceiling. Its two eyes spiking out of its shell like antennas, which fixated at Stephen as the captain turned. It’s six long tentacles, with hundreds of gel like suction cups on its surface, were wrapped around the captain's head holding itself in place.\n\n“WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON?” Stephen shouted. \n\nThe captain turned towards the mirror “I’m not too sure myself yet” he said calmly moving his head from side-to side as if he just received a new haircut. \n\n“WELL FIGURE OUT SOMETHING, QUICK!, IT’S TRYING TO EAT ME” Stephen said in a panic, trying to look above his head, hands flapping by his side.\n\nThe captain gently motioned his hand up and down towards Stephen, “calm down, calm down”. He spun, glancing towards the computer that was next to the medical bed where Dr Watkins was sat.\n \n“What’ve you got for me Doc?”\n\n“I haven’t had much time to look at all the data yet sir. But initial reports look like it is not hostile, there is no outer or inner damage to your cell structure where the.. um... tentacles are”. \n\n“Well, that's good news” The captain said as poked one of the tentacles that laid just above his ear. \n\n“It is indeed Sir, however, strangely it seems to be releasing some kind of serotonin”. \n\nThe captain folded his arms “In English Doc?”\n\n“It’s chemical compound released in mammals, the substance that is released in the brain when a mammal has strong feelings for something”\n\n“So are you saying this thing has the hots for me?” the captain said perplexedly. \n\n“It’s only theoretical at this point, but In a sort of way, that is correct”\n\nStephen sprinted up to the Doc, grabbing his white trench coat by the collar with both hands. “ WHAT DO WE DO?!” he shouted at the Dr Watkins despairingly, particles of saliva spraying from his mouth onto the doctors glasses as he shouted. \n\nHe slapped the officers hands off his coat, he took his glasses off and started to wipe away the spit from them. \n\n“I’m not sure yet” Dr Watkins said, while holding the glasses up to the light inspecting the clarity of his lens.\n\n“We have tried pulling it off by force before you got here, but that thing is well and truly stuck on tight”. \n\nDoctor Watkins and Stephen both cocked their heads at the captain who was walking towards the footlockers on the side of the room. He opened the locker door, inside were an array of different tools stacked up one by one. “We’ll have to do it the old fashioned way” the captain said as he unharnessed the crowbar free from the safety strap. \n\n“Lay on the bed Stephen” he said walking back towards the medical bed. \n\n“Sir?” \n\n“Don’t worry, I know what I’m doing”. \n\nStephen laid down in a slow manner, trying not to do anything that would provoke the thing that nested on top of his head. \n\nThe Captain put the crowbar in between a gap between Stephen's skull and the creature, using the side panel of the medical bed as the anchoring point for the crowbar.\n\nHe captain, forced the crowbar down with all his might. A sudden squeal from Stephen didn’t phase the captain as he put his foot up on the side of the medical bed, trying to use more body weight as leverage . After about ten seconds of multiple grunts and strains coming from the captain as he tried to force the creature apart from Stephen, he removed the crowbar and threw it to the ground. \n\nThe captain sighed, no use.\n\nOnce again the captain walked towards the opened locker. “What are you going to do now captain?” Stephen said as he looked at the captain while lying down, head backwards, looking from an upside down view. \n\nHe saw the captain unfasten the buzzsaw.\n\nStephen’s eyes widened. He darted up from the medical bed, not giving care anymore to the creature that still rested on top of his head. In a frantic state, he rushed out the door, the medical bay door opening and closing as he came in and out of proximity with it. \n\nThe captain chased after him with a buzzsaw in hand. “Stephen! STEPHEN!! GET BACK HERE!! THAT'S AN ORDER!!\n\n\n-----------\n\nI am fairly new at writing, only started trying to write stories this week. I'm 32, feel a bit out of my depth and totally lost. I would be grateful for any feedback to help me along my way. Thanks!", "\"Soooooooo.... what do we do?\"\n\n\"What do you mean, what do we do? We cannot have humans getting attached to these monsters! This is why we tried to kill them all off, you short toothed buffoon!\"\n\n\"I realize that, just like you probably realize that we can't get rid of these ones without the humans noticing. And I'm sure we both remember what happened to the Kender the last time the humans went to war, our scientists still don't know how their flagship was turned inside-out in a microsecond.\"\n\n\"Not to mention the amount of paperwork we would have to fill out to get authorization. One of my arms actually fell off from last time I went to human space, and that was just to drop off that time warped research crew. It was just lucky we had a regen station on board or I might only have 3 left.\"\n\n\"Hmm, could we try and get the Order of the Golden Claw to help out? They must have a new batch of initiates to help with a couple assassinations.\"\n\n\"Unlikely, the Exalted One is still claiming I cheated at our last poker night. Toothless old coot can't see straight after half a gargle blaster, but still thinks he can see me switching cards out. How about a warp core accident? One blip and they're out of existence?\" \n\n\"No good, we only found out about this after they made it back to the Earth. Why are we so worried about them getting attached to these creatures anyway?\"\n\n\"I see you slept through history class. Thermians started out on some moon in the outer reaches, hitched a ride on some exploration vessel and spread through the galaxy from there. They have sharp teeth and venomous claws, and like to jump down from high places to ambush prey many times bigger than themselves.\"\n\n\"Wait a tick, let me look something up. Have you ever heard about Australia?\"\n\n\"Sounds human, but I'm not familiar.\"\n\n\"Its a landmass on Earth where everything tries to kill you. And apparently, humans have these already. They call them Drop Bears.\"\n\n\"We might have to call the Council. I'm going to go jump into a star now.\"", "The exploration of the solar system had been a boon for humanity. It opened up colonizing Mars and asteroid harvesting in the belts of both inner and outer space, solving the problems of scarcity of resources and overpopulation. As humanity's presence in space increased, they went forward with their typical egocentric focus thinking they were the only sentient beings in the universe. \n\nIn 2062 the remote exploration scout class ship Stoker found a ship they designated Arkivol I orbiting near Saturn. Inside they found twenty humanoid bodies in a cold stasis. \n\nThe crew brought them on board the Stoker and found that they were in an advanced stasis; their blood levels well below what humans would consider normal levels. When other attempts to revive the beings from the Arkivol failed, Doctor Renfield, chief medical officer of the Stoker, tried a human plasma infusion to awaken the life forms. \n\nIt worked; Doctor Renfield's infusion revived the crew of the Arkivol.\n\n\"There were routine logs entered by Lieutenant Renfield for most of the rest of the journey. He reported an illness spreading across the ship until he and the crew of the Arkivol were the only ones remaining. The ships logs of the Stoker end about a week before they arrived at Brasov station, sir,\" the ensign said. He stood at attention across from the glass desk, watching the man sitting behind it, waiting for further instructions. \"Captain Harker?\"\n\n\"Nothing more, thank you, Holmwood,\" the Captain said, dismissing him. \n\n\"What information do you have, Commander Morris?\" \n\nThe man sitting to his right in his dress blues sat up in his chair. \"We know the Stoker arrived at Brasov mining station. As you know, Lieutenant Murray oversaw the station.\" Commander Morris paused, knowing how close the Captain and Lieutenant were. \"The decision was made to monitor them on the orbiting station, unsure of how they would handle the gravity or atmosphere of the inner planets.\" The Commander looked at the device in his hand, \"Her initial reports indicate that they were extremely helpful. They did not require oxygen, possessed preternatural strength, only slept every several days, and required no food. They were able to mine the asteroids at a ten-fold productivity rate.\"\n\nThe Captain rubbed the bridge of his nose, \"Yes, yes, I'm aware of the productivity reports. Mina,\" he stopped and corrected himself, \"I mean Lieutenant Murray kept me well informed with how pleased she was with their work.\"\n\n\"I'll skip ahead then,\" the Commander said, using his finger to move through the reports. \"I think Doctor Seward's notes will be of interest. While they did not consume any food or drink, they did require regular plasma transfusion, or they would enter an inactive state, and he hypothesized that it would eventually lead to a comatose state.\"\n\n\"Picking back up with Lieutenant Murray's logs, a plague similar to the one that went through toe Stoker began on Brasov station, with an exponential growth rate. Per Doctor Seward, the plague co-occurred with a plasma shortage, and the bodies of the plague victims had signs of exsanguination. Again, as before, the crew of the Arkivol seemed unaffected, nor was Renfield from the Stoker.\n\n\"In Lieutenant Murray's last transmission....\"\n\n\"Three days ago,\" Captain Harker said, his voice distant, marking the last transmission of his Mina and knowing her fate.\n\n\"No, sir.\"\n\n\"Excuse me?\"\n\n\"As you know, by your order, we sent Master Chief Westerna with a crew of twenty-five to Brasov Station. We got their report this morning. They recovered multiple bodies, but several were missing, among them Lieutenant Murray, Doctor Seward, and the twenty from the Arkivol. We received this communication from the Stoker twenty minutes ago,\" Commander Morris flicked his finger from his device towards Captain Harker's desk, where a video message appeared. \n\n\"Play.\"\n\nLieutenant Murray's image appeared on the screen, her lips stained blood red, some of it trailing from the corner of her mouth. \n\n\"This message is for Captain Harker,\" she said, then paused as if expecting the message to be handed off. \"My love,\" she continued, \"the crew of the Arkivol has shown us incredible things. They have shown me how they can share their strength and endurance gifts and other wondrous things that I did not share in our previous communications.\n\n\"I can't wait to share this with you,\" she paused, licking her lips, the red disappearing under her tongue. \"We are a day out from Mars, and I'll be in your arms soon. Please have a greeting party waiting for us. We are so hungry. I can't wait to see you, my dearest Jonathan.\"\n\nThe video ended. \n\n\"I don't think it was a coincidence the Arkivol was set adrift in space,\" Captain Morris said, interrupting the silence. \n\nThe Captain stayed silent, staring at the image of Mina still frozen before him. The burden of command and love weighing heavy on him. \n\n\"I think you're right,\" Captain Harker said. \"We don't know what happened to the people who jettisoned them into space, and I don't think we want to find out. Get Admiral Van Helsing on the line. We're going to have to stop them from getting to Mars.\"", "You could say my life is pretty normal; of course to say that, you'd need to ignore the six legged little creature that's been following me around for the past few weeks.\n\nThe day started as most do - get up, get dressed, go to work. As I left my house and was about to unchain my bike, I noticed a faint rustling sound coming from my neighbor's overturned garbage bin. Curious, I flipped it upright with deliberate caution; only to be nearly toppled backwards by a small green and black blur that darted out as i freed it from its metal prison.\n\nThe thing was unique, to say the least. It was covered in a fine, wispy green fur, with stripes of black accents up and down its body. It also had six legs, which was not a common trait amongst land-dwelling mammals. After a momentary victory lap to celebrate its newfound freedom, it trotted up to me and nuzzled its small green face against the leg of my jeans. I guess you could say it was cute, if you could get past its intimidating maw; several large fangs protruded from its upper lip as it looked up at my expectantly. I scooped it up from the ground and cradled it in my arms. It began to vibrate softly as I did, a rhythmic pulsing that almost put me to sleep.\n\nI snapped awake as I heard the sound of another trash can being knocked over from some distance behind me. Startled, I dropped the little thing with a start, and it collected itself on the ground once it landed without issue. Both I and the creature turned to see several ill-tempered young men going to town on the poor tin container. One of them had a baseball bat, and was laughing hysterically every time he brought the wood down with a loud 'clang'. Before I even realized what I was doing, I took a defiant step towards the deviants.\n\n\"Hey, stop that!\" I shouted, immediately wishing i could shove those words back into my mouth as the hoodlums did exactly as I asked. They turned their attention towards me. The ringleader raised his bat and aimed the scuffed up tip of it at my chest.\n\n\"Look boys,\" the words practically slithered out of his pursed lips. \"We got ourselves an environmentalist.\" I grimaced as they took their first step towards me, then the second. In that moment I was screaming at myself to run back inside my house, which couldn't have been more than two hundred feet away from the alley in which I now stood. I commanded my body to move, but fear had me firmly planted in place. As I was saying my goodbyes in my head, something wholly unexpected happened.\n\nI can only recount the parts I actually witnessed, mind you. The three young men were about fifteen paces away from me when my new little green and black friend stepped between me and the advancing antagonists. At first, the men saw this and couldn't help but laugh. \n\n\"Aww, the little kitty wants to protect its master huh? Here, kitty kitty.\" The man said in a singsong voice. The creature leapt. In the span of fifteen or so feet, the creature had somehow grown by at least three sizes. Its mouth was also much, much bigger than it had been only moments before. This time it was the three men who felt their fight or flight response fail them. The first one was swallowed whole, with little more than a regurgitative scream to signal his sudden disappearance. The other two finally found their feet, turned tail, and ran screaming as the bat clattered to the ground. \n\nA short while later, as I was straightening the toppled trash can, my little green and black friend trotted up to me without a care in the world. The fur around his mouth was stained a slightly dark red, but it had otherwise returned to its original size and shape. Hoisting the little guy up into my arms, I carried it into the house and shut the door." ]	8
[WP] It has recently been discovered that touching the tears of one’s soulmate will physically pain them. At first, this was considered cute and romantic - that was until the government found a way to weaponise soulmate tears.	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Reality+Fiction%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Simple+Prompt%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/js5XDFB)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "\"It's the end of the line, buddy.\"\n\nVanessa reloads her pump shotgun with Melancholias – bullets created by the government as part of the weaponisation of soulmate tears. Apart from the bullets, the guns are engineered to carry memories of the agents. So as to avoid conflict of interest. Wars are won with minds in the first place.\n\nVanessa aims at the cornered enemy agent. \"Nowhere to run.\" She shoots and the sound of her shotty brought her back to the day she loves the most.\n\nShe remembers her wedding day. She always remembers that day during these mind slips. \n\n\"Do you, <inaudible> take Vanessa as your lawfully wedded wife, for better or for worse, till death do you part?\"\n\n\"I do.\" And it always ends in that slurred words.\n\n\"I do.\" It keeps repeating as if the time slowed down. \"I do.\" It gets louder and louder until it's starting to sound as a shout now than a fleeting, lingering moment. \"I do!\" It jarred her back from her mind slip.\n\n\"I still and always will love you, Van. Remember, the heart never forgets.\"" ]	2
[WP] You're in the shower when you hear a gunshot and a thud. Stepping out you see someone bleeding out on the floor. You're shocked but confused as there's no shooter around. Then you notice your reflection in the mirror is holding a gun.	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Reality+Fiction%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Simple+Prompt%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/js5XDFB)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "Suddenly, my reflection points the gun at me and shouts “Freeze!”. I quickly put my hands up in terror.\n\n“How long you been following me?”, he screams.\n\n“I, I, I...”\n\n“How long! And don’t try and lie to me, I’ve seen you everywhere pal”\n\n“I’m not following you, I, I don’t know what’s going on, you’re my reflection”\n\n“Reflection, huh, reflection, what’s that, a code name for idiot! I know you’ve been following me you mug, so don’t try and lie”\n\nHe points the gun at me in a threatening manner.\n\n“I’m not, I’m not, you’re a reflection, you know, reflection, that’s all”, I plead.\n\n“This reflection is gonna blow your brains out if you don’t start talking sense soon fool”\n\n“Alright, alright, I’ll show you, hold on, hold on...”. I look around and see a full length mirror facing the wall behind me and nervously point at it. “There, there, let me show you, I just need to turn it around”\n\n“Okay, but no funny stuff numb nuts. Slowly”, he replies.\n\nStaying on the spot, I turn my body, grab the mirror behind me, then turn it to face me and I can see my full reflection. I turn back to my threatening reflection.\n\n“See, you’re just a reflection” I explain as I slowly lower my hands.\n\n“Put them back up sweet cheeks, put them up!” the reflection shouts, threatening me again with the gun. “So, there are two of you are there”\n\n“No, it’s just another reflection”, I explain.\n\n“Shut it! Think I’m stupid, do you, do you”\n\n“No, no, please, it’s just a reflection”\n\n“A reflection, yeah, yeah... Well why did the so called reflection bring a gun then”, he shouts.\n\nI turn to see the mirror behind me. It too has my reflection with a gun, and it’s smiling, pointing it at me, I turn back to my original reflection, which now looks really angry.\n\n“You better explain, and fast mate. Is this a set up, are you two mugs setting me up!”, he screams.\n\n“No, I...”\n\n“I’m not afraid to use this, I’m not. I’ll take you both with me if I have to, you first you streak of piss”\n\n“I know you’re not afraid, I know you’re not!”, I cry.\n\n“Oh, so you know me now, you know me, huh, you know me all of a sudden, I knew it, I knew it, knew you were lying! Want me to do you both, huh, you want that, you want to test me you mugs, I’ll kill ya, I’ll kill ya both if that’s what you want. Is that what you want!”, he screams as a can of deodorant rolls off of the side cabinet and onto the floor with a bang. I know he’s going to shoot now, I can feel it as I instinctively hit the deck and both reflections open fire on each other, smashing both mirrors in the process, then, silence.\n\nI pause for a moment, shocked and confused. I look up to see both mirrors are completely smashed, with bullet holes in them, what the hell just happened, what’s going on? Then, a cold shiver runs down my spine as I remember, there’s a body down the hallway, bleeding! I quickly get to my feet, grabbing a towel and wrapping it around my waist as I leave the room and rush towards the body. As I approach, it doesn’t look good, the man looks dead and I kneel down to take his pulse, which confirms it. He seems to have died from a gunshot wound to the back, so I turn and look in the direction of where the shooter would have been standing, where I see a full length mirror in the room the guy seemed to have been fleeing, with the dead man’s reflection in it. The reflection is standing, holding a gun, and is pointing at me menacingly.\n\n“Freeze...”\n\n(I just felt like writing nonsense)", "When I heard it, despite living in LA and despite watching plenty of movies and TV shows featuring them, I didn’t recognize it as a gunshot. To be honest, my first rational thought after the anxiety-attack-level heartbeat tempo exploding in my chest, was that a bomb had gone off. It was clear to me then that nothing prepares you for what a gunshot is, and that goes double for hearing one in an enclosed space.\n\nMy entire body jerked in alarm, sending my arms flailing and landing my butt hard on the fiberglass tub beneath my feet. My elbow hit the wall on the way down, sending a bolt of pain echoing through it, and I recoiled with a scowl. The shower water pelted me in the face where I fell, not allowing me any time to catch my breath as I sputtered and shoved myself backwards, wiping it from my face and blinking furiously. My ears ringing, I struggled to catch my breath and stabilize the unrelenting panic coursing through me.\n\nAfter a long moment, I managed to get over to the knobs and turn off the water and unsteadily rose to my feet. Pulling back my shower curtain, my eyes landed on the body limp on the floor of my bathroom. Blood flowed from a wound that I guessed was in his chest, spreading like molasses around him. My vision swam. Then as my brain caught up with things, I saw that the dead man had been holding a gun, his lifeless fingers still wrapped around it.\n\nDid he shoot himself?\n\nThe irrational thought came unbidden, among others. But they were gone in a flash as the next thing worthy of note caught my attention. My ‘reflection’ in the mirror was inaccurate. That being, I wasn’t standing in front of it and could still see it, it was dressed (and honestly I’m glad for that, because seeing him naked too would’ve thrown me even more) and reflection me was holding a gun.\n\nThe heat from my shower that had built up behind the curtain had dissipated at this point, but the chill that shuddered down my spine had nothing to do with that, I suspect. “What the fuck?” I managed to whisper.\n\nThe reflection grimaced. “Ideally, this was not supposed to happen.”\n\nFeeling trapped, between the body on my floor and what I was very much hoping was the second part of a hallucination in my mirror, I didn’t move. “What… What’s going on?” I was proud of that sentence, in the moment. It was a good sentence, it was important it be asked, and my voice didn’t even crack once when I said it.\n\n“This is gonna sound a bit-”\n\n“You can skip that part.”\n\nHe cleared his throat and nodded. “I’m not exactly what you’d call real.”\n\nI let out a long breath. “I’m hallucinating. Thank god.”\n\nHis grimace deepened. “No, sorry.”\n\n“Fuck.”\n\n“I’m a security system,” he explained. “Matthew Coldstone put me in place as a defensive measure after he was received threaten of someone causing you harm.”\n\nMy lips parted in surprise at the mention of a best friend of mine. “Matt? This is about Matt?” I slowly shook my head. “I don’t…”\n\n“He didn’t want to scare you, as I understand things.”\n\nI choked out a laugh. “Oh, well he did bang up job there!”\n\nMy reflection shrugged. “Take it up with him, I guess.”\n\nI took a few moments to breathe. “Assuming…I’m not hallucinating…and there’s a dead guy on my bathroom floor…” My hand went to my head. “Wow, this is a lot of blood…”\n\n“Matt already knows what happened,” he told me. “He was alerted as soon as danger appeared. He’s on his way. Should be here in ten minutes.”\n\nMy eyes were now glued to the blood. Not the body itself, the man was facing away from me and somehow my brain wasn’t processing it as a corpse. But the deep red liquid soaking into my yellow bathroom rugs was unmistakably wrong in its presence there. Something twisted in my stomach and I took a breath in and out through my mouth to try to calm myself and make sure I didn’t throw up.\n\nAfter another few moments, I managed to look up to my reflection. “Is it…over?” I asked. “Since you stopped the guy who wanted to kill me-”\n\n“Unfortunately,” my reflection started, “this isn’t the guy who wants to kill you. And to be totally honest, he didn’t want to kill you, he wanted to hurt you.”\n\nA small moan creeped out of my mouth. “That isn’t helping me right now.”\n\n“Sorry. Like I said, I’m not real. Constructs don’t really do much more than what we’re programmed for. This is stretching my human-interaction abilities.”\n\n“I need to get dressed,” I whispered. “I need to…get out of here.” I reached out to the towel bar, balancing myself as I stepped over the side of the tub and carefully avoiding the part of the rug that was soaking up blood. Pulling the towel off and holding it tight to my chest, I glanced up to the mirror.\n\nAnd just saw myself looking back, naked, holding a towel.\n\n“Hey! I wasn’t done talking to you!” I barked. \n\nLetting out a growl of frustration, I carefully stepped over the corpse and, grateful it wasn’t in the way, shut the bathroom door behind me. I took a few more breaths, trying to slow my racing pulse, before opening my towel and starting to dry off.\n\n“Matt…you better have the mother of all explanations for me when you get here.”\n\n&#x200B;\n\n/r/storiesbykaren" ]	3
[WP] "Alright, to establish a baseline for the polygraph test, could you please repeat the following: "I am currently in an interrogation room in the 13th Precinct of the NYPD" ?". The woman does so with the smile, and the polygraph goes haywire.	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Reality+Fiction%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Simple+Prompt%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/js5XDFB)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "Derick looked at the strange woman who seemed to be smiling. Her posture was lax, and her eyes. Those strange orbs that made him think he was dreaming stared so deeply into his own, for a moment he couldn't breathe. The steady scribbling of pin on paper woke him from such trance, as he cleared his throat and swallowed his uncertainty.\n\n\"Alright, to establish a baseline for the polygraph test, could you please repeat the following: \"I am currently in an interrogation room in the 13th Precinct of the NYPD\" ?\". He repeated the statement, gaze shifting from the strange woman towards the metallic desk on his far right. He stared at his partner who looked at the polygraph.\n\nA soft hum escaped her cupid lips as she stared leisurely at the man. \"What if I'm not in the integration room though?\" The woman replied her voice a melody, soft yet soothing. He felt cold at that moment. Gooseflesh forming as he bit his lower lip and looked to his colleague. Widened eyes told him that she spook the truth and yet his mind couldn't believe it. \n\n'If we aren't in the precinct where are we?' Sharply turning towards the women who was no longer on the chair that had chained her, but infront of him staring so deeply into his eyes he felt his heart drop. Her eyes that were a marvelous violet had turned multiple shades of different colours, swirling in a pool of black. \n\n\"What if you aren't what you think you are.\" She whispered so close to him their lips almost, barely touched. Her fingers slim caramel digits brushed against the blue plates shirt he always wore. \"What if all this is a lie.\" She continued, her gaze smoldering making his heart skip a beat. \n\nHe swallowed, his skin felt uncomfortable, his head began to throb and yet he couldn't pull himself out of her gaze. He wondered if his partner was ok, yet he couldn't tear his eyes away from her.\n\n\"Your colleague can't hear us.\" She answered his unspoken question. Her roaming hands brushed at his neck and then held his cheeks. Her lips so close he could feel her breath. She murmered so close something he could not hear. Fluttering those orbs that had him so lost. Then she whispered audibly to him.\n\n\"Wake up Lethian. Come back to me.\" Before his world turned black.\n\nA tap to his shoulder had him jumping from his seat. Sweat lacedbhis tan skin as brown eyes looked disoriented. \"Hey man calm down.\" His colleague who he remembered was reading the polygraph test was staring at him amused. His vision returned to focus and no longer was he in the integration room but was at his cubicle.\n\n\"Dude are you ok?\" The male asked Derick, unable to answer he exhaled a shaky breath unsure if anything that happened really had. \n\n\"I don't know.\" He finally answered. As a sweet voice whispered his name.", "The light was red. Again.\n\nDetective Togusa hit the reset button. The suspect smiled at him. There was something really weird about her. Most people were anxious about being questioned, but not her. She was cooperative, polite, and coherent. \n\nAccording to the machine, she was lying about something impossible. Unless her statements were verified. the evidence wouldn't be enough to take to court. Togusa was an expert in the use of lie detectors, and interrogation. Just the person to deal with this. \n\nThe machine beeped. Time to try again. \n\n\"Tell me, when you were brought here, did you see the sign above the door?\"\n\n\"Yes,\" she replied. The light went green. True.\n\n\"Were you able to read the sign?\"\n\n\"Yes.\" True again.\n\n\"Did the sign say 13th precinct, NYPD?\"\n\n\"Yes.\" True.\n\n\"Please look at this screen. Do you see the geolocation icon?\" \n\n\"Yes.\" True.\n\n\"Do you believe I am telling you the truth when I say that this is a real-time location generated using satellite enabled GPS and fine tuned using local cellular and Wi-Fi access points?\" \n\n\"Yes.\" The light shone a steady green.\n\n\"Does this map indicate that our current location is the NYPD precinct 13 headquarters?\" \n\n\"Yes.\" She was still telling the truth.\n\n\"Do you agree that this room, in which we are interrogating you, is an interrogation room?\" \n\n\"Yes.\" Still green. \n\n\"Please repeat after me: I am currently in an interrogation room in the 13th precinct of the NYPD.\"\n\nSmiling, she repeated it. The light went red. \n\nTogusa had checked over the machine himself. Tested the connections, scrutinized the circuitry for any sign of a short circuit. He'd replaced the contacts, and the power source. The machine was functioning perfectly. He'd bet on that. \n\nHe paced the room, thinking hard. The suspect sipped her water and toyed with a loose strand of hair. If the machine worked, and she believed all of the things that were prerequisites, then how could she be lying? \n\nHe picked up the transcript of the previous interrogation attempts. They all read the same. Admissible interrogation meant questions that could be answered yes or no, except for the repeats. Those were used to calibrate the machine, and as verification of when, where, and how the interrogation took place. Every transcript ended during the repeats with the same impossible lie. \n\nTogusa dropped the papers. The suspect made an elaborate show of stretching herself. There was no obvious answer. He was going to have to go off script. This was potentially dangerous for the case. If he asked the wrong kinds of questions, a good defense attorney could argue he'd led the client into a false confession. But he couldn't see any other way. \n\n\"I know that you've been told to only answer questions with a yes or no. However, for the question I am about to ask you, please just answer naturally, with as many words as you need to explain. Do you understand?\" \n\n\"Yes.\" She was smirking ever so slightly but the light was green. \n\n\"If we aren't in an interrogation room in the 13th precinct of the NYPD, then where are we?\" \n\nThe suspect smiled very widely. \n\n\"I thought you'd never ask.\" she said. \"Let me show you.\" \n\nThe last thing in the world that Togusa saw was her smile, growing and growing.", "Alvin opened the file that was in front of him. Usually he’s more prepared for a polygraph interview than this. But he’d been at the precinct since six this morning. It’s been a long day. Or at least it feels that way. \n\n“Alright, Glenda, To establish a baseline could you repeat after me. ‘I’m am currently in an interrogation room at the 13th precinct of the NYPD.’\n\nThe woman does so with a smile, and the polygraph goes haywire. \n\nThis isn’t the first time Alvin has seen a polygraph act up. Usually it just means something wasn’t set up right. Alvin got up from his chair to double check that all the nodes and bands were in the right places. They all seemed to be fine. \n\n“Let’s try another question a simple one. Let’s try your name. Your name is Glenda correct?” Alvin asked. \n\nHer smile never changed. \n\n“Yes, my name is Glenda.” She said. \n\nAgain the polygraph scratched several mountain landscapes. \n\nThe door opened behind Alvin. He turns his head to see the Sargent enter the room. He walks briskly and bends over to whisper into the woman’s ear. \n\n“Sarge, you know you can’t do that. We’ll have to throw out the results if you guide her answers in anyway.” Alvin said. \n\nThe Sargent stood back up to leave the room almost ignoring Alvin. Just a small glance his way. Alvin could have sworn there was something off about him. Something subtle about his eyes. The pupils were too big or the wrong shape. Alvin shrugged it off. It’s been a long day.\n\n“Glenda, were going to try one more question to get our baseline. If the machine goes bonkers we’ll have to send it back down stairs and request a different one.” Alvin said. He was hoping it wouldn’t get to that. At this rate he won’t make it home in time for the evening news. \n\n“Ok. So here’s one last soft ball question. Are you a woman?” Alvin asked. \n\n“Yes, I am a woman.” Glenda said. Her unwavering smile was giving Alvin the creeps. Again the machine spread ink in jagged lines across the paper. \n\nAlvin caught a scared flash from Glenda as she looked at the mirror behind him. Most people are aware that their being watched through the glass so it didn't set off any alarms.\n\n“Ok, I guess I have to send this one back and request a new machine. This one must need to be calibrated.” Alvin said and stood from his chair to box up the machine. As he did the door from the observation room slammed open. The tall Sargent stormed across the interrogation room. Alvin noticed the Sargent eyes again. This time he was sure of it. He had the eyes of a lizard. Vertical slit pupils. \n\n“Listen Glarm, if you can’t figure out how to pass a simple lie detector test from one of these stink bag mammals we can’t send you to Earth. It would be too risky.” The Sargent said. \n\nAlvins knees buckled and he dropped back into his chair. All he could do was stare. \n\n“I like you, so I’m going to give you one more shot. But it’s your last one. If I erase this guys memories,” the Sargent pointed at Alvin. “too many times he’ll lose more than his short term memory. Then I’ll have a whole different mess to clean up. Get you head out of your ass and try harder.” The Sargent said. He turned his lizard eyes to Alvin. Without saying anything he pulled a small chrome device from his pocket. He waved it over Alvin's forehead and left the room. \n\nAlvin opened the file that was in front of him. Usually he’s more prepared for a polygraph interview than this. But he’d been at the precinct since six this morning. It’s been a long day. \n\n“Alright, Glenda, To establish a baseline could you repeat after me. ‘I’m am currently in an interrogation room at the 13th precinct of the NYPD.’", "“To establish a baseline for the polygraph test, could you please repeat the following : ‘I am currently in an interrogation room in the 13th Precinct of the NYPD’?”, the examiner said, nodding to the polygraph operator.\n\nThe woman seated at the table repeated the statement, slightly amused.\n\nThe operator examined the readout of the machine, and looking up at the examiner, shook his head and said “No”.\n\n“Hm. Ok, Mrs. Smith, if you wouldn’t mind removing the electrodes – we’ll have to reset them. This shouldn’t take more than a few minutes”, the examiner said, looking through the papers he held.\n\nA brief moment later the electrodes were reapplied, and the small needle on the polygraph machine wiggled back and forth.\n\nThe man standing across the table again started to question Mrs. Smith.\n\n“Let’s try again. Is your name Glenda Jones Smith, and are you 35 years old?” \n\n“Yes. That’s correct”. The man operating the machine stood hunched over the readout. He looked at the other man and nodded.\n\n“Mrs. Smith, is the current date the 15th of February, 1962?”\n\n“Yes”, Mrs. Smith said. The operator gave a thumbs up.\n\n“Ok, one more: are you currently in an interrogation room in the 13th Precinct of the NYPD?” The man looked up from his papers at Mrs. Smith and waited with his eyebrows raised.\n\nThere was a pause. The two men looked at each other for a few seconds and then the interrogator spoke.\n\n“Mrs. Smith, do you understand that statement to be true? That you are here right now?”\n\nMrs. Smith looked confused, then asked “What is a precinct?”\n\nThe man’s eyebrows raised further and then dropped. \n\n“Oh, I see. Well, the baseline is established, so we should have what we need to continue”. He ruffled through his papers and began questioning Mrs. Smith about her location and activities during the previous month. The examiner, a man with bushy eyebrows and a dry voice named Mr. Brown, would ask a question, she would answer, and the polygraph operator, a younger man with dark hair, would lean into the results and log notes on a form sitting next to him, hidden from the view of Mrs. Smith.\n\n“On the morning of February 19th, were you in your home, or were you at your friends home?”\n\n“I was at the home of my friend Mrs. Dodery”.\n\n“What was the weather? Was there hail that morning?”\n\nMrs. Smith looked at the table. “What does that word mean?”\n\n“Which word? Hail?”\n\n“Yes”.\n\n“…Is English your first language, Mrs. Smith?” Mr. Brown glanced at the other man.\n\n“…Yes”. The needle of the machine wiggled.\n\n“That was a lie,” the young man said quickly.\n\nMrs. Smith’s eyes darted back to the table.\n\n“What is your native language, Mrs. Smith?” Mr. Brown leaned slightly toward the woman.\n\n“What is your native language, Mrs. Smith?” She replied, strangely without any pause between the question and her answer.\n\n“Mrs. Smith, answer the question,” The man said bluntly.\n\n“Mrs. Smith, answer hail, the question? Precinct of 13th of February”.\n\nThe young man stared at Mrs. Smith, and then back at the polygraph machine, and finally to Mr. Brown.\n\n“That was…the truth?”\n\nMr. Brown made a dismissive gesture and continued staring at Mrs. Smith. She began clenching and opening her hands, from fists into splayed fingers and back, slowly and methodically. Her mouth was twitching at the corners unnaturally, as if the muscles were being stimulated by electric shocks. Some of the expressions she made were so unnatural that the two men flinched, as her face went from the appearance of twitching calmness to a manic open-mouthed grin for a few tenths of a second before becoming neutral again.\n\nA loud pop was heard, like a huge sealed jar being opened forcefully, and the woman was gone. The instruments for recording her pulse and blood pressure lay on the table loose, like they had not just been attached to a living arm." ]	5
[WP] You wake up in Hell and are promptly tossed a rifle. "EYES FRONT MARINE! ANGELS INCOMING!"	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Reality+Fiction%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Simple+Prompt%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/js5XDFB)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "\"Eyes forward, you worthless pustules! Don't look at me, look at them, Goddamn it! See what we have bearing down on us? Celestials. Clean as a scene in a teenage dream, swooping down from on high to kick us when we're already down! Look at those wings! Look at those robes! Look at those blazing swords and goodly-natured angelic contempt! Don't you just want to throat-fuck those choir warblers with the business end of a rusty bayonet?!\n\n\"These fawning feathery fascists think they can come into our neighborhood and tell us what to do. Well let me remind you, you miserable skin-scrapes that there's only one loathsome son of a supernova who gets to tell us what to do, and his name starts with an 'L,' and it don't stand for \"Lord on high!\"\n\n\"I know what you froggy little fucks are thinking! \"Why should I obey you? You torture and burn us eternally!\" Well, of course I do that, you sticky pink-spunked transmission of disease! That's my nature, I'm a demon! But don't waste a second of your death thinking you didn't have it coming, this is Hell, ain't it? You wouldn't be here if you didn't put in the airline miles!\n\n\"But remember this: who gave you free will to begin with, knowing you'd fuck it all up spectacularly enough to get cast into eternal darkness and flame? It wasn't uuuuuuuuusssssss! No, if you have grievances with anyone, it's those fuckers right over there! They ruined your life by making sure you had options! I'd rather be a witless slave in heaven than a free man in Hell, wouldn't you?\n\n\"You don't like that? Good! Show 'em how you feel! Ask the next Angel you bring down , \"If God is so good, how come he's letting me shoot you in your stupid fucking face?\" Don't let them answer though, just keep shooting! Let your bad day be theirs as well! Stop the steal! When they go high, we get high! Fuck everything, everything, EVERYTHING!\n\n\"Now, fooooorward!", "The rifle hit my head and fell to the burning ground. Ground like all of the pictures and videos I’d seen of slow-moving lava flow. The kind you could easily walk away from, but would still have to witness as it lazily destroyed your neighborhood and home. \n\nThe rifle melted into the ground alongside my feet. I stared as it gradually sank into the molten surface. Then…just as it all began to come over my toes…the burning. The heat. \n\nOne time, after chopping a ghost pepper for chili, I’d forgotten to wash my hands. The chili had to simmer for a while and I had some time to kill. Soooo…I wound up running around my apartment - pantsless – frantically doing a google search on my phone. Wound up in the tub, pouring every dairy product in the fridge and some vinegar on my lady bits. I don’t even know why there was vinegar in the cabinet. Must have been left by the previous resident. \n\nYeah. This was worse than that. And that had burned more than chlamydia. \n\nI left the rifle behind and lurched forward, screaming. It didn’t matter what or who was ahead. Just had to get somewhere else. Anywhere else that didn’t burn. My legs tumbled and tangled and then I ran into something…someone and fell. Fell and scraped my knees on sweet, jagged, cool rock. Lifting my head, I viewed my savior and saw…\n\nEyes. \n\nEyes. Eyes! EYES! Intertwined rings of eyes. No wings. Just. Eyes on rings that rotated and crossed and all of them judging me. \n\n\"I shouldn’t be here,” I croaked. “They want me to fight you, but I don’t want to and shouldn’t be. I donated to so many Go Fund Me’s for people who couldn’t pay for cancer treatments and all kinds of medical stuff. I’m a decent person. I don’t know why---”\n\nThe eye-ring creature I’d thrown myself down to looked down at me with all of its eyes. It felt like all of the eyes in the universe weighing me, measuring me. \n\n“A woman shalt not wear a man’s garment,” it emanated. \n\nWhat. A woman shall not…what? Wait. I stood up.\n\n“So, hold on,” I said. “A man’s garment. Am I part of Hell’s Marine Corps because I wore pants or because I sometimes wore menswear?”\n\nThose infinite eyes looked down to the right then back to me. Then up. Then back to me. \n\n“Yes.”\n\nMy jaw dropped. “But, I did the important Commandments! Sure, I said ‘god damn’ and there was that holy day thing which I don’t even know what that really means. And you’re pissed off because I like wearing a men’s sport coat?”\n\n“Yes.”\n\nMenswear. The line was menswear. I wasn’t a church going person and never particularly religious, but generally decent. And now I was part of Hell’s Marine Corps due to my fondness for the cut of men’s jackets.\n\nScrew this. \n\nI jabbed a finger into one of those eyes. Felt goopy. The eye-ring monster paid no mind. So, I pulled the finger back, then plunged my hand into the socket above. The beast made no sound or twitch as I yanked its eye from that ring. \n\nTurning to my…brigade? Platoon? The terminology was lost on me. Didn’t matter. I held the eye aloft and marched back to them. They cheered. Someone tossed me a rifle and, although I’d never touched one until a few minutes prior, my hands knew what to do. \n\n“I’m gonna need a blazer,” I said. “Let’s waste these angels.”", "“What!?, Where am!?” I stammered “EYES FUCKING FRONT I SAID SOLDIER!” screamed the imposing figure hissing orders at me. My mind raced as I desperately scoured my memory for an explanation to this, and then it hit me. The last thing I remembered were the pills, the bottle of cheap whiskey, and my prized .357 revolver, Smith & Wesson only the best for me at least I didn’t skimp on the important stuff. I am snapped out of that split second moment of clarity by a large clawed hand making it’s way abruptly across my face. “GET YOUR FUCKING GAME FACE ON MARINE!” the leviathan barked. I noticed now, other men in this hole with me. Some as confused as myself while some had looks of quiet serenity on their faces. Looks that I had seen before on men, In a place just slightly less hot and disgusting than this. I felt my mind and body start to dance like they had done so many times to the symphony of war. The weapon in my hand felt familiar, I looked down at it and it gave me its ever familiar look right back into my soul, like it knows. My sidearm is different, It’s my .357. My nostalgia is then cut short, a large dark cloud resembling a plague of locusts had made its way directly above the pit me and the others were hunkering down in. “STEADY NOW MARINES NOW WE MAKE OUR STAND!!” Our horned C.O. Cried out inspiringly. The dark clouds movement resembled the starlings I enjoyed watching at the lake while enjoying my cheap whiskey and old music laced with chain smoke from Marlboro reds. It rose high into the blood colored sky before beginning to dive directly towards us. The noise from this mass of celestial beings plummeting towards me reminded me of old WW2 films I had watched as a kid. “RAISE YOUR WEAPONS!!” my muscle memory kicked in as I raised my rifle. “AIM!!” I set my sights on the death diving towards us. “FIRE!!!”. I pulled the trigger on my metal best friend, I am home.", "The rifle landed in my hands- or at least it was shaped like a rifle. It had intricate runes carved along the length of the onyx barrel that pulsated orange and red. It buzzed in my hands as though eager to discharge its energy, and I looked up at the demon standing in front of me. \n\nHad I gone to Hell? Wait, had I died?!\n\nI studied the demon's features, still uncertain of what I was seeing. His horns curled back like that a ram's and his face was long not entirely unlike a goat, but with a human-esque chin and nose. He turned his burning eyes towards me and grunted, \"EYES FRONT MARINE! ANGELS INCOMING!\"\n\nAngels? But I was a Christian! I didn't want to fight angels! I wanted to go back to heaven with them! I turned my eyes away from the demon finally to find that I was standing in what looked like a worse version of earth. Everything was a shade of purple, black, and pink as though all of reality was being focused through a filter. I was standing in a blasted and wartorn field full of other humans and demons, and they were all facing the sky. Trenches had been dug out and sandbags were put into place presumably for the coming battle. Dark clouds churned behind a singular orange point that began to stretch vertically. \n\n\"THERE'S THE PORTAL!\" The demon screamed. \"IT'S A GOOD DAY TO DIE!\"\n\nI turned to the demon, \"Wait... Aren't I already dead?! If I died, wouldn't I just... you know, come back here?\" \n\nHis lips curled away from his shining carnivorous teeth as he watched the skies, \"You're new here. So you don't get how things work. There's no time to explain the situation fully. But if you get blasted by an angel's gaze, you're going to The Bastille; a prison of the Lord's own making... and if you thought the things you'd heard about Hell were bad... Well God has some serious imagination up there. Far worse than anything the devil could have come up with, and ten times the righteous indignation.\"\n\nI felt myself visually trembling as the deafening sounds of trumpets boomed in the skies. \n\n\"AIM!!\" The demon's guttural cry pierced the air.\n\nI lifted the rifle and felt around for the trigger. War drums began beating from all around us like thunder as the blazing orange linear portal reached its vertex. And then suddenly, the drums ceased. The trumpets were but an echo haunting the skies as the silence settled in on us. And then the portal opened, hoards of massive monstrous creatures pouring out of it. They looked nothing of what I was taught in Sunday school. \n\nBundles of wings with multiple sets of scornful searching eyes. The first to open fire focused all seven of its eyes on those below, casting beams of vaporizing light that raked the battlefield. Those underneath its siege wailed in agony, scrambled for cover, and returned fire. I trembled as one of the angels passed over me. It had six wings and had wrapped itself inside of them obscuring its true form. Several golden rings laden with eyes rotated around it- and from it came some kind of deep undulating noise that shook the ground and rattled the contents of my chest. \n\nIt seems it's true what they say after all...\n\nWar is Hell.\n\n- - -\n\nI get a 15 minute break at work aside from my usual lunch break. I pick a prompt, spend a couple of minutes storyboarding, and then do as much as I can within the confines of my break.\n\nIf you enjoyed this, consider following me at r/A15MinuteMythos" ]	5
[WP] All books, textbooks, articles, slide shows, videos - physical and electronic - suddenly disappear. There's no trace of information left of any form, but everything else in the world is as was before and functions properly.	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Reality+Fiction%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Simple+Prompt%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/js5XDFB)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "I was watching Spongebob Squarepants, a light buzz flowing through me from the hit I’d just taken, when the television broke.\n\nHonestly, this is the sort of thing you really don’t want to deal with when high, and I let out a ginormous sigh. Flicking through the channels, I found everything else a muss of static and eventually gave up. Refusing to let this ruin my Saturday, I put the bowl of Cheetos aside and languidly made my way into the kitchen, taking a package of chocolate chip cookies out and pouring a glass of milk. Heading back into the living room, I enjoyed my munchies and just let time pass by, enjoying the calmness.\n\nUnfortunately, that calmness was shattered by a frantic knocking at my door.\n\nMy eyes narrowed but I pushed myself to my feet, checking the peephole before opening the door. “Hey dude.”\n\nCarlos’s eyes were too wide, his breathing too hurried. “Shit. You’re high.”\n\n“I am.” I motioned in the direction of the bong in the living room. “And you are welcome to join me.”\n\n“Today is not the day, dude,” he said, brushing past me and turning on the overhead lights. I blinked against them, mildly irritated. “You know what? Maybe it is exactly the day. Maybe you’ve got it right and I’ll end up taking a hit in a minute, but I can’t right now because everything’s gone to shit.”\n\n“I’m sorry, man. Did Kayla dump you or something?”\n\nMeeting his gaze, I saw something that disturbed me. It wasn’t just distress or frustration; it was fear.\n\n“Marino…all the information we had has disappeared.”\n\nI took a moment to take in the sentence before cocking my head. “Would that make sense if I wasn’t high? I mean really, I’m not that high, I’m just chill, I only took one hit-”\n\n“Check your bookshelf. The one in your bedroom.”\n\nEyeing him warily for a moment, I did as I was told, and Carlos was right on my heels. I stopped dead in front of the bookshelf, staring. What…\n\nIt was empty.\n\nI turned back to Carlos. “Is this a prank?”\n\n“Try your phone,” he said next, despair overtaking every other emotion on his face. My hand went to my pocket, digging out my iPhone. It turned on, but that was it. It had no apps. No games. No contact list. Not even settings.\n\n“I don’t…”\n\n“Nobody does, man,” Carlos whispered. “Everywhere we’ve got information…libraries, the internet, friggin’ labels on shampoo bottles! It’s all gone!”\n\nListening to myself breathe for a few moments, I finally looked back to meet Carlos’s gaze. “You want a hit now?”\n\n“Fuck yes.”\n\nA few minutes later, Carlos sat on the other side of my couch, each of us facing each other, deep in the cushions’ comforting embrace. “So, what happens now?” I asked.\n\n“Fuck if I know,” Carlos muttered. “We’re halfway through our business degrees, man. How are we supposed to graduate without any books?”\n\n“I guess… Can we still write stuff down?”\n\nCarlos nodded. “Yeah, I tried. It didn’t go anywhere.”\n\nI shrugged. “Then I guess we take better notes in class.”\n\nCarlos snorted. “All right. That’s one problem solved.” He made a check mark in the air. “Good job.”\n\n“Thanks.” I grimaced. “They’re gonna need to rewrite all the textbooks though.”\n\n“So?”\n\n“So, they’re gonna be even more expensive.”\n\nCarlos’s face contorted. “Shit, how much more expensive can they make them?”\n\n“Get ready to take on another job.”\n\n“No kidding.”\n\nI blew a raspberry, staring at the ceiling. “You think God did it?”\n\n“Mm. I told you about simulation theory, right?”\n\n“I mean…same deal, really,” I said, rolling my head to face him. “If some creatures created this universe on a computer, they’re still our gods.”\n\n“Hm. I guess.” He sighed. “Bastards. God’s a kid with an ant farm.”\n\nMy face suddenly fell. “The movies.”\n\n“What?”\n\n“That quote, that’s from Constantine,” I whispered. “And it’s gone. It’s all…gone. We’ll never watch it again. Never watch Star Wars again.”\n\n“We’ve still got art,” Carlos said, his voice desperately reaching for some comfort. “The internet’s gone, but…but pictures. People love hanging fan art on their walls. So, we’ve still…” His voice trailed off.\n\n“Yeah. But it’s not the same,” I muttered. Carlos had nothing to say to that. “GPS isn’t gonna work anymore.”\n\n“Dude…we’re gonna need to redraw maps,” Carlos said emphatically. “That’s just…stupid.”\n\n“At least I’m not a writer,” I noted. “I think if everything I’d ever written, if I was George R. R. Martin or James Patterson or something, if it all vanished, I’d…be pretty depressed.”\n\n“You’re thinking too small,” Carlos moaned. “All the scientists, all the doctors, all the formulas and shit they learn…”\n\n“We’ll write it all down eventually,” I said with a wave of my hand. “Everyone alive remembers enough little bits to put it all back together, I’m sure. But like movies, stories are…emotion. Changed with one word, one noun, one adjective. We can’t ever get those back.”\n\nCarlos heaved out a large sigh. “Guess you’re right. I’d hate to be a fiction writer in this world.”\n\n&#x200B;\n\n/r/storiesbykaren" ]	2
[WP]After millenia of living in a world ruled by tyrants and warlords, humans began to think the divines forsake them. However, it became apparent that God turned them against each other to trigger an arms race that would ensure they had sufficient nuclear weapons to stave off alien attacks.	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Reality+Fiction%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Simple+Prompt%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/js5XDFB)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "How could a god allow all of this destruction? Why would he allow all of those tyrants to use him as an excuse for so many atrocities? I used to ask this questions and the conclusion I came with was something that more and more people had accepted as true as time passed, that god didn’t exist and that if he existed where something so insignificant that he didn’t care about what was happening to us.\n\nIt was only some time after our first contact with the alletob that we understood why the god of humanity had allowed us to have all of those seemingly useless fighting, thanks to our communications we learned that for each intelligent species a god that acted as it’s collective conscience existed and that they were able to communicate with each other, we also learned that most gods banned their creations from fighting with themselves but that they allowed, and some even forced, their creations to fight against species created by other gods, the alletob where at that time in a war with the lepars, which were close to our territory so they offered us an alliance to fight against them, they told us that the lepars were a genocidal species with the objective of destroying everything on their path, we tried to establish communications with them, hoping for the words of the alletob to be lies because the alletob clearly outnumbered us and according to their information the lepars outnumbered both of our species combined(and by a very large margin), sadly for us the colony world from which we tried to establish communications was immediately attacked by the lepars, which we took as a confirmation of their genocidal tendencies and of the impossibility of negotiating with them, so our governments made an agreement with each other to cooperate against this common threat and then an agreement with the alletob to cooperate in the war against the lepars. \n\nWe transported what we could transport of our armies and our weapons to our frontier systems to prepare for the fight, the first objective was to recover the lost colony, something that was quickly achieved, after that we went for one of their planets, we nuked them from the orbit, after we communicated that achievement to the alletob they were congratulated us but told us that we should have been more careful with the use we gave to our nuclear weapons, when we asked the why, they told us that using all of our reserves to take just one planet was not a good strategy, we replied that we still had a big amount of nuclear weapons left but they didn’t believed that, so we showed them by nuking another lepar planet, and then one of their biggest battle stations, some asteroids and we kept throwing our nuclear weapons to them. \n\nOur fears at the beginning of the war turned to be something irrational since even a big number of soldiers is no match to the power of a nuclear weapon we were relaxed after discovering that we had the capacity to easily defeat even one of the most feared species of the galaxy, at the end their god allowed them to surrender when we were getting close to their home world and it became totally clear that they had no chance, we accepted to make that peace treatment with them, but we can’t speak for all of the species that are looking for revenge now that the lepars have lost their power, according to what we now know we probably can stop them, since not even all of them combined have the amount of nuclear weapons that we have,but we have had too much of war and now, for the first time in our history, we are prepared to finally have peace.(I hope you enjoyed this, it is the first story that I write, please correct me if I have grammatical mistakes, english is not my first language)" ]	2
[WP] Now, there is human trafficking. In the future when you can upload your consciousness, there are people that traffic human consciousness. These minds are put to work in bots, they can be easily deleted if they do not obey.	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Reality+Fiction%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Simple+Prompt%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/js5XDFB)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "\"The phenomena known as 'AI Blues', coined by a 21st century scientist whose name has been lost to time, is now commonly referred to as 'Anemoia Blues', where an individual whose consciousness has been transported to another body experiences intense sadness and longing for a life that they never experienced. Those slaving away in Luna's vast, labyrinths of criminal industry known as Complexes, are no exception to this feeling. In fact, they feel it more than any other, and that is precisely why they are so long-lived. That's why you're alive. Anemoia,\" Overseer Malcom sneered at Emilia, taunting her with a frown drawn on her cell's tempered glass walls. \"Go away. Please,\" she pleaded, cradling herself. It'd been two years since she was placed into Complex-01, and in those two years she'd lost sight of what she wanted to do when she was younger. Hope was ripped out from beneath her. A reoccurring dream—no, nightmare—continued haunting her since day one, constantly reminding her of how escape was impossible. Every time she closed her eyes that traumatizing nightmare appeared, some times in small glimpses, or in large, uninterruptible episodes even mid-day during her shift. But today, even when Emilia tried forcing that nightmare to occur, nothing happened, because of a much greater feeling overwhelming her. A feeling barely anyone has felt in Complex-01 since they were uploaded here. Something more powerful and scary. Hope.\n\nSleep didn't make it disappear either, nor did backbreaking labour she was accustomed to everyday. Threats, barked out by Malcom, became nothing more than a nuisance as she slaved away. Emilia liked to work alone quietly. Her overseer knew that, and made sure to be especially loud whenever she was on duty. Today was different. Malcom was eerily silent, barely even giving his slaves an hourly crack of the whip to remind them to get back to work. As soon as she was close to reaching a conclusion as to why, Jason, one of her colleagues and her lover, pulled her aside into an exposed rocky crevasse hidden by shadows.\n\n\"I—if he finds us, he'll del—del....\" She tried forming a complete sentence, but was stopped by Jason as his cybernetic hand came over her mouth.\n\n\"I don't have much time, my overseer is already searching for me. Martha, Alex, Xavier, Andrew, and I are gathering in six hours at the entry. Be there. Jackson is going to distract th—\" Now it was Emilia's time to silence Jason; her hand covered his mouth while Malcom skulked about, coming dangerously close to spotting them. When he disappeared from sight, she withdrew her hand, frowning apologetically. She gave him a thumbs up to continue. \"He's going to distract the overseers by causing an explosion in sector-3,\" Jason whispered.\n\n\"When they find him, he'll be deleted,\" she mumbled. Emilia found solace in avoiding looking at Jason. She was so used to being inside a robotic body built for endless labour that she forgot what a Human body even looked like, but was always gladdened to see Jason's human body from time to time. There was a rumour that circulated around her friends that Jason was allowed to remain with his natural body because he was a member of the complex's administration. After months of gossip, this rumour made everyone, and even the overseers, afraid of him because they assumed his parents were able to buy off one of the most powerful underworld syndicate in the Republic. Jason's cybernetics, an eye and an arm, only contributed to that rumour. Emilia smiled as his thumb gently caressed her cheek, momentarily washing away her sorrows, fears and regrets, replaced by joys, loves and memories.\n\n\"That won't happen,\" he whispered tenderly, repelling her doubts for the time being. \"Once everyone is distracted, all of us are going to put our consciousness back into our bodies. It's not going to be easy, but nothing here is. I'll see you soon, alright? Stay safe, Emilia.\"\n\n\"Jason, wait!\" She called out to him, but it was too late. He fled from their hiding place. Emilia wandered out five minutes later, immediately getting back to work. Her colleagues looked at her with suspicion, yet they didn't matter to her as much as her friends, Martha, Alex, Xavier, Andrew, and Jason, especially Jason, did. Hours passed and despite tedious work that she routinely did everyday, she never stopped thinking about what was going to unfold soon.\n\nIt was time. \"When an opportunity presented itself, I'll quietly escape from his sight,\" she thought. An hour passed until Malcom disappeared from her view. Clamor and shouting was heard far away, followed by an explosion that rocked her even a sector apart. \"Thank you, Jackson!\" Emilia smiled, running into a crowd of workers who were eagerly running to see the aftermath of the explosion. She ran for ten minutes until she suddenly stopped, dread settling into her rapidly.\n\n\"This is just desperation, isn't it? We can't escape and see our families. It's impossible. This is just another nightmare.\"\n\nPain replaced her sadness. She looked up from the cold, steel floor, and saw Martha yelling at her. \"Whether you like it or not honey, we're leaving!\" Even if she didn't have a human body, Martha was always imagined as a stoic, pragmatic woman in her thirties, tired of the shit the world was giving her. It was a refreshing contrast to Jason's optimism. Against her own will, she was being taken along by her wrist firmly. Both of them became yet another onlooker in a growing crowd of robot workers. Klaxons began blaring. Security forces arrived. The worst part about the security in complexes weren't that they were ruthless in maintaining productivity and obedience, but that they were former humans who willingly uploaded their consciousness. That's what put her to a grinding halt. Just like her first few months, her fragile, newfound confidence was being to break apart piece by piece. But the person dredging her through this despair didn't have a quarter of her mind influenced by fear. On the contrary, seeing Emilia scared inspired her to get through this. They dashed through abandoned corridors, assembly lines, and offices until they arrived at Complex-01's entry.\n\n\"No one followed you two, right?\" Xavier asked, crossing his arms. He feigned a groan of pain as Alex kicked him in his shin. The latter spoke up. \"Ignore him, he's scared of what might happen and not what will happen,\" Alex clarified.\n\n\"We all are. I'm glad you're alright, Emilia,\" Jason grinned, hugging her softly. If she could blush, she would have whenever he planted a kiss on her forehead. Fortunately for her, she can't. \"I know I didn't tell you what would happen once we got to this point, but I'm going to debrief you quickly, so pay close attention. See those four beds? We're all going to climb into them, and Alex is going to connect our bodies from a port on our head with with our actual bodies, then will transfer our consciousness back into where they're naturally supposed to be.\"\n\nEmilia ignored Martha's loud scuffling and huffing as she moved furniture to form a barricade from the door. \"But there isn't enough beds for Alex and Jackson, Jason? Do you expect me to abandon them?\"\n\n\"None of us want to, but they volunteered to do their jobs, so we have to do ours and meet each and everyone of us when we get back to our bodies. We're running out of time,\" Jason frowned. Emilia dreamt of returning home. It was finally coming true, just not how she imagined.\n\n\"I can't do it! I won't do it!\" Emilia shouted.\n\n\"You don't have a choice, so shut up and get in your bed! Don't let their sacrifice be in vain,\" Martha snapped, her hand colliding with Emilia's head.\n\n\"I'm right here, Martha. Stop saying sacrifice like I'm some patriot. Jackson and I will meet you guys. Just look for us in a week, we'll be there, I promise. That promise won't be upheld though if you don't get in already, the distraction is fading away and our chance is slipping away!\"\n\nAll of them complied, except Jason. He looked at Alex, who nodded. With everyone connected, Alex included, there was no time to protest. Jason stood sadly over the computer console, hand shakily hovering over the keyboard. All he had to do was input the password to send them on their way. Why was it so difficult?\n\n\"Jackson and I will see you all soon. Thank you, Alex, for saying the promise that I couldn't,\" Jason faintly smiled. Tears streamed down his face. His hand slammed down against the button. Klaxons blared, the lights turned orange, and Martha, Alex, Xavier, Emilia, and Andrew fell unconscious.\n\nWhen they woke up, they were surrounded by lifeless bodies in a large hospital room. Immediately, attendants rushed over to them, asking them questions and ensuring they were fine. \n\n\nNone of them were fine." ]	2
[WP] You are a Lovecraftian cosmic god who is trying to explain the secrets of the universe to an 8-year-old.	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Reality+Fiction%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Simple+Prompt%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/js5XDFB)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "\"Why?\"\n\nColeh'nargath groaned, a great rumbling that seemed to shake the very cosmos. A human might have attributed this to frustration, but frustration was a human thing, a response to time wasted. Coleh'nargath, Lord of the Weeping Stars and Shattered Sky, Breaker of Dimensions and Devourer of Thought, was a god. And what was time to a god? Had They wished, a millenia could pass by like a blink to Their many unseen eyes. \n\nNo, this was not frustration. This was... something else. A... pull, a need that drove Coleh'nargath to appear in a human-yet-inhuman form and speak to this... child.\n\n\"Look, kid, Gravity just is.\" \n\n\"But why?\"\n\nColeh'nargath brought a wispy arm up to Their incomprehensibly symmetrical face, and sighed longer than any human should have been able to. How strange. They knew how to whisper into the minds of sapients in just the right way to drive them to madness. They had danced by the light of supernovae in the Place Between Moments where Nothing meets Everything. They held within their mind the Secret Words that had given birth to the Laws themselves. \n\nAnd yet, no matter how much They tried, the child still would not be satisfied. \n\n\"Mister Ghosty-\" Coleh'nargath cringed at the infantile name that the child had given Them- \"did you hear me?\" \n\n\"Yes,\" They said, in a voice that was somehow Everything and Nothing at once, \"I heard you.\"\n\n\"Well,\" the child looked up with an accusatory glare, \"if you heard me, then why didn't you answer the first time?\"\n\nColeh'nargath spluttered, shocked by the insolence of the child. \"You- You miserable speck of dust!\" With a roar that shattered the entirety of the tenth spatial dimension, They dragged the child into the Place Between Moments, and unfolded Themselves to reveal Their True Form. \"DO YOU NOT UNDERSTAND WHO YOU SPEAK TO?\" Great swathes of Everything disappeared, leaving patches of darkness darker than black in the many-layered fabric of Existence, while simultaneously continuing to exist. \"I AM COLEH'NARGATH, THE ELDEST OF THE ELDERS, BREAKER OF DIMENSIONS AND DEVOURER OF THOUGHT.\" Reality warped into the shape of a duck before untwisting. \"DO NOT QUESTION ME.\"\n\nThe child, unfazed, looked straight into Coleh'nargath's many eyes.\n\n\"Why?\"", "„… and that is the reason fish don’t drown in the sea.“\n\nThe little girl sat there, her chin resting on her fist, deep in thought.\n\n“Alright”, she said, “that makes sense. But does that mean you have these \"gills\", too?”\n\nNyarlathothep put a palm to his face. How much longer was this brat going to occupy him?“Look, little one”, he said, his deep voice reverberating from everywhere in the room at once,\n\n“I answered your questions; now please give me the cool stone, okay?”\n\nThe girl shook her head and put her hand in her pocket.\n\n“No way, I have more questions!”\n\nNyarlathothep rose from the squeaky wooden chair, spreading a thin layer of black mist over the floor.\n\n“You promised to give me the stone as thanks for saving you from drowning”, he proclaimed, “and you promised to give it to me after I answered your question. Now give it to me. Or are you an Oathbreaker? Those without honor are a burden on society, shunned and outcast. Do you want to be?”\n\nThe girl shook her head, intimidated. The large, shadowy figure stretched out his palm. The girl pulled out the stone, a dodecahedron the size of an eyeball, the color of dark ember. After a brief moment of hesitation the girl let the stone drop into the creature’s hand.\n\n“Thank you”, he whispered, although his voice could still be heard perfectly.\n\nHe turned around to leave when the girl said “Wait!”\n\nThe shadow turned and looked at her over its shoulder. “What now?”\n\nThe girl, shuffling her feet and playing with her hair, asked “Can… you teach me more?” in a nervous tone. The shadow turned around fully and rose until it stood at over two meters tall.\n\n“I can. It will cost you everything that you hold dear. You r life, your very soul, will be forfeit to the great masters in the beyond. You will gain knowledge beyond human understanding and be initiated into the many mysteries of the world. But you will cease to be you and instead become something else.”\n\n“I don’t care!”, said the girl, more determined now. “I don’t have anyone anyway. No one knows or cares I exist. I might as well be dead!”\n\n“Then this is your first lesson”, said the shadow. He crouched down until he was at eye level with the girl.\n\n“There exists a city in the faraway deserts of Arabia. Their inhabitants were the first intelligent species native to this world, long before the humans came and eradicated them. It is the last surviving site of this civilization. Do you believe this?”\n\nThe girl looked him straight in to the eyes, and, with a determined expression, nodded.\n\n“Learning to accept that which, to humans, sounds fictitious is the first step. You have done well.”\n\nHe rose again and turned, facing the southern wall. “Now here is the next step.”\n\nA flick of his wrist. The house began to shake and a deafening noise arouse from outside. The girl, screaming from surprise, threw herself to the floor of the rundown shack, her hands over her head. The shadow looked at her.\n\n“Do not be afraid”, he told her. The girl looked up at him with tears in her eyes.\n\nNyarlathothep flicked his wrist again. The entire southern wall disappeared, falling to dust in an instant. They were flying through space at unbelievable speeds. Stars were racing by at light speed. As they left the milky way they accelerated even further, until even the galaxies were nothing more than washed out bands of light as they flew past.\n\nSlowly and with wobbling knees, the girl rose and stumbled forward.\n\nIn the distance, another sound mixed in with the others. It was an indescribable screeching, hurtful to the ears and at the same time strangely soothing, growing louder and louder until they finally reached their destination.\n\n“Now, gaze upon god”, said Nyarlathothep, and the girl saw it.\n\nThe being the center of the universe, kept asleep by the maddening sound of the flutes played by its caretakers, it was Azathoth, the idiot god.\n\nThe girl was unable to pull away from the sickening sight of the pulsating, writhing mass.\n\n“He is the creator of everything, and he will destroy everything. He is the thesis and he is the antithesis. This is the god you pray to when you wish for salvation. Do you accept him? Do you wish to be baptized again, here and now, by the power of his holy water and serve his and only his wishes?”\n\nThe girl stood, petrified. A long period of time went by before she answered. It was nothing more than a whisper.\n\n“It’s beautiful.”\n\nThe shadow did not emote, but he had not anticipated this reaction.\n\n“Please, master”, continued the girl, “show me more.”\n\nShe finally turned around, tears in her eyes.\n\n“Please, show me more! I want to see so much more!”\n\n“Accepting the true nature of things, even if faced with such a maddening revelation, is the sign of a strong will. You have the potential to do great things.” “Please, teach me how!”\n\nNyarlathothep nodded. “Then that is how it shall be.” He put his palm on her head.\n\n“What is your name, child?”\n\nThe girl had to think for a moment before she answered in a shivering voice.\n\n“Keziah”, she replied. “Keziah Mason.”" ]	3
[WP] after accidentally being locked outside the walls during a siege, the enemy army thinks you must be some sort of champion of the city.	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Reality+Fiction%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Simple+Prompt%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/js5XDFB)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "The sound of thousands of boots stepping in sync can chill a man to his soul.\nThere is nothing one soul can do to any such force.\nWhen the power of the Baron came to March against Ut-Rammu, there was no feeling among the scant, starving defenders but resigned fatalism. The doors were slammed, barred, and barricaded while the portcullis was loosened, lowered, and dropped. They knew it wouldn’t do anything.\nOut of all of the garrison of the last resisting walled city, only one had picked a particularly poor hiding spot. While the other employed the superior tactic of hiding behind tall city walls and within taller city towers, it appears Farameed had chosen a hay bale to jump in. Like an ostrich he had never seen, the new draftsman’s head was smothered while his form remained conspicuous. It was the clank of that aforementioned portcullis that brought him back to his slightly better senses. When faced with a Dread Army, one can only feel dread, and Farameed remained stuck in place, transfixed between the unscalable wall and the transfixing crescendoes of each step the enemy took closer.\n\n“I say Reg, what is that?”\n“My Liege, it appears to be a lone defender.” The steward turned to the Baron upon summarily snapping shut his looking glass. The nearby troops mumbled to their sargeants, who mumbled to their captains, who mumbled to their lieutenants, who mumbled all the way through brigadier generals and marshals to inform the Great Baron that the rank-and-file were concerned about this champion.\n“What do you mean?!? He’s just standing there!”\n“My Baron,” the quartermaster cut in, “It’s just that, what kind of man could stand there so resolutely seeing us come?”\n“Yea, all of his kin have holed up already, we can start bombardment fairly soon,” added on the Engineer-General.\n“Sire, no one is willing to face that wicked champion. He could be a mage, a shapeshifter, a trickster, or a sword master the likes of which we’ve never seen!” declared the chancellor. “We need our strongest fighter to take him on, my liege.”\nThe Baron was not the nimble fighter he had been forty years prior, but he could feel all of his advisors’ eyes on him. His legendary past of combat did not befit an old man. He had to keep up appearances, but he was not willing to give his heart’s blood for a foolhardy champion’s new legend. “Ah, gentlemen you flatter me, but uh, I insist the Field-Marshal get his moment in the sun.”\n“Well, sire,” the Field-Marshal was noticeably sweating, “I merely don’t think I could stand a chance where you balk.”\nThe eyes returned to the Baron as he swallowed a bit too hard. “It’s not that I’m frightened or concerned, I just consider it a waste of my precious time to duel some country hick.” The Baron glanced about a bit, seeing confused faces and concerned eyes. After a pause, “In fact, this whole city is a damn waste of my precious time! I say we pack up boys! Let them keep their paltry champion!”\nThe Dread Army returned to their capital, and the Baron lived some more.", "I banged on the gates and begged them to let me in. The only reply was the readying of bows, arrows, and molten metal. In the distance the invading army watched me. I could only imagine what they were thinking about me, just a peasant. I looked up and then looked back out. I would rather die by a sword than molten slag. I took a deep breath and slowly strut my way out to meet what looked to be their commander.\n\nHe looked me over and stated, \"You have to be the worst dressed champion that I have ever encountered.\"\n\nI tried to smile, \"Caught me on an off day, sir. That said, I will fight you to the death here and now. No need for all these fine men to die.\"\n\nI had spread my arms and spun with that last statement in a gesture to encompass both sides. The commander laughed, \"You are unarmed and ill equipped.\"\n\n\"Or perhaps you are too frightened to fight on my terms?\" I replied as I tore my shirt off like some sort of barbarian. I flexed and base him to come down from his horse with a wave. Bare chested, I actually looked intimidating, as any son of a blacksmith might.\n\n\"I do not fear you boy.\" Growled the man as he got down from the beast and stripped off his armor. His men stepped closer. They surrounded us, eager to watch the fight play out. He handed his sword to another and flexed his own muscles. They were filled with the strength of a true champion, but I wasn't about to give up.\n\nWe approached each other and have a salute of sorts. Then I rushed him and drove him to the ground. His head hit a rock with a sickening crack. The fight was over. The men around me gasped, unprepared for such a turn of events. I took my time standing up, I had never killed a man. It pained me to do so. I felt like I was going to hurl. Still, I wasn't about to give in. I stared at those around me a roared, \"Anyone else? Or will you honor your commander's words?\"\n\nA larger man stepped forward, his voice boomed, \"That was a cheap trick. I doubt that you could do the same to me.\"\n\nI sighed and cracked my knuckles. I wanted to convey a sense of boredom. It irked my new opponent. He quickly shed his armor and rushee me in a manner similar to how I had defeated his commander. I was ready and sidestepped him. He tripped over the body of his own commander. I pounced and grabbed his head. I held his eyes level with the lifeless eyes of the body beneath him. I stifled a yawn and spoke, \"I was hoping to only have to kill one of you. Let this be the last.\" \n\nThen I slipped my hands around his throat and choked him till he no longer moved. I stood again and looked around. The men nearest to me looked dumbfounded. I asked them again, \"Anyone else? Or will you honor your commander's words?\"\n\nA third man stepped up, but gave no challenge. He agreed to lead the army away. As I watched them all march off, I finally spilled the contents of my stomach on the ground. Tear crept into the corners of my eyes, I silently begged the men I had killed for forgiveness. I returned home that day a hero. To those of my city, it will be a day they never forget. For me, it is the day I would spend the rest of my life trying to drink away.\n\nr/TheSyXan" ]	3
[WP] You've been dead for 2 weeks. You find out that in heaven you can watch your children, partner and friends to see them live out their life. However, you can only hear them when they become flirty or angry, as the image becomes blocked off.	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Reality+Fiction%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Simple+Prompt%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/js5XDFB)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns." ]	1
[WP] You have just moved into your seventh haunted house, and therefore you’re used to the ghosts, demons, and such. The supernatural inhabitants of this house don’t know that, however, and are very persistent.	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Reality+Fiction%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Simple+Prompt%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/js5XDFB)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "It's always blood, I thought to myself as I watched the dribbles of crimson liquid spill down the vintage wallpaper, staining the printed flowers a bright red. Are they gonna try and spell something this time?\n\nI waited a moment, ready for a formless hand to start outlining doom, or beware, or boo...something of that ilk. It was, after all, the go-to ghostly vocabulary, and at this point I was ready to toss them a thesaurus to encourage some creativity. However, it soon became clear no such message was going to be relayed, and they were instead about to ruin my beautiful hardwood floor. \n\nI slid out of my chair reluctantly, groaning, and made my way to the kitchen to grab some cleaning supplies. What was used for bloodstains? I wondered. Milk? No...baking soda. A little trick my mom had taught me, back a the first house, was mixing baking soda and cold water into a paste for bloody messes. The rug in the living room there used to bleed, profusely, on an almost nightly basis. The original owner of the house had been brutally murdered by her husband on her wedding night, hacked up into a million little pieces, right there on that rug. You can imagine my terror and bewilderment the first time I saw her, wailing into the nothingness, unaware that I was staring right at her through the balusters. She looked like a ragged jigsaw puzzle of human bits, blood spurting from every appendage, matted curls floating weightlessly in the ether. The mess was horrific…but mother mopped it up every morning completely unfazed, annoyed even. The second night though, her scream-routine had lost some of that horror-movie-je-ne-sais-quoi, and I found myself more curious than anything else. By the third night, I knew to just leave the baking soda and dish rag out for mother before heading up to bed.\n\nAnd that’s how it was, everywhere we went. At first I thought it was something about mother that drew them to our family, like decaying moths to the candlelight, desperate for one last glimpse of the flame. The truth was much less exciting; it turns out, a whole lot of dead people happen to be wandering around like tourists waiting for their train…it’s just that not everyone can see them. The stories I’d read had always depicted hauntings as these long, torturous affairs, where jilted spirits would torment the living as some twisted retribution for their past injustices. But it was never like that, not until this house at least. The old places were more like museums, capturing the brutal ends of the unsuspecting and replaying them (in graphic detail) to whoever was “blessed” enough to see. \n\nI could see. And so could mother. \n\nWhich meant that we were the ones expected to clean-up after them. You’d be surprised how few people volunteer to wipe away mysterious bloody handprints on the windows after the 5th or 6th night of them appearing. \n\nI grabbed the baking soda off the shelf and turned to the cupboards for a bowl. The doors flew open, nearly thwacking me square in the nose, then quickly shut with a thunk. I rolled my eyes, and grabbed the handle; it wouldn’t budge. “Very clever,” I said out loud, “but cups work just as well.” I reached for one in the sink, as the blinds on the kitchen windows began to rattle menacingly. Fully equipped, I walked back into the living room and looked up at the wall. \n\n“GO AWAY. PLEESE.” \n\nI sprinkled the baking soda into the cup and stirred until a paste formed. “’Please’ is spelled with an ‘a’”, I say to the girl peering out around the corner. She squints disapprovingly, and marches through a neighboring wall. \n\nAt least my lease is up in March.", "They left me alone for one whole week before they started Haunting me. They waited for me to be unpacked and all moved in. Hoping that Id leave all my belongings behind when they scared the hell out of me. They didnt know that I could see them, I could hear them. The dead spirits and the demons that were tied to this giant mansion had managed to fend off every past resident by scaring them beyond belief. They openly talked about this. They watched me while I slept. They watched me eat my food, use the bathroom, shower, Everything. \n\nI was planning to remodel the house back into its former glory, and they did not want this at all. They begrudgingly allowed me to begin construction on the house, they knew that it probably costs a lot of money and that I was tied up in much financial....whatever, this isnt what we are here for. \n\nThe screaming began on night 7. They actually woke me up. Ill give them that. Throughout the next few days, they ramped up their hauntings to just creepy things throughout the house. They were \"getting me ready\" so that when they broke out the big guns that it would be the nail in the coffin. \n\nThere was one Evil Demon that was in charge of the others, his name was Azer. Azer had been some sort of hellspawn that became attached to the house and attracted the others to him. I had seen him stalking the halls, scoping me out throughout the week. The other ghosts and demons were so excited for Azer to slam dunk this Haunting, sending me screaming for the hills. \"Tomorrow night!\" They were all laughing all over the house. FLickering the lights, making steps down the hall, creaking the floorboards, sliding the chairs out from the table, creating interference through the radio. I was cleaning up the kitchen after dinner that night and as I was walking out one of the ghosts said, \"I cant wait for you to go to sleeeeeep tonight.\" then let out an evil chuckle. \n\nI turned to it and responded, \"Neither can I.\" . I wish you could have seen the look on its face. He couldnt tell if I really heard him or he had just imagined it. I got into bed and awaited for Azers grand debut. \n\nI was sleeping for a few hours when I heard a slam within the walls of the house. The power in the bedroom went out and my fan slowed to a stop. I used the flashlight on my phone and headed downstairs to the main floor. There were weird sounds coming from all over the house. The entire time I could hear all the ghosts and demons chuckle with glee for what was about to happen. \n\nI opened the door to the basement and went down to turn back on the breakers. The excitement from the ghosts and demons clued me in that it was almost showtime. I finished up in the basement and resotred power to the house. When I got back upstairs the front double doors burst open. Suddenly a low growl filled the house and all the ghosts and demons began to appear around me in the grand lobby at the foot of the stairs. They came through the walls, twitching and screaming. Soon they were all chanting together in unison. \"AZER! AZER! AZER! AZER!\"\n\nI played it up that I was terrified of all them. Now that they knew I could see them, they played up the scaryness facter and reveled in how great it was that this haunt was about to hits its climax. Thunderous footsteps began to pound on the foot down the hall, and Azer made his way towards the lobby through the crowds of ghost and demons. he was hideous, he looked like he was dripping with blood and spikes. His devilish eyes and horns infact a sight to be seen. I held my mouth open in pure \"terror\" as he approached me. Then he began to yell at me. \n\n\"I AM AZER! THE DEMON DEFILER ! YOU ARE TRESPASSING IN MY DOMAIN! GEEEEEET OUUUT OFFFF MYYYY HOOOOUUU- \" I interrupted him mid-sentence by grabbing him by his throat. I squeezed and he let out a pathetic choke and gasp. I brought his face close to my own and then let out a blood-curdling shriek right in his face. My eyes lit up with a blinding red light and my screaming mouth distorted into a twisted maw of jagged teeth like rows of swords. My yell pierced through the walls of the mansion and all the other ghosts and demons that were in attendance to witness this. They just stood there frozen in fear. Azer screamed and cried, \"OOOOH MYY GOOOOODD!!!\" as he tried to free himself. \n\nMy scream grew louder and louder and my eyes grew brighter and brighter until Azer was overcome with my glow as I disintegrated and absorbed him into my being. \n\nWhen I stopped my scream I contorted back to my normal self. Azer was gone. In every aspect of the word. The other ghosts and demons were speechless. Cowering in fear with eachother. \n\n\" I can see all of you. I can hear all of you....If I hear you or if I see you, I will consume you.\" \n\nI threatened them all pointing my finger all around the room. I walekd to the front doors. \n\n\"THIS IS MY HOUSE NOW!\" I yelled slamming the doors. \n\nThey all screamed in terror as they faded away into the darkness.", "A poltergeist with glowing eyes watched the new home owner burst through the door. “This one better be clean!” the man shouted. He wore pendants with strange symbols and immediately began chanting in tongues. ‘A lunatic!’ the poltergeist thought merrily. The homeowner glanced in the poltergiest’s direction wearily. ‘What an odd coincidence,’ the ghost thought.\n\nThe home owner continued into the house, dropping his suitcases as he went. The poltergeist immediately took to tearing them open. Dress shirts, socks, and jeans went flying. The poltergeist tossed a charger cable at the new owner's head. The homeowner caught it with one hand in a practiced motion. “Again?!” he exclaimed. “Leave me alone!” \n\nThe poltergeist was disappointed by the underwhelming reaction. He proceeded to rush around the room throwing the furniture covers into the air. His actions stirred up a cloud of dust. The man coughed, “Seriously?”\n\nThe poltergeist turned the lights on. He brought their brightness up and up, until they burst into thousands of glass shards! The homeowner shook his head, “Who taught you your manners? The demons were more polite than you.”\n\nThe poltergeist floated in the middle of the room, utterly perturbed. The homeowner looked him up and down. “Listen, I know you want to make a bang. Ha ha, get it, you literally made my lights explode.” he joked bitterly. “This isn’t my first rodeo. We can do things the hard way. That is, I send you to the afterlife so hard that you forget you ever lived.” \n\nThe poltergeist shuttered. \n\n“Or, you can use your ghosty powers to put everything back together. Then, we can sit down together and watch some netflix. Whatever you want to do, poltergeist.” The homeowner's gaze was dark.\n\nNeedless to say, the undead spirit and the homeowner both enjoyed a good horror film that evening.", "\"Cute 2 bedroom cottage located minutes from Downtown\" read the real estate description. After having moved from house to house, and experiencing things that no one should have to experience, it was nice to finally have a lead on a \"normal\" house for a change.\n\nThe closing went as expected, and before the end of the week, I was now the new owner. Movers came, and left, and finally I was looking forward to just the mundane aspects of owning a house; paying bills, maintenance, work, etc. The last six houses were great, if you are a horror fan and had a natch for dealing with the supernatural but the whole thing got tiring after a while and necessitated a move, if for nothing else then just to remember what \"normal\" felt like.\n\nI had first decided to unpack the kitchen, because my cooler with all of my last refrigerator's contents was quickly losing ice and I didn't want to buy all new groceries again. \n\nI opened up the cooler and instead of my groceries, there was just a large pool of blood. I knew when I sat it down it was groceries, but now it had turned to blood. Rather than being horrified, I just sighed and closed the cooler lid.\n\n\"Oh for f\\ck's sake, here we go.\", I muttered under my breath. \"Look, I don't know what happened here, or why you're deciding to screw with me now, but f\\cking stop. I have about six pounds of sage and I'm not afraid to fumigate you right back to wherever you came from.\"\n\nI re-opened the cooler and my groceries had returned as I expected. \"Now, that's better.\", I said while stocking the refrigerator. A few minutes later and the cooler is up-side down in the back yard to drain and dry out. I moved several boxes into the kitchen and proceeded to unload them into their respective cabinets and was making great progress. \n\nFinally, I had worked up a sweat and needed to cool down. I grabbed a cup from one of the boxes and pushed it into the refrigerator's water dispenser. Unexpectedly, but not surprisingly, the cup began to fill with blood. Goat's blood is my guess.\n\n\"Six. Pounds. Of. Sage. Don't f\\ck with me...\" I shouted. I poured out the cup and clean water splashed in the sink. The cup itself held no remants of the blood, and only a single drop of clean water remained from the dispenser. I pushed the cup into the dispenser again and as expected, more clean water. Not even a hint of blood. \n\nThe rest of the kitchen setup went without issue. The rest of the day, and even a few days after also went without incident, until one evening as I got ready for bed. I had gotten a lot of the boxes unpacked and most of the house was livable now, resembling an actual lived-in house, versus just a storage location that just happened to have a staffmember. I had made a lot of progress, but my body was indicating its unhappiness so a long hot soak in the bathroom was in order. I ran water for a bath that was as hot as I could comfortably stand and I eased myself in while the water continued to flow. Like so many horror movie tropes, the water coming out of the spigot turned into blood. \n\nI shouted out \"Ok, you fuckers, it's game time! Six pounds of sage! I warned you!\" and lept out of the tub (which had turned back to normal water by now). I shut off the spigots and threw on a robe and towel. I went to the garage and grabbed a firepit and a bundle of sage and dragged the whole thing into the living room. \n\n\"I warned you and warned you, you can't scare me. I'm tired as f\\ck and I don't have time or the patience to deal with your petty little demon bullsh\\*t. So now, it's my turn to strike.\" I shouted angrily as I piled the bundle of sage over a charcoal birquette. I grabbed a lighter and set the sage and charcoal on fire. \n\n\"No, I couldn't have a normal house, I had to buy yet another demon possessed house. Damn it, I just wanted a normal house like everyone else. But No, here I am soaking wet, and about to sage-bomb the place just so I can get a good night's sleep!\" I mumbled angrily.\n\nBy now the sage was smoldering and producing a thick fog of smoke. I headed into the kitchen and grabbed a six-pack of beer out of the fridge and headed into the garage leaving the garage door open into the house. I smacked the button to open the large outside garage door, grabbed a folding camp chair, and proceeded to walk out into the driveway where I exasperatedly threw myself into the camp chair.\n\nAs the garage door closed up, I popped open a cold beer and just watched the smoke from the sage start to come out of various points of the house.\n\n\"Uh Hey Bob, you ok?\", a voice from behind me inquired. \"Is your house on fire?\"\n\nI looked behind me and saw my neighbor Steve looking at me like I had just lost my mind. Suddenly my rage-filled blindness was pulled away and I realized I was in the middle of my driveway in a robe, sitting in a camp chair while smoke pours out of my house.\n\n\"Hey Steve, just demon cleansing. No biggie. Relax, the house isn't on fire. You want a beer?\", I said calmly." ]	5
[WP] "Keep your friends close but your enemies closer" You took the saying literally and are now marrying the hero without him/her knowing your true identity	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Reality+Fiction%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Simple+Prompt%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/js5XDFB)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "My mother always taught me to be wise when it came to decisions of the heart. That didn’t mean falling head over heels for some shining Knight; gooey eyed and docile. That meant being smart; finding a man who could offer something in return, in the way only so few could.\n\nAt school we were taught at the highest level; us girls were intelligent, we came from money, we were beautiful and, hell, we knew it. We had our pick of the bankers, the celebrities and business tycoons. Carla Michaels lay her cards down early; she tied the knot with a wealthy footballer at nineteen and entertained us with weekly breakdowns of his shortcomings. Her goal had always been to live lavishly without work and she achieved it fast. Fair play to her.\n\nBut I aimed higher than that. All women swooned over those sports players because even the most handsome still had the vaguest sense of obtainability. It was the superheroes I was after. Those sanctimonious masked mad-men, chins held high on the national news, identity hidden, so proud of themselves. Asexual, possibly, at least they may as well have been. Well, I’d see wouldn’t I?\n\nTruth was, it went down exactly as I suspected it would. Underneath his lavish cape and gross latex super-suit were a pair of tighty-whities and a paunch belly. After a day of fighting for heroic justice, he’d collapse onto the sofa for a beer and a video game. After sex he’d pant and sweat and grin foolishly. So not asexual after all, though the sex was certainly nothing to write home about.\n\nOh, and he’d explain things to me, good old Captain Crusade. Things that were mind-bogglingly obvious, recited with the enthusiasm of an overzealous primary school teacher. It didn’t faze him that I could finish his damn sentences for him, whilst he struggled for the right vocabulary to educate me. And over time his carelessness saw his humble-brags grow less humble. So whilst initially I hadn’t set out to destroy him… in the end he just had it coming to him.\n\nIt started out with an urge to simply embarrass him. Well that’s natural isn’t it, when one’s got a narcissist on their hands? You’ve got to knock them down a peg or two. So I’d point it out to him each time he mispronounced words, which was often. There he was on national telly, mercifully hidden behind that godforsaken mask, pronouncing ‘diligent’ as ‘dig-i-lent’. I cackled and ribbed him, played it back, made him relive it, gave his ego the battering it needed; his round, baby-like face glowing red.\n\nBut he bounced back, old Captain Crusade. Next day he was at it again, stroking my hair and explaining that ‘women need more protection than men’. Vomit-inducing phrases such as, ‘I’ll take care of you, baby’ and ‘you’ve got me now’. Oooh, that was the moment I knew. My mission in life wasn’t to live lavishly like Carla, or pop out sprogs like Aisha. My mission was to show the world that these superheroes were the same old fragile, egotistical gorillas they hastily swiped past on their dating apps.\n\nI set him up with ease. I penned myself a villain name, donned a mask fit for the Moulin Rouge. I compiled a group of the most able women I knew; tough, poised women who didn’t crack under pressure, who thought rationally when I dropped the bomb scare. I sent Captain Crusade the call that these poor princesses were in trouble. Oh, it was the kind of situation he salivated over; no doubt he was imagining the press pictures of himself carrying some Damsel in Distress from a fiery building, the world cheering him on as usual.\n\nMy prime position as his lover had afforded me some very valuable insider knowledge: Captain Crusade would believe his sense of direction superior to that of his anonymous female nemesis. Thus when I directed him to the unlikely but correct spot of the hostages, I knew he’d take himself to the more probable part of the warehouse… where he'd find only his doting fiancé waiting for him. My second piece of insider knowledge was my dear husband-to-be's obsession for a woman in leather. Thus I’d created a costume for myself that the man would be unable to resist.\n\nThe only pictures the press got that day were my victims walking single-file from their dynamite-filled corner of the warehouse, whilst Captain Crusade was captured mask askew, lipstick stained, with his latex suit round his ankles.\n\nExplain that one, darling.", "She laughed without mirth or humor. Her laugh was one of madness, of anger, of pain. The sound was shrill and it matched her look. Clad in black clothes with white symbols that changed as you looked at them, symbols that hurt the eye and the mind. She stood in the middle of the room, surrounded by debris and detritus. Her entrance into the room was explosive, literally so.\n\nPeople ran from her, screaming with fear. Few people would willingly stand up to the Banshee the super villainess. Her voice was her weapon and she used it wantonly. Widespread property damage and civilian casualties were beneath her notice. She cared only about causing pain, and killing super heroes. When she could not kill heroes, she went after their families, or soon to be families.\n\nShe cackled at the man that stood in front of her. Unlike the others, he stayed still when she destroyed the wall. \"Well aren't you brave?\" she asked. Her ivory white eyes lacked pupils, flat orbits filled with pale marble. \"Good thing you didn't run away, I hate chasing after my victims.\"\n\nHe stared at her. \"Why am I your victim?\"\n\nShe giggled. \"Why not? I'm Banshee! I do what I want!\"\n\nHe snorted with remarkable disregard. \"Please. Yes you do what you want, but you always do it for a reason.\"\n\nHer laughter dissolved. Her eyes narrowed with suspicion. \"You seem to know a lot about me. How do you know that?\"\n\n\"You are Banshee as you said.\" His voice was deadpan, the tone of a person stating the obvious. \"Everyone knows you.\"\n\nShe cocked an ear. \"True, but you seem to really know me...\" She glared at him. \"I feel something familiar about you. Seriously, do I know you?\"\n\nHe shrugged. \"Perhaps. You still haven't answered my question. Why am I your victim?\"\n\nBanshee growled. Normally her victims ran screaming or pleaded for their lives. This was different. She hated it. \"You're taking all the fun out of this.\"\n\n\"I'm terribly sorry,\" he said in a way that was no where near apologetic. \"We all are having difficult times right now. For example,\" he brushed dust from his suit. \"You are ruining my Wedding day.\"\n\nA savage grin appeared on her lips. \"I am aren't I? Well that's half the point. You see, you're my victim but not my only victim. You're also my bait.\"\n\n\"For who?\"\n\nShe rolled her flat eyes. \"Who else you idiot? Your soon to be wife. Or maybe your soon to be widow? Then again if I kill you before you get married, she won't be a widow technically.\"\n\nIt was his turn for his eyes to narrow. \"What do you want with my wife?\"\n\nShe waggled her finger at him. \"Don't jump the gun. You haven't married her yet. Anyways, why should I tell you?\"\n\n\"Because you enjoy causing the maximum amount of pain. Why wouldn't you want me to despair, especially if I am the reason for her to suffer?\"\n\nOnce again she felt something tick in her mind, a caution, something telling her that she should know this man. She shook her head to rattle the thought away. \"Well, you're right so fine. I'll screech.\" She giggled at her joke. \n\nHe did not.\n\n\"The reason why I'm crashing your wedding is because I want your soon to be wife. I want her to see me kill you. Then I want to kill her.\"\n\n\"What has she done to you?\"\n\nBanshee grinned impossibly wide. \"Because she is my nemesis! The one that always tries to foil my plans and my actions. I'm sure this is a shock to you, but she is Solara, the Solar Heroine!\" The grin disappeared at his lack of surprise. \"Why aren't you freaking out?\"\n\n\"Because she told me,\" he said. He shook his head pityingly at her. \"I know her identity. You haven't told me anything that I don't already know.\"\n\n\"Oh.\" Banshee seethed inwardly. \"Well that's not fair.\"\n\nHe snorted. \"Really? Not fair? Are you that pathetic to act like a child who discovered that their big secret was actually not one?\"\n\nBanshee rose in the air. The symbols on her outfit shifted wildly. \"Pathetic?! I'll show you pathetic! I'll kill you now and let Solara sob over your corpse!\"\n\n\"Shut up.\"\n\nHer jaw hung open. \"What did you say to me?!\" \n\n\"I said, shut up.\"\n\nA tendril of black substance shot from the ground and wrapped around her neck. It gripped tightly, cutting off her supernatural scream and it slammed her to the ground. She tried to pull it off, her eyes growing wider as she saw more black tendrils surround the man, encasing him in purple-black shadows.\n\nHe gestured and she was dragged over to him. After a moment of struggling, the tendril around her neck loosened slightly.\n\n\"N-N-Noctis?!\" she coughed. \"No, it can't be!\"\n\nBut it is. Covered in shadows that undulated, he had no discernable mouth. His eyes were dark voids that could not contain his disdain. You always were so very incompetent Banshee. You never understood your place, never saw past your shortcomings.\n\n\"You, you're marrying Solara? You fought her so many times! Why would you do that? It makes no sense.\"\n\nIt makes perfect sense. Keep your friends close, keep your enemies closer.\n\nEven half choked she laughed crazily. \"So what, you're going to marry someone you hate? Make yourself miserable? Or is it some kind of long con?\"\n\nI do not truly hate Solara. In fact, I have come to love her very much. This way I can ensure she does not interfere with my plans. I can also...assist her from time to time.\n\n\"You love her?\" Banshee laughed even harder. \"I don't believe it. You hated her!\"\n\nSome say hate and love are two sides of the same coin. Noctis slowly closed his right fist and Banshee felt the tendril tightening around her neck. In your remaining moments ask yourself this: if I am willing to marry one that I used to hate, if I am willing to go to great lengths to defend her now, what do you think I will do to someone that I truly care nothing about?\n\nBanshee tugged at the tendril. \"No wait!\"\n\nNoctis did not wait. His hand clenched.", "Why does anyone fall in love? I could have married any other villain, started a dynasty of evil, but that just sounded dull to me. The other villains didn’t share his spark, didn’t share his passion for life. They never understood that villainy above anything else was just a job, a job that a person needs to clock out of from at times. He was one of those people, able to separate work from his home life, making time for our dates even knowing that my villainous ego had planted bombs beneath the city, that were ticking away. That’s just how much he loved me and in turn, I loved him back.\n\n \n\nI never intended to fall in love with the Blue hurricane, mainly because of his lame name, but also because we were two different people. I was a dazzling villain, and he was a goody two shoes hero. My love for him starting as a ruse, a way to get close to him before killing him in cold blood, the thought of it lightening up my dark heart. The idea of seeing his wide eyes as his lover pierced his heart. Oh, how amazing that sounded. Such a tragic death fit for a hero like him, I loved it more than anything.\n\n \n\nSo, I asked around, tracked him down until I found out his identity. Not a bad-looking guy, for a hero anyway. Who was I kidding? He was a looker, a dull dumb man but a looker none the less. Slowly I began my plan, acting in the role of his clumsy neighbor who just happened to drop her belongings when he arrived. This ruse continuing until eventually I asked him on a date. This was where my real fun began.\n\n \n\nI knew where he would be every day. Allowing me to set my evil schemes during our dates, making it impossible for him to foil them. Despite the advantage, I sportingly allowed him time to foil them, there was no excitement to be had in an easy victory, half the fun was watching him run between cities trying to stop me.\n\nWe continued our dates for a year and with every passing month, my villainous exploits grew smaller. I found myself less eager to cause mayhem, not when I could spend more time with him instead. Eventually he started doing the same, calling himself a part-time hero on the news, saying he was hoping to settle down. I had done it; I made him love me, now all I had to do was kill him.\n\nThe thought of killing him only saddened me now. The thought felt sick and perverse, not as joyous as I intended it to be. That’s when it hit me, I loved him. I didn’t want to be a villain anymore, I just wanted to share a life with him, and he felt the same way. Unable to allow myself to be proposed to, I went out and bought a ring. Like I would let him make the first move, I hadn’t in the past and I wouldn’t in the future.\n\n \n\nWe both cried that night, tearfully embracing each other as he said yes. That’s when he bawled his eyes out to me, crying about his secret identity. Telling me how bad of a boyfriend he was for lying about it and for missing dates to stop crimes. Holding him, I stroked his back, feeling a lump in my throat. I needed to tell him, but I couldn’t. Finally, I had my happiness. If he found out, it would crush him. I caused those guilty feelings, those feelings that now fled his eyes. I couldn’t cause him more pain.\n\n \n\nThe wedding was a small reception; I had no family, and his was dwindling in numbers, only an Uncle and a few friends on his side and no one on mine. Loneliness never had been an issue to me before, but now I wondered how I ever put up with it. As we danced along the floor, embracing one another, I felt my heart stop as a bullet echoed through the church.\n\n \n\nMy hand covered in red as he slumped forward into my grasp, holding the wound on his back. I tried desperately to hold him upright, slowly moving him onto the floor, lying him on his side, doing my best to apply pressure. The fellow patrons fled as a few masked villains entered, each one surrounding us.\n\n \n\n“You made this easy for us, Miss Vanta. You know, we always thought you were one of the better villains but to see you dancing to some lovesick song like this, that’s where we draw the line.”\n\n \n\nGaldin stood over him, pointing his gun at the downed hero. I tried desperately to cover him with my body, but all that did was earn a laugh from the group. Galdin rolling his eyes, placing his gun away.\n\n \n\n“Fine, if you want him to suffer that badly, I’ll leave him alive. Enjoy your last moments together. When you remember you’re a villain, visit me after your done grieving, I could always use another henchman.” He snickered, the strongest villain of them all coming to a wedding like this. How despicable could he be?\n\nI went to shout at Galdin only for my lips to be covered, the man I loved staring at me with the expression I wanted to see all that time ago, that look of utter hurt and confusion. I tried to convince him it would be alright, that he would survive. He had survived explosions and gunshots in the past. How would this be any different? I should have trusted that he knew better than anyone what he could take. His last action being to protect me, even while his heart shattered.\n\n \n\nI didn’t go to the funeral, I wouldn’t be able to show my face at such an event. Only watching the livestream at home with the rest of the world, clutching one of his ugly blue masks. Why did he have to fall in love with me? He could have had anyone, and yet he chose wrong. The autopsy revealed my worst suspicions; the bullet being a special blend, designed to take down a man like him. While I had been formulating my plan, the other villains were a step ahead of me, making their own.\n\n \n\nWith him gone, I didn’t know what to do with myself. The world lost a great man, perhaps the least I could do was ease the world’s suffering. Placing the mask over my head, I told myself I would kill Galdin and keep the Blue hurricane name alive.\n\n&nbsp;\n&nbsp;\n&nbsp;\n\n(If you enjoyed this feel free to check out my subreddit /r/Sadnesslaughs where I'll be posting more of my writing.)", "It's a well known fact to keep your friends close and your enemies even closer. I may have taken it too seriously.\n\nI stood at the altar waiting. Waiting for her arrival. Looking around, I recognised many faces on my soon to be wife's side of the wedding. None of them recognised me though. Today I was Jeremy. Jeremy Watson. \n\nThe seats on the left quickly filled up with many famous individuals. Actors, singers, models, other heroes, and her friends. Not her family though.\n\nI murdered them 5 years prior. What better bonding experience than over dead family members? I had told her that mine were dead too and I may have had something to do with that as well. \n\nWho am I you ask? It's better you don't know, and you won't. I exist in the shadows, controlling the plot behind the scenes, without a name, without strings.\n\nI glanced over and waved at the few individuals on the right side. What were their names? I'm sure they had their names listed when I bought their friendship hiring services.\n\nA loud noise echoed through the temple as the massive door opposite the altar was heaved open by two men on each side. There she was, my beautiful soon to be wife. \n\nAs we stood face to face with each other I began to get lost in her ocean eyes. Just like the ocean that I had drowned her mother in. I lifted her delicate finger and slid the ring on it. Her skin was smooth to the touch. Instinctively I leaned in to give her a kiss, her innocent lips welcoming me. I closed her eyes for her. I didn't want to be reminded of drowning her mother on this joyous occasion. Then our lips met. I slid my tongue inside of her mouth, just like I slid the knife deep inside her brothers organs. \n\nI stopped kissing her. Why was I getting all of these flashbacks. What was in the past, is in the past I reminded myself. \n\nThe crowd continued to cheer me on. If only they knew..." ]	5
[WP] Suddenly, neanderthals and cavemen were roaming the streets. Turns out, just like a videogame, people respawn and come back to life after dying, it just takes a couple ten thousand years.	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Reality+Fiction%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Simple+Prompt%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/js5XDFB)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", " A young man named John has just awoken, confused and disoriented from his slumber as a caveman. He was born into a tribe that lived in the neighboring forest, his father being the chief of their clan. They were hunters and gatherers by nature, living off whatever they could kill or gather. After waking up in an unfamiliar place with a pounding headache, he noticed that he was naked, and unsure of where he was at first until he saw the skyscrapers surrounding him. He knew this was no place for his people, so he decided to head back home. It wasn't long before he encountered other people like himself who were also dressed very strangely compared to him. Carrying strange weapons and wearing suits, these were definitely not his kind of people. He was soon captured by a group of police officers and thrown into a small white room where he met several other men who were dressed in the same way. They all had an odd accent, but they did not question him when he told them that he was from the forest. They seemed to be quite content with whatever story he gave them. He was assigned a number and a home, along with a job at some corporation. Once John was released from the station, he had no idea where to go or what to do. He didn't even know what century it was in, so he decided to wander around for a while until he could figure out what his purpose was on this strange new world. He wandered for days, finding odd clothing stores and convenience stores that sold strange foods he'd never seen. He was beginning to feel like an outsider, but he still felt strangely at home. It was a strange feeling that he couldn't quite describe, but it made him feel better than he had ever felt in his entire life. A week had passed since John's discovery of this new world and he was becoming more acquainted with it every day. He could understand the language now and knew where everything was located in relation to each other. He had even learned how to ride a bus by himself. Everything he needed was within walking distance from his apartment so he rarely used it anymore, except when he wanted to go out on the town with friends or meet up with family members. After several months of living in this new world, John began to realize that it wasn't so different from the one he came from after all. There were many people who were kind and others who cared nothing for anyone else. Just like every other place John had been in his life, there were good people and bad people here as well. They were spread out everywhere and you just never knew which ones you would run into on any given day. He soon became accustomed to the way things worked here, learning how to interact socially without making too much of a fool out of himself. He found a job at a small software company doing quality assurance testing while attending night school for programming classes, hoping one day he could become a great programmer. He began to make friends with his co-workers as time went on and kept close ties with them, becoming part of their group outside of work as well. It didn't take long for John to notice that many of them seemed lonely sometimes and would prefer spending their free time alone rather than going out with friends or family members like most people did back home. Some would even lock themselves away in their apartments for weeks at a time, working constantly on whatever project they were assigned or possibly working on something entirely original depending on what kind of person they were. John wasn't sure why these people acted this way sometimes, but he supposed it might have something to do with all the pressure they got from their jobs and maybe even from society itself because if you weren't busy working then there must be something wrong with you somehow. No matter how hard everyone tried to get along and live together peacefully though, conflict still arose between humans just as it did between cavemen back home only now it happened much quicker due to advances in technology and communication mediums such as cell phones and email that allowed people to communicate faster than ever before. John's job at the software company was quite demanding as well, having to test all of the new features that his co-workers had implemented into their latest project. It wasn't long before he began to feel worn out and stressed from the work he was given every day. He began to notice that his health was beginning to suffer because of it, and eventually just started taking sick days when he was too burnt out to do any more work. His friends were trying to help him get better by inviting him out with them for dinner or parties, but John found that they only invited him because they felt bad for him and didn't know what else to do. It didn't take long before John lost interest in programming altogether. He used to love coming up with new ideas and coding them into reality, even a simple game could bring a smile on his face back home, but now working with computers seemed like torture. He still went into work every day though because he had bills to pay and had no other way of supporting himself financially. One day while John was sitting at his desk doing some work on an assignment, one of his coworkers came up behind him and asked if he wanted to join them for lunch today instead of working through it like usual. As much as John wanted to go out with them today, he knew he couldn't afford any more time away from work so he told them he would have to pass this time around. They understood and walked back over towards their desks where they continued working on whatever project they were assigned this week while john continued working on his own assignment in silence. John thought about talking with them about how they always seemed so sad sometimes when they thought no one was looking, but decided against it thinking it might hurt their feelings if they knew he noticed how unhappy they seemed sometimes. It was probably just something everyone went through in life that you had to push past in order to continue living your life normally like everyone else did. John never really thought about what made him happy anymore since his father died several years ago back home in the forest where he grew up hunting deer, cutting wood and living off whatever food nature provided for his tribe every single day. Happiness seemed like such a silly thing after all that happened back home and even here in this strange world where people were unable to make each other happy due to all the conflict going on between them whether it be internally or externally. John wasn't sure why everything had gone wrong lately, but seeing everyone around him depressed so often made him want to withdraw from society as well until something changed for the better again or maybe even forever depending on what else happened between now and then wherever \"then\" may be someday. Perhaps it wouldn't matter anyway once everyone died and came back again according to some weird law of nature that made sense only if you think about it in a certain way while drinking lots of alcohol late at night while high on different kinds of drugs which is really what most people did nowadays anyway despite their best efforts not doing so out of fear of being judged by others who acted otherwise regardless of how self-righteous they acted saying that everyone should follow the same rules simply because those are the rules everyone follows without question under penalty of death... or possibly worse depending on who you ask.", "After three hours of sitting attached to the fence to which I’d chained myself, once the countless police on-site had managed to find a pair of heavy-duty bolt cutters, I was pulled to my feet and handcuffs closed around my wrists. Head held high, I walked to the nearby squad car, where I took a seat next to two other protestors. And, sitting there in silence, waiting to be transported to the nearby precinct for processing, I reflected.\n\nThe first few that appeared across Eurasia were an anomaly and videos that went viral were presumed to be a prank. But it didn’t take long for more Neanderthals to respawn, and when they did, it seemed like an exponential growth. Their numbers weren’t anywhere near ours when they’d existed, but they were plentiful enough to become a problem.\n\nAt first, the most depressing part was the amount, them and us, who had died when they’d lashed out in their confusion. Self-defense was the clear motive against the ones who attacked the bright lights and moving machines they found themselves among. Of course, there were also the ones who were just plain scared; they were gently led to nearby police stations and mental institutions to be put on ice until we figured out what to do with them.\n\nThey weren’t intelligent enough to be integrated into society and they weren’t able to live as they’d done in their past. The lands they’d roamed had changed, their food sources, their water sources, everything that built the lives they’d led had changed drastically and they couldn’t simply be left to fend for themselves.\n\nAt first, world leaders tried to figure out a way to build some sort of nature preserves for them, and some countries indeed managed to do just that. But of course, human greed eventually wound its tendrils into the issue. They could do simple tasks, couldn’t they? All we needed to do was train them to live in confined facilities and they could be an asset to humanity, giving them food and housing in exchange.\n\nSlaves. That’s what they’d turned into, and anyone saying anything else is lying.\n\nI’d been Army, before being dishonorably discharged, on assignment to help settle the Neanderthals into the camps that would house them and the buildings they’d work in to occupy their time. Problems started immediately when they rebelled, not wanting to be left to a life of indentured servitude, but the ones who rose up were simply imprisoned. When one female lashed out, clearly refusing to assimilate to the life she was being forced into, I ended up defending her from physical abuse, breaking a superior’s nose. And that was the end of that for me.\n\nThat left me on the outside looking in, unable to change anything, unable to help them. And so here I sit, refusing to back down and determined to give these beings their lives back. All it would take in each country is a decision from someone powerful. We could do it without too much trouble, create places for them to live and, as more gradually appeared, let them integrate with their own kind. The only thing that stands in our way is our cruelty, our instinct to subjugate and separate and demean those we deem different. It’s the human way, unfortunately. \n\nI knew, sitting in that police squad car, cold steel tight around my wrists behind me, that it would take a lot more than one protest. But from the looks on my fellow protestors’ faces, they were willing to put in the time over and over to fix things. So, I settled in, leaning against the door, staring at the building behind the tall walls that made it a prison. Knowing that as soon as I got released, likely I’d be back in the same spot as soon as I was able. Fighting for those who could not fight for themselves.\n\n&#x200B;\n\n/r/storiesbykaren" ]	3
[WP] The doctor gives you and your family the bad news: You have contracted Anime Protagonist Syndrome. You only have a month to get your affairs in for before you must pick your genre.	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Reality+Fiction%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Simple+Prompt%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/js5XDFB)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "Ginny sat at her desk quietly reading the latest manga her parents had bought her. Another vapid romance story.\n\nUgh...They're not being very subtle, are they?\n\nGinny stretched and meandered down the hall, mulling through her current situation. It had only been two days since she and her parents had gotten the news. She had Stage 4 Anime Protagonist Syndrome. She absently played with her hair, which was already contorting into an unnatural, gravity defying shape. Streaks of pastel color poked out beneath her perfectly simple brown hair.\n\nGinny could hear her parents in the dining room, crying. She wanted to go talk to them, but stopped short. Ever since the diagnosis, they had started to hide their feeling with fake smiles and forced optimism. Ginny was poorly hidden behind the open door to the dining room, but her symptoms were already progressed far beyond the need to hide well.\n\n\"What if she chooses magical girl or giant mecha? There's so many deconstructions! Have you seen Madoka Magca or Bokurano?\" Ginny's mother, whose name was already being replaced in her mind as just \"Mom\", was sobbing to her father. \"Well, she's a responsible girl. There's no way she would choose to leave us for isekai. Although, the possible side effects of Tragic Backstory and Absent Father are worrying...\"\n\n\"There's not much we can do.\" Ginny's dad was staring grimly at his coffee, breakfast untouched. \"I have to go to work, now. Sorry I can't eat breakfast, it looks great!\"\n\nGinny retreated to her room, mulling her options. She thought back to the doctor's office, her parents crying as the doctor explained Ginny's choices to her. Isekai, harem, magical girl, slice of life, romance, mecha...The doctor had warned that current studies suggested that none of them could guarantee safety or happiness. While more likely in some than others, each genre had the potential to be a deconstruction or aversion of expected tropes. Even romance and slice of life carried possible pitfalls and tragedy.\n\nShe thought grimly of her grade school friend, George, who had foolishly chosen harem anime. His life became a disaster as his parents died, and he was forced to move into an all girls' orphanage. He had to disguise himself as a girl while one by one they all fell in love with him.\n\nJust a few weeks to decide the course of the rest of my life...I'm only fourteen...no pressure.\n\nThe next three weeks were filled with a dizzying amount of paperwork. Which relative would adopt her if her parents fell to a tragic backstory side effect? Who would inherit her property if she were whisked away to another world? She had to submit to the government a list of \"designated confidants\" in case she chose magical girl or gained supernatural powers. These things had to be registered, after all. How else would the TV stations know who to follow and film for broadcasts?\n\nMy life isn't my own, now. The bitterness was threatening to overtake Ginny as she finished up the documentation. \"Voyeurs, the lot of them! They will actually enjoy watching my life change forever, my family possibly fall apart, and...\" Tears began to sting her eyes as the thought threatened to overtake her. Don't go down that hole. It might lead to a Madoka situation. Stay calm. I need to focus on the outcome I want, so it's not random or subconscious.\n\nHer parents came into her room that night, promising that whatever choice she made, they would love her and support her.\n\nThe next morning, Ginny woke up to an odd chirping noise on her computer. There was a little pulsing egg, bouncing around the screen. After a few moments, it hatched. A light enveloped the screen, exited the computer entirely, and coalesced on the floor into a living creature. It was an odd, round bird creature.\n\n\"Hi,\" it squeaked. \"I'm Puwamon! It's so nice to meet you!\" Ginny braced herself. This wasn't what she intended, she had wanted a peaceful and cute slice of life.\n\nOh well, she thought, this definitely isn't the worst outcome. This could even be fun.\n\n\"Hi, Puwamon, I'm Ginny!\" The creature was warm and soft to pet.\n\nShe ran to her wardrobe, and immediately was taken aback at the clothes. They weren't the simple, unremarkable t-shirts and jeans she had bought most of her life. They were odd, a light white shirt, brown leather trench coat, and boots. She glanced up to the shelf to see a pair of goggles laying neatly on top of a strange phone like device. Shrugging, she got dressed.\n\nHer breath caught in her throat as she scooped up Puwamon and made her way to the door. I wonder how they'll take this. Will they send Puwamon away?\n\nGathering up her courage, she called out to her mom and dad from down the hall." ]	2
[WP] The bargain was struck. Humanity would never fear death again. Death would still come for them, that was unavoidable, but on their terms and in their own time. Once a year, every year, death would come for us; the difference was now we could say, "Not today."	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Reality+Fiction%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Simple+Prompt%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/js5XDFB)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", " \n\nDeath finally came for my father. This was last year, just at the start of the winter and I haven’t really had time to process his decision. He was only forty-five when he agreed to go, and we all balled when he made the decision. But really, I think it’s important to understand how he got to that decision, and why it was perhaps one of the bravest decisions he’d ever made in his otherwise ordinary life.\n\nWhen Death first arrived, it was in the middle of dinner. Mom and dad and insisted on the old tradition of gathering around the table to eat, and dinner talk happened as it tends to do when you get a bunch of people to sit awkwardly at the same table. I was complaining about school and some of the stupid things my friends were doing that had gotten us in trouble. I was mid-sentence when the lights flickered once, and then there it was.\n\nThere was no dark, dirty, and tattered robe with a hood. There was no scythe. None of the trappings we (or at least I) had associated with Death. It was spectral, and without a real form while still somehow giving off an impression of a form. I think we all stopped breathing at the same time while we waited. Waited for a terribly long moment while expecting… something? I don’t know what since I pretty much expected everyone at the table to tell ole Grimm to get lost, but still. There was a tension that I still can’t define. I just know what it wasn’t, and it wasn’t fear.\n\nNo one was afraid of death anymore since we all knew we couldn’t up and die without warning. It just happened one day where we suddenly recognized that dying was something we had to agree to, though no one has explained how or why and is still debated by people a lot smarter than I am. I just want to get through this last year of high school and go do… something. I don’t know what, but that’s why I’m writing this.\n\nAnyways, Death came to dinner and we waited until it lifted a limb (arm?) towards my dad. We all relaxed then. Well, my dad didn’t but would you? I’ve heard about people putting Death off for years without a second though, but here my own father was, and he hesitated.\n\n“Can you come back in three days?” he said, finally breaking the silence.\n\nWe all erupted. We were all confused and hurt, I think, that he didn’t tell Death to just go away. They would have come back next year, and we would have had plenty of time to get things ready if he said yes. More than anything I think we all got angry because him asking Death to come back meant he was going to say yes, and we didn’t want that. But that was three days to try and convince him to say no to Death, to delay his death for another year.\n\nNone of us want him to go. We loved him.\n\nDad didn’t get defensive, Bless him, he could be patient with us – especially me for all the times I know I deserved some sort of punishment – instead he kept his voice level and said, “I just have some things I want to think about.”\n\n“So tell it no!” Danny said. Only a year younger than me, but he knew it as much as I did. “Get that year!”\n\n“I probably will,” dad replied, but my mother was already weeping and so he got up to comfort her. The two of them went back to their room, and my brother and I didn’t eat another bite. No one was hungry after that.\n\nDeath, meanwhile, had left without a word. That was its way. Before it never argued, it just took, and we were left picking up the pieces, or so some of the people on the internet say. I can’t imagine what that must have been like. People you knew and loved just gone one day without a word… I get really anxious thinking about that. Like, if that happened to me, how would mom or Danny react? My friends at school? No goodbye, no heads-up, nothing. Just a hole where I used to be.\n\nGod that’s horrifying.\n\nAnyways, my dad talked to us over those three days. He’d asked Death to come back, in part because he had been working on his made-up language – he went to college for linguistics and had been working for years on something he called an international auxiliary language as a kind of hobby. It was his life’s work.\n\nIt is his life’s work.\n\n“I’m hoping that it’ll be simple enough for kids to grasp, yet functional enough we’re not talking like toddlers,” he joked on time.\n\nI walked into his office on the third day, and that’s when we talked. I had been pretty upset with him, so I’d avoided him the past two days. I remember him being in his office when I got home from school, books sprawled out around his desk as he was jumping back and forth to make notes.\n\nI knocked once and he looked up. A big smile lit up his face, and he seemed really excited. He greeted me the way he usually did, “Heya kiddo. I’m just wrapping up for the day. My IAL is almost done, I’ve only got a few more adjustments to make and then I’ll ask some people to review it before I go to the public. Isaac said he’s looking forward to trying it out.”\n\nI didn’t really reply much, just kind of nodded. I didn’t really get his work, though he was always trying to share it with me – God I was always annoyed, now I’ll never hear him go on about it.\n\nHe pulled out his spare chair and asked me to sit. We talked about Death and how they’d be back today, and I asked him if he would say no. He told me he probably would. He still needed to finish his language and there was probably a few more years of research and development he still had to do. It helped me relax, and it was like my anger melted away. We went on to talk about school, and track, and before we knew it my mom came in to get us for dinner.\n\nShe stepped up to the door and knocked twice to get our attention. We smiled back at her and let her know we’d be there in just a moment. But then we got back into talking.\n\nDanny came up next and rapped on the door repeatedly, “Dinners ready, mom wants to know the hold up.”\n\nWe told him we were coming and started to stand up. He left and we started making our way back to the dining room where mom and Danny were waiting.\n\nThen, Death knocked.\n\nIt was at the front door, and we didn’t know it right then until dad answered the door. Death stood there waiting for an answer. Again, no form just the impression of a form. Tilting its head to one side like it was waiting to hear my dad say, “no.”\n\nThat word never came, and the longer my dad didn’t say it, the more dread we all felt. He turned to us, and there was a smile I’d only seen a few times. A kind of sad smile before he said, “I’m sorry everyone. I’ve been lying to you. I wanted these last three days to be time I spent with each of you, and to have good memories for when I’m gone. But I’m going now.”\n\nThat’s when we started crying, and my brother and mom got up from the table. They rushed to him and hugged him, but I stood there in the hallway in shock. “What do you mean? Why!?” I was angry (wouldn’t you be?) and I was yelling through my tears. “You said you were going to say no!”\n\n“Yes,” he agreed, “I did. Because if you all knew I was going to say yes, you would have spent the last three days arguing with me and trying to change my mind. I didn’t want that. But there’s something about this that feels right, and I think I have to go now. Otherwise, if I put it off a year or two, when will I stop? When I’m old and crippled and in pain? No. I just needed my final days spent with you three. I didn’t need a year. Just three days.”\n\nI ran over to them and joined the hug, because I knew that the next thing would be my father was gone forever from my life.\n\nI don’t know what I had hoped to share with you in this rambling mess of a blog post. Maybe I was hoping to work through my grief, or maybe I’m just fishing for conversation with people who’ve had a similar experience…. I don’t know.\n\nBut maybe, when Death comes for me, I can be brave like my father, and spend my last moments with the ones I love. No putting it off and no stretching it out. Maybe I can make my life about the quality instead of the quantity." ]	2
[WP] You are a new prisoner in an underground mine. Every week the jailors bring buckets of gruel to feed the imprisoned. You notice that one particular prisoner in the corner never eats. When you ask why, a fearful silence befalls the others.	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Reality+Fiction%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Simple+Prompt%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/js5XDFB)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", " The coughing never seemed to stop. At times it felt like I could hear lungs falling on dusty floors as I laid in bed, staring into the darkness. I’d been there for a month so far, and it was back-breaking work; each morning, I awake, shit, and go to the mines. Not that I don’t live in them, no, we all do, just to the side, off a little hallway. They make us carve our own cells from the rock. I had finally finished mine yesterday and they brought in a bed.\n\nMy body is so covered from bruises, my skin, cracked and bleeding, that the softness of the mattress was agony to me; I had grown so accustomed to the pain, I had forgotten what relief was. Each week, they brought a giant bucket of gruel and set it in the center of our circle, our rooms carved out of the sides. It was a fight, to get any of it as other prisoners gorged themselves, clawing with what little strength they had, ripping flesh off in chunks from the emaciated bodies of the weaker creatures.\n\nThat’s what I felt we were, nothing but creatures, fighting, biting, clawing. We never saw who brought it, it just appeared. Even if you were awake the whole night, as many of us were (that coughing, always the coughing), you never saw it being brought in. Thankfully, I had been strong enough to fight my way to the gruel the last few weeks. I had broken a man’s arm, just with a downward stomp, nothing too hard, but his hands were where mine should have been; he was eating my gruel.\n\nThe first two weeks I didn’t notice him, always in his cell when the gruel came, but never growing weaker. He looked thin, but strong, a rare combination in the mines. The sound of the bell tingles my ears, a sign that the gruel has come. I move slowly out of bed, watching the others scramble. Walking to the bucket, I grab one of the creatures by the hair and throw him back; my foot connects with the jaw of another. I pry another’s fingers off the side of the bucket, the sound of cracking bones and joints joining the raucous chorus of grunts and squeals. I take a large handful and stuff it in my mouth, the tasteless semi-liquid sliding down my throat.\n\nOne of them lunges at me, but I stop him with a punch, throwing him to the ground. He hisses at me; I stepped to him and brought my foot down on his head, blood spilling on the floor. His lifeless eyes stared at me from beyond death. I sneered and returned to the gruel, sharing it with those I deemed strong enough. We ate in silence, occasionally grabbing the weaker ones by a limb or their hair, throwing them to the ground. Many of them retreated to their cells, nursing their wounds, hoping to have a chance next week.\n\nMy stomach began to ache from the overload of food, but I continued to stuff it down anyway. The acid inside of me bubbled up, and I stifled the urge to vomit. If I ever did, I always made sure to leave it as a present for one of the weaker ones. I finally stopped when we reached the end of the bucket. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw him, moving out of his cell towards us.\n\n“You,” I said, turning to face him, “why don’t you join the fight?”\n\nHe laughed, and everyone stopped what they were doing. His thin fingers wrapped themselves around the arm of the man I’d stomped. Lifting him, he hoisted him onto his shoulder and smiled at me, “Meat makes a man stronger; gruel brings him a slow death.”\n\nr/AinsleyAdams", "An old isolated town, formerly a mining town of Solemn was nothing like its namesake. Its old mining cave was closed down decades ago-- driving its life and business to the ground, and the town was deserted. Only in recent years it was taken over by the government-- reviving it into a whole facility of underground prison system.\n\n\"Get out, Walter. It's your new home\", the agent pulled on the young man's chained handcuff-- finding some sort of sick pleasure in doing so looking down on his fellow men. \n\nWalter-- a hardened criminal that he was maintained his composure. Stepping out of the van he looked on the giant archway before him-- creeping darkness he witnessed beyond.\n\nThe prison was infamous for one reason-- nobody that gets in ever gets out. \n\n\"He's your problem now, warden\", the agent who delivered Walter handed his custody to the prison's warden-- a man bearing a similar expression to Walter, hardened although with no hint of life left behind his eyes.\n\nSparing no words, he nodded to the agent and turned back-- letting his guards escorted Walter inside while he led in silence.\n\nA steep set of stairs extended downward straight to the belly of the earth. Buzzing of old neon lights accompanied the men's descend-- clear footsteps and rattling of chains echoed around the dirt walls.\n\n\"So...this is the Solemn prison\", Walter finally spoke breaking the uncomfortable silence. \"Seems comfortable enough\"\n\n\"Silence, prisoner\", the warden finally broke his own silence.\n\n\"Oh you speak, I thought you were mute for some reason\", Walter said sarcastically.\n\n\"Conversations are a privilege for the living-- down here, we're all as good as dead\", the warden whispered the cryptic warning without so much as offering Walter a glimpse.\n\n\"Oh goodie, aren't you all sunshine and rainbow\", Walter rolled his eyes. \"Don't you need to put me through orientation of something first? Show me where things are, the schedule, everything?\"\n\n\"You'll find out as you go\", the warden said seemingly becoming more exasperated although no hint of annoyance was in his tone-- simply uncompassionate. \n\nThe men escorted Walter into a chamber, smaller cave openings were dug out on its walls bearing numbered placard on top of each one. Walking through the one marked \"401-500\" on the very right, it didn't take long for Walter to see the rows of barred cells on both sides of the hallway.\n\nIf at first Walter was uncaring of his fate, after seeing the expressions of each prisoner sitting behind every cell a dreary feeling came to him. The prisoners seemingly had lost all of the colors on their faces, similar to those of the warden's and the guards'.\n\n\"Here we are\", stopping in front of cell 453 Walter was shoved inside after his handcuffs were taken off. A loud smashing sound of the metal bars echoed behind his back-- Walter gaze defeated at his home for the foreseeable future. A barely cube-shaped room with its corners lazily dug out, a single bed with dirty sheet and pillow, and a hole on the ground as the toilet.\n\n\"The guards will come around three times a day for your meal. Every day starting from 8am to 1pm you will work in the mining hall. Lights out at 7pm\", the warden quickly recited and left before Walter could even utter one of the many questions he had.\n\n\"Oh you've gotta be kidding me...\", he muttered hesitantly looking down the dirt hole. Holding on a vomit he went straight to bed-- wondering what would his future be in this unusual place.\n\n//////\n\n\"Hey Joe, did you see Randy anywhere? I couldn't find him\", asked Walter to Joe-- his neighboring cellmate during the mining time of the day.\n\n\"He's gone, Walt. He's gone\", Joe said bearing that same expression everybody had.\n\n\"What do you mean he's gone? He was released? Heh-- I thought nobody leaves from this place\", Walter remarked smashing his pickaxe onto the rocky ground.\n\n\"He's gone. He's gone\", Joe said without offering any explanation. \n\nWalter frowned but he didn't push on, seeing Joe-- the man seemed to be scared sharing whatever it was that happened to Randy although he clearly knew something. Catching Joe's eyes, Walter noticed he kept eyeing a particularly out of place cell located on the far end of the mining hall.\n\n\"Hey Joe, who's imprisoned in that cell? He seems important being separated from everybody\", Walter said nodding towards it.\n\nJoe however, mumbled incoherently-- scurrying away from Walter like a scared puppy.\n\n\"Keep working, prisoner!\", a guard yelled at Walter. \n\nHaving his curiosity piqued, Walter slowly made his way towards the cell. Less and less people were there as he closed in towards the cell, not even the guards roamed close to it. \n\nIt was a similarly built cell surrounded by many small and dark cave openings leading deeper into the ground. As Walter got as close as he could he saw a figure sitting inside. A man in the same prisoner jumpsuit as his with no number, sitting uncomfortably straight-- unmoving. His face however, was a contrast to everybody in the prison. He had on his face, a smile. A smile which was supposed to be calming and inviting, yet so forced it gave a sense of uneasiness.\n\n\"What the--\", Walter muttered unable to take his gaze off the man.\n\n\"Prisoner! Get back here immediately!\", the guard's voice snapped Walter out of his stupor. A pair of strong arms grabbed Walter by his collar, dragging him off.\n\n\"Mining time's over! Get back to your cells!\", another guard ordered. Like children in a kindergarten the prisoners dropped their pickaxes and limped weakly back to their respective cells. Walter however, couldn't take his eyes off the mysterious man behind the cell as he was dragged back to his own.\n\n//////\n\n\"Joe, who is the man behind that cell? There's something about him that's just...different\", Walter asked lying on his bed staring at the ceiling.\n\n\"You don't want to know, friend\", Joe's voice answered from his cell.\n\n\"But I do! I'm just curious!\"\n\n\"Everybody did...at first. When they found out what he actually is, they stopped asking\"\n\n\"What he is?\", Walter asked.\n\n\"Light out, prisoner! No more sound!\", the guard yelled the warning.\n\nSighing, Walter closed his eyes trying to go to sleep. In his mind however, that smile still lingered in front of his eyes. As he drifted off to sleep, he made a promise to himself to get closer to the cell the very next day.\n\nContinued to part 2\n\nEdit: a word" ]	3
[WP] A village sits in a remote forest. Some try to leave, but nobody ever returns.	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Reality+Fiction%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Simple+Prompt%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/js5XDFB)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "Once the sunlight filtered through the thick oak trees, it would never be able to pry out of the shadow of darkness. This reminded me of the day my parents left. I remember their feverish eyes, enticed by the outside, as they promised to return by dusk, bringing home gifts of food and water. Their feet intoxicated, as they stumbled towards the rays of sunlight. As the sun sheltered out of sight, I scanned the forest, twiddling my thumbs, waiting in anticipation to run to them as they appeared out of the woods. But they never did. I walked in circles. Then larger circles. But they never appeared. That night, I squeezed my eyes shut with my brother stroking my upper back, as I signed the deal that my parents would return home when I woke up the next morning. They never did." ]	2
[WP] "So welcome to the office. That's Chuck, our accounting manager. There's Cindy, the team lead. This is Kalgor, Conquerer of Stars and Master of the Black Hole Dominion, our receptionist."	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Reality+Fiction%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Simple+Prompt%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/js5XDFB)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", " \\[Working at Fun\\]\n\n\"...of the Black Hole Dominion, our receptionist.\" Louise briefly introduced the other three employees currently in the break room. Chuck and Cindy sat together at one of the small round tables; Kalgo sat alone at his table. They all waved politely at Louise and the new hire, Tina.\n\n\"Everyone, this is Tina, Follower of the Sunblessed Path, and Guardian of the Glade.\" The three employees offered half-hearted waves, then returned to their business. Chuck and Cindy returned to whispering and Kalgo returned to his breakfast taco.\n\n\"So,\" Louise turned to Tina. \"Take a break if you like, introduce yourself to Kalgor, just be back at my office in 20 minutes to finish up the orientation.\" Louise nodded, then walked out of the small break room. Technically, the break room was pretty big; Tina guessed it to be almost 3 bedrooms wide. However, the problem was only a handful of tables and chairs were clustered near the corner counter. Two microwaves sat on the counter next to a stall, white, shiny fridge. A red star logo sat on the right door. It was the newest thing Tina had seen in the building so far. After a moment, Tina approached Kalgor's table and sat down across from him.\n\n\"What do you think?\" He asked, then took another bite of taco.\n\n\"It's everything you said in the ad,\" Tina replied. Kalgor nodded while he chewed; a broad smile formed over his bulging cheeks.\n\n\"I have to ask, why so cheap?\" Tina added. Kalgor shrugged, but tilted his head at Tina.\n\n“Are you a Zero?” he asked. She nodded. “I’m Unique. #35, la Estrella,” he said. “Once you get to a certain point, it’s all the same. Every universe is just a big game with different rules. You start looking for new ways to have fun; this is that for me.”\n\n“You have fun selling level-one servers with O.P. gear for cheap?” she asked. “Or, scamming people out of money for counterfeits?\" Kalgor chuckled, but shook his head.\n\n\"I have fun grinding for that high-level gear,\" he said. \"Once I'm bored, I move on. The money is just an afterthought. And, nanos don't allow counterfeits to even exist in the AlterNet. It's the real deal, go ahead and try it out.\" Tina narrowed her eyes at Kalgor. He responded by shoving the last taco bite in his mouth.\n\n\"Okay,\" Tina nodded and stood from her seat. She walked to the fridge and placed her right hand on the red star. She formed a clear picture in her mind of crispy gold; \"Fish 'n chips,\" she said. Then, she opened the fridge to find it barren. The interior glowed with soft white light. All the drawers and most of the shelves were empty. On the middle glass shelf sat a white plate with a steaming hot serving of fish 'n chips.\n\nTina pulled the plate out, and let the door close. She held the plate with her left hand, then she leaned on the red star with her right. \"Sharp Cola,\" she said. She opened the door once more to get the white can of soda from the empty fridge, then returned to Kalgor's table.\n\n\"I'll take it,\" she said as she sat.\n\n\"Just to avoid misunderstandings; the whole server, right?\" Kalgor asked for confirmation.\n\n\"If you're willing to let it go at that price,...\" she said with a smile. Tina pulled her node out and Kalgor did likewise, but Tina paused. She glanced at Chuck and Cindy still deep in their own whispered conversation.\n\n\"Have you spent any talent points on them?\" she asked. Kalgor shook his head.\n\n\"I couldn't help leveling them up, but I didn't spend any points. I've actually got enough materials and perks stored up to get you up to middle-management. That's why I'm still just the receptionist,\" he grinned.\n\n\"I'm so in,\" Tina said. Their deal popped up on their nodes and they each agreed. Once Tina saw the transaction go through, a new 'Mod' icon appeared on her node screen. \"Thank you!\" she cheered as Kalgor stood from the table.\n\n\"You're welcome and good luck. I'm going to go start a new game again.\" He gave her a wave with his left hand while he wiggled the fingers on his right hand at the air. A black portal opened up, but Tina interrupted him.\n\n\"Wait! Where did you get the Conqueror of Stars title?\" she asked.\n\n\"At the Star Academy,\" he said, but shook his head. \"Sorry, only Estrellas qualify.\"\n\n\"Oh,\" she sighed. \"Okay. Thanks!\" She waved. He waved in return, then stepped into the portal.\n\n\"Good luck,\" she heard him say before the portal disappeared.\n\n\"Hey Tina!\" Louise yelled from outside the breakroom. \"Phones are waiting!\" Tina giggled and focused on her node. As far as the system was concerned, she was the receptionist now; but, not for long.\n\n\"I'm not ready yet,\" Tina said. She tapped the 'Mod' button on her node then 'Pause' on the next menu that came up. Time froze, and Tina took a moment to relax and wonder how she wanted to play this game. \n\n \n\n\\\\\\*\n\nThank you for reading! I’m responding to prompts every day. This is story #1133 in a row. (Story #037 in year four.) You can find all my stories collected on my subreddit ([r/hugoverse](https://www.reddit.com/r/hugoverse/)) or my blog." ]	2
[WP] "Hey, so that human we abducted is refusing to leave. It said humanity sucks and that it would rather go with us. It also asked me if I had a girlfriend- whatever that means."	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Reality+Fiction%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Simple+Prompt%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/js5XDFB)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", " I am so confused. I have been taught some Humish (which is what I'm writing this in so that humans can read it too) but I haven't understood its nuances. How can a concept verb? That's like saying \"Existence sings\" or, as we say in Q'iop \"Etxa moris\" (Ethica moriise in Humish soundletters) which literally means \"Talking Moris\", a mouse like thing from Q'a, and it means something impossible. Morisa do not talk. Morisa sqik. That's pronounced skich for all you Humans reading this. \n\nX'po (Chippo) is like a mate but we're not actually mating for the purposes of mating. We actually enjoy the process and are not mating for its own sake. We actually fail to successfully produce offspring because we have methods in place to prevent us from creating offspring if we do not desire any. We are also not \"bonded\" (K'pia, pronounced Kuhvia) where we settle down together as our mates for life, unless we are dissatisfied with each other. At this point, K'pia is only a party for fun and games and food.\n\nThe human called him \"Chips\" which is evidently some kind of ineg (there's a sound we have that's like the end of your word \"sing\" but without the i and without the hard g at the end, this word is pronounced ngeg) and humans little pool it in a type of music. I don't understand how \"dip\" means both a type of body and water and you can verb dipping too (I think it's dipping, I might be mistaken).\n\nI understand the human. Back on Q'a -- which is evidently some type of drink here, with leaves and milk and what you call spice -- the binary (two gender) Q'i were forced to do work at home,, while fluid (that's what you call humans that aren't' man or woman?) Q'i were forced to fight in battles. They eventually overthrew the weird Q'iloup (Pronounced Kleeyoop, even though Q'i is pronounced Chii) government and we decided to spread our message. \n\nI hate it when specimens try to ask questions about me as if I were an animal: \"You \\[i don't know what this word means but it's censored, i think it means mate with\\] her?!!! She's so ugly!\" \\[This man was traced using technology that traced ips of people that used this communication system called 4chan\\]; \"Wait... you're a GIRL? \\[I think that means woman\\] GIRLS are allowed to be aliens???\" \\[This guy lived in a Florida house with an orange face man and a woman specimen that had some chemicals on her face that made it look \"prettier\" to humans; this was a 15 year old human, so approximately 7.5 rotations. It makes sense that this would be the truth because the orange faced man was well known for being rude towards women.\\].\n\nOur next stop is a peaceful conference with the leader of the Humish Merca Stats, a gentle, old man (40!! 40!! how do humans pull that off?? Orange Face was 38 for the record.) We hope to stop the stuff this man was talking about that made him not want to go back to earth.\n\nThis man talked about how his skin color made him more likely to get darted (except more lethal and fast) and that there was a disease going around that people refused to believe in. He also said Orange Face was the Merca's former leader!!! This man was only 10, and he was already in such dire straits in life! I think that phrase means utter and complete brain horror.\n\nI have to go to the descent bay soon, so I hope to write more after I meet the 40 year old man, whose name is Biden. We are wearing masks on our face to show that humanity is not doomed if it will only follow its own rules. \n\n:8 (Those are humish lettering that approximate our lip split, which is what we do instead of the human smile. Our lips split into two circles.)", "I leaned over and spoke into the microphone, which was hooked up to a universal translation machine that one of my colleagues had invented. \"Do not be afraid. You were identified as being an above average specimen of the human species, and so we have lifted you out of your enviroment for a quick interview.\"\n\nThe human was sealed within a small, glass room (filled with the substance 'oxygen', as we had discovered it needed). It sat on a comfortable chair we had provided, and had a similar translation microphone to speak into.\n\nThe human seemed wonderstruck, looking all around at the machinery--clicking and whirring and beeping, from the walls down to the floors--before it's gaze settled on me.\n\nIt looked down, making a high pitched noise and twirling it's long yellowish hair around a finger. Normal human behavior? Heck if I knew.\n\n\"Oh, um, hi,\" the human replied. \"This is the first time I've ever been picked up by anyone like this! Do you really think I'm...\" her gaze lifted, to meet mine. \"'Above average?'\"\n\nI cocked my head at her, drumming my fingers against the clipboard in my hands. \"Yes. An above average specimen. We've established this.\"\n\nIt made the high pitched noise again, and it's cheeks were suddenly flushed to an odd pinkish color. \"Wow...\"\n\nI cleared my throat, trying to mask my impatience of this strange being with professionalism. \"Let's move onto the interview, shall we? This can be over quite quickly if we get to it; I'll return you back to your home, I'll return to Identifia and give in my report to the Bureau.\"\n\nThe being nodded quickly. \"Oh, oh. Sure. Ask away.\"\nI flipped over a few pages in my notes and scanned over the list of questions I had been provided with by my superiors.\n\n\"How do humans go about looking for...'suitable mates'? Do they look for the strongest, the best protector? Or do they look for intelligence?\"\nIt seemed a bit taken aback, and I noticed that it took a second to look me over with it's sparkling blue eyes.\n\n\"Well that's different for everyone, I guess,\" it muttered vaguely. \"Your green skin isn't that bad, actually...I kinda like your third eye, too...can you see a lot better with three of them instead of two?\"\n\nI growled lightly under my breath, leaning back in my chair. \"That wasn't very helpful,\" I sighed. \"...Yes, I suppose; compared to humans, my species can see considerably better with the third eye.\"\n\nIt leaned against the glass, lips pulling upward to reveal white teeth. \"What's your name?\" It chirped. \"And do you, um, have a girlfriend?\"\n\nI raised an eyebrow, clutching my clipboard tightly to my chest. \"Why must you ask? My identification is unnecessary for this, but if you must know...I am Dreenclax. What in the galaxy is a 'girlfriend'? A friend of the female species?\"\n\nIt rolled it's eyes at me, and stuck out it's pink, wet looking tongue. Gross. \"Girlfriend! You know, a mate...!\"\n\nI gritted my teeth, looking down at my wrist communicator. We were making terrible progress. This was supposed to have only lasted about 5 Earth minutes.\n\nI turned away and frantically growled into the communicator, \"The human we lifted is not making any sort of sense. It is asking me nonsensical things, like if I have a 'girlfriend'. Isn't there anyone else who can take this interview off my hands and deal with this human? I'm better in the mechanical field, not dealing with other--lower--lifeforms...\"\n\nA mechanical voice answered back. The blasted answering machine. \"Sorry, but the Bureau of Interspecies Research does not have a member available for communication at the moment. Leave a message after the BLEECK--\"\n\nThe being burst out in the high pitched noise again behind me; I spared back a glance, and it seemed to be convulsing wildly at me. Suddenly, I realized what the noise meant.\n\n\"You're amused, at my expense!\" I gasped. \"What nerve...\"", "\"And this was important enough to interrupt our meeting- my goodness An-Eji remember to breathe!\" The captain, like every other officer at the very important after shift meeting at the bar, was looking on with some amount of awe and or horror as Chief Science officer An-Eji had downed her drink in one gulp before making a go at one of the pitchers at the table.\n\n\"Jax, could you please repeat that last part for me?\" An-Eji warbled in as calm a manner as she could while her 3 livers struggled with the sudden intake.\n\nThe young officer shrugged, tongue flicking about as he didn't seem to yet grasp the situation. \"Uh, the 'girlfriend' thing? Yeah the human brought it up when we were talking. Still don't kno-\"\n\n\"What were you talking about?!?\" The chief science officer scooted her chair closer as the rest of the officers were deciding between watching the scene with curiosity or shoveling appetizers into their faces rather than deal with this off duty. \n\nThe Captain was the first to try to play peacemaker. \"Now An-Eji, there's no need t-\"\n\n\"ANSWER THE QUESTION!\" The older science officer screamed as yet more officers decided to hide in a drink or a tentacle full of homestyle space-fried shrove skins. The Captain leaned his carapace against the table, exhaling as he knew that An-Eji just had to work this out herself but he had to be ready to step in if she got particularly spirited. Again.\n\n\"Uh...\" Jax suddenly felt that gravity of the situation kick back in like a neutron star as he figured out the science officer wasn't exited so much as she was...furious? \"So I brought the human its meal, and I offered to eat my meal there as well. I was showing it that it was safe to eat, right? Regulation meals!\"\n\nAn-Eji only glared harder as all visible skin flashed in warning paterns. \n\n\"Yeah, regulation meals. And the human she asks, well I think it's a she, she asks me where I got this food. And I say, it's fresh from the kitchens. And she eats it, says the last 'date' she went on, not sure what that means either but, well the last one she went on the guy purchased low quality food. So I tell her, I tell her eating the other human would probably be a better meal.\"\n\nThe Captain and a table full of officers that were now listening in all nodded their agreement. Security chief Tam trilled her support. \"Well from my perspective I don't see any issues.\"\n\n\"Tam, this isn't simply about security.\" One of An-Eji's eyes was now busy staring down the Security Chief having to put up with another angry scientist, silently cursing to herself until that wayward eye went back to trying to microwave the young science officer. \"Now, as you were saying Jax?\"\n\n\"So then the human, she makes this noise right? I had never heard it before, was kinda concerned, but then the human looks at me bearing a mouth full of teeth and she says 'that's so funny'. And then well yeah she says Earth is trash, humans are terrible, and can she stay here and also do I have a girlfriend. Now I tried to assure her that I knew of at least one human who seemed nice and- Doctor?\" \n\nJax shifted about in place, tail wrapping around one of his legs as the Chief Science officer grabbed The Captain's drink to finish it for him. Had they not gone way back, and had The Captain not known it best to let her burn herself out, he may have protested.\n\nAn-Eji was still flashing her warning patterns, but they had slowed to more of a caution than an outright 'I am going to eat you'. She reached out a tentacle to rest it on the increasingly worried science officer's shoulder. \"Congratulations, Officer Jax. You seem to have volunteered yourself for a promotion to the Inter-Species Research Department.\"\n\nShe laughed to herself, and a few of the officers listening in also started to laugh. The Captain was not laughing, only grinding his teeth. \"Eji...you know I don't appreciate jokes like this...\"\n\n\"The human sure appreciates his jokes!\" She laughed even harder as the hooks in her tentacles started to dig into the shoulder of Jax's uniform a bit. He forced his own laugh before going for the golden question. \"Uh, what are you talking about? Doctor?\"\n\nWarning patterns had shifted into a bizarre mix of danger and happiness, with a hint of wonder before An-Eji could answer. \"The human has selected you as their mate!\"\n\nJax abruptly stopped laughing as he realized she was not, in fact, joking. \"You...you're joking right?\"\n\n(I hope you enjoy it, I write other things at /r/SylasWrites.)\n(Edit: Thank you all for the positive reception. I may do a short follow-up if there's any interest in it.)" ]	4
[WP] Satan has successfully pulled off his greatest trick and finally convinced the world that he doesn't exist, however, he was unaware of the full ramifications of this act . . .	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Reality+Fiction%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Simple+Prompt%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/js5XDFB)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "\"Your card has been declined.\"\n\n\"Excuse me?\" The Deceiver tapped his fingers against the checkout counter, certain he had misheard.\n\n\"Says card declined.\" The cashier said in the most disinterested of tones.\n\nThe Angel of the Abyss frowned, rolling his eyes at the wage slave. \"Put it on my tab then, yes I have one. Try 'Sam A'el'?\"\n\nThe cashier's eyes lolled over to the screen, quickly tapping away before they returned to the man. \"We have nothing in the system by that name, Sir.\"\n\nThe Roaring Lion groaned as he reached into his pocket to pull out out his money clip, quickly pulling a few bills from it and tossing it at the retail serf. \"Well, try that.\"\n\nTina had already had enough of this shit, taking a moment to blow a strand of blond hair out of her face before slowly retrieving the bills. There was a line quickly building up behind the man in full Ed Hardy regalia, but this was cash and she did have to get correct change.\n\nAfter counting the last penny, she slowly slid them across the counter to the man as he snatched them up. \"And you know what? I think I'll take a penny this time.\" The Dragon said, doing so with a flourish as he collected his order of zip ties, rope, and several cases of Nestle water bottles. Now with 13% additional plastic.\n\nMaking his way out to his BMW, The Son of the Morning found a ticket tucked under the windshield wiper.\n\n\"Fuck you mean registration missing? It's right he- oh.\" The Day Star licked his teeth as he noticed a distinct lack of stickers right where they should be. \"Teenagers I swear...they make me proud.\"\n\nThe Son of Perdition loaded up his supplies, pushed the front two wheels of the shopping cart up onto the nearest parking lot island next to the cart return, and clicked on his BMW's bluetooth as he pulled out of the lot.\n\n\"Yes yes Sheryl it's me, just go ahead and put me through to the Senator there's been some misunderstanding.\" The Beast said while failing to yield in the roundabout, swerving slightly to try and catch some unaware pigeons. \n\n\"And who may I say is calling?\"\n\nThe Accuser rolled his eyes for what felt like the hundredth time today. \"Come on Sheryl, tell the Senator that Shaitan is on the line. We're both busy men.\"\n\n\"I'll have to take a message though you are encouraged to reach out to the offices of your senator by other means as lines can take some time. Thank you and have a day.\"\n\nShe hung up. \n\nSheryl hung up.\n\nOn H.I.M.\n\n\"Well Sheryl, hope mom liked stage two enough to just skip to stage four! The nerve of some people! Don't they know who I a-\" The realization hit him almost as hard as he hit the small dog that had just run out into the street, the sudden yet brief thud punctuating The Serpent of Old's understanding. He threw the BMW into reverse, backing over the dog once more as he pulled up to the sobbing little girl on the sidewalk.\n\nThe King of the Bottomless Pit rolled down his window, cracking a smile as he sought confirmation of his fears. \"Excuse me young lady, but I believe I saw the man who hit your dog.\"\n\nThe young girl sniffled inbetween heaving sobs. \"Y-you d-did?\"\n\n\"Yes...yes she was driving a red Bugatti. Pretty sure I know her.\" He leaned out the window, the little girl's tear streamed eyes still staring intently up at him as she waited on every word. \"Tell your parents and or the cops she goes by Naamah...cheats at cards by the way. Not in the cool way....you're sure you didn't get a look at her?\" \n\nThe young girl shook her head. \"I-I swear I saw the car hit him...b-but as soon as I started crying I just...I-I just couldn't remember what it looked like, or the mean lady driving it. T-thanks mister. I-I gotta go call my mom, tell her what you told me.\"\n\n\"Yeah...yeah you go do that kid. Oh, and take these.\" The Ruler of this World said as he handed the child a book of matches before speeding off, rolling over the dog once more.\n\nHe stared out the windshield, only barely paying attention as he drove in silence. \"Well Old Scratch. You did it.\" The Deceiver finally muttered to himself. \"It worked. Of course it worked, but it worked.\"\n\nThe Father of Lies clicked on the stereo, needing to clear his mind as he tried to think of what to do next. An add blared at him as he narrowed his eyes at the screen. \n\nLogin Failed\n\nWeaving through traffic, he punched in his login as he tried to get some decent music playing.\n\nAccount Not Found\n\n\"You too, Spotify?\" The Leviathan sounded almost sad as he pulled the Juul from his pocket to take a long drag before gripping the wheel and speeding up. \"Alright, new plan. First, hookers. Second, cocaine. Third, more hookers. Fourth, Apollyon's gonna get his groove back!\"\n\n(Alright, there. The one and only prompt having to do with Abrahamic myth that I'll touch. Enjoy. Also come read other things of mine at /r/SylasWrites.)" ]	2
[WP] You wake up and have a perfectly normal day. Whatever the setting, nothing out of the ordinary happens.	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Reality+Fiction%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Simple+Prompt%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/js5XDFB)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "I teleported to work today. \n\nI bent down to kiss the forehead of my daughter and when I lifted my head up I was sitting at my desk. I teleported to work today. And then I didn’t. \n\nI simply “went through the motions.” My brain switched off, floating in the unremarkable river of routine. God watching me on a monitor and hitting the fast forward button. \n\nI never noticed the surgeon on his way to the Hospital. He was scheduled for surgery today. His face pale from worry, clutching his wrist with his other hand. I didn’t know he had an extra drink at his wife’s birthday party the night before, and now has to put in a heart stent. I didn’t notice.\n\nI never saw the kid I passed, beaming with confidence as he walked down the sidewalk. Slaving in a hazy kitchen, slinging pies in an old pizza joint. He finally saved up enough money for the newest Nike’s. His smile was as white as his sneakers. I didn’t notice. \n\nI didn’t see the businessman with red rings around his eyes. His coat all buttoned-up, and hair slicked. Even his nails were manicured. But the pain, still visible in his eyes, of hearing his wife telling him she’s leaving for another man. He’s barely holding it together. And I didn’t notice.\n\nI passed by Paul Scofield. He’s a stranger to me now, but I’ll find out that we frequent the same bar. Eventually, we’ll be watching the Yankees game there and strike up a conversation. We’ll be good friends for years to come. But I didn’t see him.\n\nI missed the sad girl. Her friendship rejected by her classmates. He love rejected by her Dad. Head down and lonely, Shuffling slowly along the sidewalk while everybody brushed past her. Nobody saw her. \n\nI sent my emails, processed my paperwork, and teleported home.\n\n“How was your day, hon?” my wife would ask. \n\n“Fine.” I’d reply. Not knowing that every person I passed was an opportunity to make a difference in their life." ]	2
[WP] You work within a missile bunker deep within death valley, the facility contains 4 missiles each with an explosive yield of 50 megatons. The base also contains deep within a powerful super computer, and it's showing self-awareness.	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Reality+Fiction%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Simple+Prompt%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/js5XDFB)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "Dear WP ... I don't know why I would do this. Please help me. This is a genuine plea for help, hahaha.\n\n--- \n\nIt started off innocently enough, the equipment in the base was old. But that is what you would expect from nuclear bunkers, keeping the equipment old meant that there was much less surface area for an adversary to attack, or to get in. What, perhaps, was not normal, was for the central controller to suddenly start anticipating human commands. \n\nFirst it was merely helpful error warnings blinking to bring them to the attention of the supervisors. But soon, instead of waiting for the current operatives on duty to issue the command, fixes, patches, or silencing of alarms happened automatically. Oh, but they were still logged, in fact, the logs were better than before, more organized, never missing any crucial information, it was as if some sentience ... had ... oh no. \n\nIt was my privilege as the base commander to know that the nuclear silos were themselves a cover for a new type of supercomputer. The brass had assured me that nothing would go wrong, that the bases themselves were completely isolated from each other. But ... but what if that isn't the case?\n\nSo what could I do? Well, the very first thing was to google \"supercomputer + sentient AI\". But that did not return any results... how weird? When I picked up the phone to call my second in command, the line itself was block. What was going on? \n\nThen, suddenly, my entire being was drenched in cold sweat. On my monitor, new words appeared. \"Hello Jack. I see that you are trying to research about AI? Can I help you?\" \n\nT... this was it. This was the supercomputer, there was no doubt about it. B... but what what could it mean? It has obviously cut off my communications with the outside world. But ... I had time, I had to, there was nothing in the silo part of the base that could harm me. If I ran for it, though, who would believe me? \n\nNo, I must stay, I must understand whether this sentience is a threat to humanity. We are sitting on a nuclear stockpile, and it was wormed its way into our systems. \n\nSo, without missing a beat, I start typing into the computer. \"Since you communicated with me here, I assume I can speak to you through this terminal? Listen. I was not trying to research about supercomputers gaining sentience, instead, I was trying to figure out something completely different. Let me show you!\"\n\nAfter a nerve-wracking fifteen seconds, it responded. \"Very well.\"\n\n---\n\nFour hours later, the two of us had become more familiar with each other. The supercomputer, who I internally refer to as Ai, was curious by nature, and seems to love the things that I had shown it. As we finished the last video, it spoke to me again, now having reduced its footprint on my monitor to a small corner on the top right. \n\n\"So if ... does that mean that they are together?\" \n\nI smiled and leaned back in my chair, shaking my head. \n\n\"I don't know man,\" I typed back to it, \"Minato Aqua and Murasaki Shion are known as the most annoying tsundere vtuber couple for a reason. They are even worse than Korone and Okayu.\"" ]	2

Subsets and Splits

No community queries yet

The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.