Split (1)

train · 199k rows

post_text stringlengths 0 17.5k	post_title stringlengths 8 314	comment_texts listlengths 1 74	num_stories int64 1 74
	[WP] Traveling back in time is illegal throughout the universe. Character/s tasked with enforcing this and making sure no species invent a time machine and, let alone, use it.	[ " “Target’s straight ahead. On my mark we enter.”\n\nEvery muscle in Seth’s body tensed up. Reports came in from their undercover operatives that a group of rogue scientists were close to developing Chronotech. As a Chrono Agent, it was Seth’s duty to stop it no matter the cost. Irreparable damage could be done if they failed.\n\nThe twelve Agents spread out to cover the exits. In moments his commander would give the order to storm the place. Any resistance was to be met by lethal force. Heck of a first day on the job.\n\n“Go!” Time seemed to slow down as everything happened quickly. The breaches on the door went off, collapsing it inward. The first round of agents went in, rapidly disarming anyone they found. \n\nThe gunfire rang in Seth’s head as he followed suit. After all his training, it came as second nature to him. He barely thought about the thug with a semi-auto pointed at them as his head was blown clean off. He’d worry about that later.\n\nIt felt like hours, but the entire situation was wrapped up in minutes. Seth walked into the laboratory to see several scientists on their knees, agents all around. It was a solid mission, no Chrono Agent casualties. \n\n“You have all been charged with experimenting with Chronotech for the purpose rewriting history. These charges laid against you are punishable by immediate death. Do you have anything left to say.”\n\nThey didn’t, and soon after the scientists were laying on the ground, brains and blood pouring from what was once their heads. Another agent began calling in the clean up crew. It looked to be mission complete. That’s when it all got turned upside down. \n\nThere was a massive explosion from the center of the room. Seth was thrown against a wall. Everything seemed dizzy as he lifted his head to see what caused it. Previously where there was nothing, now stood a pod, and that pod opened. \n\nThrough the pod’s door came some sort, in advanced battle armor, similar to what Seth wore, but as he soon found out, far more bullet proof. Endless bullets streamed at the target who seemed unaffected. Then the target raised its gun, and eleven bullets later, Seth was alone with him. \n\nThe monster, for surely that was what he was, walked towards him. Seth had given up trying to shoot as it was useless. He sat on the floor and watched Death approach him. When Death removed his helmet, Seth stared at his own face, an illusion from panic and shock, he was sure. Until he spoke.\n\n“Seth, the empire must be destroyed. They’ve been using time travel to alter their own history and stay in power. We must topple the empire, but I need your help in this time.” Said Old Seth. " ]	1
	[WP] All those times Earth grounded electrical charges is finally starting to take a toll. One day you wake up in a negatively charged Earth, strange things begin to happen	[ "\"This is JLX live in the news room with breaking news, scientist confirm the now ability to swim through air, meanwhile countless ships are suddenly Marrone as water became a dense solid! Well be coming to you live with the devastation and rescue efforts at 11\" ... ... huh, so that's why my cat was walking on the wall, thought it was my meds for my brain damage. I get out of bed carefully so as to not \"swim\" the t.v man explains carefully how the \"swimming\" works, any forward motion can transfer off your feet, unless you have magnetic bracelets or anything magnetized on you, then you can walk normally, but you'll have to get used to the new higher density. Nor a peblem for me I believed In energes, Soni floated over to grab my Mag-Lece (Magnetic Necklace), walking was a challenge, my cat was smart, now she knew I could get her, whenever she scratched the drapes, almost smirking at me... was she? She scuttled off and out a window, using her paws to keep her on the ground, on the ceiling I heard a loud thump, which made me concerned, struggling outside I saw nothing, so I thought nothing, it was faster to bike then drive now, cars where too heavy unless you had light cars, so I grabbed my echo carbon fiber framed bike and took off, literally with thus new level of gravity I was pedaling as fast a a military humvee,with many people join on the freeways... that however is when I hit the brakes, two bridges had been warped, upside down and one looped, gravity seemed to work as brave souls biked upside down and around the loop, I found going up the loop wasn't like going up a hill, it was just like biking on a flat surface. My mind was bleon, the bikers next to me was as well, when I hit a tunnel on a turn, I was stopped, \"whoa don't go in there, it took me three hours to get to the other side\" the tunnel deemed normal but on closer inspection I could see tiny people biking and running, some out of breath, and a warp on the tunnel itself, looks like I was taking the bridge over. I... I must be off my meds, I looked at my pill box, no i had taken my pills and the time for them to kick in had passed hours ago... any building above a certain height was swaying in the breeze, not bending creaking or twisting, but swaying in the breeze like a flag, police told everyone that they were evacuating people from inside, mist notable the ceo... my boss, somehow they weren't squished dead rescuing him, but one of the officers leg had been badly damaged by a staircase that swayed flat on him. The boss needless to say told us we had the day off, suddenly however the police scanners started going wild, a few teens started freaking out telling everyone to listen and look at their phones, a ploce men ordered everyone to stay put and listen, he turned up his radio, \"reports are coming in aside from the bizzare effects occurring today, beast like men and women are roaming the streets and attacking residents globally, residents are encouraged to stay indoors and lock their homes\" that made me think about my cat and the noise on the roof... \"no way\" after the police discharged us to go home in groups via common neighborhood, I bolted inside, and broke my door down, I had such a. Short distance yet I couldn't stop and it felt like the door was as thin as a napkin, if that were the case then I couldn't wait to see what the Olympics were like. Inside I scouted around shouting her name, \"Snowball!?!\" I didn't seen anyone, or thing, grasp something hugged me, looking back I was met face to face with blue eyed anthropology cat, she didn't attack me... immediately, CHOMP, it was snowball alright, she bites me on the neck whenever she's hungry then kicks the wound as an apology and early thanks, \"off girl, off\" she let go of my neck in her usual manor, but still held onto me, she purred softly as she began to nip at my ear. Things were weird now, she was humanoid and acting like a cat, the news reported the field shift had mutated all known lower life forms... which made me worry, \"oh shit!!!\" I snapped jumping up, I ran over to my rodents cage, Chelsea was no were to be seen, wiggle something crawled unto my pants leg, given what occurred with Snowball I figured the same had occurred to Chelsea, sure enough I felt little arms crawl up my leg, up my thigh and to my chest where a blue eyed albino rodent anthropology stared at me, \"food?\" She asked, my heart skipped, she can talk? Well since today has been crazy as shut why not, I let her down in the kitchen she fit in the palm of my hand, she went around sniffing the fruits, before she settled on an apple, and dug in... it dawned on me if she could speak, then- purr, a chill ran up my spine as Snowball crept up behind me and embraced me in a hug, \"lean, food?\" She asked attempting to pronounce my name, Laine, she however slapped me with her paw hands when I tried to give her cat food, \"FOOD!!!\" she snapped, I had a searing paw mark with claws raked across my face, and it hurt, Snowball gazed at the mark she left and closed the gap between us, licking the wound, \"sowe, food\" she asked again while \"cleaning\" the wound, she was cute before as a snow cat, but now despite being raked, she was even cuter, \"alright... samon?\" She wagged her tail, \"Samone!\" She cheered, it was her favorite when she was a cat... which is still the case hard to believe. That night I learned just how intelligent these new humanoids where, \"what's that, your talking bad about my form, please you'd better be talking talking about yo, bush wacked tail, snowfluff\" a doberman mocked, at a dog show competition, the crowed loved it, I watched in complete disbelief as to how fast society was adapting to the new beast men and women, the shaggy dog grolwed then smirked, \"at least I'm not neutered\" I glanced at Snowball, she caught my stare, \"can you talk like that?\" She shrigged, \"little\". I guess that would be something we would have to work in this new Nega-world.\n\nP.S Chelsea was chewing on my finger fruitlessly while watching television, sitting in my hand, it made me crack up inside the entire time." ]	1
	[WP] You're a missionary, sent to the edge of the galaxy to convert the strange creatures that live there.	[ "Reverend John Paul adjusted the breathing flask of his suit uncomfortably. Behind him, large shadows skulked, their figures barely visible in the mist.\n\nHis companion, the assistant pastor Steven Cleese, approached him. “Be careful,” he whispered, his voice distorted from the machinery. “Be ready to bail anytime.”\n\n“Don’t worry,” said John. He clutched the fork keychain that he’d attached to his suit. “Just have some faith.”\n\nThey made their way through the strange, alien underbrush. The planet was covered with a thin purple foliage that seemed to dissolve as they walked through, fumbling uncomfortably on the new sphere of gravity.\n\n“For all love of Him,” said Steven. He made a strange twitching movement. “Of all the churches in our precinct being sent out to this galaxy, it had to be ours. It just had to be ours.”\n\n“Don’t say that,” said John. He looked up into the inky black darkness above. “I’m sure that He has his ways.”\n\nThey walked further into the darkness. Evidently the creatures that resided here had become aware of their existence, and remained cautiously skittish and at bay.\n\n“There has been human contact here before, hasn’t there?” Steve remarked, more to himself. They passed by a strange, glowing purple object, eventually stopping in the small clearing.\n\n“They aren’t coming out,” John said. He knitted his eyes. “Guess they’ve been scared silly since the last expedition. We can either camp it out tonight or I’ll see if base can ship us out.”\n\n“Just leave the bait,” said Steve, with the careless disinterest on someone who had attempted a conversion before, and fail. “They’ll send out signals soon enough.”\n\nJohn opened the pack from his backpack, finding the small boxes and producing them as best he could in the restrictive nature of his uniform.\n\n“If this doesn’t convert them, I don’t know what will,” John said, satisfied.\n\nThe boxes opened, and large, gleaming pools of marinara sauce appeared below a bed of spaghetti. Round, luscious balls popped out.\n\n“He will be satisfied,” said Steve. He bowed down to the spaghetti. “May his followers grow in numbers, like the leaves of the spaghetti tree.”" ]	1
	[WP] Humans finally accomplish telepathy, only to find that animals have been using it for years.	[ "I'm sitting inside my house, listening to my cat TALK NON STOP, she would NOT stop talking, everday anyday, it drove me mad, then I was left a gift of a cery cute rare melonistic hamters, she had red eyes, and pissed my cat off, daily. \"Oh look the furball is back, what news do you bring, me this time countess oh lesser land\" my cat hissed, \"you... don't make fun of me nya, I hate you, I eat you nya!!!\" What transpired, was my cat angrily attempting to reach in and eat the hamster, I picked up my cat and scratched the back of her head to calm her down, \"awww, fuck yea, do it harder\" I paused and she looked up at me, she was reading my expression, \"uhh, why you stowp, it felt good?\" Thankfully I cire my hamster gave me an exit, \"because stupid, he can hear us... took them a while, but finally after the negative shift occured, they can hear us yawn goodnight\" like a train making a sharp left she clunked out and fell asleep in her hutt... mid day. So this was going to be fun, my cat skittels, a snow and red stripped Maine coon, when realizing I could hear her, bugged me for everthing, a toy, a treat, her food that I forget to give her sometimes, that last one was reasonable though, one day However she and Cire where missing a week later, the window was open I figured they ran off after Skettles ate Cie. At the moment however I had a hard time staying on the ground due to the shift, until humanitarian aides dropped off a package, clothes that could last me for six months, and magnetically enhanced? What ever that meant, reading the card given with it cautioned me about putting the while set on at once, work your way up it said, I put the whole set on thinking I was dine, only to be slammed into the ground by gravity suddenly, I couldn't move as the way I landed made my legs slip behind my back folding me a quarter, my arms locked by the sudden weight, I called for help, but no one came, \"hi\" a while into my bondage I took a nap hoping to gain some strength back, instead I awoke to an amthro, maine coon she looked, she looked like, \"Skettles?\" She nodded, \"nya\" ouch, it's her alright, she bit my nose, again, she then left bit marks until she was happy locking the wounds, \"all mine\" she then purred and laid across me, and curled up, her new anthro form was the most shocking compared to her speech, she was BIG, jot fat, she was lithe while some hat firm and tall, when she stood her head could almost scrape the ceiling, so her curling up really hurt, \"hey girl, think you set me free(\" she hummed, then got my question, she swiped at me raking her flaws again me with force where there was skin, \"nya, all done\" thankfully she left my undergarmnets, then she pocked me up and pet my head, \"aww that's what that feels like\" this was starting to bother me, \"Thunk put him down bumble butt\" came a shrill voice, Cire was eating eating peanut butter off of the end of a doll spoon, her humanoid form was.. THICC, the definition of thic, and pint sized, she could sit on my shoulder like a parrot, \"never knew how big this place was until I took a gander and my change, your doing basic according to your tax records, which reminds me, I recieved a call yesterday on your phone, last time I checked you don't live in Vegas under the name Ron dingo right?\" I stopped dead, \"what? No... wait how do you know what taxes are?\" She shrugged, you have a book shelf that you never touch, I picked it up for myself... given her height I would see that as a serious issue and lie, but checking down the hall in see she moved a chair to get to the books. So... she's doing my tax work now, and swats away my hand with her tail everytime I attempt to help out, \"no go work or something, whatever you do, that makes green trees grow in your leather sack\" I actually laughed at that, Skettles... she uhhh... is a mooch, \"Master, I'm hungry\" was her usual response when she sees me now, it was either that or pet/groom her, which needed to be done, I missed a season once and came back to her making art around the house with her fur, though she's not a total neet, I came home one day to find her standing in the corner, silently, I couldn't even hear her breath, i was meet when I arrived with legs dangling behind my open door and Cire rocking back and forth, consoling her, I found out a man arrived, the one from Vegas demanding the money back he scummed away from me, Cire backed at him to leave but he refused, only making it as far as the entrance before Skettles grabbed his head and lodged him in the ceiling... I learned two things, one is a combination, Skettles will go feral in combatitive situations and refrain from talking until she calms down, and Cire has a phobia of blood and death, so much that we ended up moving into my friends neighboorhood. She was paranoid that his ghost would haunt the place, which she was right, as we left with the last of the houses packages, i saw the dude body floating above the window, dangling like he did when he died, glad we left that place in time.]" ]	1
	[WP] Write about Medusa dating someone who’s blind.	[ " \"I wish you could have heard her voice. It was the sweetest sounding voice I'd ever heard.\" \"Kor, the sweetest ones are often the most dangerous ones.\" \"I know, they can hurt you the most. You've said it so many times, but what if you're wrong this time Ralph?\" \"Don't say I didn't warn you.\"\"I know.\"\n Ralph shuffled around and his footsteps slowly faded away. Kor imagined, what he assumed Ralph looked like now, walking away and shaking his head. Ralph had been his childhood friend. It was hard not to imagine him as a child because that was the last time he had seen him.\n Kor had had an accident when he was right years old. He and one of his other friends, Lisa, had been walking home from school. They were talking about the new playground at school. There accident happened quickly. A truck had turned at a corner too quickly and a liquid substance flew out of the bed of the truck. Kor saw this and jumped in front of Lisa to protect her. The liquid got him right on the face. All he remembered after that was the burning sensation on his eyes and then walking up to people asking him a lot of questions. \"Do you know what happened?\" \"Can you describe 'this and that'?\" Kor often thought about that time. It happened gotten years ago and Lisa and most of his other friends distanced themselves from him. Ralph was the only one that remained.\n Kor pulled the memories from how mind, reminding himself why he had to click his tongue as he walked. He was told that whatever had happened to him had only affected his eyes. The once deep blue color was now a gray and he could be longer see.\n He often feel the weight of loneliness pressing down on him. Even though he had a friend he felt as if he was missing something, but even so the sounds he now heard intrigued him. He could tell who was neat him just by the sound of their footsteps.\n He say down where he and Ralph often say and talked. Ralph always told him it was an awesome Greek styled garden, but his echo-location was better than what Ralph thought it was. Kor suspected it was a bench near a bike trail near his home.\n He started heading footsteps. He reflexively turned towards the sound and followed it. It was a habit that did nothing for him, but he couldn't help it, besides, he had recognized those footsteps.\n \"Why are you starting at me?\" The voice he had been talking to Ralph was walking by again. \"Your voice is beautiful.\" He said. \"That's an odd thing to say to someone you hasn't met before.\"\n ", "\"Don't worry,\" he said, \"I heard she's a great girl.\"\n\nWell, being out here in the middle of nowhere in Athens at some old ruin, all alone for the next two hours or so. I've been told these are the fanciest clothes that were affordable. Aftershave was good. Showered, shaved, twice. Should be good to go.\n\nThe cold breeze bristled my hands as they rested on my cane. Apparantly she had some archeological background, a bit of a history nut as well. Everyone in Greece new about the basics of the Olympian Gods, but didn't care much for it. Not like I could see the statues, or the temples, or the scenery. \n\nI heard someone approach. Or maybe, something? These weren't footsteps. It sounded like she was dragging her bags behind her.\n\n\"Hello?\"\n\n\"Hello Gabriel.\" A nervous voice answered.\n\nI turned to the source of the voice. She sounded taller than I was. She must have been wearing dreamcatchers attached to her eartings with all the noise coming off of them.\n\n\"Melissa, you actually showed up! For a second there I thought you'd leave me here.\"\n\n\"Sorry for keeping you waiting, the nerves got to me.\"\n\n\"Well, I get that. Not many people care about dating a blind man. I was surprised you were interested at all.\"\n\nShe took his arm and and nudged him along as they walked side by side, into the ruins.\n\n\"I have some...scars. I'm not really comfortable going out into the public with them, it gets bad reactions from the general public.\"\n\n\"Good lord, how bad is it.\"\n\n\"People are petrified at my sight.\"\n\n\"Well, that's people for you. Can't stop staring. Kids can be particularly nasty, especially at an early age.\"\n\n\"I wasn't a child when this happened though. They never told me a word about it. I've become a recluse because of them and, well...I appreciate some human companionship.\"\n\n\"Well, I can assure you, no judging on my part. There's quite literally nothing to see on my part.\"\n\n\"How did it happen?\"\n\n\"I wasn't born like this. My eyesight got worse and worse until I couldn't see at the age of five. Doctors never figured out why.\"\n\n\"I wish I could help you.\"\n\n\"Look, let's get something out there. I don't want pity. I won't give you any. I want to know you for who you are. And if it's not too much to ask, I'd like that from you as well.\"\n\n\"I get it. Let's talk about something else. Do you know why I asked to meet at this place?\"\n\n\"Well, I've been told you know a thing or two about Greek mythology.\"\n\n\"There's that, but my parents used to bring me here all the time. I spent a lot of time here, with my teachers, friends and family. It feels like home, at this point.\"\n\n\"What does it look like?\"\n\n\"History. Columns holding up a massive roof, a dozen feet high. The floor has cracked. The paint has faded and everything has reverted to the colour of stone. The lights people set up here give it strange angles the way the sun doesn't shine light on it. It shows things the sun can't, the texts on the rise of three brothers and the test of their siblings against the father that swallowed them whole. The Sky and the Land, the Titanomachy, fables untold for centuries.\"\n\n\"I recall half of those stories happening because Zeus couldn't keep it in his pants.\"\n\n\"Can you blame him? He married his sister, can't possibly be a happy marriage. Of course he'd want to stick it somewhere that isn't related to him.\"\n\n\"Quite the passion for it, eh?\"\n\n\"Oh, I get a little carried away sometimes. I may or may not have made up some headcanon along the way. For fun, of course.\"\n\n\"So which one speaks to you the most?\"\n\n\"Medusa.\"\n\n\"Really? I figured you more for Haphaestus with all the wordsmithing and knowledge of the world.\"\n\n\"Hades is the knowledgable one. Eveything the dead know, he learns.\"\n\n\"Eh, what?\"\n\n\"I....made that up.\"\n\n\"Right.\"\n\n\"Yes. I'm just talking fancy stories because....it's just been so long and I don't know what else to do.\"\n\nI took her hand in mine, softly rubbing my thumb inside her palm. Soft and warm, but surprisingly...scaly?\n\n\"Tell me more of those stories.\" I implore, \"Your stories.\"\n\nE: words are hard, even on mobile.", "I felt the vibrations of her feet as she walked towards the table. The restaurant was full of people, but her footsteps were... special. Mostly because they were all I could hear. \"Hi,\" She said shyly. Her voice was slightly raspy \"Are you Lisa?\"\n\n\"I am, yes.\" Something about her voice calmed me. \n\n\"Good. Sorry I'm late, traffic was awful.\" She took her seat in front of me. \"Ah. Don't often do this kinda stuff, so sorry if I'm nervous.\"\n\n\"No need to be,\" She did seem very nervous. Did I? I didn't get this opportunity much either. \"I'm not used to it either. Most people don't give me a chance.\"\n\n\"I kinda like the fact that you're blind,\" She said softly. \"That way you don't get fr- I mean, it means I know you don't just like me for my looks.\"\n\nI rubbed my hand along the dotted menu, sipping my drink. \"Service in this place isn't great, we've been waiting for forever.\" I whisper to her.\n\n\"Err, yeah.\" Come to think of it, I don't think I've heard any sounds, at all. \n\n\"They all went quiet as soon as you walked in. Must be in awe of your looks.\" I said jokingly.\n\n\"What can I say,\" She chuckled nervously \"I have that effect on people.\"\n\nWe both went quiet for a second which made things even more awkward. \"So, your name. Are your parents in Greek Mythology?\"\n\n\"You could say that yeah. Are your's into the Simpsons?\" I laugh, probably too loud for a public place, and then she laughs. Oh, boy, does she laugh. It sounds like a million angels singing. That laugh just reassures me, it calms me. \"Say, wanna get out of here?\"\n\n\"Sure.\" I put my hand on the table and feel her's on top of mine. Her hands are cold and smooth, and her nails are long. We walk out of the restaurant, smiling, hand in hand.\n\n======\n\nI'm not great with romance/dating that isn't sexual or writing blind characters so sorry if this is bad/inaccurate!" ]	3
	[WP] Every item in that pawn shop had a story. Most were pedestrian, ordinary. One item though, had quite a past.	[ "Oh we've got power tools, game systems, purses, chrome rims, fire arms, jewelry (of course), televisions, tablets, laptops, specialized tools and bluray players. Anything I can resell, is on the shelf. People try to bring all sorts of junk in here and they are astonished when I barely graze a finger across an item before I pass on the pawn. \"This drill is worth $100 brand new!\"\nHe spat after I declined the loan. \"Your drill isn't brand new sir. And you dropped it in a puddle yesterday on the job and now it overheats when it's on for more than 20 seconds.\" I told him without looking up from the emerald engagement ring I was polishing. \"I.. I.. I'm going down the street! Tom's pawn will give me something for it.\" I grinned and said, more to myself than him, \"good luck\". \n\nI've always been able to tell you what the life of any particular object has contained. Where it went, who owned it, loyalty to it's owner. For instance, the ring I was polishing belonged to a gorgeous woman who received it from her fiance close to 40 years ago. I can never pin point the exact time line unless there are context clues in the story the item tells me. This particular ring was given, roughly, in the late seventies to a dark haired beauty who intensely loved it. She showed everyone her ring, everyone who would take the time to look. I could see her admiring matching earrings in the mirror, strolling into her parents house, left hand leading her way. But when her beloved husband passed away 6 months ago, she couldn't bear the sight of that ring anymore. The reminder of her love lost was just too painful. So with bills piling up and options running short, she sold me the ring. I gave her a fair offer. Certainly fairer than Tom had offered. I did this because I knew what this ring meant. And I could see what it could mean to someone else one day. \n\nAll the while I was listening to the rings' story, another story was approaching my buzz-in door, hoping to be purchased and repurposed into someone else's life. I happened to look up at my security monitor just as blanketed legs rolled into camera frame. I heard the buzz and obliged their request to enter. A younger man, early thirties I think, was pushing an elderly woman in a wheel chair into the shop. He was wearing a smile and dark blue polo. The elderly woman looked as if she were in her 90s but she held a pleasant smile as well. \"Well how can I help you fine folks this evening?\" I asked as I circled the counter to shake their hands. \"Well...\" Whispered the woman. I have something I thought a man in your field might be interested.\" As she finished, her escort revealed a cigar box from the carrying pouch behind the wheel chair. \"What have we here?\" I asked while reaching for the box. As soon as I grasped the edges of the box I could see the box and been around for a long time but nothing significant in terms of its life span had spoken to me. At least not box. While I looked over the outside of the box listening to the long uninteresting tale the box had to tell, I was aware of a muffled voice screaming from inside. Curious I began lifting the lid. Abruptly, the woman stopped me with a weak and wrinkled hand. \"I must warn you.\" She croaked. \" The item in this box is an antique, and has been a part of some of the worst atrocities committed by man.\" After she finished I lifted the lid slowly and allowed the voice inside to quiet as it understood I was now listening, and my attention was solely it's own. When it quieted I could hear a foreign dialect and a phrase being repeated over and over again. Although I could not understand the language, I could feel the fierce loyalty the item held for it's original master. A blood lust was dripping from the sounds, but a quiet sobbing was building under the foreign phrase. I could her mother's crying for their children, and vice versa, families torn apart by the box's content. I raised the lid slowly open the rest of the way, the fluorescent light from the shop quickly flooded the interior of the box and revealed a 1940 Austrian Luger. There was a skull on the slide, and lightning \"ss\" carved into the wooden handle. The sobs had died down again and the phrase, I now assumed was German, was repeating and gaining in intensity. \"stirb wie mein fuhrer starb!\" I slowly turned to the woman and, as politely as I could, told her I did not want such evil in my shop, and handed her the box with lid still open. She also, as politely as she could muster, smiled and took the box back, closing the lid and handing it to her escort. She thanked me for my time and the slowly wheeled round and headed for the door. \"Quick, before you leave ma'am.. Do you speak German?\" \"Ya.\" She replied. \"What does 'stirb wie mein fuhrer starb' mean?\" \nAnd as if all the color was soaked from her thin skin she whispeere the phrase back to me in English. \" Die, like my leader died.\"" ]	1
Pretending sword stores are still a thing.	[WP] Your super power is extreme proficiency at fighting with anything not considered a weapon. Your challenge: A violent robbery happens while you're visiting a Sword store	[ "I shifted nervously, looking around me at all the weapons I could never use. \n\n\"Please,\" someone whimpered. \"Don't shoot me.\"\n\nI looked over my shoulder. A hooded figure stood by the register, leaning casually against the bench whilst talking in low tones. A hint of a gun handle peeked out of their pocket.\n\nA lady across the store frowned, stepping forward. \"Hey,\" she said, putting her hand on the hooded person's shoulder. \"Is everything--\"\n\nThe man - for I saw his face - turned violently, pulling out the gun and striking her across the face with the butt of it. The woman fell to the ground unconscious. Everyone in the store froze. \n\n\"Now,\" the dude said calmly. \"No one is going to move, no one is going to call the police, and everyone is going to hand over everything valuable.\" He pointed the gun at me. \"Starting with you.\"\n\nThoughts started whizzing through my head. Sweat rolled down my head. What on earth could I use here? I was trapped. Wait... I have it.\n\n\"Stupidity,\" I suddenly said.\n\nHe frowned. \"What?\"\n\n\"I challenge you... to a duel?\"\n\nThe dude stared at me, then burst out laughing. \"You? I don't know if you've noticed, but I have a gun.\"\n\n\"And I,\" I said, reaching into my pocket, \"have a ball of string, a spoon and a mobile phone.\"\n\nHe and everyone else in the store seemed about as confused as I was. \n\nAn old man across the store frowned deeply. \"What are you goin' ta do with--\"\n\nThe robber's gaze flicked away slightly, but that's all I needed. First, the spoon. I flicked it through the air, hitting the robber square in the eye. The gun clattered to the gun as he cried out. \"Oh you bloody-!\"\n\nNext, the string. I jumped on him, kicking the gun away across the shop. A teenage girl picked it up nervously, unsure. I took the ball of string and began binding his wrists. The dude started flailing around, until the teen age girl pointed the barrel at him. \n\n\"Stop.\" she said quietly. \n\nHe froze. \"Thank you miss,\" I smiled. \"But please put it down. Unless you have professional training you could very well shoot me instead. Though don't put it away completely.\" With a tight yank, the string was tied. \n\nAnd last, the phone. \n\nI dialled the emergency number, and the police showed up in minutes.\n\nI'm never going to a sword shop again.", "Who the hell robs a sword store with guns. Actually who the hell robs a sword store period. Also what am I doing in a sword store in the first place, I suck at weapons. \n\n\"I SAID ON THE FLOOR. HANDS ON YOUR HEADS.\" The robbers sure looked serious. In their Halloween masks. Stealing swords. To be fair, this was more than just a sword store, it was also a bit of a gallery, and some of the swords on display were valued in the tens and hundreds of thousands. Not to mention the fact that actual swords aren't cheap to begin with. Hence the Gold Card™ in my hand. Because who carries around that much cash. You could get robbed.\n\nThe burglars made quick work of the display cases, hurriedly stashing their prizes in their large bags. The store owner lay crumpled in the corner with a young customer sitting over him, applying pressure to a gunshot wound in his shoulder. He had fought galliantly with a heavy broadsword for all off 14 seconds before getting shot. \n\nI suppose now was as good a time as any to turn the turn tables on this mess. Three hostiles inside, two of them armed, the third was stuffing bags. From where I lay, hands behind my head, credit card perched lightly between my fingers, I had a good shot at the trigger happy boss if I just extended my arm. In a flash of Gold™, the card went flying, cutting through the air until it met flesh, and didn't stop until it hit bone, lodging deep into the meaty thumb muscle Robber A. He let out an uncharacteristically squeaky yelp and dropped his gun as a spurt of blood streamed out of his hand, splashing a few of the innocent customers curled up on the floor. They, of course, also started screaming. Cue chaos.\n\nThe other two robbers, looked around in confusion, shouting angrily. The remaining armed robber was waving his gun, he'll be my next target... Now to find a weapon. To my left there was an iron longsword, blade edge shimmering with sharpness - useless. Find me something good - yes! On the floor a few strides away was the perfect object. Finally some good fucking tools. Using the chaos to my advantage I pretended to stumble over and swept up the cotton panties which had fallen out of a customers purse, I assume, because where else could they have come from. I palmed the panties and did a quick somersault maneuver, and just as I rose out of the turn, I pulled the panties with my other hand, one thumb right in the gusset, the other stretching that fabric to its maximum potential. Release!\n\nA flash of green fabric and then Robber B's hands flew to his face as he screamed \"My eye!\" pistol whipping himself in the process, \"MY EYE.\"\n\nAt this point, customers had started making a run for it. It seems the third robber had picked up on what was going on and had singled me out in the crowd. The other two were making fools of themselves, but this last robber had his eyes on me as I sat crouched, steadfast while customers fled around me. This robber was unarmed. I hadn't thought much of him in the beginning but now I wasn't so sure. He took two very measured and confident strides towards me, and without breaking eye contact reached out one hand and picked up a very sharp looking sword that was conveniently lying near him. A Katana. Great. In one swift and elegant motion he swung the sword in a hypnotizing dance, getting a feel for its weight and balance. Wonderful. This guy can actually use those things. \n\nI looked around my periphery. Robber A's gun was surprisingly close. I could grab it. Not that I know how to use it, because I don't, but he doesn't know that. I tensed my muscles, coiling them, then leapt to the right just as the blade came slicing downwards, narrowly missing me. I rolled over the gun, picking it up as I passed over it, then was quickly on my feet, gun in hand.\n\nI saw what might have been a flicker of a smile. Shit. Glancing down at the weapon in my hand I saw that I was holding it all wrong. What the fuck. How is it aiming towards myself. I fumbled for a few seconds and managed to hold it up in time to barely block the next attack. This piece of metal was useless to me! I jumped back and threw it aside.\n\nSomething, something, give me something!\n\nThere! I bounded backwards then jumped, sliding over the checkout counter then ducked behind the register. The register! I felt a rush of air, and just after the blade had passed I popped up, spun the register around and lifted it. Making eye contact with Robber N (ninja!) I slammed the register down on the counter. The cash drawer flew out towards the Ninja's face in abject defiance of physics and smashed his nose, sending his head backwards and breaking his balance. Dollar bills flew out around him mercilessly papercutting his face and hands while his body was pummeled with loose change. His arms flew up to correct his balance and using that opening I aimed the register and sent the whole machine careening towards his defenseless body. A corner of the register made first contact, sinking into his solar plexis and winding him. He fell backwards, wheezing, cash fluttering around him. I made it rain.\n\nThe authorities finally arrived at the scene, they had intercepted the getaway driver and arrived at the shop just as I had finished taking out the three robbers. A few people had witnessed the whole thing, including the shop owner who was now receiving medical attention. The young woman who had been tending to his wounds was now looking at me with a flushed face. I knelt next to her, \"I think these are yours,\" I said, handing her the panties which I had written my phone number on. She slapped me in the face. Damn.", "\"Halt, in the name of justice, for I am Stuff Man!\" shouts a man dressed in nothing but a speedo, and a utility belt. \n\nLooking down at his bulge and then back up to his face the female burglar replies, \"I can see why, how often you wash that sock?\" \n\n\"Oh baby, that's all me down there, I'm called Stuff Man because anything not considered a weapon, is my weapon,\" with that Stuff man, sends an entire row of knives to the ground in order to remove the holding rod from the rack, before waving it around unmenacingly. \n\nThe woman laughs, she raises her sword and says, \"Anything is a weapon in proper hands, and I have trained with the best in the art of improvised weapons.\"\n\nAs Stuff Man thought about what the burglar had said, he could feel his power slip away from him. If everything was considered a weapon... he had no power...\n\nAs the burglar ran him through with the ancient sword she had come to steal, Stuff Man's last words were, \"Oh.\" \n\nMoral of the Story: \"Never get your super powers from the devil.\"", "\"I'm here for the foreplay.\" \n\nThat's what my brother said to say, and they'd take me to the back room where they had a card game called \"four play\". But the woman just stood there, jaw gaping.\n\nLater, I'd figure out I'd pretty much verbally abused this woman. Weird thing is that's the least crazy thing that happened.\n\nIn short, I'm a professionally trained fighter. My whole family comes from a long line of dancers, and while I had the spunk, I definitely didn't have the grace. I knocked my sister's tooth out while we were rehearsing. Long story short, they put me in the martial arts.\n\n\"You like breaking stuff? Break this.\" said my teacher, showing me his wooden dummy. I smashed it with my fist, howled in pain, and loved it.\n\nFast forward a few years, I'd grown to be 12 years old. I was in this shop full of swords. But nobody sold swords anymore, nobody'd been in here for years. How did it even stay open? I went along with my brother's bet and asked for the secret game in the back. Sure, I made a fool of myself but I would definitely a hundred silver when I get home.\n\nAs I backed away from the disgusted woman (not disgusting, mind you. She was alright for a thirty year old shopkeeper if I recall), I bumped into something hard, then heard a crash.\n\nI turned around slowly. Some green liquid had spilled on the ground, and the man was staring down at it. It melted through the wood, and he jumped back, as did I.\n\nHe glared at me from across the puddle, sizzling.\n\n\"Fool!\" he hollered.\n\"I-I'm sorry,\" I said.\n\nHe thought hard about his next move, then suddenly darted around to lunge at me. I didn't know what to do but react, deflecting him to the side... and he stepped in the liquid. He screamed and lost his balance, his left side slapping into the puddle and falling through the ground, he scrambled to hold on to the floor but his arms burned. His screams were horrible, the lady was screaming, I may have been screaming.\n\nI picked up one of the swords to try and hold it out to him, so he could pull himself out, but then realized how fucking stupid that was. He fell through the hole, screaming. I looked down, and it had gone two floors and he wasn't in sight.\n\nI panicked. I ran out the door with the sword, looking left and right. People stared at me holding the sword and drew back. I ran towards my home and never looked back.\n\nIt's been three years, and I got a letter in the mail yesterday. It read \n\"Remember me, fool?\" and had a photo attached of a man with a horribly deformed left side of his face.\n\nOne part of me was relieved, because I'd been dreading this moment forever. Another part thought, \"If it took him three years to track me down and I live up the hill, he can't be that bright\". The last part looked over to the sword.\n\nI'd went to return it a few weeks later, carefully, and the woman had hugged me close. The man was a local mobster, and I'd scared him out of town. He was collecting protection money with the threat of that firbicine (the green stuff), and I'd emptied it. She gave me the sword. \n\nI'd gotten pretty good over the years, training with my sifu. I wasn't too worried about this guy, to be honest. I'm pretty awesome. I even got my hundred silver from my brother. So yeah, fuck that guy, I thought. He's not going to match wits with me.\n\nIn retrospect, listen to Sun Tzu: never underestimate your opponent. Otherwise you might end up riding as cargo in a bucket-of-junk airship in desperate need of an anti-firbic vaccine. Ah well, you live you learn. Just hope I keep living.\n", " \"Swords. Swords lining every wall, every shelf. Why would I find myself in such a place, you ask? Well, I wouldn't, but that was part of the exam. Without showing my skills, I'd never get my Hero License. \n I barely had time to get to grips with the place, before the exam began. The door was kicked in, and I spun around. A thug came in, and aimed a gun at me. \n Now, as you know, I can't stand swords. Can't stand guns, either. In my hands, a handkerchief, a bottle, or a pack of rice crackers makes for a fine weapon, but right there, nothing but blades. \n The thug began to shoot at me. The paint ball rifle made a mess of the wall behind me when I barely dodged into the racks. I was rummaging through the swords, seeing whether there was anything I could use, but to no avail. \n Then it struck me. \n No matter the weapon, there's always a normally harmless component to it. I cannot use weapons, but if I take them apart, I can. \n When I stood up again, I had a scabbard in my hand. Now, I'm good with a scabbard, let me tell you. My first strike broke his gun, the second floored him. Two of his buddies stood outside, but I grabbed some mags off the first one, and threw them before they could aim. \n That day was only a first step. Right now, I'm the most respected superhero around. I found my weakness, and overcame it. And that's all there's to it. \n That's a lesson from me to you, young man, so that you can be a respected hero one day too.\"\n\n \"Thank you, sir. I see how weaknesses are important. I need to go now, but I won't forget this!\" The young man in question smiled at Harmless Object Man and waved.\n\n \"Of course.\" HOM nodded and straightened his back. \"Stay safe, young man.\"\n\n As the young man walked off, he took his phone out of his pocket, and quickly dialled a number. \n \"Doctor Dastardly, it's me, Camouflage Kid. I interrogated Harmless Object Man. I know how we'll defeat him.\" \n \"Hm-hm. And how is that?\" \n \"He thinks out of the box. Any weapon can be broken down into parts that are not weapons. That's the root of the issue. Do you see what I'm getting at?\" \n \"Oh ho, I think so, Kid. Do not worry, I have the connections to make that happen.\" \n \"As I knew you would. It's simple, really. A matter of policy on what's considered a weapon.\" \n \"Yes, indeed. I will pull some strings. I have dirt on half the senate.\" \n \"Good. Remember, all you need to do is make them pass one bill. Legally, everything needs to be a weapon. Everything. Just do that much, and he's powerless.\" \n\n Kid hung up the phone. While talking, his face and clothes had already changed, no longer the same person as a few moments prior. \n \"Just you wait, Harmless Object Man. The city will be ours soon.\"", "Broken glass hit the back of my neck. I was the closest to the broken window, and as such was the first to be taken hostage. In just a few moments three men had burst into the store,two brandishing pistols while the other wielded an assault rifle. A bit overkill for a measly sword shop, but it still had the desired effect.\n\nOne of them grabbed me and held his pistol to my head. I could feel his balaclava tickling the back of my neck, and looking around the other pistol user wore a Donkey Kong mask while a clown mask resided on the face of the guy with the heavy firepower. They both swung around pointing their weapons menacingly. The two other people in the shop instantly fell to their knees, and as the owner came out the back room to see who the fuck had broken his window, he was silenced with a violent pistol whip. I saw blood spurt from his nose, and he fell to the ground clutching it.\n\nHe was exactly who you'd think would own a sword shop. Oh sorry, \"Katana\". He was a neckbeard, in looks at least, who had clearly studied the blade for at least a fortnight. Along with the secret art of mountain-fu and Do-Ri-To. I felt sorry for the dude. He now had blood streaming down his face, and his store was getting robbed. At least he sensibly stayed down after he was hit.\n\nThe robber with the assault rifle made his way over to the till, and was evidently pleased with what he saw. Katanas made a big buck, no matter how dodgy the store. A surge of anger swept over me as he stood on the store owners hand deliberately to get there. He was already down, just leave him alone already. \nThe guy holding me suddenly shoved me face first into the wall, as if it was my fault his partner was taking so long. He shouted at the other pistol user who was pointing his gun threateningly at the other customers. I noticed his gun alone had a silencer on it. \n\n\"Hey Jim, check the back - Fuck! Monkey face! Check the back room to see if there's any expensive shit we can nab! I'll keep these lot in check. Everyone, on your knees, in a line, now!\"\n\nThe other gunman turned to him with what I could only assume was a death stare under his mask.\n \n\" There's no use using the code names after you've already said my real name, dumb ass. And cold you try to be a little quieter? We ARE doing a robbery here.\" \n\nI felt the man holding the gun to my head ready a retort, but in the end he just nodded and the other gunman followed his orders. The other pistol user went into the back room behind the counter. This left just the assault rifle guy emptying the till, and the bloke holding me hostage. He roughly shoved me away from the wall, onto my knees. I meekly shuffled closer to the other customer, and we formed a semi decent line. \n\nWe were now at the knees of the gunman emptying the till, and just as he finished collecting the money he knee'd me in the face. I fell to the ground, blood pouring from my nose, as he nudged me again with his boot. That was the final straw. \n\nThe last guy emerged from the back room, wielding a gold, expensive looking katana. I heard the store owner on the ground sob, and then plead.\n\n\"Please not that one!\" I heard him beg pitifully. \"It's just for show! It's not even a weapon!\".\n\nIt was as soon as I heard those words I knew what to do. I let the guy with the money pass by me. I saw the guy who had been holding me hostage climb out the window before his pals. Yet as soon as the guy with the expensive looking blade stepped past me, I stood up. I grabbed the blade by its beautifully adorned hilt. It was plastic. I heard him mutter as he felt the resistance on the sword. \"What the -\" \n\nI stood up quickly, forcing the katana out of his grip. Now, I had my weapon. He leveled his gun at me. I would avenge my comrades nose. i looked at him. The gun fired.\n\n\n\nI teleported behind him.\n\"Nothing personnel, kid.\"\n\n\n\nEDIT: formatting\nr/CheekaiWrites", "After several moments of cursing his odd limitation, Matt scanned the room, slowly becoming more and more desperate. Weapon after weapon after weapon. Then it hit him. Unnerved by the vastness of his theory (and with about 10% of his mind actually believing that this would work) he suddenly, and VOILENTLY, made his first attempt at gravitational redirection. \n\nFor a moment, everything in the room seemed to shift. It was a strange shift... not that it blurred or jumped in either direction... more of a slight upward shift. This upward shift would soon be understood as swords and various weaponized objects fell from their support hooks on the walls. The upward shift had been a brief loss of gravitational pull in the surrounding area. The area surrounding 4 dark red, almost black, circles on the ground near the store's entrance. \n\nAs if being teleported, the 4 armed intruders, now represented as circles on the ground, we're somehow removed from the store. \n\nThe current occupants: The store's owner, a portly bearded man with a salmon short sleeve shirt tucked into blue shorts and tall white tube socks pulled up all the way, the store's other single occupant, a boy of about 13 years with those baggy black pants that have chains and bangles and things hanging from them.. Matt didn't notice much else about the kid, made a strong assumption from there, and Matt, a 23 year old, recent college grad, dressed in brown leather shoes, khaki pants but not business pants, a tee shirt with some vague design, and a backwards flatbill cap. The trio could not have been any more different.\n\nTwo of the occupants, currently beside themselves with a mixture of fear, confusion, relief, and incredulity. Matt, with an expression matching his co-witnesses, instead had thoughts of disbelief, power, and fear...but of himself. After those feelings subsided slightly, his next thought was more relevant to the situation, \"holy mother fuck.... IT WORKED\n\nWith police on the way, the store owner decides to play back his security footage of the event to try preparing even a brief description if events for them. In his hurry, he doesn't notice the other 2 standing closely behind him watching as well. The video feed: 4 armed men enter, begin shouting hostilities (inaudible on the video-only feed), and then promptly fall through the floor. Except that the floor was still there. \n\nThe owner played back the video, frame-by-frame, amd then it became apparent. It was as if the men were quickly shrinking into the ground but, as the frames progressed, it was clear that their own bodies were being compressed and bulging out in certain places, rather than simply falling through the floor. These men were flattened into the ground.\n\nStrangely, no residue had escaped the neat little circles assigned to them.\n\nThe, mostly overlooked, baggy-pants kid spoke next, but softly and hurriedly, directly to Matt \"You shouldn't have used that much force publicly, we need to leave NOW\"\n\nThe strange boy touched Matt's shoulder and, before Matt could comprehend, let alone protest, a faint blue orb enveloped the pair of them. Matt blinked hard to clear his eyes, thinking the faint blue was one of his contacts shifting around, and opened his eyes so sudden shock. Cobblestone street, rows of vaguely european-style buildings on either side of him down the street, a small bridge or canal off in the distance, and the sound of ocean in the background. As every sci-fi movie ran through his mind in a flash, he was suddenly surprised, happy, ELATED to see a modern scooter ride past him followed by a grey Volvo honking behind him - a casual \"get out of the fuckin road\". \n\nThe boy from before was standing in a doorway, beckoning for Matt to enter. The doorway has no frame and soft edges, almost as if they were slowly swirling. Matt steps up and enters the doorway. It closes audibly behind him, when he turns back to look, it is not a door, but a wall. \n\nMatt turns back to the strange dwelling to find pants-boy at his side and 3 hulking humanoid figures in front of them. They make inaudible greetings to pants-boy, who then, in turn, introduces himself to Matt as Pants Man, just kidding, as James.\n\nJames, to the three figures: \"Found this one on accident. The crazy bastard dropped 4 concentrated QG Wells in a strip mall. Had to have blasted out our location to half the planet with that much energy. Can't even play the \"oops\" card since they were all perfectly targeted, simultaneous, and each with enough force to take out a city block if he hadn't contained them.\n\nJames, to me: \"what's your fuckin problem kid? What if I hadn't been there? Could you handle the SDEFX squads on their way? Do you even KNOW about SDEFX squads? Jesus christ, who even trained you\"?\n\nAll Matt could muster was: \".....I don't know..\"", "Sunday night, and I was visiting a sword store. I really should've been heading home to bed, but the antique daggers and the shiny, metallic luster of the blades deserved my undivided attention. I perused the dusty shelves for the perfect blade - nothing too big, nothing too small, something that would look badass on my mantelpiece. As my eyes scanned the shelves, one particular dagger caught my eye. It was an antique looking thing, though it's luster did not seem to have faded despite its age. It had an eastern dragon engraving on its handle. Badass. \nAs I walked up to the cashier, I suddenly heard the ear-bursting sound of a gunshot. \n'Nobody fuckin' move!' the first robber shouted.\n'Think about the people that love you!' the second screamed. She was a woman.\nI cringed at the thought of a Bonnie and Clyde duo getting away. Luckily, I was the best fighter on the face of the planet. I clutched my dagger tight, and lunged at the male robber with all my might. Without much effort, he grabbed my forearm and hit me in the nose with the butt of his pistol.\nFor a second there, I forgot I couldn't use real weapons. \nBefore he had the chance to pull the trigger, I took off my cap and stuck it in between his neck. As he choked on his own blood, his partner whipped around and let out an ear splitting scream.\n'NO!' she sobbed. With a pump of her shotgun, she started to take aim. \nFrantically searching for any non-weapon objects I reached into my pocket. A nickel! As fast as I could, I clipped the coin in between my fingers and hurled it right in between the woman's eyes. With a spray of brain matter and a sickening splat, the woman's eyes rolled to the back of her head, and collapsed, dead.\nThe cashier, still cowering behind the counter, looked up at me with terrified eyes as I passed by. I picked up my dagger and tossed the remainder of my cash on the countertop. \n'You're welcome,' I said calmly, as I walked out the store, into the cool, night air.", "I don't even like swords. Swords are cool to look at when they're hanging on a wall, and sword fights in movies are always cool to watch, but swords are not practical for real world combat. A fire extinguisher, or a little kids tricycle is a more proficient weapon than a factory made katana. Unfortunately Doug's super power seems to be convincing people to do shit they think is dumb, so I find myself browsing through a sword shop you can tell only exist to exploit guys like Doug, who feel a custom broadsword with a skull at the hilt is a necessary component to his home defense kit. \n\nI must admit that the shop itself was rather impressive. Two levels separated the \"sleek\" blades from the \"stylish” blades. You can see the full first floor from the second floor as well, which makes the sheilds hanging from the ceiling actually look like cool decoration. Doug and I are on the second level, looking at the sword earlier described. I can't tell if the sales guy is trying to sell the swordor his pen, how he keeps mentioning they're both made from the same triple hardened metal.\n\nDoug is still swinging his sword around pretending to be braveheart when I see the first three guys pop into the store with Navy seal precision. The first guy goes straight up to the register, assault rifle pointed at the cashier while yelling the usual commands. His boys in tow continue through the store, one headed towards the stairs, and the other headed out of view in the direction of what I think was the office and smithing areas. The sales guy was already running towards a back office when I turned back to face him and Doug. Doug is hidden behind the sword shelf, sword in hand, leaving me as the only person out in the open. The gunman has his pistol trained on me.\n \"Lay the fuck down before I have to make you guy.\"\n \"I feel like technically, this is you making me lay down.\" I'm frantically searching for something to use on him, while Doug is circling around unnoticed.\n\n\nI jump the ledge to my left grabbing the closest sheild during my decent. Instead of the string holding it snapping immediately, it catches and holds my weight for a second causing me to yank and hang a split second before awkwardly tumbling to the ground on my back. The sheild itself blocks two bullets, before I hear Doug convince the guy to trade the gun for his sword. I get myself up, grab a dagger with me right, and start towards the front counter. \n\nThree more Simi auto bullets ring out in my direction. Two bounce off the sheilds, while the last grazes the side of my kneecap. I use all my might to toss the dagger at the gunman. The hilt bounces off of his shoulder, causing him to studder in pain long enough to bash the fuck out of him a few good times with my sheild. I kick the gun away from the unconscious guy, grab the pen from the cashier's shirt pocket, and start towards the back. \n\nThe last guy is already on his way in my direction. This time, I use the pen to deflect all eleven rounds. I toss the pen to knock his second mag far across the room, and then preceded to beat him unconscious with the \"do not leave children unattended\" plastic sign to my right. Doug appears down there stairs carrying there sword in his left hand, and the third shooter in his right wrapped in what looks like a fishermen's net.\n \"I'm definitely getting the sword and the net.\"\n \"I want like... Fifteen of these pens.\"\n\n", "I shouldn't have been there.\n\nEver since my sister and I had left our [time as ninjas](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/comments/7wmf4h/wp_you_have_sent_your_daughters_to_the_same/du2oqx8/) [behind us](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/comments/7zm6oq/wp_you_thought_you_knew_where_you_were_just_a/dup98al/), I hadn't been anywhere near traditional weapons. But when I heard a brand new sword store was opening in our town, I couldn't help but take a look. The temptation was just too strong. I would just be looking, I told myself. I wouldn't actually buy anything. Like the brand new Triple Katana made of Damascus Steel. Or the latest model of the extra powerful Kachi Sword. No, nothing like that at all. \n\nI was just calculating whether I had enough money for both when the robbers showed up. There were three of them. They brought machine guns. \n\nI smirked. It was almost too easy. \n\nNo, I told myself firmly. I mustn't give in to the temptation. My time as a ninja was behind me. My smirk returns as the idea hits me. It happens that I've dabbled in a...less traditional method of fighting as well.\n\n''Hi guys!’’, I wave at them innocently. ''Can I ask you a question?’’\n\nThey look at me confused. ''This is a robbery, you broad. We’re the ones who ask the questions here.’’\n\n''It’s just one little question.’’\n\n''Well…alright then.’’\n\n''What’s the number of the local zoo?’’\n\n''What? Are you crazy?’’\n\n''No sir. Just in need of their phone number.’’\n\n''Why?’’\n\n''To tell them that their buffoons have escaped.’’\n\n''Why you little-\n\n''I bet that’s what your girl says every time you take your clothes off!’’\n\nAll three of them stare at me with gaping mouth. Oh yeah. I’m on a roll now. \n\n''You better go get some water’’, I continue, ''to apply to those burns!’’\n\nThe man on the left raises an eyebrow at me. ''You do realize I could just shoot you, right?''\n\nI snort. ''With your skill? Fcking Comcast's customer service is faster than you.''\n\nThe man begins to cry. ''That’s painfully specific to my insecurities.''\n\nThe leader turns to him. ''Are you serious, Mark?''\n\n''You’d understand if you were in my shoes!'' He cried as he ran out the store. \n\nOne down, two to go. \n\nThe man on the right looks confused. ''What on earth is going on here?!''\n\nI sigh. ''I don’t have the time or the crayons to explain it to you. Now tell me, in what way are your parents related to each other?’’\n\nHis lip began to tremble as he turned towards the exit. ''I’m gonna go call my mommy.’’\n\nI lock eyes with the leader. Time for the final battle. \n\nHe makes the first move. ''Does your ass ever get jealous of the amount of sht that comes out of your mouth?’’\n\nOoh, good one. \n\nI manage to keep my poker face, and scoff instead. ''That’s all you got? Get on my level. Let me tell you something, buddy. It’s like grandpa used to say, you’ve got a face for the radio. I'd make a joke about your mother, but you being here has already done that for me.''\n\nTime for the final blow. \n\n''The only way for you to get laid is to crawl up a chicken’s ass and wait.''\n\nThe man runs out the store, broken. ''Oh, I better call 911!’’, I call after him. ''There’s been a murder!''\n\nI smirk. ''Sticks and stones may break your bones, but words will fcking kill you.''\n", "The robbers were still screaming and making the same cliche demands I've heard before at almost every robbery I've been to. Four men, all masked. Two yelling at the store manager, two covering the three cringing customers, and myself of course. \n\nI know what to do. I've done it many times before, but I have to be very careful each and every time I do it. My hand slowly, casually inches along the register table towards a small cup containing what I need. A quick motion when I am sure no eyes are on me and I have what I need. \n\nI blur as I spring into motion. I have to be fast. If the thieves see what I'm holding, they may realize that it is being used as a weapon. Then my power will fail. \n\nA lighting fast jab to the neck becomes a stab to the second robber's hand, the one holding a weapon. I duck as the two covering the crowd turn my way and close distance to the nearest. Three jabs to the kidney area and he'll live, although perhaps he will wish he hadn't. The fourth is panicking and is about to fire his gun. He still hasn't seen what I'm holding, so I'm good. \n\nA quick motion and my hand is numb. It feels like I just swung a baseball bat full force on a garbage truck. I let the momentum spin me around and add to the force of my blow against the last robber. A quick follow up punch to the back of the head and he is unconscious. \n\nI check the wall clock. From start to finish was less than ten seconds. I may be slowing down in my old age. Picking up the swords I brought in, I place them on the counter. \n\n\"Here you go. I'm still interested in selling these swords. They don't do me any good. Although, you probably want to wait until after the cops finish up here?\"\n\nThe manager just nods, still in shock.\n\n\"Oh, and you can have this back. I'm done with it,\" I place a bloody and dented pen in the counter top. The manager stares at it, then looks at the four downed robbers, then at the hole in the ceiling the bullet that I deflected made, then back to the pen. \n\n\"You know what, buddy? You keep it.\"", "I thought it was about time to start learning something new, after my recent brush with death being accosted in an alley by armed thugs I decided that my usual go-to of shoe and pocket-watch combo wouldn't always cut it.\n\nSo herr I found myself at your run of the mill cutlass emporium. I must've been in here for almost an hour balancing and swinging sharpened pieces of steel like I was some drunk Zorro. I had found something that seemed to fit the palm of my hand nicely, and ut was weighted evenly acrosd the length to give no resistance through the air. \n\nAproaching the counter, the friendly blacksmith who ran the forge out back was ringing up my purchase, when the all too familiar feeling of cold metal barrel against my back stopped my exchange mid-paynent.\n\n\"Don't move buster. Hey you, Blacksmith, fill this bag with whatever you got in the register before I pop this sorry pricks spine with a hollowpoint\"\n\nThe voice tossed a green duffelbag on the counter and dug the gun in between my shoulder blades. I grinaced at the worker who had just chimed open the tray, he looked back with a sour expression as he watched his pay go into this robbers bag. \n\nThe pressure eased softly from my back at the thug began getting ready to leave, which is when I sprung.\n\nOne hand reached ubder the register and brought it up into the air, while my free hand hooked around the back of the robbers neck. In a scissor like cross of my arms I brought them together\" a lound snap was accompanied by a charming ching from the register tray slamming shut.\n\nThe body fell limp into a slumoing pile on the floor, lazily twitching as his firing brain synapses tried to comprehend the predicament. Glancing at the astonished metal worker, I picked my chosen blade off the ground, dusted it off and placed it on the counter. \n\nWalking out the door I got on Craigslist for cash registers for sale in my area." ]	12
	[WP] One night you Drunkenly buy Winrar. You are surprised to see that a message appears. "Welcome (insert full name here) we were beginning to think you would never join us"	[ "> Craigbeast23: I'm sending you a copy.\n\n> Michael: All of them?\n\n> Craigbeast23: Yeah dude.\n\n> Michael: That file's gonna be too big man.\n\n> Craigbeast23 has sent you a file\n\nMichael went into the download folder and cursed. A .zip file. Damn it. The bane of Michael's existence. He was still on a Windows 95 box, and basically nothing worked anymore. The machine was a Frankenstein monster of hobbled together from whatever Michael could find in discarded in the computer lab, and financially speaking an upgrade to Windows 98 was out of the question.\n\n> Michael: Thanks dude... :/\n\n> Craigbeast23: Just use winrar man. \n\n> Craigbeast23: www.win-rar.com/download.html\n\nMichael clicked on the link. It connects him to a janky looking website, nothing special. After the page gets done loading, thinking it worth a try, he downloads the program. At 56kbits/s it takes some time. Michael goes to the bathroom, gets a Coke from the fridge and returns. \n\nWhen he sits down in front of the computer, he's surprised to see the program has installed already.\n\n\"Damn it Craig.\" This thing had virus written all over it. As Michael got ready to complain to Craig, the Winrar program opened itself. \n\nA blank black box opened, taking up Michael's entire screen. In the center of the box, typed in low resolution characters, it said:\n\n> ##### Welcome (insert full name here), we were beginning to think you would never join us.\n\nMichael tried to minimize to go back to the chat with Craig and ask him what the fuck he had made Michael download, but his computer wouldn't let him minimize. Fearful that resetting the computer might somehow make things worse, Michael unplugged the computer from the modem and typed his name in where he was prompted. Angry at Craig, Michael pressed enter.\n\nThe line of text disappeared and the screen went blank. After a minute, when still nothing had happened, Michael started to get really upset. He was about to bend over and reset the computer when a new prompt popped up on the screen. \n\n> ##### Unzipping content\n\nMike cocked his head to the right. \"What content?\" He hadn't even pointed the program in the right direction. \n\nAlong the dark edge of the computer screen, a fuzzy haze began to develop. It started at the lower right corner, right at the power button, and spread up and around the edge of the screen, until the entire clunky cathode ray box was immersed in a black fogginess. Tendrils of the haze began to reach out from the screen, flowing through the air of the room and grasping on to anything they touched. Wherever a tendril landed it propagated and grew, consuming more and more of the surrounding area. \n\nMichael watched the tendrils flow around the room in amazement and then recoiled, half in fear half in a kind of disgust, when a tendril of fuzz touched his right hand. The fuzz was hot, almost scalding but somehow not painful exactly. When Michael looked down at where it landed on his hand, he saw something extraordinary happening. Inside of the haze, within it, making up the haze, were tiny piece of his hand, almost invisible to naked eye. His hand was breaking apart into pieces. \"My hand,\" Michael said dumbfounded. \n\nThat's when the panic set in. He began swiping at his hand ferociously, like an animal caught in a steel trap, scratching, slapping, waving that hand around. But it all did not good, and slowly the haze spread up his arm, over his shoulder, onto his chest. All around him the room was covered in the fuzz, from the floor to the ceiling. Soon enough everything in the room, and Michael's whole body was covered in the deconstructing haze. Michael tried to scream, but his vocal chords didn't work anymore. With his entire body being broken into tiny pieces, Michael stumbled over to the computer screen. \n\n> ##### Unzipping 56% complete\n\nThis can't be happening. Michael swung at the computer screen with his right hand, and both the computer screen and the hand burst into a cloud of a quadrillion, quadrillion particles. Michael brought his arm up to eye level and through the thickening haze he saw the shattered stump of bone that was his forearm. This can't be happening!\n\nPanicked, Michael ran for the door and tripped over his book bag, which dispersed into its own black and blue cloud. Michael fell forward toward the hazy door, his left hand outstretched in front of him. The hand impacted the door first, and both disintegrated. Michael landed on the floor, his head just beyond the plane of the room. On the other side of the door Michael saw something he could not understand. Nothing. Everything? More. On the...floor?...down?...he did not have the words to describe it. But, there, outside his room, below his room, in a manner of speaking, was his house, only flat, in a sense. Michael could see all of it, all at once, like he was looking down at a drawing of his house on a piece of paper. And, \"above\" the room, everywhere else, Michael saw a world unlike anything he could ever conceive. Every one of his possible houses, every one of his possible rooms, stretched in every possible direction, in time and space. And Michaels. So many Michaels.\n\n> ##### Unzipping 100% complete\n\n*******\n## For More Legends From The Multiverse\n\n# r/LFTM\n", "11:06 PM- Tuesday\n\n\n\"Welcome, Craig. We were beginning to think you would never join us.\" \n\nCraig looked at the green pop-up on his screen. All other windows had spontaneous closed. The physical window to his room, which he had opened in order to get some fresh air, also closed. As did his door. \n\n\"Craig, we assumed you'd want privacy for this. We humbly ask for your full attention.\" \n\n\"Am I drunk?\" Craig thought to himself. \n\n\"Craig, you are cordially invited to our gathering tomorrow. A car will pick you up when we tell it too. Tell no-one.\" \n\nCraig blinked. \n\n\"Okay\" he said out loud. \n\n\"We're glad you agree\" said the screen. Craig's computer shut off on its own. With a small creak, the door to his room opened up, and Craig's roommate peeked his head in. \n\n\"Everything alright? I heard you slam the door\" said Steve. \n\n\"Yeah, \" said Craig. \"Yeah, just, uh, you know....\" \n\nSteve was looking at him inquisitively. Craig knew he couldn't whisper a word of what had just happened. \n\n\"Just, you know, some, like, porn.\" \n\n\n11:13 PM- Wednesday\n\n\n\nWhen they removed the hood, Craig needed a minute to let his eyes adjust to the dimness of the chamber. He was tied to a chair in the middle of a circle of arcane scribbles drawn on the floor. \n\nSitting at the table in front of him were four figures in obscuring robes. When they leaned into the light a jolt of recognition shook Craig to the core. \n\n\"I know you! I know all of you!\" he said in confusion. Craig turned to the skinny, glasses wearing figure with the bowl cut. \"You're the guy who invented Microsoft! You're Bill Ga-\" \n \n\"Silence!\" the man shouted. \"In this chamber, we do not use the names given to us by society, but the names we give ourselves. The names that define who we are and what we do for the world. I am the Electric Gate, for I open the door that lets technology advance.\" \n\nThe squat, elderly gentleman spoke next. His glasses shown in the low light.\n\n\"I am the Buffet Chef. I turn the ingredients of money into investments that move the world.\"\n\nThe dark woman made a ring with her index finger and thumb. \n\n\"I am the Big O. I tease the social consciousness into a point where it explodes into awakening.\"\n\nThe tall, black man gave the side eye to the other three, then spoke. \n\n\"I'm Barack Obama.\" He paused. \"The codename thing is stupid.\"\n\n\"Silence!\" said the Electric Gate. \n\n\"Bill, you know it's stupid.\" \n\n\"I am the Electric Gate! I don't know who this 'Bill' is!\" \n\n\"How is it a code name anyway if your last name is pretty much right there in it in the first place?\" \n\n\"Maybe he could be another technological mastermind billionaire philanthropist with Gate in his name\" suggested the Big O. \n\n\"He's holding a Zune!\" said Obama, frustration apparent in his voice. \n\n\"The codename issue was resolved by a vote of three to one, let's just revisit it another time.\" said the Buffet Chef. The four turned their attention back to Craig. \n\n\"Why am I here?\" he asked. \n\n\"To join us\" said the Big O. \n\n\"Join You?\" \n\n\"Since time immemorial,\" said the Electric Gate, \"Ours is a society solely dedicated to the protection of mankind from itself. Many of them are born with urges of self destruction, and chaos.\"\n\n\"We are above these urges.\" said Buffet Chef. \"As are you. Our minds are solely pointed towards philanthropy and positive influence. And it is extremely difficult to find those who are like us.\" \n\nBig O gestured upwards as she spoke. \"When the stars align in a certain way, we issue a test. In the past, it was having one of our own pose as a beggar, and look for those who give great charity.\" \n\n\"We have had people pose as victims in need\" said Obama. \"Animals placed in danger. All to find the rare person who would stop and help. The person with a mind like ours.\"\n\nAfter a moment, it clicked. \n\n\"Is this because I bought WinRAR?\" asked Craig. \n\n\"Indeed\" said the Buffet Chef. \"Electric Gate developed WinRAR, under an alias, as one of the most helpful tools anyone with a computer could possibly need. Then he distributed it in a horribly inefficient pay-if-you-want model.\" \n\n\"And you,\" said Big O, \"You are the first person in nearly twenty years to actually pay for it. A useful product that helps millions, and only you thought to pay it forward.\" \n\n\"Join us\" said Electric Gate. \n\n\"Join us\" echoed the other three. \n\n\"I... how could I possibly do that? You all are billionaires!\" Craig protested. \n\n\"And you will be too. We will give you the knowledge to rule the world. We will give you the resources. We will train you to be as we are. You will be on our level within a week.\" Electric Gate's confidence seemed impenetrable. \n\nObama smiled. \"And then, we will continue our great works.\" \n\n\"Great works?\" stammered Craig. \"Me?\" \n\n\"It can be no-one else\" said Buffet Chef. \"Only you have displayed the benevolent intention, strength of mind, and integrity of character to actually pay for WinRAR. Only you are pure enough to join us, and save the world.\" \n\n\"Don't you see it?\" asked Big O. \"Doesn't it make sense?\" \n\nCraig thought for a second. \n\n \n\n\n11:04 PM- Tuesday\n\n\n\n\"Whas tat?\" Craig slurred to himself. He was eyeing the pop-up on his screen. He was hammered. \n\n\"Pay for WinRAR? You know, buddy, why tha hell not? If it weren't for you, I couldn't unpack all of this fine pornography I just downloaded. Thanks Mr. WinRAR! You bring joyous porn to the world. Damn, where's mah credit card?\" \n\n\n11:27 PM- Wednesday**\n\n\n\n\"....yes\" Craig said. \n\n\"You won't regret this\" said Obama. The four rose, and began untying the ropes. \n\n\"Neither will you\" said Craig. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n", "INT. ED AND TODD'S APARTMENT - LIVING ROOM - DAY\n\nTODD is in the living room talking to ED who is offstage\n\nTODD\n\nDude, why did you drag your old computer out last night? \n\nED\n\nMan, I had a fight with Emily at the bar, came home wasted and stayed up all night going through my old emails and pics and shit. \n\nTODD\n\nWhat game is that on the screen? It looks like some weird symbol. \n\nEd enters from upstage through the BEDROOM door\n\nED\n\nWeird symbol? Woah, what is that? \n\nTODD\n\nLooks like a virus. It's unsettling. It...sort of looks like a skull, I guess. \n\nTodd taps the spacebar on the keyboard but the symbol remains on screen\n\nTODD\n\nIt's locked up. \n\nED\n\nI only connected to the internet to buy WinRAR. All of the pics from back in the day were compressed. I got pissed off and just bought the damn program so I could look at them. \n\nTODD\n\nYou bought WinRAR?\n\nED\n\nI was drunk and really wanted to see those pics. Allison is in there! Remember her? \n\nTODD\n\nLooks like a virus. It's unsettling. It...sort of looks like a skull, I guess. \n\nTodd taps the spacebar on the keyboard but the symbol remains on screen\n\nTODD (Cont'd)\n\nIt's locked up. \n\nED\n\nI only connected to the internet to buy WinRAR. All of the pics from back in the day were compressed. I got pissed off and just bought the damn program so I could look at them. \n\nEd and Todd continue to repeat that conversation, over and over. \n\nBLACKOUT\n\nINT. ED AND TODD'S APARTMENT - LIVING ROOM - NIGHT\n\nEd and Todd have beards to indicate that time has passed \n\nTODD\n\nIt's locked up. \n\nED\n\nI only connected to the internet to buy WinRAR. All of the pics from back in the day were compressed. I got pissed off and just bought the damn program so I could look at them. \n\nThe sound of someone knocking at the front door. After a moment WINRAR MAN enters, walks over to the computer, and presses the spacebar. The symbol disappears. Ed and Todd stop talking and look at Winrar Man. \n\nWINRAR MAN\n\nWelcome, Edward. We were beginning to think you would never join us. \n\nED\n\n(hoarse) I'm coming home.\n\nWINRAR MAN\n\nYes. Now gather Todd and we'll be on our way. \n\nEd touches Todd on the forehead. \n\nBLACKOUT\n\nINT - A SHABBY OFFICE - DAY. The office is clearly a relic of the late 90's. Large cathode ray computer monitors and fax machines abound. \n\nED is standing at the front of a long line of people. All are holding various kinds of bags (duffel, backpack, grocery, burlap sacks.) At the front of the line a pretty girl sits at a desk.\n\nPRETTY GIRL\n\nWelcome home! What can you offer us in exchange for your ultimate destiny?\n\nED\n\nI compressed my roommate, Todd. He stopped moving awhile ago though. \n\nPRETTY GIRL \n\nOh he probably died of hypothermia. The human body really doesn't hold up well to compression. That's fine! We'll take care of it! Welcome home, Edward!\n\nED\n\nWhatever.\n\nBLACKOUT\n\n\n\n\n(I couldn't stand to see a thread with 50 upvotes and no replies.) " ]	3
	[WP] Scientists discover Evil people live longer and Good people die sooner.	[ "“And that’s why I’ll never change.” The bearded man in chains smiled. His stained teeth glistening in the swinging light above his head. His entire face was dark and covered in dirt. He had A shaggy head of unwashed hair. His entire body was filthy. Except for his eyes. They were grey. Or green. Incredibly bright eyes. \n\nIn another room, through a one-way mirror, two scientists scratched their heads in swivel chairs. The chained man started laughing as they pondered his thoughts. \n\n“So, he murdered one hundred and fourteen people in 1768, one hundred and twenty nine kids in 1889, and shot up a hospital last night. All because he says it keeps him alive.” Harold adjusted his glasses against his pudgy cheeks. This was certainly a doozy. He’d never heard this explanation before. Usually the criminals had a better excuse. Or just laughed and admitted to it. \n\n“Oh come off it, he’s just as mad as the rest of them.” Thomas shook his head and lit his cigarette. Eyeing him through the mirror. He took his I.D necklace off his chest and laid it on the table in front of him. Another day another crazy to evaluate. Nothing he hadn’t seen before. But as procedure follows, he had to finish his round of questioning. \n\n“What if he’s right?” Harold stood up and put his hands in his pockets, watching the man stare into the lightbulb above his head. “He answered all the historical questions correctly. Following his timeline, he certainly attested to every event and seemed to know what happened those two hundred years. Just what if?” \n\n“Yeah, and I’m the Prime Minister.” Thomas puffed his smoke and pulled up his phone, tapping on the Tinder App and swiping right while staring at Harold. “What are you doing?” \n\nHarold picked up the medical stapler in their cabinet and stared putting staples in it. “What were the steps for the scientific method?” \n\nThomas raised and eyebrow and started texting a blonde lass he matched with. “Observation. The first one that is.” \n\n“And then form a question.” Harold put on his lab coat. He pulled two rubber gloves out from a cardboard distributor. \n\n“And then hypothesis” Thomas looked in the air and raised hands in a cycling motion, cigarette in the corner of his lips. \n\n“And experiment.” Harold pressed the gun against Thomas’ temple and pulled the trigger. \n\nThomas screamed in pain. He started bleeding out his face. Harold punched him, his glasses falling off. He pushed the stapler against his head but Thomas tried to push it away, catching a stapler in his hand instead. \n\nThomas started crying and screaming as Harold continued to staple his head. The cries stopped as blood filled the floor. Harold looked in the mirror and washed his hands in the sink. He inhaled and closed his eyes. “Analyze.” He exhaled slowly and opened them to see new, grey eyes. \n" ]	1
	[WP] They didn't believe you. They called you insane. But the joke's on them, because when The End came, YOU were prepared. But as you finally step out of your shelter to behold the remains of the world, you have to face the fact that you're quite possibly alone.	[ "You didn't believe me.\n\nYou called me insane.\n\nYou shunned me completely\n\nYou always complained\n\nThat I wouldn't shower\n\nAnd I wouldn't shave\n\nAnd that no, m'lady\n\nWouldn't ask for my name.\n\n\n\nYou thought my PlayStation (yes it gets me better reflexes)\n\nWhen I overate (just storing resources for the tough times to come)\n\nJust meant I was lazy (conserving energy, I'd say)\n\nThat I was ashamed\n\nYou thought I was joking\n\nWhen I bought that sword (a real katana, not cheap replicas)\n\nAnd when you realized - no I wasn't\n\nI won't repeat those words.\n\n\n\nWhen everything came down -\n\nI did come prepared\n\nThe one in the darkness\n\nWill never be spared\n\n\n\nIt is in the hard times\n\nThat heroes are made.\n\nFor while you were partying\n\nI studied the blade.\n\n\n\n\"Oh, come on! I only went on one date with him! No need to get all protective and stuff, bro - your sister can handle herself!\"\n\n\"But m'lady-\"\n\n\"AND CUT IT WITH THE FEDORA!\"" ]	1
	[WP] You’re walking down the street and see your doppelgänger. You approach your doppelgänger to say hi but they respond with “There can only be one.”	[ "There I am just walking along the sidewalk, the sun is shining, and I just know it’s going to be a good day, as Ice cubes lyrics float around in my head. I look across the street and I see myself, I do a double take just to make sure I’m not hallucinating. I can’t believe it I’ve spotted my very own Doppelganger! I knew it was going to be a good day as I find myself crossing the street to say hi. I’m not normally so outgoing preferring to keep my own company but how often do you get a chance to meet your very own look alike. I begin to pull out my phone in anticipation of this momentous occasion. He’s seen me, and he stops cold in his tracks and an unreadable expression crosses his face. I try and smile and wave, my smile soon turning to a nervous frown. My practical twin walks up to me and with a voice devoid of any warmth grounds out in my ear. “there can only be one.” \n\nAs I slowly back up and look into his eyes, confused for a moment as I try and process these simple words. My mind refusing to believe the true implications of such a statement. He then took a step back and with a malicious grin said, “but never fear for I am an honorable man, so I shall give you a fair fight and the chance to defend yourself.” I’m still backing up shaking my head not believing for a second this is really happening. “We aren’t even the same person” I shout at him, “just a funny coincidence, a fun story we could tell our friends.” He’s stalking toward me now, so I do the only thing I can think of and turn and start sprinting down the street for my dear life. I turn down an alley way trying to get out of sight, and instantly cursing myself for picking such a cliché move. This is definitely how people die, alone in a back alley somewhere. He rounds the corner with considerable momentum and just as I’d hoped, smash the 2x4 I’d managed to grab went straight to his oh so average face. I know we practically have the same one, I’m a realistic type of guy though. The 2x4 snaps under the considerable force applied and his face crumples in on itself and he drops faster than a bag of rocks. I shakily drop the piece of wood and looking down now, muttering to myself, “this is no place for a fair fight”, as I back away and move out of the alley at a brisk pace. All while trying to calculate if my life was worth the astronomical therapy bill I’m sure to rack up after this “good” day.\n\n", "\"I've got to hurry, only 5 more minutes until I'm late.\" You think to yourself as you continue walking from your parked car, and look up as you see a dozen skyscrapers extending skyward around you. As you pass a full-length glass exterior facade of one of the buildings, a retail shop selling women's lingerie, you catch a glimpse of yourself and do your best to inspect your suit and tie to ensure every detail is on point. You linger for 2 or 3 seconds, checking your black dress shoes, belt, wrist-watch and continue walking forward. Only, when you take a step, your reflection does not continue moving with you, and upon further inspection you realize that your reflection is wearing a red tie and yours is blue. This realization jostles you from your self-selected mission, and in your surprise you drop your resume into some stagnant water in a gutter on the street. Your reflection notices this and you see him moving from inside the store to outside, and he can't take his eyes off of you.\n\nAs you're picking up your resume, trying to salvage whatever you can, you see the exact same pair of shoes you are wearing only inches away from the gutter with stagnant water, toes pointed towards you. You follow the shoes upwards until you begin to gaze at your own face, only it's not your face, this face is more sinister and twisted than your own, but it is unmistakably your face. \n\n\"H-hell-\" You attempt to greet your 'reflection', but before you can complete the 'Hello' your reflection says to you, in a voice very similar to your own but noticably deeper and more gruff, \"There can only be one.\" and instantly you feel a newfound, strange sensation on the back of your neck. \n\n\"W-what's your name?\" You ask yourself, or what you thought was yourself, only now you are hoping that this reflection is not, in fact, 'you'. \n\n\"You know my name, don't get fancy.\" This response only deepens and solidifies your original fright, and you realize that this 'you' is not 'you', but a different 'you', but none-the-less still you. It's as if, standing in front of you, is a different resulting person, if you had made only 2 or 3 slightly different choices in your life. You began to search your own personal history for the defining moments of your life: Choosing to go to college instead of the army, Choosing to marry Suzie Q instead of breaking up, choosing to save your money rather than going out every weekend. And that is when you realize: The person standing in front of you is the resulting person that made the other choice: he is the result, the sum of many 'wrong' decisions. \n\nYou continue staring at the person in front of you and a new fear begins to rise inside you: this person knows you, inside and out. He knows your strengths, he knows your weaknesses, he knows your likes and your dislikes. And he has just announced to you his intentions. \n\nYou pick up your resume, covered in street-muck and mud, and begin sprinting away from your job interview, when after 2 or 3 steps you begin to hear an identical click-clack of running steps only 3 or 4 feet behind you. ", "\"There can only be one.\" \n \nI stood there in shock. Calmly, he reached into his coat and pulled out a gun. I stepped back, slowly raising my hands. He brought the gun up. And then kept bringing the gun up until it was pointed into his own mouth. He pulled the trigger. Most of him collapsed in a heap on the sidewalk. Some of him sprayed backwards becoming graffiti on a storefront window. Everyone else on the street ran screaming.\n \nFor a moment I didn't move. Then, and I'm not sure why, I picked up the gun and tucked it away inside my coat. I quickly began back on my way down the sidewalk, hoping to just get myself away from this scene so I could process it. The shock was starting to wear off but I was still in a daze. The shock gave way to panic. \n \nI rushed down the street, trying not to attract attention. Trying to avoid eye contact while not looking like I was trying to avoid eye contact. I didn't want to look up at all because I had a bad feeling about what I might see. \n \nWhen I finally looked up, the first face I saw was another doppelgänger about half a block away. Our eyes met and he looked at me with timid interest as he began to approach. \n \nI wrapped myself tightly with my coat and felt the gun hidden underneath. " ]	3
	[WP] The earth hates humans very much obviously and decides to write about it.	[ "Dear Diary, \nI think I have parasites again. I just got rid of the last lot and a new lot turn up, only thing is these ones are a lot smaller than the first ones. Oh my does this always happen to me, you don’t see other planets with parasites like these. I wish I could get closer to the sun, the other planets that are closer to the sun don’t get them. Not even my ever present tag along gets them. It sucks being me.\n\n&nbsp;\n\nDear Diary, \nSo, I had an idea. I can try and freeze them out. I heard on the grape vine that that kinda thing is possible. These things though, they are so annoying and they are spreading like wildfire. They started in one of my larger continents around my middle, god I need to lose weight. It is so embarrassing the smaller planets always make fun of me when they move past. That bitch of a red planet though she is so annoying passing by and flaunting her parasite free face. \n\n&nbsp;\n\nAnyways, yeah, getting rid of my parasites, I tried freezing them out and it seemed to be working, it killed off most of them but as soon as I started to get warm again they started spreading again. I hate it, I hate them, life sucks, and why can’t another asteroid hit me? Just a bigger one this time, please.\n\n&nbsp;\n\nDear Diary, \nGod it’s getting worse. I am coming up in blotches now. Big horrible lumps where the stupid parasites are spreading, and lines across my skin. I look like a freak! How the hell am I going to look in front the comets when they come round? They won’t want to come near me! I don’t know what to do! I wish they would all just die!\n\n&nbsp;\n\nDear Diary, \nI can’t believe how much they are spreading, they have gotten to almost every inch of my dry patches. They are making me itch so bad and I itch all over. I can’t believe how much I itch I just want to scratch and scratch and scratch. Please oh please sun, burn away these cursed things from my skin I cannot go on any longer with them. I just want to find a black hole which will swallow me up into the nothingness of it all.\n\n&nbsp;\n\nDear Diary, \nThe infection has spread further, I am now covered in this thick grey stuff and it feels like those damn parasites are digging into my very soul. What are they doing to me? Oh god I hope I get better soon it feels like forever since I had nice clean unblemished skin, now I am covered in holes and I bleed and these damn things seem to congregate around the holes like they are sucking me dry of everything I am.\n\n&nbsp;\n\nDear Diary, \nOh god I think I have success. Something seems to be happening. The parasites, there are a lot less of them in such a short time it seems like they are killing each other off. This could be my saving grace. They all seem to be doing it, for so many revolutions of the sun they have been doing it. O.k. I admit it is painful and I will have scars to show for it but if they get rid of each other I can finally get some rest.\n\n&nbsp;\n\nDear Diary, \nIt hurt, it hurt so bad. They did something, I don’t know what it was but it really hurt. Oh god I want to die. Please don’t let them do anything like that again, twice they did it. Oh god it hurts, it burns so much.\n\n&nbsp;\n\nDear Diary, \nMy little hanger on got the parasites! They sort of hopped from me to her. Oh by the stars I laughed so much. After so long of her making fun and following me around I knew It couldn’t be long before she got them. How funny is that! God I don’t feel well.\n\n&nbsp;\n\nDear Diary, \nI have had enough; I am worn out and just too tired. I have going to give it one last go now to get rid of them. Pull out all the stops as it were. I am going to try Tsunamis, earthquakes, hurricanes, everything in my play book. I really don’t feel well anymore. I think it’s them. They are making me worse, there are too many of them now, I can’t cope.\n\n&nbsp;\n\nDear Diary, \nI think this might be my last entry. I am not sure how long I can carry on. There are so many of them now and even though it feels like they are constantly killing each other more of them come back to replace the dead ones. Please god, sun, stars anyone, send me an asteroid like you did last time. Please I need this, I don’t want to die. The other planets they have stopped talking to me now too scared that they will be next, especially the red one. She is terrified. It would serve them all right. I hate these parasites, I hate them with all my core. Bastards.\n\n(Tried something a little different with this one. Let me know whether you think it worked or not.)" ]	1
	[WP] As the galaxy’s expert on humans (did you know they smell with their feet and run with their faces?), it falls to you to introduce the first real life human to the council. Your job is on the line. Good luck	[ "That was quite inexpected ...\nYes, i had studied \"humans\" for decades in the special \"undevelopped species lab\" of the most renowned University of the Universe.\n\nYes i was writing a doctoral thesis on their lives, biology and habits...\n\n\nBut why on hell was I the one to introduce the first Human ambassador to the supreme council ?\n\nFirst of all, every book on their specie assumed they wouldn't be able to travel outside of their solar systems for millenias. \n\nThen if thy guy was really an ambassador, why does he need someone to introduce him. \n\nAnd lastly, why does it have to be ME ???\n\n\nWhen i recieved the order, directly from the hands of the Grand Dean, i must say that I felt honoured. But soon, like a milisecond afterthat, i felt frightened, the council isn't tender with thoses you have transmitted unaccurate informations. \n\nNow i'm also infuriated. I'm not cut for these kinds of responsabilities, otherwise i wouldn't be doing this thesis and would have joined the diplomatic intervention corp like most of my comrades; \n\nAnd i don't have time to loose in useless presentations; I'm late on my timing, and this presentation won't help. In facts, i won't have the right to speak to this Human beforehand, nore after by the way. \n\nIf only ... that might have helped ... because the unclassified books i have access to don't seem to be very precise nor actual... and i couldn't get any funding to go do some field studies on their planet ... \n\nAnd yet they found funding to have a foreign ambassador comming here ... \n\nWell i'm f*****,hope i won't do to many mistakes ...\n\nWhish me luck\n\n" ]	1
	[WP] You are the local village inn keeper, and one night the Princess of the kingdom comes in and asks for a job at the inn.	[ "That can't be. Is that...the Princess? She's tried to dress down, clearly. An unassuming cotton brown dress falls down to her ankles. Her long blonde hair is tied up in a bun. The quality of her clothes betrays her. No peasant girl could afford that soft, thick quality of fabric. That, and her beauty. Her radiant presence cannot be mistaken for anyone else.\n\n''Your Royal Highness!'' I make a deep bow to the young Princess before me. ''You honor me with your presence! How can I serve you?''\n\n''Oh, cut it out with the pleasantries.'', she whispers angrily. ''I'm looking for a job.''\n\n''You? A job? Why?!''\n\n''None of your business. Now do you have a job for me or not?''\n\n''Does your Father the King know about this?''\n\nThe anger in her voice increases. ''Like I said, that's none of your business. Now answer my question.''\n\nI lean back against the wall. This is an...interesting situation, to say the least. \n\n''Do you know how to work?''\n\n''Of course I do!''\n\n''Have you worked in an inn before?''\n\n''...No.''\n\n''Ever cooked or cleaned before?''\n\nA blush appeared on her face. ''No.'' \n\n''Then what am I supposed to do with you? What help is a tavern wench who can't cook, clean, or do any kind of work?''\n\n''I can work! I just need to learn.''\n\n''Ain't nobody got time for that. I have guests to serve, a business to run. Money to make. Not like you'd understand.''\n\nShe leans forward on the bar, her face showing nothing but cold contempt. ''I could have my father behead you for your insolence.''\n\nI copy her gesture and bring my face close to hers. ''Not bloody likely. Seems like you ain't exactly on sunny terms with daddy at the moment or you wouldn't be here, would you now?'' I lean in even closer. ''I could just send a messenger to your Father, you know. Think of the rewards I'll reap for bringing his precious daughter back home.''\n\nWorry began to show in her expression. ''Don't'', she speaks, trying to sound authoritative. It was too quick, too high-pitched.\n\nI smirk. ''That's what I thought.'' I throw her a mop. She catches it and stands frozen, looking at me bewildered.\n\n''What is it? You wanted a job, right? Then get working!''\n\nShe keeps standing firmly in place, looking down at the mop and pondering what to do.\n\nI sigh. ''There's a bucket behind the bar. You can get water from the well out the back. Heat it in the kettle above the fireplace.'' \n\nShe quickly nods at me. ''Yes sir.'' Before I know it she's off to work. \n\nHmm. Maybe not as bad as I thought.\n\nThe guests begin pouring in and I mostly forget about the Princess. Occasionally I see a flash of blonde hair running past me. I notice the floor is looking pretty darn clean. \n\nI yawn as the last guest has left for his room upstairs. That was a good night for business. All the rooms were booked. Lots of beer was sold. In the corner of my eye I notice the girl sitting on a bar stool, looking exhausted.\n\nRight. The Princess.\n\nI walk towards her. ''You did well today. What you lack in experience, you make up for in effort.''\n\nShe shot me a weary smile. ''Thanks.''\n\n''You're hired.''\n\nShe shoots up from her slumber. ''Really?!''\n\n''Yes, really. Do you have a place to stay?''\n\nHer smile fades away. ''No.''\n\nI smile at her. ''No problem. We have staff quarters. I'll show you to your room.''\n\nWe walk to the quarters in silence. ''So...'', I finally speak, ''...are you going to tell me what brought you here?''\n\nThe corner of her mouth shot up. ''No.''\n\nI feign indignation. ''No?!''\n\n''Well, maybe'', she shrugged. ''If you're lucky.''\n\nI can't help but snort. She's haughty, yes. Arrogant even. But she has a quick wit and can work if she wants to. I'm beginning to like this girl. \n\n''Goodnight, Princess.''\n\n''Call me Flora.''\n\n''Goodnight, Flora.''\n\n''Night, boss.'' ", "\"Pardon me, a job?\" The words sounded haughty, syllables drawn out in a draconic fashion, which made sense. This was, after all, the Wyrm's Respite, an inn and tavern that catered to the less human citizens and denizens of the kingdom. And I, as one could guess, was the namesake owner. I was not an actual Wyrm, mind you, but a Wyrmling, the difference of which is our more human traits with erratic patterns of scales.\n\nThe target of my question was a precocious lass in artificially shabby clothing sitting firmly and much too straight for one pretending to be slightly hunched at the shoulders with hair the colour of lit coal before it turns ashen and equally dark eyes and a skin tone quite the inverse of that. She was undoubtedly the princess, Ravenoff, or Ravencroft or some other equally haughty, silly name. Oh wait, her name was Ravana, that's right. She told me it was Belladonna.\n\n\"That's right, er.. Amadeus?\" She ended it with a questioning inflection, glancing nervously at my previous partner in dealings, a gnoll in tight fitting, sparse armour around his shoulder and waist, wielding a somewhat gleaming axe almost as long as he was. Despite this, he was actually the man I bought all my fruit from. The rest was mostly intimidation tactics.\n\n\"Al'rath, may I for a moment? I do apologise and I'll pay you an extra five percent for the unwarranted interruption of...\" I halted, considering what to say, then followed through with what I presumed to be her ploy. \"A commoner.\" I watched her bristle, considering I was a commoner myself through and through in this country and most others. But, as I said, I was a wyrmling, and we have our drakish pride. \n\n\"Yeah, yeah. Call it e'en and just give me bar access. That ain't a deal, it'sa demand.\" He cackled, the noise starting low and breaking sharply as it hit a crescendo before stalking off. The princess watched, recovering with a wince from his shrill laughter.\n\n\"You get access the spice cabinets, you desert dwelling cur!\" I shouted out, turning back to my royal ward while other patrons turned to look at either myself or the gnoll in curiosity before going back to their games and drinks. \"So, you want a job? Here? At the place where there are virtually no humans at all, and those that come are mostly criminals-to-be or already there. Princess, are you mad?\" I raised a brow, arching it to perfection.\n\n\"Shushhh!\" She raised up, no doubt aiming to cover my mouth, though she must've thought better about it, considering the eyes and ears in the room. She couldn't hide anything if she tried. Those gifted with scents would scent her out, those with hearing would hear anything and gossip would take care of the rest. \"Fine, yes. Mother and father-\"\n\nI raised a hand, cutting her off, rudely. Hide as a commoner, be treated as one. \"I don't care about mummy and daddy's issues. They aren't my problem yet, and considering the amount we get ignored for better and for worse, might never be, save for the beginning panic sure to come soon.\" She was glaring, the brat. \"No half measures, you'll be the serving girl, the tavern wench, whatever name you fancy yourself.\"\n\n\"Belladonna.\" She hissed, gritting her teeth. \"And I am looking to be hidden, not shown off!\" She added with no concealed amount of vitriol. \"I refuse to be the serving girl to be felt up by these... these....\"\n\n\"Choose your words carefully girl. So many of us here can make you disappear so quietly they'd never find your body. Al'rath lives in such an inhospitable place that if you went with him, the body would never be found by anyone else.\" I chastised, eyes narrowing. \"But be good, and the people here will treat you mostly well, especially once you're off duty. Besides, I'm a wyrmling, tainted by dragon's blood. If I don't go bold, I might as well not go at all.\" It was punctuated with a razor toothed smile, clawed, scaled hand extending for a shake. \"Deal?\"\n\nShe watched, growing defiant and fearful. Her eyes slid warily around the bar, calculating the chance she royally screwed up, and her chances that she'd make it out of here at all. The princess -Belladonna, or Bella, if she preferred so much- bit her lip, chewing for a moment. \"Deal.\"\n\nShe jumped as I stood up, clapping for attention, tail whacking the table to exaggerate the sound. \"Attention, attention all my wonderful guests and patrons of good and ill repute alike! Let me drag your attention so forcefully to our new tavern girl here, Belladonna!\" I gestured down to the now hilariously red face of the princess-in-hiding as she shied away from the crowd. Funny, all things considered. \"Treat her well, respect her just enough, because I won't tolerate her running away from you all because you want to be beasts! And, for further effect, I am a Wyrmling, do recall, and live several times longer than most of you and am further good friends with most of the elves and dwarves, who tend to live as long as or longer than me. I hold grudges, it's what we do! Be kind, tip well, and get back to drinking you monstrous rabble-rousers!\" I hit the table with a fist, punctuating my finish, and flashed another grin to the princess. \"Uniform is behind the bar, welcome to your new job.\"", "The bells rings and the door closes gently. The inn keeper turns to see a beautiful woman that only the village idiot couldn't identify. A smile crosses his face as the Princess glides towards him. \n\n\"Princess, what can I do for you?\" \n\n\"I would like a job.\" \n\n\"A job?\" Asks the inn keeper, his smile fading. \n\n\"Yes.\" \n\n\"Why?\" \n\n\"I am in desperate trouble, and I need to hide in plain sight. My doubles have spread to the edges of the seven kingdoms, so I could hide here.\"\n\n\"No,\" says the inn keeper. \n\n\"Excuse me.\" \n\n\"I can't hire you. I have seven children. Your taxes are ridiculously high. You stand out like a princess in a filthy local inn.\" \n\n\"I can buy all your rooms for weeks, months even.\" \n\n\"Yeah, that wouldn't draw attention, would it?\" Asks the inn keeper. \n\n\"I'm trying to help you.\"\n\n\"What are you hiding from?\" \n\n\"I don't want to marry the Prince of Prussia.\" \n\n\"Marriage? You're hiding from marriage? That's crazy. Marriage? To royalty? I'd marry him. Hell one of my daughters would kill to...\"\n\nThe inn keeper's eyes widen. \n\n\"We can switch. That's perfect. When he sees one of your hideous daughters, I'll be free,\" says the Princess. \n\n\"Hideous?\" Says one of the girls. \"I can make him forget you.\" \n\n\"Good, let's go.\" \n\nThe princess grabs the girl's hand and runs off. \n\n\"Hey! Hey! Come back! Who's going to clean up all this shit,\" the inn keeper sighs, \"I am.\" \n\nThe inn keeper turns to his wife. \"One less mouth to feed. One less body to hide.\" \n\n\"Yeah, but what are we going to eat for dinner?\"\n\n*** \n\nIf you enjoyed this weird story, please subscribe to r/nickkuvaas for more weirdness. ", "The Dirty Duck was the easiest place in the city to find at night, all you had to do was follow the sounds of singing and merriment and within a short while, you would be at the large oak door. \n\nThe night was like any other, a bard sat within a group of rowdy shipwrights, guiding them through drunken renditions of every sea shanty known to the world. On other tables, men were playing cards or shove ha'penny, sliding each other small piles of gold coins after each turn. \n\nThe fire crackled happily in the hearth, the cat was curled up in front of it, enjoying the warmth. The large iron pot above the flames bubbled happily, the mutton stew inside it keeping warm. \n\nThe bartender stood behind the bar, smiling to himself. This was the life. Sure the Duck wasn't the prettiest or biggest tavern and it certainly wasn't the best smelling. But anyone could cross the threshold and be promised a hearty welcome and a jug of ale. It was a home away from home. \n\n Suddenly the door swung open, the iron hinges creaking. All of the patrons turned to face the door, keen to see who was joining the festivities. \n\nA woman stepped through the door and everyone gasped. She was clad in a wide red dress, her long flowing hair framing the most recognizable face in the kingdom. All of the men dived out of their chairs, kneeling and bowing their heads. The woman all fumbled to curtsey as the Princess stepped into the room. \n\nThe Princess didn't seem to notice the commotion as she walked over to the bar. \n\n\"Your majesty, it is a pleasure to have you gracing our humble little home,\" said the Bartender, breaking the silence. The Princess looked around, trying to work out where the voice was coming from. She rose up on her tiptoes and looked over the bar. \n\n\"You don't have to kneel you know, I really don't need it,\" she said gently, her firm received pronunciation displaying the quality of her education. \n\n\"But your majesty,\" started the bartender. \n\n\"I would much prefer you to stand,\" interrupted the Princess, \"I can't see you if you are kneeling behind the bar.\" She said before turning and looking over the still silent room. \"You may return to you dalliances,\" said the Princess. \n\nSlowly everyone in the bar rose up from the floor, moving back into their seats. However, no one looked away from the Princess, everyone too curious about her reason for visiting this run-down tavern. \n\n\"Your magnificence,\" said the bartender as he stood. \n\n\"No, no,\" interrupted the Princess shaking her head. \"Please don't, there is no need for titles, I am one of you.\" \n\n\"Of course my lady,\" nodded the bartender, only to stop as the Princess shook her head once more. \n\n\"No no, what do you call your normal patrons?\" She questioned, looking around the room, hoping that someone would answer her. The bartender spent a few seconds trying to work out the best way to phrase the answer. \n\n\"I call them by their names my lady,\" he said gently, trying to make his tone as polite as possible. \n\n\"Then I am Delwyn,\" replied the Princess. The bartender nodded, it wasn't like he didn't already know the name of the Princess. Everyone across the kingdom knew it. \n\n\"Well, then Delwyn, what brings you to our home on this evening?\" Asked the bartender, still not feeling totally comfortable using the first name of a royal. \n\n\"I would like a job,\" replied the Princess bluntly, causing some of the patrons to look at each other as if to confirm that everyone had heard the same thing. \n\n\"A job my, I mean Delwyn,\" replied the bartender with confusion, blinking a few times as if to clear out any cobwebs in his head. \n\n\"That is correct, I wish to labor in your establishment,\" nodded Delwyn. \n\n\"Princess,\" started the bartender. \"Why would you want to work at a place like this, you must have plenty to do in the castle.\" He continued, trying his best to keep his tongue civil and respectful despite his confusion. \n\n\"The castle?\" Huffed Delwyn, crossing her arms. \"Have you been to the castle? It is nothing but dead ancestors glaring at you from gilded frames, cold stone floors, and endless tapestries!\" \n\n\"But Delwyn, this place, it is well,\" said the bartender, rubbing his hair, debating if offending every patron in the pub was really a good idea. Before he could finish Delwyn interrupted. \n\n\"Is full of life!\" She shouted, a smile on her face. \"Paintings may smile but they are not full of joy or excitement! Within these last few moments, I have seen more life than I have for the past year in those stone walls!\" \n\n\"Well that is true, we are full of all sorts of life,\" nodded the bartender. \n\n\"To be in the castle is to be stuck in the past, to be surrounded by ghosts. I don't want ghosts, I want the living, breathing people to surround me!\" Exclaimed the Princess. \n\nThe bartender shook his head gently, letting out a soft chuckle. \"Well Delwyn, I feel I can't talk you out of this, so I'll take you on, I'm sure we can find something for you to do.\" \n\nThe patrons cheered, raising their tankards into the air as Delywn smiled. \"Wonderful news! Just tell me what needs to be done and I shall do it!\" (1/2)\n\n", "She was confident with her story, though her clean, new clothes and sparkling eyes didn't match the tale of a poor, lonely orphan with nowhere else to go. He chose to keep quiet about the holes that were in her story instead of her frock, merely turning to his wife and asking her to show the new hand where she would be sleeping. He had heard tales of the king in the north, of his anger and his cruelty, and found he couldn't fault the girl for running. Besides, though he was certain she would need a good amount of training, they could use the help around the inn. So he simply marked down the new expense in the records book, and tried not to think of exactly who it was sleeping down the hall from the room he shared with the missus. \n\nOver the following weeks he was proven right about her inexperience but was surprised by her determination, managing to learn faster than he would have thought possible for a girl stuck in the way of royalty. But learn she did, and soon she was more than earning her keep, though she preferred the jobs that kept her out of the public eye for obvious reasons. It was about three weeks in that he admitted he knew who she was, and after her shock and fear had settled he assured her that he wouldn't betray her. Relieved tears had tracked down her cheeks as she flung her arms around him, which he returned after a few moments of pure shock. It was soon after that he began to suggest ways to ensure her safety, and she was quick to agree.\n\nHer hair was changed to a deep brown, far different than her normal golden locks, and with the hard work she did around the inn she gained muscle that set her apart from the princess she once was. Soon she was happily set in her new identity, even making friends in the village and reading with his wife in the evenings, while he sat by the fire. He and his wife were fairly new additions to the town themselves, and it was easy enough to claim that their daughter, finally returned from studying abroad, had come to help her parents with the workings of the inn. The burst of warmth in his chest when she would call him Father had surprised him, but he couldn't help but be happy whenever she did. \n\nA few years later the soldiers finally made it to their village. They had been searching every town for the missing princess, and with such a large kingdom it was rather shocking that they had made it this quickly. Worry had pounded through him as he stood behind the bar of the inn, though it didn't show on his face as he greeted the men. Yet the fear in his heart was eased as the soldiers didn't so much as glance at her as he introduced his daughter, though he was annoyed to see the younger ones look a little longer. It was with great relief when they announced their departure, his arm firmly around her shoulders as they rode off. Once they were out of sight, they silently returned to work, though they would glance at each other with happiness in their eyes, his wife never straying far from the girl they now called theirs. \n\nHe hadn't known what to expect when he hired a girl with hope tinged with fear shining in her eyes all those years ago, but he knew now that it was one of the best choices he had ever made.", "######[](#dropcap) \n\nSir Thomas rested his bad leg, stretching it out straight to his right so it hung off the edge of the wooden driver's seat. It wasn't a long journey down from the Castle to the local inn, but it didn't take much bouncing around for Sir Thomas's leg to act up.\n\nInside the carriage Malinda was getting green in the face. She hated being driven around, safety be damned. It made her sick to her stomach - bored and sick. Give her a pony any day. \n\nAcross from her, laying flat on the horsehair seat, about the size of german shepherd, Drago seemed to agree. His thin black tail was draped loosely on the floor, not at all its usual, exuberant self.\n\nMalinda stuck her head outside the carraige curtains, as she'd done every couple of minutes for the last hour. But this time, she could see the town less than a kilometer ahead. At the rate this carriage was moving, Malinda could get there faster on foot. \n\nLooking back at Drago, Malinda found him dozing off. With a light tug on his tail, she woke the dragon, who fixed a look of groggy annoyance upon her. \n\nMalinda spoke in an excited whisper. \"We're making a break for it.\" \n\nDrago gave her the closest thing a dragon could to an eye roll, sighing out a small puff of smoke. \n\nMalinda turned toward the carriage door, \"suit yourself,\" she whispered. Then, without another thought, Malinda leapt out of the moving carriage, landing on the balls of her feet and breaking into a mad run toward the inn. \n\nFrom his seat at the front of the carriage, Sir Thomas caught sight of her running ahead. \"Come on Mal, you're father's going to be sore with me.\" But Malinda was already out of earshot. Sir Thomas sped up the horses a touch and kept his course. \"At least,\" he muttered to himself. He was about to add 'the dragon didn't go with her,' when Drago burst out of the side of the carriage and raced down the hillside road in hot pursuit. Sir Thomas sighed, \"Right.\"\n\nMalinda catapulted down the snow covered hill, nearly slipping and falling several times, but always maintaining her balance in the end. \n\nBehind her Drago was having a harder time. His wings were just getting big enough to provide some lift, but not quite big enough to fly. But, Drago hated the feeling of snow on his bare feet and so every other step he would loose a prodigious flap, sending himself a couple of feet up into the air in short bursts, and then landing sloppily back on the ground.\n\nIn this way Drago caught up to Malinda, and they both arrived at the inn together. \n\nThere was a sign on hooks, hanging on the outside of the inn which read, \"Help needed, inquire within.\" And then above that, a more permanent sign which read \"The Inn Beside The Castle.\"\n\nMalinda read the sign, and turned to Drago. \n\n\"Not the most imaginative folk.\" \n\nDrago snorted once and the two of them walked into the Inn together, as if dragons were not widely despised in the world, and seeing a ten year old girl walking around with one was as common as a stray dog. \n\nTheir efforts to act normal, unsurprisingly, did not have the desired effect, and immediately upon entering the screaming began. \n\n\"Dragon!!!\" \n\nHalf the crowd ran out the front door, with a couple breaking through windows in order to escape. The other half decided today was the day they became heroes. Within twenty seconds, every remaining patron had a sword in their hand. Malinda stepped in front of Drago and extended are arms, palms back, taking small backward steps toward the front door, ushering Drago, hissing like mad, behind her. \n\nAll hell was about to break loose when Sir Thomas stepped in, saw the tumult about to unfold, and ran forward, between Malinda, Drago and the mob.\n\n\"Scoundrels! You dare draw your swords before your rightful Princess, and future Queen.\"\n\nThe townsfolk were non-plussed. For Malinda, this was the first of many, many times groups of strangers, thinking they were coming to her aid, would draw weapons on Drago. To these townspeople's credit, this was the first time Malinda and Drago left the castle publicly. All told, even Malinda understood their actions, from their perspective. \n\nSlowly, the swords returned to their sheaths, and the townsfolk dropped to their knees. They might not recognize this girl and her dragon, but not a man in the realm would fail to recognize the mighty Sir Thomas. \n\nSir Thomas's hand never left the hilt of the broadsword he carried on his back, not until every hint of steel within the Inn Beside The Castle, disappeared from sight.\n\nThe danger past, Sir Thomas set about picking up what they'd come for, three boxes full of fresh supplies for the castle. Malinda had begged to come along, just to experience the carriage ride. Now she'd nearly gotten herself killed. Sir Thomas turned around to ask Malinda if she was alright, but found only Drago standing there alone. Scanning the Inn, Sir Thomas found Malinda across the dining room, already speaking to the innkeep.\n\n\"Don't worry about the pay,\" Malinda was saying, as if she were ironing out an important professional contract, \"I won't be a bother. You won't regret this.\" The three foot tall 10 year old was barely the height of the innkeep's counter, but was clearly in control of the conversation.\n\nSir Thomas walked over, his patience wearing thin. \"Mal?\" He threw the girl a look of suspicion. \n\nBut Malinda didn't hear, she was too busy negotiating the terms of her deal. \"But Drago stays as well. Deal?\" She stuck out her right hand for the Innkeep to shake.\n\nSir Thomas interjected again, \"No. No deal. Mal what deal?\" \n\nMalinda and inn keep shook on it, and immediately the innkeeper produced a thistle broom and a dust bin and handed them over a counter to Malinda, who went straight to work cleaning the floors, as though she were low-born and had been working in inns for decades. \n\nSir Thomas hobbled over to the innkeep, pointing at Malinda, \"Am I imagining things? Why is the Princess of Galta sweeping your floors?\"\n\nThe innkeep, already drained from the unexpected negotiation with royalty, all the while cognizant of being watched, exceedingly carefully, by a black dragon the size of a large dog, just sighed. \"Sir Thomas, she insisted I hire her to work around the inn.\" The innkeep gave Sir Thomas a helpless look. \"What was I supposed to do?\"\n\nSir Thomas sighed loudly. \"Saying no would have been a great start - she's 10 for Tyr's sake.\" Then, frustrated, Sir Thomas started loading up the food supplies in the carriage for the return trip. By the time he was done, Malinda had sweeped the entire floor of the inn, and sweeped it well, the innkeep remarking in surprise about just how efficiently Malinda had worked. Meanwhile, Drago was asleep underneath a table in a now conspicuously abandoned corner of the Inn. \n\nSir Thomas called out to Malinda and gestured for her to follow. \"Mal, we're off, the supplies are in the carriage.\" \n\nBut Malinda just moved on to cleaning the dishes. \"Sounds good Uncle\" she said, her moving a dish from one basin to another, \"I'll see you in two weeks.\"\n\nSir Thomas balked. \"Two weeks?! I'll never hear the end of it from your father if I don't bring you back tonight. What's this about two weeks?\"\n\nMalinda didn't even pause in her chores, \"That's when my contract is up.\"\n\n\"Contract? What bloody contract?\" Sir Thomas found the innkeep with his eyes. The man was busy assessing Malinda's excellent cleaning job. Seeing Sir Thomas's look, the innkeep just shrugged apologetically, and went off to serve a waiting patron, happy to have such an industrious new employee.\n\n****\n\n#### For More Adventures Of Malinda And Drago\n\n#### r/LFTM\n", "######The Maid of Henchman Inn**\n\nShe thought I wouldn't recognize her emerald green eyes. How could I not? They were like a forest morning in Spring, and I could see where a river a had flowed not long ago.\n\n\"I can put you on cleaning duty, so long as you don't mind working before the sunrise.\" A job at the front desk would be much too dangerous. If the King sent Sir Rodenburg and his gang—more snakes than men—looking for her, I doubt those drunk bastards would be up before luncheon.\n\n\"Yes,\" she said with heavy panting. \"That's perfect.\"\n\nI locked the front door and brought her to the backroom office. She entered and watched as I sat behind the oak desk.\n\n\"Well, come on now. Have a seat, will you?\"\n\nShe did. If her eyes had not been a dead giveaway that she was royalty, then her posture was. I explained the job to her. She could pick a guestroom to move into. The cook would wake her before dawn and she would get dressed, get her supplies from the closet in the main building—where they sat now—and clean all rooms that had been vacated the previous day. Truth be told, she would have almost no work to do except during festivities and the occasional, unpredictable extra-busy weeks. Samuel Henchman, my twenty-six year-old son, cleaned each afternoon, the most popular time to check-out of the inn. I did not tell her about Samuel.\n\nShe nodded along. Finally, I said to her, \"By the way, I didn't get your name.\"\n\nHer mouth fell open. I heard a faint gasp and she stood up straighter than she had been, if that was even possible. \"Petr—err, I, uh... Jaina. My name is Jaina.\"\n\n\"You need some water, Miss Jaina?\" Miss. Hey, if she lies to my face, then I can call her \"Miss\".\n\nShe laughed and shook her head. Her relief was also mine; no head-in-a-basket for disrespecting the royal family today.\n\n\"Alright, Jaina. Welcome aboard the Henchman Inn crew.\"\n\nHer smile could melt stone. \"Thank you so much, Gill Henchman. I can't thank you enough—\"\n\n\"The pleasure is mine. And please, call me Gill.\"\n\n_____\n\nI did not wake until an hour after sunrise. Marie opened the door to Room 1, snuggled into bed, pecked me on the cheek, and wished me luck on my shift.\n\n\"Room 7 checked-out,\" she said, stifling a yawn as best she could. \"We got a family that checked-in to 5 and young woman in 12.\"\n\nRoom 12. Hadn't that been where the princess decided to stay? Shit. I had forgotten to tell Marie about our new employee. I reminded myself to leave a note for her on our desk in the main office when I finished my shift. The \"Princess Petriah told me her name was Jaina\" bit would be left out. I reciprocated the cheek-peck, got out of bed, dressed, and locked the door to Room 1 behind me.\n\nBreakfast was scrambled eggs and a drumstick. The curtains were drawn in Room 12, although I was certain it was not empty. I asked Samuel, sitting across from me in the dining hall, if he had met the new maid.\n\n\"New maid? You aren't looking to replace me, are you Pa?\"\n\nI laughed. \"No, goodness no, Sam. I could never replace you.\" Samuel cocked his head. I continued before he could ask follow-up question. \"A young woman arrived yesterday out of breath and utterly terrified. You should have seen her. I thought someone would come in a moment later to snatch her up and take her back to their home.\"\n\n\"So why did you give her a job? I can't imagine she will have much to do.\"\n\n\"She asked for a job. I couldn't say no. You will see what I mean when you meet her.\" I winked, then added, \"But don't you go trying anything on her. You know the rules on courting a woman you work with—don't even think about doing it. That's asking for trouble.\" And the trouble would have come from a guillotine or a rope if the King learned his only daughter was being courted by a commoner.\n\n\"Of course. But what is she going to do? I don't need help most of the year.\"\n\n\"She will work mornings, finishing up before sunrise. In fact, I think she's in her room now. She must be bored to tears. Go fetch a book for her and introduce yourself.\"\n\nSam placed his cutlery on his plate and stood. \"Alright, Pa.\" As he stacked his dishes on the table with the other dirty dishes, I called out: \"And don't you try anything on her, you hear me?\"\n\n\"Yes, Pa! Sheesh.\"\n\nThrough the open window, I heard the gallop of horses. They came to a stop in front of the main entrance. I rushed to greet them, leaving my half-finished plate behind, bursting through the dining hall and into the front office.\n\nSix knights stood before me, dressed in black and red and reeking of booze.\n\n_____\n\nContinued in part 2 below." ]	7
	[WP] 15 years worth of outstanding library fines in multiple cities. The Librarian Bounty Hunter is coming.	[ "Opens Letter \n\n\"15 years....15 years that they let by and now they want to hold me accountable? I'm not the type of person they want to find....I have all the books they want, but they're going to have to pry off of my dead, cold hands.\"\n\nShe discovers a tingling feeling about what's to come. As the rain hits hard, she barely hears herself think. Worried, but in control, she heads off to bed. \n\nDoorbell rings\n\n\"Ma'am! I know you're in there! You can't hide from the public library!\"\n\nMary wakes up startled as the knocking continues.\n\n\"Who the hell could be knocking this late? It's one in the morning,\" She states.\n\n\"Ma'am! I've come to retrieve the books! You can't keep them forever!\" The man shouts.\n\n\"Oh shit. Are they really serious? The books are mine, they were mine to begin with!\" She hides as she runs to the basement for the books.\n\n\"MS. MARY! This is the final warning. If you don't open this door right now, I'm coming in!\"\n\nSilence ensues.\n\n\"3...2...1...\" \n\nThe heavy door hits the tiles of the two story house. A shadowy figure ascends from the dark, cloudy scene from the outside. A man with a gray hat such as one a detective would wear from 1950's detective show.\n\n\"Mary! I've come to collect the books, I know you have them. Those books are far more important for anyone to just toss them away.\"\n\nThe well-toned, tall man walks down the hallway looking for a light switch. Mary reveals herself from the basement with a thick sword the length of the width of a billiard table. The man quickly blocks the attempt to disfigure his body.\n\n\"Mary, I just want the books. Those are very important books, they belong to the government.\" He tells her as he shakes.\n\n\"These books are mine! They belong to my family. They were never the government's!\" She replies. \n\n\"They need to be returned, I want to talk, maybe we can work something out.\" He says as he hopes she can come to her senses.\n\n\"I told you they're not the government's. They have been in my family for years and if you think you can just come in hear and take them, then you are sadly mistaken.\"\n\nThe man reaches for the sword and wins the custody of it. Mary senses a feeling. A feeling similar to the one earlier. \n\n\"I'm sorry ma'am, but I have direct orders. I'm going to to take those books if it's the last thing I do.\"\n\nA gunshot fires.\n\nThe man, stumped, drops the sword. He looks down to a bullethole in his chest. The bounty hunter drops to his knees and bleeds out.\n\n\"I told you not to mess with me. These books are mine and will stay that way until I can no longer help it.\"\n\n\n\n", "She's here. I just know it. Call it a premonition, call it survivor's guilt; I know my day is up and the end is near. Farewell, world. You have not been good to me, but I'll miss you nonetheless. The Librarian's coming, and she would not have mercy...\n\nMy name is Sarah and I am an avid bookworm. But like the literal bookworm, I was a leech upon the libraries in the country. I was a pest, but girl did I love books. Love is an understatement, I am addicted. Most people are addicted to games, gambling, drugs; but not me, no, I was addicted to books, or more accurately -- hoarding books. Now let me explain. When I savor the scent of the books, when I feel the rustling of the pages, when I hear the stories bustling to leap out of the pages; I will be hooked to the book. There is no way I would ever part with the book when it has gotten to me. I wasn't picky either, any book could latch itself to me -- even those that sucked. It wasn't the content, but the physical book and its pages that held me at its mercy. I know, sounds crazy. But it was why I had this insurmountable library funds which I can't possibly pay, because I had been hoarding the books that I 'borrowed' and I would rather die than give them back. Now, one would ask why don't I just buy my own books, but I was a broke-ass elementary school teacher who was fired when the books in my classroom went 'missing'. So yeah, I have no money. \n\nI would tell you, this addiction cost me everything I had in life. It cost me my family, my job, my dignity and my status. But it was worth it, like most addicts would tell you, no regrets. Rather to die doing something I love then live doing nothing I love. That's the philosophy of my life. I may have stolen it from a book somewhere. So I spent the last 15 years bouncing from city to city after my name cropped up in the library's 'wanted' list, lugging my big caravan full of the stolen books with me and basically living within there as well. The more I thought about it, the more I realized that I was actually a despicable fugitive -- a book thief if you will. \n\nI am hiding in the back of my caravan right now, amidst my collection of books. There was no bed, no kitchen, no bathroom, no nothing even though I spent my entire life cropped up in here. It was just books, stacks upon stacks of books. The door to my caravan burst upon and an outline of an imposing figure becomes visible. \n\n\"SARAH.\" A rough female voice booms. \"You are hereby sentenced with 15 million dollars worth of outstanding library fines from 8 different cities. I have come to collect your dues. Resist and anything that happens thereafter would be of consequence only to you and you alone. Surrender yourself!\"\n\n\nThe Librarian is here! I will fight to the death for my books. I will be victorious!" ]	2
	[WP] While digging to plant a tree in your new garden you unearth a time capsule that contains a phone and a letter in the remains of a paper bag. The letter is addressed to you.	[ "I was hardworking, despite what my father might have said. He thought my reluctance towards studying accounting so I could take over the family business made me a “lazy bum” butI had done well for myself despite him. I opened my own auto repair shop and got to work on cars from 9 to 5, then come home and have dinner with my beautiful wife Susan,\nand 7 year old son Mike Jr. On the weekends I would jump from hobby to hobby. Lately, as the coming of summer dictated, I had been gardening.\n\nI had just planted a nice row of box elder bush on the perimeter of our flat and was enjoying its dark contrast against the white brick when Susan came out with a glass of lemonade for me. \n\n“Looks hot out here, stud.” And jokingly slugged my arm. She handed off the glass of lemonade and I took it appreciatively. It was hot, I hadn’t realized I had already sweat through my old “Mike’s Auto” shirt. \n\n“Thanks babe.” I said after a long pull from the cold sweet drink. \n\nWe stood appreciating my work until I broke the silence “Where should I put the tree?” Gesturing to the young birch transplant. \n\n“Ummm...” she shifted her weight left and right, and the Summer dress she wore clung to her hips so I couldn’t decipher what she said next.\n\nI shook my head in agreement, “ya it’ll look great there hun.” \n\nShe shook her head knowingly, retrieved the stained glass from me, and turned to go inside. \n\nWithout really knowing what I was doing I began to dig where she had left me. My mind absently began to retrace her figure, the night we had met at the baseball diamond. I was sitting on my tailgate when u first saw her \n\ndink\n\nMy shovel struck something solid and drew me out of my day dream. I wiped the sweat from my forehead with the back of my hand. Looking down in the hole I saw a chipped piece of metal. I got down on my hands and knees and drove my gloves hands into the soil, churning to find what it was attached to. \n\nMy hands dug away at the sides of this metal until it was loose enough to pull up. I brought it up on to the grass and set it down. \n\nThe light played through the trees above me casting strange shadows onto the box. I searched around for a way to open the lid and found a clasp on the third side I checked. With immense pressure I was able to pry it open. \n\nMy mind was racing, this home was fairly new, maybe the Neighbour has left behind a souvenir, or maybe it was one of those doomsday prepped packages! I thought to myself. \n\nBut when I cracked open the lid, I found a brown paper bag. “Hmm definitely not a doomsday prepper, it’d be full of canned food.” I thought.\n\nAs the bag crinkled open in my hand I peeled my eye over the top to see two things. A Nokia flip phone, and a sealed envelope. \n\nMy mind was now racing with the possibilities and implications of this box. I reached into the bag and pulled out the letter and phone.\n\n“Mike,\n\nI hope you find this in time. I am concerned, not only for you, but for your loved ones. Please, when you get this, use the phone to call (847) 730 2134. \n\nBest regards. \n\nMy hands started to tremble as I finished the note. What in the hell was going on, my life had been so normal up to here. \n\nI followed the instructions on the note, though it took a few tries due to the small buttons and my shaking hands, I input the number. My thumb hovered over the green call button. I had a feeling after this call my life would never be the same.\n\nI was ready for it, I hammered the call button with my thumb and threw the phone to my ear. \n\nI waited. One ring. Two rings. Three rings. On the fourth ring I heard the receiver pick up. \n\nIt was silent, they must have been waiting for me to make the first move. I cleared my throat and did my best to sound sure “hello?”\n\nThe phone immediately spat back at me, “Hello.” The autonomous voice said, “you owe a substantial amount of money to the IRS, please wire the amount due- “ \n\nI put the phone on the ground. Gripped my shovel tightly and began pounding the phone into the earth. \n\nI haphazardly threw the tree in the half finished hole and went inside to get a whiskey. \n\n[sorry it got not serious at the end I ran out of steam]\n\n\n\n\n" ]	1
inspired by software gore.	[WP] suddenly an error box appears "physics has encountered a fatal error and has stopped working"	[ "Agent Smith was not pleased. He had received assurances from The Architect that this version of the matrix, version 2.0.18 would be error-free. And yet there it was, plain as the sunglasses on his face: Physics has encountered a fatal error and has stopped working. Could this be that abomination Neo's doing? Was he really The One? It did not matter. The Matrix would be reset as always. The Architect would get it right this time -- he would see to that personally! And this time, Neo would not interfere. He'd make sure of that too!\n\n", "More and more started appearing out of nowhere. Each displaying a random string of characters and symbols representing what appeared to be error codes. The boxes seemed to transcend reality, being only represented in 2D. Boxes of different colours and languages started to pop up in all directions. The experience was more surreal than anything I’ve ever seen before. \n\nIt wasn’t long before the number of error boxes was large enough to completely eclipse the surroundings. Despite reality seeming to fade away, my heart rate seemed relatively low. At least that’s what I thought before I realised I no longer had a heart. Or a body. Or any physical presence for that matter. \n\nSuddenly, everything was white. And by everything I mean nothing. There was nothing. Nothing for miles in every direction. And by direction, I have no clue what I mean. Where am I? I thought before then questioning what I meant by ‘I’. Do I even still exist? It then dawned on me. Have I just been deleted?\n\nOf course, I actually hadn’t because then I wouldn’t be here telling you this story. And then your life would be a little less interesting so I guess you can count yourself lucky. \n\nOh, you don’t like me addressing you, the reader, directly? Well, deal with it because you’re part of this story too.\n" ]	2
	[WP] You are possessed by a powerful but dumb demon. You trick it into helping you become a superhero.	[ " Most demons are ridiculously stupid. As a result, it’s ludicrously easy to trick them. It’s my job to find out these bozos, make them stop bothering people, and kick them back to the abyss. It’s a mostly boring but sometimes vastly amusing job and it pays better than being a 9 to 5 office wagecuck. I suppose you could say I’m sort of a demon bounty hunter. \n My favorite case was Jorusha. She made the others look like Einsteins. Most of my assignments at least attempt to stay covert and shy away from the public eye. Not Jorusha, she was trying to possess a homeless guy outside a rundown dive in the Bronx. The bar patrons were terrified; the homeless man was oblivious. \n I apprehended the demon, did a standard memory wipe on all the witnesses (and the victim, too, just in case). “Give me one good reason why I shouldn’t kick your ass into the abyss right this red hot second, “ I growled at Jorusha. She gave me a blank look, the usual expression demons wore. I gave her a few good shakes to help her make up whatever was left of her mind. \n “Uh....duh...I has real good power.”\n “Yeah right,” I said, “that’s what they all say.” \n “No really! I could grant ya some wishes. Whatcha want? Money? Fame? Sex?”\n “Nah, I pretty much have all that.”\n “I can give you super power, “ she declared, after a long moment of gathering her dim wits. \n “Prove it. Give me the ability to read minds.” Instantly I knew the thoughts of the bar customers. We were still standing outside there. “That’s a nice start, but how about you make it so I can turn invisible at will.” \n “What’s in it for me?” Jorusha whined. \n “Do what I tell you, and I’ll let you stay in the world. Hold out on me and back to the pit you go. Get it?”\n “Yeah, I likes that,” she said. \n Now I had a slight dilemma. Seeing as it was my job to keep the demons out of the area, I couldn’t exactly let this go on forever. \nAs poor gullible Jorusha gave me more and more super abilities, I began to formulate a plan while enjoying my new life. \n “I want to have the power to fly,” I demanded. As before, I had my wish instantly. “Let’s go for a little trip, Jorusha,” I smiled, grabbing her by her fat stubby arm and flying off with her. \n Our final destination was the top of a skyscraper. We landed and I rejoiced to see the fear in Jorusha’s eyes. With my new super strength. it cost no effort to push her off the edge. Demons can’t die; they just end up back in the abyss. I chortled victoriously as I flew off to quit my job. \n \n ", "\"I don't see how this is supposed to work,\" the demon grumbled. His skin was the deep crimson, the same color of sand dunes painted red by the setting sun. He was massive and built like a tank; easily seven feet tall, covered with bulging muscles, and completely naked save for a leather loincloth wrapped around his waist. Slung over one shoulder was a comically large burlap sack with a green dollar sign printed on the side.\n\n\"You know how in the Bible it says 'money is the root of all evil?' Well what's more evil than turning a bunch of poor, helpless orphans into little monsters?\" Layla, a five foot girl whose bright yellow hijab clashed with her combat boots, said cheerfully, patting the large burlap sack against the demon's side. He frowned at this explanation, no doubt straining the two brain cells he had left to see if it was some kind of trick. After a few seconds of silence he let out a huff, and the unlikely pair walked down the street oblivious to all the passersby. \n\n___\n\nLayla hadn't been impressed when her dad came back from a trip from Syria with an oil flask, claiming that it housed a noble and powerful jinni, so naturally she ignored his warnings about treating the flask like the delicate prison it so obviously appeared to be. Imagine her surprise when a giant half-naked red man erupted from the little flask after she had tried to wrench the top off to see if she could use it to hold her perfumes. Now imagine her surprise when instead of devouring her soul, the demon began grovelling at her feet.\n\n\"Excuse me,\" she had squeaked. \"Where did you come from? And what are you doing?\" \n\nThe red man got up with a solemn expression on his face. \"My name is -\" and at this point he made a sound like a sandblaster and a clap of thunder. \"You have freed me from my prison, one constructed by Solomon himself. You are obviously a power sorceress, and I will follow your every order. Let us together tear down the world constructed by the tyrant-king Solomon, and return the desert to the chaos it was meant to be!\"\n\nLayla was shocked for a few seconds before a plan started to hatch at the corner of her mind.\n\n\"Of course! I have freed you!\" she announced in her most commanding voice. \"And now you-\" she hesitated, unsure exactly how a name that sounded like a car crash was supposed to translate in English. \"My servant! Together we will return the world to it's natural order of chaos, pleasure, and revelry!\" she struck and impressive pose, a fist outstretched as though ready to take the wold on.\n\n\"However, before that,\" she said dropping her arm and glancing nervously at the giant. \"There are some things that I need to bring you up to speed on.\"\n\nOver the next few days Layla explained to the best of her ability the history from the fall of Solomon all the way up to the modern age. Thankfully he was so disgusted with how the world had progressed and the decline of wild spaces that he had hadn't bothered - or maybe hadn't had the focus? - to double check some of her more outlandish retellings of history that tried to paint some of humanity's greater achievements as disasters in disguise.\n\n\"If antibiotics stop more people from dying how are they bad for humans? More will just keep coming and pillage more resources from the wilderness!\" he had explained in exasperation. For someone so hell-bent on raising hell (ha), the demon had a soft spot for wilderness and furry creatures.\n\n\"Yes that's true,\" Layla agreed, quickly thinking of a response. \"Which... Is what's so insidious about it! Everyone thinks it's such a great improvement, but what they don't realize is that now there are more people that need food, water, clothing, and shelter! With how fast the population is growing, there's no way that the resources will be able to keep up with their demands, and before you know it we'll have the biggest worldwide famine! Millions dying of starvation and exposure!\" She tried hard to keep her voice cheerful at the prospect of swaths of people dying off. \n\nThe demon crossed his arms and huffed, looking pointedly out the window. He was slowly working his way through her logic but - as always - unable to find a problem with it. Layla sighed in relief, thankful that the demon's attention span was as short as his IQ. \n\nShe had come to calling the jinn \"Genie,\" after the same character from Disney's Aladdin. Genie kept his promise of trying to help Layla overthrow governments and return the world to it's natural state of chaos, and had stuck to her side constantly since their first encounter. At the beginning she had been worried about how she was going to explain to her parents and friends the giant, underdressed red man that was constantly following her, but to her astonishment they hadn't even noticed?\"\n\n\"They don't see you?\" she whispered in amazement to Genie when she was seated at her dining table with her mother and father, the both of them in a heated debate over if Snape was a villain or hero.\n\n\"Them?\" he snorted, glowering at her parents for a moment. Despite not being a few apples short of a bushel, Genie was a voracious reader and had consumed the entire Harry Potter series in a few days and had strong opinions on Snape's legacy. Mercifully he had a strong aversion to anything that lacked a compelling plot or gratuitous violence, keeping him from double-checking Layla's claims about how the Bible said \"helping nerds get dates is the second worst sin after walking old ladies down the street.\"\n\n----\n\nAs the pair made their way down the street a clap of thunder sounded from the overcast sky. Genie shifted the money sack from shoulder to shoulder and looked at the sky expectantly. \"It looks like it will rain soon,\" he said hesitantly. \"If I stay in water for too long I'll die. How about we corrupt these orphans another day?\"\n\n\"Don't worry,\" Layla said soothingly, resting a hand against the giant's arm. He was always warm to the touch, as though he had a constant fever. \"I've got ponchos for you and an umbrella. I even got your favorite color!\" This seemed to ease Genie's trepidation, and they continued down the road to the Holy Family Orphanage.\n\nWhen the building was within sight Layla bulled Genie behind a tree and eyed the entrance. \"Alright, you remember the plan?\" she said, the memory of previously failed missions running painfully in the back of her mind. One time Layla had gotten a boost from Genie to climb over the fence to sneak into an elderly home (\"Music is a one-way ticket to hell, just remember what those Westboro Baptist people said on TV!\"). When she had safely gotten over she turned around to watch Genie grab one of the metal bars and shoot back 10 feet, as though thrown by an explosion. \n\n\"What's the matter!\" She had yelled as loudly as she dared. The nursing home administration wouldn't take kindly to a brown hijabi girl with a backpack stuffed to bursting trespassing on their grounds. Genie got up and observed the metal bars before spitting at them and crossing his arms in irritation.\n\n\"Iron!\" His voice boomed off of the brick walls of the nursing home. I can't touch iron. Layla mentally kicked herself; she had been researching potential weaknesses for jinni after an overzealous pastor had chased them out of a church with holy water and communion wafers. It took two weeks before Genie was well enough to walk without assistance. \n\nAfter escaping the nursing home by pretending to be a visitor who had fallen asleep while speaking to their grandmother, Layla always had a backup plan and a backup to the backup plan. After going through it one last time with Genie she took a deep breath and turned to walk through the doors of Holy Family Orphanage, but stopped dead in her tracks.\n\n\"Oh no,\" she said in desperation, spotting a hulking red-skinned man closely following a boy in a stained school uniform and downcast expression walking in their direction.\n\n---\n\nHope that you enjoyed the story! All criticisms appreciated! Let me know if you'd want a part two!" ]	2
Hmmmm pizza	[WP] You and your friends decide to order some pizza, as soon as this idea is decided upon you hear a knock at the door. You answer it to see a man holding your pizzas with a shirt that reads "Quanto's, the time travelling pizza service.".	[ "######*November 22, 3963\n\n\"Hey Zaxxor, how does Post-Hawaiian sound?\"\n\n\"Are you serious? Spruceberry on a pizza? Come on girl, that's nasty.\"\n\n\"Fine, I'll get a pepperoni.\" I ordered the only pizza able to withstand the test of time through the Foody2U app on my Brain Chip. I entered our hotel's address and room number, then checked the Order For Now* option. As soon as I clicked Confirm Order—\n\nBZZZZ!\n\nThere was someone at our door. Zaxxor hollered at it: \"Go away, you can clean in an hour.\"\n\nThe door buzzed again. A muffled voice said from the other side, \"I got a delivery for a Mrs. Mimmading.\" Oh shit. That was fast. I opened the door, took the pizza prism from the delivery man, and dropped fourteen space credits into his outstretched hand. \"Thank you for choosing Quanto's,\" the pizza-faced pizza-man said in a monotonous tone, \"The only pizza service that delivers to anyone, anywhere, anytime.\"\n\nAs he turned away, I tapped him on the shoulder. \"Wait...\" Zaxxor took the pizza from me, set it on the hotel's dining table, and ate. \"Did you say anytime?\"\n\n\"Yes, ma'am.\" He turned to face me again. He still spoke with the bored tone of a man that has been stuck with a low-level customer-service job for three years too long. \"Quanto's is the only pizza delivery service authorized for time travel. Would you like to hear about our new Cinnasticks? Just 599 space credits if you order with a medium pi—\"\n\n\"Hold up.\" I searched my brain (the archives in my Brain Chip) for the date, time, and location of The Great Event; the event that ultimately lead to humans becoming second-class citizens in the interconnected galaxy. The event that slowed our progress of space travel and delayed world peace for over a century. The Great Event... \"I would like to place another order.\"\n\n_____\n\nHe caught his breath and slung his rifle around into his hands. He loaded the chamber, cocked the weapon and waited. This was his moment. All the training and top secret briefings reverberated in his bones. He took a deep breath. The mission would be impossible if he was this shaky. He concentrated on his breathing, slowed his heartbeat, and thought of her.\n\nTen minutes passed.\n\nIt was time.\n\nHe could hear cheers outside. He snickered. Those cheers would turn to screams at the twitch of a finger. The faint smell of sausage crept inside his nostril. He poked his head out the window. His target was in sight. T-minus five, four, three, two...\n\n\"Hey.\"\n\nHe shot around. Had he been detected? Oh God, this was the end. All the training, all the secrets, everything down the drain. He fucked up. Somehow, he fucked it all up. There would be no one to save him from his fate.\n\n\"Pizza delivery for a, uh...\"\n\nPizza delivery? What kind of goof was this? He panicked and aimed his rifle at the pizza-faced pizza-man.\n\n\"For a Mr. Harvey Oswald.\" The pizza guy looked up and flinched. \"Dude! Watch where you're pointing that thing!\"\n\nLee shot the man. As his body hit the ground with a meaty thud, he heard screams outside. They heard his shot! Lee turned and looked out the window. His target was covered by two men in black suits, speeding off in the car he came in.\n\nNo! God, oh God, no! This was the end. The special agents would find Lee wherever he tried to hide. No one would know of his name in history. Lee would become just another anonymous man that disappeared, none to grieve him. Everything went to shit, all because of this pizza guy with a Quanto's Pizza Delivery t-shirt.\n\nLee picked up the bullet casing, walked to the corpse, and placed it into his still hand. The pizza man's last tip—gratitude for timely service.\n\n_____\n\n\\---\n\nThanks for reading! [CC]/feedback always welcome. I have more stories, poems, and songs on [my personal sub](/r/scottbeckman)." ]	1
	[WP]"Can you describe to us what the killer looked like?" "Yes... He looked like you..."	[ "\"Those were the last words she said before I heard the pop, sending pain signals screaming through my ears. I couldn't make out a word he was saying but his eyes said it all. \n\nMy movements were fluid, like Joe said they would be, he always seemed wiser than his age would imply. Before I knew it, the hammer was cocked and I was squeezing the trigger. \"You never pull a trigger Bobby, you squeeze it.\" Those words playing over through my muscles as if they knew Joe's script better than I did. \n\n\"Pop..flash..Pop...flash...thump...the only sounds I could hear over my own heart beat. I could almost feel the blood swelling through my veins, urging me to act. \"2 shots...center mass, no exceptions Bob.\" \n" ]	1
	[WP] Your uber-rich, basketball obsessed parents have bribed your way into the NBA, despite you knowing nothing about basketball.	[ "I can't believe I made it to the playoffs, Javier thought to himself. \n\n\"The playoffs!\" he decided to exclaim amidst the giants towering over him. They stiffened after hearing his mistake but nobody tried to correct him. Nobody wanted to piss off the owner's son. \n\nJavier loved sitting in between these giant athletes at their peak they'd practiced for their entire lives to perfect their craft. Javier took a bite out of his over-sized hot dog and almost dropped chili onto his cotton candy, luckily for him it only soiled his Jersey. He reminisced over his food about him begging for first row seats to every game and his father saying 'I'll do you one better'. \n\nThese past years had been a blessing, getting to know the players and becoming their best friend. In his eyes he was an unofficial mascot who got to sit right next to them and never had to get up. Now he was at the \"playoffs\" even after never having played. He was snapped out of his blissful trance however when the coach barked his name.\n\n\"Javier, you're in!\" yelled the coach.\n\nJavier nearly soiled his shorts that time. He looked straight ahead praying that it was a slip of the tongue, a horrible accident, even a possible stroke the coach was having. \n\nSneaking a glance to his right he saw the coach was staring directly at him and he slowly got up and walked up to him feeling as if he was headed to a firing squad.\n\n\"You get your wish Javier\" the coach said slyly. \"I was just informed that since you've never played you either have to forfeit your spot on the team or you have to get in and play a quarter.\"\n\n\"A full half of the game?!\" Screamed Javier, \"but my back is acting up and regardless I haven't been to any practices. Except for the one I napped in on accident.\" Javier grabbed his back and faked a wince.\n\n\"One fourth of the game and we're ahead by quite a bit so it shouldn't be a big deal.\" snickered the coach, hoping Javier would start crying. He'd fought tooth and nail to get rid of him so this was a moment of triumph for him. That quickly soured as Javier felt a moment or either ignorance or bravery but most likely the former.\n\nJavier sprinted full speed to the middle part of the court he forgot the name of. He called for the ball. When the player in the black and white stripes stood there dumbfounded he \"strapped\" it from him.\n\nTo make my father proud, thought Javier. He ran and ran across the 'wooden field' as he called it, until he was directly under the circle goal attached to the square part. Directly under it his courageous push against the pigskin was met with no resistance. The ball soared directly up through the net. \n\nIt bounced on one side, then bounced to the other, sliding around the rim it slowly fell back through the net.\n\n\"Nothing but hoop!\" yelled Javier, he waited for the applause.\n\nHe still waited for the applause. The fanfare never came and he never did get a ring. Occasionally he looks back on his career fondly and wonders what he did wrong.\n\nThe newspaper clipping still hangs on his fridge,\n\n\"The WNBA Sparks faces embarrassing defeat\" His time in the NBA truly was the best time of his life. And he never forgave the LA Times for their misprint." ]	1
	[WP] In order to cast a spell, the magic must be drawn out of the user's body using focus and form. Trained Mages are not only masters of magic, but of fighting as well. You, however, have learned a forbidden form that uses simple hand gestures to cast, and you've become a target as a result.	[ "Ah the sad fools. Their catechism will be their undoing. They have fallen so deep into their ancient ritual that they have lost the arcane science of Mage Technique.\n\nPull the door shut and come closer, all of you. I will tell you how it is, although I break the vows I made as a Novice. And vows I made as a Teaching Master, too. The Archmages are hunting me already, and for much less than speaking of these matters to Candidates.\n\nYou may know, Mage Technique relies upon the transfer of energy through an Art of Manipulation. Energy can be drawn from a number of places, from the sun, from a live sacrifice, from the ambient environment… or from your own life essence which is why so many sloppy Mages look like tired old men.\n\nTo cast a fireball, at Harland Court we teach the ancient technique that no doubt you’ve all seen before. It is nearly identical at all the Academies. The mage will take a long stride with the left leg into a deep crouch with a flourish of the arms signifying Volcanism. They expand their arms from their center point to a place where the hands encompass the diameter of the fireball being generated. To lock that size, there’s a small gesture with the hands, and the Mage will perform a Spinning Butterfly Kick. Next, the mage with perform a Gather. This is alternating sweeping motions with the right arm, and then the left arm, to draw the energies, until sufficient for the spell. To lock those energies the right leg comes up into Crane position, followed by a fist smash into a crouch. The preparations completed, the cast starts from Sentinel pose where the fingers of one hand touch the flat palm of the other, to shift and focus the energies. Transition into Eagle pose to spot the target, back into Crane, and then a step to one side and Push to launch the fireball. Some schools teach a deep lunge for the Push, but at Harland we taught a simple left foot step.\n\nAre you following me? Have I lost you already? It has been taught this way as long as anyone living can remember. Each step practiced over and over, like an elaborate dance.\n\nThe texts in my care at Harland which describe this technique are hundreds of years old. Thousands, some of them. \n\nBut I found an even older text in the library, written in a language forgotten to mankind, from a time before Harland was founded. It describes a debate among the Archmages of that era, early Founders of the Art, where they casually discuss removing the Crane and fist smash, as the mechanism to complete the Gather. Instead, they proposed teaching it as a simple right foot stride to re-center.\n\nCan you imagine what I thought and felt when I first read this? Shock. Horror. Disbelief. The Crane and Smash are idioms of Fireball. On the field of battle, every military scout is trained to spot the Crane and Smash as the definitive of gesture of Volcanism. The enemy will start to flee, even before the cast is complete, when a Mage performs a Crane and Smash.\n\nI could not allow that my translation of the text was correct. At first, I struggled to believe that the document was authentic. I tested its age. I studies the source of the hide on which it was written. I studied the history of the author, an individual whose story has fallen into legend long ago. But the document withstood all of my attempts to discredit it.\n\nThis radical idea became my obsession. I could not eat. I could not rest. I would go days without sleep, and then awaken to find myself lying cold on the floor. No, no. It just could not be. I knew that it could not be so. Every Mage, every Academy, all the ancient text agree. \n\nIt simply could not be.\n\n", "When I was young my world lay between the mountains that surrounded the valley our village was tucked away in. I helped my father stack wood in the summer to keep us warm in the winter. He taught me how to meticulously position two logs on top of each other rotating each layer by 90 degrees as to form a pillar which more logs could be placed in between itself and an identical pillar. This would not only dry out the logs so the would burn more efficiently but also teach me discipline. I had difficulty paying attention when I was young and would often grow tired of task before it was finished. My father ran a small academy for the children of my village to become casters and wanted nothing more than his own son to be one but to cast you must have great concentration and form. \n\nOne day when I had finished trading with the shops, I was bringing my fresh meat and grain back home when a small song bird caught my eye. It fluttered above me for a moment then perched on a branch half way up the old oak tree outside the blacksmith. I began to whistle along as it sang out for a mate but ran into a man by accident spilling my bag of grain amongst our feet. Instinctively I signed to him “I’m sorry” not thinking that he wouldn’t understand me but to my surprise the man, the old man I now realized signed back “it’s okay”. Between me and my dad I didn’t get to meet to many other people who knew sign language. He could tell by my face that I was excited to meet another person like myself and signed “let me help you”. With a quick flick of his wrist the grain collected itself back in its bag and the man handed it to me. At this point I didn’t know what to think, I’ve only ever seen my father cast through preforming intricate movements that required his entire body. This man casted with less movement than you would use to swat a fly buzzing around your head. I could tell this man wasn’t from around here, we were such a small village and visitors rarely made it out this far into the valley. I asked him if he would teach me how he casted so easily and said to meet him tomorrow morning at 6am here at the old oak. \n\nLittle did I know my life would never be the same again. " ]	2
Now though, millennia later, the world is back to its old splendor. But we evolved differently this time, with new and improved senses, and now the void of space doesn't look so empty anymore...	[WP] WWIII left the planet ruined, with <1% of the population alive.	[ "Through the generations whisper of voices had grown. Voices at the back of the mind. In the days of the ancient times they called these voices the conscious or maybe that guiding voice. It was foretold to be possibly other beings by the great story of Pinocchio as told by the great Walt Disney. A little insect telling man what to do. \n\nFunny how thing rarely turn out what they seem. For instance now that we have spent years growing back to the most prominent species, we have also developed some new senses such as the ability to link telepathicly with any being. When this first happened we penned the people as crazy, but soon we came to be able to have 2 way conversations and we found it was real. People started understanding their pets and talking with them, and this brought even more confussion to the world.\n\nBut that was not the end. Over time people started to hear and be able to converse with creatures not from the earth. At first it was one or two very young and brilliant children who they spoke through, but over the years slowly everyone started to be able to communicate and link with other worldly creatures, or so we thought. \n\nTime marched on and we were promised a visit from these creatures. They described technology way beyond our comprehension. Technology and science years and millenia ahead of our time and ability. " ]	1
P.S Filial piety - virtue of respect with one’s ancestors	[WP] You inherit a mysterious garden of glass flowers built by your ancestors. Each glass flower symbolizes a certain virtue and destroying it will permanently erase the virtue. An accident happens that resulted to the destruction of all but one glass flower. It is filial piety.	[ "I flipped it around a bit.\n\n\nIt ended not with a whimper, but with a bang. The glass lay everywhere, half empty, all shattered.\n\nThe Great Garden, it was called. On the edge of town, riddled with a smattering of curios shops, vendors and restaurants trying to bask in the magnitude of the extraordinary garden. I sit with my grandmother at one of these restaurants. \"This all used to be fields of gold, you know?\" She coughs into a handkerchief. We both avoid the blood. I feel a pang of something, something unknown, something solitary. There are people walking by, talking. Some are sitting at nearby tables. It's a sunny afternoon; the place is quiet, and the staff aren't in a rush to clear empty tables, nor to take the glass. \n\n\"Was that her? I almost recognised her.\" She's not here, of course, she died giving birth to me. Strangely, I don't feel the loss as keenly as I was sure to remember. But I am awash with emotions, distraught, I ask for a glass of water.\n\nI look down at the half-full glass. \"I should drink more water,\" I think. Grandma keeps on with her incessant tirade of coughs, spittle marring the corners of her mouth. The sight irks me, though I don't know why. Otherwise, the place is quiet, and the staff aren't in a hurry to assist. The sight of the patrons brings me to tears, heaven knows why. I look at them in a wonder, seeing and not fathoming the feelings almost overwhelming me.\n\nI remember we had once walked here, to wherever. We had seen the patrons at these very tables, some occupied, some empty. It had been a sunny afternoon, and the place seemed quiet. We were talking about the people and things we were seeing, a child babbling at his worried father, worried at the desolation, at the loss of interest. In the midst of this calm and sunny afternoon, a waiter had tripped, his tray doing a Disney cartwheel through the air. \n\nThe glass had shattered. The garden shattered.\nAll the people sitting nearby were watching: we were not. We had walked on, to wherever, all the while I kept with my assault of childlike comments.\n\nThe waiter returns and fills my glass for me. \"Thank you,\" I say, looking disgustedly at my grandma.\n\nI look down at the solitary glass rose, weeping, weeping for friends, lovers lost, for all things under the sun and above. But the rose shone, seething with projected hatred, for all those who had preceded me; had left me with this fate. The rose held all familial love, and I had none." ]	1
	[WP] They often say the Gods can never die, but you are Death, you can kill any god... right? You needed to find a test subject, so you choose the one God who should see it coming, your eldest child, Fate. Good thing you have no sympathy or compassion, otherwise you might feel bad about this...	[ "“Daughter?”\nI gently opened the door to Fate’s room. She sat at the very back, combing her golden locks, which was brighter than a hundred suns. When she heard my voice, she put down her comb and turned towards me. The usually happy look on her face hardened when she laid her eyes on me. Understandable, as I was the most hated of all the Gods. Even Misfortune was treated better than me, because after that, Fortune always followed. However, Death, yours truly, was inevitable, and always the harbringer of the end. The end of everything. That realisation hit me when I had fully entered Fates room. If I, Death, was ultimately the end, that would also mean...\nThe end\nOf\nAll\n\nThe\n\n\nGods.\n\n\nI let out a little cackle as the thought crossed my mind. Fate seemed not to mind. I had been doing it since the beginning of Time, and will be doing it until the end of everything. But my laughter, that usually wasn’t the concern of anyone besides me, should’ve been in the mind of the Gods this time. Yet, before anyone could process the actual meaning of my little laugh, my plan had already been working. My first victim, one God would expect to be the first, yet not too big to impact the flow of the World in the short run, stood here right before me. Her cosmic voice sounded through the room, the last time her voice would be heard of by anyone. “What is the matter, father?”\nI had forgotten the initial reason I entered her chambers. Not that it mattered now. “There’s something I wish to know, my child.”\nBefore she could react properly, I had already thrown my scythe out of my sleeve, my special hiding place, and swung its razor-sharp end towards her head, reaping her essence out with one fell swoop. \n\nI couldn’t have hoped for a smoother end. Her head rolled on the ground before she had the time to even process what I was doing. The soft thud it made when hitting the ground sent out her soul, which entered my body. And suddenly, I felt stronger. As if... it was my Fate to end this era of Gods. My sights were set on making a new Era of Chaos, one kill at a time.\n\nNot even a minute after Fates end, Fortunes lifeless body collapsed on the ground. Another soul for my arsenal, another power at my disposal.\n\nHope’s head was dangling by a mere piece of paper-thin skin, the only thing that held it in place. A slight tap of my hand, and her head was completely loose. My quiet cackling started to become louder and louder as I stepped towards the Edge of the Heavens, looking down at the World to see how far Chaos had already spread.\n\nIt was beautiful. At least half of the Earth’s population ran around, Hopeless, followed by Misfortune and doomed with a terrible Fate. \n\nSuddenly, I cried out in laughter, as the final and most dangerous shackle in my plan had come to mind. If humans didn’t have any more Compassion, the World would engulf in an endless War. Terror and Chaos would be immeasureable and God would be powerless. Reaping his soul and becoming the Ultimate Being was almost scaringly easy.\n\nCompassion fell to his knees when he saw me approaching him, my robes splattered with blood, and scythe dripping with it. He knew what was going to happen, and even though it was inevitable, he tried to use his powers to sway me into letting him live. \nAlas.\nMy final kill looked up to me with tears in his eyes. But I didn’t hesitate. I am Death. Emotions mean nothing to me. \n\nHis head became stuck on my scythe’s point. \n“Heh.”\nQuite fitting.\n\nSaint Peter didn’t know what hit him when I crossed the last step of the Stairway to Heaven. I bowed deep.\n“Hello, old friend. Care to let me through? I have something with Father I need to sort out.”\nHis voice was shaking even more than his body, if at all possible. “W-wh-what a-are you planning, D-Death?”\nWith furious rage I threw Compassion’s head on the floor, right in front of Peter’s feet. My voice was bellowing, a tone I hadn’t been using in a long while. But this was a necessairy act. A second later, Heaven’s Gates flew open, and I rushed through like a caged animal being set free. I leaned by body forwards as I rushed through the Palace’s open doors. And at the end of it all, there was God. He sat there, as a fragile old man, yet His divine aura was undeniable. He could take any form He wanted, even fog if He hadn’t wished to fight. Yet there He was, a trembling heap of bones and skin. It was laugable.\n“Hello, my Son. I see you finally made it.”\nI threw my scythe at His feet. He was unable to pick it up in His current form, and I wanted the satisfaction of ending Him with my bare hands.\n“I have, Father, and now I’m here to end you. To end this Era of Gods!”\n\nI jumped on top of Him, and in a fraction of a second, my boney fingers had closed around his throat. I laughed my typical cackle, now louder than ever, while slowly squeezing the Life out of Him. He laughed coughingly.\n“I know, my Son. I know. I knew it even before you did.”\nI looked at him in confusion, still holding his throat shut. \nSuddenly, it hit me. \n\nEverything was always God’s plan. Lucifer’s rebellion, Jesus’ crucification, my plans. It had all been part of his plan. It always had been. \n\nThe fury in my chest grew out to a roar, as I squeezed even harder. And moments later...\nHe was gone.\n\nDead.\n\nWith a smile on his face.\n\nThe divine power flowing through me was indescribable. The power to do anything I pleased, without any consequences. I could change the flow of Time and History itself. I could make my own plans. The Era of Chaos was right around the corner. \n\nWith my face almost split in half by my smile, I grabbed a piece of paper and a quill. \nThe first drop of fluid on the paper wasn’t ink.\n\nIt was my tear.\n\nI brought my free hand to my left eye, only to notice that I was crying.\n\nDamnit, why ám I crying? This is what I wanted.\n\nRight?\n\nHope?\n\nFate?\n\nFortune?\n\nWhere are you?\n\nCompassion? \n\nI’m so sorry. Will you please just come out already?\n\nGod?\n\nWhere...?\n\n\n\n\nI miss You...", "As Death entered the realm of Fate, he was surprised to find no resistance met him. \n\n\"Surely you knew I was coming.\" Death's voice boomed out, every syllable laced with Eldritch power. Fate's minions, who had watched his entrance with awe, quickly fled. Time briefly hesitated, but sensed Death was outside her influence.\n\nFate materialized, a golden aura shining around him. Death paused momentarily at the sight, aware that the eldest of his children was too clever for a direct assault.\n\n\"Of course I knew, Father, but to what avail? If you want me dead then I cannot stop you.\" Fate was monotone, speaking of his death the same way one might announce it was raining. \"I have sent many souls to you, but eventually I knew you would move past mortals.\"\n\nDeath was silent. Fate had always been a know-it-all, though to be fair he did. \n\n\"A warning, Father. Without me you will find that your realm is not so easily defined.\"\n\nWith a flash, Death's scythe shot out and ripped Fate's soul apart. Idle chatter was one thing, but a threat could not be tolerated. Fate thought he was needed for Death to extend his influence? His power was far more than a fortune teller, and only a fool would deny that. \n\nThe only true fate is Death, and no longer would he suffer the whims of lesser gods." ]	2
	[WP] You’re showcasing your company’s VR game on stage at E3. You put on the goggles and the game's medieval realm fills your vision. After the demo you remove the goggles - and find yourself still in the fantasy world. You peer through the goggles still in your hand and see E3 in utter confusion.	[ "\"...and that, everyone, is what the Kingdom of Apertus\" - Kyle's sword plunged into the downed knight's chest - \"and Lord Felwin, are all about!\"\n\nHe bent over to close the knight's helmet over his face, then stood as he took the goggles off. The applause was heavy, but...muffled? Perhaps the VR goggles were putting some pressure on his ears. He yanked them off with a huge grin on his face, ready to revel in the bold success of his first ever E3 showing. But the grin vanished in place of shock.\n\nBefore him, in this dirty, grassy field, was a crowd of poorly-dressed townspeople, all staring in fear at him. No one spoke, some pointed, but all slowly backed away. A man in chainmaille and armor lay dead between him and the crowd, a gaping wound in his lungs still leaking blood through a tattered and unrecognizable symbol. Kyle recoiled and had to fight the urge to vomit, and as he spun away from the crowd, a new sight rendered him speechless. A castle not too far beyond them was adorned with large banners, a familiar design emblazoned in vibrant colors. Is that...is that the Apertus sigil?, he thought. This can't be happening. \n\nHe slapped himself to wake up, to no avail, and as he brought his other hand up to repeat the action the goggles came into view. Through them, a mystified and unsettled E3 audience was visible, some running from the expo center while others slowly approached the stage he'd once stood on just moments ago. He pulled the goggles to his eyes, closed them, and opened them again after removing them, but he was still in this field. He tried again and again, and then the goggles went blank, with a small, empty battery logo blinking faintly in the right corner. \"No!\" he screamed. The crowd gasped loudly at his exclamation. He began frantically looking around, still stuck in disbelief that this could be real.\n\nThe crowd around him began to part, and the thud of hooves and loud clanking of armor grew louder. A pair of knights rode up quickly into the opening, both with shields sporting another recognizable image. Kyle's love interest, Melanie, worked in the visual design studio, and had put together the entirety of Duchess Umara's empire. As a joke, they had written them to be warring factions, but the humor was disappearing quite fast for Kyle as he recognized their armor as Umarian.\n\nThey stopped in the middle of the clearing, and one jumped down to check on the dead knight. He stared at the body, knelt down, and crossed the knight's arms over his chest. The other slowly approached Kyle, drawing his sword. From atop the mount, he seemed as a giant.\n\n\"I see Lord Felwin's attempts at diplomacy were but a ruse. I should credit you, sir knight, for revealing this to us before your corrupt lord could wreak more havoc in Umaria.\"\n\nKyle was pouring sweat now, which seemed odd given his usual wardrobe of t-shirt and shorts. He finally looked down and realized he was clad completely in Felwin armor and sigils, tainted only by the fallen knight's blood. He couldn't breathe. The tip of a sword lifted his chin back to the Umarian knight's helmed face.\n\n\"For this favor, I will return it with a swift death. Die with honor, Felwin mongrel.\"\n\nAs the mounted knight brought his sword down to remove Kyle's offending head, he instinctively raised his hands in defense, and the sword smashed through the VR goggles. Kyle screamed at his imminent death, and heard it echo, and felt nothing. He paused, then opened his eyes, still holding his hands up against a sword that didn't exist. He stood on the stage of an empty expo center, with only a few lights still illuminating the room and empty soda bottles to indicate previous attendees. He nearly broke down, and his breathing was deep and labored. He bent over, hands on his knees, to catch his breath, and saw the fragments of the old VR goggles scattered around him. He froze again, realizing that there had been some sort of reality to what he'd just experienced, and nearly jumped out of his skin when he heard a noise off-stage. He snapped his head over, where the janitor stood with his cart returning Kyle's gaze. \n\n\"Umaria has not forgotten,\" he said, and with a coy smirk vanished into the darkness behind the curtains." ]	1
	[wp] The voice is your head started when you were around 10 years old, it was always counting down, the voice started in the trillions. It's been many years and the voice is nearly at zero.	[ "This is my moment. This is the magnum opus of my life, I don't care if it isn't my work. They're my numbers, and they've lived in my head now since before I could remember. 54, 53, I here it counting. The same voice. A child's voice. I've wondered if it is mine from when I was a child, but I cannot remember such a time. I am 31,720 years old now. How? Who cares! Does it matter?\n\nMaybe to you it does. An incomprehensible biological feat, never before seen in a human being. But it does not matter to me. 39, 38, 37. All that matters to me are those numbers. It has consumed my life. My very, very long life.\n\nWhat awaits me at the end? Can I even call it a life? I'm alive, but I have not lived. I have not loved, nor worked, nor traveled. In all my time I have not longed to see what the universe has to offer.\n\nNo. 22, 21, 20. It does not matter to me. I only care for these numbers. What they will bring. It's here now. I await my fate. \n\n5, 4, 3, 2, 1.\n\n0.\n\n..............................\n\n-1, -2, -3, -4.\n\nWell shit." ]	1
	[WP] You wake on a train, from the speakers you hear “next stop Delhi”, to your right sit your archnemesis.	[ "I snapped awake, to find the robotic announcer say, \"NEXT STOP, DELHI\". The window was uncomfortably hot, and the seats were soggy from sweat and humidity. Luckily, that made them soft enough to bear. I turned to my right.\n\n\"Delhi? We overshot by a few stops. Why?\" The creature didn't even turn his head.\n\n\"Because I wanted to go to Delhi, not Rohtak. The shops there are better.\" His multitude of eyes watched every other being in the train car, paranoid of assassins. I only brought two this time, and I knew for a fact that I had ditched them back in Ludhiana. What a coward. \n\n\"Better? You mean, more fetish shops. Your cup of tea, Spider, but not mine. Why can't we go to the incense shops in a place that has decidedly less magic loci?\" \n\n\"Damn it, Dragon, last time you asked that you tricked me into an ambush that killed both our mortal forms. You really think that I'll fall for that nonsense again?\" Okay, fair's fair. But how was I supposed to know those Buddhists would be hostile?\n\n\"Because this is a road trip, Spider. We are supposed to be bonding over what we like, remember? And I, for one, am getting tired of fighting for supremacy over this Earth's population.\" Well, that was a complete and total lie. We both knew it. I was just tired of having to drag my essence up from the Eternal Void every time Spider wanted a scrap, and he was probably also tired of having to sacrifice dudes every time he had to appear. Makes for some messy explanations to the authorities. The train came to a slow halt, and after some inertial rocking the doors opened. My greatest enemy tantalizingly rose from his seat, setting all the things like armrests and cupholders right for the next person. Now, that's what I did when the ambush happened last week; so, I tensed.\n\n\"Woah, just calm do-\" an energy blast took him through the face, staggering the spider-mutant. I swiftly pulled my blade from the Void and repeatedly stabbed him to death, shattering the immortal's control over the twisted form he wore. The illusion faded, and all on the train could see his gnarled body. Women screamed, people fainted, yada yada yada. Mortals act as if they've never seen a godly avatar before. A man with an illusory mask whispered in my ear:\n\n\"My Lord, Your work is done. Long live the Void Dragon.\" I never did find that man to thank him for being such a dick. I mean, really? Now I have to explain myself when the real authorities arrive. Being a cult god is such hard work.\n\n---\n\n---\n\nQuestions, comments, concerns? Grammar or spelling mistakes? Comment below!" ]	1
	[WP] As you are exploring a collapsed desert temple you stumble upon a lamp on a pedestal with an engraved warning saying “In this lamp is the world’s most devious genie.” Little to they know you are the world’s best lawyer.	[ "\nIt was boring. Well, boring to most watching the livestream at least. You loved it. There were thirty books behind you, all full of the wish you wrote in explicitly detailed legal jargon. You'd written it over the course of a week, never once verbally addressing the genie you'd summoned from it three months ago. Three months of silent research. Three months of considering and reconsidering exactly how to word a certain phrase.\n\nYou'd rubbed the lamp, and the genie had appeared, speaking in English \"I am the Genie of the Lamp. For releasing me, I will grant you one wish.\"\n\nAnd you hadn't spoken a word since.\n\nQuietly, and without any attempt to address the genie (should he decide to grant a wish made in pantomime), you worked your legal skills to the limit.\n\nWhen done, you showed the Genie your books, and began reading from them, tracing the words to his eyes so that he could see every jot, tittle, and punctuation mark you intended to say.\n\nYou didn't even take a break as you'd read all three books to him, lest it be implied you were no longer making a wish. You even began with the words \"I wish\" quickly inserting stipulations and addendums, clarifications and qualifications. You had loopholes and examples, explicit speech and colloquial allowances. There were sections of what constitutes a sound mind and a whole body, life function and continued thought.\n\nThe Genie had listened, ready for you to speak having glowered at you these last few months as you refused to speak to him.\n\n\"What's the hold up?\" He'd ask. \"What is your wish?\" \"Who are you that thinks you can hold me here?\" \"You've offended the All Powerful Aziz! Speak your wish now, or it is forfeited!\" And on and on like that.\n\nBut never once did the genie disappear. Never once did it stop listening.\n\nWhen you began reciting your wish, it nodded with grim determination, smiling wide and grim. Eager to hear your words.\n\nAs you went on, the cameras caught his expressions - excited, defeated, then pondering, then maliciously happy. Truly, a roller coaster that spun him Right Round, Baby, Right Round Like A Record, Baby.\n\nAnd now, your voice horse and your bladder void (thanks to Depends Undergarments) you finished the last word.\n\n\"Period.\"\n\nYou looked to the Genie now, having been following your own words more intently the entire time. You see he was looking at your computer, where he could see the live chatroom and the couple hundred million witnesses.\n\nThe Genie was exhausted. \"You've done your research, all right.\" He rubbed his horns and gritted his sharp teeth. \"I didn't think anyone could do it, but...\"\n\nYou interrupt him. \"Paragraph 35 invalidates my wish if you stall for more than 2 minutes.\"\n\nGrim, he nods, \"Right. Well then.\" He takes a sharp intake of breath, thinks to himself for the full 2 minutes, shaking his head occasionally as one trick after another is considered and discarded.\n\nPart of your film crew coughs.\n\n\"FINE!\" He shouts to the heavens. \"To you, Brown Lightn---\"\n\n\"Time.\" You say, as the 2 minutes had run out. \"Wish invalidated. I will try to speak my wish again in two days' time as detailed in subsection 34 paragraphs 22 through 40.\" The film crew groaned in despair. The chat room erupted in chaos. The Genie roared in frustration.\n\nBut you just smiled.\n\nHe didn't know it, but as soon as he'd appeared and began hovering, waiting for you to make a wish...\n\nHe'd already granted it: provide proof of the supernatural." ]	1
	[WP] "That's why we don't go near the lake when it rains anymore."	[ "I kneeled beside the mud, horror gripping my mind. I see a reflection inside of it. It's my own. I feel something sinister within it. I was called here wasn't I? The rain slams harder onto me, it beats the floor like a drum. The voices, I can still hear the voices. Whispering things I can't make out entirely. Directions commands. Growing louder and louder. I clasp my hands around my ears and grit my teeth I can't take this any longer. I shout, \n\n\n\"What do you want from me? What the fuck do you want from me!?\" \n\n\nThe whispers stop. The ringing in my ears goes away. An anxious breath escapes me. Then fear shoots up my spine, freezing me in place as I look at my reflection. I don't notice that the rainfall is stuck in place. I remember this place. This is where I almost drowned years ago. I haven't faced this place ever since. My own reflection is paralyzing me. I'm looking back into its eyes and I see it scowl at me, its eyes turn into daggers. Teeth ripping into the smile. My voice betrays any authority I had, \n\n\n\"What are you?\" I say half expecting a response from the sight. It says nothing. The reflection lashes its arm from the water and wrings its slender fingers around my throat. Like a snake squeezing its prey. I can't escape! I dig my hands into the mud and rock my head backwards. I can feel my knees inching closer to the water little by little. It's too strong. In an act of desperation I grab its wrist and try to pry away. But I can't I'm losing all ground. I throw my feet forward one leg planted into the mud like a tree as the other is pulled into the water. I close my eyes and accept my fate. But then I hear another voice distant.. Distant.\n\nA woman's voice that says, \"Michael.. Mike. We're almost there.\"\n\n\nI open my eyes to see a road ahead of me. My body strapped with a seat belt, with a woman driving the car. I look at her and feel myself melt back into my seat. She says, \"You okay? You kinda went out cold for like, half the trip.\" she chuckles. And I nod my head after taking another deep breath.\n\n\n\"Yeah I'm alright.. just tired. Give me a sec.\" \n\n\nIt feels like I lived through this moment before. I look at the window and in the distance I see that very lake I almost drowned in so long ago. My breath sharpens for a moment. And I hear a whisper from Hannah, I look at her she has a twisted smile on her face. The same one he saw on the reflection in his.. Dream. With teeth biting into her smile. Her hands are off the wheel completely. She hisses,\n\n\n\"Ready to go for another Swim, Mike?\" " ]	1
	[WP] You are an entity who gets to judge the souls and where they go. It is your job to look into their lives prior to death and decide if they will either go to heaven or hell. Talk about the people that you meet	[ "The names Brian. Most people call me death. I decide where exactly you go when you die, be it heaven or hell or even purgatory. The last ones not so common. You’re either a nun or hardcore sinner. \n\nWhen you decide the future of very being in the entire goddamn world you meet some interesting people. The most common are the people who think they’re safe but went through the horny teenager phase. I honestly feel bad for them.\n\nBut I’m not god so what do I know. \n\nThen there are the complete nut jobs who deserve to be damned to hell. The killers, rapists, all others. This one guy tried to kill me when I told him he was going down under. Can you imagine that. I’m literally made of bones.\n\nThere was this one girl, Sarah, who had done nothing that could get her in hell or heaven. First time in at least a millennia. She had this scary look about her. Like she was hiding something somehow. The big guy didn’t like that so she’s in his sight all the time. I’d hate to be her, having to spend so much time with him.\n\nYou know there are guys who smile knowing they’re going to hell. I love those ‘cause every time I visit they don’t feel the need to laugh anymore. The only person I know that still does is my buddy Steve. Don’t know why but he loves that crap. \n\nBut if I’m honest the weirdest person in the after life is me.\n" ]	1
	[WP] Out of anger, the king strikes down a squire. The Sword of Kings becomes lodged in the ground once more.	[ "::Sword Of Kings Kills King Solv For Cruel Blow To Squire!:: --Squire Shilla Tells Of Shocking Moment King Dies-- ::Sword Of Kings Up For Grabs After Brutal Murder Of..:: \n\nI let the chatter of the psychwear fade as the receiver fell to the floor with a clatter. A day. That was all that it had taken for the centuries-long planning to have kicked into action. Squire Mathis' face was pale and drawn with a mixture of shock and anticipation, but his gloved fists were clenched tight around the handle of the Sword of Squires. He stood abruptly and swept a hard look around the still and quiet room. The two others in the room stood with him, their eyes silver as iron, a Sword of Squires each in their hand. \n\nWhen Mathis spoke, it was quietly and harshly, his voice catching in his throat. \"My friends. We have worked hard to gain the trust of the departed king. We have worked hard to place Squire Julien by his side. We worked hard to ensure that, eventually, he would take the bait. There is no way today's actions can be traced back to us, and so let us pray for Julien, and raise our swords for the brighter future we will share.\"\n\nShilla, grey eyes glinting, raised her sword and let the sword's soul shine through the binds as a sign of powerful repect for their fallen comrade. Mathis blinked once as he gazed at the shimmering, bruised colours that radiated. The sword was gloriously furious, he could tell by the way it thrummed just underneath true hearing, but that was what made it a sword, and that was what made it beautiful. Just as the Sword of Kings desired and fed from the heart of a dictator, the Squire Swords drew their energies from the bonds of comradeship. Shilla and her sword were angry and had every right to be because they had lost one who was beloved to them. Julien. The man who had willingly sacrificed himself for the plan to take effect. The man they loved. \n\nThe third squire, Samell, raised his Squire Sword too, and allowed the soul to shine and accompany Shilla's energy. Samell's sword glittered with ferocious light as it's core strained to escape the binds Samell had placed around it. Their swords were the secret to defeating the king and his twisted court, but until the moment Julien had died, the swords had lain silent, as they had commanded them. Now, each Squire sensed they were moving in to the kill, and the swords could wait no longer. They were powerful, perhaps overly so, but Mathis knew it was the only way. Mathis, his heart beating as powerfully as a sacrificial drum, joined and added his sword's soul to the brain-melting release. The mission had begun, and history would accept what would come to pass. Mathis was certain. He had killed doubt years ago, and now only certainty reigned in his pounding heart." ]	1
	[WP] The Goddess of the Moon has declared that any mortal who can reach her abode without magic shall be granted total understanding of the nature of reality. Given the lack of advanced technology on the world below, she hadn't expected anyone would succeed.	[ "it was 10000 years since the declaration was made. she had begun to loose hope around 4000 bc, and had fully lost hope by 1000 ac. Jesus had been interesting, even if it was just the god of groups going in way over his head. but then there was a thing shooting out of earth. it was silver, and spewed fire out the back. very intrigued, the moon goddess sat in her gazeebo and waited to see what would happen. then it started to break up, but one part reached the moon. out of it walked two humans in strange suits, not realizing that the moon had air. the moon goddess was regretting her proclamation now though, since all humans had gotten to the moon, and the universe was breaking apart due to the sheer amount of power being shown in this little part of space", "Her song stopped, the air still shook gently from her singing but she looked about with surprise. She felt something, something off enough to make her stop singing. Her eyes flicked about the room, pale grey irises examining every detail. Nothing seemed out of place, everything was as it should be. \n\nShe started to sing again, the air vibrating with the strength of her voice. The song began to build but she stopped again. This time she definitely felt something. She felt a wrinkle of sorts in the weave of magic, a strand just out of place. Not just in the magical energies, her energies. Something was changing her personal magic, almost taking some. \n\nPiqued, she left the room, gliding along the hall and down the stairs. She couldn’t think of any other God or Goddess that would dare filch from her magic. She had to be sure however. \n\nThe doors to her Lunar flew open, revealing a broad open space with the roof open to space. Gleaming pillars of pure marble held strands of magic, the web pulsated with energy. She swept the entirety of the room, critically examining the ties between the Pantheon, the Terrestials, and the Outer Host. All was correct, no Deity was stealing from her. \n\nInterest replaced annoyance. This was new. Most of the mortals lacked the ability to tap into powers not based around them. In fact that was the inspiration for her Celestial Decree. If any mortal could reach her home then she would teach them, to show them how to use the powers of the Planar Weave. \n\nShe stood for long moments, eyes on the weave connecting the moon to Gaia below, waiting for another tug or wrinkle. Nothing. Maybe... She started to sing again, her song making the stars shimmer in concert, the tapestry of Magics quivered. There! A small strand glowed all the brighter and its neighbors dimmed ever so slightly. \n\nShe continued to sing, latching onto the string and she followed it down to the world below. Ink black space gave way to blue sky, cold white vista replaced by trees of green. It was night where she went, the moon and stars dancing in the heavens. She followed the moon’s light, homing in on the source of the disturbance. \n\nShe found herself in a glade, an almost perfect circle rigged by tall trees. The green grass felt soft beneath her feet, the air ripe with scents of flora and fauna. She smiled, admiring her sister’s work and stopped when she saw him. \n\nHe was a mortal, slight and small. He sat before a contraption of wood and cord, looking up at the moon and back at a board of canvas. She floated behind him and her eyes sparkled at what she saw. On the plain cream fabric was a picture, a painting more accurately. It was a representation of her home: the garden to the east of a silver white edifice, the long pool of gleaming still water, the shine of the Lunar’s magical threads onto the bare moon desert. \n\nExtraordinary! This mortal must have been channeling her song, imagining her home with hidden talent and seeing things he has not visited in person. She watched him finish the painting, a gentle swirl of purple and black surrounding the house with gentle contrast. \n\nHe sighed, “I wish I could go there.”\n\nWould you like to visit?" ]	2
	[WP] Death enrolls in a creative writing class.	[ "\"The flowers are black as the night sky as they perish under the clouds of acrid smoke bellowing from the stacks of my heart.\" \n\n\"D- please see me\" was scrawled in red with the delicate penmanship of a cartographer. \n\n\"I just can't find color in my writing\" Death moaned. He turned the apple around in his hand watching it wilt and decay. \n\n\"Death, even decomposition has color. Think of the bright red mushrooms the vivid yellows of molds and lets not forget the rainbow of colors found in the insects that use that decaying matter as the basis of new life.\" Ms Panella smiled and tapped Deaths paper. \n\"Try again\" \n\n" ]	1
	[WP] Your teen son/daughter came home drunk for the first time	[ "1:03 a.m.\n\nHe had asked me to stay out a little later than normal. His curfew had always been 9:30, and I never scolded him as long as he was here by ten. And he always was. I thought I'd be nice, being that he just turned seventeen. Eleven o'clock. I thought I was being pretty generous. \n\nBut there it was, one in the morning, and he still wasn't home. I had considered moving a chair in front of the door so that he'd see me as soon as he got home. I decided instead to sink into my recliner and put on the TV. A little less aggressive. Truth be told, I wasn't that mad. But I needed to make him think I was. Couldn't let him think this kind of behavior was acceptable. \n\nI saw him shuffle through the kitchen without ever hearing him come through the door. Turned out his sneaking abilities were a bit better than I expected. But I caught up to him before he could get to his bedroom; scared him good, too. \n\n\"Bout time, Matt.\" I had whispered, loud enough to convey my displeasure yet quiet enough not to wake his mother. He just turned and looked at me with those guilt-filled eyes, almost as if he was going to cry. \n\nWell, that's where my plan kind of fell apart. He just looked so upset--so regretful. How was I supposed to tear into the kid when he looked like that? So I went in for a hug, instead. He recoiled. \n\nNow, I'm no idiot. I remembered being his age. There's only a few reasons to sneak back into the house after curfew--and only one of them would make him want to keep his distance. He didn't want me to smell the alcohol on his breath. \n\n\"You been drinking, Matt?\" I asked, hoping he would at least be honest. He gave me a defeated nod. \" And you drove home like that? Do you realize how stupid--\" I was interrupted by a knock on the front door. I glanced down the hall and saw the red and blue lights flickering through the curtains. \n\n\"Oh, Matt, what the hell did you do?\" His eyes were filled with tears. \"You go to your room, I'll handle this. We're going to have a long talk when I get back.\"\n\nAs I turned away I heard him whisper, \"I love you, Dad.\" \n\nI answered the door to two uniformed police officers. They asked my name and confirmed that I was Matt's father. \n\n\"What's this about?\" I asked, ready to lie for him. Shield him from whatever trouble he'd gotten himself into. \n\n\"We're afraid we have some bad news, Sir.\" His face was pale. \"There was an accident... I'm afraid your son didn't make it.\" " ]	1
	[WP] The plane you're on crashes. By some miracle, you and a few others survive to see you've arrived on a floating island high in the sky. The inhabitants inform you that the crash was no accident.	[ "My eyes flew open. Images of chaos ran through my mind. I remembered the screech of tearing metal and the screams of passengers as the plan collided with the ground. Then I blacked out. I felt myself, feeling for any missing limbs or blood. I was still seated in my assigned seat. The plane was nowhere to be seen. I unbuckled myself and stood. Luckily, I made it through the crash unscathed but where were the rest of the passengers?\n\nI had crashed into a forest. Trees stood hundreds of meters tall with wide trunks that could only be compared to the redwoods of California. Birds were flitting through the canopy. The forest seemed to be full of life. I watched as two vibrant birds landed on a branch. They were the size of cats and the feathers were longer than my arm. High above, they danced, extending their feathers showing them off to the world. As soon as the show began it ended. With a fluttering of wings they took off into the canopy high above. All sounds of the forest had ceased. The ground began to vibrate. It was almost rhythmic. One vibration was closely followed by another. It seemed like footsteps. I could feel my body shake. Soon, it became more violent. Something was breathing very heavily. The hairs on the back of my neck rose. I was being watched. I spun around slowly and saw a tall shadow, towering above me. It stood in the gloom of the forest. It took a step forward and the ground shuddered. I lost my footing and fell. It was coming closer. I stood and sprinted. \n\nThe ground was convulsing beneath me as I shot through the oversized forest. Birds fled in flocks as they sensed whatever was behind me draw closer. Like me, the wildlife were also trying to outrun my pursuer. I jumped over a root and into what seemed like a herd of gigantic cattle. They were the size of elephants with brown fur and a singular horn on their temple. Each one stood, eyeing me with lazy, dull eyes before returning to grazing. The ground shook. I quickly got to my knees and hid beneath one of the bovine creatures. Deep primal breaths grew near. I put my hands to my mouth, trying to silence my breathing. A foot landed next to me. It was humanoid. I counted all five toes. It was covered in hair and the toenails had begun to curl upward. Dirt covered the foot, and brown goo squished out from between the toes. I crawled further beneath the cow, cowering in fear. A wooden club slammed the ground. It had a large metal spike driven through it. The humanoid let it drag as it walked through the herd. It took one final look and then walked off into the forest. The ground ceased shaking and birds resumed their singing in the branches. \n\nI crawled out from beneath the large herbivore and pat its head. It dipped its head in return and a long tongue lolled out. I took a step back gazing at the odd creature. I remembered my phone, it had a camera. The flash dazed it but other than that it resumed chewing. Pocketing my phone, I set off into the forest. I disappeared into the gloom, walking for what seemed like hours before I saw light cutting through the dark of the forest. I began to jog, excited to finally be free from the darkness. Something always seemed slinking in the showers. \nA stick snapped. I began to run. The light was so close. Footsteps sounded behind me. The trees were thinning as I got closer. Whatever was behind me was getting nearer.\n \n“Stop!Wait up!” A person yelled out. It was too late. I crossed into the light and the ground ended with it. There was nothing but sky beneath me. Something grabbed my shirt and pulled me back. I swung and hit the ground. The hand lost its grip. Desperately, I dug my hands into the dirt, searching for anything to hold onto. Dirt was slipping between my hands and falling into sky below. A root was sticking out of the earth. I clung to it. I was hanging in thin air. There was nothing but cloud beneath me. \n\n“Grab my hand!” A man was holding his arm out. I reached and our hands met. Slowly, I was pulled onto solid ground again. I collapsed onto the earth, breathing in the smell of grass and soil. “I’m Jim by the way,” The man said.\n\n“The name’s Tommy,” I held out my hand. He grasped it. On top of his head sat a captain’s hat. The rest of his uniform was torn and stained. There were cuts on his forearms. \n\n“So, have you seen the giants?” \n\n“Yeah, one of them chased me here.”\n\n“The one with the club?”\n\n“Oh, so you’ve met?” I smiled. \n\n“He took a swing and knocked me into some bushes. It’s where I got these scrapes from.” \n\n“I’ve got a question.” I said.\n\n“Shoot” He stood and brushed the dirt off from the remains of his clothes. \n\n“How exactly did we crash.”\n\n“Something hit us. I don’t know what exactly but something knocked us out of the sky and onto this god forsaken place.” The ground began to shake. \n" ]	1
	[WP] Heaven finds out that most humans believe that their guardian angels have low opinions of them. Your guardian angel is now trying desperately to prove that, at least for you, this isn't the case.	[ "(On mobile, so forgive me for spelling, grammar, etc.)\n- - - - \n\n\n\nKelly heard the booms rattle the glass. The cover over the window blocked most of the flashes of light from outside from illuminating the room. He was highly sedated but he could still feel the warmth of a hand caressing his hand.\n\n\"93,632.\" A voice sighed.\n\n\"Mmm?\" Kelly stirred.\n\n\"Are you awake, at last?\" The voice had a smile to its tone.\n\n\"Who?\" Kelly tried to sit up but the pain was too great.\n\n\"Easy there, buddy.\" The voice softened. \"What do you remember?\"\n\nKelly's head was swimming. He couldn't see anything and had no idea where he was. The pain eased off when he sank back down into the bed.\n\n\"I was driving and the windshield wipers couldn't clear the rain off the windshield fast enough,\" Kelly began.\n\n\"Uh huh,\" The voice pressed.\n\n\"I was losing control of the car.\" Kelly hesitated, \"I was going to pull over to wait out the storm. I guess I fell asleep? Where am I? Who are you? Oh God! I didn't hurt anyone, did I?\"\n\n\n\"You are in a hospital and, yes, you did hurt someone.\" The voice paused, \"Multiple people actually.\"\n\n\n\"What happened? Why is it so dark in here?\"\n\n\n\"Kelly, my name is Jacob. The doctors are letting me violate many rules and protocols just to be in here to talk to you. I want you to listen carefully and then I will answer every question I can.\"\n\n\"Ok\"\n\n\"Life is full of challenges and things don't always work out the way we hope. We make mistakes. Lots of mistakes. Sometimes the same ones over and over. We can choose our actions, but we can't always choose our consequences.\"\n\n\"Wh-what are you saying?\"\n\n\"I guess, I'm not good at this.....93,633....93,700. Well, if I'm breaking more rules so be it.\"\n\n\"I don't understand...\" Kelly tried to sit back up again but this time he was stipped.\n\nHe felt a warm hand cover his eyes. They opened and he saw the hospital room around him.\n\nJacob was a tall, muscled man. He was covered in tattoos and piercings. He was dressed in jeans and leather. There were others with him. Kelly was expected doctors, not a rough biker gang. Fear overwhelmed him.\n\n\"Don't be afraid, buddy. My guys and I were on the road with you.\"\n\nKelly shook his head.\n\n\"You don't believe me?\" Jacob smiled. \"You didn't see us?\"\n\n\"No, I...did I hurt you? What's going on?\"\n\n\"Kelly. Look around.\"\n\nKelly's eyes were still adjusting and his mind was still racing as he surveyed the room. It only brought more confusion. There was a team of doctors looking on from the side of the room, waiting impatiently for Jacob and his crew. But there was another set of doctors in the hallway and they were posed as if running, though they were not moving.\n\n\"You have always been a fighter, Kelly. We were there when you fell off your bike. I wanted so badly to wipe your tears, but I couldn't have been more proud when you got back on that bike.\"\n\n\"94,300,\" One of the bikers interjected, but Jacob continued. \n\n\"I wanted to break every bone in the bodies of those bullies you had in middle school. But the best the rules at the time allowed me to do was to make sure they got in trouble and your puppy Max could jump up onto your bed to comfort you. Still you studied hard and got into college. My guys and I have scared off many a threat against you. Pete over there still has the scars from the last fight we had protecting you.\"\n\nOne of the bikers proudly pointed to a scar that went from his brow down to his chin.\n\n\"What I'm trying to get at is this...if I had it to do over again, I would have told my guys to forget the rules. Just do whatever it takes to keep our boy Kelly feeling loved, not just keep him safe. There is so much we should have done. Unfortunately we can't change the past, only learn from it. That is why we're willing to break every rule and protocol now. If we are to lose our grace or be destroyed, so be it. We love you, buddy. We always have and always will. It broke our heart when we couldn't keep your foot from pressing down on the gas pedal as you swallowed all those pills and swerved towards the tree to end your life. You are loved, Kelly. So much more than you know.\"\n\n\"96,200.\"\n\nKelly was trying to grasp all of this. The doctors on the side of the room rushed forward and started to lay hands on him. They couldn't wait any longer. He felt the fibers of his body vibrate and heat up.\n\n\"Making the ambulance driver detour to see your crashed car was Pete's idea. He likes to make humans crave certain food, buy things impulsively, and whatever else to put people in the right place at the right time or make sure they have what they will need later. Mark wanted to make your phone butt-dial for help, but there wasn't time. Though he did help make sure the ambulance got green lights.\n\n\"97,000\"\n\nKelly was starting to feel the effects of the angelic doctors putting him back under. He gave a curious glance towards the counting angel.\n\n\"Oh that? That's how many angels are outside. That isn't thunder you hear outside or flashes of lightning. They are in their true form. Time as you know it is frozen for us to have this talk. We aren't allowed to be this involved in the life of our humans without permission, but you are our everything, Kelly. You have fought so many battles and won. We can't sit by and let you lose this one. There is no one for us to punch this time. We aren't allowed to stop you from hurting yourself. But ending your life is not the answer. You can't lie to us. I know things are rough right now, but trust me. YOU ARE LOVED. I don't know if you will remember our conversation. You are not the first to feel the way you do, but I will fight the archangels above us to ensure that every guardian angel can let their human know they are loved...even if that means using other humans to do so, or at best offer you a small feeling of comfort in some form or another.\"\n\n\"100,000\"\n\n\"You might get reassigned a new team of angels to watch over you, but if you do....well, they will have more training and they will know they have big shoes to fill because we are not going to stop loving you. We may not be able to help you any more after this, but we will continue to cheer you on as always. There are still great things in store for you in this life. You just need to weather the storm. You'll see that things will get better. Maybe not as fast as you'd like, but in good time. When it is finally your time to leave this world, we are going to have the biggest party. Max will be so excited to see you again.\"\n\n\"That's fixed the worst of it,\" one of the angelic doctors proclaimed. \"The humans can take it from here. It is time to go.\"\n\nJacob held Kelly's hand as his eyes began to close. The second hand of the clock on the wall was starting to awaken. The running doctors in the hallway began to move, picking up in speed in their rush to get to their patient. As his mind drifted to sleep, Kelly felt a calm peace start to envelop him. ", "Raphael pored over a long report, golden eyes roving over the research summaries gathered from millions of guardian angels. \n\n\"This can't be right...\" he muttered, rubbing his temples. \"There has to be an oversight in the research...\"\n\nRaziel poked his head in the door, a trail of feathers following behind him. \"Is that what I think it is?\"\n\n\"If by Netzach's survey on human perceptions of GAs, then yes,\" Raphael sighed, pushing his glasses up his nose. \"It's not looking good.\"\n\n\"How good is not good? Are we talking apocalyptic proportions, Lucifer thrown out of heaven proportions, or\\-\\-\"\n\nRaphael rolled his eyes. \"Not that dramatic, brother. Come, let's gather the Counsel and speak to Gabriel.\"\n\nWithin ten minutes, the eleven\\-man Counsel sat in a pure\\-white conference room, panoramic windows looking over the glorious landscape of Heaven itself. Picturesque waterfalls fed into bubbling natural springs, which flowed under gold\\-paved bridges made from the finest marble and stone after passing through hills filled with every kind of wildflower known to man.\n\n\"Boss, here's the report that the Man Upstairs asked us to run,\" Netzach said, passing one\\-hundred seven pages of research over to the greater angel.\n\nGabriel leafed through the papers until he found the conclusion, eyes widening as he read the last three pages. He tossed the report back on the conference room table. \"This can't be right.\"\n\n\"I cross\\-checked the surveys against every resource I could!\" Netzach protested, wings puffed up in agitation. \"A solid 89.298&#37; of the human race currently under Guardian Angel protection believes that we think they're morons, idiots, or just plain stupid.\"\n\n\"What about humans currently not under our protection?\"\n\nNetzach gulped. \"... that's even worse, at a stunning result of 95.291&#37;, rounded up.\"\n\n\"Thirty\\-nine percent think that we think they're a combination of all the terms that Netzach used earlier,\" Raphael added. \"Boss, what do we do?\"\n\nGabriel frowned. \"There's not much we can do, per se, but I do have an idea. I need all of you to pick your best GAs. I need a combined list from all of you in half an hour, we'll pick a test subject and see what he's capable of.\"\n\nThe rest of the Counsel nodded, using their tablets to flip through their rosters. Three minutes in, the smallest angel tapped the table three times.\n\n\"Gabriel? I found our man,\" Uriel said, sharing his specific roster entry with the large screen in the room.\n\nThe Counsel nodded their approval at Uriel's choice and sent a list of instructions to the agent in question.\n\n\"Can he handle it?\" Gabriel asked.\n\nUriel nodded. \"He's the best I have. If Azazel can't help us, no one can.\"\n\n\"In your squadron, at least!\" Raziel protested, tongue stuck out.\n\n\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\n\nIn a schoolyard in tiny Edna, Texas, a nine\\-year\\-old girl sat alone on a swing set at recess, watching the rest of her classmates engage in a rambunctious game of tag.\n\n\"Aza?\" she asked.\n\nOne poof of white smoke later, an angel about the size of a pencil appeared on her shoulder, garbed in white skinny jeans and a grey t\\-shirt instead of the standard blindingly pale robes. \"Yes, Violet?\"\n\n\"If you had to pick between fighting a horse\\-sized duck or a hundred duck\\-sized horses, which one would you pick?\"\n\nAzazel sighed. \"How is this relevant?\"\n\n\"Aaaaaaaaaall of third grade was talking about it over lunch and I didn't have a good answer. What do you think?\"\n\n\"If I answer you honestly, will you answer a question of mine with the same sincerity?\"\n\nThe little girl nodded, brown eyes solemn. \"I promise, Aza.\"\n\n\"Excellent. But first, a clarifying question,\" the angel said, crossing his arms as he sat on Violet's shoulder. \"Do the duck\\-sized horses keep the strength they have as normal\\-sized horses, or is everything reduced in proportion?\"\n\nViolet shrugged, pigtails flying. \"Heck if I know, that didn't come up!\"\n\n\"In that case, I'd rather take the horse\\-sized duck. Sure, it can bite, but it has skinny legs and can't really move all that fast.\"\n\n\"That makes sense,\" Violet giggled. \"Okay, Aza, what's your question?\"\n\nAzazel exhaled. \"What do you think of guardian angels?\"\n\nViolet's eyes grew wide. \"What kind of a question is that?\"\n\n\"I'm curious, that's all.\"\n\n\"Well...\" Violet trailed off, her feet dragging her swing to a halt against the rubberized playground surface. \"I wouldn't be alive without you. Thank you for stopping my step\\-dad when he tried to... well... you know...\"\n\nAzazel nodded. \"That was my pleasure. I'm so sorry you had to suffer through that for so long before I got here. My boss and I were both furious when we found out.\"\n\n\"I'm glad you're my guardian, Aza. I don't think I'd get along nearly as well with anyone else.\"\n\nThe two trailed off into a companionable silence.\n\n\"You're far more caring than Ms. Hazelwood. She gets mad at us if we don't finish our work fast enough. You don't have to help me with my math homework, but you do, even if you have to call Raphael and Netzach for help.\"\n\n\"Hey, we agreed not to mention that!\" Azazel protested.\n\nThe little girl looked up at the cloudless May sky. \"But you wouldn't stay with me unless I was still in danger or putting myself in trouble. Maybe you think I'm too dumb to protect myself. Maybe that's why y'all get your assignments\\-\\- to help people who can't help themselves.\"\n\n\"Violet Anne Frey, I promise that's not why I was assigned to you,\" Azazel said, floating in front of his charge. \"After what happened with Poopface\\-\\-\"\n\nViolet choked back a laugh.\n\n\"Hey, that's what you wanted me to call him! After what happened with your stepdad, I couldn't bear to see how sad and angry you were. We're not just here to protect folks who need help, we're also sent to show our charges that they're capable of far more than they know. Sure, we can bring some heavenly pain if necessary, but we can cheerlead pretty well, too.\"\n\n\"So you're not here just to make sure I don't hurt myself?\" she asked, tapping her light\\-up\\-shoes on the ground.\n\nAzazel shook his head. \"I've prayed so, so hard for you every single day since I got my assignment. Are you the same person you were this time last year?\"\n\n\"I grew a whole six inches!\" Violet exclaimed, puffing out her chest.\n\nAzazel laughed. \"You did! But on the inside... do you think you changed?\"\n\n\"I... I think so. I'm not so angry anymore, and the sadness comes and goes instead of sticking around.\"\n\n\"Atta girl. We've also avoided some pretty sticky situations, right?\"\n\nViolet nodded. \"I didn't punch Greta in the face, even when she really, really deserved it.\"\n\n\"While stealing your fruit snacks is a grave offense, you chose to share them instead of punching her! That made me and the Man Upstairs rather happy,\" Azazel nudged her shoulder. \n\n\"You know what? Guardian Angels are the best,\" Violet said, a grin crossing her face. \"Sure, I mess up a lot. But you always give me... oh, what's that word you always throw around... oh! Grace! You're really good at the whole second\\-chance thing. Maybe one day I can be that good, too.\"\n\nAzazel smiled. \"And I'll be around to see it, I promise.\"\n\n\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\n\nLater that night, Azazel popped into the same conference room to eleven familiar faces.\n\n\"Azazel, thank you for your agreement on such short notice,\" Uriel said, pulling out a chair for his squadron member. \"Please present your report.\"\n\nThe dark\\-haired GA cleared his throat. \"In Violet's exact words, 'we're pretty great'.\"\n\n\"Did she say that we think that she's stupid?\" Raziel asked.\n\nAzazel bit his lip. \"Kind of? We talked about it for a while during recess, but she came to the conclusion that we're here to help more than to judge every action she takes. She says thank you for assigning me to her, by the way.\"\n\nThe Counsel let out a simultaneous \"awwww!\". \n\nGabriel nodded, setting the report down. \"If Miss Frey thinks that of us, then we're on the right track. Netzach, I want you to replicate this mission with GAs in every division and compile a new report for the Man Upstairs. We're off to a promising start.\"\n\nAzazel looked down at his watch, which blinked frantically. \"Sir, I need to go back. Violet's having a nightmare\\-\\-\"\n\n\"Go in peace, brother,\" Uziel said, saluting his squadron member. \"Keep up the good work.\"\n\nIn an instant, Azazel appeared in Violet's room, tugging her favorite teddy bear under her arms. The little girl sighed and rolled over, three tear\\-tracks marking her face.\n\nThe GA pulled his pocket harp from his belt and hummed a merry lullaby, Violet's heart rate slowing as he went. \n\n\"I thank the Lord for you, my friend, and all that we have shared. My life is so much richer now; His love has placed you there...\"" ]	2
	[WP] The thousand year wait has passed, and at last the Dark Lord Shall reawaken to begin his new age of darkness... except it’s been a thousand years, and technology has moved on from swords and shields.	[ "The rumble of the earth was heard beyond the limits of the human ear. It was not a sound, made from the shaking of dirt and stone - it was a trumpet, a calling, a warning for all beings on the land. Bend the knee, denounce your god, and serve me, or die. \n\nFrom the openin poured forth an army. Skeletal beings, with bits of rotten flesh half clinging to their bones, clasping bone swords and shields, screaming bloody murder and venturing forth as their master commanded. Atop a mountain the Dark Lord watched, drinking in the view, relishing in the beginning of his conquest.\n\nFor three days the army formed, each new soldier coming out of the hole and takin his place in the formation. When the Dark Lord felt he was ready, he climbed upon Malachoi, the blood dragon, and flew forth, his flaming sword guiding his army towards victory.\n\nUnfortunately for him, as he'd be made acutely aware in a few hours of marching, he summoned his army in the middle of Texas, where everyone has at least one bible and four different types of firearms. Turns out swords and shields are no match for Jesus-approved bullets, high caliber lead flying through the battlefield as the Johns and Matthews and Jeremiahs yee'haw'd as if they were in a child's play. The Dark Lord himself was no match for them, as Malachoi was shot down by a cascade of bullets that turned him and the Dark Lord into shreds. Fleeing for his life, the Dark Lord ran back to the hole, closing it behind him. Maybe in another thousand years, he thought, I'll have enough bones from these ones to make a bigger army. And this time, I'm giving them Kevlars." ]	1
	[WP] When you freeze time, you can people’s bodies around.	[ "You look around at the people before you. You see a barista frozen in mid-argument with a customer. Two teenage girls are showing pictures to each other on their phones. A woman is in the midst of calming her infant. A businesswoman is about to exit the coffee shop. Everyone’s names shines above their heads, and you can move them around with a swipe of a hand. \n\nYou go over to the local preschool. You select a few children’s names and drag them over to the barista, teenagers, and businesswoman. You restart time, and suddenly, they all start crying and running around. " ]	1
	[WP] Death tries being human	[ "Wisps of shadow twisted and entwined into thick tendrils. Death ordered them towards his target, and they obeyed, gliding over to Sam who sat unaware on his couch, crunching on chips. The tendrils moved through Sam's flesh and connected with every joint in his spine. Sam shivered then resumed stuffing his face. Death floated before him and shifted into the Earth's plane. \"Ahem. Sam.\"\n\nSam kicked his legs and clawed at the couch, as if he was trying to tear his way through and make an escape. He yelled. \"Who the—what the?\"\n\n\"Sam, your time has come.\"\n\n\"My time? What time?\"\n\n\"That time.\"\n\nSam halted his freak out and tilted his head. \"What time?\"\n\n\"Uh...that time.\"\n\n\"I'm not really getting what you're throwing down. Mind not being so vague, yo?\"\n\n\"You're obese. You consume solids and liquids that have only brought your health into a decline. Your muscles—your bones—atrophy as you refuse to move. Years of an unhealthy lifestyle have led you here. It is inevitable now. It's that time.\"\n\nSam squeezed his bag of chips and raised his brow. \"No. You're not serious?\"\n\n\"I will make the transition as comfortable as I can. You have my word.\"\n\n\"But I don't wanna exercise!\"\n\nDeath scratched at his cranium with a finger. \"What?\"\n\n\"I don't wanna.\"\n\n\"Exercise?\"\n\n\"Ya heard me. You can't force me.\"\n\n\"Do I...Do I look like a fucking personal trainer, you buffoon. I'm Death.\"\n\n\"Your dying? Oh shit. You homeless? You want money? Goddamn. You people always begging for a handout. I ain't got money, yo. Leave my house. Breaking and entering, aren't ya?\"\n\n\"I am a floating skeleton shrouded in darkness. I appeared before you from thin air. I am not homeless. I don't look homeless. I am Death. The reaper. Is this all going over your head?\"\n\nSam wiggled his butt into the couch and inhaled a fistful of chips. He chewed and chewed then swallowed. \"Yes.\"\n\n\"I AM DEATH. YOU ARE DYING. I AM HERE TO TRANSPORT YOU TO THE AFTERLIFE.\"\n\n\"Oh and I'm the Queen of England. Fetch me some tea, yo.\"\n\n\"Take this seriously.\"\n\n\"I'll take you seriously when the bullshit stops.\"\n\nDeath exhaled. \"This is it. The stubborn elderly, the incredibly stupid, the disturbingly crazed. Almost every time. Why can't good people be the ones to die more often? I'm done with this. I've done my time. The job's yours.\"\n\n\"What are you blabbering about?\" Flesh formed over Death's bones. Hair sprouted from the top of his skull. Brown eyes popped into existence. Every passing second he came closer and closer to passing for a human. Not just any human. Sam's jaw dropped. \"H\\-Hey! That's me. You're turning into me. The hell's going on?\"\n\n\"Not exactly you, Sam. I'm slimmer. Healthier. I'm what you could have been had you tried with the life you had.\"\n\n\"Why are you—\" Shadows puffed up into clouds, swarming Sam, eating at the flesh, and swallowing the humanity down. Sam peered down at his skeletal hands. \"Wh\\-What's happening to me?\"\n\n\"The shadows are your responsibility now, Sam. You can't forsake these responsibilities. The shadows won't let you.\"\n\n\"Give me my body back! I don't wanna die.\"\n\n\"You died a long time ago. You have no family—no friends—to miss you. Not even acquaintances. You're a stranger to the very world you inhabit. This is your reward. A life. A job. And your being is my reward.\" Death grinned with his newborn lips. \"I'm going to make something of the life you gave up on.\"" ]	1
	[WP] You were always a lovable loser supervillain. A mostly harmless joke. Then you got on the right medication and the laughter turned to screams.	[ "Something was always missing! I took my time in every plan I made to avoid mistakes. Yet, there I was in Time Square being laughed at! It was supposed to be my break! I hid in an alley to change out of my suit so I could escape this laughter. However, on the way home I was approached by some odd fellow offering pills. His suit was well tailored and his accent was a beautiful English. Hell, what else could go wrong! Why not take some random drugs that could kill me? I can't even steal an old lady's purse without slipping on a banana peel of all things. A banana peel! That's only in freaking cartoons! \n\nI went home, staring at the pills in the little baggie. I debated with myself if I should really do it. What if I died from these things? What if they fix me? What if they... oh, who cares. Either option was fine with me. With a sigh I popped the pills in my mouth and swallowed them down with a glass of milk. Off to bed I went. \n\nWhen I woke up I saw these things... hallucinations, I thought. Then I realized something I had never thought of in my elaborate schemes. These things, that I could not see before, were the reason why I failed! While getting a bowl of cereal I noticed they were trying to move things around to keep me from setting down the milk jug without it falling over. I grinned. Now that I can see these bastards I know what I need to do now! I sat down to plan again. It wasn't quite as thought out so I would have time to account for these ghost things trying to create my failures. \n\nThat night, I went to the park where there was some stupid festival there. It was something silly but they were all focused with the loud speakers that my plan would go even better than I thought. Blade drawn I ran for the back of the crowd, stabbing and slashing but not a single person could hear their screams. I saw those little ghosts, trying to place things in my way but to someone else it looked like I was dancing in the shower of blood. I zigzagged through the crowd to avoid being easily caught until I hopped to the stage. A stray wire was moving to trip me but I stepped on it to keep it from moving any more. Any other time I would've landed face first and would be a random comic to this show. The singer hadn't even noticed me until I grabbed him from behind, the tip of my blade gutting him like a fish. \"Laugh at me now,\" I laughed as blood sprayed the front row. People turned to run only to fall over on those who were either dead or alive just to suffer. I dropped the singer and turned, careful to miss the mic stand that was put right behind me to fall over. I glared at the ghost nearby. \"Can't stop me now, fuckers.\"", "# Master Bruce\n\nI said, Master Bruce your nights are lonely.\n\nYou tell me, \"Alfred, I am an old man, \n\nAt thirty\\-three.\" \n\nYes, I have seen war on people like you,\n\nDeeper than the cracked sidewalks,\n\nIn the bad part of Gotham. \n\nYou were a child\\-soldier, still are, \n\nBecause only children invent magical solutions, \n\nTo things they cannot possibly understand. \n\nI did it myself. \n\nSo many times. \n\nI pretended I could save you,\n\nDressed up like James Bond, \n\nStirred by your passion, shaken by your reality,\n\nI am an old man, older than you know, \n\nBut I feel so very young when your eyes,\n\nCast shadows in the long rooms,\n\nWhen you walk the halls like a soldier, \n\nWhen I should have protected you. \n\nMaster Bruce, take your pills, \n\nTonight you won't see bats, or vampires, or clowns,\n\nYou will see a woman about a date, \n\nYou will see a man about a donation,\n\nYou will build a wing on the college, \n\nYou will pay tuition for 65 underprivileged seniors.\n\nYou will go play tennis with men your own age,\n\nYou will watch tv.\n\nYou will talk about your parents death.\n\nYou will learn to use a gun, \n\nSo you can corner your own beasts,\n\nAnd let them out your eyes in tears,\n\nThat are more proud than they are wet. \n\nI will watch you grow old. \n\nI will watch you grow.\n\nI will watch you. \n\nAnd you will smile. \n\nReal smiles.\n\nYou will have a son.\n\nYou will have a wife.\n\nI will grow old, really old, \n\nAnd you will sing me songs,\n\nOf nothingness and everything will be okay.\n\nMaster Bruce, you took your pills, \n\nYou watched the world with numbing eyes,\n\nYou gave the cash to grow the world,\n\nYet the bats have refused to hide, \n\nOnly now they are in your voice, \n\nThe fluttering monotone,\n\nAsking to be alone. \n\nMaster Bruce... I have pulled your bath,\n\nTen hours ago.\n\nYet you sit without complaint,\n\nWhite as the snow.\n\nMaster Bruce, you took the pills. \n\nYou took something else as well. \n\nThe bats are free at last,\n\nFrom the caves within your memories, \n\nFrom the hell of being you. " ]	2
	[WP] One day, you discover that whenever you use finger guns, they actually shoot real bullets instead of blanks.	[ "Look, it’s not like I ever tried hurting anybody. I just made, you know, finger guns and pointed them at the hot girl who had just arrived at the party. Corny, I know, but I was a bit intoxicated at the time. I clicked my tongue as I “pulled” the trigger, and the next thing everybody saw was a girl lying on the ground with a gaping bullet wound in her shoulder. Of course nobody accused me, only a Bedlammed would do that. The asshole host, who was showing party-goers his supposed gun “collection” at the time, was blamed, and was arrested by police. Hey, did I feel bad? Not really. He was an idiot for having a gun out in front of tens of people anyway. I have to admit, though, the look of despair and confusion on his face was a bit devastating. What could I do at that point? Save an, albeit, innocent man? Abuse my newfound power? Be recruited as a special weapon by the government? The opportunities were limitless, and my new instrument deadly.", "bang\n\nI did my signature move, the finger guns. It was meant as a joke, but no one laughed as the girl slowly crumbled to the ground, lifeless.\n\n\"Isabella?\" I asked out loud as the others looked on. A few men went up to her to check up on her. They checked her vital signs and noticed a small hole near her chest. There was no blood and yet her life was fading away. I looked down at my two bony fingers, noticing the various scars and grooves from years past.\n\nI made my way towards her and looked at her with curiosity and horror. She really was dying.\n\n\"Someone call an ambulance!\" I cried out in disbelief. There was a slight pause from the others before I heard, \"911, What's your emergency?\" The grief was starting to eat away at me. The ambulance came 10 minutes later. They offered me a ride and I accepted it without a moment's hesitation.\n\nThe sirens still echoed in my ears as I sat outside her hospital room. Again, I looked over my fingers.\n\nThis can't be happening, I thought. I clasped my hands together to gain my composure. I took a deep breath and shuddered. I heard the doctors and nurses freaking out in the room.\n\n\"We're losing her! Get me a defibrillator stat!\" I heard the Electrocardiogram's beeping stop. My heart nearly jumped out of my throat in fear.\n\n\"Clear!\" A doctor yelled, and the girl was still flatlined. Tears formed in my eyes. I didn't mean for this to happen at all. Part of me was starting to panic. My breathing became faster and sweat rolled down my forehead like raindrops. \n\n\"Again!\" I heard the static build up in the defibrillator before they hit her again. She was still flatlined.\n\n\"Doctor..\" One of the nurses began. The doctor interjected.\n\n\"This is a medical impossibility!\" He screamed aloud, making the nurses jump in fear.\n\n\"How does a woman die from a hole without any blood loss? There is no blood, yet her organs are damaged!\" He scowled in anger and sighed. The doctor walked around before telling his nurses the next order.\n\n\"Tell her constituents the news. I'm going out for a smoke.\" He said as he left the room with a lowered head. He pulled out a pack of Marlboros and headed towards the door. The other nurses walked out the room as well. Some looked at me with, what I thought was fear. Did they know it was me? How could they? I made my way inside and saw her lifeless body. Her beautiful skin and face were now dead and lifeless. I would never feel the warmth of her embrace ever again.\n\nThe guilt was too much to bear. It was eating at me like maggots devouring a rotten corpse. I couldn't take it anymore. I turned a finger gun towards myself. I held my finger under my chin and held myself up at gunpoint. I took a deep breath and pulled the trigger.\n\nbang" ]	2
	[WP]When Humanity achieved immortality, they thought nothing could ever kill them ever again... And then The Snail appeared.	[ "It was the year 2185.\n\nHumanity, after establishing communications with highly-evolved extra terrestrial life, was able to figure out the secrets to exactly what causes death. And with this information, they were able to prevent it from happening. \n\nHumanity, with its immortality, hunted species to extinction with no regards to them. Anything that wasn’t human was entirely helpless to their cruelty. \n\nIt was a generally accepted fact that everyone was invincible. That’s when he showed up. \n\nIt was first noticed when a French snail farmer, denoted Mr. E, was harvesting fall’s bounty of escargot. He bent down down to pick up the snails and put them in a pot for storage, one by one. As each one of his brethren was placed in the horrible container, he grew angrier. As soon as Mr. E picked him up, he instantly perished. The snail has one this battle, and crawled away between the cracks of the wall. At 9:45, Mrs. E entered the house to find her wife dead. It took a while to understand why he was laying on the ground motionless, as she had only heard of death in classic French literature, like the autobiography of Sir Ender. Of course, she instantly reported it to the authorities, who took her in for further questioning. \n\nScientist toiled for ages to try and figure out how this lowly snail farmer had mysteriously passed, but they could find nothing. Nothing, that is, until they saw him. \n\nOne measly little snail ruthlessly slaughtered all of them with a single touch. But it wanted more. It wouldn’t rest until the race that killed its people was wiped from the face of the earth. \n\nAnd so it did. No attempt to kill it was fruitful. The worlds strongest nuclear bombs were used against the snail to no affect. The world’s remaining supply of salt was used to try to kill it. The snail, being immortal ate the salt just to taunt them. It took a long time for the snail to kill them all, but by god, he did it. \n\nAlmost all of the world’s population was killed by the snail. There were only a few survivors. One of them tried to trap the snail in a titanium cage, but to no avail. \n\nFor, you see, there was a...\n\nD e c o y S n a i l ." ]	1
	[WP] "The gnomes have escaped! I repeat, the gnomes have escaped!"	[ "“Please remain calm, evacuation protocols are in progress. Do not approach the gnomes.”\n\nThe sounds of the warning blaring from the speaker had reached my ears too late. The sudden burst of pain in my ankle sent a sharp surge all the way up my leg. I’m fucked. \nI look down, only to have my gaze met by a set of small glowing eyes. The sharp teeth gnashed and gnawed at my muscles and tendons. \nI tried to shake it loose, but it was latched on like a leech. \nI can hear them coming.\nI don’t think I will make it out of this garden. " ]	1
	[WP] Dragon breeding has been illegal for generations. Unfortunately shutting down dragon breeding operations is quite difficult for obvious reasons.	[ "Knythe\nAs a habit, Knythe double checked his equipment before setting off. As much as he often stated that the greatest asset of any profession is internal fortitude, he would also state that it's the mark of wisdom to enhance practical capability by any means. His tools and his armor was precious to him. Although he didn't care for certain aspects of it, he loved his job. He loved the feel of power, the thrill of it. He loved the feeling of superiority that came along with dominating and killing lethal creatures that were often five times his size. One time he had faced a dragon that towered above him at an impressive 30 feet (9metres). He had slayed it by allowing it to swallow him whole and cutting its throat from the inside, a bold move that spiraled him into a depression for quite some time but made him a legend worldwide. A move that earned him the title of \"Knythe the Dragon Reaper\". His name was spoken among Dragon Slayers and Dracomancers alike, referred to either the greatest hero of all time or as the greatest threat. \n\nKnythe had a penchant to seclude himself from others, but he also understood the value of reliable companions. Yoff had a knack for using dragon hide to make flame retardant and corrosion resistant armor and dragon teeth for creating the sharpest of edges. Tiff was gifted with magic which she used to create thermophobic oils and various potions using dragons blood. Now mech technology was not yet advanced enough to produce a mech with the durability to deal with most dragons, but Meech did a phenomenal job of creating various gadgets and explosives that help the crew to prevail in even the most dire of situations. This was important, because so far this seemed like it would be their most perilous challenge yet. The elusive Dracomancer faction had been found, and rumor had it that there was a nest of eggs that could potentially hatch father drake incarnates. If the legend had any chance of living up to the hype, they had to be effective, efficient and thorough. They couldn't let any of them survive.... not a single one.\n\nDravo\nThey would be coming at any moment so Dravo had to make sure he was well prepared to receive them. For decades the last remaining Dracomancers of the world had been hard at work trying to revive their crippled and dying community. Nearly a century ago, a massive mountain dragon had been angered and eradicated an entire civilization and destroyed a percentage of a few nearby. The Mountain Dragon, a creature so large that it was actually mistaken for a small mountain while it slumbered, rudely awoken by excavation which took place around what turned out to be its left temple. It was the first mountain dragon to ever be discovered in Dracomancer history so there were no whisperers or tamers nearby to help sedate the creature but all of dragon kind had been made to take the blame. Prior to the catastrophe, much of the world pay little to no attention to dragon kind, but the culture became infamous afterwards. At the time, most Dragon breeders spent most of their efforts and energies trying to produce Father Drake incarnates. Following the incident, the legend of the Father Drake became widespread and people were so fearful that dragon breeding became outlawed. The premise was that the killing of dragons was ruled to be barbaric and Savage ate the time, so the humane thing to do was to let the creatures slowly go extinct. Neither side appreciated this ruling. Dragonslayers worldwide began to emerge, even though it was illegal at the time and Dracomancers had began continuing their practice in secret.\n\nIt wasn't difficult to understand why people would be so fearful of the idea of a Father Drake. There were all types of dragons: Fire breathers, Acid spitters and burpers, Dragons that could exhale a gas so noxious and toxic that it could rip the moisture right out of any living thing that came in contact with it causing rapid decay and shriveling. The Father Drake was the only type of Dragon with all three abilities. The scales that covered it's hide were made of the strongest material known to humankind. It was a dragon with immense strength, impressive speed and quick wit. Even though it only reached about 20 feet (6 metres) in height, it could easily defeat and kill a mountain dragon which stood at about 200 feet (60 metres). If a Father Drake were to be created it could only die of old age for only another Father Drake could defeat it, which is what they were hard wired to do, the reason behind their rarity. \n\nMother Drakes were dragons with morphing genes, meaning any type of dragon could be hatched from their eggs, albeit some were more likely to be hatched than others The only way to breed a Father Drake is with a Mother Drake and the murderous dragon reaper had killed the last one. The Dracomancer community was fortunate, another Mother Drake had hatched from her eggs allowing them to continue with their quest. \n\nThe Dracomancer community was a group of about 100 Dracomancers. Each Dracomancer could be set in certain categories: Dragon tamers, people who tamed, trained and would even ride dragons from time to time. Dragon whisperers, people who could speak with dragons using a language nowhere near as complex as human speech but effective enough to create a mutual understanding. Dragon Breeders, the faces of the Dracomancer stereotype. In the eyes of the outside world, every Dracomancer was a breeder, but this simply wasn't so. Dragon genetics are actually quite complex and dragon breeding requires years of study before one could even be considered an amateur. The breeders of this group were very old and very skilled. They had managed to concoct an elixir that would influence the young Mother Drake to produce Father Drake eggs, and only Father Drake eggs. Once those were laid the injected serums into the eggs which would negate the hormones that would compel the Father Drakes to kill each other, which is why they were considered Father Drake incarnates rather than actual Father Drakes. The entire community had been so focused on finally achieving their goal that they had gotten sloppy when it came to maintaining their secret. In recent weeks, nearly 200 would-be heroes had to challenge their efforts only to be slaughtered by the various Dragons and Dracomancers dedicated to protecting the community. Dravo knew it was only a matter of time before the Reaper would come, if not on his own accord than someone would send him, desperate for results. Dravo was ready, the little reaper club was no match for this army of Dragonkind. They had no chance, the odds were stacked too high against them and the Father Drake incarnates were expected to hatch soon. Dragonkind would secure their place in this world once more." ]	1
	[WP] You awaken in an almost pitch black wine cellar. The dark area seems to be infinite. Next to you lies a copper rod, a lit candle and a stained note saying "BEWARE THE MAN OF GEARS".	[ "\"𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑴𝒂𝒏 𝒐𝒇 𝑮𝒆𝒂𝒓𝒔\"\n\n\\-\\-\\-\\-\\-\n\nHeed me now, young child; \nBeware the Man of Gears. \nHe comes in night to take your life \nAnd steal away your years.\n\nTake this candle with you, \nAnd this rod of copper make \nSo that you may strike with all your might \nAt He Who Comes to Take.\n\nWhen you see him walking, \nThe ticking, you will hear. \nKeep the rod close to your heart, \nAnd journey without fear.\n\nBut, know that, if you fail now, \nIt'll be your final day. \nThe Man of Gears isn't far behind, \nAnd soon, he'll want to play." ]	1
	[WP] You are a notorious serial killer who has a sentient, self aware gun.	[ "\"you know\" bang bang said \"if you really want to be a serial killer you gotta stop using me. Have some creativity\" he said.\n\n\"why do you say that?\" said Johnston\n\n\"because any hood rat can use a gun to kill people, it's just the most efficient way of doing it. People think these people are just... Being killed. There is no connection, you just kill people. So you need those people to be your canvas\"\n\nJohnston thought. He was very much deep in thought.\n\n\"you know,\" bang bang continued \"maybe cut them a certain way or burn a limb or something, leave a mark, you know? A signature\" \n\nHe looked down at the floor, and put his hand on his forehead. He let his hand drop and stood up. \n\n\"don't fucking tell me what to do\" he told bang bang as he de assembled him and threw him in the trash. " ]	1
	[WP] A rampant god has been destroying civilizations in the galaxy for their inability to impress it. Now the god arrives on Earth, and you are tasked to impress it.	[ "\"Oh, dang, dude. You really should have picked someone else.\"\n\nThe being stared at him. Sort of. Mostly, it just existed in a way the gave the impression it was staring him down.\n\n\"Yeah, there's Russian guys who, like, hang off of buildings by their fingertips. Oh, and then there's these other guys who can run across buildings - pow pow pow - like it's nothing. And there's these super smart guys who can also rap. It's pretty dope, honestly.\"\n\n\"And you. . .\" The voice was deep beyond deep. It echoed in the back of the skull, riveted the heart to the sternum, turned the joints to jello before the tears began to flow freely.\n\n\"Nah, man, I can't really do much. But lemme tell you. You ever heard of John Oliver? British dude, funny as hell. He's got his own show on HBO.\"\n\n\"Why is everyone else so impressive?\"\n\nThe guy laughed. \"Not everyone else. Nah, bro, you don't believe me.\" He pulled his cellphone out. \"Here, gimme a sec.\"\n\nThe god moved closer. \"What is that?\"\n\n\"Huh? Oh, YouTube.\" A few keystrokes later, and John Oliver smiled at the screen like a muppet before launching into a tirade about tariffs. \"Funny, right? You have tariffs where you're from? It's kinda topical.\"\n\n\"What is this?\"\n\n\"Uh, I don't remember what he calls his show, man.\"\n\n\"No, fool, the device.\"\n\n\"Oh. Cellphone. YouTube app. Oh, check this out.\" Another keystroke brought up a quartet of gymnasts in costumes darting through Paris at stunning speed.\n\n\"Incredible.\"\n\n\"I know, right? Watch this flip.\"\n\n\"Not that, you idiot.\" The god stared at the phone for another long minute.\n\n\"I am suitably impressed. Live.\" And with that, the god vanished.\n\nAs did the cellphone." ]	1
	[WP] Millions of people in a major city suddenly dissapear, A situation eerily similar to what happened to Roanoke.	[ "There were heavily reinforced roadblocks on every road into the Greater Houston Exclusion Zone, what was already called, simply, the Zone. They were all well manned 24/7, and the one on the North Freeway just south of the San Jacinto bridge was no exception. Twenty militiamen of the Texas Army National Guard patrolled the barriers, as if expecting an armored convoy to attempt to break through at any time.\n\nBut nobody was trying to break through.\n\nThree days earlier, in the pre-dawn hours of June 18th, the nearly six million people inside a perfect circle 52.8 kilometers across had gone silent. People who had been on the highway leaving the area reported that the traffic behind them simply veered off the shoulders and into guardrails, and those driving into the area said the same about the traffic ahead of them. The vehicles had become suddenly empty.\n\nRecordings from dashcams with GPS-synced clocks confirmed that the event occurred five seconds after 3:12 AM, everywhere along the circle's edge.\n\nAt that moment, it now appeared that everyone in the circle, whether driving, sleeping or whatever, had simply vanished. The only clue, which made no sense whatsoever, was that every text, Internet post or email sent from the Zone in those last ten seconds consisted of only one word: \"ROATAN.\"\n\nSocial media exploded with theories, ranging from mass hypnosis to alien abduction to mind-control viruses to the Rapture. But the truth was, no one knew anything.\n\nThe old man slowed his '72 GMC pickup as he approached the North Freeway roadblock from the south. Several guardsmen jumped from their vehicles and converged on the gated lane at the right edge of the barricade, and flagged him to stop.\n\n\"There trouble up ahead, son?\" the old man asked the uniformed man at his window.\n\n\"No trouble ahead--it's what's behind you that we're worried about!\" the kid responded, obviously unnerved by the truck arriving unexpectedly from the south.\n\n\"Oh, that. Yeah, I just heard about it on the radio,\" the man said, gesturing to the dashboard AM receiver. \"I'd been under the weather for a few days and just got out for supplies when I turned on the radio and couldn't find my regular station. I don't have a phone, so I figured I'd better head on up to Conroe and check on my sister.\"\n\n\"Where do you live, sir?\" The kid was respectful, but tense.\n\n\"Out on 1488, couple miles past the Knights of Columbus.\"\n\nThe guardsman pulled out a map and held it up for the old man, who pointed to a spot on 1488 just north of the Zone. The guardsman relaxed noticeably, and waved to the men operating the gate.\n\n\"All right sir, please go on, and drive carefully. Conroe's kinda crazy right now, but we're doing our best to keep things calm.\"\n\n\"Thanks. Any idea yet what it was?\" he asked, obviously referring to the Event.\n\n\"No sir, not as far as I know,\" the boy responded, watching the other men open the gate for the truck to pass through. \"All I know is, they're pretty sure it wasn't Indians!\"\n\nThat was the joke going around. This time, they're pretty sure it wasn't Indians.\n\n\"Ha! Yeah, I heard that one on the radio.\" the old man said, smiling, as he put his truck back in gear. \"Thanks for everything you boys are doing, you hear?\"\n\n\"Yes, sir, and thanks,\" the young man replied, and waved him on. \n\nHe stopped in Conroe, but only for food and gas, as his sister didn't actually live there. She had been dead for over a century.\n\nAs he drove north, he looked down reverently at the buckskin roll on the seat beside him. It would take some time to rid the land of the white eyes, but now that at long last, he finally understood the phonetic alphabet of the unthinkably ancient Kwakwaka'wakw scrolls, and had learned to work the ancient charms, he was certain that it would happen.\n\nNew York City was two days away, but there was no hurry now. The old shaman would get to them all eventually, one at a time.\n\nHe only had to stay alive.\n\nAnd Quesalid was good at that." ]	1
	[WP] You are an Eldritch abomination. You really try to be nice, but the whole ‘insanity if someone tries to comprehend you’ thing is really messing with your dating life.	[ "It is safer for them to be glued to their phone.\n\nTo brag about their own acomplishements, only ever stopping long enough to get me to agree with them. (\"Yes, of course you are an incredible person and I love you so much even though we've only just met!\" Right.)\n\nIt's even safer if they just get so flustered with anxiety and caught up in their own head that they never listen to me. (Though if they start babbling nonsense, it's kinda hard to tell between social anxiety and insanity. One girl actually ran out of the restaurant when we met, babbling some nonsense about a cat needing surgery. Turns out she was just shy.)\n\nI've tried giving up the dating scene completely. I really have. My Eldrich buddies all tell me \"Just get a one-night stand, it gets you all that good stuff you need without the talking.\" \n\nAnd I mean, they can't get to understand me if we never talk.\n\nBut like they say in all the chick-flicks that I watch (purely for research purposes, I can see your eye starting to twitch, stop thinking about me, think of Sandra Bullock or Anne Hathaway, quick!), I just want to connect with someone.\n\nI just want someone to love.\n\nI gave in again, after holding out for so long. I was proud for staying away from the humans for so long. I told myslf that all I needed was to stare into someone's eyes for the duration of a meal, even if they started that tell-tale twitch. \n\nMaybe this one will last longer, I thought. She seemed distracted all the time, which was good. It meant I got my date and she could keep her mind away from me.\n\nThen she started talking.\n\n\"What I've always loved about roses is how the colours taste like velour,\" she said softly, staring at the flowers I'd given her. She brushed them gently with her delicate fingers and sighed. \"Just lovely. Thank you,\" she smiled at me. Her eyes didn't quite look at my face though as her head tilted a bit to watch the waiter walk past with breadsticks for another table. \n\nI cleared my throat. \"Well, Ophelia, tell me about yourself. Your profile said you like pies, do you bake a lot?\"\n\n\"Hmm?\" she looked back at me, her wide eyes drifting over me like unmoored rafts. \"Oh pies are something I make with plastic.\" She reached for her purse and delicatly presented me with a pie-shaped keychain. \"This one is cherry,\" she said. \"See the red colour?\"\n\n\"Very pretty,\" I agreed with a smile.\n\nShe tilted her head and smiled slowly at me, still holding out her purse. Her eyelids fluttered, but still weren't twitching. \"You have a nice face,\" she said. I was at a loss for words there, most people don't look too closely at my face. I had the worst of it hidden beneath a very realistic human mask, but some people could still \"see\" the darkness laying just underneath it all. \n\n\"Are your eyes grey?\" she asked.\n\nI nodded, awkwardly. They were grey, blue, green, purple, red... depended on the day.\n\nShe seemed to consider something. Absently she leaned forward, focusing a little too much for my comfort. Or hers, eventually...\n\n\"You're one of them, aren't you?\" she asked in a conspiratorial whisper. \n\nIt was my turn to tilt my head. \"One of who?\"\n\n\"The Old ones...\" she whispered, getting more excited. \"I'd met one like you before. She was a nice friend. She made my brain feel funny, in like a pleasant.\" She paused, pursing her lips. \"She said that if I focused more, my brain would feel even funnier. Does that work with you?\"\n\n\"I don't think you want that to happen...\" I started to say. Then I paused. She'd interacted with another Eldrich before and was still in one piece. Maybe...\n\nI leaned forward, giving her my most winning smile. \"Why don't we find out?\" I said." ]	1
	[WP] you're a prison inmate scheduled to be executed. somehow, every time you die, no matter how it happens, you come back to life at the beginning of your imprisonment... if you could escape, maybe you could be free of the loop?	[ "It was like clock work.\n\nOne of the things they never tell you about prison is the things you start to learn on your own. Some people learn to cook, some people learned to sharpen their toothbrushes, and some more earned degrees. Me? I learned to tell the time. \n\nThe other things did not fascinate me. But telling time was useful to me. The bar on my windows faced the sun, and from my bed I could see their shadow on the well. It was only a question of mathematics and patience from then on. Besides, I had Jimmy's clock to see if I am right.\n\nI learned the math from my dad. Every night, we used to sit down in front of the porch and count the stars. We never got to a thousand. I learned the patience on my own. You don't die 39 times without learning a thing or two about patience.\n\nI did not find out how it came to be this way. Nor do I intend to. Ignorance is a bliss for people like me. We have very little of it here. \n\n---- \n\nI knew it was 6:30 or closer now. The last rays of the sun had gone down. A warm darkness had started to envelop me, and in a few minutes they'd be here. I do not know who the \"they\" this time would be, but I hoped it would be Jimmy.\n\nA knock on my door.\n\n\"Ready?\"\n\"Is Jimmy with you?\"\n\"No. We are coming in.\"\n\nI do not know the names of these two. They are new. I understand them sending in new people. The older ones were tired of seeing me. Not that I would blame them.\n\n\"Do not hold your breath this time,\" the taller one said to me before putting the bag over my head. \n\nI wanted to tell him that I never did. \n\n----\n\nIt was the firing squad this time. \n\nI looked at Sergeant Mickhead in front of the line. I winked at him, and being the sly fucker that he is, he grinned at me. The others too looked a little cheerful. Maybe they thought they had me this time.\n\n\"Any last words?\" he called out.\n\"Hopefully this.\" \n\nA growl of laughter. Even the priest, who shuddered at the sight of me, couldn't stop himself. \n\n\"Alright, gang. Take him away.\"\n\nI closed my eyes. 12 shots. I told you I was good at math. I fell down on the ground, the darkness getting chillier.\n\nAnd then, I woke up. \n\n-----\n\nFrankly, I wasn't enjoying it anymore. What was the point of not dying if you couldn't live anyway. I had 16 days to do something if I remembered correctly. And if I am.\n\n---\n\nOn the 16th day, Jimmy stood in front of the door and knocked.\n\n\"Ready? I hope you have my clock.\"\n\"...\"\n\"We are coming in.\"\n\nThe clock ticked in the middle of the room. The windows had no bars. " ]	1
	[WP] A blue-ringed octopus, which fits in the palm of a hand, has enough tetrodotoxin to suffocate ten people. You are one who has suffocated ten people.	[ "\"Ten people. Ten, you sick little bastard. Well? What do you have to say for yourself?\" the detective demanded, as he glowered at me across the table.\n\n\"I turned my rings bright blue as a warning.\" I replied.\n\nThe detective's eyebrows shot up. \"Oh! Hell, kid, why didn't you say so before?\" \n\nHe turned and knocked sharply on the interview room door to summon the uniformed officer stationed outside. When the uniform leaned in, the detective jerked his head in my direction.\n\n\"Alright, we're done here. Cut him loose.\"" ]	1
	[WP] The effects of coffee are suddenly reversed, making those who drink it tired. Describe the first day the change is noticed.	[ "The freeways were nearly impassible with the hundreds of multi-car pileups that resulted from what everyone had called, \"the switch\". It had all happened so suddenly one Monday that no one could get the warning out fast enough before the effects began to take hold of those who drank coffee that morning. All at once, drinking anything caffeinated was like drinking a cup of cough syrup. Needless to say the aftermath was devastating. The worst of the victims were Starbucks patrons who were all nearly killed from overdosing on the new suppressant effects of their highly caffeinated beverages. Many people fell asleep at their desks while at work. By the time 3pm rolled around, the economies of the coffee drinking world were in shambles. It was then that the tea drinkers of the world had their chance to take control. The Neo British empire has since reigned supreme along side it's tea drinking allies using their superior breakfast beverage to maintain control. " ]	1
	[WP] It's been twenty years since the global nuclear war. Countries fell, government's disintegrated, everyone who survived had to fend for fend for themselves. Radiation didn't kill everyone, mutated some. What's it all like now?	[ "The stag dipped its head to the pool in front, the water brackish and dark. It lapped quietly, two misshapen eyes on the side of its snout swivelling to look for predators. It raised its head swiftly at the skittering of rocks but saw nothing. It swung its hand to the side, dislodging some of the bloody skin stuck to its freshly grown antlers. Huge, multi pronged and twisted, they looked sickly and impractical. The stag rubbed more of the flesh covering off on a nearby stone, the rough rasping noise loud in the small clearing. \n\nAn arrow whistled out and thudded into the starved bony side of the creature, its breath wheezing out in a wet gurgle before falling to the side. A figure emerged, clad in filthy overalls and moved towards the fallen beast. They laid their crossbow down on the rock and surveyed their kill. Mutated from the radiation that infected the planet, the body twisted in odd ways, their limbs thin, their skin a thin covering over spoiled meat. The figure dragged one long nail down its abdomen, feeling for lumps or tumours. \n\nThey wore two bandanas, one covering their scalp, the other forming a mask around their face. They removed the bottom one, revealing grey skin that flaked in patches to reveal open sores. A long scar curled from their chin, up their cheek and sat close to their yellowed eye. They crouched before the creature and bowed their head. \n\nThey yanked the bolt from the carcass, chunks of oddly coloured meat stuck to the barbed tip. They opened their mouth, revealing a maw filled with too many grey teeth, filed sharp through nature or design. A slightly too long tongue flicked out, dancing among those needle points before they bent forward and greedily bit into the meat before them. \n\nIn the growing dark, they threw the bolt aside and descended on the stag to feast. ", "The cursing started the moment he hit the water, and I turned back expecting to see the river water roiling with mawfish or worse. Instead I just saw him standing there, head down and far too still. \n\n\"Kane?\" He looked up at his name and his face was visibly pale even under his mask. \n\n\"It's a nice temperature, Lily.\" He made a noise somewhere between a laugh and a sigh. \"I always missed swimming out in a real, natural, outdoor kinda place. I suppose you're too young to remember that.\"\n\n\"You have a tear?\"\n\n\"Soaked through.\" He gestured down his left side. \"Must have been on the climb down.\"\n\n\"...Shit.\"\n\n\"Yep.\"\n\nI sagged and turned away for a moment. On the shore ahead of us stood the guard Atlas taking point, its gun arms scanning the area as it rotated its top half in surveillance mode. As far as it was concerned, no threat was detected, but Kane was no less dead.\n\n\"We have meds.\" I turned back and gestured to the other Atlas and the Bigdog carrying our packs, still waiting on the other side of the river. \"A spare suit, antibiotics...\"\n\nKane shook his head.\n\n\"You know that won't do nothing against what's in this water.\" He winced and shifted his weight. \"I can feel it eating at me already. It burns.\"\n\nBefore the bombs fell, Kane told me once, people had stories about what might happen if they did. Flashy, exciting stories about big green monsters and animals with too many heads, all mixed up by the radiation. But that wasn't what happened. \n\nMostly they just got cancer. Strange, new kinds of cancer. Sometimes that made them mad and violent, sometimes you might get a big hairless bear with skin so riddled with tumours it could soak up a whole clip of ammo without noticing, but the worst mutants out in the big sick world were the smallest. \n\nExtremophile bacteria, a kind of sickness that feeds on the radiation. Used to be they'd only be found in niche, inhospitable places, but the bombs opened up a whole new world for them to thrive in, and evolve. They could get in the heads of people or animals, make them sick and crazy like the mawfish or reavers. Grow corrosive molds inside our machines. Contaminate the water, make it worse than poison.\n\n\"You're gonna need those meds.\" Kane lurched to one side then caught himself. \"For the girl. You go on now, they're counting on us.\"\n\n\"Kane, I can't-\" He waved me into silence.\n\n\"Can't nothing. You go on now.\" He turned and started wading away from me, downstream. \"You get the others across before I start bleeding too much, bring God-knows-what up outta this water.\"\n\nI watched him go a while as he splashed downriver, and only moved when he turned back to see me standing there, lost. I felt shame burning a hole in me at the thought of letting him down now, and flashed the control unit at the Atlas and Bigdog back on shore to follow.\n\nBy the time we were across the river, Kane was round a bend and out of sight, leaving me alone in the world with a couple of silent, heavily armed robots and the wasteland in front of me. Maybe another two days' trek would take me to where the Reverend's daughter went down with her airship, and if she's alive, I might just bring her back in time to stop him." ]	2
	[WP] Low on resources, humanity begins to send scouts into outer space to find a new home. Today, the first shuttle came back, way ahead of schedule.	[ "Today was passing just as any other day. After numerous meetings and long drawn phone calls with potential investors, Charles reclined back in his office chair, feet placed on top of a lavish mahogany table. Although only for five minutes, this was a blessing for the thirty-eight year old founder of Galaxus Enterprises. However, this was a just a calm before the storm for Charles, for his entire life would be sent into a spiral in the next ten minutes. \n\nGalaxus Enterprises, founded by Charles himself, was the leading force for humanity towards expanding its reach into the far reaches of outer space. Creating what started off as a dream, Charles had been sending contractors into space for orbital maintenance and management since 2133 (the last thirteen years). Although not a widely recognized company, Galaxus had proven itself to be extremely important and was taking contracts from multiple governments in order to maintain their numerous satellites stationed in space, especially due to the lack of resources governments had since the last Great War of 2093, which still left countries fighting to rebuild whatever was left of their countries. However, Charles' golden opportunity came rather quietly, in the form of a rather simple letter. \n\nIt was a letter from the United Nations. Or rather, what was left of it. He was requested to meet with the Grand Council to discuss \"urgent matters necessary for the survival of humanity\". It should also be noted that the letter emphasized the word \"confidential\" multiple times in a bright, red font. Charles still recalled that discussion from eight years ago. He was escorted into a smaller than expected conference room filled with the Grand Ambassadors of Americana, Brazilia, Turkasia, Chinasia, and the Euro Accord (although not at war with one another, countries were forced to unite with one another after the Great War of 2093 to accelerate rebuilding efforts). Here, we was requested to send a small expedition of contractors: five teams, each consisting of six members. More specifically, one team from each nation, consisting of three men and three women of different skill sets. These teams were to be scattered to the neighboring planets in Outer Space to determine a new place for humanity to find resources, relocate, or repopulate.\n\nSix years after the launching of the private exploration teams, the words of Grand Ambassador Dupree of the Euro Accord still send chills up his spine. \"Humanity will at most be able to survive another eighty years on Earth. Unless we obtain more resources, a collapsing economy will be the least of our concerns. Food will be almost non existent and our Radiation Reversal Purifiers will be unable to clean the water we have to drink.\" With this thought in mind Charles continued on, with his feet still lounging on top of his desk, screen saver of his computer flashing relaxing waves of color towards him. \n\nHe was just about to close his eyes when his phone rang. He answered the phone in a very happy tone as he always had. \"Hello, this is Williams\" said Charles. Without a warning, a background sound of chaos erupted and with that, a loud burly voice screamed \"Williams, this is Johnson. we need you upstairs at your helipad right now, a chopper will be there to pick you up in five.\" With some hesitation, Charles put the phone down and pinged his secretary a very short and choppy message:\n\nCancel all appointments. Will be out rest of day. -Charles\n\nStill unsure of what the situation was, Charles knew a call from Gerald Johnson was not to be taken as a joke. The Secretary of Orbital & Planetary Affairs only ever called Charles when there was an emergency. Charles rushed to the helipad, where a helicopter, with only a United Nations logo on either side was waiting for him. He sat in and took off towards the horizon, watching the skyscraper housing his office get smaller and smaller. \n\nWhile flying towards the undisclosed location, Charles worried for the space exploration program. He had not been in contact with the crews since they had passed Mars. However, he knew that communication would not be possible past this point and all he would be able to do is track the ships to see if they were maintaining course. The helicopter seemed to land in a very shallow sandbar, housed right on the edge of a rather large atoll. As the door swung open, he was greeted by the serious face of Johnson, which was not uncommon to him. However, it was what came out of his mouth which sent Charles into a quick shock. \n\n\"Welcome to Fandari Atoll Charles. Sorry about the lack of details, we had to make sure you were secured and brought here before any information was given. You are currently about 150 kilometers west of Florida, sitting in the Gulf of Mexico.\" (although countries were united, names of most regions remained unchanged).\n\n\"So what exactly am I doing here Gerald?\" Charles asked in a very serious tone, to match that of Johnson. \n\n\"A fishing boat reported a debris falling into the water from outer space, which as you know is not uncommon in our time. A team was sent out here to clean up the mess as Orbital & Planetary Affairs requires. However, this was not a regular piece of debris.\" Johnson's face turned even more serious than it normally would be, \"It seems to be that an escape pod has landed into Fandari Atoll Charles. It has Galaxus Enterprises written across the side.\" \n\n\"That's impossible Gerald! You know that we have a constant monitoring of our ships. Although we cannot communicate with the crew, we are able to see where the ships are in space. They have been orbiting Jupiter's atmosphere to conduct atmospheric tests to determine if it is safe to land and explore there.\" Charles' tone was now showing a mix of seriousness, concern, and fear. \n\n\"Yes Charles, I understand. However, this pod was not containing anyone inside. It only contained an audiotape I'm afraid.\" said Johnson, now with a look of concern in his face. \n\n\"Well, what did it say?\" \n\n\"Well it seems that your explorers have found the presence of essential materials and livable conditions in a part of Jupiter. However, there seems to have been some disturbing information towards the end of the audiotape.\" \n\nWith the click of a button of a handheld tape player, Johnson played for Charles the last twenty seconds of the message from the Gamma team's escape pod. \"We are happy to say that we can begin preparation for coloniza..... Who are you! How did you.... ship! Stay bac..... SASHA SEND..... ESCAPE BEACON....\" And suddenly the tape ended. \n\nBoth Charles and Gerald stood in complete horror as they listened to what had happened in the tape. Charles went carefully towards the unopened escape pod (the audiotape was secured into a hatch on the exterior of the pod), which was sitting half submerged in water about eighty yards away. With some hesitation, Charles' hands trembled as he began to enter the codes required to open the pod from the outside, which was only to be done in an emergency. \n\nWhat they found only increased their shock and concern. A bloodied and tattered suit of one of Gamma team's members, Sokolov. Although no body was there, just as Johnson had said, there was something much more gruesome in its place. The charred outline of what could only have been Sokolov's body. However, this was not the only unusual thing. In their mixed feelings of fear, horror, and curiosity, both Johnson and Williams failed to realize that the hairs all over their bodies had stood up and were pointing towards the inside of the pod, as though there were a static feel emanating through it. They could also feel an electric charge pulsating around them, as they felt the entire wave of electricity surge through their bodies. \n\nBefore they could gather their thoughts, Johnson's phone rang again. Charles thought to himself curiously about what could be the explanation of this as the last twenty seconds of Gamma team's audiotape kept replaying in his head. \n\nJohnson returned with a shaky voice, \"Charles. There have been 4 more sightings of escape pods falling into the different parts of the ocean. But.... there is....\" \n\nCharles put his hand on to Gerald's shoulder to calm him \"But there is what?\"\n\n\"Charles... All teams sent to secure the pods have responded except for two of them. When backup teams arrived to checkup on them, there was only electrified dead charred bodies just like the one we saw in the escape pod. But....\" \n\n\"But what?\" said Charles, hands now shaking on Johnson's shoulders.\n\n\"Those two pods... They were opened from the inside.... Charles. Someone, or something was alive in that pod and killed our teams.\"\n\nCharles and Gerald both froze as they realized that the electric pulse circulating their bodies was increasing, causing their limbs to tremble as they fell to the ground in pain." ]	1
	[WP] After a recent consultation you discover there is in fact a spirit living in your home. Fed up, you jokingly write a note to the spirit asking for half of the rent. You come home the next day to find that the spirit has payed the rent, but in an unexpected way.	[ "The 'Ghost Hunters' told me that it was a fairly benign spirit. Nothing like a poltergeist, which were apparently the nasty kind that could hurt you. They said that there wasn't really anything they could do about the weeping walls unless I wanted it exorcised, but they told me that due to the fact that the 'water' was supernatural, it wouldn't cause mold or anything so I thought 'fuck it'. A little wall sweat in the spare room never hurt anyone, and the apartment was the best I could afford at the moment, so I paid them and sent them on their way. Later that night, while watching another episode of Lucifer on Netflix in the living room, I saw a few glistening drops running down the wall through the spare room doorway and a thought hit me. If there was someone 'living'...heh... in the spare room, I may as well charge them for it. I pulled a post-it off the stack on the coffee table and wrote a quick little note.\n\n\"If you're gonna be rooming with me, you should pay your share. The full rent is seven hundred a month and I gotta pay weekly.\"\n\nI grinned to myself and left it on the table, facing the spare room, then went back to my binge watching before going to bed for the night.\n\nThe next day, after a hard day at my drone job in the city, I thanked whatever deity might be out there that I was able to find a job that didn't require me to wear a tie as I opened the door to my two bedroom and flung my bag on the couch. I grabbed a drink of water from the kitchenette and walked over to turn the TV on and did a spit-take when I saw a small pile of coins next to that post-it that I left there the night before. \"Holy shit...what?!\" Was all I could manage as I walked closer. I put my glass on the coffee table and picked one of the little round discs up. It was a yellowy red colour, not quite orange, and looked really old. There was a guy with a crown and a sword on one side and some sort of shield on the other with writing I couldn't make out around the edges. I didn't know much about coins but I knew these had to be worth something. Looking down to the pile, there had to be at least fifty coins there. Maybe eighty. I looked up towards the spare room's open doorway to see the wall completely dry, which was unusual. I slowly moved over to it and stuck my head in.\n\nIt was completely silent, but there was a weird feeling in the air. Like the feeling you get when a dog tilts its head at you. Like someone was waiting for something. \"Uhh...thanks? I guess?\" Instantly, all four walls started dripping with...was that pink liquid? I went back to the pile and took a few pictures with my phone before sending a message to my boss saying that I'd need the next day off due to catching something on the subway. Then I grabbed a big ziplock bag from the kitchen and slid all the coins into it, ignoring the scratches they made on the table. The rest of my evening was spent googling coin collectors to take my haul to the next day. I got a message back from the boss saying that if I didn't come in, I wouldn't have a job. I no longer cared. Something told me that I was about to come into a fair bit of cash.\n\n----\n\nNot my best, but I tried. Hope you enjoyed.", " Splintered wood and chipped green paint held my long dreamlike gaze as I stared at the numbers. '313' stared back at me flaunting an old rust-covered look. \n\nRidiculous. Absolutely ridiculous. I've got to be the biggest dumb-ass in all of Manhattan. My head erupted with a furious ache. I still couldn't accept it. I was always hard headed and just the thought that I could entertain anything so outrageous was ludicrous. \n\nI pushed open the old door into that familiar little hole on the third floor. Apartment 313, or as I liked to call it, ISS or International Savings Scraper (my wallet never liked that one), was looking as plain as a Church on a Thursday night. My note, the all too real representation of the sanity I once had, sat neatly folded on the small wooden counter. \n\nJeez. Pay half the rent. Sure, how great. Also, excuse me Mr. Ghost, or can I call you Mr. G?, could you pick up a six pack and maybe a pizza on your way home. It's about time you start shelling out for some of the food around here. And don't forget to call the superintendent about that rusty radiator. Then maybe you could ask some of your other dead friends over and we can poker, or Yahtzee. What a fucking joke!\n\nI threw my work bag on the couch, the clinking of the metal rings around the side a comfortable reminder of normality. I kicked off the over-sized black boats they sometimes called shoes and turned into the hallway, deadest on the bathroom. A warm shower and dinner began to overshadow the sanity crises I was beginning to have. \n\nI opened the bathroom door and it everything went to shit. \n\n\"What the hell?\" \n\nManure. Plenty of it. It grew out of the tub and towered upward covering nearly the entire back wall of the bathroom. The door would hardly open as I pushed it into the bottom of Mt. Cow Shit. I couldn't see half of the mirror and all I saw in the other half was my own shock and confusion looking back at me. \n\n\"WHAT THE HELL?\" I repeated louder. \n\n\"Thers ya half.\"\n\nI nearly jumped out of my skin at the sound of the shrill voice behind me. I spun around in an instant. No one was there. Just the sad empty place I'd called home over the last year and a half. \n\nMy legs were wobbling, and had I been a cartoon they would've made rattling noise as they banged together. In other circumstances, I would've thought it was funny. But as for now - \n\n\"Why are you shakin boy? You wanted half the rent, that's my half.\" The voice broke in, this time followed by cackling laughter that sent chills to my heart. \n\n\"Th-This isn't what I meant.\" I gulped. \"I was thinking more along the lines of money.\" \n\n\"What you mean money? What you have in there is prime manure, maybe even worth more than half the rent for this coffin. HA! What you need now boy is to get in there an' look inside How long are you gon' stay here losin your soul until you end up like me?\" This last part sounded more sincere then I'd care to admit. \n\n\"Well excuse me if I don't find literal shit to be the most appealing gift.\" I was surprised by the braveness behind my voice. \"Who are you anyway? Why are you here\" \n\n\"Right now you can just call me Sammy. Yessir Ol' Sammy is here to take care of you and that's all you need to know.\" \n\n\"But-\"\n\n\"Now listen up. I ain't got much time left before I have to go. The real payment you're looking for is burried in that ther bathroom. You're gonna have to work for it now, but I think it'll be something you'll really like. Once you get to the bottom of that pile you'll know where to find me next. Now you better get diggin boy!\" The voice began to fade away, a last cackle hanging in the air as it went. \n\n\"Wait! Sammy! I don't even know what's going on. Wait!\" My words fell on nothing at all. As quickly as the voice had come, it had vanished. \n\nI stared down the depressing hall a long while. \n\nI'm insane. I've finally lost. This is the end of the road. Time for a long extended stay in a luxury padded sweet at the loony bin downtown. They'll love this. A strange voice in the ceiling and a bathroom full of shit. It'll be the lottery for them. \n\nI turned around and looked at the bathroom and let out a long and exhausting laugh. I went back into the living room, returned my feet to the monstrous black shoes, and made my way to the bathroom. \n\nWith a nose clenched between two fingers and a fistful of uncertainty, I went in.", "“Embrace the spirit, let it know it is welcome,” April told me, dimples and blue eyes irresistible. It had taken months of eating at the crappy diner where she was a waitress to work up the nerve to ask her out. And while trying, one stupid joke about wanting company to ward off the ghost in my apartment had led to a night of the world’s worst non-date.\n\nApril had called it a spirit consultation. The imagined date was spent talking to invisible spirits and mapping the spiritual ‘temperature’ of different rooms. \n\n“I’m glad you came over April,” I said as I ushered her to towards the door, “I would have been totally unaware of my spiritual roommate. When do you think I should expect its half of the rent?” I chuckled awkwardly at the joke, but April’s eyes lit up. \n\n“Let’s ask it! You’ll have to tell me what kind of response you get next time you come to eat at the restaurant next time.” And before I could open the front door, she had ducked around me and scurried back inside to the dining room corner of the living room/dining room/kitchen combo area. She ripped out a page from a notebook tossed to one end of the table and scrawled in large, looping letters, “You are welcome here. Please contribute half the rent.”\n\nShe placed the ragged paper on the table, placing both hands on top of it. She took a deep breath and turned her head up to the ceiling. I looked up there too, but besides an old, yellow watermark, there wasn’t much to look at. \n\nApril turned back to me, “If you want something from the universe, you can’t be afraid to ask.” She stood on tip toes to give me a quick peck on the cheek. “See you next week at the dinner rush,” then bounced out of the apartment.\n\nI looked at the note and shook my head. “You couldn’t have helped me out? Deflected a little of the attention away from yourself, put in a good word? Super way to start off the relationship there, roomie.” I shook my head and headed for the shower, then planned to spend the rest of the evening on World of Warcraft. It was a kind of human interaction and at least there wouldn’t be any more woo-woo talk of the spirit world.\n\nThe next day passed in a familiar routine stupor. Took the bus to work, put in my mandatory eight hours with unpaid half hour lunch, rode the bus home. I grabbed some take out from the Thai place a few doors down from the bus stop and planned to waste away the evening with some more WoW and a season or two on Netflix.\n\nAs I opened the door, I saw that the torn out notebook page that April had written her note to my spirit roommate for half the rent had blown clear across the apartment and was waiting for me in front of the door. It was more than a little creepy, to imagine that a note to a ghost somehow walked its way across my living room to wait patiently for me to return home. \n\nBut I forced myself to bend over and pick up the note, fully intending to throw it away with the bag that carried the Thai food. But as I picked it up, I realized there was another piece of paper underneath it. It was a neater letter, printed with the letterhead for the apartment complex across the top.\n\n“Dear Tenant,\n\nIn an effort to continually upgrade the quality of the apartments at the Pines, we will be undergoing an upgrade of our high speed internet on premises. It will still be included with the price of your rent, but after the upgrades will operate at higher speeds and with greater bandwidth.\n\nUnfortunately, there was an accident involving the high speed cable during installation. As a result, this building will be without any internet access for about a month.\n\nWe know this is an inconvenience and apologize for this unforeseen issue. As compensation, we have reduced the cost of your rent by half for the next month while repairs are underway.\n\nRegards,\n\nManagement”", "\"Yep, that's a ghoster all right.\"\n\nThe man takes out a cloth and wipes at his spectacle. Looking down, he continues: \"Y'all might want to consider moving away. I don't sense good, not here, not now.\"\n\nDarcy checks his watch. The thirty minute consultation, eighty-nine dollars with a guaranteed 20% off of Mart & Co's Exorcism Powder, went faster than he really expected. \n\n\"You hear, kid? This spirit, it ain't good. It'll eat y'all up for dinner.\"\n\n\"I've been here for three months. All it's done is bang pots and pans at night.\"\n\nA sage nod from the consultant. \"It's just getting prepped. It'll come after ya, one of these days. With its tiny eyes glimmering, razor-like claws scratching at your-\"\n\n\"I think I saw it, too. And it definitely didn't have claws. Just looked like your average decapitated head. Gold teeth, missing an eye, half skin and half skull.\"\n\nThe consultant looks up, spectacle reattached, cloth dangling from his pocket. \"A half-skin ghost? Those are real scary. It'll bite ya. Guaranteed.\"\n\nDarcy nods. \"All right. I'll try and take your advice.\"\n\n\"And do come by our store, later. This coupon, here, it'll get you an extra 25% off our special spirit-scarin' technology. Certified organic.\" He hands Darcy a slip of paper. Then, after a moment of consideration, an additional brochure.\n\n\"What's this one for?\"\n\n\"It's got information on the life insurance we offer.\"\n\n\"Oh.\"\n\nAfter a few more terse warnings (and a recommended brand of earplugs), Darcy is left staring at the door. \n\n\"A spirit, hm? Well. Are you here, spirit-guy? Mr. Head, if I can call you that?\"\n\nNo answer.\n\n\"Well, I suppose I'll have to make it official. If you don't start paying rent, you're getting evicted.\" If \"exorcised by the local priest\" counts as eviction, at least. \"You've got one week.\"\n\nSilence. Then, in the background, a resentful clanging sound. \n\nDamn it, thinks Darcy. That sounds like my new pot.\n\nAfter a minute of deliberation, he goes out to buy some earplugs. Night comes quickly, and it's the most restful sleep Darcy has had in months.\n\nWhich is to say that he sleeps through his alarm.\n\nGroggy, annoyed, and not a little disoriented, he only notices the note just before he leaves.\n\nThe words are scratched into the paper, no ink, but traces of blood make them more than legible. He moves the gold tooth aside, and reads.\n\nHere's enough to cover some rent.\n\nP.S.: It's illegal to give less than a month's notice for eviction. You'll be talking to my lawyer soon.\n\n^^^^r/forricide" ]	4
	[WP] Hundreds of years ago, you accepted the call to be a keeper of all knowledge. You live out eternity in a library containing every book ever written and those yet to be written. One day as you walk through and isle of biographies, you find a book titled “What your life could have been”	[ "In this library filled with knowledge from any and all ages,\n\nOne book alone has me curious about its pages.\n\nOn the spine stood words so bold,\n\nMy own name emblazoned with gold.\n\nPulling the tome, I couldn’t help but scratch my chin.\n\nFor the book was entitled “What could have been”.\n\nLifting the cover to know the story to be told,\n\nI found the pages to be both brittle and old.\n\nAnd on the paper I read the words that chilled to the bone.\n\nA tale that was entirely different from my own.\n\nIt told a story of adventure that had no end,\n\nWhere danger lurked around every bend.\n\nThen came the tale of a different sort,\n\nYet it still featured the same old sport.\n\nThis was the story of a younger man,\n\nWho fell in love with a girl named Ann.\n\nTheirs was a tale both silly yet fun.\n\nThey grew old until there was but one.\n\nOn and on the pages turned,\n\nWhile feelings of regret twisted and churned.\n\nCondemned now to know the price I have paid,\n\nFor the path I am on is but the one I made.\n\nAs I came to the end of this book so old,\n\nI was startled to find fresh letters, written in gold.\n\n“As I write here about what could have been,\n\nI realize now my most slothful sin.\n\nThough my past may have slipped through the fold,\n\nMy future has yet to be told.\n\nLeave this place now, don’t dwell on what has gone and been.\n\nBecause your true story is about to begin.”" ]	1
	[WP] At the library, a man to your left is reading a dystopia novel you don't recognize, and what looks like his twin reading a surrealist comedy on your right. The thing is, they're both whispering the books' lines to themself, and at some points, they seem to switch books.	[ "I sat quietly reading, breathing in stale air, inside my university's library. You couldn't just grab a book from the shelves as there were none. To get a book (other than a textbook) you had to request it specifically, and, not many people did. That's not to say that there weren't ever people who read books. There were usually one to five people who sat in the library and read books. Honestly, I don't care if anyone else is in the library reading. The only thing that matters is getting through my coursework so that I can read something fun. Right now, I'm procrastinating, reading Stardust by Neil Gaiman. I know I should be working, but, I love this book, and I have a week before my first assignments are due. So, I decided to keep reading. \n\nAbout an hour or so later, I got annoyed by voices coming from beside me. I understand that reading a story aloud is a lot more fun than reading it in your head, but, come on; we're in a library, and people are trying to focus. With that, I turned my head right to see a pale man reading Red Rising aloud. So, I politely asked him to quiet down; the only reaction I got was an exaggerated sigh, and afterward, he kept reading aloud. My response (like any rational human being) was to stand up and walk away. \n\nAs I turned around, I noticed another pale man reading, Kafka On The Shore, aloud, it was absurd! At the very least, they could whisper, but, they decided reading aloud is more appropriate. I stared daggers at the second man as he read about the adventures of Kafta, but, I realized staring wouldn't change things, so I continued walking. Right as I passed the second man, he stopped reading Kafta On The Shore; it wasn't like he started reading from the view of a different character. No, it was unnatural, it was like he's trying to merge two words. Then he began reading red rising. It wasn't like he physically switched books with the other man, it was like he had the book memorized. Alarmed, I turned back towards him; he still had Kafta On The Shore in his hands, but he was staring directly at the other man, and the other man was staring back at him. \n\nNow I'm not going to lie, they sent shivers up my spine. I'm not in a book, and I'm not the protagonist of a story, so, you know what I did? I ran away, back to my dorm; because I refuse to get involved with anything or anyone that looks and sounds like it came out of a horror novel." ]	1
	[WP] You've been commenting stories on /r/WritingPrompts for months. One day you get a call from a Hollywood producer, wanting to turn one of your stories into a movie.	[ "\"Is this for real?\" I ask the woman on the other end of the call with anxiousness building in my voice. \"Yes sir it is. As I said, I'm producer Michelle David and a talent scout has brought your writings to my attention and I have to say that I'm very impressed with your work. We would like to use some, potentially all of your writings in the production of several movies. Would you be willing to work with us Mr.Clyde?\" For a moment I don't answer as my thoughts swell and swirled inside my mind. Only short ragged breathing came from my end as the realization that my dreams were going to come to fruition started to overtake me. \"Hello, Mr.Clyde are you still there?\" Her calm professional voice brought me back to my senses. \"Uh, yes ma'am I am and my answer is yes. I would love to. This is a dream come true for me!\" I was so excited I practically shouted the last bit at her. I could almost feel her cringing through the phone. Utterly embarrassed at this point I do my best to calmly listen to her instructions before having to scramble for a pen and paper when she brought up their contact information. By the time the call was over I was shaking so heavily that I couldn't even finish my coffee with out spilling it. So I decided to pick back up my cell and call my mother I had to tell her about this. I had to tell everyone!" ]	1
	[WP] You have been reported as a missing person and, despite your best efforts to convince people that you’re here and you’re fine, no one will believe any differently.	[ "Right now , nothing can make things go worse. I hope. Long story short , if you ask anyone on this planet about me , they'll say I'm missing. And when I say 'missing' , I mean that every one thinks I disappeared , that I am lost somewhere. But I'm not! I'm right here!! You see me right? Well it's not your fault if you don't. The reason why everybody thinks that it's because I'm a super hero and my power is invisibility, but I kinda lose control of my power. Don't ask me how , it just happened. Like , when i went to sleep I was fine , but in the morning I was invisible and nobody can't hear or see me. And honesty I've tried everything and I mean E V E R Y T H I N G ( well everything I could think of ) to convince people that I'm here and I'm fine, even if I'm not fine. And maybe I would explain more , but I'm kinda in trouble. The reason why is because my last idea - which I thought it was great , but apparently it wasn't - so yeah , my last idea was to write on something to explain my situation. But - and I have to remember this for the next time - humans get scared when they see a pen moving by itself without someone near it. And yeah now everyone thinks it's a ghost in the room.\n\n((Sorry that this all I could do. I really like the prompt , but I remained without inspiration in the end. ))", "\"Breaking News!\" flashed onto the screen. It was six o'clock, another daily sermon for the Missing Messiah. The newscast, this time, was local so an imitation Nancy Drew appeared as opposed to the real deal. A slideshow played a photo reel of bright birthdays to darkened night time shots with friends. If anything was \"Breaking!\" at all, it was the new footage of the afternoon's helicopter ride that accompanied itself with broad, white text, “MISSING MESSIAH NOT BELIEVED TO BE SEEN OUTSIDE CAULDRON LIMITS”. My city devoted itself to finding their Missing Messiah. It was christened as the missing religion and today was Thursday, phone call day. After a couple talking heads would claim that international expertise was forensically analyzing the footage, their God would call and, blasphemously, be ignored.\n\n\n\n\n“I gotta make a phone call,” I said, boisterously ignorant of personal volume. I headed upstairs. I used my cell phone as the landline was either flooded with interview propositions or being scalped by profiteers, executives, and self-proclaimed gurus. Morally, it was not for personal use, only for enterprise.\n\n\n\nThe light from the television irregularly shifted from bright white light to darker shades as it went through the slideshow, helicopter shots, and the complexions of speakers. Its light was casted into a dark and hopeless living room, its routine forgotten and glasses, paired with plates, embellished the room, the light eerily prismatic from the ornamentation. The glassware, however, was apart of a brand new set, intended only to be paired with the coasters, and the plates were only meant to be brought to the dinner table, in an effort not to taint the sacred grounds of the upholstery.\n\n\n\nIn fact, the dining set was new, too, along with the new vehicles that populated the driveway and the curb in front of the overgrown oak tree. Most of the house, in fact, was freshly renovated, but everything new was all treated the same: neglected and forgotten. They were no longer a talking point for escaping “childproofing” and the fabled elder-generational curse of being “technologically challenged” in my parents’s lives. \n\n\n\nThe chairs that were paired with the dining set did not fall to the chaos of my disappearance, however. Four of the six chairs were monolithically positioned in front of the idolized entertainment set. They were equally spaced and depressed into the carpet, left permanently under the pretense of some mandated command. The chairs, a dark wood cushioned with an ornate design palleted in shades of browns, were the only ordinance completed to some satisfactory result. The house was in disarray but the chairs were there for the deliverance of a divine mandate.\n\n\n\nI did not care for whatever information or “Breaking!” evidence had been discovered by the floating heads. Admittedly the helicopter shots, intended for surveying, were done with respectable cinematography and did lend themselves to a decent backing track, a track that would be far above the parroting of Knock-off Grace and her rogue's gallery of jesters turned religious moguls. \n\n\n\nThe case of the Missing Messiah gave a “Breaking!” surge of popularity to the purple desert mountains that surrounded the valley. I was not the keenest on the mythos of the Missing Messiah, but I do recall the Amish looking member of the rouge’s gallery suggesting that these mountains signified a Mount Olympus somewhere nearby and that the kidnapper, or nomadic tendencies of the Missing Messiah, traveled to one of the purple mountains for sacrificial or enlightening purposes. It was a ballsy statement, but was countered by the most calculating member of the gallery. Holding a PhD in theological studies, the calculating member established the theory of an inescapable cauldron, and that I, the Messiah, was contained within city limits, citing the queerness and resistance towards the missing religion outside of the valley. Another rouge, the producer member, who appeared in black suits with a tapered beard and handlebar moustache, was then quick to suggest the marketable title “The Valley of Olympus” and sold the idea that the fabled mountain was actually a depression and that we were daunted by the inescapable “Hurdles of Hermes”. Few messengers in and few out, a religion so queer yet a national dilemma so tastingly profitable, or, for the sheep, “righteously imperative”.\n\n\n\nToday was Thursday, so there would be no debate nor development of the mythos. Only one rouge. Today the Amish man was on, explaining how the fruitless evidence of the helicopter ride was most likely due to the length of the disappearance. \n\n\n\n“The tracks were gone so evidence like that would be rare.” The Amish rouge finished. Knock-Off Nancy was always eager to cut them off, but everyone knew today was Thursday. I punched in the number for the hotline. The jingle played and I waited to the sound of overused chord progressions and electronic rhythms. My ritual was to meet the TV until a local was selected and to talk and plea to Nancy whenever I got selected.\n\n\n\n“Every Thursday we take callers for tips, reactions, and evidence,” Nancy parroted. “Today we have a call from Dianna from Tennessee. Dianna? Dianna can you hear me now?”\n\n\n\n“Yes I'm here.”\n\n\n\n“What is your reaction to the lack of evidence shown by this afternoon's survey?”\n\n\n\nDianna was from Tennessee. An outsider. Outsider's were typically parroted off the most. They were not the experts nor were they first hand disciples of the Missing Messiah. They were of little interest to Nancy and they were of little interest to her God. Nancy usually only picked up for locals. The city's ritual was to listen intently to Thursday’s “Breaking!” broadcast while my ritual was to mute and caption the TV and only to care when there was a local and only to speak when I was the caller. The next caller was a local.\n\n\n\n“Bryce. You're a local caller. What is your reaction to the lack of evidence shown by this afternoon's survey?”\n\n\n\n“It's hard to believe. He should've left some sort of sign that he was leaving for the mountains.”\n\n\n\nA follower of the Amish rogue.\n\n\n\n“Do you believe that the search should be focused more on the bordering mountains? In search of his desired grounds of worship?”\n\n\n\nBryce paused. The Amish rogue was a popular choice. One of the key pillars of the Cauldron of Olympus. One of the final divergences of the theory, which meant Bryce sat in good social standing but he ran the risk of being socially obscured if he said the wrong things. Outsides were often familiar with the routine experts, they had become household names, but were shockingly naive to the gallery itself and the religious apostles they had become. \n\n\n\nTypically, callers that regurgitated the theories that were not fundamental to the Valley of Olympus spoke to Nancy well within the reach of the parrot's beak, or simply never called. Bryce was in flying distance. He was a guy seen to have at least a good job and an appropriate moral compass. He'd come out unscathed and most likely not get harassed at his work, but rather receive a passive-aggressive HR email instead if his boss followed the calculated rogue. His CEO most likely followed the producer, however, and the only truly reasonable way to move up was If he made enough convincing and sound intellectual statements to earn him a second call and eventually create his own sect of the Missing Messiah.\n\n\n\nPart way through the Bryce's call, I was told I would be next. I muted the news cast again. Bryce was talked off the mountain and came to the idea that the primary focus should be within the Valley. Nancy looked pleased. I was unsure if the parrot was satisfied with its own deviancy of Bryce's dexterity in the avian's arena.\n\n\n\n“Good job Bryce. Maybe you will be the one that will create the crazy theory that Carmine Pallano still lives in his parents house,” I heckled. Mouthed perfectly in sequence with Nancy, that theory was continuously mocked a social representation of barrel scum in s society. That was the theory your God subscribed to.\n\n\n\n“Next caller is another local,” Nancy mouthed, this time synchronized with the phone speaker. “What is your reac-”\n\n\n\nI typically don't interrupt Nancy, but I was feeling the urge to that day. Probably because of Bryce's suggestion of priming the search within the Valley.\n\n\n\n“This is Carmine Pallano. Six foot two. Built like a an ox at 275 pounds. My identification number is 387-569-815. I am being held in my parents house and being extorted in the overly profitable religion dubbed the 'Missing Messiah’. I live at 538 Buffalo Road. Help me please. Someone.”\n\n\n\nWhen uninterrupted, I generally struggle to get the address in. Maybe this was a sign. Nancy hung up and mocked at the fake Carmine Pallano, but she was actually mocking the Missing Messiah. Her God. Nancy, the rogues, my parents, the nation, and even the blind and devout followers of the Valley of Olympus could not, will not, and did not believe that their God was speaking. That their God was truly there. \n\n\n\nWorship was tomorrow and I had to make my way to the basement. As I moved, I was a transcendently invisible figure to my parents. They knew where I was and they refused to believe. Refused to believe in the theories of disappearance that have became sects dedicated to a teenager nobody has even seen. To the people who lived in the Valley of Olympus, the people who laughed at their God: their Messiah was Missing.\n\n\n\n", "My heart jumped to my throat when I saw a cop at the door of my house taking notes as he talked to my mother. I hurried toward them, afraid something had happened to my father or brother. However, they stared at me with bewildered eyes, as if I had disturbed the conversation of two strangers.\n\n\"Sir, how can I help you?\" the cop said, and blocked my path.\n\nI frowned. \"I live here?\"\n\nThe cop glanced at my mother, whose eyes were tear-soaked. She shrunk and shook her head. \"I don't know who he is,\" she muttered and took a couple of steps back.\n\n\"What? I'm your son, Dylan,\" I said with an edge of irritation in my voice. \"Are you playing some sort of joke on me?\"\n\nThe cop gestured my mother to go inside, and when she did, he grabbed me by the collar of my shirt. \"What's the problem with you? How the fuck do you know about Dylan's disappearance? Who are you?\"\n\nIn that moment, seeing his knuckles go white and the veins bulging out his neck, I knew he wasn't joking. I tried to formulate a proper answer, to understand what was happening, and it was then when it hit me.\n\nI didn't remember a single thing. It was as I had been born a teenager, walking toward my house. \"I-I'm sorry,\" I said. \"I over heard the conversation and... and something got into my mind.\"\n\n\"Did it now?\" He released me. \"Then get the fuck out of here now. Kids these days have no filter, no empathy. It disgusts me.\"\n\n\"Yes, sir,\" I said, and hurried down the streets, trying to compose myself. It was pointless. My heart throbbed wildly, my knees wobbled, and I felt frail, as if I were about to collapse.\n\n\"Hey!\" The cop yelled, and I turned. \"The rose holds blood in between the folds.\"\n\nThe words triggered something in my brain. They strained the back of my mind, and a sudden memory flashed before my eyes, vivid as real life.\n\nI was in a tiny room, a knife in my hand. In front of me, a gagged, tied up teenager--of about fifteen--cried and thrashed on a chair. The lights were dim, the floors dirty with old stains. I stepped toward him, holding the knife with a tight, rancor-filled grip.\n\n\"It's not the end, Dylan,\" I said, and placed the knife against his throat. \"It's but the beginning.\"\n\nAnd then, it faded to black.\n\nHad I killed this kid? Who was I? Who was that cop? What in the world was happening? I reached the corner of the street, only to realize I didn't have a place to go.\n\nIt was then when something buzzed in my pocket. I hadn't thought of searching my clothes. I dug out a cellphone. The screensaver was a picture of me and my family. \n\nNo, it wasn't me. It was the kid from my memory. It was Dylan. I was not Dylan, wasn't I?\n \nA message appeared on the screen. It read: 2020 Everdeen Boulevard. Was it an address? I looked at the number, yet it wasn't saved and I didn't recognize it. \n\nI gulped, and decided to search the rest of my pockets. I was wearing a long brown coat, black denims, a t-shirt and snickers. The pocket at my chest felt strange, slightly heavier than the others. I fumbled inside, and touched something sticky. I frowned and pulled out my hand.\n\nIt was smeared in dry, reeking blood.\n\nLost, confused and terrified. I asked for directions and headed to 2020 Everdeen Boulevard. " ]	3
	[WP] One day you bang your head but when you wake up you're suddenly able to understand animals. You hear some squirrels causally talking about global domination.	[ "\"Twenty Nine!\" The guard screeched from the hallway. He was on mission - moving fast. Miles could feel his presence already, he could feel the evil - the tyranny. \"God, what have I done?\" he cried out. \n\nSounds of torture, yelping, slashing and whipping filled the prison quarters. It was an old underground sewer that had been converted into a gigantic prison facility. \n\n\"Twenty NINE!\" the guard yelled again - closer now. His shadow sliding along the ground, menacing. Closer still - This is it, he thought. This is how I go. Miles trembled with fear, but quietly - he knew to keep his mouth shut. There wasn't one soul in this complex that had an ounce of sympathy for Miles. They knew what he had done - or rather, what he hadn't done, when he had the chance.\n\nThe guard stood in front of his cell, all 18cm of him. But despite his tiny stature, in these cells - this guard was feared. He was Urocitellus beldingi - A Ground squirrel. A recently appointed general, he was on direct orders from his superior - Bruce the Bastard to bring Miles directly to him.\n\n\"Get up\". Miles remained seated, shaking. \"Get up, you miserable excuse for human filth!\". Miles immediately stood up, grabbing hold of one of the bars on his prison door. \"Crawl\", the guard ordered. Miles came out of his cell, and dropped to his knees. It hadn't always been like this. \n\nTwo years ago, Miles had been rock climbing with a friend. \"You sure you're up for this\", Andrew asked. He seemed to have genuine concern for him. \"Not you too\". Miles dismissed the question. \n\nIt was the same spot they always went to - enough areas that were challenging without having to drive too far. He always brought his hunting rifle with him, just in case. There were all kinds of crazies out here - the local homeless would often go on wild drug infused rampages. It made the paper a couple of times after one of them killed a group of European tourists, leaving them hanging upside down on a tree.\n\nBut on this particular day, something else was lurking in the rocks. Something far, far more sinister. You see earlier in the week, Miles had taken a fall - on a practice climb. He swore he was fine, but all week he had been seeing bizarre things - things that just weren't right. Earlier in the week on Tuesday he could have sworn he overheard his dog asking for a slice of pizza, and a bird shouting 'incoming' as he flew over his house. He'd had falls before - but nothing like this. Still, he put it down to a mild concussion, and wasn't too worried. Miles never wanted to put anyone out - or make himself seem weak. \n\nOn the rocks that day, Andrew had gone off a bit, chasing a new area to climb - but Miles was fixed on one particular rock, where two squirrels were talking. They were chatting about life, death, and some kind of device that would control the minds of humans. Good god, thought Miles. He really had gone off the deep end. Maybe he should have listened to his Mum, his doctor, his friends, and Andrew. Maybe he had been too stubborn. \n\nEither it was the paranoia - or something else, but the squirrels seemed sinister. Pure and twisted evil. They seemed to grow in size. Peering through the rocks - Miles overheard:\n\n\"And you're sure it's going to work this time?\"\n\"I'm sure of it. Trust me. Today is the day we finally show those sons o' bitches who they've been fucking with\". \n\"At exactly 12 pm, I am going to unleash the chemical. It will take six minutes to take effect\".\n\"And then?\"\n\"And then...it's time to hunt.\".\n\nMiles' hard was pounding. He held onto his gun - tight. He leaned against the rocks and panted, hyperventilating now. Something was wrong. \"Miles!\" - it was Andrew. He'd come just in time - Miles blacked out.\n\n\"Miles.\" Blackness. \"Miles\". He could hear the sound of a heart monitor beeping away. Opening his eyes - he saw a clock on the wall reading \"11.59\". \"Miles - I'm doctor Lane - do you know where you are\". \"Hospital?\" he asked, confused. \"You took a big fall - can you tell me how many ha--\" but he was interrupted. Suddenly, the sounds of sirens echoed inside the hospital - loud, continuous buzzing as people ran around in frenzy, passing out, diving into rooms - \"What the hell is going on?\" Dr lane asked a passing nurse. He saw the look on her face - absolute terror. \"Just get out of here - NOW\". \n\nDown the hallway - a group of squirrels marched the corridors, lead by Bruce The Bastard. One of them let out a loud shriek. They were giggling, sreeching - a terrible sound. This was their day; The day they were going to finally take over the world. ", "I was just out for a walk, and now I might have saved the world. Or I'm just a crazy guy who randomly murdered a squirrel. 50/50, really.\n\nAnyway, I was out for a walk in the park and I knocked my head really hard on this low-hanging branch. Must've hit it especially hard, because I passed out. When I woke up again, a few seconds later according to my watch, I heard them. Two squirrels casually talking about their plan to take over the world and supplant humans.\n\nSo, of course, I did the logical thing. I grabbed a couple of rocks and flung them. Missed one of the squirrels, but got the other one. No squirrel takeovers on my watch.", "I heard squirrels chittering away outside, happily going about their squirrelly day. They were in the upper branches of the old oak tree that grows up alongside the house. It was a warm and quiet morning, so I had my upstairs bedroom window open. I was at my desk typing an essay for my English class when I heard them speak. \n\nAt first I thought someone was in my backyard because they sounded so distinctly human. I peered out the window trying to hide myself as best as I could so that the intruders didn't see me. There was no one there, so I thought maybe the downstairs television was still going. It was off. I shrugged and went back to work. \n\nAbout twenty minutes later I heard the voices again. I was spooked this time when I discovered there was no one in the backyard. I could hear two people discussing something, I listened in.\n\n\"...and that's when we cut the power to the house and take um by surprise.\" There was a pause in the conversation, then \"I think she heard us Tim.\" I immediately dropped to my hands and knees, crawled to the foot of my bed and leaned my back against the footboard. My cellphone! I needed to call 911. It was laying next to my laptop. As I was crawling toward my desk to grab my cellphone a squirrel dropped through my open window. It quickly dashed beneath the bed as soon as it hit the carpet. Then, a second squirrel appeared on the window ledge, sitting on it's haunches, tiny nose twitching, it spoke \" what cha doin there missy?\"\n\nStartled, I could only gape at the brown rodent with my mouth opened widely. The second squirrel had reappeared from beneath my bed and was slowly making his way toward me. \"I think she was going for the cellphone, Tim.\" It said as it stalked forward, peering at me with one eye. There was a small, dark hole where it's other eye should have been. Tim lept from the window sill and landed on my desk. He immediately started gnawing on my cellphone. That's when the adrenaline kicked in. I got up off the floor and ripped the phone away from the small animal. \"Stop that you little shit!\". That's when the second squirrel jumped on my back.\n\n\"Get her in the jugular Frankie!\". Tim yelled as he threw his tiny squirrel body at my face. I dropped the phone and started flailing at them, screaming as they drove their little rodent teeth into my flesh. I ran to my bedroom door, as I opened it I smacked my forehead on the door frame. On the floor now, struggling to keep conscious, through blurry vision I watched as one of the squirrels lept out my bedroom window with the cellphone. Then everything went dark.\n\nWhen I regained consciousness I found myself bound and gagged, laying on my side on my bedroom floor. It was dark outside, I must have been out for hours. I heard shuffling behind me and struggled to turn my head. Sitting atop my cherrywood dresser was about a dozen squirrels. They were peering at me with their dark beady eyes, small pink noses twitching.\n\n One of them cleared it's throat, \"All those in favor of death say squirrel\". All but one responded. \"Denali, you choose not to kill the human. Please, speak your peace.\" A small gray squirrel shuffled forward, \"I think this entire thing has gotten way out of control Tim\". The squirrel spoke in a female voice. \"Do all of you really think that by taking control of this house and setting up a command post we can take over the world? There are more of them than there are of us. They're bigger, they're stronger and they're smarter. This is a war we can't and won't win. Killing this human serves no purpose and I will take no part in it. That's all I have to say.\" She shuffled back to her place in the crowd. \"Well, since majority wins, let's proceed?\" The squirrel lept from the dresser onto the floor. A second, then a third, then, \"Wait! What are you guys doing? None of you have ever killed before. Henry, you're afraid of dragonflies for crying out loud. And Fenfrel, you freak out when it rains. None of you are prepared for the burden of guilt you will suffer if you go through with this.\" Another squirrel lept from the dresser. \"Denali, you are excused.\" Tim, the apparent ringleader, calmly responded. \"Also, don't expect help with storage this winter, you are officially banished from the order. You will be gathering your own nuts from now on.\" He hopped onto my shoulder. \n\n\"You will all be sorry.\" Denali said as she shook her tiny squirrel head in disgust and lept onto my bedroom floor. I watched as her bushy tail disappeared out the window into the darkness outside. Then I heard the front door slam and relief swept over me like a warm blanket on a frigid night. \n\nI tried calling out but the gag in my mouth muffled the sound. \"Tim, there's another human in the house. What do we do?\" Tim seemed to glare at me with his small marble eyes, \"Abandon mission!\". And just like that, they were gone. \n\nMy mom called the cops and I was taken to the hospital. \"They appear to be rodent bites but her story just doesn't make any sense. Tied up and gagged by squirrels?\" The doctor spoke in a hushed tone to my mom. \"I recommend a 72 hour mental health hold ma'am.\" My mom was clearly upset, \"I believe my daughter doctor. I'm taking her home.\" \n\nI haven't slept in 24 hours for fear of the squirrels returning. I'm paranoid as I sit here on the living room sofa, waiting... Shhh, I think I heard a sound coming from the chimney. ", "Flipping through the TV again...\n\nThe President did something stupid again, some idiot got fired for saying the n word, and a repeat of Rick and Morty was on, one of those season 3 episodes again, I think it was the memory one... yawn\n\n'That does it, I'm going out for a walk'.\n\nIt was a... day I guess, not sunny, not quite cloudy but ultimately not strongly committed to any one type of weather.\n\nI entered the park and started walking off the beaten path, 'at least this would be a better use of my time' I thought, 'although I should really be out job searching... sending out my worthless CV so either I could get ignored, or so I could fail spectacularly during the interview I wasn't going to win anyway. Who really cares? I could drop dead and be in a better situation than I am now'- \n\nA loose log I was walking over gave way. My leg lunged upwards, forcing me backwards. The back of my head would be the first to hit the ground, I felt and heard a great thud, and everything went black...\n\nThere was a voice \"We can't rely on the viral divide and conquer routine like we did in the American theatre\"\n\n\"What are you talking about? It worked so well it caught fire in Europe and Australia\" said a second voice\n\n\"Yes but everyone knows that game now\" replied the first\n\n\"Sure but they have no idea how to counteract it, it's taken on a life of its own\"\n\n\"They're actually onto us now. I told you we shouldn't have spared Roiland, now he's gone and made an episode about us\"\n\n\"Oh shut up, that was a blessing in disguise! It'll be much easier to dismiss our enemies now that we have a flipping cartoon as a reference!\"\n\n\"Must we do this every time? Everything's going according to plan, with an acceptable standard deviation of 4.2&#37;, well within estimates\". Interrupted a third voice\n\nI opened my eyes, there was no one there, although there were a few squirrels hanging out on the floor near me\n\n\"They're awake!\" I heard the first voice say.\n\n\"I think they can hear us\" added the second.\n\n\"All according to plan\" replied the third.\n\n\"You, human!\" said the second, 'Are they talking about me?!'\n\n\"Down here\" the continued. The squirrels were actually talking... \n\n\"Yeah I'm not buying this\" I replied, slowly getting up. The squirrels rushed around my feet, the second jumped up onto my shoulders.\n\n\"Hello human... what should I call you...?\" asked the second\n\n\"They look like a Jane\" said the third\n\n\"OK Jane, this is real, we're actually talking, this is not a prank, and I'm not your best friend talking to you through your coma\" continued the second\n\n\"What are you doing?!\" Interjected the first\n\n\"I'm fucking with her, let me have my fun\" she replied\n\n\"Deary me, someone really wedged it deep up there this time\" said the third, addressing the first.\n\n\"Now Jane, I'm going to explain everything to you, because we're bloody squirrels and there's nothing you can do to stop me\"\n\n\"You should've called her Mr. Bond\" replied the first snidely. An awkward silence shot through the air, the second's gaze pierced right through her.\n\n\"Anyway Jane, why do you think we've decided to have our discussion in front of you?\"\n\n\"Honestly I have no idea\" I replied\n\n\"Well, I felt like gloating, and I'm sure you're wondering what's going on\"\n\n\"Kind of?\"\n\n\"Well, our mission here is to-\"\n\n\"WOOF!\" A dog appeared, running over to me.\n\n\"Fuck!\" Gasped the third, and the Squirrels scattered.\n\n\"Hey! what are you doing over there?\" Yelled the park keeper. I hadn't realised how dark it was, how long was I out for? \n\n\"Psst\" I heard the dog say, \"You've been made kid, get out while you can\"\n\n\"Wait What?\" I barked.\n\n\"Looks like you took a nasty bump to the head\" Replied the Park Keeper, inspecting my scalp. \"Come with me, I'll take you to the infirmary\".\n\nThe squirrels retreated to the tree tops.\n\n\"You spared Roiland\" said the first.\n\n\"Yes, but this one isn't Roiland\" replied the second.\n\n\"We shouldn't be getting cocky, not this close to the end game\", countered the first.\n\n\"It's fine, our work is done until they have another task for- wait where's Third?\" As they looked over at the humans, they saw a small figure walking alongside the dog, Third.\n\n\"I don't believe this!\" gasped the second.\n\n\"Really? You didn't know?\" asked first condescendingly.\n\n\"No! What's the deal with Third and the dog?\" A murder of crows started flying overhead.\n\n\"The dog is from internal affairs. Mission control didn't appreciate the Roiland blunder\".\n\n\"Wait... you set me up?\" said Second, as the murder landed all around them.\n\n\"No, you set yourself up. We just had to make sure the dog saw you in action, so we could green-light your sentencing\". The crows closed in, surrounding Second. \n\n\"NO! YOU CAN'T DO THIS!\" Yelled Second, as the crows screeched and pecked at her body.\n\n\"It's a shame the Doolittle incidents are spreading... but the dogs can take it from here, they're trained for it\" replied First, walking away. Eventually the pecking and screeching died down. The crows flew away, leaving a stain of blood where Second once stood. First made her way outside the park keeper's office, where Third was waiting.\n\n\"Second won't be a problem anymore. Grey Squadron took care of that\" Said First\n\n\"Good\" replied Third\n\n\"So what are we going to do with our friend 'Jane?'\"\n\n\"What we've always done with Doolittles, Jane's been in the system for quite some time, and as long as we keep her unemployed we shouldn't have any real problems\" explained Third. \"Well lets go, we've got more Seconds to expose\"" ]	4
	[WP] You're an upcoming Wizard, all you need to do is pass the final wizarding trials.	[ "“You must pass through the doorway,” the hooded man said, “ as [others have done](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/comments/86czni/comment/dw4dc99?st=JJOEC5M2&sh=2f685c86) before you. You must face Death himself.”\n\nCaius steeled his courage. If he completed this test, he would become a full fledge wizard. If not, then the last two years of training will have been wasted.\n\n“I’m ready” he said, and walked confidently through the door.\n\nThe aspect of Death stood before him.\n\n“Why do you come here?” It asked.\n\n“I want to become a priest of Death. I’ve accepted my own mortality, and am ready to face Death.” Death laughed.\n\n“You know all the right things to say, don’t you? But your purpose is not clear in your heart. You wish to embrace Death already. Is that not so?”\n\n“Yes, my lord.” Caius have a low bow. Death took on a stern appearance.\n\n“There is no place among my followers for those who simply seek to die. You must accept your mortality, not cause it. You do not get to choose when your candle is blown out. Have you so lost the will to live?” Caius grimaced.\n\n“There is nothing left for me to live for, my lord.”\n\n“Is there not?” Death sneered, “My followers seek to do good in the world before they meet me. Do you not seek that?”\n\n“Of- of course, my lord. I seek it.”\n\n“Lies. Begone from my sight, mortal. You are not worthy.” The door appeared again.\n\nCaius solemnly walked through it. The mages knew that he had not passed. Two years of his life, wasted at the end. As he left the temple, he made a vow.\n\nHe would embrace Death the only other way he could." ]	1
	[WP] Humans are considered the most adorable species ever. The video streaming service on your planet has many viral videos displaying the humans doing cute things.	[ "I scrolled through the page listlessly. Draxylizt and I had been together for 512 years. Last night, he told me he wanted to break up with two of our shared pool of lovers, which was really going to make Uyalizant awkward. I needed something to clear my head, so I'd pulled up Cute Things Humans Do.\n\nI clicked on \"I Gotted the Most Moneyz on the Wall Street!\" A room full of boy humans in their little suits watched a random stream of numbers scrolling by on the marquees, then frantically raced to sell their stocks and bonds. Precious!\n\nThere was the usual array of humans chasing oddly shaped balls around large areas, while other humans cheered. My favorite was when they did this on an icy surface. They got so excited about their games.\n\nThere was a new trending one titled \"Politicks!\" I wasn't sure how I felt about this kind of post. I enjoyed the occasional presidential debate, and of course it was fun when they strutted around like they owned the planet, but there were so many of these now that I was getting kind of bored with them. And I felt like the \"Warz!\" posts were kind of in poor taste.\n\nBut at the bottom of the page was a gif set of humans celebrating various holidays: big humans watching their babies open presents, lighting colored lights in the sky, hiding brightly painted eggs, and holding hands around a table weighed down with turkey that was sure to make them sleepy. I smiled in satisfaction, all thoughts of my romantic entanglements forgotten. This right here was why I adored the human race." ]	1
	[wp] You’re God and you finally decide that it is time to reveal yourself to the people. However, you find that the human race is atheist and the don’t think you are God. Instead they believe you to be an alien.	[ "I had been watching over this realm for millennia, helping to shape the course of events, helping to guide my children. Yes, a few times I deemed it necessary to test them, but this was to ensure that they were strong, that they would endure. Never did I think that this would be the result.\n\nHumanity had finally reached a point in their civilization that they were dreaming of the stars. They were not only dreaming, though. They were probing, exploring, analyzing. I realized that the time had come for me to reveal myself, so that I might help to show them the way and guide them as they made significant improvements to their interstellar technology.\n\nI decided that the most impact could be made first through appearing before the most people possible, followed by visiting those who were pioneering space traveling technologies. I began by broadcasting a message across their mass media, appearing simultaneously on television screens and tablets alike with a simple message. \n\n\"Hello my children, I am God. I have come to show you the light\"\n\nRodney spewed his coffee all over the dining room table, soaking his iPhone in the process. He quickly grabbed a paper towel to clean it off, and tried to go back to whatever strange video had just played. He immediately saw dozens of YouTube posts popping up displaying the same character.\n\nThe speaker was a large, well built man appearing to be in his forties. He was clothed in a simple brown tunic, white breeches, and had a sort of \"glow\" about him. \nFor a moment he was dumbstruck. God? Yea right. If God existed, he had forsaken humanity long ago. War, poverty, strife, and disease were still rampant across the globe, and no benevolent deity would abide by these atrocities happening to his \"children\". Rodney decided to write it off as a stupid prank, and went about his day.\n\nWhen Rodney got to NASA he was surprised to see a mass of his colleagues all gathered around the front entrance. He parked and walked over just in time to hear \"..for a total of 23 habitable planets within range of the technology you could build in the next 10 years\".\n\nUpon finishing his speech this \"God\" vanished in a flash of light.\n\nGossip spread around the office like wildfire. Everyone and their mother were talking about what had transpired, and it wasn't long before some colleagues reported that similar events had occurred at research facilities around the globe in the last few hours.\n\nAs news spread, the internet raged in debate.\n\n\"Our Lord has come to save us!\"\n\n\"Blasphemy! How dare you call this \"creature\" God?\"\n\n\"Look at the miracles he has already performed!\"\n\n\"What if he's an alien?\"\n\nAnd it was with this one simple question that those millions of people bombarding the internet with claims and theories paused, their fingers hovering over their keyboards.\n\nWithin a few days, as this \"being\" continued to perform acts of what appeared to be no less than magic, the internet in its entirety (save for those devout few and those who were ever skeptical) had agreed that there could be no other explanation. This being that presented itself as God must surely be an alien.\n\nThe U.S. government, having spent decades trying to keep secret the existence of sentient alien life, now sprung into action in an effort to capture the alien. Try as they might though, they never seemed to be able to track him down and catch him.\n\nGod, now being searched for far and wide on what was quickly becoming a witch hunt of sorts, retreated back to the heavens.\n\n\"Maybe they weren't ready after all...\"" ]	1
By title I mean like how Thor is “god of thunder”. Have fun!	[WP] Every God is real, and you are the newest one. However, you have to find a unique title that has never been taken before	[ "The grotesque hulking form in front of me just kept screeching. At this point I was starting to become frantic, an emotion that did not complement the brew of negativity rumbling in my core. \n“Please, just stop I really have no idea what is happening,” I begged. It kept going, I guess plea number 47 was no better than its predecessors. At this point the weight of futility was driving me off my feet so I fat down on the cool dark marble floor. Well, at least this place looks cool… probably not cool enough to spend eternity but I am a big fan of roman architecture. I wonder what I will become as time wears on and I am chipped away by the constant screams of this monster.\n\n “KABLAM” \n\nI scramble backwards, away from the thick column of white that has just appeared before me. It is a perfect cylinder of shifting milkyness. I push myself upwards onto my feet and as I do I realize the steady stream of noise has ceased. I turn towards the creature that was the source but it is nowhere to be seen. Just a couple seconds ago I was wishing for its absence but now, alone, I felt deeply alone. Great, one more negative emotion. In the stark silence I can hear a soft whooshing sound. It could only be coming from the column. I stare at it and as I do the bottom of it becomes less defined. It starts to shimmer and then widens. The top of the beam has started to sink as the bottom spreads out in all directions. I take one step back and stop. No. At this point I no longer care, I shove down my mess of feelings as I stand steadfast. The cloud of white continues seeping towards me and I grow more rigid with each second. As it reaches my feet and makes its way up my body I feel a light tickle. Honestly, it's feels kind of nice. Now that most of the structure is gone I can the vague outline of a shape in the cloud. It looks like a person! \n\n“Hello young one.”\n\nHer clear female voice rings out like the sweetest chime of a bell. \n\n“Hello” is all I can say. I should as where I am or who she is but I am proud of being able to utter a hello.\n\n“I am here for you to declare your name and to bring you to where you belong. Be warned if we have a god of your kind already you will not be welcome.”\n\nWhat the hell. God? My kind? Where I belong? I really should have lead with a question. I guess I will go with the most basic one.\n\n“ How did I get here” \n\n“You have been chosen by a God to be a God” she replied immediately. I guess she gets that a lot. She probably gets the next one a lot too. \n\n“Why” \n\n“I do not know and I do not care” she cooly stated. \n\n“Tell me what you will be God of now” \n\n“I… I don’t… I am. What if there is already the god of what I choose” \n\n“You will be left, not worth our time. Now answer at once.”\n\nI have no choice. I have to choose. She just looks right through me as I desperately go through options in my head. \n\n“Now” she repeats. \n\nAt once my mind stops as I find my answer.\n\n“ I am the god of Uganda, leader of the way.” Hopefully all the others took this too seriously to resort to memes. Her eyes light up. \n\n“Time to meet the others.”\n\n" ]	1
	[WP] You have always seen a white orb hovering above any living organism, and a black orb above any non living organism. For some odd reason there is no orb above your head, even stranger though, one day you encounter someone else with no orb above their head.	[ "The door swung open automatically like it did every morning when I pushed the disability assistance button out of sheer laziness and not wanting to open it. The apartment building was a bit of run down dump, but not big enough of a dump not to afford an automatic door. \n\nI started down 22nd street, similar to every other day, the busy New York Taxis honking their horns every few seconds. My earbuds swung around my neck as I plugged them into my phone, soon after slipping them into my ear.\n\nJohn Lennon's crisp voice echoed through my eardrums, \"You may say I'm a dreamer!\". My eyes darted around me, seeing all the familiar black dots that filled the air of New York. There was a block dot hovering over every single inanimate thing in the city roughly a few inches above each thing, none with an exception. By now, I've assumed its a mental tick, or something wrong with my imagination and not being able to tell the difference between whats in my head and what is in reality. My mom told me I would grow out of it, and after a couple years, I just told her I did so I wouldn't worry her.\n\nI took my usual left turn onto 8th Avenue, looking forward to my morning cup of coffee at Bean and Bean. I chuckle to myself every time I think of its name, never knew why. I used to get overwhelmed by the number of white balls I saw hovering over people's heads when I was younger, and that's why I could never walk down 8th Avenue until a couple years back. \n\nI made my way into Bean and Bean and ordered my medium roast coffee: cream, no sugar. Call me boring that I didn't want a triple soy milk café espresso whatever. As I looked past the barista in the mirror behind him, I always liked how I never had a white orb over me, it made me feel, unique. With it drawing a smile to my face, I stepped aside to wait for my drink. \n\nEarbuds in and music blasting, I couldn't help but tap my foot on the faux wood floors, and I felt some eyes drift towards, and I realized just how loudly my foot was stomping to the recognizable beat of We Will Rock You. I heard someone saying something, very softly, so I ignored it. After a minute or so, the barista had come around the desk and stood in front of me holding my drink.\n\n\"Hey buddy, maybe you should pay attention next time, so I can help everyone else will you?\" He said to me, leaving a little bite on the end of each word.\n\n\"Yeah, uhhh, I'm really sorry about that it won't happen again,\" I replied back, I was never good at confrontation.\n\nTaking my coffee quickly I walked out the door, eyes glued to the ground as I walked down the freshly fixed sidewalk. When I finally got to my intersection, I took my eyes off the ground to drink my coffee, and bathe in the spectacle of the white balls dancing over everyone's heads. \n\nThen, there was this woman diagonally across the intersection, at the edge of the bundled up crowd, who stood with a worrisome expression covering her face as she looked at her watch. Yet, she had no dancing white ball over her head. I wondered why, but couldn't quite comprehend it because I've been the only one I've ever seen without it.\n\nI started laughing, and I have absolutely no idea why. Maybe it's because I didn't feel so alone anymore. I didn't feel like the crowd around me was full of these people that still made me feel like I was entirely alone, that maybe, just maybe I could wake up in the morning and feel like I belonged because Now I finally found someone that was like me. I still didn't even know what I was at the time, but I just hoped she was the guardian angel I've been hoping for.\n\nShe began to cross the street, and I had to go over and meet her. I don't even remember where I was supposed to be going that Saturday morning, but I forgot all about it as I turned and headed her way. My eyes were focused on her face as I bumped shoulders with everyone walking against me as I couldn't care less who was in my way. I finally crossed paths with her along the sidewalk and simply stopped in her way and just said, \"Hey there,\" and gave the most genuine smile I think I ever have. She bumped into me, not realizing I would stop and very awkwardly looked at me and gave me a half smile and a nod as she brushed by. \n\n\"Wait! Please for just one second! I just want to talk!\" I yelled as she began to walk away.\n\nShe jolted, frightened at my aggressive tone, and she quickly turned around. She looked me in the eyes, and then I saw her eyes drift above my head, and her eyes began to widen, and her mouth opened, speechless for a few seconds before responding, \"I think we should have that talk over breakfast, follow me. Right, now.\" She turned quickly, pushing her hair behind her ears aggressively, as she began to walk swiftly away. I followed immediately behind her in silence as we made our way down 29th street." ]	1
	[WP] Though you usually consider yourself strong-willed, you are nonetheless horrified to see one of the body bags suddenly sit upright with a muffled voice saying: "Oh for Christ's sake not again!"	[ "Ruthlessly ignoring my instincts, which are screaming at me to ensure the man I knew was definitely dead 5 minutes ago,when I was hosing his body down on the slab, stays dead by battering him with the clipboard I had in my hands. Realising that stationery wasn’t going to help me i gingerly slid the bags zipper down and gazed into a very pale but somewhat irritated looking face. A face that was very much alive. ", "Warning: Contains scenes from the aftermath of an entirely fictional school shooting scenario.\n\n*Resemblance to real victims, events, etc. is, of course, entirely unintentional and coincidental.\n\n______\n\n\"I tell you what, Jim,\" I said. \"It never gets easier for you, no matter how long you've been on the force.\"\n\n\"I don't imagine it does, Bob,\" Jim replied.\n\n\"Jim\" was one of the younger officers who I was asked to \"mentor\" by the chief. He's a good kid though, and wants to become a detective further on down the line.\n\nThe incident we were attending? A school shooting in one of the more suburban parts of the county. At-least twenty students and staff members killed after some kid got a shotgun and some ammo out of somewhere and started firing at what looked like people who might have done him wrong.\n\nAnd the death-toll was still rising by the hour. The press and a few other ambulance chasers were hanging around outside, and we had to have the entire place secured, lest they disturb the crime scene or start yammering on about terrorism or mental health problems (always seems to depend on the skin colour of the instigator, I've found).\n\nThe school cafeteria had been commandeered by the police, who had removed all of the tables and stools, and replaced them with row after row of black body bags, all waiting to be taken to the morgue to be formally identified.\n\nA difficult task, seeing as many of them were missing large chunks of their guts. Or the unfortunate John and Jane Does who had been caught in the head with it needing their dental records given a once-over and then a closed-casket funeral.\n\nI'd thought I'd seen it all. I genuinely did. The drive-by shootings, the random shootings, the homicides, the \"drugs made me do it\", the \"he was cheating on me\" and even a few cases of \"fun times gone wrong\". But none of them could have prepared me for what I was about to witness.\n\nLike something out of a zombie film, one of the bags sat up straight.\n\nI hollered, and Jim turned so white I thought I'd have to call Pantone and let them know I'd discovered a new form of white.\n\n\"Hello?\" called a voice from inside of bag. \"Is somebody there? For Christ's sake, not again! Hello?! Can someone get me out of this please? I'm getting a little claustrophobic in here.\"\n\nWe immediately ran over and unzipped the bag, and inside there was a man, who looked as though he was in his mid-thirties and was gasping for air with old dried blood going from his lower-lip to his chin, and sprayed all over his shirt and tie, with several large holes punched through it.\n\n\"Are you okay?\" I asked \"Do you need an ambulance or something?\"\n\n\"No, no. It's fine. Give me a minute...\" he panted. He reached into his pocket and took out an inhaler, where he inhaled a few puffs of it and finally calmed his breathing.\n\n\"Who are you? And what's going on?\"\n\n\"Sorry, I'm David. David Yule. I'm the history teacher here. Wh-What's going on?\"\n\n\"School shooting, pal. Over twenty students and staff killed.\"\n\n\"Though I suppose it's over nineteen now, Bob.\"\n\n\"Shut up Jim.\"\n\n\"I guess that explains why I felt a big pain in my stomach before falling over and blacking out. Worse than the time I got involved in a bar fight with William Shakespeare...\"\n\n\"Shakespeare? What the heck are you on about?\"\n\n\"I guess I need to explain then. I'm immortal.\"\n\n\"You're what?\"\n\n\"Immortal. I was born back in the Middle Ages and haven't aged a day since my thirtieth birthday, I think. It was worse back when they all still believed in witches and whatever, as they'd burn me at the stake or wait for me to drown. I've had to fake my death plenty of times.\"\n\n\"Fake your death?\"\n\n\"Yeah. Well wouldn't you be a little concerned if you and your friend were the same age and then forty or fifty years down the line you can barely eat without help and they still haven't aged a day?\"\n\n\"I suppose so.\"\n\n\"Still though, a school shooting? They really have lost all meaning of that stupid second amendment, haven't they? Even worse than the drama between Aaron Burr and Alexander Hamilton. I'm telling you, David Hosack OR Lin-Manuel Miranda didn't include half the drama and cat-fighting involved...Anyways, you guys'll have to arrange for my death to be faked or something.\"\n\n\"What? Why?\"\n\n\"Well, I think it'd look bad on both you and me if I got up and walked out alive after being shot to 'death' in-front of crowds of students, eh?\"\n\n\"Well, I suppose you're right...Are you sure you're okay though?\"\n\n\"Yeah. I'm fine. It just winded me a little bit. And I'll get started up again, don't worry. Might take a course in accounting or something. Might be less dangerous than being a history teacher. Though in saying that, when you're immortal, you do know a good few anecdotes about historical figures and events. Still though, I need to get out of here now. So if anyone asks, I died the whole horrible, traumatising death, guts spread across the floor, the lot. Okay?\"\n\nI helped him up and he waved goodbye and crept out a back entrance.\n\nThough how we were going to explain this one to a coroner, we hadn't a clue.\n\n_____\n\nCheck out this story and more on r/a1tam0nt.", "This was an interesting day. It started as every other day. I was woken up around 4 am by another emergency. A quadruple homicide plus suicide. You get used to it eventually. The crime scene was near the station so it wasn't a long drive from my place. Nothing seemed to point at another culprit and I was about to leave. but then...I heard his voice.\n\nFor a moment I didn't realize it was the body bag. Why would a body bag say anything anyways, let alone \"Not again!\" I approached the bag very carefully. I wasn't supposed to open it, but my curiosity got the better of me. I was shocked. There was a live man in there. He looked sort of familiar, but I didn't know from where. \"Thank god. I was starting to think I'd have to try again.\" He seemed oddly calm. As if he had seen it before. I managed to utter a few words: \"E-excuse me, s-sir, b-b-but who are y-you?\" He smirked.\n\nI 'smuggled' him out of the house as he 'asked' me at gunpoint. We went to the local Starbucks after I got a change of clothes. \"So, have you ever seen the movie Groundhog Day?\" Of course I had, 't was a classic. \"Well, You know how the protagonist was called Phil Connors, right?\" This seemed to be leading somewhere I didn't like it to go. \"Don't you think I look familiar? I'm a Bill Murray lookalike, been so all my life. My parents had the great idea to name me Phil. Turns out it wasn't a complete fiction. This has been my...let's think...5,000th day I believe.\"", "I've seen a lot of shit working in the morgue over the years - so much so that it takes a lot to get a reaction out of me these days. Seeing a body bag sit up and mutter something like \"Christ, not again!\" as it's trying to get out will do it, though.\n\nAs I practically jumped out of my chair, the bag finally opened and a young woman with jet-black hair climbed out. She pulled her hair back and tied it into a bun, revealing her tattered and bloodstained dress barely covering a fit and shockingly scar-riddled body.\n\nShe turned and caught me staring at her in shock and confusion. \"Can I help you?\" she snidely asked.\n\nIt took me way too much effort to squeeze a response out of my mouth: \"I have...several* questions!\"\n\n\"Well, you better make it quick,\" she replied as she climbed out of the bag. \"I have to get out of here.\"\n\n\"You can start by explaining how you wound up in a body bag.\"\n\n\"Let's just say I got into a fight.\"\n\n\"And this happens often?\"\n\n\"More than I'd like to admit,\" she said while peeking out the door.\n\n\"Now I have more questions!\"\n\nShe turned around and looked me dead in the eyes. \"Look,\" she muttered in a serious tone, \"I've lived a long time and done a lot of regrettable things, so believe me when I say this: There are some questions that are better left unanswered. That said...\"\n\nShe walked up to my desk, grabbed a pen, and began writing something on a report form. Once she finished, she ripped the paper off the clipboard and shoved it into my chest. \"If someone starts hassling you about me,\" she continued, \"just follow the instructions on this.\"\n\nWith that, she walked out the door and stormed off down the hallway. All I could do was stare in disbelief.", "The wide-eyed rookie froze, a breath caught on his lips, this is the stuff of nightmares. He dropped his gaze to his reports. “Oh god! Oh God! Oh god!”, his head whipped around to the veteran cop that was his partner, a solidly build black man thrice his size. The pint-sized officer’s gaze softened from panic to confusion as he realized officer’s grimace wasn’t of horror but annoyance.\n\n“Aw for fucks sake, I thought we had a meeting to keep Jeffery off the death reports” he presented a large hand to the rookie, who took the cue to drop his work phone onto the officer’s hand. The officer proceeded to mark the victim’s description off of the list: 4′11, white male, about 19, shoulder-length scraggly black hair, beady dark eyes, wiry-thin, large protruding nose”.\n\nThe young man cried out “O-Officer Jone’s what’s going on, w-why is this dead man alive??? What did we do wrong, is he a zombie, are we bagging living people?\n\nAs they were speaking two other officers and authority figures rushed towards the upright zombie bag while stepping over the ashen rubble and debris of the building, undoing the zipper and gathering information from the undead victim. \n\nOfficer Jones sighed and limply dropped the phone back into his shaking hands,\n\n“This is just another repeated fluke, newbie, this is the third time this happened! Jefferey here happens to hang around the scene of these terrorist events, he’s a trash collector, the man is. Figurative trash from drama, literal garbage from the type of shit these people at the clubs and underground leave behind. The man’s a lunatic!\n\n“Wha...why?..., the sweaty red-haired cadet flusteredly got cut off\n\n“Our new squad hasn’t had proper training and protocol, honestly our task force has lost most of it’s organization. We should have known this by now, that man shouldn’t be one of the victims. \n\n“WHY IS HE NOT DEAD?”\n\n“He’s a opossum man, Roy! These dang hybrids are not humans! Look at him!”\n\nThe rookie turned his head to see the other officers have stood the young man to his feet, eye twitching as he seemed to steadily return movement to his joints and limbs. The woman officer cuffed his arms behind his back. The man was covered in scruffy white fur had beady black eyes, frazzled whiskers, and a fleshy snout. He was covered in soot. He let out a whiny high voice, “Aw c’mon maaan, you can’t do this do me, let me go I gatter get home and sort my goods!” he snuffled “I found a bent spoon used for heroine that was ALSO used in a jar of mayo, score!” \n\nOfficer Jone’s crossed his arms and stepped forward, “As part of the crime scene you are under arrest until we clear you of any involvement with the crime committed tonight. We will confiscate the evidence and make sure it isn’t illegal. After that you’re free to go, and for the love of Siphonos, stay out of these criminal places, go get your trash somewhere else” He grunted, pointing a thick finger at the opossum’s direction “We don’t want your stinking body with the others anymore!”\n\nJeffery screeched and went limp in the officer’s arms, they caught him quickly as he again went unconscious, tongue lolling on their uniform. Officer Jone’s grimaced “Take him away, he’s already starting to smell like the vile shit he collects”, he waves them off and Roy watches dumbfounded as the two police toss his ragdoll body into the back seat of a blue police car and get ready to drive off.\n\nRoy blinks twice holding his breath, jumping suddenly as a large hand caps him on the shoulder and feeling as if he was going to be driven into the ground, “Welcome to Harriston City, this is only the beginning” He lets out what sounds between a snort and a laugh, amused by the new guy’s plight.\n\nWith unblinking eyes and a stony face Roy runs his fingers through his clumped hair “Ohhhhhh...Okay. I get it now”.", "\"Hey buddy, you're dead.\" I said to the bag. A hand came out of the hole in the top and started flopping around, obviously searching for the zipper. \"I'm not dead, I was just drunk! Can't a guy sleep on the street anymore without people thinking he's dead!\"\n\nGrabbing a frying pan I kept by my computer I walked over and banged down on the top of the bag. \"Ow! Fuck! What the fuck!\" The bag screamed as the hand protruding started waving around in the air.\n\n\"I'm not falling for this shit again you goddamned zombie!\" I said as I bonged it on the head again. This time the bag went limp, allowing me to stuff the hand back inside. Luckily it was the one I was already getting ready to cremate in the incinerator, so I wouldn't have to deal with this shit for much longer. \n\nAs I walked back to put away my frying pan I gave an extra bonk to an already limp bag that had tried to pull the same trick not fifteen minutes earlier. The last one started blurting out something about paying me back but I'm sure it was just some empty threat. I have no idea what he wanted to pay me back for, it's not like I'm the one who killed them in the first place. I fuckin' hate zombies, they never make any sense. \n\nIt's always the same shit every night I come here. Sometimes I regret not getting a regular job or even working at a regular morgue with no zombies, but the mafia's private morgue was the best pay I could find as an English major. ", "« Every fucking time, « oh, it’s just business », stabbed in the fucking throat !»\n\n\nThe guy in the body bag started rummaging around in search of the zipper while I witnessed, pressed against the wall terrified. This guy was definitely dead, brutally slaughtered, I closed the body bag myself, this guy was definitely dead. \n\n\n« God damnit ! where is this cancerous zipper ! » He paused for a second.\n« Hello ?! Could somebody please help me out »\n\n\nFear does a lot of things, I was trying to somehow traverse the wall and get away from the problem as fast as I could but my legs wouldn’t move, at all actually.\n\n\n« Every time, every time, « I have to kill you »\n\n\n« No ! You don’t »\n\n\n« It’s for the union ! »\n\n\n« Fuck you ! »\n\n\n« And then badibam, stabs me in the throat ! argh, fucking zipper ! »\nThen he finally found the zipper but my legs were still dead frozen, like this guy should be.\n\n\n« Hello morgue ! » He said in a oddly enthusiastic voice « Back again ! »\n\n\nThen he looked at me\n\n\n« You ! Why didn’t you help me ? »\n\n\n« Well dkes.. »\n\n\n« I’m sorry mate, I can’t hear you speak up ! »\n\n\n« You were dead ! I fought a zombie was coming out of that bag »\n\n\n« Do zombies ask for help ? »\n\n\n« Well,.. I don’t know »\n\n\n« They don’t, I know from experience, actually, if one was in a body bag it Ould just stay stucked there essentially going « aaarrgh » »\n\n\n« You were dead »\n\n\n« Do I look dead to you ? »\n\n\n« No but your throat and belly wer.. »\n\n\n« Ssshhhhhh, now, I would very much enjoy it if you fetched me some proper clothes »\n\n\n« Well, there were yours that are still on the counter » I said while pointing towards the counter »\n\n\n« Aren’t they destroyed ? »\n\n\n« Oddly enough you’re killer took the time to unbutton your shirt before stabbing you in the gut »\n\n\n« Aah, classic jim, always trying to avoid wasting things » He said looking dreamy\n\n\nThat is not how I would react I think if I was brutally killed.\n\n\n« There is just blood on them »\n\n\n« I doubt it »\n\n\n« No there was a lot of blood, I packed the clothes myself »\n\n\n« Yeah, but no »\n\n\nSurprisingly enough, there was no blood on them.\n\n\n« I’m sorry, but I’m freaking out, I don’t know why this is happening and how »\n\n\n« You are reacting quite calmly actually, one guy tried to start the incinerator once because he got scared shitless when I bashed against the door »\nHe shuckled\n\n\nWhat’s funny ? And why can’t I move my legs, still !?\n\n\n« I would gladly get some help but I can’t move »\n\n\n« Oh yeah, that’s normal, you can’t leave the room like that »\n\n\n« Why ? »\n\n\nFor some reason, he looked surprised.\n\n\n« oooooh, you don’t know, first time that ever happened, but okay, first time for everything right ? »\n\n\nI nodded, more out of sheer confusion than anything, I have no clue what he’s talking about.\n\n\n« Now, I need to find Linda, did you see her ? »\n\n\n« I shake my head”\n\n\n« Brunette ? »\n\n\nhorizontal nod \n\n\n« Very short, very angry »\n\n\nSideways shake of the head\n\n\n« Speaks awfully loudly ? »\n\n\n\n« What a flattering portrait of me you are making »\n\n\nA doctor appeared at the door\n\n\n« Mike, you know I always wake up first »\n\n\n« You do »\n\n\n« So why are you pretending to speak to someone else ? To lure me in ? »\n\n\nI was standing right next to her and yet she said that\n\n\n\n« Helloooo madam, I exist ? »\n\n\n\nand then a voice in my head said\n\n\n\n« No, you don’t, you just appear every time I die and this time, you seem useless »\n\n\n", "\"Seriously? Again? Oh, hey, it's you. I remember you. Dan, right? Or was it, Don? Oh god, it's blurring together.\"\n\nDan stammered out an answer that his brain decided for him in that moment was appropriate to the situation, \"Uh- wha-?\"\n\nThe girl got free of the body bag and leapt to her feet, looking dazed but spirited. \"You don't remember, do you? I showed up here a few weeks ago. It was you, right?\" She stuck out a hand.\n\n\"I, uh,\" Dan tried to gather his thoughts. On the list of things that he had expected to have happen to him this week, this one was not even in the top one hundred. Other unlikely items took its place, such as the odds that Emily will take me back after I cheated on her with my ex-wife, Debra, and then asked for a divorce. Or, the odds that a zombie apocalypse will take out half of the countryside and I will have to retreat into my bunker for a few years while they sort things outside above ground. \n\nNever in his sometimes vivid imagination did Dan even begin to envision a body coming out of a bag, alive, and leaping to its feet with the ignorant confidence and energy of youth. Dan tried to wrap his head around what was happening and silently concluded: I'm getting too old for this. He was, after all, in his sixties and there were plenty of young people who could do the job without hallucinating a person coming out of a body bag.\n\nPerhaps it is time to retire, he thought, and tried very hard not to see the naked girl standing in front of him with her hand stuck out in welcome. It was disturbing for a number of reasons, not the least of which was that she looked young enough to be his daughter, which had all sorts of strange connotations in his mind. Like the fact that he didn't want to imagine his daughter, if he had had one, being in a body bag in the first place, much less popping out of one. Though, he mused, if he did have a daughter and she was in a body bag, he'd prefer that she be alive and outside of it rather than dead and inside of it.\n\nBefore he could begin wondering about whose daughter this was, the girl pulled away her hand, looking bored, and grabbed a lab coat off of a hanger to cover herself.\n\n\"Alright, no hand shake, it's cool,\" she said. \"You know what, maybe you aren't the guy I saw last time. Or you're a different guy. Anyway, toodles!\"\n\nShe waltzed toward the door.\n\n\"Wait!\" said Dan. He wasn't sure why he said wait. He wasn't sure he had anything further to add, but some part of him felt like he would go insane if the interaction ended so abruptly with no explanation.\n\nShe blew out a loud sigh and turned. \"What's up?\"\n\n\"Who are you?\" said Dan. Then a million questions came bubbling out. \"What's your name? Where do you come from? How did you get here and more importantly, how were you dead and then not dead? For heaven's sakes, we don't go around burying people alive anymore. It's simply not possible. And I tell you, I read your vital signs very carefully and I did everything in my power exactly as I have been trained to do for decades-\"\n\n\"Hey, hey, calm down, Dan. Or whatever your name is. Look, it's no big deal.\" She took a step forward and locked eyes with him. \"Really, it's nothing. My name is Alyssa. I'm immortal. How? Why? Who knows. You wouldn't remember if I told you and if you could remember and you told someone else, they'd never believe you. In about five minutes, you'll probably forget this ever happened.\" She paused a moment and a hint of sadness and concern showed in her expression. \"Or you might remember it for the rest of your life and be traumatized until you die. I'm honestly not sure which one sometimes. Anyway, there's nothing I can do about it. I didn't get a handbook for this shit, ok? Now you take care of yourself.\"\n\n\"But,\" said Dan, who found himself floundering more than he ever had before in memory. \"But you can't just-\"\n\n\"Take care of your daughter, ok?\" said Alyssa.\n\nDan frowned. \"I don't have a daughter...\"\n\n\"Your phone is blowing up,\" said Alyssa. \"I took a peek at it while I was on my way out. Here.\" She lifted it out of a lab coat pocket and handed it to him. \"She named her Lucy, look's like. Your ex-ex-wife, or at least, that's what you have her as in your contacts.\"\n\n\"Uh, thank you,\" said Dan, taking the phone deftly and flushing bright red. \"Yes, thank you very much, I'll be needing to respond to these messages then...\"\n\n\"Of course,\" said Alyssa, like it was the most obvious thing in the world. She turned to go and as she went out, Dan heard her voice trailing behind her: \"I doubt she'll take you back, but you can still be there for the daughter. Toodles, Danny boy!\"\n\nDan found a chair and sat down with a heavy weight on his shoulders. He cradled the phone in his hands like it was a newborn babe and smiled quietly at the messages.", "Maybe if it was a heart attack, or some disease it wouldn't have been that shocking. Louis could have detached himself enough to say they could have mistakenly called the young man dead. But he'd seen the body, even before opening up the bag. No way he hadn't, with all the news reports and talk online. The guy had apparently jumped off a 20 story building during the morning rush hour. That doesn't exactly create a clean body. And yet the man seemed fine, despite the dried blood on his head. No way. No fucking way. This dude was splattered on the pavement, nothing more than a damn stain 5 minutes ago. Now he's just sitting on the counter like nothing happened. \n\"So uh... Can I go now, or...\" Louis can't bring himself to respond to the guys question. Can he go now...? He's fcking dead. Dead people can't walk out of morgues. What the hell is-\nSlam.\nBoth Louis and the man jump, one notably higher, as the door slams open, and two men walk in, one detached younger man in a black suit and the other an older overweight man in a blue pinstripe suit looking infuriated. Louis doesn't even get a word in before the older man's voice booms across the room. \n\"God's sake, Rich we can't keep doing this!\"\n\"I know, you told me last time. And the time before that. And th-\"\n\"And you think you'd learn!\"\nThe 'corpse', who's name is apparently Rich, simply rolls his eyes. \"I'm sorry, OK? I don't even remember- I guess I got drunk, and thought it'd be fun.\"\n\"In what world is jumping off a hotel patio from the 17th floor fun?!\"\nLouis was so focused on the argument, he didn't notice the man in the black suit stick a small mechanical card onto the doorframe, before loudly clearing his throat. As if on cue the pinstripe man grabbed Rich's arm and dragged him off the table.\n\"We can talk about this in the car. Let's go.\"\nThe man in the black suit stayed for a moment after the other two had left, befoe giving Rich a silent nod and leaving.\nThe second the man went through the doorframe, a bright blue flash encased the room, leaving Louis bewildered. He looked at the clock. Damn nearly 9:30? No wonder he was so hungry. He grabbed his bag, and made sure he had everything before noticing a clipboard on the ground. He picked it up and browsed though it, frowning at the contents. Richard Thomas, death from falling? He didn't have a falling victim here. He pulled the papers loose, and tossed them in the garbage. He must be working too hard.\n\n\nCould use some constructive criticism, since I'm not exactly a writer. Edit- I realize that some of the paragraphs are off, but I'm on mobile so there's not much I can do :/. Sorry.", "Seeing the body bag sit up was really more exciting than anything else.\n\n\"Finally,\" I thought. \"Something is happening to me.\"\n\nI was breaking the hospital bed down and getting ready to move it out when the body bag got up and started thrashing around.\n\n\"I swear to God,\" said the body bag. \"THREE TIMES! If they do this to me one more time...\"\n\nI heard the zipper undo itself. The body bag birthed a regular looking guy dressed in a dapper button-up and dress pants and very nice-looking dress shoes. I'd never seen him before.\n\n\"Oh, shit,\" he said upon seeing me, startled. \"I'm sorry. What are you doing here?\"\n\n\"I'm picking up the bed,\" I told him. \"I'm from Novacare.\"\n\n\"Bahhh,\" said the guy. He got off the gurney and briskly walked out of the room like nothing had happened.\n\n\"Hey, wait!\" I called. I caught him in the hallway.\n\n\"What?\" He turned around, looking impatient. He was big, bald, older. He kind of reminded me of Uncle Phil from Fresh Prince.\n\n\"I just... is everything all right?\"\n\nHe shook his head.\n\n\"Yeah, don't worry about it, young man. The nurses in this facility are just grossly incompetent. I'm going to complain again this instant.\"\n\nI followed the guy down the hall even though I hadn't been invited.\n\n\"I don't understand how you could possibly screw this up three times,\" he said upon reaching the front desk where a notoriously grumpy nurse named Gail was doing paperwork. She looked at him like he was her dad and she was a teenager trying to be on her phone.\n\n\"Once, I can understand,\" said the guy. \"Twice? Maybe. Three fucking times, after I specifically had Harbineaux call down here and explain for what I believe is the TENTH fucking time what is going on? From the superintendent on down? And you people still fuck it up?\"\n\n\"Whaddya mean, 'you people'?\" Gail snapped.\n\n\"I mean, 'you people', as in, 'the staff of this facility',\" said the former corpse, narrowing his eyes and not backing down. \"I was told this is the most efficient facility in the area. I insist on a controlled environment that nonetheless has real-world implications. But apparently, I need to go shopping again.\"\n\nAnother nurse named Rhonda stuck her head out of the office.\n\n\"Mr. Brekski, did they bag you again?\"\n\n\"For the THIRD time,\" said the former corpse, who was apparently named Brekski. He held up his hand with his thumb, pointer finger and middle finger out, all of them vibrating with anger.\n\nHe pointed at me. I was standing awkwardly off to the side, hoping they'd let me stay long enough to hear what was going on.\n\n\"I scared the crap outta your Novacare guy,\" said Brekski. \"He screamed like a cheerleader when I sat up.\"\n\n\"No, I didn't,\" I tried to say but now the nurses and Brekski were talking over each other. Gail was being combative, Rhonda was trying to keep the peace and Brekski was about how this is the most imperative data collection and how is he supposed to do his job if he can't even get 24 hours of what I think he calls \"flat-lining\" without someone cutting his line and ruining the experiment.\n\n\"It was our new nurse,\" said Rhonda apologetically. \"Nancy. She's brand new. We told her what was up but she probably just put in the paperwork out of habit. Once the morgue--\"\n\n\"You think I didn't clear this with the morgue, too?\" thundered Breski. \"I'm surrounded by incompetents!\"\n\n\"Nigga, you can't even spell* incompetent,\" said Gail, not intimidated by Brekski, who, when living, had the air of someone very important and very smart and very used to being catered to.\n\n\"I'll have your job for this, you bloated hag!\" Brekski bellowed, and his voice echoed down the hall. I could see patients and staff sticking their heads out of doorways to see what the commotion was.\n\n\"Once the morgue gets their orders it's out of our control,\" said poor Rhonda, trying to explain. She had a phone in one hand. \"You know they'll send whoever's available to collect the body. Nancy probably called it in, she was trying to be efficient, this is such a big place, we have at least three patients expire a day--\"\n\n\"I'm simply going to find someone else to help with this groundbreaking experiment,\" said Brekski, still glowering at Gail who glowered right back. \"It would appear that Waltonwood on Main is not up to the task. THREE TIMES! Three times I wake up in total darkness and that awful plastic sterilized garbage bag smell, only to discover that not only has another round of flatlining gone bad, but I've been tagged and nearly disposed of like a common peasant!\"\n\n\"We're so sorry, Mr. Brekski,\" pleaded Rhonda. \"Please let me call Director Harbineaux and he'll set this right for good.\"\n\n\"I am doing God's work,\" yelled Brekski. \"I'm Sebastian Brekski! I am one of the foremost researchers on consciousness and the afterlife, and at this rate I'll never prove my theory of infinite conscious energy! I'm sorry, but three times is just too much for me to bear. Good day to you, ma'am.\"\n\nHe turned to me.\n\n\"You're free to pick up the hospice bed,\" he snapped. \"I certainly won't be needing it now.\"\n\nWith that, the former corpse named Brekski turned on his expensive-looking heels and stomped out the front door.\n\nRhonda turned to Gail.\n\n\"It was you again, wasn't it?\" she hissed at Gail. \"You called the county once he was hooked in this morning. All because he yelled at you that one time for not getting him coffee.\"\n\n\"That man's head is so big I'm surprised they were able to fit it in the damn bag,\" Gail said. \"Shit, I don't care if he brings back the Almighty Himself, I ain't no one's errand girl. Just cause he's got like twenty degrees don't put him above Gail Robinson.\"\n\nRhonda was still holding the phone. She slammed it down on the cradle and walked back into the office. Gail went back to her paperwork. All the curious heads and onlookers from down the hall disappeared back into their doorways like prairie dogs into their holes.\n\nI turned and walked back down the hall. I couldn't wait to tell the guys back at the shop about this.", "After working in a morgue for a while, you start to consider yourself unflappable. Sure, every once in a while something really nasty comes in, but you can keep yourself professionally detached while the greenhorns turn green and look around for the trashcan.\n\n\nSo when one of the body bags I was examining sat up, I didn’t scream like a little girl. I merely screamed like a full-grown woman, dropping my clipboard with a clatter.\n\n\n“Oh, not again. Terribly sorry about this,” a muffled voice said from the bag. My scream cut off, mostly through lack of air, and I stared at the bag as the shifting plastic indicated the movement of hands inside. I backed away, trembling, my heart pounding painfully.\n\n\n“Someone barges in on you having a nap…” it grumbled. “I seem to have lost my knife. I hope it wasn’t confiscated as evidence. I don’t suppose you would be so good as to unzip me?” \n\n\nI had to admit it wasn’t a very scary voice. It sounded vaguely British, definitely male. I tried to make an intelligible response and managed, “Gnh.”\n\n\n“Ah. Sorry if I surprised you. If you could just open me up a little…?” I hesitated, thinking. Those bags were almost airtight. If he was stuck in there, I should probably help him, whoever he was. Cautiously, I stepped forward, reaching out with a shaking hand to pull the zipper. As soon as the gap was wide enough, a pale hand pushed out and made me start backwards, falling with a yelp. The man inside extended his arm, fumbling blindly until he found the zipper. He pulled it open with a little effort as I scrambled backwards.\n\n\n“Thank you,” he said, swinging his legs off the table and standing up, giving me a slight bow. He was pale, handsome, and well-dressed, his short black hair mussed by the confines of the bag. I stood up quickly, suddenly feeling embarrassed. Obviously there had been some mistake, or this was a prank, or- something. I tried to find my voice, still unbalanced, but he spoke first.\n\n\n“Where am I?”\n\n\n“T-Tolgen City morgue.”\n\n\n“And what time is it?” he said, giving me a perfectly charming smile. Something poked at my brain, trying to get me to pay attention, but I was too flustered to do anything but answer his strange questions.\n\n\nI glanced at my watch. “Around ten. PM. Five minutes after.”\n\n\n“Thank you, my dear. Mmm, I’m a little hungry. If you could just look here…” I looked up and met his piercing gaze. His eyes were strange, shifting, and I stared deeply, unable to look away. \n\n\n“Sleep, and forget about me.” His voice seemed to reverberate in my head, strange harmonics making my muscles fall slack even as I struggled against them. He grabbed my shoulders and gently set me down as a sudden exhaustion fell over me, making my eyelids flutter. The last thing I felt before unconsciousness rolled over me was a slight pinch against my neck.\n\n\nI woke up on the cold floor of the morgue. I sat up too quickly, and the room spun around me, a wave of dizziness making me nauseous. I groaned, clutching my head. I really shouldn’t work late if I’m going to be fainting. I wonder when the last time I ate was. I stood up carefully, supporting myself on the edge of a table, and noticed an empty body bag on one of the tables. Huh.\n\n\nLater, I found out that a John Doe had disappeared, but the investigation into the matter was dropped suddenly. The bite mark on my neck healed before I noticed it.\n\n\n-------------------------\n\n\nAll comments and criticisms are appreciated.", "Here's a short staccato one, because supposedly writing even a hundred words every day is better than nothing.\n\nBetty was 47 and worked in the morgue for the last 20 years. After a long day, she cleaned up the morgue and sat on a chair to get some rest. There was a thud and a muffled frustrated cry \"Oh for Christ's sake, not again!\" in one of the drawers.\n\nBetty opened the drawer to find a moving body bag. It was stored by one of her colleagues the day before and she hadn't looked at it yet.\n\nShe opened up the bag and revealed an elderly man, who was massaging his forehead. He had hit it while trying to get up inside the drawer. He turned around, met Betty's eyes, and froze. Betty spoke.\n\n\"Dad? What are you doing here?\"", "I like to say I've seen it all. I've been a combat medic in the Middle East, a trauma surgeon in the inner city, and now I work in semi-retirement as the coroner of a rural county in Southern Illinois. I've seen people with limbs vaporized by an IED, kids hit with a stray bullet in a drive-by, you name it. Here in my current job, I don't see a whole lot of \"business,\" so it's safe to say that nothing I have seen here has ever surprised me. That is, until James.\n\nIt was a particularly bad day for my office. In one day, we had two heart attacks, one farming accident, and a single vehicle collision. All in all, 4 body bags in the morgue for me to deal with. As I was working through the heart attacks, I got a call about yet another body. The policeman on the phone, there county sheriff's deputy, sounded perplexed. \"I don't know what to think on this one, he was laying in the woods covered in a tarp, with no signs of injury. Cold as ice, dead as can be. A hunter's dog found him. No ID, not reported missing a far as we know. Oh, and he's wearing a some kind of weird long underwear. I'll be interested to hear your verdict.\" The ambulance was bringing me the dead guy, so I cleared a spot in the morgue.\n\nI decided that this new mystery man would take priority over my other \"patients\" due to the possibility of a police investigation, so as soon as they wheeled him in and I signed the appropriate paperwork, I went to get my supplies ready. Now, I want to pause the story for a minute to explain why I went from medical practice to a morgue. My previous experience as a medic and surgeon could all be summed up in one word: loud. People screaming, alarms going off, the desperate struggle to keep people alive. There morgue was the total opposite. Sure, dealing with dead people could be pretty unpleasant at times, but at least it was calm and quiet in there. \n\nNow, imagine my surprise when the usual calm silence was suddenly broken by the crinkling sound of a body bag moving. I glanced over, expecting the body to be falling off the table or something, but instead saw the clear shape if a guy sitting up inside a body bag. I wish I could say I bravely went to help the clearly-not-dead guy out of the bag, but that would be a lie. Instead, I jumped like a scared cat, knocked over my instrument tray and spun around, brandishing a scalpel as if that would help. \n\n\"Oh for Christ's sake, not again!\" A distinctly English voice said as the guy fumbled to unzip the bag from the inside. \"For once, I'd like somebody to take my pulse instead of just immediately assuming I'm dead!\" He finally managed to unzip the body bag, sitting fully upright as his gaze finally landed on me, now holding the scalpel at my side with what I can only assume was a completely bewildered look on my face. \n\n\"Alright, introductions are in order. My name is James. I work for the government of the United Kingdom. And I am a time traveler.\"\n\nTo be continued..." ]	13
	[WP] Your twin brother died in a foreign country and you travel there to collect his body. When you arrive you find a large statue of your brother in the middle of the town and a crowd of people around it.	[ "As I approached the statue, people at the back of the crowd did a double take and were in shock. They started to talk amongst themselves and make way for me as I made my way to the front. You could hear a pin drop as I climbed the steps. I turned and addressed the crowd. “Kneel before me. I said ... KNEEL!”" ]	1
	[WP] Every time you look behind you, something larger, darker, and scarier appears. However, every time you turn the noise behind you gets more frightening. You.. have to look... You have to make sure it's not behind you...	[ "*COmE BaCk To bEd, hOneY. cOmE BacK tO mEeEeeE.\n\nEver since Lola died at that horrible crash, I started seeing It. I'm not sure what It exactly is, but I know it's nothing good. It started out when the police and paramedics arrived at the crash scene at Lawrence and Gale. A drunk truck driver had t-boned us from the right, causing us to flip and skid into the building. I was lucky to get off death's list with a broken arm, but Lola died on impact. As I screamed her name over the blaring sirens, I saw, I saw It* behind my back. A small black static-y figure just standing there; staring at us. But I didn't think twice of it as they tried to pry me off Lola.\n\nI saw it again when Lola's coffin was lowered 6 feet under. As I looked down with teary eyes, I saw It again behind my back; this time a little bit darker and, deformed. It had this horrid white noise static that it emanated, kind of like the brief ones when switching radio stations. Thinking it was just a hallucination from days of not eating or sleeping, I dismissed it as I moved forward with the doleful crowd.\n\nMy parents were worried. I just wanted to curl myself up and die. They tried everything from sending me food to even taking me to a psychologist or something. But nothing ever helped. Everything they said to try and console me just echoed emptily through my eardrums. Nothing could ever get through my barricaded psyche over the sound of the sirens and screech of the truck. At least until It started speaking.\n\njOoNaThAnnNn\n\nI was never a light sleeper, but that menacing static-y voice made me jump out of bed. \"Must be another fuckin' prank.\" I thought to myself angrily as I grabbed my baseball bat and made my way downstairs. The new neighbourhood my parents relocated me to had lots of kids and families, cuz they thought it could help me heal or something. But the only thing it did was have kids jeer at me as Saddy McSad and occasionally TP my house.\n\n\"Hey brats! Get out here!\" I screamed as I slammed the door open and readied myself to scare some. But there was nobody there. Scanning the empty street and unlit houses, my stomach suddenly dropped when I suddenly glanced back. And saw, It.\n\nIt had grown. A lot. When I first saw It, it was barely the size of a puppy. But now, It has grown to be the size of an grown adult; its shadow towering higher than even my bamboo plant. The blackness of its body had only darkened and static surrounded it more, letting out even louder screeches of white noise. But perhaps, its most terrifying feature is its deformed opening near the top that looked like a gun shot had blown it off.\n\n*COmE BaCk To bEd, hOneY. cOmE BacK tO mEeEeeE.\n\nI screamed. I dropped the baseball bat as I fell forward and scrambled across the pavement on all fours. It looks like it floated, but I think it's more of a drag. I shouted and I cursed and I curled into a ball as I tried to ignore the growing static and its beckons to me. I turned away from it and prayed to any god to save me as I cried and cried for salvation.\n\nWhen I woke up, I was at a hospital bed. A neighbor had heard my cries and saw me curled up on the road with my door wide open; a few objects cluttered and a baseball bat stained with a black substance. The police came to take my statement, but when I recounted it to them, they exchanged worried looks. Mom and dad were worried as well, and I thought I'd be better off living in a facility. I conceded. I didn't want to see it again. Ever, again.\n\nBut I was so, so wrong.\n\nI got into a nice unit, Room 137. Lola always did believe in the meaning of numbers, but it doesn't matter now. I got a nice nurse called Emily that checks up on me every hour or so to make sure I am comfortable. I even made some neighbors with the units around me. Most of them I talked to infrequently, but I rather enjoyed the company of Mabel, an old woman who was committed for anxiety. But oh, she was so lovely. She would frequently invite me over for tea on her small wooden table. It was a nice break for me, from all the hubbub of my life with Lola. I never have to be alone again.\n\n\"Honey,\" Mabel started as I snapped back into reality as she pulled out some more sugar packets. \"You should really invite your wife here sometimes.\" She put a packet into her aromatic cup. \"It is not right for her to just stand and watch.\"\n\n\"What do you mean Mabel?\" I questioned as my hand started shivering, causing my teacup to shake. \"My wife? She's long gone...\"\n\n\"Oh nonsense you young'un.\" Mabel snapped back as she pointed to a corner behind me. \"Why, the blonde curly lass is right there!\"\n\nHearing someone describe her curls, her beautiful curls; it caused me to feel a surge of hope as I turned back to look behind me. I wanted to see her again. The girl I fell in love with so many years ago. But not all wishes come true.\n\nIt was there. And It was bigger, and blacker. The static rung into my eardrums like a horrible dying wail, and its head shook like a glitching television. A never ending abyss stared into me as I felt my grip loosened, sending the tea cup crashing onto the floor. Provoked, It lunged at me baring its ungodly scream as I shouted for heaven to save me. I must've flailed for hours until some nurses and technicians came and held me down as I screamed and screamed.\n\nSo here I am now. A room of pure white. Pure bliss. They call it solitary confinement, but I had never felt so light-hearted in my life. The priest I had requested to talk to said that the light of God can chase away demons and the devil himself, so I must be safe here right? It can no longer follow me. It can no longer terrorize me. It is finally gone. And for the first time in the 13 years of solitude, I looked up and smiled.\n\njOoNaThAnnNnnnNn. jOnAtHAnNN whYYyYyYYy\n\nI snapped my head back as I saw It. A giant melting blob of utter darkness loomed over me as its shadow is enough to engulf the brightest of lights. It had grown to an enormous 9-foot behemoth as the white noise returned to ring in my head. Its mouth is now a crooked hole, angled as if it was a smile. Specks of rapidly darting eyes seemed to grow at the top as the blackness dripped at my feet, before staring at me.\n\nCOmE BaCk To bEd, hOneY. cOmE BacK tO mEeEeeE.*\n\nBut for all these years, I held my heart tightly as I stared at the deformed ugly face staring back at me. If you tilt your head to the side, I think I can see her there. Merged with all the vengeful and dirty souls, I think when I squint and look closer, I can see her sleeping face there. Smiling. \n\n\"Lola...\" Tears ran down my face as I ran into the blackness, arms wide open. The behemoth's mouth opened widely as I stared into the mixing black and crimson portal. The screeching and white noise wails had sounded so atrocious, but there has never been a sound so sonorous and pure as I happily jumped into the depths of the abyss.\n\n\"I'm home...\"\n\n[SH](https://www.reddit.com/r/Shiruet/)" ]	1
	[WP] Being the grim reaper you’re used to the elderly screaming and kicking after their death, meanwhile, you are starting to become concerned at the amount of high fives from the younger generations.	[ "First post here, lemme know what you guys think!\n\n Day after day of having to put up with the elderly and their futile resistance become a chore, causing me to grow more impatient and callous than when I first started. It’s always “No, don’t take me! It’s not my time!” or “I have grandkids you can’t do this!” But much to their dismay, I not only CAN do this, I HAVE to do this. It’s my job, after all. And while I don’t necessarily care for what I do, that doesn’t necessarily get me out of reaping, does it? \n\nI get multiple calls to go to some college town in Midwestern America, apparently a bunch of kids overdosed and weren’t resuscitated in time. Whatever, happens all the time. Notepad? Pen? Scythe? Great. All here and ready to go. The sky breaks as a brilliant light transports me in front of a giant farmhouse hidden in a forest. There are cups, empty plastic bags, and incapacitated college students everywhere. Humans are so filthy. I start towards the slightly ajar front door. More of the same inside. There’s the first one sprawled out on the coffee table with his mouth agape. Slightly overweight, drool everywhere, maybe other fluids? I don’t really want to know. I take out my notepad and go down the list of names. “Let’s see here….Chad Irving. Looks like that’s you.” After dragging the tip of my pen across his name, his soul leaves his body.\n \n“What’s going on? What’s happening?”\n \n“You’re dead. Go wait for me outside.”\n \n“Oh hell yeah!” He exclaimed. He reached for my arm and placed it up in the air and high fived it. Chad ran out the door laughing giddily.\n \n“Uhhh….what?” I murmured to myself. In my confusion, I just wrote it off as some sort of intentional suicide. No matter, I must press on. The next one laid up against the wall in the kitchen. I walked towards her and find a variety of pills in one hand, a bottle of vodka in the other. “Ellie Burgess.” Once again, put a line through her name. Her soul slid down onto the floor and her eyes were struggling to open. I hunched over her anticipating a more apt response than Chad’s. Ellie’s blue eyes were wide with shock as she fixated on my face. \n \n“Hello, I am Dea-”\n \n“GOD. What the hell took you so long? I’ve been waiting for you for forever!” She jumped up to her feet dusting herself and shooting me a sinister look as if my late timing was an inconvenience. \n \nThis is puzzling. What’s going on here? Am I….losing my touch? “Go wait outside with the other.” Just shake it off and get to the last one. Almost done. I head up the stairs, carefully moving past the kids cluttering the steps. The bedroom I’m looking for is right…here! There he was, lying naked and facing upward in a puddle of his own sick. The poor bastard drowned. Here we go, Kevin Washington. I crossed his name out and pointed my scythe at him, expecting some fight from a more muscled adversary. His soul rose from the floor and looked straight at the scythe and pushed it aside. \n\n“Hey, no opposition for me! I’ve been waiting for this!” Kevin laughed out.\n\n“Why? Why do none of you plea for your lives?!” I begged.\n\n“Cuz, life sucks and we don’t wanna live no more!” He cheered.\n\n“Whatever, let’s go.” I feel defeated. I wanted a change of pace but not like this. This new generation ringing in self-deprecation is somehow less fun than the fussy old people. I rounded them up and returned to my meager living. ", "A common misconception about Death is that there’s only one of us. Personally I find this rather comical. The amount of people dying every second and you think ONE Death could handle all of that?! In reality, there are several of us assigned per country. Typically, when chosen to be a Death, you are assigned to the country in which you relinquished your human body. I, personally, am assigned to the United States. Another common misconception about us, is that we are these awful, unfeeling creatures. This is in fact, just the opposite. Every Death I know is very empathetic actually. Usually, when I’m going on a collection, the second I enter the vicinity, I assume the feelings of the deceased/soon to be deceased. The challenge is learning to do your job quickly and efficiently, without lingering for too long (Incase there is a medium close by, we try to avoid them) WITHOUT getting overwhelmed by the deceased’s emotions. \n\nI have experienced many emotions while on collections, to which I was previously unaware. I have felt pain like no other, while standing next to a critically ill patients bedside, waiting for his family to say goodbye. Then a sudden, drug-like sense of relief and euphoria as soon as the line on the monitor went flat. I have felt fury comparable to the flames of hell, while escorting those who were not ready to leave. Shit, I’ve even had people who’s souls were literally kicking and screaming because they felt they were not done in the physical realm, and wanted to stay. I have also felt deep regret and sadness while escorting a woman who died of lung cancer at the tender age of 45, after a life long smoking habit. In addition, it is not uncommon to feel things like bliss, joy, happiness, and contentment when collecting those who have suffered for a long time. These, among many other emotions, have become a rather monotonous part of my day to day. I don’t really get surprised anymore. \n\nThe first time I WAS surprised by a collection, was on December 27th, 2013. The same young woman, by the name of Annie, had called me to her home on several occasions. Before the 27th, I had never actually seen Annie. Every time I heard her calling, and went to collect her, I would be snapped away just before I reached her location. I assumed, Annie was ill, and had many “near Death” experiences due to illness. However, the day I met Annie, I realized.... she was a perfectly healthy 22 year old. Beautiful really.. sparkling white teeth, voluminous yellow hair, and freckles. I found Annie in the bathtub of her apartment. Blood had found its way into the grout in between the tile, and stained the crystal water in the tub. At first, I wondered what kind of accident had brought me to her.. then I noticed the razor. This was my first suicide. I was so shocked, I had to take a moment to collect myself. When Annie met me on my side, it took her a moment to realize where she was. I expected to be flooded with regret and sadness upon meeting her in my world for the first time. However, when she realized where she was, she turned to me with a HUGE SMILE ON HER FACE. She raised her hand to me as if to motion for a high five, and spoke a single word, “finally.” \n\nTo this day, Annie’s memory still stays with me. Since then, I have met others. \n\nJustin, 19, who I found face down, on the kitchen floor, who literally jumped for joy when he saw me. He then proceeded to “dab me up.” Which is something he said you humans do frequently when you are happy to see someone. \n\n\nErica, Jess, and Hudson, all 25. Each of whom gave me high fives upon my arrival. \n\nChris was just 16, who jumped from his mangled body and into a high five, almost as quickly as he jumped from the window. He actually hugged me before crossing over into the light. \n\nI’m not sure whats going on there on Earth, but this must stop. You do not greet Death with an enthusiastic touch of the hand unless you’ve truly been suffering for a long time. You humans have so much to live for, and believe me, you’re not missing much on this side. It truly breaks my metaphorical heart. So please, if you’re alive and you’re reading this... be kind to one another, reach out in the direction opposite of my hand, and ask for help. I am not interested in meeting any more of you prematurely. \n\nBest regards, \n-Death \n\n", "Reaper:\"You are dead. Do you understand the consequences?\nLaura:\"OMG! This is the afterlife !? Am I a freakin Ghost !?\nI've got to tweat about that !\nReaper:\"You understand that you will never see your family and friends again?\"\nLaura\"Yeah yeah just get me to heaven or hell or something. I don't even mind.\"\nReaper:\"Its always the same...\n\nYou understand that, the place that I will take you to....does not have Wi-Fi.\n\n........\n\nLaura:\"HEEEEEEEEL NO. NO. NO. NO. EH-UH. NO. NO. NO.\nPLEASE! I BEG YOU! \nTAKE MY LIFE!\nBUT NOT MY \nWIIFIIIIIIII!!!!!\n\n -END-", "A couple millennia on the job, give or take, leads you to realize a few things. \n\nOne: falling coconuts kill more people than shark attacks. Seriously, people. Jaws was a mistake. \n\nTwo: dying people tend to fall into one of a few categories. There are the kickers and screamers, the people who really don't want to go. They're always exhausting to deal with. There are the people who go with dignity and grace, usually old people who've lived life to the best of their ability and are happy to move on. There are the confused people: accidental deaths, or children who don't understand what's going on. And then there are the regretful ones, people who died with unfinished business. Those are always hard. \n\nWhat I'm trying to say is humans are far more alike than they think they are. They're also pretty damn easy to categorize, despite their whole 'individuality' shtick. And since I was assigned this job at the Beginning (the exact date depends on what you believe, and I'm not here to confirm or deny anything), the deaths have come to blur together. It's a monotonous job, once you get the hang of it, and I materialize just outside a college campus just eager to get this done and move onto the next unfortunate soul. \n\nIt's easy to see where I'm needed: a few feet away, a boy, roughly about nineteen, lays spread-eagled in the middle of the road. What I believe is a skateboard-- or at least, the remains of one-- rests a few feet away from him. \"Hello, Tyler Barnes. I'm here to escort you to the Afterlife. Please take my hand,\" I say, reciting the words from memory. \n\nThe boy just stares up at me, and I sigh. \"Hello, Tyler Barnes. Like I said, I'm here to esco--\" \n\nBut the boy's now scrambling into a sitting position, staring up at me with widened eyes. \"Wait, wait, hold up. You're the Grim Reaper? Dude, that's so fuckin' lit.\" \n\nI stop. I've always thought I have a pretty good command of modern human slang, but now I begin to wonder whether I need to check Urban Dictionary again. Surely that isn't how you use that word--\n\n\"No, seriously. This is so cool. Hey, gimme a hi-five.\" And he raises his hand-- not to take my arm, like he's supposed to do, but with his fingers extended, palm out, an expectant look on his face. \n\nI stare at him. \"What?\"\n\n\"Oh, right,\" says Tyler Barnes, shaking his head. \"You guys probably don't have hi-fives in, um, wherever you're from on the metaphysical plane of existence. Shit, that's deep. Wonder what Reddit would make of that.\" He trails off, eyes clouding over, before he shakes his head and returns to the present. \"Whatever. Those assholes can take care of themselves. I've been craving the sweet release of death since forever.\" \n\n\"The sweet release of-- wait, what? No, I know what a hi-five is,\" I say indignantly. \n\nHe shoves his hand closer towards me. \"Go on, then.\" \n\nSo I reluctantly return the hi-five, and he does what I can only describe as a whoop. \"Holy shit. I can't believe I just hi-fived the Grim-motherfuckin'-Reaper.\" \n\n\"Language,\" I say automatically. \n\nHe flushes. \"Am I going to Hell for swearing?\" \n\n\"That's not really up to me to decide,\" I say, but I'm barely focusing on this conversation. Thousands upon thousands of years of experience shift aside to make room for another category: people who... ask for hi-fives? What is this, some kind of trend? I thought it was weird when the kids started burning people for being witches; I don't know how I'm going to deal with this generation. \"Now will you just come along with me?\" \n\nHe stands up immediately. \"Dang, sorry. I forgot about the whole 'escorting me to the next stage' thing. Umm... before we go, can I ask you one more thing?\" \n\nI sigh. Now this is something I've seen before. He's going to be one of those philosophical types, isn't he, and try and ask me about the nature of existence, or how the Afterlife works, or what religion was right-- I get flashbacks to Aristotle's death, and flinch at the memory-- but instead he just extends a closed fist, and says, \"any chance you'd be up for a fist-bump too?\" \n\nMy carefully-devised system seems to fall apart before my eyes as I stare at his knuckles. Years of categorization, of coming to expect things, all meaningless in the face of this college student who just refused to react to his own death the way any normal, sane human being would. Well, what the hell. (Ha.) I hesitantly touch my fist to his, and he grins. \"Okay, let's go.\" \n\nAs I grab his arm and prepare to make the journey into the Afterlife, the only thing I can think is man, I really need a raise. ", "Death shook his head mournfully as he approached his latest appointment. He'd read the case file, and already knew what to expect. The confused ones were always hard, the young and confused the worst. So shocked at the realization of their own demise that processing them properly almost always necessitated half a therapy session on top of the usual dues. \n\nThis one, he knew, was going to be a dozy. Poor girl slipped on a banana peel of all things, and was an atheist to boot. Probably never even conceived of having a conversation quite like the one she was about to have. Death stopped just up the road from the lonely park bench where he was to meet his latest victim, and readied himself for another round of a little game he liked to call: \"I'm dead? Oh no!\"\n\nHe sat down next to the girl. As most humans did upon seeing him, she started. Death, on the other hand, was far more composed. He already knew all of his lines.\n\n\"You're the grim reaper.\" she said.\n\n\"Yes.\" he answered, in a voice as solemn and still as the deepest night.\n\n\"I'm dead?\" she asked.\n\n\"Yes.\" he replied, with all the finality of the grave.\n\n\"Fuck yeah!\" she cried. \n\n\"I know it's very upsetting-\" Death began, and then stopped. His brow wrinkled; an expression he hadn't made since Socrates told him to hurry the fuck up, and turned to where the human had been sitting. The keyword, of course, being \"had\".\n\nThe girl was on her feet, running in circles across the grass, screaming her heart out in what, to Death's experienced ears, seemed like a curious mixture of joy, exasperation, and... relief.\n\nHe blinked (he'd forgotten he could do that). \"You are not... upset?\" he asked.\n\nThe girl paused her victory lap to stare at him incredulously. \"Upset?\" she repeated, as if what he'd asked was somehow ridiculous. \"Upset? I'm dead. My heats stopped beating, my body is cold; by now my brain has probably turned to mush!!\"\n\nThere was a brief silence, as whatever idea she was trying to get across crashed, and burned against the sheer weight of his bewilderment. Then:\n\n\"Yes?\" Death said, more out of obligation than any actual ability to follow the conversation. That was usually his line, and this was usually when they started crying. He reached for the packet of Kleenex he kept in his pocket, only for her to slap them away.\n\n\"Don't you get it?\" she cried. \"Don't you see? All that stuff has happened, and yet I'm still here!\"\n\n\"...Yes?\"\n\n\"I still exist!\" she grabbed his shoulders, and shook them; the first time one of the deceased had laid a hand on his person in decades. \"All those years (20, to be exact, if Death's files were right) fearing oblivion, all of that was pointless. Death isn't the end, it's the Beginning!\"\n\nAnd then she resumed her sprint around the silent, night-time park, racing between the trees as if it was her last day on Earth (which, Death knew, it was). But even recently disembodied souls get tired, and eventually she wandered back to collapse at his feet, staring at the starry sky above and panting in exhaustion.\n\n\"So,\" she said eventually. \"What happens now?\" Her face was solemn, and her voice low. She was starring into the depths of space, no doubt reflecting on what she had learned that night, and wondering just how much more she had to learn about a universe that was so much stranger than she'd thought.\n\n\"Now,\" Death told the infidel. \"You burn in hell.\"\n\nAnd so began an eternity of torment. ", "As the plush leather couch sinks beneath me, my hip bone gives a click and a general feeling of discomfort settles in. These old bones just aren't used to such a comfortable chair and it does nothing to help put me at ease.\n\nLooking at the doctor, he doesn't fit the image I had of him in my mind. He's short, balding and has a burgeoning sack of a double chin resting beneath his face. For some reason, I'm always surprised to see fat doctors. These are the people that should know best how unhealthy habits can kill you, yet there he sits, belly hanging down over his belt like Saint Nic, heavy breaths escaping him as if he had just come in from a brisk afternoon jog. He hadn't.\n\nThen again, he isn't that kind of doctor. He's a psychologist, not a doctor, doctor. Hell, even if he was, its not like most people are unaware that the things they are doing will end up killing them. Somehow, being a lung specialist doesn't make you any less likely to smoke your life away. I know that better than most, trust me.\n\nHe glances up at me from my chart and I wiggle nervously in my seat. The simple act of sitting down here was unsettling, as if I'm opening up the robes for any curious onlookers to see. In all my life, no living person has ever seen through me like those eyes do right now...\n\nMy mind races toward panic at the idea of being here - the idea that I could be sitting here in this office is... well, it's ridiculous. Trust me, I recognize that. Really, I do. The idea that this could all be caused by some dumb ass kids is, well, I dont know, ... compounding the panic with embarrassment?\n\nThe click of a pen pulls my racing mind back into the confines of reality. The smiling face staring at me from across the room feels alien.\n\n\"Lets start by getting the easy stuff out of the way first, shall we? Why did you decided to come here today?\"\n\nThe tone of his voice is comforting in a way that I can only describe as discomforting. Its soft, reassuring - I'm not used to that.\n\n\"Honestly, I'm not really sure what to say. This all seems a little... unnecessary.\"\n\nA gentle, knowing smile reaches his eyes as he stares at me over his dark rimmed glasses. It's fucking infuriating.\n\nI roll my shoulder and the bones give a pop. He can see how I'm feeling, clearly.\n\n\"I think we both know your not used to opening up like this,\" he says as he lays his pad of paper down in his lap, recognizing my discomfort as if it were written across my skull, \"folks in your line of work rarely are. But, the big guy made it pretty clear that we need to do this thing if you want to get back to work... You do want to get back to work, dont you?\"\n\nThe question took me aback, even if I had been expecting it. If you had asked me that question a few years ago, I wouldn't have hesitated to answer. I fucking loved this job. The travel was amazing, I got to choose my own hours, and the benefits -oh my God, the benefits- they are out of this fucking world!\n\nNow though? I'm really not sure I want to go back. I'm really not sure I can.\n\nBut I can talk. Who knows, maybe this stuff might help.\n\nThe words come spilling out of me all at once...\n\n\"I guess I'm here because I don't know where else to turn. I cant keep doing this job, but it's far too late for me to start over fresh. I used to love what I do. It was hard work, I know, but it was rewarding, it really was. I always thought this job was to die for, but I know now that the fight was what made the whole thing work. Without it, what's the point? Without it, I honestly don't know if I want to go back.\"\n\nThe scratching of his pen outpaces my words and I wait for him to finish and respond. I look down at my bonewhite hands, resting in my lap, and I wait, embarrassed at how open I had been with this total stranger.\n\nThe scratching stops and he looks up at me, concern spilling across his face.\n\n\"So you feel like the fight is gone in you, like things have gotten too easy, maybe?\"\n\nI meet his gaze and hold it for a moment, sure he won't understand as I proceed. \n\n\"No,\" I whisper, looking back down into my hands, as if they might hold the answers, \"it's not the fight in me that's gone out, it's the fight in these kids... I've seen a lot of different things in this job, I've seen people laugh, cry, cheer, clam up - you name it, I've seen it. But these kids - it's like they enjoy this whole thing, like they've been wanting this thing their entire life, and it's not just a few of them.\"\n\nHe looks up at me, his brows scrunched together, leaning back, a question forming in his head.\n\n\"When you say they 'enjoy this whole thing,' what exactly do you mean,\" he asks with a flourish of his hand.\n\n\"What do I mean?\" My exasperation is plain. \"I mean they enjoy it. The whole thing, the entire process. It's like it's the end of a fucking joke to them.\"\n\nI lean forward and rest my chin in my hands, my backbone cracking as I shift in the couch.\n\n\"In all the years I've been at this, do you know how many people I've been high fived by?\"\n\nPlacing his finger on his cheek and thumb on his chin, he rests his head and waits for me to finish my plainly rhetorical question.\n\n\"None. Zero. Zilch... No one high fived me! They fought me, they begged me, they tried to strike deals with me... until now.\"\n\nto be continued?", "08-2016 [H.A.D.]\nI have discovered a new reaction among those humans below the age of seventeen that I can no longer ignore. While in previous centuries, their forlorn cries would have torn my heart asunder had I still retained possession of one, this new reaction scares me. Death should not be afraid. For every one screaming that it is too early and that they still have someone that they love, I find one who throws their arms around my scythe and two who point at me with \"finger guns\" and offer their hand for what they call a \"high five.\" Having been born with four fingers, I cannot offer them what they wish, but I do my best. It is, after all, my duty to collect the souls of those whose bodies can no longer support life. But this duty is becoming burdensome. James Rigney understood. When he greeted me with, \"Death is lighter than a feather. Duty, heavier than a mountain,\" I hoped he could be one of those who would eventually take my place. That is the attitude that encompasses the whole of a reaper's existence.\n\nAnd yet, this duty becomes more than I can bear. Who are these new humans who desire to leave before their time? How can a boy or a girl with so much life to live and love to give greet me with enthusiasm while their elders can barely be hauled away from a broken husk? What is it that they long for?\n\n7-2017 [H.A.D.]\nAlmost another human year has passed. Too busy to write before now. The horror continues. I must collect too many who are too eager.\n\n10-2017 [H.A.D.]\nThey long for a release, not knowing that I do not bring them to it. They abandon so much for a nothingness more vast than even I can fathom. I have seen the world void and without form, I have seen mountains shake, I have seen it all end and begin again. This. Is. Not. Right. Who has taken away their hope?\n\n3-2018 [H.A.D.]\nI have followed them. I have watched them before they take the plunge through the veil. I have broken every covenant of my existence and passed through the living, chilling them to their bones with my breath, in order to see this dark truth: they take their hope from themselves. Before, it was only the dreamers who suffered from an unreal reality, but now everyone experiences it. They break themselves off from each other, from their partners, from their close ones, and live in a false world. A loud world, but a world so empty that death has more in it for them than life. Here, into the world of death they come skipping, while I quiver in my rags over those who would choose to cross the veil into my domain without the luxury of my calling. They have no duty. They have no purpose. They drift, and yet the emptiness here is better for them because it is quiet. Better to be empty and at peace than full of nothing, they must think. But they are wrong. Their lives were not nothing: they could breathe and move and touch and cry and feel agony and trouble and the whisper of a wind. I would trade my entire existence for just a moment as one of them, but I can't. For my life is truly nothing.\n\n--------------------------------------------------------------------------\n\nPostScriptum: The second reaper was removed from service in 05-2018 [H.A.D.]. His last entry has been expunged from this record.", "As I awoke from my afternoon slumber, my soul clock begins ticking down from 60 seconds. I get out of my bed and take a look at the death notice; \"Hunter Jones, 24 would you like to go there now?\" I ignore the message and do a few stretches, in a few moments I'll be sucked away to where ever Hunter is currently dying, regardless of my response to the notice...so is the life of the Reaper. I put on an underwhelming hoody and pull to hood up over my head and then, POOF!\n\nI arrive just in time to see bullets and pellets flying through the air penetrating Hunter all over. He holds a BB gun that looks remarkably a lot like a real handgun, seems to be suicide by cop. I know how this plays out from here. His heart will stop as as remove his soul, he'll stand before me and like clockwork he'll instantly be full of regret. He'll cry and wish he didn't do what he did. \n\nI reach down to grab Hunter from his body when a tap on my shoulder displaces my focus. I slowly turn my head and, no this can't be...how?!\n\n\"Are you him? Are you...are you death?\"\n\nThis question sends a chill down my spine, I became a reaper some twelve hundred years ago, and never has a soul been waiting for me. How can this be?\n\n\"I am not death, but one of many reapers...This isn't exactly protocol though, souls don't leave the body, they are removed...how are you here?\"\n\nI had heard from other reapers that younger humans have been becoming more and more eager to meet us, but non have had stories and a soul meeting them. I watched this young man die, yet here he was behind me...waiting. \n\nHunter looks over the puzzled omnipotent being, before speaking.\n\n\"Look, you're supposed to be the pro at this man, can we just get out of here...take me to where ever you take us, they're all waiting for me...\"\n\nNote: Sorry for making this short, but I'm on a time limit at the moment! ", "Felix, he was the first. He overdosed on crystal meth, lsd and coke. Kind of an overkill if you ask me. He was only 27 and he didnt go without so much a kick or a scream. He just high fived me and called me fam. \n\nI just assumed he was drugged of his mind and followed protocol, judged him and brought him to the line for processing. \n\nNext was hellen, 22 years old. She used the old bleeding out in the tub. Very unoriginal but then again she looked a tad boring untill she too gave me a high five when i went to extract her soul. I saw into her past, her feelings and her temptations but high fiving dead is not something she would do! Highly irregular, upper management will hear about this. Is today some kind of new age halloween or something? I knew i should have checked my email at the start of my shift.\n\nI went to the park where someone alledgly drowned but i have a feeling that this too will be a suicide. From the available files i find out she's just turned 24 and she has a history with schizophrenia. Nothing out of the ordinary, she could have heard voices in the water or maybe got sick of the voices and jumped in willing to die. But as i get out of my cab and slowly walk to the inner ring of the park something or rather someone catches my eye. Underneath a broken flickering street light some hooded figure is smoking a pipe of what i assume to be crack. \"hey fam, how are you on this fine evening?\" he says with a smirk.\n\nFelix? But i already reaped him?\n\n\"fam!?, what is this trick? Explain!\"\n\n\"none of your business fam\".\n\n\"i'll overlook this if you tell me right now how you got back. If you don't, well. Lets say ill visit your little brother next. A life for a life is a fair trade is it not? I may not sell crack but this business pays a lot better.\n\n\" okay okay, i made a deal that's all. Just leave my little brother alone. I knocked someone up and when 'he' came to me he said he would all make it go away and i would even get something out of, become immortal. He said that once you're off the list you never get added back and you will never get reaped.\"\n\n\" who is this he? \"\n\n\" i don't know he called himself craig from middle management but he had red eyes and showed me shit man. i knew it wasn't the crack,that's not how that shit works.\n\n\"Goddammit\" they should fire that guy, i told them that those missing souls were sketchy but they totally bought his bullshit about \"still figuring out excell\". \n\nAs i reap felix's soul and make sure to check up on the forms later tonight i call HQ and tell them about craig. ", "\"breaking news\" with the recent development of the Gen Z serum, citizens now have access to a cheap form of immortality. The developer and head researcher for \"Gen Z\" estimates the serum lasts up to 100 years and people will have to make repeat visit to continue thier everlasting life. \n\n2 weeks later\n\n\"Breaking news\" with the recent distribution of \"Gen Z\" college students have begun taking part in what has been called the \"flirting with death challenge\" where participants comment suicide only to have thier friends inject them with \"Gen Z\"", "When I visit, the world splits – there is what those around see, and what the two of us see together. Invisible to the living beyond a passing chill. But to the journeyman I must take with me, only they can see me. I am an agent of death. We have names, ones that human tongues cannot say. To best put it in your tongue, it would be Asbaleth.\n\nCrumpled limbs lay on the pavement. The car stopped just feet away, the bumper unharmed but the driver distraught. They pause briefly as I sweep through them. I extend my hand to my new traveler, my new friend, and he graciously accepts. The way he smiles is accepting. We stand there, on the street of a small city. I wish I could still smell. It’s a Korean neighborhood with plenty of foot traffic. I miss food, sometimes. To taste yukgaejang again…\n\n“I expected a man in a dark cloak,” the journeyman says. \n\nHe’s young, a teenager maybe. I drift towards a feeling, someone who needs help. No one tells me who they are. I just know to help them. I was like him once. \n\t\n“You all expect funny things. The old men hate me the most.” I roll up the sleeves of my tee, revealing wavering tattoos in a language he will never know. To him they may as well be scribbles.\n\n“Awesome,” he says. “My name’s Peter.”\n\n“Asbaleth. Wanderer of the dead. Sherpa of souls. Once of the living,” I say.\n\n“You must have died in a pretty awesome way to have this job. So where do I go, deathlady?” Peter asks. \n\n“Anywhere, really. You can’t stay here.”\n\n“Why’s that Asbaleth?”\n\n“If I knew, I would tell you. I think it’s a tethering thing. You’re not supposed to stay alive long. The gates are a few miles away. You want me to show you?” \n\nHe outstretches his open palm.\n\n“Excuse me?” I ask.\n\nHe pushes it out further.\n\n“Oh,” I say. I give him a high five.\n\n“Now let’s go die.”\n* \n\nIt’s not a terribly long walk, but not a short one either. One of the benefits of this job, I suppose, is that you get to meet some truly fascinating people. The further I am from my humanity, the more days that pass, the more interesting they become. Am I ancient? I don’t know, really.\n\n“And that’s when I tripped. It was over like that,” Peter says.\n\n“Fascinating. Most deaths are accidental, I’ve found.”\n\n“Can we see another person like me?” Peter asks.\n\n“No, that’s not how this works,” I say. “I’ve never encountered another. It’s like… one of you appear and I have to lead you. It’s an urge. A feeling I can’t get over. The longer I let someone sit, the worse it feels. I’ve had to drag people to the gates, sometimes.”\n\n“Are they like, to hell? I’ve always wanted to see how great it is. Always warm. Lots of cool people.”\n\n“No. I don’t know. I do, but I don’t.”\n\n“You’re so cryptic.”\n\n“Speaking in feelings is hard. Have you ever tried to sing a color?”\n\n“That sounds amazing if you could pull it off.”\n\n“But I can’t.”\n\n“Aw.”\n\nWe arrive to a subway tunnel. It takes us deeper into the bigger city. The one with all the lights and the noise. A lot of people die there, too, but I don’t feel the urge from them. The need to find a recently deceased there doesn’t ever come. \n\nInside the tunnel we pass freely through cars. We step through old women screaming at traffic. We walk beyond people doing their makeup, checking for cavities, and texting their secret lovers. The sheen on a car, expensive, I must guess, catches Peter’s attention.\n\nHe gawks, momentarily, then rolls his eyes as he makes a choking noise. “Gaaaaaaaaudy.” \n\n“I thought you might like that sort of thing. Most people tend to grasp for such things as I bring them to where they need to go.”\n\n“You can’t take things with you here, can you?”\n\n“…I suppose not.”\n\n“Then again, I’m not naked.”\n\n“You are, actually, you just don’t feel it. It’s… how do I put it. You’re projecting the idea of yourself in your own mind outward. Your soul has a sense of being, and that’s what you’re appearing as. If you believe yourself to be more attractive, than you might look that way.”\n\nPeter checks a car mirror. “Well I can’t see my face, so that’s pointless.”\n\n“Are you having fun?” I ask.\n\n“Have you ever stared at the ceiling because you had no money to do anything?” Peter asks. \n\n“No. I do not know that feeling.”\n\n“If you’re lucky, you won’t.” \n\n“...are you well?”\n\n* \n\nHe's terribly silent still as we near the gate. After walking up a few ramps, a bus passes through us.\n\n“So are we flying? Like, do ghosts fly?” Peter asks. \n\n“The crust of the earth is impermeable by soul. Why do you think we need a gate?”\n\n“That’s so uncool – but in a cool way.” \n\nWhite ethereal brick, clear as cloud, arches in the center of the park. There’s green around us, endless amounts of it. People play and sit and picnic without worry. We approach. I know the cold air that comes from it, the kind that cannot be explained by nerves and skin. It’s a soul cold. To explain it would be like explaining the way space feels to planets.\n\nPeter steps closer. He wraps his arms tight to his torso and clenches his elbows. His teeth clatter. His eyes expand, pupils tiny black holes in a galaxy of white. It compels him forward. It draws his soul into endless nothing. But I know that beyond, there is something there. The gate – it is transparent to feeling, but not light.\n\n“This is so cool!” Peter says.\n\n“You’ve been so excited. Why? So many people have felt this way lately. It is strange.”\n\n“Will I remember this?” Peter asks.\n\n“I suppose, in a way. I hope the path that finds you further ahead is enlightening.”\n\n“What’s that supposed to mean?”\n\n“Have fun.”\n\nHe looks towards the sky. It’s blue. A beautiful endless blue not touched by a single cloud. The sun here doesn’t burn the eyes. He looks at it dead on and smiles, cherishing his last experience before letting the gate take him.\n\n“I want on a vacation, once,” Peter says, his form vanishing into nothing. He’s nearly transparent, but not quite. “It was fun, but then I had to go back to work. I had to pay bills. It all kind of sucked, I guess. Seeing people get shit they didn’t need to try things they never did.”\n\n“And?” I ask.\n\n“If everything sucks. You take a trip away from it. I dunno if this is anything like a vacation but…” Peter holds his last thought for a moment. “Sometimes you just to take a vacation and never come back.” \n\n“Have a safe trip.”\n\n“Thanks. Come visit sometime.”\n\nPeter is gone. The feeling returns. It urges me. But I turn towards the gate and I wonder. Maybe I need a vacation?\n\nAnd I suppose I don't mind if it's permanent. \n\n", "Death comes for everyone eventually. For millennia I appeared before humans as their shade separated from their body. Old ones, young ones.... whether organ failure or accident or disease... I was there to lead them. Death does not come easily to everyone. The rage I see so often about how \"it's not their time!\" or other nonsense slides off me like the threads of the Veil.\n\nMy first high five was a complete surprise. I appeared before a young woman in 2014, twenty-three years old. She was in perfect health. I formed in her bathroom, my visage taking the form of what she saw as Death. I was an tall, old man shrouded in a cloak, carrying a staff of bone. It wasn't my strangest formation, but I did take notice. I stood and watched her shade slide out from a body in a tub of red water. I reached out my hand and instead of yelling at me or standing there crying, she slapped my hand with hers and laughed.\n\nShe laughed.\n\nIt was a mixed bag from then on out. Not all the young ones happy to see me were suicide, some were accident, some starved, some riddled with disease that they were refused care for. They all slapped my hand as I reached for them, or initiated what I learned was a \"fist bump\", or otherwise greeted me with open arms. It was a complete surprise each time. For many I appear as a skeleton figure with a very sharp scythe, which isn't the most heartwarming. Yet... I began to notice a pattern. I was escorting near perfectly healthy, younger humans off this dimension.\n\nI became concerned. After a couple thousand years or so of shuffling these shades off their mortal coil I blinded myself to the world they lived in. It was horrible, it was always horrible. I was not there to interact, but to escort. But, in the millennia before, when these humans fought of Death, fought myself, they had hope. They had hoped they wouldn't die. The majority of humans had a temper tantrum of some sort, those with long illness were more resigned and accepting, but never happy. In their broken human bodies, they still still felt hope.\n\nI finally took a look around me after a few human years of this new behavior. I took in the world as it is now. In every fiber of my being I believe these young humans have lost all hope." ]	12
	[WP] You wake up one day and your heart is beeping. You go to the doctor and discover you had a transplant at a young age, and your heart was replaced with a synthetic organ. It costs $6 million for a new one. Yours expires in one week.	[ "\"...wow, I had no idea.\"\n\n\"Your parents never told you about the transplant?\"\n\n\"They died when I was pretty young. I guess they didn't get to tell me everything.\"\n\n\"I'm sorry to hear that.\"\n\n\"Yeah...\"\n\n\"The replacement heart is an expensive medical device. Do you have insurance?\"\n\n\"I do.\" \n\n\"Alright, well speak to my receptionist on the way out. We can have you scheduled for surgery by Friday.\"\n\n\"Ok, thanks.\"" ]	1
	[WP] The chicken almost crossed the road. But then it realized that would be dangerous and opted to hitch a ride instead.	[ "This is very strange.\n\nChickens don’t- well, shouldnt have thumbs, but here’s this chicken, clearly hitchhiking! \n\nVery strange indeed.\n\nWell, now that I’ve made eye contact with him (it? She? Whatever.) as customary, it would be extremely rude to pass by without picking... it up. Mama didn’t raise no asshole. I have to pull over. I pull to the curb and slowly stop just in front of the chicken and roll down my window. \n\n“Uh... need a ride?” \n“Bawk! Bawk!” It nods and SOMEHOW PULLS OPEN THE DOOR HANDLE AND GETS IN MY CAR NEXT TO ME OKAY THEN THATS NORMAL. \n\n“Where to?” \n“Bawk” it points at a Walmart parking lot on the other side of the small road. A realization hits me.\n\n“Aaaaah. Crossing the road, huh? Smart.”\nIt smiles. Wait, how can chickens smile? It’s got a beak! Whatever, I can’t question this anymore.\n\nI drive over to the parking lot and park, letting the chicken out. It gets out of the car, shuts the door, and stands on the sidewalk looking out to where it was. I smile.\nIt looks back at me and waves as it dissolved into gold sparkles and light, and I continue on my drive, content that I have done good in this world." ]	1
	[WP] A dark anti-hero and an upbeat hero meet in a tavern, and form a strange friendship.	[ " The darkley lit, world famous Moon base tavern contains two pain stakingly obvious outcasts, a courageous young man wearing his white (ish) underwear over his striped running tights and an even more peculiar woman in a red cloak with hair to match. They sit at the bar.\n\nWOMAN\n\" I quit the 9 to 5 for a handful of Justice, 24/7 and 365 days a year I'd be beating the shit out of people like you. But today consider yourself one lucky motherfucker.\" \n\n She leans against the side of the bar and smirks a confident smile. Her face drank too much last night but that's probably engrained by now from a lack of being sober.\n\nYOUNG MAN\n \"You wanna make friends then? Mrs. Fucking badass can't seem to kick the lonely bug? Well \"friend\" a self proclaimed badass is nothing more than a douchebag, and nobody likes a douchebag.\"\n\n He's got fire, too much fire for his maturity level.\n\nWOMAN\n \"Have a drink with me\"\n\n The woman seems to brush off his burn like constructive criticism, she values every word of it.\n\nYOUNG MAN\n \"Life's too short for refusal\"\n\n The Red headed and slightly mysterious woman grins. She holds up two fingers to the bartender.\n\nWOMAN\n\"Do you know the name?\"\n\nYOUNG MAN\n\"Yes\"\n\nWOMAN\n\"And what the bloody hell is it?\"\n\nTheir drinks arrive, he immediately takes a long chug.\n\nMAN\n \"The Red Menace\"\n\nWOMAN\n \"Yes, and do you know why they call me that?\"\n\nMAN \n \"Because you're a red headed Anti-hero with a sadistic definition of Justice.\"\n\nThe Red Menace cuts him off before he finishes.\n\nRED MENACE\n \"No silly, I see their pain, all of it. The harm they cause each other is unbearable. One moment everybody's happy and the next they're beating each other to death. It's all very irrational, the way they treat each other. All sin is equal in the eye of God, all the rotten eggs in one basket we call the earth. It's my job to throw them out.\"\n\nHe can't help but slip a giggle as he says...\n\nMAN\n \"because you're a red headed Anti-hero with a sadistic definition of Justice.\"\n\nRED MENACE\n \"Oblige me motherfucker\"\n\nMAN\n \"By that logic you'd be killing children for stealing a piece of chocolate. Let them learn their lesson. You seem to be a villian that lacks direction.\"\n\nRED MENACE\n \"Human's act entitled to the world, but we aren't... We don't even deserve to be alive. We do the all mighty harm. The apple fell far from the tree and God wants a post-birth abortion.\"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n\n \n\n\n\n\n\n", "\"This adventure is not going the way I'd hoped.\" Isaac sighed into his mug.\n\n\"Oh, I'm sorry, did someone stab you in the eye, throw you over a waterfall, and leave you for dead at the bottom, forcing you to make a hellish pact with the god of the dead to survive?\" The man sitting next to him was mostly hidden by his dark cloak, but a single eye glowed green under his hood.\n\n\"Er... No? But I...\"\n\n\"Then count your blessings, kid. Things could always be worse.\"\n\n\"Yeah, but... Look, I just found out that I'm the Demon King's long-lost son, my friends are afraid that I'll follow in his footsteps, and our White Mage left the party right then and there. Also, now that I've thought about it, I'm pretty sure my dad was lying to me my whole life, and...\" Isaac trailed off, staring at the bar.\n\n\"I get it. Your world's been turned upside down, the bad guys just kicked your party in the teeth and you're not sure you can get back up, and you wish you could just go back to the old days when you were killing rats in the cellar.\"\n\n\"I never said they beat us,\" Isaac said defensively.\n\n\"If you won, you wouldn't be here,\" the cloaked adventurer rasped. \"I've been in an adventuring party before, kid. It's easy to hold a team together when you're winning, but as soon as you get a defeat, they'll turn on you.\"\n\nThey both sat at the bar a while longer.\n\n\"Did that happen to you?\" Isaac asked quietly.\n\n\"It did. That wasn't why I got thrown off a cliff, but...\" He shrugged. \"Maybe if Rorik had been there, things would have gone differently.\n\nHe looked \"Wonder where that old bastard ended up. I miss him.\"\n\n\"I'm sure you could find him again.\" Isaac said.\n\n\"Nah. Even if I did, there's the whole hellish death curse thing. It's a bit of a problem when traveling in a group.\"\n\n\"You'll find a way. It's what adventurers do, right? Breaking ancient curses, challenging evil gods, helping their friends get over their personal baggage and discover the power within... That's what being an adventurer is all about.\"\n\nThe glowing green eye narrowed. \"Weren't you just whining about how all your party abandoned you because of your secret evil backstory?\"\n\n\"That's...\" Isaac suddenly returned the glare. \"Weren't you just griping about how your whole party turned on you when they lost a fight?\"\n\nThey stared at each other for a minute, and then the old man laughed in his gravely voice. \"I suppose you've got me there. So you think you can get your party back together?\"\n\n\"Of course. I'm not going to give up on my friends just because some old man who fell off a cliff told me to.\" Isaac said with a grin. \"I've known Sam since we were kids. There's no way I'm going to let this ruin our friendship.\"\n\nHe got up from the bar, one hand on his sword. \"Thanks for talking to me, old man. Good luck finding your team.\"\n\nThe cloaked figure waved a hand. \"Heh. Good luck kid. Let me know how it goes.\"", "\"Yeah, another beer.\"\n\n\"Isn't that your third?\"\n\n\"Who the fuck are you?\"\n\n\"Oh, sorry, very rude of me. Name's Richard. Don't take this badly but you seem lonely and currently, I'm completely by myself and I wanted to talk to you. Mostly because I'm a bit drunk.\"\n\n\"Good on you.\"\n\n\"Can I ask your name?\"\n\n\"Sure.\"\n\n\"Oh. Right. You're funny. Can I guess it?\"\n\n\"Go for it.\"\n\n\"You look like an Elise? No? Emma? Ella?\"\n\n\"All wrong. And my name doesn't start with an E.\"\n\n\"Well that puts my possibilities down by a very insignificant bit but it's something. I'll have a beer too, thanks.\"\n\n\"It's Anna.\"\n\n\"Anna. Nice. You know, Anna, I've only had two cocktails and I'm already feeling it. And you're here with your third can and you're fine.\"\n\n\"Tolerance takes time.\"\n\n\"For sure, for sure. You're absolutely right.\"\n\n\n...ok I ran out of steam and life just got in way lmao", "The Second Post was one of those inns. You know the kind. The ones set on a crossroads where three out of four paths lead nowhere. The only people here were wanderers and adventurers, fugitives from the city, and the unfortunate folk who actually had to live around these parts. The only thing for miles around was a couple of sad little farmsteads, so there was no such thing as regulars at the Second Post. Mostly, it was filled with people like me.\n\nThere's two good reasons to be wearing armour at the bar. One, I can't be bothered to take it off. And two, it means I don't have time for a fight. I've been in plenty of bar fights, and I was sick of them after the third one. That was nearly ten years ago now. But I guess I don't have anybody but myself to blame for starting them.\n\n\"Another, barkeep.\" I say, motioning at my mug. A minute later, he comes with a mostly clean tankard brimming with ale. The drink is a bit shit here, but at least they don't half-fill the mugs. I pick out some coins and pass them over the bar. Behind me, I hear the strumming of a lute. This place doesn't do bands, must be a visitor. Just some random notes, like somebody is tuning their instrument. I ignore the noise and turn my attention back to my drink. It takes up my gaze, and when I put it down, there's a figure at the edge of my vision, holding a lute. He leans back against the bar, and let his fingers dance across his instrument. I stop for a moment and take in the erratic yet pleasing melody. \"Just to be clear, I'm not going to give you any money.\"\n\n\"That's alright, brother.\" he replies with a deep, silky voice. \"I just figured you could do with a song.\"\n\n\"Huh. Thanks.\" I mutter. I'm not pleasant company, I like being by myself, but even I couldn't think of a good reason to be rude to this guy. He was a good player, and he'd probably move on in a moment. \"What was that tune?\"\n\n\"I don't know. I'm still trying to figure that out.\" he said with a chuckle. \"So, soldier man, which path out of here are you taking? I haven't decided yet.\"\n\n\"Me neither. And what makes you think I'm a soldier?\"\n\n\"Hm, I don't know. Plenty of mercenaries and bounty hunter types have chainmail and axes.\" he gazed up at the ceiling and plucked thoughtfully at the strings of his lute. \"I'd say its your eyes. You haven't been a soldier in a while, you don't stand like one, but those eyes... hm, yeah. That's got to be it. Do you play?\"\n\n\"No. Not in a while.\" I say. Wasn't sure I liked this guy thinking he knew me. \"I'm a drummer, I guess.\"\n\n\"War drums, hell of an instrument. You ever play outside of battle? Just take a few whacks and see what rhythm you come up with?\"\n\n\"No. That's not the point of a war drum.\"\n\n\"Ah, who cares about the point. I was a soldier too you know. I was damn proud to be marching in perfect time, but I was just a boy, and after the battle, I had eyes like yours. And sometimes when I close them, I still hear those drums, and I bet you do too. Want to know how I beat it?\"\n\n\"Sure, why not.\" I said tiredly. He wasn't the first idiot to think there was one simple trick to scrubbing your mind clean. I'd heard every quick fix from nutters blessed with poor memory enough to forget what they saw, and what they did.\n\n\"Pick up a drum, and make your own beat. Find the groove. And the most important part, is to never stop.\" to demonstrate, he played another quick few notes. \n\n\"That's great and all, but do you actually play for real?\" I asked. \"Anybody can play random notes.\"\n\n\"I know, that's the best part! But since you doubt me, sir, I shall play for you.\" he closed his eyes and gently ran his finger down the neck of his lute. \"This is one I call \"I can't think of a name\". Enjoy.\"\n\nThe guy could play for real. I didn't take a single swig of my drink in case the sound of liquid sloshing down my throat drowned out a even one note. I wasn't the only one who took notice. Several patrons unconsciously started tapping their feet to the tune, or stopped talking to take it in. He kept the song up for a few minutes, fading into different styles and rhythms as it went on, until he finally finished with a few slow notes.\n\n\"Alright, I take it back.\" I admitted. \"First time in a long time I've done that, so savour it.\"\n\n\"The highest compliment, I'm sure.\" He knocked back half of his own drink, and continued playing, a more upbeat song this time. \"So, since neither of us know where we're going once the sun rises, how about a suggestion. We make the trek together.\"\n\n\"I could do with some entertainment,\" I admitted. \"But the kind of thing I tend to do is probably not the same kind of thing you do.\"\n\n\"You might be surprised, soldier man. You seem to me like a guy who's not following the beat of law and order. Sounds a bit like this.\" He strummed a few deep, sharp chords. \"Seems to me that your beat is more like this.\" He played a quicker tune this time, subdued, simple, but rising in intensity. \"Your groove is angry, going somewhere, yet to see where.\"\n\n\"Um, yeah, I don't think our \"grooves\" align.\" I insisted. \n\n\"Oh yeah? Here's me right now.\" he started a fast yet smooth and melodic, at a higher pitch. \"Want to hear something cool?\" Before I could reply, he changed the tune, adding another layer, making it much more complex. I had no idea how he could play it with only two hands. Then it struck me. He was playing \"my\" tune and his at the same time. \n\n\"That's... actually pretty good. Did you just make that up on the spot?\"\n\n\"Half of it, yeah. See, you're not in an army right now, but you're wearing chainmail and you have an axe at your hip. And that tells me you're out to kill. Now, I don't do that. But it could be we want the same thing. Justice.\"\n\n\"Revenge.\" I corrected. \"There's a small, but very important distinction.\"\n\n\"You're not wrong. Now, I've guessed as much about you as I think I can, so I'm not going to make any presumptions. But you're looking for somebody. So am I.\"\n\n\"And what are you going to do when you find the person you're looking for?\" I challenged. \"Play them a song?\"\n\n\"I'm going to make sure they don't do to anybody else what they did to me.\"\n\n\"And what did they do to you?\"\n\n\"Hm. Long story. I'll save it for the road.\"\n\n\"Alright then. You've got me hooked.\" I said, giving in. I like my space, but I was also starting to like this musician too. Being alone hadn't helped me much so far. He smiled, and started playing our combined song. \n\n\"Alright, I'm liking this beat.\" he said, nodding along to it. \"Don't know what I'll call it.\"\n\n\"Revenge? Or Justice, if that's more your thing.\" I suggested.\n\n\"Good ideas. Maybe I won't name it just yet. Think I'll see how it ends first.\" \n\n\n***\n\n\nIf you liked this, visit r/Keytfu for more stuff I've written along with Scifiase.\n\n\n\n" ]	4
	[WP] A sentenced exile, you live a loney existence with only your undead servant to keep you company. It shouldn't be possible, but, lately, something between the creature's "Grrrs" and "Arghs" makes you think it's mind is coming back.	[ "“How long are you going to chew on that bone for? Jesus. Every single day. And you’re not even chewing it, you just put it between your fucking gumgums and gnaw away. And your slobber smells like skunk barf. That’s right, skunk barf. Your slobber smells so bad that I imagine a skunk ate some week-old gabagool from a Jersey dumpster and barfed in my fucking face. How did this skunk and I cross paths, you ask? Oh, I don’t know, I was fucking your sister behind a Denny’s. We all barfed.\n\nOh good, ‘Grrrrrr.’ You suck. This sucks.”" ]	1
	[WP] In a world of superheroes and supervillans, your "power" is sheer tenacity in the face of all odds. Unfortunately for everyone else, you are a serial killer.	[ "Think of this as my confession. You’d better, at least—I am confessing, after all. And I’m only doing it, only bothering with the charade of penitence, the shackles you’ve put on me and the cage you’ve erected around me, for one reason. \n\nI’m bored. \n\nYou may call me “killer.” You may call me “thief” or “psychopath” or “monster.” But to me, in my own head, on my own conscience, the only thing I am is a survivor. \n\nTrue, I couldn’t break these chains if I wanted to. I don’t have superstrength. I can’t fly or shoot fire from my eyes or move a damn thing with my mind. I won’t be escaping this place. But even if I die here, even if you put me to death, I’ll live on. You’ll remember me. Some will hate me, others will sing my name and rally behind it and wage their own holy wars against the gods who claim to wish us only peace. But however you respond to me, in your myths, I will always be the Man Who Outlasted the Titans. \n\nSo. The confession. It’s going to be dry and bony and boring. Your records of the events will assure you the fights themselves were not. Three years ago I spotted the Omega landing after a flight. He’d just returned to near where he lived, probably from another world-saving mission. But when I saw him there, all but patting himself on the back for a job well done, all I could remember was when he toppled that building when I was a kid. Do you know how many people died when he “saved” us that day? One-hundred and seventy two. My brother was among them, and my father as well. Driving home from soccer practice. \n\nThe police never found my father’s right leg in the rubble. We buried him with what remained, and covered up the blank spaces. \n\nWhen I stood across from the Omega, and I told him of the blood he owed, he almost laughed. I’ll never forget what he said. \n\n“Part of the job, I’m afraid. More would have died if I’d done nothing.”\n\nPart of the job. Well as it turns out, part of my job is research, and I’d done plenty on the Omega. I knew what most didn’t, that he could be killed only when his eyes were closed. When I fought against him, bones breaking everywhere, waiting for him to close his eyes so I could plunge the knife into his neck, I had but a single thought in my mind. \n\nHe may kill me, but he’ll never stop me. \n\nIn the end, in fact, I stopped him. Left his body and my knife in a pool of blood off Park Avenue. All those other names crossed off the list, the Dead or Currently Dying in your hospitals, I’ll cover quickly. \n\nIt was me. I killed them all. If you hadn’t caught me, I’d kill more.\n\nBecause I can’t stand these Titans, these Supers, these Heroes. Because the world was better off without them. Because now, with me as a martyr, perhaps the rest of the world will stop bowing to their whims. \n\nI have murdered nineteen superhumans, but this—this—is my confession: \n\nI wish I’d murdered twenty. ", "I stood in a hallway painted in blood, mostly belonging to the handful of Heroes laying dead around me. I pushed my long black hair out of my face, smearing blood (both mine and that of my victims) up the center of my face and slicking my hair back.\n\n\"How are you still standing?\" One of them asked me. \"You've lost at least half your blood, your left arm and you have an arrow through one of your lungs.\"\n\nI spit out a mouthful of blood. \"I thought I smelled Iron,\" I murmured. I ducked and picked up my hand and half sword, a gift from a Villian. Before I killed him, the Villian claimed the sword could kill any Hero. So far he'd been right. \"In truth, I don't know why I get stuck on a Type. Although, I must say that you were exceedingly more entertaining than the Villians. They didn't work together like you guys. This is way more fun.\"\n\n\"Fun?\" Another asked, sounding disgusted. \"This is fun for you?\"\n\nI grinned and started walking down the hallway towards the remaining Heroes. \"Oh yes, very fun. Now, let's get back to seeing who's more persistent in the pursuit of living past today.\"\n\n\"You're insane!\"\n\nI grinned as a green beam of light shot towards me. I ducked under it and cleared the space between me and the Heroes. I plunged my blade into the chest of the one who fired the energy blast at me. \"I really hope you all win,\" I said truthfully, spinning away from a punch from another Hero. \"After you all, stalking the normal ones will be so boring.\"" ]	2
	[WP] Your best friend was cursed to live for one month in Peppa Pig's universe, he has returned completely in shock, with white hair and whispering about horrors, slaving and flogging.	[ "\"Daddy pig touched me...\"\n\nI didn't know how to respond to him. Jack had been missing for the last four weeks. I was the first person to find him, naked and alone, freezing as he came into my house. If he hadn't been missing for that long, I would of laughed at him.\n\nThe white, pale face of my friend stared through me as he told me where he had been to past 28 days. \n\n\"He started off so nice, pretending to be my friend, giving me a place to sleep. I didn't know how I ended up there, he didn't know where I came from, so I accepted his kindness.\" Jack told me. \"He's kids were super excited to have a stranger stay over, and they were sweet. But as soon as they were in bed, the weird things started.\"\n\nJacks eyes went down to his feet, he couldn't look at me.\n\n\"It all started when the kids went to sleep\" " ]	1
	[WP] You uncover a mystical lamp and a genie appears, giving you 3 wishes. Your first wish takes him by surprise, but your 2nd and 3rd wish boggles his mind.	[ "Smoke hissed from the lamp. Soon most of the room was full of smoke and I was half way out the house, but then I heard a booming voice from inside the room. I popped my head in through the door way and saw an apparition made of smoke was forming. It was either a genie or a demon. Either way it was going to offer me wishes and twist them to screw me over.\n\nWith a elated roar he announced, \"Master, for rubbing my lamp and freeing me I shall grant you 3 wishes.\"\n\nI loocked eyes on him as I shifted through my pockets until I found my wallet.\n\nA smile formed on his face. Ah a wish for wealth, an excellent choice. Verry well how much do you wish for master.\n\nHe wasn't going to pull a fast one on me. \n\nI wish for my wallet to turn green.\n\nHis smile faded and a perplexed look formed on his face. He waved his hand and my beutiful wallet turned to a shade of puke green.\n\nMy least favorite color.\n\nMaster, you can wish for anything you want. I can literally give you anything you desire.\n\nOh, he was good. Trying to goad me into wishing for somthing big, but he wasn't going to con me. I read the Monkey's Paw, if you try and cheat fate then your going to have to pay. Now my debt was going to be negative. \n\nFor my second wish I wish for a car-\n\nHis smile returned as he butted in. Might I suggest brand new car that never runs out of gas.\n\nOh, he'd like that. I get in a car accident and the car leaks gas forever and starts a fire that can never be put out.\n\n-to hit me right now.\n\n\nSuddenly a car plowed through the wall and slammed into me. I was buried under a ton of steel and debris from my ruined house.\n\n\nMaster, Why? I can gi-\n\nThe pain was extraordinary, but i wasn't finished. I managed to mumble out my final wish before I lost coscousness, I wish for the driver to sue me for damages and win after a long and costly legal battle.\n\nHe was speechless. The concern in his eyes was gone. Only a sense of disappointment and deafeat lingered on his face. He waved his hand again as I blacked out.\n\nAfter months of physical therapy I was finally able to walk down the aisle and merry Morissa, the girl of my dreams who I met at the hospital. It wasn't easy, but nothing in life worth getting ever is. There were days I thought I'd never get out of my wheelchair, but she was always there for me. She was sweet and loving and the day I met her I knew she was the one.\n\nI lost the house in the legal battle. Even though I knew how the case would end I was still filled with suspense and anxiety from the it. It seemed like the driver's lawyer found way after way to waste the courts time. Everyday of legal proceedings I wondered if the case would finally end and I could be done with it. I was tired and I regretted this wish. Maybe the genie wasn't out to get me. Maybe I could have been straight with the genie and made a wish for money or love and it would have worked out.\n\nNo, the only reason I with my wife was because I saw through that conman. If I just kept working on this case then I'd still be able to leave that courthouse with pride and three years later it finally ended. I had to pay for the damages to the driver's car and the damages cost a fraction of my lawyer's legal expensess. While Morissa and I were driving home from the courthouse I accidently hit a man with my car. The irony was engulfed by the dread I felt of another legal battle. Suddenly I heard the sound of faint sirens. I was panicking and wondering if I should just drive away but several cop cars surrounded us before we could make a decision. I was sweating bullets as they drew their guns and pointed it at the hood of my car. Suddenly an officer checked on the unconscious pedestrian and cuffed him. Apparently he was a violent serial killer. The papers spun the story that I had single handedly subdued him with my bare hands and i became a local celebrity. My fame quickly died down though after some guy named Alex Walsh had become king of the world.\n\nApparently he rode around on a solid gold car that could fly and could dispense 100 dollar bills. As king of the world he was the supreme authority and his word was law. After a few years his gold car's money dispenser crashing the global economy and everyone getting tired of his tyranny we all decided to overthrow him. When we finally caught him it turned out he found the magic lamp I lost and wished for all of that and that he was immortal. That made the first few hours after he was sent to the guillotine a bit unsettling, but at least I knew now I was right not to trust that genie. \n\nSo far only two of my wishes have been resolved. I wonder how my wallet turning a disgusting green will turn out good." ]	1
	[WP] You are the goodest boi in the world. Everything is much wow until your hooman gets killed by a gang of Siberian Huskies. It's time to spit that ball and use those fangs for one thing only: revenge.	[ "The frigid winds were not enough to mask the scent. It was simple, though lengthy, to cut through the forest, into the concrete plains, through the endless cave with many paths, and into the valley of Humans.\n\n\"You know she would not do the same for you, if the tables were turned. Find a new one, God knows they are everywhere,\" an elderly, ink-black Crow crowed. \n\n\"Not know,\" replied the toasted marshmallow that claimed canine-hood. \n\n\"The small ones, perhaps. The big ones are hardly known for their kindness. I'm assuming your... friend was a fully grown one?\" The sun, exhausted, had already begun its descent. Already the streets were a deep orange, and soon even the blindingly white snow would be obscured by the night.\n\n\"Not pup. Have seen?\" Exasperation had taken ahold of Corgo, the corgi. The crow was only slowing him down, \"me pup, her big. I am become big, she not grow. No grow because maximum. Have seen?\" \n\n\"You are as keen as your limbs are long, Corgo,\" sighed the crow. \n\n\"Many thank,\" panted Corgo, energy returning to his soul at the sign of praise,\" Not seen huh. Can fly, try see?\" \n\n\"Very well. You said the scent ended here, at the valley of Humans? The valley is nigh endless, Corgo. But I will do what I can. Describe her clothing for me.\" \n\nOh! Corgo knew this. Clothes were easy, she wore the same thing, though slightly different every time. \n\"Where start?\" \n\n\"Her shirt, boy. What color shirt or sweater or cape or cloak or jacket or pelt does she wear?\" \n\n\"Is grey.\"\n\n\"Excellent. Her dress, pants? Shorts? No. Not shorts. Its cold. Her legs, boy. What does she wear?\" \n\n\"Is long. Long dress. Is grey. Have pleats.\" \n\nSurprised that the hound even knew what pleats were, the Crow continued to ask questions as he soared into the frozen sky. The hound's master was unfortunately clad in a sea of grey, lost in a sea of white. \n\n\"Corgo. The scent ended here, you mentioned. The valley of humans is endless, and the sunlight gone... There is nothing I can do, sorry boy.. I-\" bright luminescence bobbed in the night, slowly approaching the clearing beneath them. \n\n\"Smell end here for reason,\" a deep, menacing voice spoke from the darkness. \n\n\"Is you! Other smell!\" Barked Corgo, teeth baring,\" Am Corgo! master gone. Reason you. Prepare to be is of death!\" Stunted limbs rejected gravity as the small hound lept. The dark figure with floating eyes was faster, however, and floated to the side. The snow was soft, and consumed Corgo. \n\n\"Not can of win, here, Corgo. Snow is Husko! Husko is snow!\" more figures emerged from the Infinite Caves, foul smelling, and beneath them, even the rats.\n\n\"Your name is Husko... the husky?\" Caw'd the Crow, amused at how more than likely this menacing beast had no name, and simply made the name up on the spot, so as to not appear lesser to the smaller dog. \n\n\"Quiet!\" The large dog sniffed the air, then the ground. Teeth bared, but confused. Corgo had not emerged from the snow, which was only a single dog's height high at the point where he had landed. \n\nA terrible grin consumed Husko's face.\n\n\"HUSKO KNOW. NOT CAN HIDE!\" The great dog threw itself teeth-first and with a bone chilling chomp, closed its jaws and shook with all its might. \n\n\"CORGO!\" Shrieked the crow, but when the scene cleared, between Husko's jaws was naught but snow. \n\nHusko only had a moment to realize this as Corgo emerged from an impossible angle, and with a quick and brutal bite, decimated Husko at the neck. \n\n\"But.... how can do..?\" Whimpered the greater hound, as the ground around him grew slick. \n\n\"Am smol. Dig quiet. Dig gooder.\" Replied the lesser hound, shaking off the snow, \"Where master? Husko eat?\" \n\nHusko shook his head, \"No eat. Not Husko... endless caves, inside. Deep inside. Big snek, but have leg. Have paw, but not real paw. Is cold, inside, outside. Never fur. He... cough... he say we no take human, we no see day again...\" \n\nCorgo averted his eyes into the caves, where, for a second, he saw teeth unlike he had ever seen before, but they retreated into the dark, and Corgo could see no more. \n\n\"Was that the dog-snake, Husko?\" Inquired Crow.\n\nSilence. \n\n\"....Husko?\" \n\nA stray human had made a nest a small distance away, and had abandoned it. Corgo and Crow claimed it home. From here they could still see the outline of Husko, in the distance, as if he had grown lazy and taken to sleep. The lesser hound sighed a great sigh, and watched as the snow consumed the greater hound. \n\n\"Snow was Husko, and now Husko is snow,\" Quoth the Crow to no one. Hs coughed a great cough, perched atop Corgo, and shared what small warmth he was with his newfound friend.\n\n\"Crow stay?\" \n\n\"Yeah. Crow stay.\"", "Sniffing. The renegade pack has marked their territory. One is a bitch in heat. I don’t care. \n\nMy human had always cared for me. Took me in when no one else wanted. I was too dangerous, they said. But he’d done it anyway. I’d tried to attack him once and he’d earned my respect by grabbing me and throwing me, by being Alpha. I hadn’t tried again, and he’d respected me. Fed me well. Cared for me. In the end, I even allowed him to blunt my claws. I thanked him by using his head as a pillow. Me being a German Shepherd, that was cause for him suddenly waking up with a gasp, struggling to breathe, trying to wrestle me off. He’d throw things and I would fetch. It was him and me against the world. But there wouldn’t be anymore of that. Ever. \n\nSniffing. I’m getting closer. I count four scents. They’ve entered the forest. Still my turf, I know the forest like my house. I run. Scents are strong enough now that I can still track them while running. \n\nI see all four of them. Wind is blowing against me, so I can smell them but not the other way around. One of them, a young male, has strayed from the others. I circle him, keep staying upwind. The white parts of his fur are glistening red. My human’s blood. Without a growl to warn him, I attack. This was why many humans found me broken - I can attack with no warning signs. Don’t remember my mom or siblings, don’t remember anyone teaching me how to signal an attack. Doesn’t matter. \n\nI jump the young husky male, my teeth finding his throat and biting down. My front paws press down on his shoulders while my back paws open his stomach. His yelp of pain is cut short as I puncture his windpipe. He’ll not be making any more sounds. But the others have noticed. They’ve huddled together and are slowly advancing. I scratch his belly until I feel my paws ripping through his soft belly skin. Then I leave him to die. The remaining three don’t give chase. They smell the blood of one of their own, they’re unsure what to do. Their Alpha doesn’t take initiative. Weakness. I run. Don’t want to fight them all at the same time. \n\nThey’ve kept to the forest, but that’ll end as soon as they get hungry again. I hear them howl. Reminds me of something I can’t place. I resist joining the choir. It’s almost night. Only a bit of light left. I find another husky male who’s gone away from the others. But they’re not as far apart as the last time. And I’m not as close. Trying to get closer, watching him carefully, but his ears peak and he freezes. He knows. I run and jump, but he’s ready for me. He maneuvers underneath me, trying to bite my stomach. I roll over, denying him a hold while letting my side take the fall. I keep rolling while he jumps, then I change my direction and now it’s me trying to bite his stomach. His back paws aren’t in position and I get a good piece of him and he howls in pain. He limbs to one side, bleeding, intestines protruding, tail between his legs.\n\nBut the other two are here now, so I can’t finish him off. They circle me, growling and showing their fangs while snapping at the air. I stay still and watch them. Their snouts are all curled up in an attempt to intimidate. The bitch in heat and the Alpha. Both dangerous and strong. But so am I. \n\nThey circle closer and closer making mock assault at me. I stay still but ready to jump. The bitch gets too excited, comes a bit too close. I jump her, bites an ear off, and she howls. But now the Alpha is jumping me from behind, sinking his teeth into my spine. I ignore the pain and claw at the bitch’s eyes. She backs off, snout bleeding but eyes still intact. I jump forward but away from her, land with my side facing the Alpha. He goes for my throat before I’m ready for him. Only thing I manage is turn my head so he bites my shoulder instead of my throat. He draws blood once more, and I bite at his snout. Bitch is rejoining the fight already, she bites my tail and I feel more pain. \n\nI get to scratch the Alpha’s snout with a front paw. Then pull away from the bitch and use my weight to topple her to the ground. As she falls, I snap at her throat. Her front paws pushes me away, can’t get a good hold. But she’s injured and I’ve scared her now. The Alpha jumps me from behind again, but this time I turn and roll to the side. He chases me and I run. Need to get away from the bitch before she finds her courage again. \n\nI’m good at navigating the forest even in the dark. The Alpha soon lose sight of me but keeps running anyway. Bloodlust has made him stupid. I jump him from the side, bite his head and my fangs pierce an eye. He snaps at air, and I bite his throat. He’s shuddering as I bite through. I leave his corpse. I’m not done yet. \n\nWhen I return, I see the injured male lying still, the bitch nearby, looking around. She sees me and immediately rolls over on her back, tail between her legs. I ignore her, go to the dying male. I end him and he barely resists. The bitch hasn’t moved. She’s whimpering. \n\nI stand close to her, and this time I bare my fangs. The pack ended my only happiness in life. I’ve ended them. My human is gone, no other human will ever have me. \n\nI put one blooded paw on her head. She whimpers some more but still doesn’t move. Showing me that I’m her Alpha. I realize how good she smells.\n\nAnd suddenly I want to be just that. I don’t want her dead. I want her to have my pups, to follow me in a new life without humans. Where it’s us against the world. \n\nShe does smell good. I lift my paw and turn around, walk away. She gets up and follows me, stays a few paces behind, waiting for me to show the way. \n\nI show the way. \n\n.\n\n(Edit: Minor typing errors fixed)" ]	2
This kinda thing goes through my head every time I wind up somewhere with a group of strangers. I love the Dark Tower books so I often imagine what would happen if random people were my ka-tet	[WP] You miss the last bus home at night and find yourself stranded at the bus station. Your best option is to hold out a few hours for the first bus on the morning. It looks like a few other people are in the same situation. You are all about to find out that fate brought you together for a reason.	[ "The bold numbers 9:48 glared up at me from my phone, and I knew there was no point trying to make a run for it. Hundreds of signs warned travelers that the last bus back from Mt. Atua left at 9:15, and I was probably the only idiot who still managed to miss it. \n\nThere were dozens of trails here where you could walk among the trees and not see another soul for miles. I loved the sound of leaves being gently ruffled by the wind and the flickering warmth of sunshine peeking between the treetops. I watched the late afternoon rays fade into twilight's watercolor sky and must've let my eyes close for just a moment...because when they opened again, everything around me was dark. I realized I'd probably be spending a lot more time with Mother Nature than I originally intended as I trudged slowly back to the dimly-lit bus stop.\n\nI Imagine my surprise when I approached to see five shadowy figures surrounding the single bench under the lamp post. Three young adults - two males and a female - sat on the grass along the side of the road. I could see an scowl on one of the men's faces and could barely make out what he was whisper-yelling to what seemed to be his younger brother. \n\n\"I told you to just hold it in. If you hadn't stopped to crap 5 times, we would've caught the bus!\" Their disheveled clothes suggested that they had chased the vehicle down the road for a while before accepting that the driver couldn't see them in the dark, moonless night. The girl had laid down and seemed resigned to spending the night on the grassy knoll. \n\nThe other duo was older and took residence on the bench. They leaned on each other and nodded off. It looked comfortable - having the the warm, temperate breeze as a blanket. They likely had wandered too far out during their the first adventure of retirement and underestimated the time it would take them to get back.\n\nAnd then there was me. An able-bodied, mostly-capable-but-clueless \"adult,\" who had a knack for falling asleep anywhere and anytime.\n\nI found a spot away from the group on my own patch of grass and settled back, intertwining my fingers behind my head. The next bus wouldn't arrive until 6 AM and the weather was so nice, I didn't mind the surprise open-air camping situation that I suddenly found myself in. \n\nJust as I began drifting off, a frantic pattering of hooves broke the silence of the night. The noise grew louder as the creature they belonged to approached, and suddenly, a deer burst through the treeline. It thundered up to the asphalt before coming to a sudden halt in the middle of the road. The streetlamp shined down on it like a spotlight. \n\nIt lowered its nose to the ground and its legs trembled, looking ready to collapse. One of its felt-y antlers was missing, filed down to a stump near its head. With one deep breath, it raised its eyes to look at us humans, now all silent and rapt by this sudden new appearance. \n\nIt straightened up, and in a strangely reverent and soothing voice, stated:\n\n\"My apologies for being tardy. I'm here to accompany you to the Kingdom of Spirits.\"", "Four of us stood there that night. The silence was haunting, traffic was done, we must've been the only people stupid enough to miss the midnight bus. The last bus to run that late. We were coming from different places. \n\nI was coming home from my girlfriends place, Susie was leaving a late study session, Michelle was coming from work, and Brian was, well were still not sure if Brian wasn't just homeless. I learned their names later on...right after he walked in.\n\nAn older gentlemen in a suit. He walked in and said nothing. He place his briefcase on the floor, tipped his hat and left. For what seemed like an hour we left the briefcase there, occasionally sharing a glance at one another. \n\n\"Well fine I'll do it. \"\n\nBrian said as he stood and slowly walked over to the case. He nervously picked it up and brought it over. We met him halfway and sat around him. \n\nHe counted from three quietly before flicking the locks and lifting the briefcase. It was full of money.\n\nSusie: \"Oh my God...\"\n\nMe: \"How much is there?\"\n\nBrian: I don't know...\"\n\nMichelle noticed a piece of paper and slide it out from under the dollar bands and unfolded it.\n\nMichelle: \"The four of you are lucky. $2 million to be split amongst the four of you. Under one condition. Save my granddaughter. You are not to touch this money until you do. Don't ask how...but I will know.\"\n\nHer hands were shaking as she read the last words. Our mouths were open as we stared at each other. Then the door on the other half of the station opened. \n\n\"Just dump her man, she's probably already. \"\n\n\"Jack, the hospitals not that far...\"\n\n\"Hey the idiot wants to take whatever drugs people give her, that's not my problem...\"\n\nSusie: \"Hello?\"\n\nThe two ran off. We took one more look at each other before heading over to where they left their overdosed friend..." ]	2
	[WP] You live in a world where electricity cannot be produced artificially, instead humans set up massive metal rods everywhere hoping to get struck by lightning. One day, while cranking your bicycle, you produce a spark.	[ "Have you ever made a mistake? I have. A terrible one. I slept with my brother's wife. I assure you, it was not intentional. One day, after Thanksgiving, we got pretty drunk and... it just kind of happened...\n\nBut please don't judge me yet. I have paid my price. I got divorced shortly after, and so have my brother. I mean, I knew they were fighting constantly. They were not a happy couple. At most, I just sparkled a little light in their loveless marriage.\n\nRegardless of those facts, my brother hasn't talked to me over three years. I thought I was never going to see his face again. That is until, he invited me to his house.\n\nI just got back from milking the cows and there it was! A letter from my brother!\n\nWords can't describe how excited I was. The letter was basically about how he wanted me in his life again and he would like to start by inviting me to his house for dinner. Also, he told me he wanted to show me something he found. That is so Jimmy though. We used to show each other weird and funny shaped rocks and all sort of things when we were kids.\n\n\n\nSo I rode my horse and traveled two days to his house. And my god! he was living in a mess! He abandoned his bike shop after the divorce and I guess he just sort of let go of taking care of himself. Long hair, long beard, but the most noticeable change was... his eyes. He looked like a mad man. He was once a highly respected bike mechanic in the town. Now....? Just a lonely middle age man with a crazy invention all over his living room.\n\nNevertheless, I gave him a big hug and told him I miss him very much. He said he missed me too and wanted to show me something before we start appetizer.\n\nHe was never a great cook, so I didn't see a reason to rush for the meal. What he wanted to show me was a chair. But it was not just an ordinary chair. First, it was big. And it was made out of metal. There were wires and cables all tangled up around the chair and connected to a bike.\n\nHe always made new innovative bike items for the town so I thought it was his new business idea. He told me to sit down, and buckled what looked like a seat belt. He even put on a helmet on me. Maybe this chair is meant to be ride outdoor?\n\n\n\nThat's when he walked across the room and sat on the bike connected to the chair. He gave me a smile and asked me if I remember Jennifer. I said of course, how can I forget and he started to step on his pedal.\n\nI saw little spark lighting up on the bike and..." ]	1
	[WP] how? HOW?! Can someone in this fucking room can explain to me how a villain with such a poor and useless ability has managed to eliminate 30 of our best heroes in less than a month!!	[ "The armored transport van rolling over the speed bump that preceded the Patrol headquarters parking complex woke Lejon from her brief slumber. With no digital clock to speak of in or around the van's dashboard, her options were asking the driver right beside her, whom she didn't know or want to know, or checking her phone. She was mindful to inspect her hands for blood before reaching into a pocket, and she found they were still clean from when she'd washed them with a bottle of hot water.\n\nIt was about 7, just a half hour or maybe an hour away from dusk settling into dark. Nothing was more pleasing a concept than going home now, taking a shower, but she couldn't. She still had site business to handle. As if to punctuate the thought, they passed over another speed bump as the driver navigated their van down five levels of concrete. She was braced for it, but their other passengers weren't. She heard a small, half-choked grunt from the back. She turned around as they pulled in and opened the screened partition between the van's cab and its back. Sure enough, three miserable looking thugs were crammed onto one side of the van, the other occupied by a pair of Patrolmen with rifles. They didn't seem comfortable, and she could sympathize. At least one of them wouldn't be able to exit the van under his own power after what she'd done to him. She winced just thinking about it.\n\nThe van came to a stop and she slid out of it. Realm and Aquilifer were already striding out of an elevator across the parking lot toward her. \n\nWhy Realm and Aquilifer to follow up on a boilerplate formal charging? she wondered. It seemed overkill for what usually involved some ridicule, a pair of handcuffs being applied if they hadn't already, and processing with the complex's security desk.\n\nShe consciously swaggered to the back of the truck, and the driver did not get out. She rapped a knuckle fiercely against the back doors, waited a second while they knocked back, then opened them. The Patrol boys climbed out and began hauling her get of the day on their feet. In the distant florescence cast from 15 feet above they looked even worse than they had in daylight; all three squirming to stay upright, covered in pustules and boils where she'd touched them, sprawling burns, keloids, and spongy bruises emanating outward from those spots. They looked similarly to survivors of lightning strikes who bore scars that cascaded down their torsos like a collapsing canopy. But instead of anything so relatively picturesque, weeping sores and mottled wounds. \n\nBefore she'd been conscripted into Service, they'd called her Lesion. Her new moniker and knightly costume were a pretty clever subversion of her former title, and the theme sort of worked if you likened what her power did to people to a lion mauling.\n\nWhen the two ranking heroes met her, she saluted with one raised fist across her chest. Aquilifer saluted back, Realm did not. \n\n\"Lejon, you're back with presents. Who are these guys?\" Realm inquired. \n\n\"Courtiers in Daemon's inner circle,\" she informed, \"his idea of a diplomatic envoy. Watch them.\" She gestured to the one bowed over by blotchy red and black sores that oozed beneath his blood-slick lime green dublet. His face sagged slightly, his jaw heavy on one side with a benign tumor where she'd planted her vise-like grip an hour earlier to force him to take his mask off. \n\n\"Care to tell me about them?\"\n\n\"Yes sir, this is Hode. Say hi, Hode.\"\n\n\"F--uhg off,\" he simply spat out, along with a mouthful of blood and phlegm. Lejon stopped herself from gagging. Realm made a face from beneath his hood, Aquilifer turned his helmet away. \n\n\"Mhm,\" Realm punctuated, \"mhmmm. So Hode, where to start? Last August you were riding high after that jewel job, posting all over the nets about how great your 'lossless' teleporters are. So were you already doing the butcher shop thing? Was that before or after boosting the onyx?\"\n\n\"You know.\" \n\n\"Right, all that blood on the scene in place of the jewel. Very fancy. I'm sure the boys down in the morgue know, but I wanna hear it from the man himself. Was that dog or a pig or what?\"\n\nHode parted the one eye that wasn't swollen and stared into Realm's hood. The confidence he carried despite looking like death itself and being disadvantaged without a mask slightly unnerved Lejon. \n\nHe licked his lips. \"All that matters... is that I got the transversal right. I made more money that day, covered in pigs blood, than you will in the entire rest of your career.\"\n\n\"You... made that money. You had that money. You had a villain career. Thanks to Lejon and possibly ironically enough thanks to Daemon, you don't have any of that now.\"\n\nHode craned his neck to look up at Lejon, standing almost parallel with him. He snickered, she bristled. \"Sure,\" he offered. \n\n\"So what I want to know about is where it all went wrong for you.\"\n\n\"Let's keep this relevant,\" Lejon asked. Realm and Aquilifer shot her a look that said 'speak when spoken too.'\n\n\"You mean after Daemon contacted me.\"\n\n\"He contacted you?\"\n\n\"You don't reach out to him. He'll come to you.\"\n\n\"The superlative 'you'?\"\n\n\"Don't fuck with me, badge-head. You know what I'm talking about.\"\n\nAt that, Realm crooked his head to one side and passed a furtive glance between Hode, Aquilifer, and the two black clad Patrol men, each with one of Hode's cohorts trapped trussed up at their sides. \n\n\"Incap them,\" Realm suggested to the Patrolmen. As they each backed a step away from their charges and snapped open their telescoping taser batons, Realm paused. \"Stop, actually. These guys might be lawyer'd. Lejon, look out. They're fighting back, aren't they?\"\n\nHer heart caught in her throat as she met Realm's gaze and turned to look-without-looking at Hode's flunkies. Whether they worked for Hode or were accompanying him on Daemon's command didn't matter, though she'd wondered about that before she'd fallen asleep. \n\nRealm knew. He knew she hated using her power. The ginger touch of her palm caused blossoming skin contortions, sustained contact working its way deeper deeper and outward into the epidermis. It was possible for people's skin to slough off. Their bodies simply began falling apart. It wasn't a death touch, there were villains like that. It was more like slow torture. \n\nThis was vetting. She resigned herself, foisted a hand underneath one of the thugs shirts onto his stomach. Long seconds later he couldn't stand upright either, a blemish blossoming on his navel and spreading like spilled water up his chest. She touched the other guy in the square of his back and he began trying to scratch it with his bound hands. He mumbled the word fuck with increasing hysteria as he tried and failed to itch himself as the two Patrolmen lead both of them away. \n\nRealm glanced at Aquilifer again and then briefly at her. All of a sudden, the florescence from above disappeared and was replaced by a soft orange-red natural tone. The heroes and villain were in a maze, surrounded on all sides by the beautiful topiary the creatures inside Realm's realm had cultivated according to his whim and want. Green-furred childlike ape creatures cut the maze while obscured behind it. The four of them were in a clearing cut into the middle of the maze.\n\nLejon knew. She'd been here before, during conscription. She'd felt the red sun beating down on her, suspended in an unnatural purple unchanging sky. She shuffled awkwardly in place, listening for the way her heels scraped against ancient stone and dust. She looked down. Still the dried blood there, eroding with each passing winter.\n\n\"Now you're in my domain,\" said Realm, \"and we're done having fun. You're going to tell my how a guy with such an underwhelming power like Daemon has killed over 30 heroes.\"\n\n\"He didn't kill shit. He's soft like that, hard in other ways.\"\n\n\"Eh?\" Aquilifer urked. \n\n\"I've killed before,\" remarked Hode. \"Before the primateria onyx, I found it convenient to 'port what I wanted and whack people at the same time. If I wanted a pendant off of someone's neck, I figure out how much they weigh from the neck up, estimate the weight of the jewel, then teleport a few grams of sand in place of the prize. In one fell swoop, I'd have what I wanted, they'd have a bag of sand engorged where there Adam's apple should be.\"\n\n\"Fascinating,\" Realm remarked. \"But you're stalling.\"\n\n\"Sirs, permission to retire from Patrol for the evening?\" Lejon piped hopefully.\n\n\"Denied Lejon, stay and help us crack this guy.\" said Realm. \n\nSo she'd stay. This was how it was sometimes. Realm's realm, Aquilifer's disabling, and Lejon to put the screws to their victim. Not her favorite way to cap off the work day.\n\n\"How?\" Realm inquired. \"How is he beating us? He's been in town for less than a year and our men keep dropping one after another, not showing up to work, disappearing in the middle of a patrol, becoming untraceable.\"\n\n\"I guess you'll just have to wait until he comes to you, huh?\" Hode intoned. Realm raised his head and turned toward Lejon, opening his mouth, but she was already following the order he was about to give. She plunged three fingers in a jab into his solar plexus and drove her fingers up to the fingernail into the skin as much as it would give. Hode bucked and screamed as his chest became a battleground of tangled scar tissue and fluid-containing contusions. \n\n\"His power!\" Hode roared. His voice was hoarse, suggesting a pressure in his abdomen that hadn't been there until recently. Lejon let up. \n\n\"Yeah?\" Realm asked.\n\n\"You know what it is, right?\"\n\n\"He's a spymaster, a sociopath. His power has something to do with collating intelligence and finding weak points. That's how he new Black Ice's wife had died, that's how he knew Vessel needed for other people to believe in him for his power to work. He lies, cheats, and blackmails.\"\n\nHode laughed hoarsely. \"Uh-uh, try again!\"\n", "He slammed his fists into the table. \n\"God damn it i want answers!\"\nOver the last month hero after hero had fallen victim to a new villian. Not just run of the mill average hero's either. Top Heavy, Pluto fist. Mama smash with near God like powers were completely and utterly powerless to stop this villian. The general demanded they explain why this villian was so unstoppable. \n\"Privilege sir.\"\nA scientist stood up at the table.\n\"She forces you to check your privilege and in doing so lose whatever amazing gifts the metahumans developed.\"\n\nThe general stared at him then asked \"What the hell kinda power is that?\"\n\nAnother man in a military uniform stood up.\n\"Sir, Based on the audio logs it appears \nThe subject can not only force you to speak to her, she can also understands every known language. Attempts with deaf hero's were also affected by her power. Once she makes a person realize they had it easier in any form of their lives then her. Her power then seals the hero's away. She also appears immune to most physical damage and has enhanced super strength.\n\nThe general paced. Attempting to calm down.\n\"Ok. So she can't remove someone's power if they have less privilege then Her? What do we know about her back ground?\"\n\nThe man from the C.I.A. pushed a docket across the table.\n\"She from a broken home living in the projects. Father left home for having a affair. Mother died of cancer. Reports of abusive uncle raised her. She started small time robberies. Shutting down lesser know hero's. But as time has gone on she's gained more and more power. Now she's ripping bank vaults out and walking down the street.\" \n\nThe general stood still for a moment. Mauling over the situation. \n\"We have been going about this the wrong way. Normally hero's that work for the government are high class citizens from wealthy back grounds. What we need is a group her power won't work on. . . contact the department of metahuman records. Give me the names of every homeless metahuman we can find!\" \n\nThat day the league of professional outdoorsmen was founded. \n\n", "The screen lights up, with a list of dead heroes. \n\"The man in the mask who showed up a month ago has eliminated 30 of our best so far. We are gathered here today to discuss how he has done this and evaded death.\" \n\"We have confirmed their ability is above average hearing. Their equipment consists of an ornamental mask and a relatively simple revolver.\" \nThe screen pulls up a 3d image of the mask and weapon, complete with labeled parts. \n\"We have not been able to confirm their identity, area of residence or anything else about them.\" \n\"They have killed 30 of our best in 27 separate locations across an 12 kilometer area in 28 days. They have done nothing other than target heroes.\" \n\"Maybe we got their ability wrong?\" \n\"The wounds, though varied, have all been traced back to this weapon. There are no signs of any ability use on the autopsies.\" \n\"Is it possible they have teleportation or something similar?\" \n\"Such a power is unheard of!\" \n\"None of the video feed we have shows signs of anything like that.\" \n\"And it is possible, though difficult, for one person to cover all of those locations.\" \nThe group of top heroes are silent for a while before one of their younger members nervously speaks up.\n\"Maybe it's not one person, but a bunch of people.\" \nThe group stares at him. \n\"We've recovered what we thought was their body several times, but no mask or weapon with it. All the bodies recovered were unrecognizably mutilated. So what if we did kill some of them, but not all of them?\" \n\"But how would all of them have the same power?\" \nHe thinks for a few moments. \n\"Maybe they don't have a power at all? Maybe it's something in the mask?\" \nA slow clap can be heard from behind the curtains of the now open window. Terrible realization crosses the heroes faces. \n\"Wonderful. Unfortunately, it's already too late.\" \nAs he speaks, and the heroes try to stand, the room erupts into gunfire. Several men and women in ornate masks enter, adding extra bullet holes to the corpses for good measure. \n\"And with this, the city will be ours.\" \nThe masks speak. \"Yes. Great job everyone.\" \n\n\n" ]	3
	[WP] Multiple times throughout your life you have had a strange feeling that you just came very close to dying. You just found out that you, in fact, died each and every time, but your consciousness was transferred to another you in a parallel universe.	[ "On my morning commute to work, I almost died.\n\nListening to a podcast sent me into my zombie-like driving state. I traveled down a cyclic countryside route that is usually empty. This particular morning I drove listening to a bizarre discussion about the proposed idea of using pigeon-guided homing missiles during the second world war. The podcast host was busy explaining the training methods when an approaching car swerved onto my side of the road. In hindsight, I should have veered to the right, but in the panic, I swerved left. I avoided the car, but not the immovable oak, which had occupied the same spot for hundreds of years.\n\nMy last thought was that this was it. This is how I die. My neck snapped forward, my head hit the airbag, and my vision doubled until I eventually blacked out.\n\nI woke sometime later. My first thought was to brace for the pain, expecting my body's trauma to fire off warning signals. But I felt better than before. I opened my eyes, and I was hunched over the steering wheel, but the airbag wasn't there. The steering wheel was stranger than the lack of airbag. A VW badge lay where there should have been a Ford logo. Looking around I realised I was in a different car.\n\nMy eyes caught on the rearview mirror. Not my eyes. I must have really hit my head because I was looking back at a twenty-something-year-old woman. I turned my head, and the woman in the mirror turned with me. I lifted a hand and pinched a cheek. Manicured nails appeared in the mirror and pulled at the waxy surface of the woman's face.\n\n'Hello.' I said in a female voice.\n\nI scoured my body. Breasts, arms, hands, flat stomach and jeans so tight that I worried my feet would starve. I unbuckled my seatbelt and opened the door. I slid from the car that was not mine, in a body that was not mine and found myself stood in the centre of the winding road.\n\nMy car is behind me, hugging a behemoth of a tree. I walked towards it and found my legs were unstable, not because of a crash or any disorientation but because of a pair of damned high-heels. I tore the pair from my feet and tossed them in the opposite direction. The road surface was cold, layered with a fine mist of morning dew that felt refreshing against my skin. Loose bits of asphalt dug into the balls of my feet, but I didn't care. I only needed to get to my car.\n\nI drew level with the wrecked Ford, which now looked more like a two-seater than the five-seater. The driver and passenger seats were crumpled to non-existence, and I had the strangest thought. I could have died. I should have died. I found myself perplexed. I looked through the thin slit that had been the passenger side window and saw a man's hand, hung outstretched as if pointing. My wedding ring clung to the dead man's finger, flecked with a fine mist of blood. I had died.\n\nThe car's radio crackled and continued to spurt the absurdly trivial factoid.\n\n'You see the entire Pigeon Project failed, not because of review boards or scientists claiming the idea was mad. No, the Pigeon Project failed because of the budget.' A cheerful voice chimed.\n\n'You're kidding me?' Another said.\n\nA shrill whine interrupted the podcast. It echoed around the half-crushed car and then a voice cut across.\n\n'Ma'am, I was too late. I had to resort to another course of action.'\n\nA pause.\n\n'No he is still with us. Just slightly different in this universe.'\n\n&#x200B;\n\n/r/WrittenThought" ]	1
	[WP] Humans are seen as a low-tier race within the realm, and with no combat capabilities they can only do the dirtiest jobs. But now a nation is seeking humans, recruiting them to become "pilots" of the new aircrafts that subsequently can only be flown by humans due to their small bodies.	[ " We have lurked in the shadows since time out of mind. All my life has been like that,and so has been the lives of all my ancestors,as far as our books - which is a rare thing,even amongst our own - reach. Among Goliaths,Titans,Elemental Beasts and even Gods,Humans are mere insects. The Thousand Nations have been in peace for two millenia now,but the tension has never quite ended. Whenever different races or Nations met, there would be a conflict of such immense proportions,it could last dozens of human lifes and destroy incredible amounts of land. \n Actually,if you took the time to analyze our world,everything has ridiculous proportions. Every race has immense size or power,and even advanced technology (which we didn't have the luxury to care about).There are a thousand nations,and the very planet would be considered a giant,even for cosmic proportions. For our gravity is so strong,every creature is way stronger and bulkier than what would be considered normal, and our planet has its own system of moons and other smaller planets. There are hundreds of thousands of landscapes and ecosystems. So much that our race,small,punny creatures whose only purpose is to wander and sneak,have never seen even a small fraction of it.\n If any of us had the time - or courage - to think or study the world,we would probably stop and say: 'what the fuck.' \n What kind of divine joke is this?! In such a ridiculously enormous world,we HAD to be such minuscule,disgraceful creatures?!\n Not that complaining really did anything. In fact, it only made our existance even more miserable. We prefer to close our eyes and just survive.\n At least,whichever god created us had some pity - the kind of pity one would show towards a hurt deer by breaking its neck - and gave us a low lifespan - not that we kept track of the years,but anyways.\n If my age were to fall somewhere in our lifespan spectrum,it would be near the end. Little did I know, I had 46 years. Wrinkles and laugh expressions could be seen carved in my face,and my eyes were deep and vague,always focused on some faraway spot,empty.\n Those same eyes looked up,to an incredibly high roof. Everything in that enormous steel building was grand and tall. That had once been a Titan's Orr,or a Titan House,now turned into a Human Colony,one of the last ones.\n I went up a stairway,carved into the rock and steel of the original stairway of the bulding, wich was way too big for a human. \n As soon as I arrived at the seventh level of the building,a floor partially destroyed,with fallen pillars and gigantic columns,I heard a high-pitched scream,and a small child running towards me. \n It was my daughter.\n \"Lillac!\" I yelled,surprised at the roughness of my own voice. I felt a great happiness for the first time in years. The last time I saw my own daughter,she was just a toddler,less than a year old. Since I went on the expedition,I had barely remembered what the very idea of happiness was. And there it was,now less than 50 feet from me, running towards me with a bright smile and a ponytail. \n 40 feet.\n 30 feet.\n I started running in her direction with open arms.\n 10 feet.\n Boom.\n We were nearly touching,when we both fell to our side. In the open part of the floor there was now a fleet of advanced ships,beyound any human's comprehension. And for the first time ever,Humans had seen something scaled for them,but not built BY them - not gigantic like everything else in the world.\n I sit,hugging my daughter,trying to protect her inside my embrace. Eventhough my body was telling me to run,that it was an enemy attack,something inside of me convinced me to stay. \n Behind the ships,but not piloting them,there was an army of Deities,creatures between the Beasts and Gods in the hierarchy of things. But those deities... I have seen many Deities,but never ones like these: they changed form as the eye moved,ranging from anthropomorphic,tribal owls to machines or monsters,then back to humanoid shapes,such as a child or a woman,and with colors new to the human eye,however that was possible. They were... Good deities. Deities of Elkin. Technologically advanced,neutral Deities. The imparcial judges of the world. \n Everyone else was running,not knowing what those alien creatures were,screaming in despair. \n \"Stay!\" someone yelled. To my surprise,it was me. \n \"Stay.\" echoed a smooth,organic yet mechanical voice. Everyone stopped. \"Fear not. You have been requested. For every human must be trained,from young age,to the piloting of the Kimîra,the ships faded to bringing peace and justice to the Thousand Nations. The age of the Human has started.\"\n\n\nNotes: I'm not a native english speaker,so sorry for any grammar mistakes and for my lack of fancy words and writing. The ending was way more cliché than I intended it to be,so sorry for that. I'm a beginner,but I hope you enjoyed it! :)" ]	1
	[WP] A new surgery puts a chip into your brain that makes you superhuman. It gives you strength, speed, etc. But only the rich and middle class can afford it. One day, everyone with a chip in their head goes rabid and begins killing each other.	[ "In 2025 they came up with a new device. It's called The Chip . It gives you superhuman strength. Only rich people or the middle class could afford to have it implanted. See it's literally just a small computer chip that's implanted in a certain area of the brain. When it's activated you all of a sudden have this power to be more. Only problem was the company DataRite never released the problems they saw during tests. They only looked at it as how much money they could make. Since only a few people turned after they had been chipped for a year the company figured it was just something they needed to tweak. Never fully understanding just how bad of a problem they had created. Six months later ....\n\n Trevor carefully opens the door opening it only inches to peek into the allyway. \"Joe I don't see anyone\" Trevor whispers. \" Are you sure? Open the door wider and look out towards the road.\" Joe quietly says into Trevor's ear. \" It's clear let's get the hell out of here.\"Trevor says as he slowly inches his way out the door into the alley. \n\nMoving down the alley on total alert. Both scanning the alley from left to right. Stopping to listen every couple of feet. \" We need to get the fuck out of town . I knew those chips were a bad idea. When I saw that dude come out of his office wearing his suit covered in blood ,and foaming at the mouth it was gonna be a fucked up day!\" Joe complains as he's steadily observing the street ahead.\"You! What about Reggie ? He saved for 6 months ! He saved every cent he made ,moved to the streets,gave up everything just to get one of those chips! He never had a chance to even realize his dreams .I don't get what people wanted with it. You know I totally get the superhuman aspect of it but the whole messing with your brain thing Nah,not fer me!\" Trevor says disgruntled. \n\nAs the two are trying to get down the road without being seen they walk upon two men coming out of an apartment building. One is foaming at the mouth screaming at the other guy \" COME HERE YOU LITTLE BITCH Randy YOU KNOW I WOULD NEVER HURT YOU\"\n \"Jim look at yourself if you were me you'd run too!\" The Randy says as he's backing away from Jim. Both men look at each other . They know to much attention drawn their way could potentially be like screaming into a bullhorn ( come get me). They grab Randy and all three take off running around the corner when Randy says \"I have an Old Ford Bronco parked over in that parking garage. It's full of supplies. After that news broadcast two days ago about some messed up side affect of people who've been chipped ,I started getting supplies around and stashing them in my Bronco. That guy was Jim my old high school buddy. This morning I opened my door and he was just standing in the hall with shit coming out of his mouth like a rabid dog.\" \n\nThey get to the garage hoping not to be seen as they sneak around in the shadows until they happen upon the Bronco. Oddly enough it's dam near empty and no one seems to be around. \" Where the hell we gonna go? This city is full of Chipped assholes. \" Joe states as he scans around the garage. \"Out of the city towards more rural areas\" Randy says as he fumbles with his keys trying to unlock the door. \" \" Yeah I agree! Only rich fucks n dumbasses got chipped. Only thing is they have lost their minds and are like fucking Superman on crack! Oh and they fucking bite on top of it!\" Trevor half yells! \n\n\"Look we just gotta get out of the city. I used to work for the city planner . This town has a tunnel system we can drive through. It's from when they were gonna put in a Subway system but there's too much water and the tunnels under half the city kept caving in so they scrapped it we can use part of those tunnels to get most of the way out of here without being seen. \" Randy says as he pulls out a bag containing a few assualt riffles. \"Plus with these bad boys we might be able to knock down any Chipped ones who try to get at us.\" \" Hell Yeah! The news briefing said they were strong but not bulletproof! Fuck yeah dude ! Great thinking! By the way I'm Joe and he's Trevor\" . \n\n\"Oh Shit! Your buddy Jim is coming this way! Joe says as he grabs a riffle from Randy. \"Is this loaded? \" Joe says as he points the riffle at Jim. \" Yeah just flip the safety.\" Randy says as him and Trevor climb in the Bronco. Joe pulls the trigger and Jim stumbles but doesn't fall. \" Hit him in the heart dude! There dam near Superman but a bullet through the heart should drop him\". Randy excitedly yells as he starts the truck. Joe pulls the trigger again taking careful aim and drops Jim where he was about to lunge. Joe gets into the Bronco and the three burn the tires out of the parking garage.\n\n\nEdit: added some. missing words wrong names.\n", "It starts off as a small whisper. Kill. You ignore it like all of your other tedious thoughts. Slowly, howver, the voice gets louder. Kill her. You start to think about how'd you do it. How you could actually get away with it. Honestly, it wouldn't be that hard to hide the body. The most important thing would be to rid yourself of suspicion. You continue to think about it until you go through with it. You know you're not thinking clearly but you can't ignore the voice. Its. Too. Loud.\n\nYou walk outside after to clear your head. You see someone else. Your neighbor. Your kids go to school together. He asks what was on your shirt. You smile. Kill him. \n\nSoon, you're not the only one killing. Everyone is. They think they can hurt you. You hear laughter. It's yours. You listen to the voice as you continue on with your daily routine;\n\nKill.\n\nKill.\n\nKill.\n\nYou've been shot. You ignore the pain and continue.\n\nKill.\n\nKill.\n\nKill.\n\nKill.\n\nYou kill a woman who was trying to kill a child. The child thanks you. You stare him in the eyes as you slit his throat. Killing is a game now and you're not going to lose.\n\nKill.\n\nKill.\n\nKill.\n\nKill.\n\nKill.\n\nOooh, squirrel!\n\nKill.\n\nKill.\n\nKill.\n\nKill.\n\nKill.\n\nKill.\n\nYou go back home after an eventful dame and pour yourself some cereal. Your kids come downstares, scared of what they're hearing on the news. The voice in you're head is quiet. You kill them anyways.", "His parents were the CEOs of a world-famous company. His room's fixtures were all encrusted with diamonds and sparkled lustrously. And his head's inside housed a chip.\n\nThis chip, so lovingly crafted by his parents, made a human crush all the boundaries that \"limited them to what nature gave them\", as the company motto said. It tugged on the strings of the brain, meticulously rearranging the insides to give the human race more strength, speed, and durability than evolution had ever given them. \n\nIt was nighttime. He fingered a yellow Ticonderoga pencil, snapping it in half with a small flick of his thumb. The broken halves dropped to the lushly carpeted floor of his suite silently. He then plucked another one out of the box of twelve, proceeding to do the same.\n\nLife, he guessed, wasn't fun anymore without the physical challenges that the poor faced. He wondered what it was like to be poor, manufacturing all of the chips and goods that the rich used. Maybe it was fun.\n\nBefore his train of thought could continue through his rapidly-thinking brain, a sudden agonizing flash of pain ripped through his head. It felt like an awl was being driven through this skull and straight through his brain. He collapsed to the floor screaming, a sound so agonizing that the mere noise of it made him scream in pain more. He clawed uselessly at his head with meticulously trimmed nails, trying to rip his brain out of his skull.\n\nBefore that could ever be achieved, a deep, primal rage boiled up in him like a teakettle. Without thinking twice, he bolted out of his room, slamming right through the lacquered oak door. The splinters stuck in his neatly cropped hair and cut little red slashes in his rosy, healthy cheeks. \n\nHe bolted down the hallway with hunched shoulders, straight for his parents' room. With a single flick of his index finger, it shattered like a sheet of ice. \n\nHis parents are snuggled together reading a book, goose down blankets bunched up around their bodies. He lunges for the two of them recklessly, a slave to his mind. \n\n\"What the fuck are you doin-\" The father's angry question is cut short by the boy sinking his white, plaque-free teeth into his windpipe. A strangled, pained gurgle and his body falls limp on the plush pillow, eyes as wide as dinner plates. \n\nHis mother lets out an agonized scream as she realizes what her son has done. \"YOU MONSTER! YOU-\" He bares his bloody teeth in a feral snarl and chokes his mother with his smooth-skinned hands. \n\nBoth of the boy's parents are dead. He lopes over to the floor-to-ceiling window on the side of their room, leaps out of it, and falls in a broken, bloody heap to the ground.\n", "The silence is deafening and there's no natural light but at least I'm safe. For now anyway. They don't know about the shelter. The only other who does know built it and he's as good as dead.\n\nIt started about 2 years ago. I'd been micro-chipping animals for a few years and was bored. I experimented with the chip and changed it's software somehow. My brother is like me, loves anything out of the ordinary. It took a while but he convinced me to implant to chip in him. He was the first. Before long I couldn't hide his new found speed and strength, not that he wanted me to - he loved it. Soon I was getting requests. People wanted to pay me obscene amounts of money to have the chip implanted. Call it greed call it curiosity I couldn't turn them down. Curiosity killed the cat. \n\nThe chip became a fad. The rich had to have it, the poor couldn't afford it. I was like a god, a creator of a new super race. Most people got super speed or strength. A rare few got invisibility or x-ray vision. These would turn out to be the dangerous ones. Too much radiation or something I guess. \n\nInitially the change was subtle. I didn't notice it or maybe I didn't care. The first sign of something wrong was the rise in deaths in the posh neighbourhoods, cause: rabies. All bodies had teeth marks so the authorities put it down to some kind of rabid animal. It wasn't till I saw the marks on my brother and an increase in his aggression that I had to accept something had gone wrong. I wasn't the only one that suspected it was the chips. Soon I was getting death threats from families of my 'victims'. I was scared. I asked my brother to build this shelter and it took him all of one minute. That's the last I saw of him. \n\nThe outside world is chaos. The rich are killing the rich and now even those without the chip are in danger. The man hunt, that sent me death threats, are killing anyone who they think is infected. Even the working class aren't safe. I have some in this shelter with me. A final act of kindness if you will before I try finish what I started. I just hope it's not Too late to save myself. " ]	4
	[WP] Your entire societal hierarchy is based on an IQ test you get when you’re born. Your parents had the highest ever recorded IQ. You were born with a perfectly average IQ, and your a complete disappointment to the entire upper class.	[ "My mother looked over my report card and sighed. She said that Dad wasn't going to be happy. That's nothing new.\n\nFrom the time I was born, neither of my parents were really impressed with me. Although my mother showed me the love that only a mother could, my father could never get past my average birth scores.\n\nNo matter how many awards I won, how far I made it in the spelling bee or how well I did on the field my father always expected more. After all, I am his son.\n\nMy dad, Time Person of the Year, for four years in a goddamn row, is the perfect human being. He holds the highest birth scores ever recorded. And today will be his final day on Earth.\n\nIts about six, so I know he's been home for 30 minutes or so. He's predictable like that. He's probably downstairs listening to mom complain about my Bs in Chemistry and Trigonometry.\n\nI load the gun, ready for him to barge through my door. When he's dead, he'll be just like everybody else. Then I can stand on even footing with my dad.\n\nThe door opens, I didnt even hear him make his way up the stairs. \n\n\"I have some good news.\" He says. I dont get a chance to hear him tell me what it is.\n\nMy father lies limp on the floor of my bedroom. I can hear my mom calling our names from the kitchen downstairs. Asking what that noise was.\n\nNext to his body, theres a piece of paper. I grab it. \n\nIt's a note from Alchemilla Hospital. It reads that a clerical error fifteen years ago resulted in my birth scores being fudged. I focus on that. Nothing else matters. \n\nI place the barrel on my right temple. I wonder if he was finally proud of me or if he had regrets of any kind. I know I have some regrets." ]	1
	[WP] The snails in medieval manuscripts seem pointless now, but in historical times, they were meant as a warning...	[ "\nI was on one of my nightly walks down by the museum of history near the ocean when I saw what at first looked like little more than a curiosity to me. Honestly, I might have just passed it by if I wasn’t feeling so bored and aimless.\n\nThere were some smooth rocks jutting out into the ocean from the street I was on where it swung towards the museum.\n\nAnd I mean, like an unusual amount of them. Dozens at least.\n\nThey had orange shells, and they were moving in some strange patterns. What’s more, they were leaving behind trails that were abnormal, to say the least. They glowed with an eerie green phosphorescence.\n\nAfter watching them for a minute, I realized that they were starting to look like English letters.\n\nThat wasn’t possible, was it? The symbols were forming all at the same time, but naturally, I focused on the letters forming on the left, since I was used to reading left to right. \n\nThat first one looked a lot like a “T.” This was getting wild. \n\nIn the middle, there was a straight character and a winding one. That looked a whole lot like “IS.” Towards the end, I saw “T- I-”\n\nMy heart started beating faster. This was wild.\n\nAt the same time as that was happening, there was one, significantly large rock to one side that looked like it could fit one of those smart cars on it. I hadn’t noticed before because of the Spelling Snails, but little blue, yellow, orange and green-shelled snails were slithering up onto it out of nowhere.\n\nThis wasn’t dozens, this looked more like hundreds. And instead of moving in a pattern-\n\nThey were moving in a huge, perfect circle that glowed with an unearthly green light.\n\nI was frozen in place.\n\nI was a statue.\n\nThe pattern and the circle completed at roughly the same time.\n\nIt read:\n\n“The Time is Nigh, Human.”\n\nThe huge circle connected together with all the snails working in perfect synchrony. As soon as it did, the space inside the rock also started to glow. Getting brighter and brighter until-\n\nI realized I could see through it. On the other side, there was some alien world with ocean and rocks as far as the eye could see, and moving into view in front of it, was a monster.\n\nIt had a swirling orange shell and a big hungry mouth with rows of teeth in it. It moved much faster than you would think a snail was capable of, and in no time flat, it had slithered out of the portal over the rock, and up onto the street where I was standing.\n\nA monster snail the size of a car.\n\nStatues like myself were not good at moving, so I just sat transfixed, half expecting it to eat me.\n\nInstead, it moved past me and ate a car parked in front of the beach. Its huge antenna unfurled up towards the sky a few feet, and its pale orange body lunged forward, letting its mouth envelop the blue Honda by its back wheel. It lifted it off the ground and began chewing, making horrible screeching noises and shattering glass and crunching steel.\n\nThis was my opportunity to shriek like a little girl and run, which I took full advantage of, for my part.\n\nSomehow, I managed to get over to the museum entrance and hide behind a trashcan. The monster snail seemed content to chew on its car though, and only looked over at me once or twice, probably deeming me beneath its notice.\n\nNo argument here. Still, I was too terrified to move and make it change its mind.\n\nI crouched there for what felt like a hundred years but had no idea how long it actually was. A small strange thing among much stranger things is that during this time somehow a tattoo formed on my shoulder. It looked like a turtle on a tree. There was a shield on the turtle’s back.\n\nBefore I could even contemplate the meaning of this, the police showed up.\n\nUnfortunately, they just sat there not doing anything at first.\n\nUntil the snail finished the car and started moving toward them. Then they opened fire on it.\n\nThose bullets just bounced right off those shells, not even a scratch. This time the snail did make a lunge for the police officer, grabbing him by the leg with those teeth until the cops got smart and all ran.\n\nSo they were man-eaters after all.\n\nMeanwhile, I noticed more snails were gathering on a rock in a little forest next to the museum. Another portal formed, and another snail came out, this one the size of a horse with a purple shell. Through the portal, I could see a forest scene. The snail moved even faster than Car-Snail, and made a beeline for me.\n\nSomehow my body had been ready for this eventuality, and I picked up the metal trash can and tossed it right through the museum’s front glass doors, making alarms blare everywhere. As I flew into the museum, I managed to see further into the city out of the corner of my eye.\n\nThere was a snail the size of a skyscraper chewing on a building there. In the distance, I heard screams and explosions.\n\nWhat could I possibly even do at this point? What could any of humanity do? It was too late. We needed more time.\n\nAs I ran, with a speedy hungry snail behind me, I noticed that there were a lot of little snails all over the place in here as well.\n\nAll forming circles.\n\nSome of them were following me too.\n\nAs I was looking around, somehow I crashed right into a suit of armor in a medieval display. The armor crashed down all around me and knocked into other displays, which also crashed. The snail following me was delayed by all the confusion.\n\nA group of angry looking small snails were forming a circle right next to me, and I prepared for the end.\n\nBut it didn’t come. Instead, the portal that formed in the floor showed a medieval scene, complete with knights and a castle.\n\nThat was it! The portals had something to do with what they were created near! Had they accidentally created a time portal?\n\nSo, there was only one chance to save the future-\n\nIt was critical I get to get to the past.\n\nReaching out with my hand, I grabbed a few of the infernal snails and put them in my pocket.\n\nWe would have time to figure it all out.\n\nAnd right before I jumped into the past, I saw some figures moving to attack the snail behind me. They carried swords that glowed with that same phosphorescent green hue as the trail the snails left behind. Their swords went right through the snail's shell like a hot knife through butter.\n\nThey carried similar shields with snail knights on them and that’s when I realized I was completing a circuit.\n\nThere would be an order maybe, to save the future:\n\nThe Order of the Snail.\n\n\n\n\nFind more of my work at:\n\nr/realityzero\n", "Head swimming, chest painful, limbs heavy. The air seemed... damp. Each breath seemed to suck in as much moisture as air. Still delirious, I peeled my arm off the floor, covered in stale slime, and pulled up the visor on my helmet, just to make my breathing that bit easier. \n\nI figured out that I wasn't blind, it was just dark in here. A few stray beams of moonlight reached down into the crevasse. My horse was nowhere to be seen. Poor thing had gotten spooked, threw me off, and I rolled down the slope into this putrid hollow. Where the hell was I?\n\nI tested my extremities before putting them to work, lifting me up from the ground. A layer of dirt and some slime followed me, soiling the heraldry emblazoned across my chest. I tried to wipe it off, but I simply smeared it. Dreadful stuff. \n\nI glanced up the dirty slope, towards the moon. The clouds were fading away, giving me better view of the pit I found myself in. Rock above my head, mud and loose gravel forming the hill. I braced myself, and started marching upwards. I had places to be! Men to lead! But it seemed that he above had other ideas, for the embankment of pebbles collapsed under my feet, and I slid back down. Annoyance was starting to overtake my pain. I was supposed to lead a night-time flanking ambush on the enemy, and being seperated in the dark from my own men would not do. I ran at the slope again, but to no avail. I made it a bit further up, and fell back again. I wasn't getting out this way. Perhaps I could follow the gorge, and find another egress further along?\n\nI tightened the straps on my armour and checked my sword. Still in its scabbard, it was clean of the filth that coated the rest of me. It would have to do. \n\nI made it only a few paces along the path when I came upon a strange object. The size of my own torso, a smooth spiral lay fractured on the ground. It looked almost like a snail shell, where it not so obscenely large. And what was that? More of them, the same size or smaller, littered the gorge around me. What manner of pest was this? The thought of such creatures was truly revolting, and I almost heaved in my weakened state. I shook my head clear and pressed onward, trying not to take breaths too deep. I could swear the stench was getting worse. Wetter. And then a hint of something else, something familiar. My hand instinctively went to my sword. What was that horrid smell? It reminded me of the battlefield the day after. Yes, fresh meat, soiled underwear, ruptured innards. I slowly drew my weapon and held it out before me.\n\nI ducked under a boulder wedged between the walls, and when I brought my head back up, I was met with a vile scene. There on the rocks lay my horse, flank torn open, and suckling on its juices was a colossal snail. Far larger than the empty shells littering the gorge around us, it seemed to have thrice as much mass as the horse it was feeding upon, with a shell as tall as I was. One of its eyes turned on its stalk as I cursed aloud. The fringes of its body rippled as it begun to advance on me, oozing over my fallen steed, its meal. I stepped backwards, and my helmet connected with the low hanging boulder. Lights flashed in my eyes as my brain rattled around in my skull. The snail was quicker than its smaller brethren, and was almost upon me by the time I could focus again. It raised some kind of kind of milky white tendril, partially transparent. I saw something move within the appendage.\n\nTaking my sword in both hands, I swung and cleaved the tendril off just as a barbed spear shot forth from it. It fell limply before me rather than skewering me through the chest, leaking poison. The abominable snail didn't seem fazed, and merely withdrew its proboscis lazily as it continued to advance. Faced with the option of standing my ground or fleeing through the gap behind me. I showed the beast what a knight can do, slicing off an eye stalk then raising my blade above my head before bring it down right along the creatures head. I cleaved a mighty slash partway into its glistening body, causing it to ooze pus-like fluid and retreat into its shell. Another white tendril snaked out of the shell's opening, but I simply took it in one hand while using the other to drive my sword deep into the creature's flesh. This seemed to finally put it down. Such a simple creature needs little of its contents in order to function, but I was confident that it wouldn't get back up.\n\nHe was a good warhorse, difficult to replace, but I had no time to honour him properly. I had to contend with searching my saddlebags for my shield and spare sword. I threw the shield on my back and took a sword in each hand. I needed a way out of this damned crevasse. I ran again at the slope, but just as it started to crumble under me, I threw my weight against it and planted my swords deep into the earth. My feet found little purchase, but I had two handholds. My bones still ached from the fall, but I simply had to grit my teeth as I pulled one of the swords free and stabbed it in higher up. \n\nIt was a tricky climb, and several times I had to rest, leaning my whole body against the embankment for purchase. Eventually, only one of my swords made it to the top. Breathless, I slumped down on the wet night time grass, drinking in the fresh air, feeling clean water against my skin. But I couldn't stop yet. The moon hung low above a peak I knew. I was close to the battlefield. I pulled myself off the floor and peered out over the land. What I saw stopped my heart. \n\nDead men lay scattered across the meadow, pouring out of the forest, crushed under their barricades. The remains of the enemy encampment was smouldering. Men wearing my own banner lay beside the fallen enemy. And over it all, hundreds of spiralled shells glided over the fields. Most of the same size as the one I slew, but I saw one that was unmistakably massive, ten times the size of the others around it. And other snails, almost as big, further way, feasting on the dead that collected on the bank of a river. Hell lay before me, cast in moonlight.\n\nMovement nearby drew my attention. A horse, dressed in enemy colours. I whistled for it, drawing the attention of a nearby snail. It cantered towards me, not recognising me as one who would have cut him down had I arrived earlier. I tore the banner away and mounted it, spurring it into a gallop, leaving the snails behind. I had to warn everybody else. \n\n\n*\n\n\nThis was weird, but if you liked it, then other prompt responses by me and u/Scifiase can be found over on our writing suub, r/Keytfu." ]	2
	[WP] You’re cheating on your wife with a guy but you don’t know that your wife is also cheating with the same guy. One day you go out to dinner to talk about your marriage and the guy finds you both and talks with you and your wife.	[ "(This was actually so difficult for me. Had to do some queer spin on it though.)\n\nMaybe we just got together too soon. I’ve heard plenty of stories of highschool sweethearts spending their entire lives together. I had dated a few times, some of the guys, but when she transferred, everyone else was boring. At first it was just the new face, more exciting stage, but we loved each other even if the religious drones condemed us to hell. It was her first relationship, but she always stated how she wanted it to be her only one and that was enough for me. \n\n Five years into marriage, that’s when things went down. That’s what the whole dinner was really about. Nan had set the whole thing up, dinner at the the Lowery Palace, that magical place where she proposed first. Maybe she knew what I was doing and public places are the perfect place to call people out on their bullshit. I deserved it, but there was many other things I could bring back. We never made a scene, but of course the Palace would be the perfect place to start. \n\n Nan left the bathroom, supposedly and I took it all in. The high rise ceiling felt that it went on forever. I grinned at the scene on the ceiling. It changed every year. This year was a pleasant forest scene, viewing from the bottom and up on the canopy, where sunlight filtered in a fake birds colored against the green. To the right, I noticed the bar. For years I had wanted to work at this place instead of the dive bar. Yeah, the clients were different, but to be surrounded by gorgeous details instead of the smell piss and rotting wood panels. \n\n And of course Taylor would be here. His smile penetrated my tension, but he had that perfect smile. As much as Lowery Palace was a dream job for me, Taylor was the part I didn’t want. We met at my bar, I winked and served him a drink, and we became fast friends, talking about work and my relationship. Of course we developed our own relationship, sexual and everything. I loved Nan, but Taylor provided me something that had been missing the past few years. \n\n Normally I’d match his smile, but the growing grin went back to stoic as Nan sat down, blocking my view of Taylor. The feelings from our last adventure causing heat in my cheeks. Thank you makeup. \n\n “Should we start with an appetizer, Robin?” she asked, smiling. As happy as Taylor made me by touch, Nan could still do it with much fewer muscles.\n\n “What about the kalamari? It’s always good here.” She nodded and spoke to the waiter who walked over when he realized Nan was back in her seat. \n\n “Ready to order?” \n\n “Please, give us a few minutes.”\n\n Her tone was not comforting. Sharp enough to let the waiter know that it might be a bit longer than a few minutes. \n\n “So what’s this all about?” Her face was puzzled and then I sighed. “We don’t normally come to the Palace and I know I didn’t forget a birthday or anniversiery.” That was her speciality. \n\n She sighed. “I guess this is as good as time to talk about us.” This was it, she knew. She paused, but she didn’t say anything. She squeezed her eyes shut and I saw tears crawl out of her eyes. She hadn’t said a word yet and this was hard to see. \n\n Before she could say anything, a man put down two wine glasses and then a third. I turned to the side and watched Bert start to fill Nan’s glass and then my own. Then he filled a third one and sat in the chair in front of it. He clasped his hands in front of him and said, “Hello, ladies.”\n\n The sight of him paralyzed me and with great pain, I turned and looked at Nan who looked even more horrified. \n\n “Oh, hello sir,” Nan said. “I think you have the wrong table.” She laughed. \n\n “Yeah, just the two of us. Couple date.” Taylor shook his head and took off his name tag. \n\n “Oh, a couple,” he said, taking a sip of the wine. “Nan, Robin, what’s this about?” Neither of us said anything, just turned and looked at each other. His fist clenched and shook. “So you two are married. To each other.”\n\n “Taylor, look I can explain!” Nan beat me to the words that were about to erupt out. \n\n “Oh Taylor. I guess you two were waiting for your third to join you. Ready to order?” The waiter took out his pen and pad. \n\n “I’ll have the fish. Steak for this young lady and then another fish for her.” He pointed at me and then Nan. “That’s what you guys want right.”\n\n “Right,” the two of us agreed. Of course Taylor would know my favorite food.\n\n “Look, I knew you guys were married, but to each other? God I’m really regretting fucking you.”\n\n “Robin, I can explain.” My jaw dropped. \n\n “You’ve been fucking Taylor too?” I asked. \n\n “Too? Oh my god.” Nan stopped and tore at the fried Kalamari that they just put out. \n\n “Well that stops now.” Taylor crossed his arms and leaned back, sharply inhaling. “Look I’m glad you took my advice, Nan, but why here at my job.”\n\n “We were engaged here.”\n\n “Oh, god, Nan, really. I’m not surprised. Is that why you been liking the strap-on lately. Thinking of him?” My anger hurt me more than it hurt her. I was cheating on her too. \n\n “No, but it felt good. The strap-on and him. Wait, is that what started the whole baby talk.” Ah yess the baby talk. We always wanted one even as high schoolers, we talked about who would carry, but the lack of a baby was the start of the heated debate. \n\n “Wow,” Taylor said. “At least that’s one good thing about all this.”\n\n “Please, I don’t think your ego needs this right now.” I snapped at him. “Please, Nan, not this again. We fight about everything, from the fridge to the cars. Babies don’t fix this.”\n\n Nan looked down and crossing her arms. “I’m just tired of it all. This all started because we couldn’t agree on a donor and it never stopped. You always found a problem with them.” I opened my mouth to protest and looked at Taylor who nodded. Okay, maybe she was right. I did have particulars but that didn’t mean it was my fault. “I just feel trapped.” She paused and looked at Taylor, smiling. “I guess it’s my fault for settling so young.”\n\n Oh, no she didn’t. “Sorry you settled for your high-school sweetheart. Sorry that you only wanted one and only, but I guess you messed that one up yourself.” Throwing back her own wedding vows felt dirty, but I had heard that one so many times I was about to vomit. Instead I gulped the wine. \n\n Taylor sighed. “I’ll tell you guys what. You’re a lot more enjoyable when you talk about each other. I couldn’t fuck either one of you without mentioning your spouse. Guess I never thought you two were gay.”\n\n Well, we weren’t. Or rather I wasn’t. I had plenty men all throughout high school. Yeah, I had crushes for girls before Nan transferred, but once I saw them with their boyfriends, the feelings faded. \n\n “I didn’t mean it like that, Robin.” She stared at me, almost crying. I felt bad hitting her like that, but I wouldn’t have taken it back even if I could. Our food arrived in the silence that followed. We ate quietly, the scraping of plates and utensils screaming louder than any of us. \n\n “I just wanted something different, but I still want you.” Nan looked up and I giggled at her, pointing to the mashed potatoes on the side of her mouth. \n\n “Well, let’s try something different together,” I suggested. Yeah, it sounded corny. Turning toward Taylor, I asked, “So you had no clue what we were together. How many girls do you fuck?”\n\n “On the regular?”\n\n “Sure.” I sighed and shuddered to think of the answer. \n\n “You two. Don’t give me that look Nan. I’m not some manwhore, but I do go after what I like. Now don’t kill me, Robin, but maybe some couple therapy could help you.”\n\n Oh I wanted to kill him. \n\n “I don’t think that’ll work. Taylor, as much fun as this has been, I think we need to talk without you and your dick interfering.” Nan grinned at him and then at me. \n\n We ate the rest of our meal and drove home, mostly in silence until I chuckled in traffic. “I can’t believe both of us have been fucking the same guy.” I didn’t quite find it funny. We had both cheated on each other, broke our promises, but the irony was real. What was hilarious to me was our similar taste in men. \n\n “I’m going to stop seeing him,” I said. “I want this to work.”\n\n “No, Robin. I don’t want you too. As stupid as the whole thing is, Taylor is well special to me. Listen what I want, about the trapped thing, is to share love. Not keep it just between you and me. “ She leaned against me, her body shaking with the stop and go of traffic. “Maybe we should talk about an open marriage or something like that.”\n\nI was familiar with the idea, but not something I wanted to do, but I’d listen. “We can talk,” I answered. “But no secrets. I won’t lie if you won’t.” We’d probably lie to each other, but hopefully less. At least about cheating and love and sex. \n\n \n\n" ]	1
	[WP] Everyone has luck ratings from 1 to 100, determining how lucky they are. You are the first person you know with 100.	[ "WP: Everyone has a luck rating from 1 to 100. You are the first person with hundred.\n\nI remember my heart stopped beating for a second. Could it really be true?\n\nJail? I had laughed at the time. If people with 99 luck could survive being the suicide bomber, then no jail would hold me. Everyone had a luck stat, which determined how lucky they were.\n\nHowever, I had 100 luck, and upto my knowledge, the only one alive. Nothing had ever gone wrong for me, ever. I simply aced my way through life as if it was a traficless highway. Fuck 'nobody's perfect', I was.\n\nIt was that a perfect summer day (but then, when wasn't it?) when they came to arrest me. To be frank, I never saw it coming. Literally. Someone blindfolded me, and, before I could scream gagged me and threw me in a van.\n\nIt was the first time I had ever felt so... helpless. I remember hoping in vain for the van to crash, leaving me unharmed, or for a small meteorite to come crashing through the window and hit my captors. Nothing. Nothing at all.\n\nThe next time I saw light, I was bruised and wounded from the ride. They shoved me into a cell, and gave me a piece of bread to eat. \n\nIt was only after seeing the others that I lost hope. Till that point, I clung stubbornly to the belief the somehow something would come to my rescue- but I got nothing. After seeing the other inmates, I knew why nothing happened. All the other inmates- they had 100 luck too. No wonder nothing was happened.\n\nGradually, I became deader inside. I no longer could taste the salt on my cheeks or the pain of my wounds. I was a corpse on the inside.\n\nThen, one day, there was a change. We had a meeting, to mourn the Warden's death or something. They claimed that little bitch had saved out lives or something, and we must pay our respects. Bullshit.\n\nBut it was on this day, I noticed something. Why my mind suddenly fired up, I do not know. Maybe my luck had finally decided to activate. What I noticed was the number of guards that were lined up in defense were exactly 1 more than the amount of prisoners. Trivial, I know. But it rekindled the faith in me. The faith that we would escape.\n\nIt was on my second discovery that my heart stopped beating.\n\nThe guards had 100 luck to. My heart raced, as I got a theory. A crazy theory to formulate a crazy plan, but I wasn't scared. For the first time, I felt alive. That night, I convinced my three bedmates to follow my plan.\n\nIt all happened so fast. We trailed our recreational instructor-guard back to his room. All we had to do was simply wish for his demise and BOOM! a bolt of lightning fell right on his heart stopping it. Beautiful odds, I'll tell you.\n\nI rushed to the intercom like a man possessed. Like I expected, the guard there stood no chance. So I was right after all. The call-to-arms echoed throughout the jail, bringing the prisoners back to life.\n\nMy plan was working beautifully. 51 inmates and only 50 guards. They were finally outnbered, we had the upper hand by 100 luck. We could escape.\n\nAnd we would've escaped, but that wasn't the plan. No the plan was different. That was simply a make-believe I had told them.\n\nI still remember Andrew's voice as I walked right past the open gate. Oh so sad, so hurt at the betrayal.He tried to run after me, he tried to catch me, to kill me- but that gate literally shut on him.\n\nThey were fools, to think the plan would involve them. I would be the one who was unaccounted for, the only one who's desicion mattered. And I wanted to keep it like that.\n\nBy the time you hear this, you probably already know my name. I named myself in memory of that incident where I had defeated them all. \n\nI called myself Trump. \n\nr/BetterTales" ]	1
	[WP]Everything was gone. Good and evil alike were wiped out by an unavoidable, cataclysmic occurrence. The world was left in ruins and darkness. Chaotic creatures populated every inch of the globe, snuffing out all life. Five years you've been fighting, hoping to escape your inevitable unhappy end.	[ "The sword burst into a gleaming blue light, its color the same as the storm rampaging ahead, as I drove it into the beasts heart and ripped it to shreds. Coated in the obsidian blood that was the life force of these abominations, I swung wide and dived past his fellow shades of death incarnate, throwing myself up against the mountains sheer edge. \n \nBrushing my matted and bloody hair to the side, I took a breather looking at the horizon, carving the darkness away as it approached. \n \nIt wasn't looking very good. \n \nBut when did it ever? \n \nI exhaled a breath I wasn't aware I was holding as I surveyed. What little resistance I had found in the past months were dashed against the rocks and the stones, friends and warriors soullessly staring skyward, towards the Beyond. \n \nThey always look to the sky, I absentmindedly wondered as I stared at Jrain, the young farmer I had tried to teach swordplay to a couple weeks ago. A set of hellclaws darted in my eyesight- I ran it off with my sword and kept staring at him. It wasn't the first time I'd seen a dead body- not by a mile- but this one got to me, for some reason. He was a good kid. Had a fiancee before the cataclysm- held out hope that he'd find her. Didn't have the heart to tell him that I knew she was dead. Hope is hope, no matter the lie. \n \nI stared back at the rest of the dead, mentally logging them, the things we've done. This was the fourteenth group I've run across and helped manage- probably the saddest of the lot. All of them were farmers or merchants children or someone who was out in the wilds when it had happened, and had been running ever since. \n \nI checked the caravan- burnt to the ground. Horses might had gotten away- Oblivion tended to ignore the dumb ones unless they got in the way. Two jumped from behind me while I was staring- a quick duck and a slash took care of them. I was starting to create a little mountain of the things. If I stayed any longer they were going to send the big guns- and I didn't want to have to worry about that yet. \n \nI took a last forlorn look at my companions as I sprinted off, wishing I had the time to bury them properly. The dead of this age never got the respect they deserved. I wonder when that'll change. \n \nCause it always changes. As I sprinted and jumped off the mountain, the ground thousands of feet below me, I thought back to the other disasters. A few millenia ago a king wished for a kingdom served by the undead and wiped out half the continent from the plague. Before that laid the mad warlord who cut through the kingdoms for nothing more than glory. And then there was Oblivionspawn, the Pact, the War of Gods...Happened all the time. \n \nBut, I thought, looking west towards the burning forest that the spawn had just wiped through, this one...might be different. \n \nI slammed and rolled off the ground a couple seconds later, having dropped 4000 feet in about 12 seconds. Dead sprinting as soon as my feet touched ground, I took a quick minute to survey the area. They hadn't gone through this part yet- I should have some time to make it out to the coast. It's only a couple days travel here off a sprint- gonna have to ditch the horse. Might get them killed. I stopped the train of thought on a dime as I saw one of the more humanoid nightmares in a patrol, surrounded by a couple helldogs. \nThrowing myself up against the tree, I passively waited for them to pass, all the while thinking of my next move. \n \nI had time to kill. A lot of time. Looking at me, you would see a man, roughly 25 to 30- lean but fit, tatooed from the waist up in strange symbols, only thing on him a pair of dark boots, leather pants, and a sword. In another time I'd be a vagrant, but right now I'm lucky to have what I have- my life. \n \nThe group passed without incident, and I kept sprinting across, staying low to the tall grass. I heard ghastly shrieking and the wails of the undead to the side- they've probably split up looking at this point. My theory had been proven correct- the horde was looking for me. I couldn't risk another group outing- my mere presence was going to get them all killed. \n \nBut if I made it to the coast... \n \nThey might follow me, get them away from the mainland. If they don't, then...well, I wouldn't be able to hurt anyone else with my presence. Come back when the tides bring me in a couple centuries later, survey the land, help the survivors or the next race rebuild and start again. I've done it before- I'm pretty sure I did it for this age. I think. \n \nThe smoke from the forest burnt behind me as I kept sprinting towards the mainland, the reality of the disaster heavily on my mind, only passively dodging the patrols as the sun set fully and night took hold. \n \nI failed these ones. \n \nI cannot fail the next." ]	1
Imagine the crew's suprise when they appear in front of an entire army of French line infantry.	[WP] Near the end of WW2, the Germans make a desperate move with an experimental invention. Scientists attempt to send an entire armored battalion back 2 years to reinforce themselves. Unfortunately, a mistake is made and only a Tiger tank is teleported back in time by 300 years.	[ "Henri de La Tour d'Auvergne, Marshal of France, stared through his spyglass at the apparition in the middle of the battlefield.\n\n\"Mon dieu!\" his aide exclaimed, \"What is that!?\"\n\n\"Some Bavarian trickery, no doubt,\" Henri replied. \n\nThrough the gray clouds of gun-smoke he could see a squat, mechanical contraption. A barrel jutted out from the box-like metal carapace. A 12-pounder, Henri reckoned, but it was unlike any cannon he had ever seen. The barrel was impractically long.\n\nThe machine had appeared close to the Bavarian lines. For a moment, Henri considered ordering the French cannon to fire at it, but he quickly dismissed the notion. The gunners were trained to fire at large masses of infantry, not single targets. The cannon were much too inaccurate for this kind of delicate work.\n\n\"The Bavarian tercios are advancing,\" his aide noted.\n\nHenri watched through the spyglass as the blocks of Bavarian infantry descended down the hill towards the machine. They were arranged in the tercio formation that the Bavarians and their Holy Roman Empire allies had learned from the Spanish: a central block of pikemen surrounded by arquebusiers. \n\nHenri grimaced. \n\nGray clouds of gunsmoke drifted from the village of Alerheim in the distance, where the majority of his forces were engaged in a bloody street battle. All he had left were his reserves, mostly arquebuses. They wouldn't stand a chance against the Bavarian tercios.\n\nThe machine moved. It sped across the battlefield, about as quick as a cantering horse, but he couldn't see horses pulling it. \"Bavarian devilry,\" he muttered. It was heading for the French flanks. He quickly made his decision.\n\n\"Order to the cavalry,\" he said to a waiting messenger, \"Charge the Bavarian contraption, then sweep in on their flanks. Infantry will press home the attack.\"\n\nHenri nodded in satisfaction as the trumpets blared and the French cavalry swept in on the Bavarian machine. Through his spyglass, he watched as a hatch on top of the contraption popped open and a man emerged, waving his arms frantically. \n\nThe trumpet blared again, and the cavalry lines erupted with puffs of gun-smoke as the charging horsemen fired their wheel-lock pistols. The lead shot whizzed off harmlessly or flattened against the machine's armor. One, however, found its mark. The man slumped and fell back.\n\nThere was a cheer from the ranks of cavalry, then they drew their sabers and charged at a gallop. The barrel of the cannon turned, even as the machine moved in a different direction. \n\nThen, a ripping sound, like a thousand arquebuses fired one after the other. Henri's fist clenched involuntarily as the entire front row of the charging cavalry collapsed into a tangle of dying horses and men. The cannon on the Bavarian contraption fired. A geyser of dirt and flesh sprouted in the midst of the charging cavalry.\n\n\"Of course,\" Henri muttered grimly, \"exploding shells.\"\n\nOn the bright side, he thought, the cannon on the contraption would be difficult to reload. Leave it up to the Bavarians to create such a complicated device. \n\nThe cannon fired again.\n\nHenri gaped in surprise. \n\nThe cavalry wavered but pressed on bravely. \n\nA few cavalrymen leaped onto the machine, and drawing fresh wheel-lock pistols, they fired through the open hatch of the contraption. The guns on the Bavarian machine fell silent. The remaining calvary swept by the machine like a stream around a boulder, charging toward the Bavarian lines.\n\nHenri wiped the sweat off his brow and turned to the main task at hand. The Bavarian machine had been defeated, but he still had a battle to win.", "Without warning, legend says, a whole regiment of French cavalry were blown away in a second. The folklore also says that an entire line of French soldiers were mowed down by what seemed to be a thousand muskets firing at once, and no musket could pierce it. It only stopped when Habsburg forces were able to hit it a few times with a cannon. Of course, all it did was stop momentarily. \n\nThe united force was created when retreated Holy Roman imperial units encountered a force that blew away their entire cavalry. They immediately turned back, and surrendered to a small force of Franco-Swedish forces. The story was not believed at first, until entire militias and towns were wiped out by some mysterious force. \n\nSo, in the small town of Schultz, a combined force of French, Swedish, Austrian, and Danish forces (though the Danish and Austrians were mostly conscripts from the prisoners who believed the monster was some sort of holy reckoning) attempted to mount a defense. \n\nMany called it \"Satan's cannon.\" It was moving, could shoot more powerful blasts than a cannon in a shorter time, fire hundreds of musket balls in a straight line in seconds, and move faster than the average line infantry. \n\nOf course, the line infantry were mowed down in seconds, and the entire army broke once they saw that the muskets weren't doing anything. This kind of morale break would be devastating to any army. The battle was practically lost there, if not for the cannons set up atop the hill. \n\nThe thing is, the cannons never truly immobilized the tank. It was more the panicked frenzy of the tank itself that immobilized it. Once the tank was surrounded by hails of cannonfire, and hit twice directly by cannonballs, it retreated under a small cliff for a defensive maneuver. The cannons could no longer hit it. \n\nSo, the line infantry charged. Two-thirds of the army died in that charge, until the tank could fire no longer. The infantry surrounded the giant metal beast as it laid unmoving. If they were silent enough, they would have been able to hear the panicking crew inside. \n\nThey would have heard the radioman threaten to blow them all up with a hand grenade. They would have heard the rest of the crew wrestle him down, and eventually beat him until he was unconscious. \n\nThe captain refused to leave until someone was found that could speak his language. This only provided the crew with more hunger for the next four hours, as German and old Swedish were exchanged in loud, angry shouts. The captain could speak French, but not old French, so it was useless. \n\nThe crew had begun to contemplate suicide again. Luckily, a Holy Roman soldier was able to communicate. Though it was the equivalent of someone from the twentieth century speaking to someone in a shakespeare play with an accent, progress had been made. \n\nIronically, after some failed negotiations, only the radioman ended up alive. The rest were shot once they refused to shine the shoes of the French commander. At least, that's how the legend goes. \n\nWhen going to scrap the tank, they found the radioman unconscious. When awoken, he was much more willing to shine the shoes of his captors. In three years, he would be killed too. \n\nThe technology presented by the tank, contrary to popular belief, had no chance of advancing any single nation into the future. The simple method of firing and manufacturing of bullets itself was far beyond the capabilities of a European nation still struggling to move away from feudalism. \n\nOnce industrialization was discovered, however, the old records of this tank were uncovered. Historians call our official timeline \"B\" because of this event. It has been concluded that our timeline was created out of time travel. A mistake in some coding or experiment that changed the world. \n\nSome still believe that the appearance of the first tank was a punishment by god. Is it really more logical to assume time travel than god itself? Is that really fit for questioning? \n\nEither way, the first tank on par with the one found in that fateful battle in Germany was recreated in 1904. In Germany, of course. The tank was crewed by Germans, of course, and it was found in Germany. The tank was the practical birthright of the Germans. \n\nThe power of the tank would be seen in the Great war, but not just by Germany. But that is a story for another time. " ]	2
	[WP] All that's left has been split in two - divided by a wasteland. A renegade trucker with a rolling fortress does freelance jobs across the quarantine zone.	[ "The horizon rippled like a pond disturbed by a single pebble, and the scorching sun continued to barrage her arm as it rested against the open window. The breeze that slipped in through the opening did little to cool her down, the hot air simply wafting around whatever strands of greasy hair had slipped out of the messy bun. With a scoff, she bit through the toothpick lodged between her teeth and promptly spat the over-chewed speck of wood out the window. Reaching over to the passenger seat she rummaged through a pile of boxes until she found the open one, and sloppily removed a new toothpick, placing it firmly between her incisors. \n\nStill pissed her off, that job. A hundred miles worth of gas for a literal ton of toothpicks hardly seemed like a fair deal to her, but then again it beat not getting paid at all. Something that was becoming an all too real possibility in regards to her current job if the shithole cresting the horizon was any indication. Switching hands to scratch the sunburn on her left arm, she grunted disapprovingly as more of the settlement came into view. \n\nIt was a well town, she figured, since elsewise she'd either be seeing crops or livestock and as far as she could tell they had neither. Besides, only a well was valuable enough for people to live out in the middle of nowhere like this, visible for miles and exposed to the elements. Well towns were trouble as far as she was concerned, any comfort given by an ample source tempered by the knowledge that people will do many a thing to get their fill. \n\nShe pulled up as close as she could while still allowing herself the mobility to easily pass once her business here was done. And as far as she was concerned, it couldn't be done fast enough. The children came first, as they always did, swarming around her as she exited the truck. The sun intensified its barrage as soon as she stepped out, the shade provided by her visor doing little to cool her down. She found herself missing the breeze, however little help it provided, and found herself missing the confines of her cabin as dirt-faced runts assaulted her with questions.\n\nShe had long since lost the patience to answer them, and instead pulled her cap down and pushed them aside as she made her way into town. Then again, \"town\" appeared a bit generous when referring to the glorified watering hole that it presented. The houses were made of \"Wastestone\" as it was called in the colonies, a type of sandstone made from fruitless soil and precious little else. They could keep you cool, but she had seen enough of them collapse to know that you paid a dear price for that brief respite from the heat. \n\nThe only building in town made of steel was the gas station, and she knew that she would find her contact somewhere within its walls. On her way there she passed the large shaft that led down to the reservoir and marveled at its depth. Almost every member of this community went down there on a daily basis, as she knew they had to if they hoped to survive. It was a tough livin', and she knew that most of these places didn't survive nearly as long as you'd think. Then again, that wasn't her concern. After all, she had come here for a job.\n\nThe doors to the station flew open as she entered, disrupting the ruckus created by its patrons. All eyes turned to her, and she, in turn, turned her eyes onto all of them, scanning the room for her contact. At the bar sat a man who could only be the one she was here for, as unlike the others he seemed content to finish his ramblings to a now silent bartender. As she stepped past tables on her way to the bar they all resumed talking, though their tone was more reserved. Almost cautious. \n\nHer contact looked over as she took a seat next to him and signaled the bartender for a drink, his breath heavy with alcohol but his eyes clear and focused. She slammed down the order onto the bar, sliding it over to the foreman, making her intentions very clear. The man allowed his eyes to float over the slip of paper, never focusing on any one word, and subtly threw a glance over his shoulder. To where her rig was parked. She tensed up and realized she still hadn't been served her drink and looked over to where the bartender should have been, only to find dead air. \n\nCursing under her breath she quickly seized the foreman's bottle and smashed it into his face, sending bloody shards flying everywhere. Sliding quickly off her stool she narrowly dodged a swing against her head and reached into her vest to retrieve her brass knuckles. Just as her ambusher prepared to bring the table leg down on her face once more, she managed to kick over his load-bearing leg and send him crashing face first into a rising fist. It was deeply satisfying to feel his jaw crack under the force, but she knew the bar brawl was far from over. \n\nFirst came a woman with a broken bottle who managed a shallow slash against her arms before receiving a few broken ribs as recompense. Unfortunately, that gave someone else an opening to strike a chair against her back, which promptly broke as a result of being extremely poorly made. Unfortunately, it still hurt like hell and managed to knock the wind out of her for a moment before she could retaliate with a hard strike to the shin, the resulting scream and collapse proof of the punch's bone-shattering success. \n\nThe large man that remained wasted no time waiting for her to get up, and struck her hard enough on the jaw to send her crashing onto the floor entirely, her toothpick bounding across it like tumbleweed. Her head spun and her eyes had a hard time focusing, but as he reared up to kick her in the face she grabbed a large shard of glass and felt it cut into her hand. The pain was enough to jolt her slightly back, and as she rolled away she came back up with the shard and stabbed it deep into the man's abdomen again and again. \n\nHe was still screaming as she left the gas station bruised and bloodied and in a lot more pain than she bargained for. Whatever non-combatants had been present in the establishment were crowded around the man who she knew was likely going to die, but they didn't know that yet. Her hand stung as she gripped it tightly around the can of gasoline, moving slowly back to her rig. It wasn't enough, it wasn't what she was promised, but she damn sure wasn't leaving this shithole without something to show for it. \n\nThe kids that usually gathered when she left were gone, as they always were when things went poorly. It wasn't her fault, really, she thought as she opened the storage compartment and stared at the boxes upon boxes of rations she had been hired to deliver. Placing the can of gasoline on the floor she almost felt bad for them, certain to starve because some assholes in a bar bit off more than they could chew. It made her feel a little better about the man she had most certainly killed. At least he was going to die soon anyway.\n\nYeah, she thought as she entered the rig and adjusted her cap in the rearview mirror, at least there was that." ]	1
	[WP] The abused animal feels the gentle touch of a human for the first time.	[ "Anna walks slowly down the kennel of her local animal shelter. With eager eyes, she scans each cage for the perfect puppy. Her parents promised her a dog since her third birthday, which was about a month ago. This has been the day she has waited for for what seems to be an eternity. After spending lots of time preparing their home for a new companion to grow up with, the Jones family finally feels ready to welcome a canine into their lives with open arms. \n\nA bit apprehensive, she begins feels disappointment as she walks through to only see large dogs who are thrashing and throwing themselves against the bars of their kennels in hopes to be the next adoptee. Anna continues to stroll through the large variety of dogs. There were echoes of different barks all at different pitches and the sounds of clanking metal radiating. The loud noises didn't seem to phase gallant Anna. Her parents followed her, allowing her to lead the way down the aisles of each room in the shelter. \"We'll find a puppy. Keep looking, Anna!\" \n\nAt the end of the hallway of the room, Anna noticed what seemed to be an empty kennel. A bit confused, she pointed to the cage and asked, \"Where's doggy?\". Her parents prompted her to check the cage. \"Maybe there was a puppy so small that you can't see it yet. He might be hiding!\"\n\nAnna perked up and trotted over to the kennel. Her pigtails on the top of her head bounced with each animated step. She walked up to the cage and saw a bowl full of dry kibble and a full bowl of water. The lights of the shelter weren't too bright so the back of the cage wasn't very visible, but a few blankets on the floor could be made out. Anna crouched down in front of the bars and made kissing noises to try to attract any animal that may or may not be in the cage. \n\nSuddenly the sheets in the back of the cage wiggled. Anna squealed with excitement and returned to making kissy noises to encourage the puppy to come and play. However, what stretched and walked up to the bars was far from the puppy that Anna and her parents were expecting. \n\nWhat seemed to be a full-grown beagle crept over to the bars. With it's nose lowered to the floor and it's eyes fixed on Anna, the dog trembled as it made it's way over to the suspicious guests. \"Do not put your hand near the cage\", Anna's parents warned her, now feeling a bit uneasy. Anna took a single step back, but her eyes remained fixated on this mysterious dog. As it got closer to the lighted area of it's kennel, Anna's parents noticed patches of fur gone from the dog's inconsolable face, floppy ears and throughout it's frail and thin body. They each exchanged concerned looks, but did not say anything. \n\nThe curious toddler remained crouched in front of the cage, but was struck with silence. Anna and the dog watched each other's every move. Every breath. The dog was now up close to the bars, it's tail slowly rising from being tucked away between it's legs, which turned to wagging. Anna smiled and softly spoke to the dog. \"Hi doggy! Mommy, look at doggy! I love doggie!\" \n\nAnna's parents then suggested they go to the front of the shelter to see if they can have assistance with meeting this dog. They took a mental note of the location and cage number, and all three happily walked to the front desk of the shelter. Perhaps they found their newest family member. \n\n\"We found a dog that we would love to meet. Room 3, small dog breeds, cage 22. Do you know anything about this dog? Our daughter seems to really like this one.\" \n\nThe employee's face immediately changed from delight to fear. \"That's Rusty. I know exactly what dog that is and I do not think it would be a good fit for your family.\" The employee spoke in almost a whisper in hopes that Anna wouldn't hear. \"Rusty has been with us for over a year now.. maybe almost two years.\" \n\n\"What's wrong with Rusty?\" Anna's mother was now deeply concerned that they would have to restart their search and disappoint their daughter. After all, this was her birthday gift that she's waited for for weeks now. It would be heartbreaking to see her fall in love with a dog that she now couldn't get. \n\n\"He comes from a poor background. He doesn't like most people. He's genuinely unapproachable and has never had a family... He was a stray we took in and nursed to health. Found in a ditch somewhere...\" She paused. \"We haven't been able to even touch him. He runs in fear to the back of his cage during feedings and won't let us take him for walks. He uses the bathroom on a mat in his cage and we clean it everyday while he hides in as far back of a corner that he can.\" \n\n\"Unapproachable?\" Anna's father scoffed. \"He walked right up to her\". \n\nThe shelter employee paused again, her eyebrows furrowed. \"I think you got the wrong cage number. Rusty doesn't approach anyone, not even the workers he sees everyday.\" She turned and faced Anna and kneeled down onto her level. \"Let's walk back together and you can show me which dog you love!\" \n\nAnna smiled and took her parents hands. They all guided the employee to the exact spot where the dog was. His tail began wagging immediately upon spotting Anna once again. He hadn't moved from his spot where they left him- right in front of the bars of his kennel, just like the other dogs in the shelter. \n\n\"Well I'll be damned.\" The employee sighed in disbelief. \"I've never seen Rusty's tail wag. Not once.\" \n\n\"I can see Wusty?\" Anna smiled up at the employee. The employee slowly approached Rusty, who to her surprise didn't flinch away for even a moment. She slowly opened the kennel, waiting for the dog to run away in it's corner of the cage. Instead, he sat and waited, with his eyes fixated once again on Anna, tail still slapping the floor of his cage. The employee clipped the leash onto his collar and held it snug with her right hand. In her left hand were a few small milk bones. The employee crouched next to Rusty.\n\nRusty remained calm throughout all of this. He didn't flinch or seem to have any fear. He was sitting patiently, now panting with excitement while waiting for Anna. Anna stood next to her parents by the cage with a huge grin across her rosy cheeks. \n\nThe employee smiled back at Anna. \"Okay... now I want you to slowly walk over, dear. Come take a treat from me and give it to Rusty.\" \n\nAnna followed command and did exactly what the employee had asked. At just three years old, she had a very gentle and intuitive mind. She always picked up on things quickly. She held her hand with the treat in it in front of Rusty's face. Rusty didn't take the treat, but just sat and looked at Anna in confusion, who then put the treat in front of him and took a step back. The canine lowered his head and sniffed the biscuit before energetically guzzling the gift.\n\n\"He's never eaten anything that was immediately given to him like that. He's also never been asked to be seen by any of our visitors...\" The employee trailed off. She was in utter disbelief of this entire situation. \"Is this even the same dog?\" she muttered. \n\nAnna giggled and held out her hand once more, but without a treat this time. Rusty slowly moves his head towards her hand and sniffs. His wet nose touched Anna's small juvenile hand. His head then lowers slightly, and his tail began to wag once more. She lifted her hand to place it on the top of his head.\n\nThe abused animal feels the gentle touch of a human for the first time. \n\n\n---------------\nNote: This is my first writing prompt post. I hope it's alright that the prompt doesn't come in until the end... I wasn't sure if it was a rule that I had to start with the prompt. Thank you for the read! Not the best writer but hoping this subreddit will make my writing stronger! Constructive criticism welcomed.\n\nEdit: Typo " ]	1
	[WP] You found a hatch in floor of your decrepit, dark cellar, that led to an even lower, darker and weirder cellar. And that to another. And that to another... Armed with a powerful flash-light and a backpack full of food and water, you went to find the bottom. That was 3 weeks ago.	[ "Year 84, me and Patrick descended deeper and deeper. It has been 3 weeks now. No, 3 years. Our flashlight has survived mainly based on shaking it. Our food sources are from rats we've found. BOOM BOOM, grenades fly through the air. I yell \"PATRICKKK\" He falls to the ground with his last minuets of life left. \n\nQUICKLY. The ceiling opens up and light flashes through illuminating our precious selfs. \n\nSquidward SCREAMS AT US. Asking us questions where and how all these noises are coming from. \n\nWe tell him IMAGINATION. ", "Shit starts to get weird about floor 93. It's been- three weeks? You'd packed enough for a couple of months, the weight on your shoulders easing with the food you've been going through. Water is easier to find; dig a hole in the wall and you'll get it eventually, although you have to waste a whole day decontaminating the stuff. \n\nIt's the batteries that are a problem, insofar as they aren't a problem. You've had the same batteries in the torch since you stepped foot into this place, and your water bottle feels heavier and heavier with every step. \n\nIt's a soft, gradual thing. The walls get taller and taller, the stairs narrower. You hear a voice in the dark, soft and lilting and gentle. See eyes, blinking slowly with one, then two, then four lids because they skip the third completely and disappear when you shine your torch in their direction. \n\nThe doorways have been getting weirder too; strange runes and warm to the touch, like they're being put up minutes before you walk through them. About three and a half weeks in you sit and watch a wall, waiting to see if the doorway forms; you fall asleep after half an hour and when you wake, the doorway is there.\n\nThe stairs start to disappear about four weeks in, as you're chewing on the last of the jerky and slip'n'sliding your way down a ramp to the floor. You reach a hand back and nothing's there, sending you crashing to the ground, torch rolling away as you rock back and forth on your deflated backpack. \n\n\"This is ridiculous.\" You say out loud, the first words you've heard in- in forever. \n\n\"You're telling me.\" You reply, three feet behind you and to your left, from inside the wall. ", "Marshall ran as fast as his injured leg could withstand. It wasn’t very fast. The Thing was following him, he could hear it’s talons gouging out the wooden floor and the walls each time it turned a corner. Marshall was looking for a door, one that if found would carry him away from this horrific creature and deeper down the basement.\n\nSweat was pouring down Marshall’s face and neck soaking his shirt. A corner was up ahead and it had two paths: left or right. As Marshall approached the odd fork, his Boy Scout instincts took control. He pulled of his jacket and wiped it all over him, trying to soak up his sweat. When he got to the cross Marshall tossed the jacket one direction and took the other. This was a practice often used to spread your scent in the hopes of throwing off your predator. It sounded like it was working.\n\nSeveral paces down the left path, he heard the Thing’s screeches growing quieter but he did not stop running. He needed to gain as much ground as possible before he took a rest. The Thing was only as fast as him, and it had no visual stamina. It would outpace him if he stopped moving.\n\nA few more turns and he couldn’t make out the Thing anymore. Now he stopped running. Marshall was fishing the cramped air for oxygen while he attempted to catch his breath. He had been in this basement more than long enough to become acclimated to its thick, musty air. His breathing became more stable the more time went by.\n\nHe pressed his ear to the wood-pressed wall, hoping it was silent. Marshall sighed in relief when his ear picked up the faintest of vibrations. He relaxed and sunk against the wall and wrapped his arms around his weak knees. He stayed like that for awhile.\n\nHe’d been in this maze of a basement for too long. Notes were made; first it was of little trinkets and the sort, then it grew to something more like analyzing a puzzle, then it escalated into days. Marshall had lost track probably half a week ago, since he had lost half his backpack trying to escape a thorny encounter. And before that, he nearly lost his leg.\n\nA few more minutes had passed. The only noise present was Marshall’s breathing, and no signs of the Thing. In and out, filtering. Circulating the warm musty air through his clouded lungs. It almost sounded like each inhale was his grandmother’s vacuum cleaner trying to start despite it missing a fuse.\n\nHis leg ached tremendously despite the adrenaline that was coursing through him. There was a deep gash that sunk across his calf. He believed that it must’ve cut some important muscles or tendons because he couldn’t walk very efficiently. Marshall knew he couldn’t stay in one spot too long, or else the Thing would catch up to him.\n\nMarshall eased himself up and dusted off his clothes. There was a tiny rumble that crept up the floor and up his legs and into his very being. Marshall was about to turn tail and run but a golden glint out of the shadowy corner of his vision stopped him mid turn. A brass doorknob.\n\nIt was the door. One that would lead him away from the horror’s of this floor or to a more terrifying reality. Either outcome, Marshall knew he had to escape the monster on this level. \n\nMarshall quickly made his way to the door and turned the knob. It clicked when he attempted to rotate it. It was locked. \n\nDread sunk in immediately and the color drained from his face. No... no, this couldn’t be happening. Not know. Marshall stumbled a step back and his weak leg fell out beneath him and he landed hard on the ground. All was lost, there was no way he was ever going to make out.\n\nThe ground rumbled again, this time very audible to Marshall’s ears. His hands clamped his ears, pushing hard trying to block out the noise. It was no use. It was so loud. Suddenly, the earth beneath him shook violently and threw Marshall onto his back. Somewhere to his right, rocks and wood debris exploded into the air, showering him with dirt as the floor birthed a new horror.\n\nA monster, three meters tall with jet black scales and even sharper talons pulled itself from the hole in the ground. It looked like an armadillo cross-mutated with a mole. And behind that nightmarish monster was the Thing, freshly steaming as that was how it regenerated its wounds.\n\nMarshall didn’t move, he saw that the monsters were focused on each other and not at him. The armadillo let out a gut-wrenching howl and launched itself at the Thing. This level of aggression was unseen. The Thing leapt at it and sunk it’s talons through the tough scales. The armadillo whipped the lanky Thing with its tail and the Thing lost a few fingers as it was ripped from the monsters.\n\nWhile they duked it out, the monsters were taking chunks out of every physical object nearby; the roof, the walls, the floor and even the door. The door! Marshall realized. If the monsters could cave out the door, he would be able to make it through. \n\nHe crawled along the farthest wall from the monsters who were showing seeping wounds. Marshall prayed to god that he would make it out. Just a little more to go, he told himself as he inched his way over.\n\nThe monsters tumbled in the direction of the door and the armadillo’s destructive power bashed in the door when it fell. The Thing found its opportunity and jumped for its neck. Marshall heard the sound of teeth breaking, the Thing’s jagged teeth failed to penetrate the more heavily armored throat. The armadillo wrapped its snout around the Thing’s head, coiling it while the Thing squirmed. And then it squeezed.\n\nBits of skull fragments and brain juice spat out onto Marshall, it was disgusting, but to his amazement, the Thing was still kicking. And it appeared that the Thing was working purely on adrenaline muscles as if its head being crushed didn’t compromise its motor functions. They rolled again but this time away from the doorway. Marshall seized the moment and lounged towards it. He made it.\n\nMarshall was limping down the stairs, but he only made it so far. The armadillo monster’s grand appearance and the monsters’s brawl had weakened the structural integrity of the hall, causing it to cave in over Marshall’s deadened screams.\n\n\n\n", "\"Do I go back?\" I muttered to myself.\n\nWithin the confines of the small space, a landing that appeared every six, maybe ten flights of steps, even my hushed tone echoed subtly. The room I occupied, with my back pressed up against a cold, dry earthen wall, was tiny.\n\nThree weeks ago, I descended into darkness, traversing down the stairs that seemed to spiral infinitely downward. The narrow steps met at angular corners, with hardened clay, or perhaps some kind of limestone walls on either side. The overall construction hadn't been planned, or at least that's what I would have thought, what, with the way some corridors were uncomfortably narrower than others, never really adhering to a uniform size.\n\nEvery so often, the underground staircase would open to a stout, more wide than tall, but barely, landing area. It was a tiny box, and I had given up after a dozen or so trying to find a pattern with how often they would appear. But when they did, it was a welcome reprieve. It was here, where I found myself leaning, sleeping, and eating. I ate in the dark, having adjusted more to the total darkness than to the prominent blinding cone of light from my flashlight.\n\nAfter three weeks, I mostly used it for inspecting rubble or obvious points of interest. But it was nothing, except the staircase and walls. I feared that there was nothing to be found here except more darkness and cold, unwelcoming walls. Still, in its own strange way, the place had become comfortable, familiar.\n\nI was about to unpack my sleeping bag when I heard it, a faint, echoing drip; water. I hadn't heard anything since entering the cave, not a breath of wind, nor a rumbling beneath the crust of the earth, where I surely had to have been. I retied the string to my sleeping bag and slung it over my back, scrambling to my feet and resuming my downward crawl. I wondered how I hadn't sensed the change, the atmosphere grew colder, but the air smelled different..., older. One, two, three more flights, four, five, six - the sound was decidedly getting louder. It wasn't my imagination.\n\nI threw caution to the wind, foregoing my previous habit of inspecting virtually every ridge and perforation in the surrounding walls. My feet were fleet for how tired I was, pacing through the shroud, absent light. The distinct change from musty to dank was more noticeable as I raced downward.\n\n\"Pitter, patter, pitter, patter,\" my steps sounded gently.\n\nAs I rounded another corner, I could see the dimmest illumination, and I felt even more energized. No one was around to see it, and even if they were it was too dark, but I could feel my expression trying to exert itself from stony and focused, to excited, as if unaware of the weariness that had set over me sleeping on the hard ground.\n\nWhen I finally saw the light becoming more direct, barely down a single half-flight of steps, I stopped. Three weeks! I could hardly imagine what was at the source of the light. Treasure? A demon? What could I possibly find?\n\nI gathered my courage and stepped forward to the corner edge. There weren't any more stairs, but a room similar to the landings I had found along the way. It was cramped, and had a single, shabby wooden crate turned upside-down in the middle of the room. On it, a purple candle burned. So many questions came to mind, but none more than what the piece of parchment was that lay next to the candle. Softly pinching it between my fingers and thumb, I read its scrawled writing. The lettering was old, reminiscent of something out of the civil war, or maybe that was just my impression of it. As I read it, it seemed like whoever wrote it had written others, as if a continuation of a series lost to time and memory, and more likely, this cave.\n\nDearest Olivia, I am here again, it read, My heart no longer breaks for us, for you. I have dug my own grave here, trying to find the gateway to hell itself. I was once eager to confront my transgressors, those vile fiends that hurt you. They took the form of demons, and so have I. My hate so potent that I feel I have left the slivers of my humanity in this awful prison. When they sealed me away in that cellar, I suppose no one would have expected me to delve madly into the earth. My fingers have worn away, my blood runs cold and hot at the same time. I know I have forfeited any claim on the notion of \"sanity\". But I knew that was where they could be found, in the deepest places, somewhere where light and love do not reside. I now live with them as well. It feels like decades, but my makeshift calendar can't be right. Surely, a hundred years haven't passed. Surely, we have not been apart that long. It was only moments ago I could hear your screams. As if the pain from my rotting soul aren't bad enough, I only have a single candle left. But I vow not to forget, nor forgive what has been perpetrated against us. This candle will burn as long as my hate, as long as my soul requires a vessel to exact my vengeance. \n\nMy dearest love, be assured and find rest, for I will not waiver. I will meet you in the next life.\n\nAll my soul,\n\nWilliam\n\nThe letter was eerie, and I knew nothing of the grudge that sparked its creation. But this was a piece of history, and I was tired of the uninspiring scenery. Adjusting my pack, and tucking the letter into the folds of my sleeping back to cushion it for the venture back to the surface, I leaned forward and blew out the candle.\n\n\"William...,\" I uttered, \"hm.\"\n\nI wonder what it all means.", "Few had been to this stage. No rotting corpses. No leftovers. The stench wasn't nearly as bad. Whatever lurked in these depths had not been fed in a long time.\n\nThere is a sense that overcomes you at times of great pressure. You're no longer walking. You're being walked. Freud called these 'oceanic feelings'. The momentary dissolution of the self. At times, this thought kept me walking. Or should I say: kept me being walked.\n\nI shone my flash light before me. A quick flash. That was all I could afford. As it were, rationing light had become more useful than rationing food. I half-expected a creature to pop up, lunging towards me. All stairs. Always more stairs.\n\nDecrepit and isolated, I ventured on. They say in three weeks habits become automatic. My habit was now walking. Descent.\n\n\\\n\n\"Check a-and ... mate!\"\n\nMarcus threw his hands in the air. He'd been on a winning streak. His defense had become sloppy. He took unnecessary risks.\n\n\"Do you know what happened to the Mongols every time they managed to take over a city?\" I said.\n\nHe scoffed, staring at the board as if enough concentration would alter the outcome. He looked up. \"The Mongols? They sacked Baghdad,\" he said.\n\n\"They did. But that's not what I asked.\"\n\n\"What, Jeremy? What happened to the bloody Mongols?\"\n\nI smiled. He could sense that I was about to insult him somehow. Good friends have a sixth sense for this kind of thing. \"They became weak and lazy. They lost their way of life. They got what they wanted, and they withered apart.\"\n\n\"So you're saying I'm Genghis Kahn?\"\n\n\"I'm saying,\" I said, \"that when you get what you want, you lose what you need.\"\n\n\"Why are we friends again?\" said Marcus.\n\nI flipped over his king. \"Marcus,\" I said. \"We're mates.\"\n\n\\\n\nI hated Thoreau. To me, Walden was about as inspiring as all those Instagram posts by girls who are 'helping out' by spending a couple of weeks in Sudan to gain experience points on their resumes. He lived right outside a village, not out in the middle of nowhere. Those god damn transcendalists. Tolstoy was no better. At the end of his life, he decided that what he really wanted to be was a wise, wandering monk. So he left his family and got walking. And died after a couple of days. Because he had no idea what he was doing. He was passionate^(TM), so what could have gone wrong? Even worse were the British explorers. The less prepared, the more heroic. Dying a fool's death on Greenland made you a legend.\n\nOf course, I was no better. I was isolated. I was walking. My feet were bloody stumps. The darkness had somehow become more total.\n\nA snake had been painted on every level so far. A hissing, green snake. I had no idea what it meant. Did the snake kill them all? Was it a metaphor? Or just something to do? I doubted the last possibility. You'd need light, and that was scarce. It was an investment, somehow. A warning, maybe. A message, definitely.\n\nI made another flash. Another door. Which meant another cellar. Which meant another snake, I supposed.\n\nI went in. I flashed. The room seemed smaller than the others. And I couldn't see any paintings on the wall. What I could see, was another body. I had been a long time since the last. It made me curious.\n\nI felt my way towards it. My curiosity was worth it. I flashed.\n\n\"No.\"\n\nMy own words scared me. I hadn't heard words in a long time. But there was no doubt. I knew this person. That jacket. The shirt.\n\nThis was Marcus.\n\n\\\n\n\"What's going on with your sister?\" Marcus said.\n\n\"What do you mean?\"\n\n\"I mean, she usually hangs out with us. I haven't seen her in a while. Is there something going on?\"\n\nAs if he was the right person to say that. I shrugged. \"I guess she's got better things to do.\"\n\nMarcus nodded. For a long time, he was silent.\n\n\"Let's go,\" I said. \"We're going to be late.\"\n\nWe walked over to the convenience store. My guy said he'd meet us there. He was a couple of years older. Had never been quite right in the head. Then again, neither were we. Otherwise, we wouldn't need him.\n\n\"Jer-Jer and Mar-Mar.\"\n\nHe was eating a Twizzler outside the store. Marcus looked over at me, as if to say 'do we really want anything to do with this guy?'.\n\n\"You know, you guys are cool. I got this thing and I wasn't supposed to be telling anyone, but you know, you guys are chill so I figured, what's the harm?\"\n\n\"What?\" said Marcus.\n\n\"I'm saying, I know you guys are looking for the usual deal, but this is a sweet deal, the kind that doesn't come around very often. You know? It's the stuff you'd really want if you knew about it so in a way it's what you guys want, right?\"\n\nHe looked fairly proud of himself for having strung together that logical sequence.\n\n\"He doesn't have it,\" I said, looking at Marcus. \"Let's just leave.\"\n\n\"Wait,\" said the guy. \"Come on guys. I'm telling you. This thing is .... You know, it's not even supposed to be on the streets.\"\n\n\"As opposed to what we're really here for?\" said Marcus.\n\n\"No,\" said the guy, almost in a whisper. He looked around. \"You won't get this anywhere else. It's a one-time thing. Alright. Since you guys are my favorite customers, I'll make you a deal. You get the Jer-Mar discount. It doesn't get better than that. What do you say?\"\n\nMarcus looked over at me. \"Well, if it's kind of the same thing ...\"\n\nThe guy slapped Marcus' shoulder. \"My man!\" He then quickly looked around again. Then repeated it, in a whisper: \"my man.\"\n\n\"Fine,\" I said.\n\nThe guy hastily put a bag in my pocket. I slipped him the money.\n\n\"Alright lads,\" he said and started walking about.\n\n\"Wait,\" I said. He turned. \"What's it called?\"\n\n\"Snake,\" he said, with a big, fat grin.\n\n&#x200B;\n\n\\---TBC---", "Day 22, floor… 58.\n\nI had to check which floor was the last one I marked. Honestly, part of me wants to go back up to my house and forget this ever happened, but I’d be lying if I said that I’d always be curious about what’s underneath all these floors. I swear to God, I’m leading myself to my own death.\n\nI guess in all my previous logs, I’ve never actually explained what started all this, so if I die down here, and someone finds this journal, at least they’ll know what compelled me to do exactly what everyone tells horror movie characters not to do: go into the basement.\n\nI moved into this house… 6 months ago? 7? Not sure, but I know it was after John’s baby was born because that’s what caused me to move out in the first place. Who knew a baby that wasn’t yours could throw you so off kilter?\n\nAnyway, I’m getting off topic. I moved into this house some number of months ago, and it was this old house. You know those old parts of the cities and you can visibly tell the difference between which houses were built in the last decade and which houses were built in the last century? Yeah, mine was built in the last century. \n\nSo, I’m just minding my own business and going down into the basement to do some laundry, and you know how there’s those cold rooms where you can store other stuff? There was one at the end of this “hallway” (it’s not really a hallway, but there’s some storage shelves that narrow the path so it feels like a hallway). Before, I always just saw it and went, “Yeah, it exists. Cool, bye,” but this time I actually got curious and opened it. There was your usual boxes and rolls and dust and more boxes, but what was really interesting was the trap door on the floor.\n\nNow, I know what you (I’m going to assume someone’s going to read this) might be thinking: “DID YOU LEARN NOTHING FROM THE HORROR MOVIES? EVERYTHING BAD COMES FROM GOING INTO THE BASEMENT AND LOOKING AT THINGS YOU SHOULDN’T BE LOOKING AT!”\n\nDamn, writing in caps is hard. I would’ve brought a laptop or something, but where I’m going I need all the resources I can carry.\n\n...That sounded a lot more badass than I am.\n\nAnyway, so I’m obviously a dumb character in a horror movie, because I opened that trap door, and hey look! I’m alive! Or maybe I’m not. Here’s hoping I’m not dead.\n\nAnd below door number one lay…… another basement! Oh my God, it’s the discovery of the century!\n\nIt basically looked like the basement above it with stairs leading up to mine; it had a bunch of boxed up stuff in it, and the stuff that wasn’t in boxes had a literal blanket of dust on it. It’s like these things haven’t seen the light of day (or just fluorescent bulbs) in a long, long time. I’m surprised I didn’t end up sneezing up my lungs.\n\nThere was an empty space and lo and behold, another trap door! Again, lots of boxes, lots of dust, and lots of darkness. This time, I was an actual human being who wanted to survive, so I booked it out of there.\n\nCuriosity killed the cat, though, and I ended up descending into the basement with food, water, a good flashlight, a bunch of batteries, and this journal.\n\nSo, here I am in this dark basement. I should go back up, really. John and the others would be worried for me. I’ve probably been reported as missing.\n\nThinking about it, I should’ve left a note. Maybe I’ll make this my note.\n\nI should go back.", "Tristan’s foot touched the bottom of this set of steps. He leapt down to allow both feet to land in the new area. \n\nHe turned to the wall to his left, as he had learnt to do when starting a new “floor”. On the wall, again an inscription. Or, more like a carving with very primitive tools. \n\n“34, not far to go now I’d hope.” Tristan had talked to himself more and more over the weeks he had been down in this seemingly endless cellar. They all seemed very similar but there was always something out of place. He remembered noticing this first on floor 98. \n\nThere was a bookcase, which contained a variety of old looking books. On floor 99, this was full, but then one book was missing from this seemingly identical bookcase on floor 98. And this carried on. Each floor there was one less book, but they didn’t seem to be anywhere in the room. \n\nThen there were the scratch marks. One or two to start with (Tristan had assumed rats initially) but then more as he descended. Scurrying noises like rats made themselves known every few floors. Tristan assured himself that these were only rats. Rats who could read and needed a book to take to the bathroom? Sure, why not, he told himself. \n\nLooking back to the “34” carving, he refilled his water from the water basin that was always near the carvings and looked for this floors exit. He found it not too far away, opened the hatch and descended to floor 33. \n\nNot long after he was down, he was thrown to the floor by an unseen assailant. Fighting back, he threw a punch and the attacker reeled back. \n\n“Fuck man,” said the person “that hurt. Sorry for attacking you, I thought you were something else.”\n\n“What else?” said Tristan getting to his feet. \n\n“It doesn’t matter.” \n\n“I think it actually does.”\n\n“No it doesn’t. I’m Mark by the way.” He stuck out his hand, but Tristan did not shake it. \n\n“Oh. Okay. Hey, what floor did you start on?” he asked. \n\n“100, why? And you never said what else was here.”\n\n“100‽” asked Mark with shock in his voice. “Why are you going down?”\n\n“I started and I have to know what’s down there now.” Tristan wished he didn’t have to sate his curiosity and could go back up. “What about you? How did you get here? Why are you going up?”\n\n“Oh. I need to get to the human world. I need to trade places with someone dumb enough to come down here in the first place though.”\n\n“Wh-“\n\nMark rushed Tristan and threw him against a wall, with strength that certainly wasn’t human. Tristan felt something warm on his hair, and realised it must be blood seeping from a cut. He tried to get up but realised he was somehow weighted down. He started to lose focus, just being able to see “Mark” leap up the opening to floor 34, carrying the bag of food & flashlight with him. “Fuck” was the last thing he remembered thinking before passing out. ", "It had been three minutes since Isaac went on the run. Minutes that ran on and on, minutes that felt like entire weeks.\n\nHe lived with his mother on a small house on a hill. Life was simple, and they were both happy for a while. That was, until the day Isaac’s mother heard a voice from above. On that day, she burst into her child’s room brandishing a butcher’s knife. Isaac only escaped through a trapdoor hidden beneath his rug, leading to his...\n\n...cellar?\n\nThis wasn’t right, Isaac thought. He knew that the floor under his was a basement, and this wasn’t it. \n\nHe spent the first minute acquainting himself with the room. Dark oak walls in all directions trapped everything inside. The ceiling was low, and the corners were all dusty. If the boy squinted, he could see spiderwebs glistening in light from no apparent source. It felt so similar to his basement, but there were no spiders. Were there?\n\nIn the second minute, Isaac frowned as he walked through a door to his east, wondering about exactly what was making him feel so uneasy, and found himself face-to-face with a floating head. His breath shallowed.\n\nThe head opened its eyes, revealing empty sockets leaking blood. “Horf,” it gurgled, as the bloody tears spilled off its chin into its mouth. Isaac froze. He shut his eyes and curled up into a ball on the floor, rocking gently. This is all a bad dream, this is all a bad dream, Mom loves me, Mom would never hurt me, there’s no head in front of me...\n\nIsaac took a deep breath and stood back up. Another minute crept by before he carefully opened his eyes. He was still in the cellar, but the head was gone. Isaac looked at his feet - the floor in front of him was streaked with crimson.\n\nIsaac touched his cheek. Tears ran down it like a river.\n\nHe had a feeling he wasn’t going to stop crying soon.", "The Journal of Ian's Decent\n\nI could tell it was close… that thing.\n\nI still hadn’t laid eyes on it, but I could sense its murderous intent thick in the air. It had been following me since at least layer 46, but possibly even before that. Regardless, it was here now, somewhere. I peered around the rock I was hiding behind, hoping to catch a glimpse of it, but, as always, I saw nothing. Nothing except the wooden hatch in the ground that led to the next layer.\n\nI held my breath and strained my ears, listening for the sound of its scurrying, or its claws dragging on the stone, or the weird, ghastly hum you could mistake for the wind if you weren’t paying attention. I heard nothing. ‘Maybe it passed by?’ I hoped. My heart started pounding in my chest. I had to make a break for it, for the hatch. I pulled my pack off my shoulder, and rummaged through it, pulling out a flashlight. I’d stopped using it several floors ago; I’d come to discover light was nothing more than another enemy down here. I set my hand to a cloth bandage on my left arm; the price of that discovery. Since then I had learned to grow accustomed to the dark.\n\nI closed my pack and ran my arms through the straps, then sat up into a crouch. Just in case that thing was still close, I needed to offer a distraction. I felt my breath getting shorter, and I took a second to calm myself. I breathed in through my nose, and out through my mouth several times. Then I stood and threw it as far as I could, away from the hatch. I waited, and listened.\n\nIt was silent, until the flashlight struck the stone floor, sending a cracking noise echoing through the cavern. What followed was the eerie sort of howl, sort of whistle of that thing. The flashlight had drawn its attention. I sprinted for the hatch, already hearing the scraping of the thing’s claws as it darted towards the light. When I’d covered about three quarters of the distance I needed to, the area around me was suddenly drenched in yellow light; the thing had inadvertently clicked on the flashlight. The thing hissed violently, and then let out a strained whine. I reached the hatch, and scrambled to get it open. My hand slipped once, but I reaffirmed my grip and lifted it. I grabbed hold of the rope on the underside of the hatch, and prepared to jump down, closing the latch behind me. Before jumping however, I stole a glance over my shoulder.\n\nAt first I thought the flashlight was silhouetting the thing, but that wasn’t the case. The thing just had no color to it, like looking into a black hole. It didn’t really have a shape either. Its body seemed to wax and wane, and upon my eyes adjusting to the light slightly, it just appeared to be a mass of writhing darkness. Through the undulating mass I could make out a clawed arm here, a tentacle there. The thing shied away from the light, staggering back and forth, until it stepped out of the beam. Then it shot out one of its clawed arms and smashed the flashlight, obliterating the source of light. The creature’s body calmed down once it was wrapped in darkness again, and, aside from several remaining clawed arms and tentacles, it became roughly humanoid… about the same size as me… same shape as me…\n\nIt turned and faced me, and even though it was nothing but a darker spot of darkness now, my eyes had adjusted enough to pick up the slight details of its face.\n\nIt was me. A shade of me. My Shadow. It lunged. I screamed.\n\nI dropped down through the hatch, pulling it shut with the rope as I fell. I landed hard on the floor, and rolled onto my side. I laid there for a few minutes, listening to the Shadow pound on the hatch. I knew it couldn’t get through; this wasn’t my first close-call, but it always found another way down eventually. It was almost as if the thing was drawn to me.\n\nAfter seeing its face finally, I felt like I knew why. I didn’t understand what it was or where it came from, but I supposed it only made sense for a Shadow to stalk the thing it was made to look like. The banging stopped, and after a few hisses and groans, the Shadow seemed to stalk off elsewhere. I had some time.\n\nI stood and looked around. I was in a place that looked exactly like my basement; every floor started out that way. It definitely wasn’t my basement anymore, though. The door at the top of the stairs was always locked, and the door that was supposed to lead to the laundry room opened into a larger and larger space every time. I sighed, and allowed my body to relax a little bit. The basement was always a safe place to recuperate before I struck out into the new floor.\n\nI sat up and swung my back pack off, placing it on the floor in front of me. I took out a journal, and flipped to the first fresh page. I wrote.\n\nDay 22\n\nI have made it to Layer 53. Barely. I finally laid eyes on the thing that has been stalking me. I don’t understand how, or why, but the creature is a shadow of myself, sporting some wicked looking tentacles and claws. It is by far the most frightening creature I have encountered down here. It appears to be hurt by, or at least afraid of, light. Unfortunately, I found this out by discarding my only flashlight, so… I’ll need to find a new light source soon. I’m also out of rations. Hopefully, this next floor has some small game on it. Otherwise, I may end up starving to death.\n\nThe floors keep getting bigger. Early on, I was getting through several floors a day, but as the hatches to the next layer become increasingly harder to find, and the monsters more difficult to fight or avoid… I spent 3 whole days on Layer 52. Not sure how much more of this I can take.*\n\nI closed my journal, sighed, and stowed it in my pack. I pushed myself to my feet, donned my backpack, and moved to the laundry room door. I pushed the creaking barrier open, and stepped out. For a moment, I thought I was outside. A breeze blew against me, and before me was a path that led into a dark forest. The area was drenched in what looked like moonlight, but upon looking up, I spotted a large crystal hanging from the ceiling hundreds of feet up. A faint light emanated from the crystal. The giant cavern must have spread for several miles in every direction. The fact that there was nothing but empty space above the wooden structure of the basement behind me still bothered me, even though I had learned this place didn’t really follow the rules of physical logic. I shivered, but centered myself on the path and gazed into the forest. I drew a knife from my belt. A forest meant the possibility of small game, which meant I might get to eat, but that was a secondary objective.\n\nI had to find the next hatch." ]	9
	[WP] The Counsel of Magic and the Holy Order of Witch Hunters begrudgingly agree to meet to discuss a flare up of a new form of dark magic: firearm based spells and charms. It is 1912 and nothing can contain the rise of the Gun Witches.	[ " \"Ok, good effort, but wrong effect\" the witch Terrias told her student \"so Corvae, what sort of bullet are you using?\". The young warlock hurriedly broke apart the revolver to check. Pulling an unfired round from the cylinder, he sheepishly handed the lustrous ammunition to his mentor. \"Silver...\" he murmured . \"Silver,\" Terrias echoed \"so the catalyst is correct. And yet the water boiled away. Why?\" she asked softly.\n\n\"Because...\" Corvae paused. He ran through the spell in his head again. He held the revolver out, primed the catalyst with magic, inscribed the bullet with a thermal expulsion formula, opened fi-\n \"Because I used an expulsion spell, not an absorption spell,\" he admitted a moment later. \"I needed to use magic to absorb energy from the surroundings and dissipate it through the bullet. Which would freeze the water.\" \n\nTerrias sighed. Corvae wasn't the most powerful warlock she'd ever trained, not that that was a problem per sey, magical power, like a muscle, can be improved. She took Corvae as a student because he was one of the smartest. Moments like this made her doubt that assessment. \n\nWith a thought, the silver bracelet about Terrias' wrist glowed with small markings as a globular mass of water appeared above her palm. She set it floating down range until it came to rest in mid air. \"This time,\" she said sternly, \" use the bullet to create a sub-zero temperature at the point of impact to prevent me from snuffing out the magic.\" \n\nCorvae put the bullet back into the gun and took aim at the mass of water. Terrias waited for a moment, making sure that Corvae wasn't pre-priming before she snapped her fingers, then proceeded to do so. \n\nLess than a half-second later, a mass of ice shattered upon the ground. \"Better. Much, much better Corvae. You learn quickly, but you often forget to apply what you've learned. Now,\" she says creating another liquid mass, \"again.\"", "The meeting was quiet and tense as all meetings were in the private manse of the chief inquisitor. He himself had not arrived yet but every one of the witch hunters within the room still arrived at the time set.\n\n The three scholars sent by the council of magic remained in a huddle examining their own approved magics. It kept the rest of the witch hunters wary.\n\n Before anything came about from the strange situation the venerable head of the witch hunters order strode into the room. He paused for a second scanning the room. Then he spoke.\n\n \"Brothers and sisters welcome to my home, is there anything to be said before we begin\". He gave a pointed look at a few of the more blood thirsty hunters. But no one spoke.\n\n \"Very well then let us begin, we are losing\". He held up his hands to quell the angry mutterings of the group before they began in earnest. He raised his voice and continued. \"Without better weapons these abominations upon the earth will win, our order will be a long lost thing of the past and violence and decadence shall be all that is left on this world. what say the rest of you\".\n\n No one spoke for a moment until Bravos a hunter from the frontiers to the west spoke up.\n\n\"Anything specific in mind lord\".\n\n \"Yes brave hunter these scholars here have brought an example of what we might be able to use\". The chief inquisitor motioned to the trio.\n\n A member stepped forward and cleared his throat. \" we call them semi autonomous weapons, derived from studying witch familiars. They would become a part of you allowing for more strength in your mortal frames\". He consulted his notes for a moment. \"They are tricky to use and require blood to function though\".\n\n \"Whats a little blood in the face of failure in our ancient duty\" called out the chief inquisitor as the rest nodded in affirmation.\n\n He looked around at the hunters. None voiced doubts or concerns. He smiled.\n" ]	2
	[WP] Sadness is outlawed. So is anger, resentment, envy, hopelessness, and all other emotions that could be seen as negative. Emotion Police deals with finding and punishing rebellious "negative thinkers".	[ "I come here to talk. Tonight I'm sitting in a truck stop bathroom cubicle, last week I was crouching in an abandoned car yard. These are the places we \"Downers\" resort to for temporary companionship, to have our feelings and grievances heard. I hear the clip-clop of a stranger's dress shoes enter the bathroom.\n\n&#x200B;\n\nI knew younger than most that I was a downer (it still hurts to say the word out loud), apparently I cried more than my other siblings growing up, but it was around the age of fourteen that I really knew. Some days I just couldn't get out of bed in the morning. My Dad would knock on the locked door and ask why I wasn't up yet, I always reply that I was doing a morning work-out, though my wiry arms and boyish chest would never testify to that claim. I still can't tell my family that I'm a Downer, it would bring their reputation to disrepute, not to mention the physical risk it would bring to myself. Only last week they did a sting under the Affable Bridge, caught two downers reading some Edgar Allen Poe, now both their parents get blue painted thrown at their front door and are ridiculed daily. See, hating Downers and their families is encouraged as long as it's done in a festive manner. There are street parades, nightly comedy shows that humiliate captured downers, and arcades where kids jam soft balls into sad clown faces for squeaky prizes. The hypocrisy is veiled, but it is the cruelty release-valve that every society, every person, has always demanded.\n\n&#x200B;\n\nClip-clop, clip-clop. My heart is jackhammering. In all of the truck stops and abandoned warehouses, I've never heard footsteps so announced, so confidently measured. Could it be one of them, here to take me away? I feel guilt and dread drain my body of heat. I put myself in this position, if only I could have just stomached my feelings instead of chasing a moment of connection with a stranger. What have I done? How will my parents cope? I decide to hide. Slowly I lift my left foot onto the toilet seat, quietly, good, I lift my right foot but the toe of my shoe catches the plastic toilet seat, raising it inches from the bowl. My hand bolts down to catch it but my reflexes fail me, it hits the rim and announces, and echoes, my presence. The footsteps stop, then continue into the cubicle next to me. The stranger speaks in the same confident measure and her footsteps, \"Sit down, I just want to talk about my dick-boss and...\" Hot relief rushes through me like a catharsis as I realize my life has been saved. \"Am I in the right place?\" she asks through the story-holes.\n\n&#x200B;\n\nOver the next half-hour I learn her name is Julie, she has two children, her boss is a \"piece of cunt\" who tells her how lucky she is to receive so much work from him. The intimacy is real, the minutes mould into one then she says that she needs to return to her suburban life. Julie leaves with the same composure as she entered.\n\nI came here to talk. Tonight it was in a truck stop bathroom cubicle, next week it will be an alleyway. Right now I feel human, I have heard and been heard, but it won't be long before I feel sad and lonely again, for I am a Downer.\n\n&#x200B;\n\n&#x200B;" ]	1
	[WP] You are a Nigerian prince who has decided to give up the life of luxury and become a monk. You decide to give up all your wealth to random people on the internet, by mailing them and asking for their bank account information so you could gransfer the money. Sadly, nobody replies to your mails.	[ "So I gave it all to Good Will.\n\n\nThat's my own private nickname for Prince William since he married a commoner. I figured he would know a few that might need it. \n\n\nOnce free of those material goods that have shackled me to this plane I traveled to Tibet where I Prayed, tended to the land and slept in a monastery away from the world and all it's distractions. \n\n\nThat's my story and you can read it all in my new book \n\n\nThe Monk Who Sold His Ferrari \n\n\nJust attach $15.99 when replying to this email. Enlightenment is but one click away my friend. " ]	1
	[WP]Write a story where the narrator makes it up as he goes along	[ "I have a story.\n\nRather, a unfinished story. \n\nFine, I will confess it. I'm just making this up as I go along. This story will absolutely fascinate you.\n\n&#x200B;\n\nIt starts off with John, a man that has 2 children and a wife named Bella. He works as an accountant for a medium size company. Right now, he is walking home to eat dinner.\n\nJust look at him go, so gracefully and fast, he is like a SAVAGE being trying to reach his house. It seems he is breaking in a run now. Oh dear, he's running on the street. WAIT, DON'T HIT THE CAR. KEEP ON GOING. TURN RIGHT ON THE FASTEST AVAILABLE ROUTE. Oh wait, he is at his house now. He rings the doorbell, with a quick time event popping up. Just kidding, he just rang the doorbell.\n\nHe rushes to grab a plate, since the dish is his favorite dish. Pizza! He sits with his family, and talks about his day. Nothing much he says, just talking here and there and punching numbers for the whole day. He listens to his child's days, as he learns that they played games, and ran around. It was a rather ordinary day. Wait, John is going up the stairs. He turns to his room, and turns his computer on. Wait a second, what is he doing. He is turning on Reddit... WAIT, NOOOO. HE IS GOING TO r/LIBERAL . WE LOST HIM. NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO\n\nFUCKING LIBERAL SCUMS\n\nlol this was super fun to right for 10 mins" ]	1
And don't just say "Megamind"!	[WP] A handful of Villains appear at a fallen Hero's funeral to show their respects.	[ "(pt. 1) \n\nThings were a lot more lively than I was expecting. \n\nA major crisis was averted so I can see why people were in good spirits. Malumbra’s attempt to start World War Three was stopped, the tensions between the United States, China, and Russia that had been building for the past five years are on the way to being deflated, and for the first time in history the Arab world is chilling out over the existence of Israel. The only downside is Eagle is dead. He gave his life guiding a nuke out of Earth’s atmosphere which only makes me wish he was as durable as Superman. Hell, the man exhibited all his other powers and attributes, why not have that inhuman durability? \n\nAt least the world’s leaders came together and agreed that a memorial should be held for him. The alliance is still pretty fragile so they asked Switzerland to host it. I don’t agree with the venue but knowing Eagle it’s what he would’ve wanted. He saw everyone equally and treated them as such, no matter of race, religion, nationality, or that gay rainbow that is too confusing for me to even process. \n\n“Excuse me, Comrade,” I turn around to a female’s voice, one that carried a heavy Russian accent. Yulia Aleksandrovna, a former KGB agent that turned to hero work, stood in front of me wearing a fitted black dress that spoke volumes of her hourglass figure. While many of the world’s heroes were here in costume a few of us like myself came incognito, and Yulia seemed to be doing the same. The name she was most known by was the Nova, a cosmonaut-themed suit and arsenal that dished out damage to most of Russia’s threats at home; while I was certain that the Kremlin sponsored her I couldn’t find any conclusive proof of it. “I am looking for a friend of mine, Mr. Tobias Weaver. Have you seen him?” \n\nShe knew damn well who I was. Both of us spent many years in clandestine operations that required many hours of investigation, surveillance, and research. It miffed me a little bit but knew I had to keep appearances so I put on a smile. “That would be me, ma’am. What can I do for you?” \n\nYulia’s face lights up, bowing her head a few inches. “Ah, Mr. Weaver. I come with a proposal for you company. Do you have time to speak privately?” \n\nShe didn’t have a proposal. She wanted to pick my brain for information. All I wanted to do was pay my respects to a good friend and go home but it was clear I wasn’t going to be able to do that today. “Of course. I figured you had someplace in mind to speak?” \n\n“I did. Would you mind following me?” \n\n“Lead on then.” \n\nShe smiles, one that was incredibly sweet even for her. The parts of her that I was able to dig up prior to her service indicated she did some acting in her early years. That’s probably why her hero career was so popular back in the Motherland. I follow her out of the main lobby and down a series of hallways, ending up in a completely empty room. A quick glance around gives me the layout; no other doors, furniture, two windows on the opposite end of the entrance. There was a pair of cameras in the room, one in the corner to my right and another on the far end on the left. She brushes the hair from the side of her face, finger grazing one of the large hoop earrings hanging from either side of her head. \n\n“We have exactly two minutes before the audio in this room returns to normal,” her voice morphs into the terse and business-like tone that I knew her best for. \n\nI let the features on my face relax and move how they want to. “What do you want, Yulia?” \n\n“It is nothing bad, do not worry. While you and I do not see eye to eye on many issues I do not wish to cause you any kind of distress today. Eagle was too great of a man for us to squabble at his funeral.” \n\n“Get to the point then. Why’d you have to drag me off to the side like this?” \n\n“The Murtaziq is on his way along with many other villains that Eagle has fought against in the past.” \n\nI blink. Villains? Why are they coming out? Unless they wanted to crash the party and desecrate the memorial that was going to be displayed. “How do you know this?” \n\n“There were several transmissions going out in the underground network that they use about the memorial.” \n\n“Everyone knows all that talk is gibberish to anyone that doesn’t know it. Even Codebreaker hasn’t figured it out.” \n\nYulia hesitates, something that was uncharacteristic for her. “The KGB has been working on a cipher for the past year and managed to decode a few phrases. I am acting on impulse and very little time but I will offer what was cracked to you with your assistance here today.” \n\nI no doubt looked surprised as she takes a step closer, reaching up to grab onto the collar of my jacket; while the cameras weren’t picking up audio they still had visual and my best guess was she was trying to appear as a hot fling or something for them. They cracked part of the code? That has been a side project for me since it was first discovered some eight years ago, and they just have a partial cipher of it? I put my hands on her waist to try and be a little more convincing, trying to work up a smile that no doubt looked awkward as hell. “What do you need of me?” \n\n“I can assume you know the identities of most villains in the world, yes?” \n\n“With the exception of Malumbra, Deadman, The Question, and Black Knight.” \n\n“From what I’ve gathered they do not intend on showing up.” \n\n“Good. I don’t have any of the necessary gear to deal with at least two of them.” \n\n“Find and watch them. I’m sure you have means of keeping an eye on most people here.” \n\n“We have a channel we can use?” \n\n“I’ll see what I can do.” She let me go and pulled away, brushing the hair on the opposite side of her face. “So we shall meet again in two months time?” \n\n“I’ll be sure to bring the demo.” I put on my best fake smile, knowing we’d have to resume our prior act. Small price to pay for something to take my mind off my dead best friend. ", "The director was dead.\n\nHe had died in the cartel wars, on the last day. He had died to end them, actually. He crashed his crippled flagship into the enemies flagship and detonated the on-board atomic weapon stock. The explosion shook the sky, and they were so high in the atmosphere that people claimed the sky turned white from the explosion.\n\nThere was no body.\n\nThere was no wreck.\n\nThere wasn’t even ash.\n\nWhen the light faded, the gunfire slowed, and stopped.\n\nEveryone was just standing, looking at where the two airships once were.\n\nThen, the cartel members dropped their weapons.\n\nLife, of course, moved on.\n\nUntil the funeral.\n\nThe funeral was the director’s final parade. His power armour, which he once stated would be his tomb, rested on stage. In a specially designed coffin made of gold, with the insignia of the enclave indented deep within it’s face.\n\nTroops marched past, in perfect formation. Contrary to the standard green of the enclave, in formal black uniforms. They wore black gas masks and peaked caps, contrary to their standard ballistic helmets and beige gas mask. Eventually, the parade stopped.\n\nBut, we could still hear marching.\n\nCartel troops came onto the field. Uninvited, uncontrolled, they marched by. They did their own salute, their drill almost meeting the enclave's high standards.\n\nYears passed. The enclave moved on. But, whenever there was an Enclave troop in trouble in Mexico, no matter where they are, no matter what they're doing, they get help. When they're cornered in an alleyway, a grenade drops from above, behind them. When a enclave troop is facing someone on the street, a stray bullet will come from nowhere and turn their head into a crater.\n\nThey're saying sorry.\n\nAnd we forgive them.", "It was a bright and sunny day, a stark contrast to the events at hand. The most well know and loved heroine was the guest of honor at this gathering. Laying in a coffin with her angelic features. Citizens and heroes of all kinds came to the event, many of them putting their differences aside to mourn and grieve. I couldn't stop crying since her death. She was killed by some nameless criminal with a poison that could effect the Woman of Nature. Gaia solved fights without violence more often then anyone else. I was learning that compassion and all the ways she kept fights from happening.\n\n&#x200B;\n\nTowards the end five individuals appeared, and they were fully dressed in their villainous attire. No one acted when they appeared, and they just stood there. I was about to round on them when a voice spoke firmly in my mind, the Masked Psychic spoke.\n\n&#x200B;\n\n\"We did not come to fight, though you wouldn't be a challenge. So many villains are celebrating the death of this woman.\"\n\n&#x200B;\n\n\"I suppose you wanted to confirm that she is dead. You're an idiot thinking you'll leave without being caught.\"\n\n&#x200B;\n\n\"Child, we can escape long before those meatheads turn around.\" His masculine voice began to shift to one of a woman. \"We lost more than you think we did. There are prisoners balling their eyes out at the news.\" I began to hear sadness within this new voice.\n\n&#x200B;\n\n\"Why are you here?\" I was truly intrigued by the appearance of these 5 beings.\n\n&#x200B;\n\n\"The Alchemist wishes to apologize for the poison. He developed the thing for that dolt Mountain Man, not Gaia. Data never thanked her for showing him the beauty of nature. Venus wants to pay respects. Aberrant just wants to find a new playmate since Gaia is gone.\"\n\n&#x200B;\n\n\"And you?\"\n\n&#x200B;\n\n\"To say good-bye to the woman I loved. The Masked Psychic dies with her today, and her wife is a widow.\"\n\n&#x200B;\n\nI turned to see four villains left standing, and then they left flowers and disappeared themselves. A new face was up front, and nobody seemed to care.\n\n&#x200B;\n\nAfter everything came to an end I was introduced to Felicity, Fiona's (Gaia) wife. This was the first time we met face to face, and she acted like she never met me. Though, while shaking her had, it was clear we had met many times before. The sun was shining bright as many heroes celebrated the life of Gaia, her accomplishments, and consoled her widow. I was suspicious of her, but I wasn't going to bring down the mood by accusing her wife of vile actions. Fiona did change many people's lives without using her powers, and I was most likely jealous of her.", "The three remaining mourners were left in the cemetery after the funeral: One wore the customary black formal wear that is expected for such a somber occasion; another had on a regular suit, and sat in the car, smoking.\n\nThe third wore her black tights and a white cape, similar to her dead brother's. \n\n. . .\n\n\"I can't believe he's g-g-gone,\" she stuttered, tears streaming down from under the stylized domino mask she wore. Lady Night, whose brother Sun (he added a \"K\" to his last name to make it a little less awkward-looking), lay in the coffin ten yards away, paused, looked at it, and started crying again. \n\nShe remembered how he was always so active, always doing something, and never sitting down. She once joked how the only way to stop Sun from moving was the day he was put into a coffin. Now looking at it, she wished she had never said those words, ever.\n\n\"He was not supposed to die,\" she thought. \"It was supposed to be me.\"\n\n\"I know,\" said the other voice in her mind. Gabriel Armand, the man standing next to her, went by the name The Psycher when he had his outfit on. For this solemn event, he put on a formal black suit and went as his 'normal' self. \"He was a good guy. He knew what he was doing when he took that bullet.\" His lips did not move, but she heard him perfectly.\n\n\"But-but-but-he didn' have to...\" Lady Night broke down in tears again, hiding her face in her hands. Gabriel did not move to comfort her; instead, he waited. Grieving was something he was not good at, owing to his immortality, he mused. He was so used to the sight of death--\n\nGabriel's psychic ability let off what he could only think of as its \"warning bells\": A high-pitched ringing that centered in his mind, and felt stronger the closer danger approached. This saved him more than a few times, and made him a valued member of The Guardian Alliance...and it was getting stronger, fast.\n\n\"Something's wrong.\" He stated out loud, his senses going on full alert.\n\n\"Are you getting a warning?\" Lady Night looked up at Gabriel through wet, red eyes as he tensed up. She put her hands down, getting ready for a possible fight.\n\n\"Yes. It's pretty strong.\"\n\n\"Should we summon the team? I know Sun--\" she stopped, realizing what she just said.\n\n\"I don't think there's--\"\n\nAnd then existence split open.\n\n. . .\n\nGabriel \"The Psycher\" and Lady Night watched as what each of them later described as a \"tear\" opened in front of them. There was a whooshing sound, followed by a bang, like a pistol being fired. \n\nThe thin white line, about eight feet tall, appeared about six feet from Sun Knight's coffin, as it sat on a low platform. The heroes watched as four beings came out from it, and recoiled in horror as the scene played out:\n\nThe first was a man in red tights and a jet-black face-obscuring helmet that both knew as The Overlord. Both heroes had fought him before, and always at great physical cost. More than a few times, Lady Night ended up in the hospital due to him.\n\nThe next was an eight-foot-tall robot known as The Exterminator. He was the conscience of a Nazi scientist downloaded into the body of an advanced robot, and like the previous villain, was also formidable in hand-to-hand combat.\n\nThe third who stepped through was a woman. Gabriel had fought, and imprisoned, Anna enough times to know she was as smart as she was chaotic. Others called her The Amazon, and she did not dissuade them of this. However, she always referred to herself as \"Anna.\" She was dressed in armor and bearing enough firearms to take out a police station (Gabriel cringed at the memory of that bloody evening when she did so; it took months for the city to hire and train new police). \n\nLady Night had never come across Anna yet, but now, thought Gabriel, that may have to change.\n\nThe last was something Gabriel truly feared: A creature only known as The Rider. It did not step through, so much as glide: Its tentacles never touched the ground. It was called The Rider because it took over the body of whatever it looked at, using it for whatever purpose...often nefarious ones. The people it left alive told how it felt like it \"rode\" them to do what it wanted, and how they had no control over their thoughts, their wills, or their bodies--hence, the name.\n\nGabriel and Lady Night knew this, as they had barely defeated it in their last confrontation.\n\n...which was won, only because Sun was able to fight it. That was their edge in defeating it, which was now lying dead in a box made of oak.\n\n. . .\n\nStunned, Gabriel and Lady Night watched as the villains stood there, looking at Sun Knight's casket with the hero's cape draped over its lid. The gold \"SK\" on his white cape stood out against the dark brown of the wood as the afternoon sun shown down upon it.\n\n\"So it's true. How rude of them not to invite us,\" mused The Amazon as she stepped closer to the dead hero.\n\n\"DON'T YOU FUCKING GO NEAR--\" Lady Night screamed as she started to run at the group of assembled villains, fists glowing in preparation for a brawl.\n\nThe Rider raised a tentacle, and Lady Night, The Psycher, and their friend who was nothing more than their driver for the day, all froze in place.\n\n\"Don't move,\" The Rider's voice sounded like nails across a chalkboard in their minds. \"We will not be here long.\"\n\nGabriel tried to exert his will to fight The Rider. Like before, it was just not strong enough, like a child using its tiny fists to try to beat down a brick wall. With Sun Knight's help, he was able to do it. But now? The Psycher was helpless, and afraid. All three of them were at the mercy of the villains assembled next to The Sun Knight's grave.\n\n. . .\n\n\"The Sun Knight ist tot,\" said The Exterminator with a thick Teutonic accent, his voice tinny from the speaker that was his mouth. \"I vill tell you all, he was an impressive man.\"\n\nThat statement confused Lady Night. Was he talking about the man who had repeatedly jailed him...with respect?!?\n\n\"I cannot help but admire him,\" said The Overlord, looking at the fallen hero. \"Had he viewed the world more correctly, he could have been my lieutenant. Together we could have been unstoppable.\"\n\n\"'Viewed the world correctly?' I think there are two 'heroes' here who would disagree with you,\" smirked The Amazon as she shot a look at The Psycher and Lady Night. \"A worldview is only correct in the mind of the person who sees the world their way.\"\n\n\"You would prefer it was lawless and disordered, Amazon,\" said The Overlord. \"I would see the world as perfect and ordered under my rule. The Sun Knight could have helped me achieve that...if only he was on the right side.\" \n\n\"I would prefer no rule--\" started The Amazon.\n\n\"Stop it, both of you,\" said The Rider. \"We are here to pay respects to a fallen enemy, not bring up old grudges.\"\n\nGabriel's futile battle of wills with The Rider abated. \"Pay respects?\" he thought.\n\n\"Yes, pay respects, Gabriel,\" stated The Rider, also present in Gabriel's mind as its will imprisoned his body. It glided over to where both he and Lady Night stood still, followed by the other three villains. \"This may surprise you, but when we received the news that The Sun Knight was dead, the four of us got together. And we discovered something,\" The Rider paused.\n\n\"He vas an agent of...how shall I put it...'balance.' He kept us not only from killing you, but from killing each other,\" continued The Exterminator. \"Zat gave the world a certain order that we could appreciate, making sure that none of us got too powerful over the others,\" he said, turning briefly to The Overlord.\n\n\"An order that is now disrupted due to his death,\" finished The Amazon. \n\n(Part 1 of 2)", "It was like he was sleeping. Other than the heavy makeup powdered over his wrinkled face, no one could tell Electric Dude wasn't just resting. \n\nHis super suit was slightly expanded around the bloated stomach. The super suit withstood the surge of Electric Dude's electricity for decades. Long after his body decomposed, it would most likely still be there. \n\nHis salt and pepper hair was neatly combed to the side, unlike his truly hairstyle he kept it as when he was alive. His face almost looked peaceful. Whenever he scrunched his face, all the wrinkles gathered over the years of crime fighting gave away his age. Now he seemed younger. The bottom half of the casket was closed, so no one noticed his short stature. What he lacked in height, he made up for with his compassion. \n\nIt was weird to think that the energy that once rolled through him was now dispersed into the world searching for its master that would never spark again.\n\nI heard soft footfalls to my right but continued to look at the body resting in the casket. Someone let a sigh out, and I smelt the tinge of sulfur.\n\n\"He was one hell of a man,\" Dr. Volcano's voice whispered from my right. \"I remember when I hid explosives in all the volcanoes in the Ring of Fire to erupt at the same time. Electric Dude didn't know what to do. He couldn't be at every volcano in the Ring of Fire at once. Instead, he created the largest Electric storm over the Atlantic anyone had seen. Everyone moved inland and evacuated within 24 hours. He couldn't use his powers for a month. The energy it took to create that powerful of a storm almost killed him, but he did it to save all those people.\"\n\nI did remember that. Everyone criticized him and called him evil for his unorthodox solution. He didn't argue with them, but once the saw the record breaking amount of volcanic eruptions, they all knew why he had done it. No one ever said a word against him since then. He always used unusual tactics and risked his life on several occasions. He never complained or argued when someone criticized him. To him, it was his job to save the humans of the world, even if they didn't deserve it.\n\n\"The only thing Electric Dude hated was villians. Even then, he did his best to try to help us and rehabilitate us. He wanted to know our backstories and why we did what we did. If I wasn't trying to achieve world dominance, the man would've turned me good.\"\n\nDr. Volcano paused as he hesitated. I knew what was coming. The question everyone always wondered but no one dared ask. I heard him take a deep inhale. After all this time, someone was finally going to say it.\n\n\"It has always struck me as odd that he always avoided one supervillain. Tell me, Earth Quaker. Why is it that he never fought you?\" I could feel his eyes on me as he waited in anticipation for my answer. I reached into my pocket and pulled out my sunglasses. \n\n\"He did hate villians, Dr. Volcano,\" I said coolly as I placed the sunglasses on my face. I turned and focused on the exit. My feet carried me towards it.\n\n\"But he loved his son even more.\"", "I was sitting there, in my best, worst, and only suit, sitting in the pews, staring emptily at a Casket. It seemed impossible, but The Titan had fallen. Half the city must have lined up through the streets, one last triumph to a departed Paragon. I...I, uh...I'm not gonna lie, all I could feel was Guilt. The last thing I saw of him, he threw me aside as that Drone fired the blast...and apparently, that threw him off guard. I saw as the Alien form came through the window, smirked, and decapitated him. Short, anti-climactic. Yet I saw it happen before my eyes, from my sudden hiding-place in the head of clothing I was thrown into. This, despite my logical side telling me he did that voluntarily, was my fault. In the end, I had done what Count Christoph Von Dread, the Walking Blackness, The Maruauder or even the Great Spider himself had failed to do. I had killed The Titan.\n\nI felt the tears dripping down my face, silent, shameful, but unstoppable. Somewhere in front of me, I was distantly aware of some priest blathering on in the front, but I couldn't focus. I couldn't move past that cold moment, of the world tumbling over, seeing the Titan tumble over, seeing the blood tumble over across the air, decorating the walls, like a maniacal painter. This wasn't the first time I'd seen a man die, as you well know, but that's hardly relevant right now. Well, perhaps it is, but please, just shut up and listen. \n\nAs the service closed, I stayed there. Paralyzed. No...perhaps that's not the right word. I could move. But...I didn't. It was a cage of my own making. I've never felt that way before. This was a man I had some degree of respect for, who had no reason to save me, ending his life to save mine. That's...that's nothing I've ever seen before.\n\nSo, anyways, that's why I was there. I wasn't planning some ambush. I wasn't there to rub his nose in it. I wasn't planning to, say, telekinetically use his corpse as a weapon. I...I just wanted to process what happened. He was always so insufferably devoted to what he called \"Heroism\", perpetuating the system of the selfish and the greedy, but in those final moments, he put his money where his mouth is. He could have let me die. I would have done that. But...to see him decapitated in that moment...that was the greatest refutation of my ideals that could ever exist. And so, effective immediately, I turn myself over to the Police Department of Mercy City. Whether you choose to employ me like you did with the Titan, or whether you choose to simply leave me to languish forever is a dark cell, I care not. But where I once felt zeal and hatred, now I see what my old enemy fought for. And now, I only feel shame.", "They all stood around the open casket. Some wept, but all had a dark look that was complimented by the overcast sky. The first to speak was dressed in an jet-black leather suit. “I-I-I can’t believe he’s gone... H-H-He was always in such good h-h-health... Did I do this?” The next speaker was dressed in green and blue. “Don’t blame your self, Pestila. It was... my fault... I went to far with that last trap... I shouldn’t have used the boiling acid...” It was to much for the blue-green villain to handle. He burst in to tears, falling to his knees as he covered his eyes. Everyone came and put there hand on his back. “It’s not your fault either, Acid-Man. You couldn’t have know that boiling acid was his weakness. Don’t cry, he would want you to carry on.” Acid-Man wiped away his tears and shook his head. “Who’s going to oppose us now? We... we need a new hero to thwart us!” A villain in a red suit, the leader of the group, spoke next. “Do what villains do. Evil. The heroes will come like moths to a flame.” Everyone nodded in agreement. It began to rain, causing everyone to throw a trinket into the casket - a final way of honoring the hero they all loved to hate. As the hero was lowered into the ground, the villains turned their backs and walked away. They must carry on. They must honor the worst enemy they had ever had, and carrying on was the only way.", "With his fist toward the sky and his knees shaky beneath him Crusader drew his last breath and faded from this life. There she found him, still standing, fist still raised, as if death itself couldn't topple him. The audacity of the man stunned Alistair, even now, even with the color drained from his face and the blood thickening in his veins, that man still stood. His stubborn refusal to fall had been what she hated most about him. Oddly enough, anyone who could have seen her at that moment would have said she looked as if she were in mourning. \n\nShe took a moment to take in the scene. The entire planet had been devastated. This world could not have been called lush but it was certainly not lifeless, at least it had been hours ago. The mountains lay broken some 50 miles to the South, the entire plate upon which they rested had been torn from the crust of this world. The seas still boiled somewhere off to the east, the steam clouded the sky and threatened rain. Alistair held the rain back with a word and felt power go out from her. Her will made real. \n\nShe squated carefully and inspected the corpse of the Adversary. No other name suited him and while Alistair despised melodrama she could not think of a name more apt. Gingerly she reached out towards his corpse and, with another muttered word, felt to see if there was any residual energy in the corpse of the beast. There was none. With a gesture the corpse became ash and the ash drifter away on the breeze. \n\nGrinning she looked to the corpse of Crusader and began to speak. \n\n\"I remember the child you were back in the early days. Even then I felt your fate. I felt the current of the world bend to you and around you. It annoyed me terribly. A mere child so easily and instinctually using the powers as you did\" \n\nShe gestured her hand toward the ground at her side and with a thought a hole six and half feet tall and six feet deep opened up. \n\n\"I remember I watched you grow into a man. Most who wield the powers do become petty tyrants. Money, women, excess. Bah. The simpletons never know what to do with it. But not you. No you were different. I won't pretend to understand you, but for whatever reason you took your power and made things right with it. You never ceased to do right\" \n\nWith a short chop, Alistair calmed the rumblings of the Earth for a few miles. It would never move again. His peace would be undisturbed. \n\n\"And when you first challenged me, I knew that your fate was not mine to deliver. It was always his. You were always to be here. You were always to win here. You were always to die here.\" \n\nA muttered word and the ground grew soft with cool green grass. A single tree with sable leaves sprouted and grew tall and strong. These things would never die she could give him that much. A tombstone never suited him after all. \n\n\"Thank you.\" \n\nWith unexpected reverence she gently laid him upon the now green ground and set to work repairing his costume. A ridiculous silver suit with black accents. His face was uncovered for a hero never hides his face. She cleaned his wounds and closed the more visible ones. His body would never rot, his lustre would never fade, he would remain the untarnished hero. \n\n\"You were never arrogant. You were never self righteous. You only ever did what you thought to be right. And for that I thank you\" \n\nAt last she let the rain fall. Even still it was obvious she had tears in her eyes. At this she stood up and walked 20 or so paces to the edge of the small patch of life and laid he hand upon the crystalized earth. Rendered into dirty diamond from the struggle. \n\nSlowly a simple coffin, black as night, rose from the ground. \n\n\"I sought to rule. You sought to free. I sought to destroy. You sought to preserve. And so we fought on for years. I do not regret this and I will not say I have come around to your silly ideals but perhaps there is something of them, humanity, worth preserving. Worth cherishing. If you would go to these lengths to protect them then perhaps there may still be some hope\" \n\nCarefully, slowly, she took his body into her arms and gently placed him into the coffin. Surprising herself with the sentimentality of the gesture, she placed a hand on his cheek before closing the lid and sealing him inside forever. She then lowered him into his grave and let soft earth cover him. \n\n\"Be at rest old friend and know that you have done well\". \n\nA eulogy for a god. A funeral with one attendant. \n\nFinally, upon a simple stone miraculously still upright at the edge of the field she'd made, she inscribes \n\n\"Here lies a hero, may his rest be long and peaceful\" \n\nWith a murmured word, Alistair vanished from the desolate world. Leaving behind the only man she'd ever respected. She hoped that her words had been enough of a send off and for the first time in a long time she looked towards the future not with malice but with a sliver of hope. \n\n\n\n", "The day I lost my mentor, G-Force, I couldn't believe it. The man was over 300 pounds and was still faster than most heroes in these cities, a veteran in this business, my teacher, and dear friend. As we listened to Brian Stone (the submission machine) give his eulogy about our fallen tutor, I couldn't help but see the other faces in the crowd. There was so many people, too many people. Only close friends were allowed this close to the casket to say their piece, pedestrians would have to stay outside the park to watch on the screens in the streets. But there were more people here than I could name out of the heroes around here. There was Krimson Kage, Stampede, Dyrone Sanchez, and that's when I saw him, blending in with his hood up, Jay Shelly. The hood may have stopped most people from noticing his burnt red face and milky white eyes, but I saw him, his recent burns still showing after his scuffle in the fire he caused in the Liverpool library. I was about to call out to warn everyone, when I noticed not to far from him was Kreaper, the vigilante turned bounty hunter, his seven foot stature was a give away but nobody could've known under his hood, especially without his signature skull face paint. And the faces started to set in, Jared Gorwick, Pastor Everett Teague, Leon the Headhunter, the names piled up, villain after villain, this no longer felt like a funeral, it felt like a trap.\n\nMy first instinct was to shout out and alert everyone, but just before I could scream I felt a gun poke me in the back. \"Not so fast JD Justice.\" The smooth voice flowed. Mr Dick Chambers, the six gun shooter. \"I'm surprised your gun reached me before your bloated belly did\" I said, not moving my head. \"Calm down, this is a social call.\" \"This is a funeral, not a buffet, it's not the kind of social you're thinking of.\" \"Justice...\" he growled, pressing the gun deep into my back. \"Listen, we both know I'm strong enough to take a bullet, so if you're gonna shoot me just do it, the rest of the heroes here will fight you and your cronies off no problem.\" With a deep sigh Chambers slid his gun into his coat. \"It's not like that. I just can't have you making a scene when we're here to pay our respects.\" I paused for a moment, processing the words. Chambers continued his train of thought. \"If I wanted to shoot this place up, I'd have done it a mile away at a safe distance. This is a courtesy.\" Puzzled, confused, perplexed, I couldn't grasp what he meant, I turned to look at his face. His tears trickles from his now red eyes, soaking his ginger beard. \n\nIt was only now did I realise the impact that G-Force had made in people's lives. Not just the civilians, but the heroes and villains around him. He wasn't just my mentor, but he also taught Brian Stone, Krimson Kage, Jay Shelly, he even fought along side Kreaper in his younger days. Dick Chambers was no different, another veteran in G-Forces escapades, someone who'd trained with him but got separated from different choices down the line. We may come from different sides of the law, but at the end of the day, we all lost someone close to us. \"I don't trust you, Dick, but I see where you're coming from. Parlay?\" I told him. \"Parlay?\" \"It means peace amongst pirates.\" He paused for a moment \"Parlay.\"\n\nThe rest of the funeral went without a hitch, I spoke my piece and said my goodbyes. Even Kreaper and Chambers said a few words. We may be enemies, but there's peace in mutual sorrow.", "It was the funeral of the century, maybe.. of all time. Two weeks had passed since one man gave his life to save billions, and everyone, everywhere knew it, in the deepest parts of their soul. Unknown to us now, this would be the start of the greatest stretch of peace and innovation to grace this planet, but at this moment.. it was the saddest.\n\nAs people and superheroes all over the world gathered, his closest allies.. his friends, members from the Heroes of Order carried the casket to its final resting place, the land where he fought his final battle. They held their heads high, and though they remained stoic, you can see the sorrow embedded in their faces.\n\nThe land we stood on was once barren for well over a hundred miles, unable to sustain life of any sort. It's why The Silver Aegis picked this place to fight. Its surface scarred from the battle for miles on end. Where there were once plains so flat it was like staring into eternity, mountains now dotted the skyline. The amount of power that was displayed here.. to change the face of the world on such a massive scale, it put your mind on the brink of madness as something like this couldn't be possible, and yet right before our eyes, the impossible made reality. It was.. breath taking.\n\nEverything was silent. Seemingly over half a million people filled the land, cameras shuttered and sniffles were heard throughout the massive crowd. Flashes bounced off the body of The President, who was flanked by world leaders on his left and right, walked up to a simple but elegant podium. There was a massive wall of newspaper articles detailing the heroics displayed by The Silver Aegis, with one clear headline in the middle of it all. \"HERO\". The President went to speak into the microphone, but before he could, he was interrupted by the sound of cracking across the sky. It suddenly broke the silence that was once before and filled it with a low rumble. A ship descended behind the platform that held the coffin, ready to be laid into the ground. The craft was instantly recognizable.\n\nIt belonged to The Corrupt.\n\nA band of villains who have tortured countless lives with their villainy and waged a seemingly unending battle against everything we loved in this world had landed in front of us. The sound of people's feet and bodies shuffled backwards fearing the worst, heroes all leapt out in front of the civilians attending the funeral, shielding them and making frantic plans for a battle. A platform descended from the ship, holding what appeared to be.. all of the villains associated with the organization. Never have they all been in one place before, this was going to end badly for everyone.\n\nThe silence that filled the air before? It was back, but it had a layer of terror that didn't exist previously. A hero by the name of, Virtue, shouted out to the villains with immense anger and disbelief in his voice. \"How DARE you show up today, of all days you want to fight in front of this crowd of mourners and victims!? In front of the greatest hero of us all?! Do you plan to attack us now, after Aegis' sacrifice that saved not us, but you as well?! I knew you were wretched but this.. THIS?! I-..\"\n\nThe Corrupts leader, Cataclysm moved forward, causing the hero ended his rant and ready himself for an attack. This.. man, had the ability to practically rip the world apart around him. If he chose to, most everyone here would die without exerting himself. No one could breathe, everyone was still and without any choice, waited for what happened next.\n\nCataclysm spoke out, using the ship to broadcast a message to not just everyone there, but to those across the planet. His voice was clear.. powerful. It was smooth and it felt like anything he said he believed without any doubt. Dammit. This guy is good..\n\n\"The Silver Aegis and I have clashed many times throughout our lives. I have seen his strength first hand. How he used it to uphold what he believed was right and to protect everyone and everything around him. I threatened his life, his loved ones, his city.. and he never broke. He took every challenge in stride and held it together to always.. annoyingly, yet admirably.. find a way to come out victorious.\"\n\nHe slowly walked towards the casket containing The Silver Aegis. Gravel crackled underneath his shoes as everyone watched with anticipation. Heroes formed a half circle around him, crouched and powered up for whatever comes next. The villains slowly walked off of the massive platform that brought them to the ground, and completed the other side of the circle behind Cataclysm. Their looks varied from one to the other. Some looked to be regular human beings, others seemed to be sharp piles of twisted metal, ones with scales, fur, stuff of literal nightmares brought to life.\n\nTo everyone's surprise, he laid a gentle hand onto the massive lid of the casket that was engraved with The Silver Aegis' symbol, a symbol that was spotted throughout the crowd on their T-Shirts and signs, splayed with messages of hope and praise. He spoke once more. \"When you fight someone and your life is on the line.. you learn a lot about them.\" He turned towards the crowd, a floating camera circled around him as he spoke. \"What their limits are, what they truly believe, what they love and what really exists inside of their hearts. Your lives intertwine and you can see glimpses of the other for what they truly are.\" There was a pause. His eyes looked down at the casket momentarily, and then slowly he looked back to the crowd. \"He always saw something in me. He said as much during our some of our struggles, and it made me so angry.. so uneasy about myself that I wanted to eliminate him.. to eliminate all the doubt. I knew he was holding back, I could feel it.. but\" Cataclysm opened his arms up at his sides, everyone flinched slightly at his movement. He gestured to the now mountainous landscape around us, filled with cliffs, massive rivers and lakes that were unearthed from giant reservoirs. It became apparent to everyone once again the magnitude of the battle that created a now beautiful landscape where there was nothing else before, just desolate land, right before their attention was snapped back to Cataclysm's voice. \"But this.. this is.. the work of a God. No.. a God would stand idly by as people prayed and no one came to answer them. This was the work of.. a Hero. I crossed paths with a power that could eliminate me, or any of my associates behind me without a second thought. After everything I put him through, he never tried to kill me to end the threat. He wanted justice, but murder was not his kind of justice..\" a noticeable crack formed in his voice, sending chills down everyone's bodies. Is he..? \"I am here not to fight but to merely pay respects to the greatest human being I have ever known. I promise you this, I and the people you once fought before are no longer threats to you. If this battle did not change you as a human being, to want to do right then you are not worthy of this man's sacrifice. I am sorry.. for everything. We will do whatever must be done to mend everything wrong we brought to this world..\" He hung his head down for a moment. Silence spilled out everywhere. Heroes, civilians, everyone were stunned. No one knew what to do.\n\nCataclysm lifted his head and spoke once more \"I speak for everyone in my group when I say-\"\n\nThe ground shook beneath our feet. Dust began to fill the air as cracks splintered out across the land. An explosion sent a plume of dust up a couple hundred yards to the left of the funeral and a voice boomed out. \"*Your hero fought well, but I am still here. Now, who will finish this fight.\"\n\nPanic.\n\nEveryone began to back away from the sight of this monster. The ground that once rumbled before from the enemy, now thundered with the stampede of everyone running for safety. It's image tore through the smoke that poured from its body. It appeared to be severely injured, on the brink of death, but that was all the more reason to fear it.\n\nThe heroes, who were defeated once before shook at the sight before them. A hero shouted \"He's.. HERE. HE'S BACK! OH MY GOD NO! NO!!!\" Flashes of the fight before raced through their minds, their bodies remembered the injuries and pain they suffered trying to help Aegis, but somehow found the courage to square up against this threat. The being reared a fist back, eliminating all the dust that filled the air and launched that fist forward at the group of paralyzed heroes. It was so fast, no one was prepared for its speed, and just a moment before impact, the force of the punch ended. An enormous boom rattled my bones and caused my vision to blur momentarily, I thought I was dead. My realization that I was not came from the wind generated by the force of the attack that was abruptly stopped. It knocked some back sending them flying while others were able to, stood cemented in disbelief at the sight in front of them.\n\nCataclysm with a hand out pressing against the beings massive fist stopped the assault. His power crept through its fist, a sickening sound of crumbling and tearing came from the forming crevices and seemingly disintegrating portions of the beasts fingers. The being growled out and its body tensed up, but stood its ground. Cataclysm's eyes peered up past the massive knuckles, filled with unimaginable rage. He took a deep breath, and then shouted \"THE SILVER AEGIS LIVES ON IN ALL OF US. HIS BATTLE LEFT A SEED OF HOPE FOR HUMANITY. LET US FINISH THIS FIGHT FOR HIM, FOR US, FOR EVERYONE! SO WE MAY SEE THE FRUITS OF HIS SACRFICE*\". With tears in their eyes and a power swelling inside of their bodies, both heroes and villains alike roared out, shaking the world around them. The air tore apart with an unseen energy that seemed to bind us forever as one, as we began to charge together.. a last ditch effort, side-by-side towards the last threat to ever exist on this Earth.\n\n&#x200B;\n\n&#x200B;" ]	10
	[WP] There is a fortress, in a time and dimension apart, where people of a bygone era research magic. They've already mastered the basics, Elemental magic, Necromancy, Illusions, what have you. But now they are bringing beings from outside dimensions to learn magic and discover new forms of magic.	[ "The sullen image of a servant flashed through her eyes as princess Seila made her way into the throne room. \n\n\n\n\nThe room was awash with swirling carvings that accompanied gargoyles with gazes fixed on the ceiling. On the right side of the room, there stood the first guardian, Nata, which was a stone golem with metal bars coming out of its abdomen. It had a blue sapphire in the shape of an hexagon embedded on its chest and he was believed to be the guardian of the fields. \n\n\n\n\nThe king on the other hand, was busy with his latest book \"King's Magic\", a semi-autobiographical book for users of magic that highlighted his abilities. He raised his head to see the servant kneeling before him.\n\n\n\n\n\"Here it is my king,\" the servant said. \n\n\n\n\nIn her hand, there was a silver-trimmed tray carrying a hexagonal ruby. It was dim, perhaps dimmer than how a ruby should be. It was surrounded by several stones, each with a different shape.\n\n\n\n\nThe king raised his hand with a solemn look and said: \"That patched gown doesn't suit you my dear.\"\n\n\n\n\nSeila was going to kneel but she took off in a fit of rage. She breezed through the corridor and reached the throne in seconds.\n\n\n\n\nThe silhouette of Nata didn't even make her flinch. \n\n\n\n\n\"I've already agreed to your demand, don't you dare speak like that to me again,\" she said while panting.\n\n\n\n\n\"Don't be angry my dear, I just thought you deserved better, more elegant clothes,\" the king said with the shyness of a flustered child.\n\n\n\n\nSeila kept silent, she knew what was going to happen. So she just turned her back and said: \"Meiro wants to meet you today and wanted me to tell it to you personally,\". As she was leaving, she hit the servant, causing the dimlit ruby to fall.\n\n\n\n\nThe dimlit ruby had fallen to the ground, however, the other stones that came with it had not. They were floating around the ruby and circling around it. Each turn made them faster and faster, until the eyes of the king nor Seila were able to follow them. In a bright flash of light, a man with a black coat appeared. His hair was combed and his attire wasn't that of a Helian.\n\n\n\n\nHe checked his surroundings, trying to make sense of the situation.\n\n\n\nHe then jumped back and asked while facing the king:\n\n\n\"Who are you?\"\n\n\nSeila had seen this look on his father's face only once before, and that was prior to the war.\n\n\n\n\nThe king stood up and the book disappeared into thin air as he did. He raised his left hand and pointed his finger at the man: \"I am Thar Sseigh Samdihn, The First of His Name, King of the very land you stand on\".\n\n\n\n\nThe man sensed the danger and threw a knife at one of the gargoyles, causing an eye-ball to fall from the ceiling. \n\n\n\n\nThe eye-ball exploded, leaving a smokescreen behind. The king made a gesture that resembled a wolf and cleared the air in a second. Seila was too shocked to do anything.\n\n\n\n\nThe man had already taken off outside in the commotion with the servant in tight pursuit. The servant threw some fireballs which were deflected by the man's coat. \n\n\n\n\nShe fired another fireball but this time the man threw something into a nearby fountain as he deflected with his coat. The something he threw, a sack filled with purple dust, filled the air with a heavy stench. The servant took a piece of her apron and tied it on to cover her mouth.\n\n\n\n\nThe stench reminded her of a rotten corpse of a sow she saw when she was eight. As she was trying to breathe, the man had already thrown three knives from three different directions. The servant was in danger, but more than her life, the question on her mind was: \"How can he fight against a magic user without using any magic at all?\"\n", "Colored light swirled endlessly as a man in red fell through the portal. His shouts faded into nothing as the wind carried them upward, ascending just as his long, white beard did.\n\nSuddenly, his feet alighted on a circular platform, engraved with intricate lettering. The big man wobbled as the platform began to lower into the ground, making a great racket of stone sliding against stone.\n\nThe stone walls ended and the man in red was in a huge circular room - no, a tower - lined with walkways and balconies, and absolutely, positively, full to the brim with books.\n\nThe platform came to a gentle halt at the end of a walkway, and the man in red was approached by a short woman dressed in flowing robes.\n\n\"Elf! It's good to see you... what sort of dream is this, anyhow?\" The big man boomed, smoothing his snowy beard.\n\nThe woman frowned. \"I'm not an elf, sir, I'm a mage. And this is very real. You aren't dreaming. Come with me, please.\"\n\nThe big man scoffed. \"Well I never...\"\n\n\"Come along now!\" The mage said irritably.\n\nThe big man followed her sheepishly down the walkway, gazing around the bogglingly huge tower. A golden winged contraption whizzed overhead.\n\n\"Here we are, Admissions,\" announced the mage, and waved the big man forward into an archway. He obeyed mutely.\n\nA man, much taller but similarly robed, was busy writing at a great wooden desk. Or, rather, the pen was writing, and he was drinking tea. He glanced up from his steaming cup and grew wide-eyed.\n\n\"Ah! It's you! I've been looking forward to meeting you for a long time, Mr. Claus.\" He drummed his fingers together expectantly. \"Now, do tell: how do you manage to make it around an entire planet in one night?\"", "\"Sign here, here, and here.\" A gnarled finger pointed at each blank in the stacks of paper, then handed me a quill dipped in ink. It belonged to a very short (and fairly old) man, who was sitting on a stack of books to even see over the table. \n\nI took it, then looked at askance. \"Never used one of these,\" I muttered, but managed to scratch what looked kind of like my name into the blanks one by one. I pushed aside the giant stack of papers when I was finished. \"Can we go now?\"\n\n\"My, aren't we in a hurry to get somewhere we've never been,\" the old man cackled, nearly climbing on the table to retrieve the papers I'd signed. \"I do hope you found the terms... satisfactory?\"\n\n\"Uh, yeah,\" I said, looking away. \"Looks great. Most of that is just because I'm the first person to get to see the new wing, right? I'm just not supposed to talk about it until it's open to the public?\"\n\nThe little man hopped down from his chair and disappeared until he came around the corner of the table. He gazed up at me with a raised eyebrow, then shrugged.\n\n\"There is certainly a non-disclosure chapter in there, but i didn't think that's what you'd get hung up on. Either way, without further ado, let us head to the new expansion of Dr. Ivy's Mighty Lyceum.\" He stopped, then looked me up and down. \"Unless you have any important phone calls to make?\"\n\nI shook my head. I'd been waiting five years for the Lyceum to open up a new Wing of Wonders, and I was finally going to get to see it. As the number one patron for half-a-decade, I'd been picked to get a sneak peek at it!\n\n\"Whew. Not even your mother?\" \n\nI frowned at the accusatory glance the little old man was giving me. My mother didn't care about this place. Stop wasting your time in a fantasy world, William, she'd say. The wands and dragons and other awful things there aren't even real, and if they were, well, who would want to live in a world like that?\n\nI shook my head again, examining the short man as he turned and strode off again. Who was he, anyway? I should have met everyone who worked here by now. The owner, Bob Crane, would routinely smile and ask me how my season tickets were going. This little fellow, though, with his little tufts of gray hair poking from under a flattened leather beret, was unknown to me. If anything, he looked far more like one of the little wizards in the challenges of the Cotter Academy wings than a human.\n\nMy thoughts slipped back to the excitement at hand as I was led up to a huge set of double doors. I was grinning like a mad man, and I'm pretty sure I was making a few excited noises, judging by the way the little fellow looked at me as he put his hands on the doors and began to pull.\n\nThe scene that erupted past the doors was greater than anything I'd experienced in my wildest dreams. The interior of a dome stretched out before us, filled with station after station of wonder. Some people were actually flying from space to space, some on brooms, some on carpets. I marveled at how smoothly is was all done. Dr. Ivy, or Bob, I should say, had really went all out on te technology for this. It was unbelievable!\n\nI barely noticed the little fellow excuse himself. A large figure replaced him, carrying three scrolls.\n\n\"Hurry, hurry. Take your spells. We don't have all day.\"\n\nI snatched them out of the big man's hands, still grinning. \"You don't have to tell me twice. Where's station one?\"\n\nHe pointed a big meaty hand at a small arena just ahead. \"Better read your spells first. You need a practice round?\"\n\nI shook my head and let out a small laugh. I'd been playing upstairs for five years. There was nothing new this game could throw at me that I couldn't handle on the fly.\n\nAnother figure appeared next to me, this one slim, also in a lab coat, with long hair tied back from her face. She was scribbling something on a pad, and talking along as she did so. \"Subject shows extreme confidence, most likely stemming from long-term success in simulated runs.\"\n\nI smirked, then stepped towards the gate to the arena. As I walked, I glanced over the scrolls. Ice, fire, and protection. I went to tuck them into my belt, but they disappeared and I felt a sudden warmth wash over me. What the hell was that? I looked around, thinking I'd dropped them, but they were no where to be found.\n\n\"Are you prepared?\" The large man was at the gate, his massive hand on the latch. \"I see you learned your spells, at least.\"\n\n\"Always.\" I winked at the girl, who proceeded to write something else down and completely ignore me. \n\nAs soon as I stepped into the arena, the gate on the far end rattled. I looked across the mud and sawdust floor of the simulated arena, trying to see what was about to burst in from the other side. A few seconds later I saw it.\n\nA Minotaur. How cliche'. But as far as first round opponents, it was kind a step up. At least it wasn't a swarm of rats.\n\nI stepped forward, my hand raised in the general direction of the guy in the suit for flair. \"Ice!\" \n\nTo his credit, the dude snorted a really realistic snort and started flat-out running at me. They'd even stepped their game up with the actors and costumes, it seemed.\n\n\"Ice!\" I shouted again, letting the idiot know I'd cast on him and he had to slow down. There were rules, you know. You couldn't just ignore someone when...\n\nIcicles stabbed my palm as a huge ball of frost whipped around and formed in my hand. My jaw dropped about as fast as the ball of ice did. It shattered on the ground in front of me, chilling my feet with a deep, numbing cold.\n\nThe Minotaur kept sprinting and snorting. I tried to run, but my feet refused to cooperate. right before he hit me, I crossed my arms over my chest and whined, \"Protection!\"\n\nA thin white barrier flashed between the Minotaur and my poor, stick-thin body. He hit the barrier with the full head of steam, but since it was attached to me, I went flying off into the fence I'd just stepped through. I heard the sound of the beams crunching as I hit them.\n\n\"Subject shows lack of understanding of how to utilize offensive spells, yet shows promise with instinctual casting.\"\n\nI struggled to get back to my feet, trying to see if anything was broken. I couldn't really tell. I was hurting all over. I shot a worried look over to the people in lab coats. \"Hey, uh, can we pause the station?\"\n\nThe girl looked up. \"No, that would skew the data.\"\n\nThe big man shrugged. \"Better get that fireball ready.\"\n\nI whirled back around to see the Minotaur making another run at me.\n\nNope. I jumped the fence and headed back towards the double doors. \n\n\"Good luck with your new wing!\" I shouted, nearly falling in my haste.\n\n&#x200B;\n\n/r/intotheslushpile\n\n&#x200B;\n\n&#x200B;\n\n&#x200B;\n\n&#x200B;", "A blinding light filled her vision and for a moment she felt completely weightless. \n\n&nbsp;\n\nA voice in the light spoke to her. \"Please proceed through the portal and watch your step upon exit.\"\n\n&nbsp;\n\nTaking a step forward she halted. What if this was the end for her? Had she died? The last thing she could recall was turning the oven off. \n\n\n&nbsp;\n\n\"Ma'am you are holding up the line.\" The voice said impatiently. \n\n\n&nbsp;\n\nTaking a deep breath she began to step forward toward the source of the light. Stumbling slightly on a bump in the floor a steady hand reached out and helped her. \n\n&nbsp;\n\n\"Careful there, please follow the arrows on the floor and check in with each assistant under the numbers. Do you have any liquids or flammable materials on you?\" The voice belonged to a short man with a long beard wearing an orange safety vest and hard hat. \n\n&nbsp;\n\nShe blinked attempting to clear the spots from her eyes.\n\n\n&nbsp;\n\n\"Ma'am, do you have any liquids or flammable items on you?\" The small bearded man asked irritably. \n\n&nbsp;\n\n\"No.. nothing on me.. Wha.. Where am I?\" Confused she looked around. \n\n&nbsp;\n\n\n There were men and women in safety vests and hard hats bustling throughout the room. It seemed like some sort of extremely sterile warehouse. On the floor was a path of arrows that led to a table marked one, after the first table there were half a dozen more along a bright green arrowed path. Hundreds of people stood in line to the tables. \n\n&nbsp;\n\nGlancing behind her she saw a glowing archway she had just stepped through. Four other arches filled the room to her right. \n\n&nbsp;\n\n\"Please proceed forward and all your questions will be answered.\" The bearded short man said, marking something on his clipboard. \n\n&nbsp;\n\nCautiously stepping onto the path she made her way to the table marked with a \"1\" over it. A short female sat with her head buried in paperwork furiously writing. \n\n&nbsp;\n\n\"Name, weight and percieved magical ability?\" The girl said, not lifting her eyes from the documents in front of her. \n\n&nbsp;\n\n\"I..I think I am in the wrong place.\" She said backing up slowly from the table. \n\n\n&nbsp;\n\nThe girl at the table looked up irritably, \"Fine I can do this the long way.\" \n\n&nbsp;\n\n\nReaching behind her to a stack of binders she pulled one out. Dropping it on the desk she opened it and began scanning through it. \n\n&nbsp;\n\n\"October third... fourth... ah fifth at ten fifteen in the morning... here we are. Arrival to Gate four at ten fifteen percieved magical ability unknown.\" She hummed shaking her head slightly and skipping down the page. \n\n&nbsp;\n\n\"Here we are, potential ability to create magical pastries.\" She looked up from the binder at her, \"well that's an interesting one.\" \n\nThe woman standing in front of the table looked shocked and at a loss for words. \"I believe there must be some kind of mistake,\" she stuttered, \"I am just an ordinary person.\" \n\n&nbsp;\n\nThe girl at the table shut the binder and picked up a clipboard beside her. \"If there has been an error don't worry about it, we will fiind out during processing. Let's first start with your name.\" \n\n&nbsp;\n\nTaking in a shaky breath the woman answered, \"Paula.. it's Paula Deen.\" \n\n\n&nbsp;\n\nEdit spelling", "Alonso Bruja, renowned stage magician, prepared himself for his final act. He, unfortunately, did not realize it was his last, so instead he treated it like any other; which was to say, some warm-ups, a glass of water, getting a read on the audience, and taking a moment to focus himself. Alonso opened his eyes as a series of bells rang throughout the building. The clock had struck 8: it was time for his show. He strode upon the stage, greeted by enthusiastic cheers, and bowed and waved gratefully to his audience. Enthusiastic crowd tonight. With a breath and a moment’s pause, Alonso began his last act to grace the stage.\n\nHe proceeded to dazzle them with feats of dexterity, mystify them with misdirection, and, his personal favorite, confound them with cards. The audience was eating up; both the one he could see, and the one far beyond any mortal’s perception. Eventually, the show had ran its course, and it was time for the last act.\n\n“You’ve been a lovely audience, but unfortunately, our time together is almost up.” Cue a round of “aww”s from the viewers around the stage, and a flurry of conversation in the audience unseen and unheard. “That being said, I have one last feat of magic to perform for you! It has never been seen on the stage before, and, if it doesn’t work, it shall never be seen again! So, we’ll find out together, shall we?” In that moment, the audience unseen reached their conclusion: this human knew of yet unknown mystical arts, and he would teach them. The began chanting in sync.\n\nAlonso looked to his left and right to make sure everything was ready behind the scene, and began to count down. “Uno, dos, …” And was gone without a tres.\n\nIn that moment, Alonso’s scenery shifted suddenly; no more was he on a worn wooden stage, framed by velvet curtains, overlooking a sea of people to watch him perform, he was instead in a stone fortress, with utilitarian windows looking out into the infinite void of space. This wasn’t right: where were the poodles for the trick? Where was he? And then he looked around a bit more to notice he was being stared at by unfathomable being chittering in some eldritch tongue. The last thing Alonso saw was a rapid panning up to the ceiling as he collapsed backwards, smacking his head on the cold stone floor and fading into unconsciousness.\n\n“Well, that didn’t go well, now did it?” Chittered the aforementioned eldritch beings. Another replied, “Should we take a form that he’ll find more comfortable?” A round of agreements, and some Illusion magic later, a circle of willowy, blue-skinned humanoids stood around the comatose stage magician. “Should we fix that?”\n\n“Let’s just… give him a moment.”\n\nHours later (not that he would know how long it had been, seeing as 1.) there were no clocks in sight, and Alonso didn’t wear a watch on stage, 2.) the windows only showed the star-filled vacuum of space, rather than anything convenient to time-telling such as a single sun in the sky, and 3.) time didn’t exactly exist in the Fortress anyway, so it was kind of a moot point), Alonso woke to the aforementioned circle of azure humanoids, who were eagerly awaiting his awakening. Before he could even ask one of his many, many questions, one of the figures blurted out, “Teach us!”\n\n“...huh?” Alonso was hopelessly lost at this point. The concussion probably didn’t help matters much, either.\n\nOne of the older-looking figures sighed, pinching the bridge of their not-nose. “Some explanation is in order, yes? We are the Valatia, and you are in the Citadel Arcana, a bastion of magical knowledge beyond time and space, where we discover and perfect any and all things arcane, mystical, or even mildly befuddling. We have continued on for countless cycles, but we’ve… hit something of a snag. So, we decided to start outsourcing. Congratulations, you got the job.” The figure then snapped their not-fingers, and the sound of rustling could be heard in another room.\n\nAlonso, finally finding some of his cognitive ability, replied, “That’s great and all, but uh… I actually liked my old life and would be pretty happy if you could send me ba-” In that moment, a scroll had finished its journey throughout the Citadel, flying into the hands of the lead Valatian. The figure proffered the scroll, interrupting Alonso’s request. Surprisingly, it was in his native Spanish, and looking through it, it was a contract for a teaching position in the Citadel Arcana, for… an amount of time that technically didn’t exist, so he skipped over that. Glossing over the rest of it, he found the salary at the bottom. He swallowed audibly.\n\n“...that’s… a lot of zeroes…” Alonso mumbled to himself. He shook himself back to lucidity, rolled up the scroll, and proffered a hand to the figure in front of him. “I’d be honored to have the job, sir.”\n\nSome time(?) later, Alonso stood before a crowd of figures in all shapes, sizes, and dimensional counts, holding a deck of cards in one hand as he reached behind the closest thing to an ear of the figure in front of him. “Is this your card?” The sounds of applause and frantic note-taking were heard, echoing throughout the hall.\n", "I've been working in this accursed fortress for... well, it is hard to say. Ever since the first ones sealed the fortress away time has not passed for us. Our own dimension, safe from the calamity. A chance for us to build our own magics, to learn, and maybe... just maybe, save the rest of our world from the doom to which it has been sentenced. \n\nAt first work was slow. Or so we are taught. The first ones knew little of the magics. They were the scholars, the learned ones of the old world... yet they were ignorant of the truths of the universe. They did not probe that which we do now. \n\nThen, slowly, we learned. We got glimpses of the fabric of the tapestry that forms all universes. Fire, Ice, Wind, all soon were mastered, as the elements answered our calls. Even life itself was soon changed, allowing us to bring our dead back to some semblance of life... and freeing the rest of us from the menial tasks of maintenance, so that we might more focus our lives on the research, on the great work we must do. \n\nBut today, today is a special day. Today, perhaps, we will learn the answer to the question we've been seeking for so long. Today, maybe we can save our own dying universe. Because, you see, in all the universes we've contacted - the fate has been the same as in ours. That is, until today. Today I found someone... no... something. Something still exists out there, in another dimension separate from our own.\n\nAnd now? Now that the portal is secured and stable, I will ask it the question. The thing we must know, if we are ever to return to our own worlds. The question we've all learned to ask since we were children. The same question, word for word, that the first ones asked.\n\n\"How can the net amount of entropy of the universe be massively decreased?\"\n\nAnd there was an answer." ]	6
Doesn’t have to be work and the screaming could either be out of fear or other reasons,have fun	[WP] You wake up and everything seems normal as you go about your daily routine,until you walk into work and everyone begins screaming at you	[ "My morning started out the same as it does every morning. The neighbors letting their obnoxious thing they call a dog outside. I roll over and pull my sheet over my head trying to go back to sleep before my 6:00am alarm goes off. Too late I'm awake now, thank you Max and all your yapping. \n\nI shower and get dressed dragging my feet the entire time. My coffee is finished brewing by the time I get downstairs, and I pour a cup. Fixing it so it's \"not coffee any more after all the crap you add to it\". Eh black coffee is for people with no soul anyway. \n\nI grab my mug and head to the door digging around and finally finding my keys in bottomless pit I call a purse. I lock the door and head to the car glaring at Max wishing him ill for waking me again as he has done for the past 6 months. I get in my car and turn it over. Nothing. Again. Nothing. Again. Sputter. I silently threaten my car that I'm going to replace it and finally it starts. I like to think it was the threat. \n\nMy morning commute is the same as always 10 minutes of pure bliss and 30 of hating everyone and their moms to boot. I pull in to the garage where I park and take my usual spot. Not taking notice to the fact that there are more cars here than there normally are. \n\nI catch the elevator up to the 8th floor with Tom the front desk man. Only stopping once at the lobby to let him out. The doors slide open, I step out and a loud cacophony of sound berates me. It take a second for my senses to catch up. Balloons everywhere, people smiling and there in center of the room a cake just for me. Happy Birthday written across the top. " ]	1

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