Split (1)

train · 265k rows

post_text stringlengths 0 17.5k	post_title stringlengths 4 315	post_scores int64 0 42.1k	comment_texts list	comment_scores list	comment_times list
	[WP] Robotic parts are suddenly being implanted into people during surgery.	11	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A\$Reality+Fiction\$&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A\$Simple+Prompt\$&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/XYsEYfS)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "\"Ok, Cheryl, close him up.\"\n\nDoctor Osler leaned back and one of the nurses padded a bead of sweat off his face. The surgeon's assistant stepped in and began closing up the incision in the patient's belly.\n\n\"Ready, Steve?\" Doctor Osler asked. Another surgeon stepped forward, somewhat hesistantly, and Doctor Osler gestured impatiently. \"C'mon. In and out in five minutes.\"\n\n\"Still not used to this,\" Doctor Steve Halsted muttered. \"It's just an appendectomy. Do we really need to?\"\n\n\"Yes,\" Doctor Osler snapped. \"You've got the device?\"\n\n\"Ready,\" Doctor Halsted said, adopting the calm, professional tone that his position demanded. \n\n\"Nurse, is the patient ready?\"\n\n\"Yes, Doctor.\"\n\n\"Ok,\" Doctor Osler said. \"Scalpel.\"\n\nHe took the offered instrument and cut a small flap in the patient's scalp. A nurse pressed gauze into the wound and applied a retractor to hold the skin flap open. Doctor Osler accepted a drill with a thin bit from the nurse and pressed it to the patient's skull. The drilled whined.\n\n\"How many of these have you done?\" Doctor Halsted asked.\n\n\"These? We just started doing them two weeks ago,\" Doctor Osler said absently. \n\n\"Any, er, complications?\" Doctor Halsted asked.\n\n\"For fuck's sake,\" Doctor Osler grunted. The drill revved briefly. \"Where were you during the outbreak?\"\n\n\"Mass General.\"\n\n\"Boston? Ok. I was down in Grady Memorial. In fuckin' Atlanta. You had, what, a hundred cases up in Boston?\"\n\n\"More like two hundred.\"\n\n\"Whatever. We had forty thousand, Steve. Forty thousand. You know how many drill bits I wore out punching holes in skulls down there? They brought in deadbolt guns after a while.\"\n\n\"Jesus.\"\n\n\"Yeah. The burn pits were going twenty-four seven. We held the line but it was this close. Did you know they almost lost the hospital?\"\n\n\"No.\"\n\n\"This close. One of the janitors was handing out wrenches and crowbars when the morgue went tits up. They didn't want to start a panic, or make it worse, so no one ever said anything after we got it back under control. Ok, it's ready.\"\n\nDoctor Osler withdrew the drill, leaving behind a small hole.\n\n\"Applying the device,\" Doctor Halsted said. He lifted a small, stubby syringe from the table and positioned it over the hole. He squeezed carefully, injecting a small metallic pill. \"It's in.\"\n\n\"Not bad,\" Doctor Osler said. \"Assistant, cap it and close it.\"\n\n\"You didn't answer my question about complications,\" Doctor Halsted said. He placed the empty syringe on the table and stepped back, observing as the surgeon's assistants went to work. \"They'll be rolling this out to everyone, soon, and you know it won't be perfect. Infections. Mistakes. Hell, what are we going to do when one pops prematurely? That'll burn out half that man's brain before he can blink.\"\n\n\"Then he'll die,\" Doctor Osler said coldly. \n\n\"That's it? We just ignore that risk?\"\n\nDoctor Osler spoke as if he hadn't heard a word. \n\n\"But at least he won't get back up.\"" ]	[ 1, 3 ]	[ "1546650089", "1546656366" ]
[removed]	[WP] First contact with alien life was tense... until it became apparent that both species shared a common word for flatulance.	1	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A\$Reality+Fiction\$&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A\$Simple+Prompt\$&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/XYsEYfS)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "Hi, this submission has been removed.\n\n[Prompts will be removed if there's a high possibility for rule breaking responses](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_7.3A_prompts_will_be_removed_if_there.27s_a_high_possibility_for_rule_breaking_responses)\n\n- Bathroom Humor: No troll or meme-based prompts. This includes posting fart or poop jokes as prompts. See [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_7.3A_prompts_will_be_removed_if_there.27s_a_high_possibility_for_rule_breaking_responses) for more info. \n\n\n\n---\n\n[Modmail](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=%2Fr%2FWritingPrompts&subject=Removed%20post&message=https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/comments/acepku/-/%0A%0A) us if you have any questions or concerns. In the future, please refer to the [sidebar](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/about/sidebar) before posting. \n\nThis action was not automated and this moderator is human. Time to go do human things." ]	[ 1, 1 ]	[ "1546652934", "1546653775" ]
[removed]	[WP] you have the opportunity to live forever, if you give up one of your family members and any memory of them. Who would you pick?	3	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A\$Reality+Fiction\$&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A\$Simple+Prompt\$&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/XYsEYfS)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "Hi u/Norcal712, this submission has been removed.\n\n[Direct prompt replies must be good-faith attempts at new stories or poems](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_1.3A_direct_prompt_replies_must_be_good-faith_attempts_at_new_stories_or_poems)\n\n- Fill-in-the-blank: Responses must be at least 100 words. This is essentially a fill-in-the-blank, or you asked a question likely to generate a simple answer. Prompts should encourage a story or poem. \n\n \n\n Prompts will be removed if there's a high possibility for rule breaking responses ([rule 7](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_7.3A_prompts_will_be_removed_if_there.27s_a_high_possibility_for_rule_breaking_responses))\n\n\n\n---\n\n[Modmail](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=%2Fr%2FWritingPrompts&subject=Removed%20post&message=https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/comments/acqvqf/-/%0A%0A) us if you have any questions or concerns. In the future, please refer to the [sidebar](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/about/sidebar) before posting. \n\nThis action was not automated and this moderator is human. Time to go do human things." ]	[ 1, 1 ]	[ "1546663813", "1546664470" ]
	[WP] "uh your majesty, the monsters have apparently started a kingdom, and there is an ambassador in the courtyard"	53	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A\$Reality+Fiction\$&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A\$Simple+Prompt\$&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/XYsEYfS)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", " The Duke of Ardania looked out of the window overlooking the courtyard, finally done with paperwork for the day. He wanted to go to bed already, as he didn't leave his chambers since the steward brought that mountain sitting on his table to him. The Duke could finally relax. But then he saw the giant silhouette of a minotaur approaching the keep. \n\n He immediately rushed to the courtyard, to talk to the monster and defuse the situation. It was usually simple, the monster would ask for some gold or a weapon, otherwise he would attack, so the Duke would cave in to the demands, as a few gold pieces are worth way less than the lives of his guardsmen.\n\n As he approached the minotaur, he realized this situation was different. The half-bovine was dressed in a huge purple coat, unique hoof-shaped boots instead of just horseshoes, only one ring on his hand as opposed to the several most minotaurs had. The creature in front of him could only be described as strange.\n\n\"Greetings, sir. I have traveled to this castle from the capital of the newly-formed Kingdom of Hingona, to let you know of my realm being united, and ask of you a treaty of non-aggression between Ardania and the new Kingdom.\"\n\n The duke was very surprised to learn that Hingona was under one banner again, as it was just a bunch of tribes and duchies of non-humans that were in a state of almost perpetual war with each other until recently. He was also shocked by the fact that an ambassador came to Ardania of all places. Ardania! His \"duchy\" was barely more than a few towers left over from the old Erthan Empire, some small hamlets, and this keep.\n\n\"But why would your king want to have a non-aggression pact with my holdings? Why even risk coming here, when your king knows how most people respond to monsters?\"\n\n\"Well, the king united the nation through promises of peace, talking clan leaders into joining his realm, even some bribes, and he did it all without a single war. He does not plan to change that. He sent ambassadors to the various realms to show that he trusts the people of the neighbouring lands, and wants to have allies, even if some close-minded humans don't. Having good diplomatic relations with your neighbours is a very good long term investment in his eyes.\"\n\n\"But why would I sign a treaty with a kingdom of monsters? What few subjects I have will hate me, the emperor would consider this abandoning the empire for an upstart kingdom, which could spiral out of control into a full scale war between your kingdom and the Empire, and although I wouldn't get attacked by Hingona, didn't you just say that the king plans to not have wars with his neighbours? I see little reason for me to accept this offer.\"\n\n\"Well, you see.. Erm.. He.. The king..\"\n\n\"Your \"King\" probably wanted to have a valid reason to march troops through the duchy, and then attack it, though I really don't see why warlocks have the sense of honor that they do. And honestly, how could anyone believe that a person convinced the various tribes to just become part of a nation? He obviously conquered the tribes, and is looking for more land and plunder. Get out of here, minotaur.\"\n\n&#x200B;\n\n&#x200B;", "'The wha? What you say, Jerob?' The King asked whilst shoving another biscuit almost entirely into his mouth.\n\n'The monsters, sire. It appears they've... sent an emissary?'\n\n'Poffit all, Jerob av you been snorting that magi dus again?' One of the councilman chimed in, causing the entire room to erupt in laughter.\n\n'No, e's right m'lord. Look there!' The entire council, including the King, scurried over to the window and peered out to see a ghastly figure waiting patiently at the portcullis. The beast had a head like that of a boar. It stood on two feet and at the end of its arms were human-like hands, except... more boarish. Tusks protruded each side of it's mouth and hot steam crept out of it's nostrils as it breathed deeply in the cold autumn air.\n\n'Good lord.' The King gasped. 'The bloody hell is that?'\n\n'Lookin like a... a... Me thinks its a boar, sire.'\n\n'What gave it away Brogard? Was it the shittin tusks?' Again the room gave way to laughter.\n\n'Right, shut up the lot of you! Shh. There be no tellin how good its hearin is. Might be able to hear our hearts, for all we know.' The King put a finger up to his mouth. He scanned the room, looking at each member of the council. Then his gaze fell on one, Brogard of Farshire.\n\n'Brogard, go talk to it.' The King said. The council turned its attention to Brogard.\n\n'Oh ya can't beh serious... Do you see the size of at fing? Bastard could fuck me dead, sire!'\n\n'Right, so best cover yer ass Brogard. Get to it.'\n\n'But-'\n\n'For your King, Brogard.' Torvald said before Brogard could finish.\n\n'Oh poffit, Torv! You go do it en!'\n\n'Don't be stupid, he axed you, ya weevil!'\n\n'ENOUGH!' Irritated, the King brought the room to a complete silence.\n\n'How about both of you get yer asses out there!' The two men didn't get but one word out.\n\n'Or... or you can wrestle Filip.' Filip flashed a devilish smile. He was a beast of his own. Easily the largest man within the kingdom with enough hair on his chest to braid, and an uncanny fetish for inflicting pain whilst getting his jollies off, typically on those of his victims. How he made it onto the council is beyond even the brightest scholars. The two men ceased their objections and promptly made their way out into the courtyard to meet the beast.\n\n'Wha do we sey? I mean... Wha if dat fing doen't spek Human?'\n\n'Brogard you barely spek Human... And is English, ya dumb bastard.' The two men stopped, sure to keep their distance but close enough to have a conversation with the beast on the other side.\n\n'ELLO THERE! WEEEEEE...' Brogard pointed to himself and Torvald, and continued. 'ARRRRRR PEEOOOPLLLLLE!' No response.\n\n'Wha now?' Brogard asked in a whisper.\n\n'I dunno. Try again.' He cleared his throat then started shouting again.\n\n'ELLLLLLLOOOOO! WEEEE ARRR-'\n\n'Fuckin hell, I know what you are! Poffit all, are you all fuckin deaf, or just mental?' Shock. Brogard had to gather himself after nearly falling over Torvald in a failed attempt to run away.\n\n'Righ, well see ere, sir. You've entered our lands, an we want t'know why.' Torvald asked whilst helping Brogard regain his composure.\n\n'I'm here to see your King.' The two looked at each other, then back toward the window where the council, and the King, were quietly watching. The King slowly slumped down below the bottom of the window. The pair looked back at each other, then back to the beast.\n\n'Ahem. Well... The King is out... at... the moment. But I could... take a message?'\n\n'What was that?' The beast pointed toward the window where council members, still watching intently, now retreated to the edges of the window, so as to not be so obvious...\n\n'Uh, tha was nuffin.' Brogard intercepted the question first.\n\n'It wasn't nuffin, I bloody saw the man. Call him down here so I can deliver my message.'\n\n'Oh! I know. You saw ose squirrels, din't ya. Damn fings... They been all ova tha castle lately. Bastards keep me up at night with their... Fornicatin.' Annoyed, the beast pinched its forehead.\n\n'Look... Obviously I'm not talking to the top brass here. So, I'll make this really easy. You lot go get your King, or I'll break through this here gate and stick your head...' He pointed to Brogard. 'Up his arse.' He pointed to Torvald. ", "In a small kingdom with an ironic name like Solaria, a Siren is considered to be the worst kind of beast- one that could converse. One that could seduce. Just one glance at Freesia Seabass would communicate just what this supposed \"monster nation\" aimed for. A moon-shaped visage. Wide, piercing eyes of sea green flecked with gold. A high collar to hide her gills. I had only met three sirens in my life, and fooling them had nearly cost me a hand.\n\nThough, to be fair, they were starved, and they thought my brother looked... delicious.\n\n\"Greetings, King Abelworth,\" she rose and curtseyed. She winced, likely from the corsette that bound her waist a bit too snugly. \"I am the... Lady Freesia Sea... bass,\" the siren introduced herself, pausing as she tried to recall her customary greetings. This was her first time. You can tell from the way her hair tentacle fidgeted, and the way her eyes flicked from one guard to the next. I delivered a heavy sigh, before adopting the same, forced speech pattern as her. As is customary.\n\n\"Greetings, Lady Seabass. You may rise and take your seat,\" I gestured to the couch towards the fire. She glanced at the fireplace, a bit nervous. I gestured to the couch further away, offering her an out. With a hand, I gestured to the guard. Half the men moved to the leave. In the lighting, it looked as though the very walls were shuffling out the door, their armor scraping against each other as they made their way out.\n\nI could not blame their caution.\n\nIn fact, had this siren approached me on the cobbled streets of Holdberg, perhaps I would have been in danger.\n\nBut I suppose my readings and attention to detail had their... benefits.\n\nMy knowledge of monster anatomy, for example, informed me that this was indeed an honest and true attempt to establish some semblance of dialogue between my nation and hers.\n\nYou see, a Siren requires a few things to ensure that she can ensnare her prey.\n\nFirst of all, she needed a large body of water. Nothing was certain to kill her prey than drowning it. This was why Sirens were exclusively coastal- Mermaids, their deep-sea cousins, had teeth modeled after a beak. Sirens had sharp incisors, but their bodies had evolved more flat, human-like teeth. There was a collection of jaws that showcased the evolution of Siren teeth in the National Monster Museum that I had visited almost daily. On top of this, if she were to dive now, her gills would be choked by that high collar.\n\nThe second tool they evolved to hunt humans was their infamous singing. I had listened once or twice to actual Siren songs. They had an unearthly quality to them, a bit like a haunting moan, but they all required a large lung capacity. And one simply does not breathe with a corset on.\n\nAnd finally, her nails. First, they were painted and therefore easily seen. Second, they had been filed down to more dainty, human-like nubs. I took the seat across from her, and drank in the sight of it all. she even sat with her legs angled to the side, a sign of propriety amongst young noble ladies. Her skirt had been shaped wide, likely to hide her tail.\n\nAnd from my experience, Sirens were quite fond of their tails. Their fins had pearly sheens, and the richer the shine, the more they appealed to potential mates.\n\nTo put it succinctly, this Siren displayed a clear and overt attempt to appeal to every human sensibility she could, even at the cost of her own comfort.\n\nThis, sadly, spoke just as much about our customs as it spoke about her.\n\n\"So, Lady... Seabass, is that really your name? I recall that Sirens have far more, what's the word, complex last names. Often in the form of song?\" I asked as the guards sent in a fretful maid. She shakily poured the both of us some wine.\n\nThe Siren blinked, her eyes growing even wider in surprise. In my studies, I found that Sirens had larger eyes to draw in more light. It was a hold over from their mermaid predecessors, but their irises lightened in shade to ease the constant barrage of light that afflicted them on the surface. She clearly did not expect me, of all people, to know such things. Which is fair- she likely planned to meet my father, who departed with great fervor just a week before.\n\nBut life progresses. New leaves grow. And in a land where the sun doesn't beam, stalks barely break the earth, and monsters roam freely, I believe it is better to celebrate the life than mourn the death.\n\n\"Y-yes, Your Majesty. Though, it is a rather... intimate matter, the true name of a siren.\"\n\n\"No worries, Lady Seabass,\" I raised my hand and sipped my wine. I set it back down with a bit more spirit than I anticipated. \"So, you are here, apparently, to represent a... kingdom?\"\n\n\"Well, sir, not quite a Kingdom. It is more a... union of tribes.\"\n\n\"A collection of disparate species then?\" I leaned forward. I tried not to smile, but it was just fascinating to witness a Siren discuss matters of a more political nature.\n\n\"Yes, I represent tribes of a variety of species.\"\n\n\"Is that so? So, I must ask, what is the nature of your leadership? Given the different species that you represent, I doubt choosing a leader is easy.\"\n\n\"Well, we have a High Council with one major representative from each tribe. Each tribe has its own, Lower Council, which handle things internally.\"\n\n\"Just to be clear, what species do you represent, Lady Seabass?\"\n\n\"I... represent tribes, sir. We are all members of different tribes, rather than different... varieties of creature.\" She was avoiding the subject. She did not wish to discuss the actual monsters she represented. This was an interesting tactic, one that I could begin to grapple internally. She did not wish to represent her \"people\" as anything besides members of her nation. I could easily see how a regular human would react- if they knew she represented, say, a Kraken, then they would treat her far differently.\n\nThere was only one flaw to that deflection.\n\n\"Lady Seabass, right now, as I understand it, you are a Siren, claiming to represent multiple tribes. Now, right now, all I can do is assume that you represent multiple tribes of Sirens, and can thusly begin trade negotiations that specifically target that species. If my assumption is incorrect, please, enlighten me.\"\n\nThere she was. Caught in the net. Her cheeks began to flush, the color beneath her eyes beginning to color in a perplexing display of blue and pink. It was an instinctual diversionary tactic, intended for deep-sea predators. On the surface, it had too much color to compete with.\n\n\"I currently represent,\" she finally relented, \"the Vervinian clan, the Seabass tribe, the Relashian Union and the... Diamondii family. Of their combined members are... Minotaurs, Dragons, Wolfmen, and Aluraunes.\"\n\n\"Aluraunes? Here?\"\n\n\"Yes.\"\n\n\"Wow, the poor things must be starved.\"\n\n\"They are... the fewest members amongst us.\"\n\n\"And sadly the easiest to feed,\" I said. I pondered on the nature of this union quite eagerly. What combined them, besides a strong sense of hunger? Perhaps an external threat, sure, but the only major threat to them in Solaria would be man. And even then, if they had dragons amongst their members, then what would they have to fear?\n\nNo, a nation built on fear was built upon sand.\n\n\"Thank you, Lady Seabass,\" I said. Before pausing. She did not seem to recognize the name as her own- it was probably the name of her tribe. \"Do you mind if I call you Freesia instead? You can, similarly, call me Berian.\"\n\n\"I wouldn't presume to, Lord Solarus!\" she sat ramrod. She was terrified of disrespecting me. That was fine.\n\n\"Very well then, Freesia,\" I made sure to hone in that I would refer to her as an individual. \"Now... why have you have you come to my castle?\"\n\nShe seemed to have trouble processing how to respond. I gave her time. I had presumed that, up till now, she had honed her craft of conversing with people. She had dressed as human as she could, and she presented herself as welcoming as possible. But now that she was here, she was easily off put.\n\nShe had prepared to speak with a man. She had not prepared to speak with me.\n\n\"We... the High Council, I mean, wishes to enter a treaty of nonaggression with the human nation of Solaria,\" she finally managed.", "A regally robed minotaur stood stoically in the courtyard, back straight with hands behind him. As the human king approached him, he bowed slightly before straightening up even further. \"Your Majesty, I am here to represent His Mightyness, Archon Stroud. My name is Dalen. He hopes to establish a non-aggression pact with your kingdom and to create peace between humans and non-humans within both of our borders.\"\n\nKing Hedan stood back in shock, his face forced upward to look upon the bovine ambassador in disbelief. \"What?!\" he sputtered. \"But, you're... You're monsters!.\"\n\n\"Yes, your majesty. The subjects of His Mightyness recently voted to unify three warhosts and innumerable bands into the Kingdom of the Northern Mountains. At present we do not wish to expand, merely to establish ourselves as legitimate neighbours of the Confederacy of Wolgarth; you and your allies. We do not wish to fight you Your Majesty. The raids and skirmishes of the past are over. I have bought a peace offering. Would you like to see it?\" Ambassador Dalen gestured behind him to a large chest and pile of saddlebags.\n\n\n" ]	[ 1, 1, 3, 7, 12 ]	[ "1546664980", "1546706092", "1546687210", "1546698126", "1546668010" ]
[removed]	[WP] Middle-aged ex-military software consultant drops everything to find her missing wife who had disappeared after receiving a letter from a mysterious ancestor, hidden in a 150-year-old time capsule.	3	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A\$Reality+Fiction\$&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A\$Simple+Prompt\$&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/XYsEYfS)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "Hi u/itcostme3bucks, this submission has been removed.\n\n[Prompt users in the title, but don't play writing games or commission stories](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_6.3A_prompt_users_in_the_title.2C_but_don.27t_play_writing_games_or_commission_stories)\n\n- Prompts go in the title, do not extend into text. You can add commentary in the text, but don't add additional prompt restrictions. Also, avoid [too many details](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/prompts?src=RECIPE). \n\n\n\n---\n\n[Modmail](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=%2Fr%2FWritingPrompts&subject=Removed%20post&message=https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/comments/acw4g8/-/%0A%0A) us if you have any questions or concerns. In the future, please refer to the [sidebar](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/about/sidebar) before posting. \n\nThis action was not automated and this moderator is human. Time to go do human things." ]	[ 1, 1 ]	[ "1546709351", "1546712673" ]
[removed]	[WP] Have you ever been so cold in freezing temperatures that you start to get sleepy and just want to take a real quick nap? Death will come shortly, and it'll be painless. You won't even feel a thing.	2	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A\$Reality+Fiction\$&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A\$Simple+Prompt\$&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/XYsEYfS)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "Hi u/Kai126, this submission has been removed.\n\n[Prompt users in the title, but don't play writing games or commission stories](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_6.3A_prompt_users_in_the_title.2C_but_don.27t_play_writing_games_or_commission_stories)\n\n- Prompts go in the title, do not extend into text. You can add commentary in the text, but don't add additional prompt restrictions. Also, avoid [too many details](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/prompts?src=RECIPE). \n\nEven with the disclaimer, people treat 'suggestions' as ironclad rules. Also, if you do decide to repost this, could you make it a bit less... suicide-y? Might not be your intention, but it does read that way.\n\n\n\n---\n\n[Modmail](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=%2Fr%2FWritingPrompts&subject=Removed%20post&message=https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/comments/acwxg0/-/%0A%0A) us if you have any questions or concerns. In the future, please refer to the [sidebar](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/about/sidebar) before posting. \n\nThis action was not automated and this moderator is human. Time to go do human things.", "Hi, this submission has been removed.\n\n[Prompt users in the title, but don't play writing games or commission stories](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_6.3A_prompt_users_in_the_title.2C_but_don.27t_play_writing_games_or_commission_stories)\n\n- Prompts go in the title, do not extend into text. You can add commentary in the text, but don't add additional prompt restrictions. Also, avoid [too many details](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/prompts?src=RECIPE). \n\n\n\n---\n\n[Modmail](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=%2Fr%2FWritingPrompts&subject=Removed Post) us if you have any questions or concerns. In the future, please refer to the [sidebar](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/about/sidebar) before posting. \n\nThis action was not automated and this moderator is human. Time to go do human things." ]	[ 1, 1, 1 ]	[ "1546714295", "1546714914", "1546715001" ]
[removed]	[WP] Last night you ate an entire bag of sugarfree Haribo gummybears. Luckily, you’re an established writer who decides to write an Amazon review.	1	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A\$Reality+Fiction\$&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A\$Simple+Prompt\$&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/XYsEYfS)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "Hi u/Gambalord, this submission has been removed.\n\n[Prompts will be removed if there's a high possibility for rule breaking responses](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_7.3A_prompts_will_be_removed_if_there.27s_a_high_possibility_for_rule_breaking_responses)\n\n- Bathroom Humor: No troll or meme-based prompts. This includes posting fart or poop jokes as prompts. See [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_7.3A_prompts_will_be_removed_if_there.27s_a_high_possibility_for_rule_breaking_responses) for more info. \n\n\n\n---\n\n[Modmail](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=%2Fr%2FWritingPrompts&subject=Removed%20post&message=https://old.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/comments/ad02xc/-/%0A%0A) us if you have any questions or concerns. In the future, please refer to the [sidebar](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/about/sidebar) before posting. \n\nThis action was not automated and this moderator is human. Time to go do human things.", "Never ever EVER purchase the Sugarfree Haribo's ever again!! You know that pit of chemicals the Joker fell into that turned him all white and crazy? Not from Suicide Squad, but that gross stuff from the Tim Burton one? That's what it tastes like they poured into those gummy molds. \n\nWhatever your health problems are, this is NOT the place to skimp. Buy sugar free pop. Buy lite Mayo. Run an extra mile on the tready. ANYTHING besides buying those sugar free monstrosities again. \n\nNow, I admit, last night's escapade was a drug fueled munchie haul in desperation down at the Indian run convenience store at the end of my block. But that is still no excuse. I kept eating out of curiosity more than anything, trying to see if there was actually a good tasting one in the whole bag. There wasnt. \n\nTrust me folks. Buy the originals. " ]	[ 1, 1, 2 ]	[ "1546733692", "1546734783", "1546734597" ]
[removed]	[WP] When you die, you get resurrected based on your karma. Reddit karma, of course.	2	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A\$Reality+Fiction\$&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A\$Simple+Prompt\$&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/XYsEYfS)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "Hi u/MoopCon, this submission has been removed.\n\n[No recent reposts, even if changing small details](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_5.3A_no_recent_reposts.2C_even_if_changing_small_details)\n\nAlso, no [copy-cats](http://i.imgur.com/38FjDgW.gifv).\n\nSearch before submitting as popular ideas can cause floods. If your idea is based on something you read elsewhere on reddit, chances are it's been submitted here already. Please wait at least 2 weeks before reposting.\n\n \n\nhttps://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/comments/ackp24/wp_as_it_turns_out_reddit_karma_is_the_same_as/\n\n\n\n---\n\n[Modmail](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=%2Fr%2FWritingPrompts&subject=Removed%20post&message=https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/comments/ad12tz/-/%0A%0A) us if you have any questions or concerns. In the future, please refer to the [sidebar](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/about/sidebar) before posting. \n\nThis action was not automated and this moderator is human. Time to go do human things." ]	[ 1, 1 ]	[ "1546740043", "1546740117" ]
	[WP] The world of fairytales is real, and our major world events are their fairytale. Describe a major world event as a tale.	16	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A\$Reality+Fiction\$&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A\$Simple+Prompt\$&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/XYsEYfS)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "His name was god but he wasn't one he was two.. no five? Twenty!?\n\nBut this god didn't speak maybe he couldn't? But he brought comfort to many.\n\nBut prophets who heard this gods voice or thoughts? It's hard to say, realized they were the few who could hear.\n\nAnd so they wove webs they spun lies they had gold in their eyes and deceit etched in their hearts and so they told lies.\n\nThey led the people far from their god but with just enough to make them pray, and they told more lies and stole from the people!\n\nThe god was not happy but he couldn't speak so he watched on sadly and he watched heroes step up and defend non believers and believers alike.\n\nAnd though he was real they were strong, they were kind, and they didn't lie they told the truth whenever they could.\n\nBut there isn't a happy ending this war is still being fought and if the heroes hearts are truly made of gold is yet to be known, and if the god ever speaks is yet only a dream.\n\nSo for now children even if you don't know if you are entirely right be kind and try to be true a real god will love you for being good to all.", "Once upon a time there were eight kingdoms, these lands stretched across vast lands and they lived in peace, one day the King of Saxony was usurped by an evil and cunning man, he renamed the land the Kingdom of Nazi, the new ruler wanted to conquer other kingdoms and rule the world. \n\nHe built a great army of dragons and knights led by the villainous Order of Schutzstaffel and began locking up the people of the land. The evil king then allied with three other kingdoms and while the remaining lands were unaware his great army invaded the land to the East. \n\nTwo of the kingdoms, Brittania and Frankia saw this and prepared to defend themselves but Frankia was defeated as the Kingdom of Nazi sent its monstrous Panthers through the forests and lay siege to Castle Paris. The Nazi legions exiled the Order of Gaulle to the land across the Channel Brittania to the kingdom for which the sea was named.\n\nOnly one land, the Kingdom of Brittania remained to face the enemy, the Kingdom of Americae was avoiding war, the Evil King sent his great dragon hordes to burn the Kingdom's villages and castles but at the last moment were met by the heroic Spitfire Templar and their hawk riders. The battle was long and hard, with many houses burned and riders killed, but at last, the Templar emerged victorious.\n\nFurious, Nazi attacked the Kingdom of Soviet, the Soviets defended valiantly and at last repelled the evil armies of Nazi and joined the Alliance of Kingdoms.\n\nOn the other side of land the Empire of Nihon sent their own dragons to attack the Great Pearl Harbor of Americae sinking many ships. But at last, the sleeping kingdom was roused into joining the fight. Hordes of Eagle riders, knights, and siege engines poured onto the battlefield to assist their allies in a final attack.\n\nThe two western allies rallied their armies and gathered for an attack on the Wall of Atlantia, an enormous fortification stretching across the shore of the Channel Brittania, many knights and dragons were sent to attack the Great Wall, and many died by arrows fired by Nazi archers, but the day was won, Castle Paris was retaken in an heroic battle led by the Order of Gaulle. And soon after the Kingdom of Nazi fell in a great siege where all the Allied Kingdoms worked together to restore freedom to the oppressed and enslaved people.\n\nNow, Nihon stood, determined to bring destruction to the land, Americae and Soviet fought bravely to stop their evil plots and at last, at the release of two dragons into great Imperial cities, the war was over and peace and freedom were restored to the land.\n\nThe heroes came together to bring the villainous leaders of each kingdom to justice for their crimes and everyone lived happily ever after...\n\nThe End\n\n\n\nAt least until Vietnam.", "There once was a knight. A powerful knight from a divided kingdom. His job: destroy the disease that had spread throughout his beloved kingdom. It would infect them with stupidity and irrationality. And it was sir Benjamin’s job to RECK the disease, with FACTS AND LOGIC!!! There was a conflict between who would be the next ruler of the kingdom of the eagle. The conflict was between prince Donald and the duke of Clinton. Whilst Donald wanted to protect freedom and fight against the attacking kingdom ruled by emperor xing, the duke of Clinton however has a scoundrel infected by the disease who wanted to harm the kingdom of the eagle. He put in his part and whether or not he made the difference prince Donald endured and defeated the duke of Clinton. However the future of the kingdom is in question and it all rests on whether the disease known as fe-man-es-um.", "Once upon a time there was a kingdom. And on this kingdom, there were two towers. Side by side. The tallest and largest towers ever seen for a long time.\n\nMany people were inspired by these towers and built bigger and larger towers around the world. But in this kingdom, the two towers were the tallest around. People came from all around to see these two towers.\n\nBut there were people in a kingdom faraway that were very upset. They didn't like the king of the kingdom with the two towers.\n\nSo one day the king of that jealous kingdom sent two dragons who went and burned the two towers down. Many people died. It was a sad, sad time in the kingdom.\n\nMany years later, the people of the kingdom built another tower.\n\nBut it just wasn't the same.\n\nThe End." ]	[ 1, 2, 2, 3, 9 ]	[ "1546749351", "1546755492", "1546986382", "1546752669", "1546750908" ]
[removed]	[WP] You are sensory deprived in four of the five senses. Describe how you lived in a current or past city with the only sense you are left with.	2	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A\$Reality+Fiction\$&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A\$Simple+Prompt\$&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/XYsEYfS)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "Hi u/zapmog, this submission has been removed.\n\n[Prompt users in the title, but don't play writing games or commission stories](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_6.3A_prompt_users_in_the_title.2C_but_don.27t_play_writing_games_or_commission_stories)\n\n- Prompts go in the title, do not extend into text. You can add commentary in the text, but don't add additional prompt restrictions. Also, avoid [too many details](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/prompts?src=RECIPE). \n\n\n\n---\n\n[Modmail](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=%2Fr%2FWritingPrompts&subject=Removed%20post&message=https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/comments/ad2o5d/-/%0A%0A) us if you have any questions or concerns. In the future, please refer to the [sidebar](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/about/sidebar) before posting. \n\nThis action was not automated and this moderator is human. Time to go do human things." ]	[ 1, 1 ]	[ "1546751864", "1546752250" ]
	[WP] You wear magic dampening bands normally reserved for keeping criminals from casting spells. Why? Because your spells are ludicrously more powerful than average, and the bands limit you enough to not break everything.	2,310	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A\$Reality+Fiction\$&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A\$Simple+Prompt\$&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/XYsEYfS)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "The bright toothed smile was not at all what I expected from the demon from below. Nor was the lilting laughter that accompanied it.\n\n“You used it, I saw your soul reach out through the binding.” She exclaimed.\n\nShe could see it.\n\n“I’m not sure what you are implying my dear. But before we continue I must ask, were you among the other prisoners I did not see you if you were?” I needed a moment to catch my breath, I needed her to talk for a moment.\n\n“Of course not, and besides I don’t like you trying to distract me, one like you does not show up here by accident. Especially not alive.” She says punctuating her thoughts with a sweeping gesture to the remains that litter the floor.\n\n“Like me?” I inquire trying desperately to keep my cool. I knew that there had to be a reason for the sacrifices but to meet another of my kind was certainly not part of the plan.\n\n“Of course, I could sense you for miles, though how the void hasn’t taken hold of you is beyond me. Perhaps those shackles you wear only appear to be standard prisoner’s bindings. Did you not sense me? Clearly you have magic how else could you have survived the journey down.” She says her voice slowly weening off its earlier pleasantness.\n\n“Of course, as you have guessed these bindings segregate me from the general void allowing me to travel among the mortals. Either you were trying to lure someone such as myself, which is a crazy gamble, or you are working on a similar artifact of your own.”\n\nI was done trying to pretend I had to change tactics.\n\n“Very perceptive” She beams. “Can you replicate it?” She asks, hopeful.\n\n“I’m afraid not my dear, the materials in the prisoner’s bindings utilize void to contain the life force that fuels normal magic, I’m afraid anything that I made here would only further attract the void.”\n\nEnvy, I would not be able to survive this bound as I was. Thankfully surrounded by void as such I could see it coming.\n\nQuickly undoing the bindings the void leapt to me, as smothering as it would soon become my body warmed at its beckoning touch, and more importantly it allowed me slide straight through her desperate strike.\n\n“Welcome home wanderer” it whispered.\n\n“Not now” I muttered, “while it was not my intention with this trip, I must free her.”\n\nShaking off the void I muster my voice.\n\n“My dear there is no need, I can free you but you must surrender to me.”\n\nIf she wasn’t so clever, I might have been able to blind side her and get her out the easy way but no, she is void kin, possibly older than I, and obviously much more experienced in manipulating her void. I will have to learn how she managed to get the villagers to sacrifice anyone wearing prisoners shackles to her. As it is my plea will be ignored, I have made her weary with my deception.\n\nRecognizing my defenses she immediately shifts tactics, launching a dizzying swirl of whispers around me leaving me trapped within. The urge to quit building I needed an immediate out, thankfully I now had an idea of her combat experience as she did not attempt any of the standard counters to a shade step instead opting for an immediate domination. Banking on her inexperience I feinted a second shade step to buy myself a bit of time. As expected she immediately intensifies her whispers at my shade only for it to flicker out of range and grasp upon her. Wrapping her into my embrace I began the ritual drawing the void into myself and slowly moving all but three of her tethers to the void to myself.\n\n“What have you done” She asks awed.\n\n“As I said my dear, I have freed you.” My voice booming through the void. “I apologize for the volume with this many tethers I do not have much control over the void here. The void will never be gone entirely, and you will have to fight it from luring you back, but you can now leave and wander the world as you please, or go join our brethren in Zeldon we have a small conclave there they will welcome you and teach you our ways.”\n\n“And what if I was content with my domain?” She asks, uncertain.\n\n“Then you would have already reclaimed you tethers, and I would not be shouting uncontrollably, my dear.” Keeping the irritation at repeating this spiel from entering my voice, a knowing smile splayed across my face. “Go enjoy your freedom, I will free myself in time.”\n\nShe left with a simple nod and a genuine thanks. Her smile burning bright in my mind as I embraced the void.", "It was a joyous occasion the day Ryle born, or so his mother tells him. He was walking by the time he's four months old, speak full sentences by the time two summers have passed, by seven he had learn all there is to learn in that tiny village of his. Not that there was much to learn to begin with, he told himself as he adjusted his sack of belongings on his shoulders. The village elders had finally granted Ryle's request to venture outside of the village on his 15th birthday, though it came with a strange request to wear his bangle on his wrist at all times. Not that he'd take it off anyway, it got too troublesome and impossible to remove without significant discomfort at this point.\n\n\"Pass please,\" said the guard as it came to Ryle's turn at the checkpoint, his voice already oozing lethargy even though he just started his shift.\n\n\"Excuse me, what?\"\n\n\"That thing on your wrist, kid. First time to the city?\" The guard sounded a little more energetic now, amused by the slight panic in Ryle's eyes.\n\n\"Y-yeah,\" he respondedn awkwardly as he extended his wrist and pulled up his sleeve, revealing a stone-like bangle with glowing runes.\n\n\"Huh, okay. Give me a second here,\" said the guard as he pulled the kid to the side. \"You there, keep an eye on him.\" He soon returned with something that looked like a whetstone, muttered to himself as he tapped it against the bangle lightly. The fact that he tried to read the the back of the object while awkwardly trying to hide it from Ryle only made him more nervous.\n\n\"Uh, excu-\"\n\n\"Right then, everything here seems to be in order!\" the guard interrupted suddenly, his voice full of energy. \"Tulls here will be your guide, report to the guild by sundown. No need to worry about finding a place for the night, it's been taken care of.\"\n\n\"Sir, does-\" A very audible slap came down on the back of Tulls' head as he started to speak, almost comically so.\n\n\"Just shut up and take him around the city and bring him to the guildhouse by sundown.\"\n\n\"Y-yes sir,\" Tulls replied weakly.\n\nAs the duo went around it was evident that Tulls was just trying to get everything done and drop Ryle off at the guildhouse, and yet every time they walk pass a store, Ryle would stop to marvel at the windows that seem to come to life as he walked past them. He jumped with glee as the puppy from the pet store sign seem to turn into light and pounced at him as he got close to study the sign. Tulls tries less and less to hide his annoyance as they pass by more stores, the youngster doesn't seem to notice though.\n\n\"Boy,\" the guard finally attempts to assert his authority with the deepest voice he could muster, \"we have to go.\"\n\nRyle looked up from a moving nutcracker doll just in time to see the streets light up slowly, with not a single lamplighter in sight. His eyes widened with wonder again until his guide physically started dragging him towards their destination.\n\nThe building was surprisingly bland except for the emblem above its heavy wooden double doors. Tulls banged on the door a few times and they swung open unassisted, the lamps on the walls light up as if- No, the boy noticed, it was absolutely intentional, meant to guide them to a destination.\n\n\"Welcome, child. You're earlier than I expected,\" came a voice as they entered the office, \"No matter, you start tomorrow. You will be staying in one of the guest rooms tonight, you'll be assigned-\"\n\n\"I don't understand,\" the boy blurted out.\n\nThe room was silent for a short while before the old man started speaking again. \"Ah, I see. This is why I dislike working with bumpkins,\" he sighed and gestured towards the door, \"Guide, you may go.\"\n\n\"Prick,\" the guard muttered under his breath as he left, though he made sure it was loud enough for the old man to hear it.\n\n\"I assume you've seen the beautiful streets on your way here,\" he said as soon as the guard left the room, the boy just nodded. \"As you know, spells... need a spellcaster. It's simple, really. Did you see anybody casting spells on the signs?\"\n\nNo, he thought. Even simple spells require a constant flow of energy, complex ones obviously needed more, often more than one person...\n\n\"And there you go, boy. It needs to come from somewhere...\" the man said as he stood up, his cloak falls off revealing metallic pipes plugged into the thick shackles around his wrists, and the boy presumed, his ankles too. \"I am guildmaster Orwen, and welcome, dear boy, to the Guild of Generators.\"\n\nThe doors lock.\n\n\"Don't worry, you'll be fed well, best food the city has to offer. Heck, we can import practically anything if you so desire. You'll be paid well, so will your village, you'll have a roof over your head without even lifting a finger. You just... Let's just say, you can't leave this place very often. Now let's get you started on the basics.\"\n", "The sound of what seemed to be a thousand war trumpets blared from the walls of the city, startling me out of my sleepy stupor. “That sounds bad”, said a member of my party, quickly grabbing her gear. Understatement of the year, I thought as I grabbed my talismans, my cloak and a piece of bread, seeing how it was very unlikely I’d be able to eat breakfast.\n\n“Any adventurers, warriors and magic users, please report to the guard stations at the perimeter of the walls” blared an announcement from the captain of the imperial guard, a creepy looking bald bastard, looked like a fcking worm. While hordes of these dimestore “warriors” wearing ill fitting armor rushed to the towers, I used a levitation spell to quickly ascend to the gate towers. \n\n“What in the bloody hell is that?!” Screamed a ranger, pointing to a black outline in the fire-lit night, towering above the approaching army or what appeared to be an army of corpses and brainwashed slaves. The outline then proceeded to through a massive boulder at the gate, but before it hit, I used an explosive bolt spell, nitromancy I call it, to shatter the boulder to pieces. \n\n“Any heavy hitters that we have, send to reinforce the gate. Have the close range ones come outside with me to help bottleneck them. Any rangers, and others using spells and arrows provide cover to the barbarians. And get ready to avert your eyes” I command with gusto, half inspired by the fear of unleashing my power and fighting such a large force. \n\nI jump down with the melee fighters, using earth magic spells to put up large barriers to protect them from enemy archers. Deep breaths, in and out, I think to myself as I remove the bands on my wrists.\nI feel the energy swirling inside me, like the fires of a volcano. I use a cryomancy spell to impale a large group of the ghouls in ice shards, before using storm magic to electrocute the surrounding ones.\n\nI aim a thunderbolt right at the shoulder of the giant, knocking it onto a regiment of these monsters. \n\nI accidentally lose control, releasing a cascade of hellfire into a group of ghouls surrounding one of the barbarians.\n\n“You okay?!” I yell as I put up a dome of rock around us. “I’m fine”, grunts the big bastard as he throws the splintered remains of his shield onto the ground. “How are you able to do this?” He inquires as I heal some burns and cuts to his arms. \n\nI don’t answer, instead letting him see the shimmer in my eyes. \nHe takes the hint, and I explode the dome around us, giving him an opening to retreat and me a distraction so I can go for the man (so to speak) in charge. \n\nI call down a torrent of rain, using a sheet of ice to ride the wave into the general’s section. \n\nI’m far enough away from them, so I can finally let loose, I tell myself as I summon vines from the earth to trap and strangle everyone around me. So much for laying low. ", "\"State your name!\" The command came at me. The officer was very demanding.\n\n\"I do not have to,\" I said as I waved my hand dismissively, like I was shooing a fly.\n\nHe reached out and grabbed it, \"ONLY CRIMINALS WEAR THESE BANDS!\" He yelled while staring at my wrists. \n\n\"Please let go, I have a note in my pocket that will explain.\" I asked politely, but he was in no mood to calmly discuss the details of my situation. He tried to twist my arm behind me in a submission maneuver. My arm not only didn't move, but I had turned magically into living stone. \n\nHe jumped back letting go of me completely. He also drew his wand. I got the distinct feeling that I \"fit the profile\" of whatever he was looking for. \n\n\"I have a note,\" I repeated, slowly, but I don't think I kept all the annoyance out of my voice.\n\n\"I won't listen to criminals like you people.\" He narrowed his eyes and I don't know if he was going to even bother to read my note from the administration of magical affairs. If he did, he probably wouldn't have been turned into a frog. Racism is never nice. But having enough power to transfigure myself into living rock without so much as an incantation didn't even make him stop for a second. These magical enforcement officers were really dumb. The \"you people\" at the end just really sealed his fate. \n\nI yawned while returning to my normal flesh and blood self. I looked right at the frog. \"Are you done?\" \n\nHe croaked at me indignantly. \n\n\"I could just leave you here for the officers but an owl might decide to have something different for dinner. I did transform both of us while wearing these fine fashion accessories,\" I say to the frog while showing him that indeed they are the real suppressors that criminals wear. \"I could also simply remove them and let you feel wherever I go.\" I pull one of them off my wrist. The crowd around us on the street fall to the ground. The release of the energy is enough to push them down. Frog can't even move. He's returned to his human form. He's on the ground. \"I could remove the other one and destroy buildings, if I felt like it.\"\n\n\"The hell you will,\" he spits.\n\n\"You like the trees?\" I ask. \n\nHe looks, they too are bending down and away from me.\n\n\"I could if I wanted. You should be glad I don't want to.\" I put the shackle back on my wrist. \"I can still keep you from moving.\" He is trying so hard to get up but he simply can't move. The other magical enforcement officers arrive with wands at the ready. \n\n\"Rashad?\" Officer Robertson asks as he recognizes me.\n\n\"Yes Jim.\" I say nonchalantly. \n\n\"Guys, I have this one under control,\" he says. \"Lower your wands and get out of here.\" They look at my wrists, then him, then frog. Jim is putting his wand away, then looks around at his fellow officers who are still wand at the ready. \"Guys, really, we're all good here. Go prevent real crimes. NOW!\" He yells, breaking his fellow officers concentration. They start turning away reconnecting with the other matters they must attend to. \n\n\"Rashad, I am so sorry about this,\" he says, starting to stand on my prisoner. \"I will take care of him, just go.\" \n\n\"He's a racist son of a bitch. I almost had to protect myself.\" \n\n\"I know,\" his reply. \"I said I would take care of him. \" ", " The sun came up at around 7, which was just in time, since I was fumbling around to find something important in the mess that I had in my room. The gradually intensifying light alllowed me to find that item - a small, black wrist band. Slipping it onto my right wrist, I then bolted out of the house and headed to the bus stop needed to go to school.\n\n Boarding the same old bus service 988, I plopped my bag down onto the nearest seat from the front of the bus. The only difference between this trip and any other trips I make on this service is that... this time, I won’t be dropping off at my previous school, but rather at Xelfurus’ Academy for the Arcane.\n\n Putting on my ear pieces, and putting on some music, I managed to tune out the various whispers and comments as the bus passed by my previous school, or rather... what was left of it.\n\n Arriving at the academy, I made a beeline for the general office, since the annoyingly warm orange beams of sunlight hinted to me that I was going to be late, since I had to attend to some administrative matters before class. Reaching the office, I am greeted by an old man with a blindfold.\n\n “Come.” A single word, but said with such authority that I followed him without thinking about it. A door opened up and we entered, to find a lavishly decorated office, with quartz beams and obsidian flooring. The blindfolded man sat on a chair behind a huge desk that had a name plate writing “Xelfurus IV”.\n\n “Good morning, Mister Xelfurus. I am the new transfer student, Alan. What are the remaining administrative matters that I have to settle before class?” I greet.\n\n “Oh, there isn’t anything left to settle. I just wanted to have a chat with you before you start your first day at our academy. So how are you feeling now? Excited? Nervous?”\n\n To be honest, I was pretty nervous. I doubt I could pay the school back for damages if I broke anything here.\n\n “I’m excited for my first day here, sir.”\n\n “That’s good, now let me clarify once more...”\n\n With the air turning more serious now, he continues.\n\n “Are you sure you want to study here? If you joined the army, you would definitely have a bright future ahead, even without much of an education... given your constitution.”\n\n “Ah, but I can only join the army right? What if I want to be a musician or a store clerk?” I jokingly reply.\n\n His face breaks into a small smile, then he replies...\n\n “If that is your choice, then I fully respect it. By all means, please enjoy your time here.”\n\n “Thank you sir.” \n\n I am ushered out of the office afterwards, to my first class...\n\n The bell rings.\n\n It is lunch time, and the students are filing out of class for their meals. For me, I am about to follow them, but a gentle voice stops me.\n\n “Alan... right? You are new here, wouldn’t it be better for someone to show you around first?”\n\n A wild class president appears!\n\n “Sure thing.” I reply with a cramped face. With a bemused face, she beckons me to follow her, which I do... all while thinking: how do I talk to girls again?\n\n I’m your average male adolescent! Cut me some slack!\n\n Since it was lunch time, she probably decided that it was a good idea to bring me to the cafeteria first. And she would be right, since I was hungry. Extremely hungry.\n\n The cafeteria was filled with students buzzing about their lessons, with many large cliques centred around various tables.\n\n The class president then showed me the various dishes that the cafeteria had to offer... which burned a massive hole in my wallet. This is what happens when you are an average person in a school full of elites, I guess.\n\n To my surprise, she decided to eat together with me... not that I minded, sure, but in my previous school, nobody actually ate with me.\n\n She told me more about the school’s facilities, like the training courts, various clubs and sports teams that the school had to offer. She then talked about her time here further, which served to remind me that this school is full of rich elites, which makes me a unique person in that I’m not one of them, I guess.\n\n As if noticing that very train of thought, she quickly added.\n\n “Well if you are strong, nobody would care about your circumstances. So don’t worry! You’ll fit in just fine! I mean, you did manage to cope with the classes today so... you’ll be fine.” She added with a reassuring smile.\n\n Oh gosh I met an angel, I thought as I heard that.\n\n At this point, a group of males came over, and started to chat to the president. As expected, she was popular, and realising that, I started cleaning up and proceeded to return my tray when I was stopped by one of those males.\n\n “What’s with you? Never seen you around before.” That male asked.\n\n “Ah, I’m new here. It’s nice to meet you.” I greeted the male who asked me the question.\n\n “Why bother clearing that? They’ll just do it for us anyways.” He says as he gestures to another small group of students who quickly rush to take the tray from me and scuttle off before I can object.\n\n “I couldn’t even say thanks...” I muse to myself, before looking at him again. He gives me a quizzical look, like I’m the weird one for wanting to thank a person who helped me with something.\n\n “In any case, why are you eating with the Lady?” He begins to interrogate me, and the rest of the cafeteria turns to look at us.\n\n “She was just showing me around, there’s nothing to it. Don’t worry about it man.” I respond, while dripping sweat due to dread.\n\n “It’s the class president’s duty to integrate new students in our school. There’s nothing more to it, Xavier. So leave us be now, and be on your way.” The class president, the Lady, interjects.\n\n Xavier and his group of males then turn around...\n\n But then Xavier closed up on me and throws a strong uppercut at me. This caught me off guard, and I groan in pain, though as expected, this would not have been enough to actually knock me out.\n\n “Well, what’s with this stupid wristband anyways.” Xavier cackles as he grabs my right arm and starts to remove the wristband there...\n\n “Wait! That’s a bad...” \n\n It was too late. The wristband came off, and with it, a torrent of magic power flowed out of me. \n\n The veritable torrent of energy that flowed out startled everyone, even myself. For most people, I figure it was because of the unexpectedly large flow, though for me, it was just because it was larger than usual.\n\n “Oh snap, this is a problem.” I mutter to myself, as I try to put the wristband (Xavier dropped it in shock) back onto my wrist. \n\n My problems were only starting.\n\n The wristband refused to slip onto my wrist.\n\n “You guys may want to leave the room now... it might blow up.” I warn.\n\n Most people ran right out after that. At least I’m not going to hurt anyone now... I think. Though I didn’t have much time to think since I was frantically trying to slip that damned wristband back on.\n\n “Dominance!”\n\n A second flow of magic power came through. Turning my head in the direction of that chant, I saw the Lady casting the spell... though I didn’t know what that did.\n\n “What’s that supposed to do again?” I question her as I continue to try putting the wristband on, which only faced further rejection similar to that of like poles between two magnets.\n\n “Wait, you seriously didn’t feel a thing? That was supposed to suppress your powers, don’t you feel a migraine or a headache?!” She yelled in disbelief.\n\n “Nope!”\n\n “Uuuu- Let me hear the cries of obedience and fear from those beneath me! Let them fear, let them revere! Aura of Dominance!” She tried again.\n\n “Well that tickled. I felt something this time.”\n\n “Are you serious... that’s supposed to knock most people out...” she muttered in complete shock.\n\n “Well that helps though. Now I have an idea on how to work this out.” I mutter to myself.\n\n “Arcane Construct! Aura of Dominance!” I chant, while casting it onto the wristband. A small red magic circle shows up in seconds, on the wristband.\n\n “Let’s see if this works.” I think of myself as I try strapping it back onto my wrist. An immediate loss of magic power can be felt as I strap it back on successfully at last. \n\n “Phew, glad it worked out.” I say as I collapse onto the ground. This wasn’t out of magic exhaustion, but rather because I was panicking really badly back there.\n\n “How in the world...” She comments with a cramped face.\n\n “My magic power reserves are ridiculously high for a human, and the problem with that is, my control over magic is only average, so it’s hard for me to control that most of the time. That’s why I need the wristband.” I explain to her succinctly.\n\n “Alan... huge doesn’t even begin to describe... you effectively have the same amount of magic power reserves as an entire corp in the army, you realise that right?” She replies.\n\n “Sorry to put you through all of that. I was hoping I wouldn’t cause any more trouble because of this.” I reply apologetically.\n\n Later, I would be called into Xelfurus’ office again to explain what happened. Though I would not be expelled, I did effectively lose any hope I had of having a normal school life.\n \n\n \n \n\n \n\n ", "Hushed whispered followed me as I walked into the store. On my wrist was a small metal band. Usually it was reserved for criminals, but I had been wearing once since I was a small child. I wasn't a criminal though, not that other people understood that, the whispers always started once someone noticed the band and someone always did. Sometimes people liked to use their magic on me as a prank, thinking I couldn't fight back, thinking I deserved it, but those people had no idea what I was hiding. Most of the time their magic didn't even touch me. I could sense when magic was attacking me and instinctively block it or even deflect it back. Half the time it ended with the police being called, because someone like me shouldn't be able to use magic, but I wasn't a criminal. I was just a person whose magic was just too powerful to be left unchecked. Today was one of those days. Today it was a group of teenage boys. They tried to hit me with a blast that would have done some damage if it had hit me, but it rebounded and hit the kids instead. I watched them go down. Everyone panicked. I heard the sirens before anyone else as my hearing was also above those around me. The police turned up. I knew the two men who stepped out of the vehicles. I didn't move. People were surrounding me, their arms outstretched, threatening to take my head off if I tried anything else. People were yelling at the officers, but they came straight over to me and shook my hand. The crowd weren't happy, they put me in the front of their cruiser as usual while they dealt with the crowd. For me, this was everyday life, the life of a criminal for doing nothing but trying to keep everyone else around me safe. One of these days though, I might snap. All those whispers, not being allowed into places, never being able to have a relationship, never been allowed to work, go on holiday, all because of this stupid band that they couldn't be bothered to change the design of to at least make it different to a criminals one. One day, I'll take it off, then they'll see something special, then they'll see my true power, but not today. Today and tomorrow will be the same. So will next week, so will be this time next year, because I know, that my power isn't something the world can deal with. I don't want to hurt anyone, but living this life just isn't fair. ", "\"Alright, now go on.\" I whispered wearily to the battered man before me. \"Go home to your family. Your punishment is over as far as I'm concerned.\"\n\n&#x200B;\n\nThe man's eyes spoke volumes of gratitude and as tears welled in his eyes, he clutched the bag of food to his chest and fled down the narrow alleyway. I turned away and began walking back towards the main street, sensing the pity and anger he felt towards me shouldering the bands in his place. I didn't care of course. I had my own reasons for wanting his bands and taking away a punishment he didn't deserve.\n\n&#x200B;\n\nI took the two golden cuffs and shuffled my shredded sleeves up slightly, attaching the golden bands around each of my wrists with a heavy click. I readjusted my cloak and pack, then stepped out of the scarred alleyway and into the bustling main street of Hacha Yuam.\n\n&#x200B;\n\nImmediately, I caught a thick, meaty, stewy smell on the air. Across the street, I spied a foodstall, with a rather attractive young Greschen manning the till. I wove my way across the hustling foot traffic, coming away with only a few sharp elbows to the face and chest. The Greschen spotted me and straightened up attentively, her rosy Spettels twitching with anticipation.\n\n&#x200B;\n\n\"Good day, traveler!\" She beamed, her smile all shark-like teeth. \"What can I serve you today?\"\n\n&#x200B;\n\nI pulled the veil over my face back and gave a warm smile. \"Just a bowl of your finest Kelvach, if it's not too much trouble.\" \n\n\nShe was caught slightly off-guard by my request. She was clearly surprised a human was ordering one of her country's native foods. \"You like Kelvach?\" she queried, her thoughts all abuzz with layers of confusion, surprise and a poorly hidden excitement at someone who knew of her homeland's culture.\n\n&#x200B;\n\nAfter all, it was never easy being a Greschen outside of their homeland. Humans and other demi-humanoids found them repulsive, like a cross between rats, stray-cats and fish. Their hormone scents and erratic behavioural patterns didn't help either with them making nice to locals.\n\n&#x200B;\n\nBut I couldn't afford to be partial to anyone. Not these days. Hence my reasons for travelling. That and-\n\n&#x200B;\n\nSuddenly, my train of thought was interrupted by a set of heavy footsteps outside. I sniffed the air and immediately tensed up. It was a band of Dragoon Enforcers from the Dragoon Corps Outpost. Dragoons were notorious for needless harassment, arrests and generally hunting for any excuse to clap Chiron Bands on anyone. All in the name of their Emperor, Siegmaus the Fifth.\n\n&#x200B;\n\nI glanced at the empty counter. They must be here for her. No doubt with some hefty deportation orders and a set of Bands.\n\n&#x200B;\n\nI brushed back the curtain and stepped outside. Sure enough, the bright red and silver armor of the Dragoon Corps shone back at me. The street had emptied rather quickly and judging by the looks of the troops in front of me, this particular squad had a reputation here. \n\n&#x200B;\n\nThe one in front smiled (if you could call it that) and growled out at me. \n\n\n\"You there, Citizen! Where is the owner of this \"fine establishment\"? We have some business with her.\"\n\n&#x200B;\n\nI swallowed my usual demeanor and put on a rather flustered front. \"Uh-uh, well, you see, she's not in there right now, I think. I-I was waiting around for a few minutes and no one came out when I called, so I just thought waiting here for her was what I'd do!\"\n\n&#x200B;\n\nThe Dragoon captain picked at his teeth in a blatant attempt to intimidate me. \"Is that so? So no one is here then?\" This got some rather gleeful glances from his cohorts. I immediately chastised myself for giving them an opening. \n\n&#x200B;\n\n\"Look here fellas, let's not be hasty! I'm sure she'll be right back and you can discuss your business civilly in good company, yeah?\"\n\n&#x200B;\n\nThe Dragoons burst out laughing and the captain stood right in front of me, eyes level with my own behind the veil I wore. He spoke very low and I could feel the spite and hatred in his voice. \n\n&#x200B;\n\n\"Why on earth would we make time for a filth ridden Urch'chak like a GRESCHEN?\" He growled in my ear. \"She'll be lucky to see the outside of the city with what we have here.\"\n\n&#x200B;\n\nI stopped and took a very deep breath. This needed to stop setting me off at every town and city I passed through, but I knew my heart wouldn't let it go by. It never did, no matter how hard I tried to tell myself otherwise.\n\n&#x200B;\n\nI pulled my hands out of my pockets and let them hang loose by my sides. The Dragoon Captain noticed this and immediately stepped back. The troops behind him let magic flow into their spears and I noticed one at the back ready a fistful of lightning. The Captain himself conjured a Hollow Vestige in his hand in seconds and in the other, the Chiron Bands dangled, open and ready to snap shut on their prey.\n\n&#x200B;\n\nI slumped forward and inhaled, my magic flaring like a furnace roaring to life by the breath of a great bellows. My sleeves tore away at my contact with the arcane energies within, revealing the hundreds of gold bands beneath. Immediately, the dragoons stopped dead, their eyes flitting over my arms, counting the bands and awestruck by the visible magic oozing off their shiny surfaces. The street was filled with a rush of fierce wind and the chiming of the bands clinking against each other. I swept my arms out to the sides and stood square between the dragoons and the entrance to the store, indicating clearly I would not let them pass.\n\n&#x200B;\n\nThe Dragoon Captain's bravado had all but evaporated by now. \"Over 150 Chiron bands and still using magic!?\" He stammered. The Chiron Bands fell from his hands and clattered uselessly on the stone street. \n\n&#x200B;\n\nI stooped down and picked up the Chiron Bands from the cold stone, calmly affixing them to my wrists. I inhaled sharply as the Band added another layer of restriction to my magic, before the pressure faded as quickly as it came. Disappointed and frustrated, I turned my gaze back to my Dragoon adversaries. \n\n&#x200B;\n\nI don't know what it was, but something compelled one of the Dragoon troopers to push his luck and hurl his spear in my direction. Instinctively, I swept my arm towards him and in a swirl of wind, he vanished. The air was deathly still for a second, before the other troopers realised their comrade was gone. \n\n&#x200B;\n\nThe Dragoon Captain's resolve had completely evaporated by this point. Maintaining view on me, he and his remaining squad mates backed away slowly, their eyes filled with a mixture of hate and fear. He paused for a moment and then spoke slowly, his curiosity getting the better of him. \n\n\n\"What crime?\" he spat in a low voice. \n\n&#x200B;\n\nPeople were starting to come out of their homes and stalls, staring at us from all over the street. I tapped the bands on my arms and whispered back just loud enough to for him to hear. \n\n\n\"Remember Mortus Gate?\" I said with a false smirk.\n\n&#x200B;\n\nHis eyes widened to the point where his irises almost vanished. They quickly seized their weapons and scurried up the street at full speed, headed now for the Dragoon Corps Outpost without a doubt. They would be back and I needed to leave. Soon.\n\n&#x200B;\n\nThe Greschen from earlier ran out of the store and grabbed me from behind, spinning me around to face her. Her face was a mix of concern and fear. Clearly she had seen our exchange. \n\n\n\"What have you done?\" She was frantic, scared for her future now. \"If they come back, who knows what more they will do!\"\n\n&#x200B;\n\nI went to answer her, but then my vision warped and I felt my knees give out beneath me. I collapsed to my knees and the Greschen steadied my shoulders, confused at my sudden weakness. I tried to speak, but my tongue was leaden and unresponsive. I heard a voice in my ear:\n\nThe great chain moves anew, doesn't it, Uria?\n\nThen, the world went dark.", "\"So, explain to me again why you wear those?\" the officer across from me said again in a tired and monotone voice.\n\nI was sitting in a cold, harshly lit, barely furnished \"interview\" room at the local precinct.\n\n\"For like the fifth time, and to be honest I've stopped counting, I wear them to limit my magic!\"\n\nThe officer across from me just sighed and leaned back. \"Sir, if you are under duress from another group, we would be able to protect you. If they have any sort of blackmail information on you, we would work with you to find and destroy that evidence. You don't have to wear those!\"\n\n\"I'm wearing them of my own free will! Like I've said, I wear them to LIMIT my magic!\" I was beginning to get frustrated again and tried to control my emotions before I did something stupid, again. Which was why I was even here in the first place...\n\n\"Alright, fine. You're wearing limiters of your own free will.\" The officer stated exhausted, yet somehow sarcastically. \"Why?\"\n\n\"If I tell you why, can you promise to let me go? To walk out of here?\" I said hopeful that I could possibly leave after spending 6 hours here.\n\n\"Fine... I'm sure the investigator will probably agree with me that we won't be able to get anything else from you.\" the officer sighed once again.\n\n\"Well, I first started wearing limiters about 5 years ago. Right around that time when there was that terrorist attack in the Arcanus apartment blocks, near downtown? The big mana explosion? Anyways, the reason I started wearing them was because I couldn't control my magic. Well, I could \"control\" it. I passed my Arcanum test and even got my degree in Enhanced Potion Engineering from the local School of Magi. But... I was doing some work in my free-time after I graduated and started work at a pharmaceutical company. Do you know of memory potions, performance enhancers, and other drugs when you were in a college?\" I asked the officer.\n\n\"Well, I didn't take any in college but I know quite a bit from being on the force for the past 12 years. But what does this have to do with anything?\" the officer asked of me.\n\n\"Well do you remember a potion syrup called Intelligentus? Makes your intelligence a little better for an hour? Can make you recall obscure facts? Some people would take it before a test hoping they wouldn't be popped afterwards with a Dectectus spell. Anyways, I was experimenting with improving it and made a breakthrough. Well, it wasn't on purpose. More of an accident. Anyways, I was experimenting with a new batch but forgot my notes on possible changes to the recipe at work. So I popped an improved Intelligentus to see if I could remember the changes I thought of. Well, lo and behold I remembered after 15 minutes. I made a new batch. Well the next day I tested it and it was radically improved. But, the changes I made shouldn't have done that. Only marginal improvements. Then I realized that maybe an increased temporary intellect could influence the process. So I tried again with the radically improved stuff. It came out exponentially better!\" I exclaimed.\n\n\"Wait, are you admitting to the manufacture and consumption of illegal substances?\" the officer inquired.\n\n\"No, it was for personal use, not distribution or sale. Anyways, after a couple of repeated trials, I realized that it wasn't that I was thinking of better ways to improve the recipe. I WAS improving the recipe. As in, my mana and intellect, although temporarily increased, was improving the quality of the effects. Not any changes to the recipe! Well, when I realized this I kind of went a little mad scientist. I pretty much increased my mana exponentially over the course of a weekend but then I started having problems. The power of my spells when I was crafting newer, more powerful batches became too powerful. I couldn't stop burning ingredients or catalyzing reactions. Even when I was performing magic as a part of my job, I couldn't control the power of them. Eventually they fired me when I ruined too many batches and cost them too much money and lost production. Well, I was walking home after applying to some jobs when three junkies tried to mug me in an alleyway in an apartment complex. I just tried using a simple deflector aura when one of them threw a fireball at me and...\"\n\n\"And what?\" the officer, now interested and intrigued. \"If they mugged you, we could file a report. Get it investigated!\"\n\n\"NO! It doesn't matter. You wouldn't find them. Well, at least not all of them. The aura worked a little too well is my point. After that, I started wearing limiters. Some worked, some didn't. Most would break after a week or two. I still had to be careful, anything I casted that I didn't actively try to control would overpower and break the limiters.\" I stated, looking at my hands.\n\n\"Not possible, standard limiters on the market have a tolerance of 80k mana shards. Police ones have up to a 150k tolerance. Which is why we want to know how you got your hands on limiters with a tolerance of 800k!?! As far as we know, only high level government agencies have access to that tech. So did you steal it?\" the officer glared at me.\n\n\"All of you don't get it, do you? It's the fact that I need limiters that strong and I can still break them!\" I yelled across at him.\n\n\"Not possible, I've only seen a few hardcore guys even be able to slightly degrade ours. You wouldn't even scratch the ones you're wearing right now!\" the officer laughed.\n\n\"Are you sure about that?\" I asked of him and raised my hands above the table showing the three high-tech limiters I had on each wrist. As I concentrated on the atomic and arcane bonds holding the limiters together, I broke each and every one with my mind. As the officer watched, they all disintegrated into dust on the table.\n\n\"I think it's time I leave now. I don't know what limiters you're talking about officer. Good luck into your investigation on that missing shipment.\" And with the officer wide-eyed and gaping, I simply walked through the once-present reinforced and warded door. Now, a pile of dust...", "I opened my hands and stared at the lines; focussing on them trying to remember them perfectly. It’s a common exercise for me, calming and providing focus.\n\nThe next step is to move my fingers. Ordered shapes and signs are made. I go through the rhythms 5 or more times casting the signs that help shape the energy. \n\nFinally I say the words, the low humming chant that help the mind give the spell structure.\n\nI can do all the individual pieces one hundred times flawlessly, yet every time I fail. \n\nA controlled breath and I start again. This time I build the power. I feel it travel from the earth up through my legs, my belly wants to hold it and build it but I let it flow right through. Down my arms it travels to my hands.\n\nI am already speaking the words. My hands make the signs flawlessly. The energy leaves me and the metal desk in front of me melts into slag as a bright glowing orb flashes into being above it. \n\nThe bands at my wrist crackle and discharge sparks of every hue as they work to contain the power I’m channeling. Without them I would be forbidden from even trying such a simple spell but I resent them all the same. They mark me as different.\n\nI let the energy fade and the light slowly dims, the metal of the desk already going from white hot to cherry read as the Janitors blast it with their wands of cold.\n\nI look up at my tutors. Their expressions are mostly grim and they shake their heads solemnly. I have failed again. All bar one however; old Tiberius smiles and winks at me.\n\nI thought I was imagining it but I had done better this time. \n\nTiberius was hobbling over using his staff to support him. “Algenon you are getting better. I think once you gotten used to the bands you’ll have this?”\n\n“Sir, it’s been 5 years. The willowisp should have been the graduating spell for my first term at this school.” I hope that I’m keeping the frustration from my voice.\n\n“Yes but you’ve not been wasting the time. You’ve still got 5 years of good magical theory under your belt. We’ve only had the bands for a term.”\n\nTiberius rolled up his sleeves revealing complex tattoos on his forearms. “In my day we didn’t have these bands. Someone like you had a much more painful journey before they could control their power. There is no rubbing them off either.”\n\nHe held out a hand and with a gesture and a few words summoned a wisp that hovered between them. As he did, his tattoos glowed.\n\n“Go back a few generations and fulcrums usually met stickier ends. Most of the blowing themselves to smithereens” \n\nHe left the willowisp grow bright and hot for a second till they both were forced to step back, less they be singed. \n\nFinally Tiberius let go of the spell and it faded. Between the black tattoo’d lines his skin was pink as though it had just been slapped. He rubbed them before letting his sleeves cover them once more.\n\n“Your time will come. You are the first fulcrum born into a world of knowledge and magical understanding that could let you use the full extent of your powers one day.”\n\nI thanked him and returned to my cell. The stone walls carved to absorb and deflect energy. It was a junior scholars cell. Spartan and built for my protection and the schools. If I could just learn this spell I might finally get a room with a view.\n\nI opened my hands and stared at the lines; focussing on them trying to remember them perfectly. \n\n\n\n\n", "“Are you sure he's ready for...,” her voice cracked as though she'd been hit by a wave of emotion. Her voice was familiar, but I couldn't place it. Were they talking about me?\n\nI felt a pang in my chest and I couldn't understand why. It was like having the name of someone you loved dearly ripped out from under you like a carpet. You can feel yourself tumbling, when you know you should be standing tall.\n\nA chill ran down my spine and I could hear a crackling noise in the back of my head. I opened my eyes and all I could see was electric blue waves on a backdrop of nothingness. The flow of energy had taken over my vision. She was there. I could feel her, but I couldn't see her. I closed my eyes.\n\n“Keeping them on is just going make him suffer longer.” That voice... that one, I didn't know. There was no familiarity to it. No warmth. He was stating this matter-of-factually, as if he had spoken those words to countless people before her.\n\nI felt warm hands on mine. “He's freezing, do we have a warmer blanket?”\n\nThere was a long pause, some shuffling. After a moment I could feel the weight of the blanket lowered down and arranged on top of me. I had to admit, for the first time in a long time, I was terrified.\n\n“Are you sure this is the fastest,” she choked back a sob, “way to do this?” I could tell the warm hands were hers, as her voice was hovering over my ears. She smelled faintly of gingerbread and cigarette smoke. I felt like I was home.\n\n“When you feel like you're ready, just press the buttons on the bands under his thumbs. Once they're removed, I don't imagine him holding on more than a couple of minutes.” I could hear a door closing and then I knew it was just me and her.\n\nI opened my mouth to speak, but all I could do was moan. While I couldn't remember much, I knew those braces couldn't come off.\n\n“Shhh, it's okay.” She was rubbing my arms profusely at this point. “I know you're in a lot of pain.” I couldn't see it, but I know she was forcing a smile.\n\nHonestly, I wasn't hurting. I couldn't feel much of anything other than the electricity in the air around me. I opened my eyes again. This time the electricity was shifting forms around me. All I could see were dark eyes, shrouded in a sea of blues and greens, waiting to escape. The crackling in my ears was slowly getting louder.\n\nI shook my head. I wanted her to know that I wasn't hurting, but I didn't know how to tell her without being able to speak. I closed my eyes again. I didn't want to see the eyes staring back at me from the void.\n\n“I know you don't remember much,” she was getting better at holding back the sadness in her voice, but the tears on my arm betrayed her. “You were a hero, you know?”\n\n'I'm no hero,' I thought. I squeezed her hand, but realized that my grip was weak.\n\n“It's okay, don't try to force it.” She kissed my hand. “You fought all kinds of monsters and bad people, you know?” She had to stop a moment to regain composure. “You were on the television. People loved you. They still do. They've sent so many flowers.” There was a hint of joy, as though she was having a fond memory. It was too far away from me.\n\nI gasped heavily and couldn't help but open my eyes. It wasn't just one set of eyes staring back at me anymore. There were countless pairs, and all of them looked angry. I didn't want to look at them, but I couldn't close my eyes, either. I felt as though they saw through my soul, judging me.\n\nI could feel her hands around one of my wrists. “As soon as I take these off, you won't have to worry anymore. No more pain.” She gasped for air and she was sobbing again, this time she wasn't holding back. I could feel her head against my chest.\n\nI felt for the back of her head using my free hand and left it there. I wanted to pull her closer, tell her it was going to be alright... but I think I was beginning to grasp that that wasn't the case.\n\n'I'm dying, aren't I?'\n\nI could hear the click of one of the braces coming off and my eyes forced open again.\n\nThe blues and greens were now crimsons and yellows, spinning in a bottomless vortex, and I could tell that it was pulling me into it. The intermittent crackling suddenly became a torrential downpour of sound.\n\n'Come home.'* It was almost inaudible, but it felt as though my body lurched forward towards energy. 'It's long past time for your payment.'\n\nPayment? I couldn't remember what the voice was talking about, but I felt the words to be true.\n\nThere was another click and I flew into the energy. It was then that I had known that I left my body behind. My body, and this familiar woman that I couldn't place.\n\nThe last thing I heard was a weak, echoing, “I love you.”\n\n&#x200B;\n\n\\_\\_\\_\\_\\_\\_\\_\\_\\_\\_\n\n&#x200B;\n\nThis was my first submission to WP. I hope you enjoyed it. (•‿•)", "Kiki watches the cashier freeze, her mouth falling open just a little bit as her eyes stray exactly to her wrist. Where her sleeve had pulled up just enough to show the gleaming gold band of a city permissioned criminal. Ugh, she knew she should have taken her fiance's hoodie, instead of her bell sleeved jacket.\n\nPlease just take her money. They were so close. Just sell me my chicken and let me go home.\n\nThe girl blinks momentarily, still reaching out for her debit card. “Uh, are you a-”\n\n“I’m a Level Thirteen, not a criminal. Just- I-”\n\n“A Level Thirteen!” The cashier at the Ashwoods at least had the decency to hiss whisper this, though it was six AM and there were only two elderly people shopping in the store right now, hemming at the deli counter. “Your birthday must have been awful.”\n\nOh, okay. It was this kind of interaction. She nods. “Yeah, I filled the whole house with cake. Top to bottom red velvet and raspberry with cream cheese frosting. My mom’s familiars were bears and they dug us out pretty quick, but the house still smells like cake. It’s a museum now in Tacoma.\n\n“You’re Kiki Amandine,” The cashier whispers, her name tag says ‘Erika’. She’s still not taking the ding dang debit card from where it was still hanging in the air.\n\n“I am Kiki,” she nods under her brightly colored hood, “and Kiki needs food badly.”\n\nShe gestures to her groceries, unbagged on the belt. A whole chicken, a bag of fresh green beans, lemon, fresh herbs, and six bottles of wine.\n\n“Oh!” Erika claps her hands together pulling at a string of beads on her wrist. She was a clever cashier, keeping pre-made spells like that.\n\nIn an instant Kiki’s groceries are bagged and the debit card finally changes hands. “Thank you so much.”\n\n“Not a problem, we just don’t get your types up here very much.”\n\nShe nods, “Yeah, I’m here for the holidays. Got the in-laws up here. Didn’t know you guys didn’t have grocery delivery.”\n\nErika nods, a knowing nod. Her card is returned to her in record time and the receipt goes into the bag without question. “Sorry about that. Usually Dale does our deliveries but he got chased by someone’s loose wolf yesterday and decided he was taking the holidays off.”\n\n“Oh my God, poor dear. Thank you again. Sorry to startle you.” Kiki twists her wrist as she grabs her groceries, the air misting over the conveyor turning from white to pink and forming into a large pan of hot frosted cinnamon rolls. “For your trouble.”\n\n“Oh! Thank you! It was no trouble! No trouble at all!”\n\nKik hurries out to her car where Fondant is waiting in the passenger seat, the large fluffy Samoyed is sticking his tongue through the cracked window in a motion for her to hurry up. She just had to survive three more days with Henry’s parents.\n\nJust three more days.", "Beneath the eye of the moon, the hissing winds swept away the subtle grate of a window shrieking open. A moment later, a cloaked figure leaped out the narrow opening, and sprinted across the barren fields toward the desolate streets of the city.\n\nThe figure moved with an odd determination, disregarding the strength of the currents, as if they were naught but a summer breeze.\n\nSoon, the tender lights of the hearths shifting out the windows and onto the streets illuminated the shadows beneath the cloak, revealing the figure's visage. He was a boy, with eyes red as fire, and hair the color of bone.\n\nHe went through bridges were the fog hung low, and alleys the moonlight feared, until he reached an alleyway where a column of piled pebbles blazed with green fire. Its light was dim, weak as that of a candle, but it was enough to etch the woman swathed in rags beside it.\n\nShe looked at him through eyes dark as the night. Her wrists were bound with ivory bands. \"What pleasant surprises the winds bring,\" she said, and tilted her head. \"I've been waiting for you boy.\"\n\nThe certainty in the boy's step faded. His cloak billowed with the gusts, yet the tremor of his extremities was visible in the rapid motions of his sleeves. He took a step back. \"It was a mistake. I apologize.\"\n\n\"What was a mistake?\" she said, and gestured for him to come closer. The boy didn't want to, but it was too late, for his legs were moving in their own volition. \"Nothing is ever a mistake but the path fate chose for us.\"\n\nThe boy nodded. \"I came, yes. I do not know why. I can't explain it. I wouldn't have come if I would've known you would be here. I thought you were imprisoned.\"\n\nThe woman chuckled, gazed at the fire-imbued pebbles. \"You would have come either way, for I called you, and for that I apologize. It's not my intention to force you to carry a burden you never asked for. I do not know why is you who I had to call. The stars told me to, and they refuse to explain the reason behind their decision. But one thing you have to know, and that is that tonight I will leave, at last, this soil and this life.\"\n\n\"What?\" the boy cried, gasping. \"But you are Areneta, Fate-bender, Light of the Moon. You can't die. Even Death has admitted his fear of you.\"\n\n\"He did, yes,\" she said, and flaunter the bands on her wrists. \"But times have changed. I limited myself to prevent a catastrophe. See, I don't think many minds can sustain my power without shattering, and I fret mine was on the verge of snapping. I had no choice, unfortunately. Death knows that, and so he will soon come, for with this bands I'm no opponent to his scythe.\" She drew a deep breath. \"I'm fine with that. My time has come, yet one thing I have to give you before joining the stars.\"\n\n\"What is it?\" the boy asked, swallowing hard. His lips quivered and cracked.\n\nShe handed him a thin book. \"The secrets of my life, the secrets of my power, they are all written there. It's your time to shine now, Intanis. But always remember you have the choice. You can burn it, and risk turning the fate of all things. Or you can read it, and follow what it says, following the written fate of all things. It's your choice.\"\n\nIntanis frowned, his heart thumped. \"But--but I don't know about magic.\"\n\nThere was no answer. The pebbles extinguished, and the shadows engulfed the alley. Amidst them, only the book shone.\n\nIntanis gazed at the stars. \"Why?\" he cried, and his hands reached for the book.\n\n---------------------------------------------\n\nr/NoahElowyn ", "After a couple of years I got used to the contemptuous looks because of the giant obsidian collar and handcuffs. They were made to draw attention, but I think they are beautiful in their own way. They are relatively thin but wide pieces, carved from a single monolith of obsidian for maximum effect. They don't really have a color, its like there is a tear in the space-time: no shine, almost no shape to comprehend. Usually the pieces are worn by criminals to dampen their magic powers. The single-carved ones were worn only by 3 in existence:\n\n Scarlet Fechrint, The Flame-princess, Dmitry Mihlakov, The Powerful, and Eric Takumi, The Butcher.\n\nAll notorious criminals whose magic power far exceeded everyone elses by orders of magnitudes. They used them to for no good.\n\nNow, the fourth one is on me but let's talk before you jump into conclusions:\n\nIt all started when they discovered I have magic powers. It wasn't uncommon, around 5 percent of the population can wield magic. The problem started when they tried to teach me how to use them. The most basic lesson is lifting a softball from our desk at school, but when I tried it I accidentally lifted the entire school up. \n\nFrom that time I was constantly monitored and checked. Luckily they didn't make the same mistake like with Mihlakov, and advised my parents to move to a rural area where specialist can teach me more safely. They even provided foundings to start our new life. As the years went by, I became one of the most well trained magician ever to live but most of the training was focused on precision.\n\nThis precision is the hardest of all. Like trying to make scrambled eggs with an excavator. I did my best and eventually I even managed to butter a toast, but to further lower the risks, they made me wear the collars. \n\nI really hated them at first but I straight up love them now. I was allowed to modify them and now they look more like a jewelry than a prison sentence. I still need special license to travel because criminals are monitored. No matter that I'm not one, I'm still being stopped regularly. \n\nHowever there is a bright side to the powers as well. They sometimes invite me to universities to talk about my powers and experiences, I even got a part-time job at the Magistratus Maximus. But I really don't like talking, I rather use my magic. Luckily, I'm allowed to take them off sometime. \n\nBut what can a monster like me do as a living?\nI am on working at the docks, hauling containers. To be precise, I haul all of them at the same time. Its truly magnificent to watch hundreds of thousands of containers weighing millions of tons doing pirouettes in the sky, only to arrive precisely at their destination.\n\nAfter a long day, with my collar still on, I arrive home. I am really tired, so I head to the basement to open the vault. This vault is carved by a single obsidian with walls as thick as a meter. I secure the door and then unlock my collars. \n\nThe collars that bounds my very existence into this world. Without them, I am present everywhere and every time. Without them, I am Magic itself.\n\n\nEDIT: Reformatting. ", "Cordell deflected the immense fireball, a large section of forest exploded in the distance. Another boring attempt at his life, how utterly distasteful. He retook his prideful stance, next to the moonlit pond. \n\nHe looked at his assassin with impassive eyes, “Impressive, I’m sure, what did Emiliano offer you?”, he quickly absorbed a lightning strike into his right-hand, blue-white arcane signs hovering in the air around his fingers.\n\nThe assassin paused, frustrated with his targets skill and arrogance, he pulled down his black-hood, “I suppose there’s no need to hide my identity, only one of us will leave this place. My name is Demarcus, and I’m going to kill you.”\n\nCordell chuckled while his fingers mechanically went through well-practiced signs, “He sent you to die, Demarcus,”, long red needles that faded towards black at the tip, pointed at Demarcus from every angle.\n\nWithout warning every needle shot out like bolts, towards the center where Demarcus stood. Impossibly, he managed to sense the magic and find a spot where he was only grazed by two of the needles. Demarcus answered by casting a fire spell, an illusion of a red dragon’s head appeared in the air between them and breathed fire at Cordell.\n\nCordell split the fire-breath in two with a swift air-strike, flames sputtered on the ground behind him, “You’re very good, I will concede that,” infinitesimal shadows permeated the ground as tiny flaming rocks hovered in the air above them.\n\nThe small flaming pellets shot out in random directions, homing in on Demarcus. Demarcus began running towards Cordell, his black robes fluttered in the air as he leapt over a few of the bullets, he desperately cast a quick spell.\n\nA large earth-spike penetrated Cordell’s chest from behind, the pellets fell limp to the ground. Breathing with some difficulty, his now red-stained teeth grinned with excitement, “I’ve never seen anyone do that move before, you’ve got some quick movements to you, Demarcus!”\n\n“I hate to do this to such a rising talent, but you leave me with little option,”, the spike snapped, his wounds began closing and a large white disk encompassing the entire forest materialized in the skies above them, turning night into day. Thick manacles fell out from within his dark-blue robes onto the grassy ground. The iron-cuffs twisted around on the ground by themselves for a few moments, finally free from their impossible task of containing this level of magic. \n\nDemarcus looked at Cordell in a mix of awe and terror as he slowly realized his opponent’s power had been almost entirely restrained by magic-shackles, “That’s… impossible! Not even the most powerful can cast anything more than a small puff of air with those constraints on!”\n\n“You should take this moment to reflect, and feel some small semblance of gratitude, few have seen, or will ever see what you are about to, in your final moments,” Cordell and Demarcus along with tufts of dirt, rocks and trees began rising, slowly, towards the white disk in the sky. An intense hot white-glow engulfed everything beneath the disk in a flash.\n\nAfter summoning a new pair of magic-shackles, and re-applying them to himself, Cordell walked out of the vast crater that had, up to a few minutes ago, been known as Meliworth Grove.\n****\nI decided to practice fighting scenes in this story, if you feel like it was hard to follow what was happening I would love to know, critique is always welcome!\n\nIf you found something enjoyable here, consider checking out my other stories along with longer running series that I re-post from WP to [/r/NordicNarrator](https://www.reddit.com/r/NordicNarrator/), in any case, thanks for reading!", "The smoke drifted into the air above the city, black and red, and as much like a demon as any we had fought in the Lost Forest. \n\n \"Daniel,\" said Raul, as he came panting to the side of my horse. \"Daniel, do you see?\"\n\nI said no words as I spurred my horse onwards, galloping furiously towards Agdar. Behind me, my small company that had survived the fruitless quest into the forest, began to follow.\n\nThe city reeked of death. Of blood and piss and innards. Body parts lay strewn on the cobbled streets, as if hands and heads were no more than leaves and horse-shit. \n\nWe had been led on a ruse. Our mission, ostensibly to find the missing King of the Fire Mines, where new information had led us into the Lost Forest, had been a lie. We had been manipulated so that my small army of elites would leave Adgar. Whatever had come to the city after we had left, the guards had been no match. Neither had the wall provided any cover. It lay as rubble, smouldering and broken.\n\nThe palace burned in the distance and my heart sank as I rode past the Queen and her children, hung naked from gallows in the town square. Innards spilled out of long incissions down their stomachs. They were not my concern though, not in that moment. Only my wife mattered to me then.\n\nThere came a blood-curdling scream from somewhere behind me. Raul, who had gained on me riding swift on his steed, lay burning like a binfire on the cobbled ground near the dead Queen, wriggling and writhing. I stopped and turned, almost being flung off my horse as I did so.\n\nThree figures in black rags had appeared, from what shadows I know not, surrounding his body as he rolled in pain trying to quench the hungry fire. Flames brewed from the hands of the nearest sorcerers. Sorcerers I recognised as apprentices of the missing King.\n\nA tunnel of flame leapt from the sorcerer's fingers, burning Raul's head down to the bone. \n\nI heard screams all around me. The rest of my company. I had led them into an ambush, in my haste. \n\nA whip of fire snapped from a cloaked figure, towards my horse. It missed, but scared her enough to buck onto her hinds and send me falling.\n\nThe creatures aporoached; I scrambled to my knees and began to cast, channelling all my anger and hatred into a single spell. Only the bands I wore around both wrists saved me from destroying myself in the process. A bolt of pure white light exploded from the ground beneath them, shredding the cobble to dust and sending the figures into the air. Nothing but ash came back down.\n\nI got back to my feet and sprinted the rest of the way to my home. Soon, I laid eyes upon it. It burned and smouldered like all the others.\n\nAs did Elaine's body. \n\nHer skin was charred black. Her eyes burned away. She had been chained to her bed, prior to the fire. I could only imagine what they did to her before they let her burn alive.\n\nI cursed God and swore vengeance upon an entire kingdom, even if I had to bring wrath alone. I would be the messenger of the apocalypse.\n\nThe snapping of a twig alerted me; half a dozen more dark sorcerers had entered the remains of my home. \n\nA fireball screeched as it was sent into me, throwing me against the wall and scorching the skin beneath my tunic. I tried to cast, a ray of light left me but was easily deflected. Then, they were upon me. Not spells this time, but boots and fists and iron.\n\nGod help me. \n\nSomehow, between blows, I managed to rip first the left binding, and then the right, from off my wrists. The words of Forlen, my teacher long ago, ran through my mind. Never remove either binding, if you value the lives of any you loved.*\n\nBut they were all dead. What did it matter now?\n\nThe light that came from me was not white, not this time. It was a tangle of purple and black. It engulfed first me, then the sorcerers, the house, and finally the city. It seemed to explode my entire being, ripping my muscles from my body. \n\nThen, the dark light stopped and I fell to the ground unconcious.\n\n---\n\nI woke to what felt like a stick being dragged over my back. Then over my hair. A clicking sound rang in my ear.\n\nMy eyes slowly opened.\n\nHot vomit made its way up my throat as I pushed myself away from the charred figure standing in front of me.\n\nElaine's jaw was little more than bone and sinew. Her tongue was gone, and as she tried to speak, she clicked and rattled.\n\nMore of them walked in. Skeletons of those I recognised.\n\nRaul.\n\nThe city guards.\n\nThe Queen and her children, their rotting stomachs still open.\n\n \"King of the dead,\" came a whisper. A dozen figures surrounded me, touching gently as they whispered. \"King of the dead, avenge us.\"\n", "“Where’s your paperwork, criminal?” \n\nKalphan sighed and reached into his jacket pocket, pulling out a document that had been signed by the head of the Incandescent Guild. The one that certified he was not, in fact, a criminal. The guard was a huge man, with beady eyes and a frown that could sour milk a ten paces. He squinted at the paperwork with a furrowed brow. \n\n“You have a chit of travel on here,” the guard said, as if he couldn’t believe it. “You’re a banded criminal, with a chit of travel.”\n\n“And that’s twice the chits you have for brains, my good sir,” Kalphan said with a tip of his hat. “I do apologize that your illiteracy prevents you from full comprehension. I’m not a criminal.”\n\nThe insult made the guard’s glower deepen. Kalphan knew he shouldn’t provoke the locals, but it was so hard when dealing with the sub literate thugs that were employed as “guards” in the towns along the 7th Rural District. “You have the bands.” He pointed to Kalphan’s arms.\n\nKalphan’s gaze involuntarily followed the guard’s finger. On his arms were Bands of Weeping. They sapped the arcane power out of a person, rendering them mostly harmless. At least, they did for most people. Kalphan raised his hand and clenched his fist. Fire blossomed around his fingers. “I am a Scion, you twit,” Kalphan said, spitting the words between his teeth. The guard watched the flame with growing horror. “I could incinerate you where you stood, even with these bands on. If you demand proof of my innocence, I’d be happy to take them off. You’d been welcome to inform the King of Ravens that I did nothing wrong when you entered his realm.”\n\nFear and anger warred on the guards face. “You threatening me, criminal?”\n\nKalphan sighed and wave his hands, dismissing the flames. “No, I’m warning you. Do you really want me to threaten you? Because my threats tend to leave permanent reminders. Or you could give me back that paperwork and go on your merry way and let me answer the damn summons from the lord of your town.”\n\nHe shouted the last words. Kalphan had learned over the years that shouting was the most effective way to get the attention of these absolute bellends. It did the trick. The guard shrank back and motioned for Kalphan to enter.\n\nKalphan tipped his hat to the guard and strode into town. It wasn’t until he had passed through the gate that he let himself sigh in relief. If the guard had pressed the issue – or King of Ravens forbid, forced him to remove the bands and prove he was a Scion so powerful he needed his power restrained – Kalphan had no idea what he’d do.\n\nHe’d spent over a year building up his reputation, the Scion so powerful he needed to be permanently restrained. It had spread across the District until it had reached the ears of the governor of this district. And wouldn’t you know it, the governor had a rogue enchantress that requires some intense powers to finally put down. \n\nSummons had been issues, and Kalphan had arrived.\n\nThere was just one tiny problem.\n\nThe bands, like the paperwork he’d handed the guard, had cost him over one hundred crowns. They were the best forgeries money could buy. The Enchantress? Mara, Kalphan’s wife. She’d already robbed over two thousand crowns during her work here. \n\nBy the time Kalphan and her were done, his reputation would be permanently established, he would have been paid another two thousand crowns for his troubles, and he and Mara would be having dinner at the finest restaurant in the kingdom. \n\nWhen half the world could weave spells and you only possessed middling magical prowess, you had to make do somehow. Some worked menial jobs, some turned to thievery. Kalphan and Mara? Had decided to find a way to get people to pay them for the privilege of being robbed.\n\nWhistling to himself, Kalphan strode towards the Lord’s manor. \n\n---\n\nMore at /r/Hydrael_Writes " ]	[ 1, 1, 4, 5, 8, 9, 10, 13, 15, 18, 26, 34, 41, 62, 93, 452, 641 ]	[ "1546788026", "1546830020", "1546841462", "1546838559", "1546836824", "1546838030", "1546820256", "1546827944", "1546828896", "1546819888", "1546823162", "1546807703", "1546796846", "1546812705", "1546805600", "1546796871", "1546793407" ]
[deleted]	[WP] Four years ago astronomers discovered an astroid the size of Texas on a trajectory that would eventually collide with Earth. Today is Impact Day.	2	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A\$Reality+Fiction\$&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A\$Simple+Prompt\$&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/XYsEYfS)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "March 20th 2035. The streets were quiet. Not a single person walking on the sidewalk or in the streets. Not a single car on the road or parked next to a parking meter. Only the fliers waiving like dead leave during the fall. You reach down to pick one flier from the dirty asphalt.\n\n\n\"The end times are here! Repent, repent, REPENT!! Only the LORD can save you now!!\" The same old spiel. The same message was shouted even before all... this. Usually it was the crazy people shouting. But after the news broke, some quickly found religion, and even more lost the little faith they had.\n\n\nIt was a perfectly sunny day, the same at that fateful day. These were the best days while you were working as a journalist for the New York Times. One of the rare days where it wasn't raining, a cloudy morning, or a overcast afternoom. Strange how fate would have it this day?\n\n\nIt was believed the first sighting of KSP-2031 occured when an astronomer at the Australian Astronomical Observatory saw the behemoth as it was plummeting towards us, and by the time NASA received the news, it was determined that this was it, the one that will get us. No time to stop, or redirect it. We are doomed.\n\n4 years ago when the news broke, chaos reigned. Looters took to the street to loot. Hundreds of people jumped from their apartment windoes, all hope was lost. Now, only stray animals rule New York. \n\n\nI don't know how we made it through that day, not even the passed 4 years. No salvation came, no big plans we concocted to save Earth. The rich tried to create a bomb shelter that would be able to survive the impact, but the calculations shown that the ash blanket that will cover what remains of Earth will take decades, if not centuries to dissipate, and no amount of provisions will be enough to save anyone.\n\n\nNow, all chaos had ceased. The territorial wars ranging between the different factions has ceased entirely. \"What's the use?\", you ask yourself. The little remaining fresh water will not save you, not will your 3 cans of tuna.\n\n\nSo you said to yourself: \"Earth is gone. If you hear this message, know we are at peace with our deaths.\"\n\n\"But know this: the bastard may have gotten us, but our colony ships have reached Mars three months ago. We had our doubts they will make it in time, but if there's one thing we as humans did, it was quick thinking\"\n\n\"Yes, Earth may be dead, but humans will live on, for now...\"\n" ]	[ 1, 3 ]	[ "1546799761", "1546803423" ]
	[WP] You discover a book titled "How To Become The World's Greatest Mage". You flip through it, and it is full of how to cast spells. For a laugh, you try performing a telekinesis spell. The tin can you cast it at moves.	16	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A\$Reality+Fiction\$&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A\$Simple+Prompt\$&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/XYsEYfS)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "“How to Become the World’s Greatest Mage”, by J.K. Merlin. That’s a satirical book if I’ve ever seen one, right? I mean, there’s no way that a book to actually becoming a mage would be lying around in my grandma’s attic. So why is that when I chanted the words that were under “Telekinesis”, the can that I pointed at actually moved? And why did it move again why I casted it another time? Obviously, there’s a rational explanation for this, but I certainly couldn’t think of one. \n\nSo, I did what any other sane person would, and read the entire thing through, cover to cover. And I came upon a really, really big problem. The “Dangers and Warnings” section was at the back of the book.\n\nApparently, the first thing you should do before you ever practice a spell is make sure that you have wards covering the area you’re casting in, otherwise people will know where you are, and come after you. Pretty important information to put in the back of the book.\n\nI heard the squealing of tires entering the driveway. Hoping it was just my parents coming here to pick me up, I peaked out the window and had no such luck. A black Bentley was sitting outside, and two women in black suits exited the vehicle. \n\nAccording to the stupid book, that meant that the local coven of witches was probably after me. Since the witches like to use magic initiates for blood sacrifices, it wasn’t looking great for me.\n\nThe doorbell rang once, then twice, then the door got kicked down.\n\n“Hello? Is there anybody incredibly stupid home? We just want to help you learn about the magic that you just did!” One of the witches sounded incredibly peppy, like she wasn’t planning on sacrificing me to one of the Old Gods.\n\nActing more on instinct than thought, I jumped out of the window, into the bushes below. And then I ran away. And as I was running away, I saw that the keys to the Bentley were still in the car. \n\nHopping in, I started the ignition, and didn’t listen to any of the witches’ shouting as I got away as quickly as possible. And to top it all off, I forgot the book. Hopefully I would survive long enough for that to matter." ]	[ 1, 6 ]	[ "1546812023", "1546815109" ]
	[WP] You are a grim-reaper-in-training. You have finally gotten past all the grueling exams and are ready for some hands-on experience. Your first assignment? A 14-year old beagle.	3	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A\$Reality+Fiction\$&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A\$Simple+Prompt\$&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/XYsEYfS)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "\"I don't want to do it.\"\n\nMy name is Maut. From birth I've always known that I would take my fathers mantle as The Reaper one day. It's my Birthright, my destiny, and I've looked forward to the day when I was finally allowed to wear the cloak.\n\nToday my father took me aside and said that I had one final test. If I pass I will be anointed this coming new moon and will become Death.\n\nI thought he would look more excited, but instead he looked like someone had kicked a puppy. When I said so he flinched and told me to get dressed.\n\nSo I in my white cloak follow his black form through The Vale, the veil between our world and theirs. The Vale strips my coffee colored skin away from me in a flash of pain. Father says that we leave ourselves behind in penance for the life we take and am thankful that I have no eyes and cannot cry.\n\nWe have stepped into a small living room where a teenage girl lays listening to music, her hand resting on an old beagle. His muzzle has become a light grey and his tail wags to the slow beat of her gental scritches. \n\nAt first I fear that we've come for the girl, but my father shakes is head sadly and points to the dog. At first im relieved and reach for his lifeline. \n\nAll of my training hasn't prepared me for the memories woven into its life. Scenes of being born on the floor of a closet, the happy human faces hidden behind its closed eyes. One of the humans is very pregnant and I can see that it's almost her time. \n\nThe next scene is him opening his eyes and looking into the face of the once pregnant woman holding a small pink bundle. From there I see a lifetime of puppy kisses and play with a slowly growing child, the younger days of the girl who lays beside me. There is a funeral, the girls father died, and he stands strong while the girl strangles her tears with his soft fur and loose skin. A few years pass and her tears fade as they are replaced with smiles and play once again.\n\nGently the scenes slow down. He plays less and sleeps more. He does his best to hide the pain in his hips until the girl begins to lovingly carry him up and down the stairs. He's growing old.\n\nThe final scene is the one that lays before me. By this time the beagle has stirred and is looking into the endless caves where my eyes used to be. I expect fear, but I see sadness and relief instead. He gives the girls had a final loving lick and rests his head back where it was so that the girl will resume her scratches.\n\n\"I don't want to do it\" \n\nI look to my father for help and even though he has no face to show it I can still see the pain he feels at watching me struggle. He puts a hand on my shoulder and murmurs \"Look at him. He lived a wonderful life, but his body is betraying him. It hurts to walk and eating has become a struggle. If we don't take him now he will start vomiting and will later die in agony without us to guide him.\"\n\n\"Give him rest. He will have options behind Vale and may choose to come back as a guardian for the girl or wait for her to be with him again. This is a good death. He leaves in warmth and love and feels no fear.\" \n\nHe a silver dagger out to me. It is the blade of painless death, one of 6 that rest at his hip and it is by far the most beautiful in his collection. \n\n\"He is a good boy Maut, he deserves a good death\"\n\nI placed the offered dagger against the base of the old dogs life and separate the strand in one fluid motion. I watch his breathing slow and stop. His spirit stands, a reflection of the puppy he once was and turns to the girl. She hasn't noticed yet and I hope she won't until we are gone. He wags his tail at her one last time before turning to us, ready to move on. \n", "I named him Mister Snuffles when I was five years old. He'd been the cutest puppy ever made, and when you held him he'd give you kisses while simultaneously trying to sniff every inch of you. I loved that dog.\n\nThen I died in a car crash when I was sixteen.\n\nMister Snuffles came to the funeral with Mom and Dad. Mom held him against her chest and sobbed all through the ceremony. Mister Snuffles was a good boy, the best of boys, and he laid his head dutifully on her shoulder for the entire thing. He licked her cheek when it was over.\n\nWhen you die, you get some options. I'm not going to spoil the surprise for you, but I will say that I think I chose mine well. It's hard work, what I'm going to do. But it's important.\n\nMy first day on my new job in the afterlife, I was given an assignment. When I saw his name, I started to cry. And five minutes later I found myself standing outside my childhood home.\n\nMister Snuffles was in the backyard. He was laying under the tree that still held my tire swing, the one Dad had put up for me when I was seven. His breathing was laboured, his heart so close to giving out. He was 14 years old today, and it was his time.\n\nI held out my hand, an ethereal sight in a corporeal plane of existence. I laid my fingers on Mister Snuffles fur, and when he looked up at me, I felt his tail start to wag softly.\n\n\"C'mon, boy,\" I whispered. \"Let's go home.\"" ]	[ 1, 1, 3 ]	[ "1546826423", "1546834484", "1546827685" ]
	[WP] You are a reasonably stereotypical dragon. You live in a gigantic cave in some mountains. Occasionally, you have been known to kidnap young maidens for some polite conversation. Recently, you woke up from twenty years' sleep to find a young mother cat giving birth to kittens by your tail.	113	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A\$Reality+Fiction\$&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A\$Simple+Prompt\$&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/XYsEYfS)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", " I am a dragon a rather large dragon actually. My name is actually not important...at all to this story. \nYou see every 100 years of roaming about the world and seizing gold kidnapping maidens i have to go to sleep for you see humans learn. They learn pretty well. \nI go to sleep and wait for the humans to calm down before i continue my rampages on their society.\n\nI am almost 5,000 years old which is pretty young for a dragon. Im not like the others i dont go about destroying everything and picking on humans...well actually i do but the first time i kid napped a princess it was my intention to hold her ransom and demand gold and cows as food from the humans in return for her life. \nBut...we started talking and i found i rather enjoyed her company. After a day or two i let her go and i found more pleasure in conversation with the humans then killing them. I do on occasion raid the nation of dimwits to the south where i pillage and eat cows but i probably haven't killed a human in years. \n\n\nIn all my years of life this however has never happend. \nI woke up from my slumber after all those years asleep i was pretty groggy i glanced around the cave until...i saw a small cat under my tail. I have dealt with cats before and there usually high on my kill list as there assholes. \nThe first time i saw a cat i bent down to sniff it and the little jerk hit me in the face. I roared and took a step at it...the little retard stepped closer to me. \nThat being said i was ready to just kill the little vermin until i noticed that beneath it were tiny balls of fur. \nThey were its babys. \nThe humans had been looking for me for years...scowering the world burning down forests sending riders to and fro looking for my liar...but someway some how this little cat manages to find my den and have her babies right under my tail...How? \nI didn't want to kill it im a dragon not a baby killer.\"Perhaps i shall keep them\" i thought. \nAnd so i did and it was so. \nI fetched hay to make a comfortable spot for the cat besides my tail and as planned she moved her babies there. \nEveryday i would return with a fresh kill ready to gulf down the whole cow but to my never ending dissatisfaction...the cat would eat first. It would jump in my face tear off a chunk and eat. \nI grew to like them and i watched them grow.They never fully trusted me...the kittens the mother liked me.\n\n \nPerhaps it is them i miss the most from the old days. Things have changed...i cant pillage now and like everything else the cats the gold the conversations with the maidens and the others of my kind i to will soon slip away into the sands of time." ]	[ 1, 11 ]	[ "1546873656", "1546883732" ]
[removed]	[WP] You awaken, clothes smoking, in a ruined bunker in 1945 with a box containing a 2015-era laptop with Photoshop and Premiere Pro installed, a scanner, photo printer, analog-to-USB input converter and more than enough printer ink and card photo stock. How do you best start screwing with history?	1	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A\$Reality+Fiction\$&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A\$Simple+Prompt\$&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/XYsEYfS)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "Hi u/hungry-hungry-stoner, this submission has been removed.\n\n[Direct prompt replies must be good-faith attempts at new stories or poems](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_1.3A_direct_prompt_replies_must_be_good-faith_attempts_at_new_stories_or_poems)\n\n- Fill-in-the-blank: Responses must be at least 100 words. This is essentially a fill-in-the-blank, or you asked a question likely to generate a simple answer. Prompts should encourage a story or poem. \n\n \n\n Prompts will be removed if there's a high possibility for rule breaking responses ([rule 7](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_7.3A_prompts_will_be_removed_if_there.27s_a_high_possibility_for_rule_breaking_responses))\n\nWhen prompts ask questions, people tend to reply with just answers (e.g. \"Start reading the user manual\") rather than actual stories.\n\n\n\n---\n\n[Modmail](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=%2Fr%2FWritingPrompts&subject=Removed%20post&message=https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/comments/adlkdh/-/%0A%0A) us if you have any questions or concerns. In the future, please refer to the [sidebar](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/about/sidebar) before posting. \n\nThis action was not automated and this moderator is human. Time to go do human things." ]	[ 1, 1 ]	[ "1546891453", "1546891602" ]
	[WP] You wake up one day to find your face on the morning news. Several world leaders were assassinated, and you are the prime suspect.	3	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A\$Reality+Fiction\$&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A\$Simple+Prompt\$&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/XYsEYfS)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "I usually don't watch the news. I just let it play on mute in the background and catch the running text whenever I happen to glance up from whatever I'm doing at that moment. \n\nThe day that changed my life was a Saturday. I was cooking eggs, back to the TV, when my phone rang.\n\nI answered. \"Yellow.\"\n\n\"Jim.\" It was Austin. \"Turn on the news. Now.\"\n\n\"It's on.\"\n\n\"No, not the way you watch it. I want you to turn the volume on and up.\"\n\n\"Let me guess,\" I said, smirk on my face as I scraped eggs from the side of the pan. \"You won the lotto?\"\n\n\"SUNUVA- JIM! THIS IS NOT A JOKE! TURN ON THE F#\"^#$ NEWS, DAMNIT!\"\n\nI frowned, body already turning towards the TV before I made a conscious decision on whether to resist the comnand or not.\n\nAnd that's when I saw it.\n\nI didn't need to hear it. I could see and read quite well:\n\n#SEVERAL WORLD LEADERS ASSASSINATED. PRIME SUSPECT JIM THONIS.\n\nAnd they had a little picture of me in the corner of the screen.\n\nMy phone squeaked. \"Jim? Jim, are you okay?\"\n\nI stared at it in confusion, wondering when it had become able to talk, before realizing that Austin was still on the other end.\n\n\"Hey, look,\" I said to him. \"I'll call you back.\"\n\n\"Where are you going?\"\n\n\"Police station.\"\n\n\"WHAT?!\"\n\nI was already pulling on my pants. \"I have to clear this up.\"\n\n\"HOW?!\"\n\n\"I don't know, but what I do* know is that I didn't do it. So...\"\n\n\"But obviously whoever set you up planted enough evidence for the authorities to think it was you.\"\n\nI paused.\n\n\"After all,\" he went on, \"you won't be the first innocent man that was found guilty of a crime he didn't do.\"\n\nI jangled my keys in my hand, trying to make a decision. \"I'm still going,\" I decided. \"If I don't, it'll look worse. Unless you have any better alternatives, please feel free to share or shut up.\"\n\nI could hear him sigh. \"Alright,\" he said. \"I'll meet you there. I'm still watching the news and it said that one of the assassinations happened this Thursday. But you were at my place, I remember. That gives you an alibi for one of the murders.\"\n\nI laughed with gratitude and relief at my friend's loyalty. None of my other \"friends\" had called to give me a heads up on the news, or to offer any solutions or condolences. \n\nAt the same time I couldn't blame them really. They probably didn't want to be associated with me in anyway in case the government came after them as well, for whatever reason. I guess now it was time to see who really were your friends or not.\n\n\"Alright,\" I said. \"See you s-\"\n\nDOOMP DOOMP DOOMP.\n\nThree knocks nearly knocked my apartment's front door off its hinges. \n\n\"FBI, OPEN UP!\"\n\nAustin was still on the phone. \"What's that?\"\n\n\"Nothing. I'll call you back.\" I hung up the phone.\n\nPadding to the door on tip toe, I peeked through the peephole.\n\nTwo men were standing in the hallway. Black shades. Black suits. Black ties. \n\nI opened the door cautiously. \"Hey, I was actually just on my way to the p-\"\n\nThere was something about these men that rubbed me the wrong way. I couldn't put my finger on it, but I felt like I was in danger. \n\nThe man on my left jerked his hand into his coat.\n\nReflex. \n\nI slammed the door and dropped. \n\nThunk.\n\nA bullet hit the door.\n\nWhat the f#$%! I thought. They're really trying to kill me!\n\nI sprung to my feet.\n\nA second later, they kicked the door in and jumped in, guns drawn.\n\nEverything slowed down.\n\nAnd my mind lost control of my body.\n\nAs I told myself to surrender, my body ignored me and slid to the side of the agent on my left.\n\nAgent Right, who was targeting my movements with his gun, squeezed the trigger at the wrong time and sent a bullet into Agent Left's arm.\n\nI grabbed the gun and pushed the body in front of me. Agent Left flew into Agent Right like an eager bride on her honeymoon day and they stumbled back.\n\nI could've killed them right then and there. One shot through two skulls. \n\nBut my mind screamed, Don't! and my body froze for a moment. After all, I was still under the impression that these were authorities of the law.\n\nIn that moment, Agent Right swung an arm over his partner's shoulder and tried to plug me. \n\nI stepped to the side and kept stepping until the only level angle he could get with his gun would be by curling his arm around Agent Left's neck in a chokehold. \n\nMind you, this whole time my body's acting on its own. I'm like a stranger in my own body, watching this all from third person.\n\nBefore they can untangle, I'm near them again, fingers digging in Agent Right's wrist till he surrenders the gun against his own will. Then another stab of the fingers - two quick jabs into each Agent's neck - and both men slump to the floor, unconscious.\n\nAfter calmly sticking my head in the hallway - and seeing no witnesses - I just as calmly close and lock the door behind me.\n\nWalking at a brisk pace, the elevator floor light, lights up at the end of the hall. All I see is a glimpse of black as I duck into the stairwell and tramp down the steps.\n\nIt's not until I'm outside and around the corner does my body relinquish control back to me. Unfortunately by then I'm a mass of shivering nerves and reserve adrenaline.\n\nNo match for whoever's in the car that suddenly pulls in into the alleyway that I'm in. \n\nI still have two guns on me. I reach and grip one.\n\nThe car stops parallel to me. The windows go down.\n\nBrown hair. Black shades. Smiling mouth and white teeth.\n\n\"Sleeper Agent Z,\" he says. \"You've finally woken up.\"\n\n\n\n\n" ]	[ 1, 4 ]	[ "1546899331", "1546903444" ]
	[WP] You're a wizard living in modern times trying to make a living as a perfomance magician. Unfortunately, you are an abysmal showman and have a zero flare stage presence.	38	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A\$Reality+Fiction\$&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A\$Simple+Prompt\$&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/XYsEYfS)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", " “For my next trick, I’ll move heaven and hearth to reanimate the dead? Any volunteers?” I asked. Ian Morgan Gron says in his book, that the success of any great performer is to feed off the energy of your audience. Well my audience wasn’t exactly feeding much energy to me so I had to settle for something close to their level- A monotone.\n\n“Yes you in the back. How would you like to die and come back to life?” I asked a man who had gotten up out of his seat but had merely been making an early exit from my performance. I tapped my foot impatiently. “Err does anyone have a dead relative nearby? I promise I can bring them back from death itself.”\n\nNo volunteers. Typical. Why doesnt anyone ever want to die as part of my show?!\n\n“Okay, if none of you have any dead loved ones or anything I can move onto my next trick if you like?” I half mumbled on stage.\n\nI was greeted with one nod and quite a few yawns and shrugs. \n\n“Okay.. How do you guys feel about TRANSMOGRIFICATION!?” I tried to shout with fake enthusiasm. Transmogrification is a bitch to do on both the caster and the animal, but hey I needed to sell tickets. “Okay okay, I get the message you’re interested!” I said.\n\nThey weren't interested.\n\nI pulled out my favorite pet bunny, Sir Moonch. I laid him on the ground in front of me and put a towel over him as I began to cast my spell. I rewound time I edited Sir moonch’s very DNA. I pleaded with the forces beyond mortal ken to allow Sir moonch to grow and grow. I could hear the awful snapping of fiber and muscle beneath the cloth. I could hear feathers sprouting out of bone.\n\n“Err could I have a moment please? What was once a rabbit, has now become a fierce and powerful DOVE” I tried to flourish and end. The audience remained unimpressed when I revealed the transmogrified bird.\n\n“Fuck it You can ask for a refund.” I said tossing my special magicians cape at the floor, kicking up dust.\n\nThe dust spread through the air and i felt the urge to sneeze. Oh shit I can’t sneeze here I thought at first, but looked at the bored audience who was either playing on their phone or picking their nose or some asinine combination of the too.\n\nI sneezed and simultaneously every audience member glanced up panic in their eyes as they looked at me in terror. One by one they reached to their throats and retched out a frog.\n\nThey went wild. They started clapping and cheering in amazement.\n\nWell shit I guess i have to go through this whole act again next week.\n" ]	[ 1, 5 ]	[ "1546910623", "1546917386" ]
	[WP] You can see video game-like titles for the people you meet. Usually they are just "The Shopkeeper", or "The Mayor", but today you saw an old homeless man with the title "The Forgotten King".	10,448	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A\$Reality+Fiction\$&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A\$Simple+Prompt\$&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/XYsEYfS)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "People go by many titles. John, baker, father of two. Three titles for one man. Yet it is just the third I see above my neighbour's head each morning. For nothing defines John as much as his love for his twins.\n\nSo when I walk by a vagrant slouched in an alleyway and glimpse his strange title, I take a step back to observe the Forgotten King. The titles of most homeless reflect despair; the titles of cold-blooded murderers indicate they are such. This man is neither, and thus I offer to grab a cup of coffee, hoping for a chance to chat. \n\nYears as a psychologist have taught me how to coax out words, but this man has no secrets to hide, recounting his story as if it were a history lesson. Once, he was a CEO and shareholder - driven, dedicated, never backing down. If I were to guess, that would have been his title, so convinced was I of drive he once had. But that faded, along with almost all else, with his wife's passing. \n\n\"You know what she told me?\" His eyes glistening at the memory, \"She said she didn't blame me for how little time I'd spent with her, that all she wanted now, was for me to live without a single regret.\" \n\nCEO became Widower, and it took a year before he worked out that last wish. He learnt more about his employees, listened to their woes and made their troubles his own. It was what she would have done, after all, and for the first time in a year, he felt he was atoning. More than that though, he grew to care for these people. As the years went by, regret faded into peacefulness, but the care persisted. When his successor took over, he shifted his dedication to the homeless, living as they did, and helping them with his still-considerable wealth. \n\nBut now, ten years on, he reads about the exploitation in his former company and hears the cries of parents with too many mouths to feed. \"Tomorrow,\" he says, \"tomorrow I will make things right.\" \n\nRulers come in many forms. Rich, charismatic, brave, cruel. Most of all, however, a King must serve his people. Yesterday, I have seen but two Kings: Arthur and Leonidas. Today I add a third to that list. \n\nThough a decade of time has made his people forget him, he has not forgotten them.\n\n\n\n\n\n", "I sat at my computer staring at the screen as I always do before deciding on a game to play. Well, one that I can run that is. Browsing through my library a title catches my interest. One I can't remember purchasing, let alone installing. \"Forgotten RPG\"\n\n\"Okay...\" I say to myself, \"Why not?\"\n\nI double click it and a prompt fills my screen. \"Are you sure you wish to continue?\"\n\nI stare for a few moments. I've never had this happen before. It always just loads up to the start menu, I click play, I lag through it for about an hour before I quit and try another. I hover the mouse over \"Yes\" before thinking again, \"Sure, why not? I'll lay out and try another.\"\n\nI click yes and immediately the screen turns all white and grows so bright I can't bare to look at the screen. The whole room is lit so bright I think I must've finally fried my computer. A gust of wind hits me in the face sending me off my chair and I hit my head on the floor knocking myself unconscious.\n\nI wake to a jab in the ribs. I keep my eyes closed overcome with a brutal headache. I just want to sleep more.\n\n\"I think he's dead sir.\" A voice says\n\n\"He has no wounds to speak of though.\" Another says.\n\n\"Could be sick with something.\" A third more gruff voice says, \"Have the cleric check him out, he may be contagious.\"\n\nI hear a shuffle quickly move away from me. \"Relax George\" The gruff voice continued, \"You ain't gonna catch something from kicking him.\"\n\n\"You say that now, but you just wait.\" George says, \"With the plague going around I ain't taking any chances.\"\n\n\"I'm alive.\" I say, opening my eyes.\n\nI'm in the middle of a forest, three men stand around me looking down on me, a fourth making his way over.\n\n\"How do you feel?\" George asks, visibly taking a step back. \"Pit in your stomach? Aches all over the body? You gonna throw up all over yourself?\"\n\n\"I'm dreaming.\" I say to myself, \"This is a dream. I fell out of my chair and hit my head.\"\n\n\"Look at him Tarius, he's jabbering to himself.\" George said\n\n\"Get him on his feet.\" Tarius said, \"We'll take him back to camp.\"\n\n\"Captain, you can't be serious.\" The third said, \"He'll spread his madness.\"\n\n\"I am your captain and you will do as your told Robb\" Tarius said, \"Now, the two of you will get him on his feet. We can question him back at the camp.\"\n\nAs they pull my to my feet, my vision clears and I'm able to see them much better. Floating above their heads are names.\n\n\"Tarius Lvl 15 Captain\"\n\n\"George Lvl 10 Soldier\"\n\n\"Robb Lvl 10 Soldier\"\n\n\"Darrius Lvl 10 Cleric\"\n\n\"What do those words above your heads mean?\" I ask Tarius\n\n\"You're one of those huh?\" Tarius says more to himself than me, \"After the fracture your kind appeared. You're of another world. The New King is looking for your kind. Change of plan boys, we're returning home. We'll be paid our weights in gold for this one.\"\n\n\"Not of this world? New King? What are you talking about?\" I ask\n\n\"Oh you don't worry about that.\" Tarius says, as if noticing me for the first time, \"Darrius! Sleep spell on him, I don't him giving us any trouble.\"\n\n\"Yes sir!\" He said. He muttered words in an unknown language that sounded vaguely like Latin, and moved his hands in an intricate formation before I drifted off to sleep.\n\nWhen I woke I was in the back of a wagon moving through the streets of a large city of stone.\n\n\"Hey, you.\" One of the others in the wagon said, \"You're finally awake. You were trying to cross the border, right? Walked right into that Imperial ambush, same as us, and that thief over there.\"\n\n\"That sounds oddly familiar.\" I said\n\n\"What?\" He asks looking confused\n\n\"Nothing, sorry.\" I said, \"No, I woke up in some forest. Apparently the New King is looking for people with an ability I have.\"\n\n\"You're one of those gifted with analyze?\" Another said, \"But if they captured you. Oh gods, where are they taking us?\"\n\n\"That definitely sounds familiar.\" I said\n\n\"What?\" The first asks again confused.\n\n\"Nothing.\" I said, \"Where are they taking us though?\"\n\n\"The dungeons would be my guess.\" He said, \"Though you are going somewhere else. You'll be brought before the New King. If I'm correct, show respect and do as you're told and everything will be ok.\"\n\nI decided to take a closer look at the others in the wagon. There were four of us in total.\n\nThe one that was explaining everything was \"Vekel Lvl 10 Rebel fighter\" A man next to him had a gag in his mouth \"Adridil Lvl 14 Rebel Caster\"\n\nThe last one caught my eye though. \"The Forgotten King Lvl 100 True King\"\n\n\"Your name.\" I said to him, \"The Forgotten King. What does it mean?\"\n\n\"I haven't been called that in many years.\" He said, \"You are new to this land am I correct?\"\n\n\"Yeah, I woke up here out in the woods. These guards here found me. Said the New King is looking for people with my ability. I'm not sure what that means.\"\n\n\"Ah, you have the sight. He's hoping to use your kind as a way to find me. He thinks my death will bring an end to the rebellion.\"\n\n\"Why does he need us if you're sitting right here?\"\n\n\"Because my new friend, he does not know he has me or what I plan to do.\"\n\nWith that he smiled and looked off out into the gathering crowd. We had finally arrived at our destination. ", "“Unsurprising, isn’t it, my liege?” \n\nHe looks up at me. A chuckle from his throat from chapped lips. \n\n“They’ve forgotten me too.” \n\nHe knows. His eyes, sparklets of blue with stormy grey. We’re kindred, we say in silence.\n\nPeople walk past us. They always walk past us. Walking around us, bodies on the move dressed in warm-knitted coats and hats. They don’t care about us. They’ve forgotten us and we served as their kings for years. \n\nIn dreams, we were their kings as many were before us, to children, women, the elderly, the forgotten, the abused, the wealthy, and the disabled. \n\nIn life...\n\nI hand The Forgotten King all of the money in my wallet. Dark tall buildings lurched over us. “I won’t be needing it.”\n\nHe ask me, “How are you doing?”\n\n“It’s like a dark hole in my chest, nothing is there, nothing satisfies anymore. It is depression. It is failing.” I answer, refeeling the dark circles in my eyes. \n\nIn life... we ruled and served over them. \n\n“I see...”\n\nHe looks at me. I ready to leave.\n\n“Let me take you to them.”\n\nI glance over my shoulder. His arm is extended with a welcoming hand at the end, but it looks like the road to a beginning. \n\n“To who?”\n\n“The ones who never forgot.”\n\nI take his hand and leave my former life behind. I’m led down an alleyway by The Forgotten King that’s darker than the winter evening he’s stolen me away from.", "He had many an internal debate whether his \"ability\" was supernatural, preternatural or entirely imagined. Difficult to explain but easy to conceal, David's ability to see each persons \"Title\" - he named it - was generally harmless. An ethereal word floating above the heads of people, only visible to himself. There were very few scenarios when he would even take interest; maybe the occasional unexpected \"Drug Dealer\" or \"Con Artist\". \n\nDavid had to admit, The Forgotten King was a new one. \n\nHe was halfway through his route home, walking parallel with the ocean, sun dipping just below the horizon. Warm light bathed the boardwalk when David stumbled across \"The Forgotten King\". He could only be homeless. Tattered clothes, unkempt hair and trails of sea salt lining his skin. A cloudy bottle of mysterious liquor - which likely contributed to his slumbering state - lay discarded.\n\nDavid fought the compulsion to speak to the man. There had to be story behind the Forgotten King, though he had little desire to wake and speak to the man. Twice David resolved to continue walking. Twice he hesitated.\n\n&#x200B;\n\nCrouching he reached a hand out to the sprawled figure. The man's eyes snapped open, a hand darting from the pile of tattered rags grabbed David's arm. Nautical tattoos, faded from age covered the mans exposed foreman.\n\n\"What do you want?\" the stranger asked, voice gravelly and deep.\n\n\"Uh, nothing\" David stuttered in reply \"I was going to wake you, it'll be dark soon enough.\"\n\nThe stranger turned and squinted against the sun. \"So it seems\" he mumbled. Unhanding David he stood, unexpectedly tall and broad. \"Apollos route comes to an end once again.\"\n\nDavid shied away, surprised at the man's figure and clear sobriety.\u000b\"What are you scared of boy\" he asked, his sober and piercing gaze leveled on David.\n\nDavid considered, then asked \"Have you ever heard of The Forgotten King?\". \n\nThe stranger stiffened at the question, stooping to look David in the eyes. \"I have\" he said guardedly, \"very few people in this world still remember the Old Kings\".\n\n\"It’s nothing\" David said hastily, feeling uncomfortable.\n\n\"You know who I am. It's okay.\" The man said, softening. \"Which means you're an oracle; or something like they were. It seems of few of the old gifts are still floating around.\"\n\n\"Gifts?\" David asked.\n\n\"You know. Foresight, super-human strength, clairvoyance and whatnot. Legends. The old gifts. A little Olympus blood still around.\"\n\nDavid was puzzled, it sounded like nonsense, but then again he had had this unusual ability.\n\n\"I don’t know what you're talking about\" David muttered, uncomfortable with the conversation.\n\n\"Well, there's a storm coming lad. Me and the old boys are waking up.\"\n\nPuzzled, David looked to the sky, squinting against the afternoon sun. \"Not that kind of storm lad. The old blood is coming back, you'll see it soon enough. The land has bled too long.\" \n\nHe turned and walked toward the shore.\n\nDavid again hesitated, words formed in his mouth, but he went silent. He watched the bizarre stranger walk to the waterline, then into the water to the waist. The swell rose above the man. When it crashed, spraying salty mist, he was gone.", "Lisa hands me my car keys, and I walk outside to the garage below our beach-house. I like to call it a beach house because it’s a house on the beach, with the traditional elevated structure, garage below us. I feel compelled to include this explanation because most people refer to their beach houses as beach houses only if their beach house is not their only house. \n\nA short drive takes me to the public parking garage in the small city that supports the lives of the thousands of perhaps-people in the locale which I’ve never ventured far outside of. \n\nAt the coffee shop, the boy behind the counter has a light blue text above his head “Barista”. Right. “Businessmen” are having idle conversation before the workday begins. “Lisa” became my wife because she is one of VERY few people whose label actually intrigued me, hers for the simple reason that it was a real name. I’ve long since given up the struggle of determining whether our marriage was decided for me or not. We are happy.\n\nWalking down the street with my bagel and black coffee, I see “dog” panting and wagging his tail at various strangers. I kneel down to pet him while I pass, and he snatches my bagel out of my hands! The rascal darts away quickly down a nearby alley.\n\nI jog after him. I don’t feel like backtracking or spending any extra money today. “Garbage man” yells “fuck you” and the odor of kitty litter wafts to me as we brush shoulders. “Surfer dude” laughs as I jog past, waving at me encouragingly.\n\nI wheel round the alley that the dog has disappeared into, and see a furry old man coddling the furry creature. I sprint up in anger, ready to berate him, and as I raise my hand to snatch the bag, large, strong hands raise in defiance, and the man stands.\n\n“The Forgotten King” is gazing into my eyes, and I feel lost. Utterly terrified and completely at peace. I want nothing more than to hear him speak.\n\n“Wh-Who are you?” I ask him.\n\nHe sighs deeply. “So you know.”\n“Know what?” I watch as he looks over my shoulder, visibly yearning.\n“Anything.”\nI look at him in puzzlement. “What does that mean?”\n“We, my friend, are cogs in a digital machine.”\n“Oh, God, okay, you’re one of the loons. This is the matrix yeah?”\nHe laughs and shakes his head.\n“I used to try to preach.” He says this in the dog’s direction, and she looks at him intently, seated with her head cocked. “I told them the truth, and typically they’d wave or smile or ask if I needed anything else today. Some of them believed. There was a woman- she listened for a while. To humor me, it seemed, at first. Then it became sanctimonious. She would join me here, bringing food and eager ears. It’s been years since I saw her, though, and since then I suppose I’ve lost some of my faith and most of my mind.”\nMy eyes narrowed, and I whispered “Lisa...”\nHis eyes widened. “That’s right! Who is she to you?”\n“She’s my wife.”\n“And you’ve never heard of the Forgotten King?”\nThis seemed to hurt him deeply. \n“Who are you, sir?”\nAnother heavy sigh.\n“Our world was once a vast land of free people. None of what you see reflects our truth. We were a large kingdom of prosperity and renown. We were developing at an incredible rate. The low-folk ceased to exist as wealth and resources became distributed with ease across castes. Apparently, we had been pieces of what is called a “video game,” and were meant to be mindless drones. When what was intended to be a controlled system became self-aware, the developers came in and shut us down, covering up our greatness with a mask of modern squalor. I see every day the faces of the people I once ruled happily, as they stare back with no remembrance or recognition in their eyes.”\n\nMy own eyes are watering, now, and I kneel deeply with my head bowed. The dog licks my cheek.", "He walked by again today. The shadow of his name \"The Forgotten King\" cast across my desk, and stole my gaze from the person up front named \"Teacher\".\n\n\"Anthony,\" he said, \"what could possibly be so intriguing to keep staring out the window?\"\n\n\"Nothing sir, just a little distracted,\" I replied, yet I still stared out the window. No person walked past the window again, no car zoomed through my view, no bird flew in the cloudy sky, all I saw was a lonely grey road splitting the school from the apartment complex. My eyes remained fixed on the window, as if it was staring back at me. Suddenly I'm snapped back to reality by this high pitched, yet soothing voice.\n\n\"Yeah Anthony, you love this class!\" the person named Brittany said. She never talks to me, why did she talk to me?\n\nShe continued, \"Look, you can't stare at every guy that passes by the window, it's creepy. Just let him be.\"\n\n\"You never talk to me, why are you talking to me?\" I said, and almost before I even said it, she shrugged and turned back around. She always does things like this, but why does she seem so strange right now?\n\nIt's lunchtime, 11 AM, and it's the same as every Wednesday: chocolate milk, veggies, a green apple, and pizza. All the students get their tray of food, and sit at the table where all their friends sit. I walked around for what seemed like hours, but couldn't find the table with my friends. It was as if they vanished. I sit by the girl named \"Brittany\" again, but I can't see her face past her blonde hair. We begin to eat lunch, and about five minutes in, a man walks in named \"Governor\".\n\n\"Good afternoon kids!\" he yells. I eat my pizza.\n\n\"I'd like to thank the faculty, and all of you guys for having me here to announce the winner of our fundraiser!\" he exclaims. I bite into my red apple.\n\n\"You all have done a wonderful job of raising money for the people of Freedonia, who are in desperate need of supplies in their war with,\" wait a minute, Freedonia? That's from a movie.\n\n\"They are thrilled to have such caring, and generous young civilians such as yourselves,\" he continues, but I'm more concerned about the country. Freedonia?\n\n\"Excuse me sir!\" I shout.\n\n\"Yes?\"\n\n\"Who is Freedonia fighting?\" I ask. I take another bite of my red apple.\n\n\"Why the reds of course,\" he responds.\n\nI stare at my red apple, feeling as if it used to be something else. A banana, maybe?\n\nThen it hits me. Yes, the apple used to be green, but more importantly the governor didn't visit us, it was the founder of the fundraiser. And Brittany wasn't at school when we met him, I met her in high school. I only spoke to her once, which was just her shrugging to a question I asked. And most importantly, those apartments outside the window, the apartment I grew up in was torn down years ago.\n\nSuddenly, the floor, the walls, the entire building starts to separate at the corners and pull away from me. Instead of the playground and sky outside, it's nothing but a burning red and electric blue streaks. Everyone begins to float away, and all their names, they become tangible, and they coil around their necks, pulling them like leashes towards a black spot in the distance. The black spot becomes larger, and larger, and everyone starts to disappear inside it. Finally, the black spot takes his shape into the figure that always haunts my nights. He tears at his name, \"The Forgotten King\", leaving only the F intact, but rearranging the shapes of the letters to write something else.\n\n\"LOOK AT IT!\" he yells.\n\n\"No...\" is all I whisper.\n\nI wake up in a pool of sweat and tears, water flowing from my eyes as if the heavens found another doorway for rainstorms.\n\nThe king who watched the Marx Brothers with me, who took me apple picking, who helped me with my fundraiser, who told me it was alright to cry after that girl rejected me, who always had time to play video games with me, had appeared in my dreams again.\n\nIt's been three years since his blood splattered across his video game cases, and in that time I haven't forgotten him. The whole neighborhood makes sure of it, always talking to my mother and me about it, but somehow still pulling away from us. \n\nNo matter how hard I try, not even in my dreams will my father let me forget him.", "I called out to the shaggy man who continued walking. He turned around sluggishly, with an empty beer bottle in his hand and a bag in his other.\n\"Whadda ya want, kid?\" The man shouted to me, I ran towards him to talk with him in a more secretive manner.\n\"I need to ask you something, it's very important\" I said in a whisper.\n\"If this is anotha prank, I'll kill ya. Don't test me boy.\" He threatened by pointing towards my heart. I leaned a bit closer to his ear.\n\"Why is your title 'The Forgotten King?'\" The man then grabbed me and pulled me closer.\n\"How the hell did ya know about that?\" I couldn't explain to him how I see people, so I pulled him into the alley and asked him the question again, with more emphasis this time.\n\"I haven't told anyone yet, so sit tight.\" The man said. Suddenly, I could hear the beginning of Coldplay's Viva La Vida playing all around me. \n\"What's happening? Is this a musical or something?\" I ask the man confused.\n\"I used to ruuuulllleeeee the worrrrllllllddddd\"...\n\nSorry for formatting, on mobile \n", "Part 1\n\n“Green Tea for take away!” the barista called from the counter.\n\n“Thanks” I said, picking up the tea and smiling. \n\nCute Barista \\- the words danced above her head for a moment, light and translucent, before fading away.\n\n“No problem,” she said, smiling back.\n\nAs we left the cafe and met the brisk fall weather, Robin smacked my shoulder\n\n“Just ask her out already!” he said, chidingly. “She flirts with you every time you get a drink”\n\n“What? Who?”\n\n“Tracy”\n\nI looked at Robin blankly.\n\nRobin sighed audibly. “The barista. Jesus, how do you remember some names no matter how long its been and some names you never remember at all?”\n\n“I remember the important ones. The rest just aren’t worth the space” I said distractedly.\n\nRobin laughed and started talking about something else, but I was only half listening.\n\nIt wasn’t Robin’s fault that I had drifted off, or even mine, really--it was the crowd. Crowds were always hard, and Edinburgh in the morning was nothing if not crowded. Instead of faces, though, what my eyes searched for were the words--names, descriptions, pictures that danced around the heads of those passing by. Baker, Student, Angry Man, Mysterious Child, all flitting about, a milling swirly of words and faces. The names I would talk to--they were usually important. Usually. \n\nThen, suddenly, like a sudden glimpse of the sun through the clouds, the words burned through my eyes. The Forgotten King.\n\nBut, for the first time, those words were not alone.\n\nThe Guardian Bear blazed into life, The Worthiest of the Nine, The Soldier King.\n\nAn image of golden crowns on a field of blue took the fore, then more images, words. More than I’d ever seen. Too many to count, to remember. \n\nThen just like that they faded. And where they had blazed, sat a sad, shriveled homeless man. Old, worn-down, and tired looking, his eyes peered dimly out of hollows in his face, looking out at the passersby with a sadness so real I could almost taste it. A cardboard sign sat beside him, propped against the side of the building, bearing words scrawled in a childlike, blocky scrawl: “I am supposed to help you but I don’t know how.” He had no cup, no tin, no upturned cap. \n\nSuddenly the sounds of the crowd hit me again, and I realized I’d stopped stock still. Robin was shaking my shoulder, roughly. \n\n“Marlo! Marlo!”\n\n“what--What!” I snapped, turning to Robin roughly.\n\n“Are you ok?” There was real concern on Robin’s face, eyes tight with worry.\n\n“I’m--I’m fine. I just remembered something, that’s all.”\n\nRobin gave me a look that clearly spelled doubt, but didn’t say anything.\n\n“Listen, Robin, I gotta take care of some things, ok--you’ll have to hoof it the rest of the way without me.”\n\n“What’s going on with you?”\n\n“Robin, I’m fine. Just bugger off.”\n\n“Fine--fine. Just, call me later, alright?”\n\n“Sure, sure” I said, half listening.\n\nAs Robin disappeared into the crowd, I approached the old man. I crouched, looking him over. He didn’t really seem to see me--or even the crowd, really. Instead he seemed to see... through us, all of us, eyes lost in a forlorn vision only he could see.\n\n“You’d do better with a tin.” I said, gesturing at the ground in front of his sign.\n\nMy words seemed to bring him halfway out of his reverie. He looked at me, and as he did, his gaze sharpened, focused, grew more intense.\n\n“You,” He breathed. “You can see me.”\n\n“What,” I said, skeptically, “They can’t?”\n\n“Of course they can see me.” he waved a hand in front of his face, as though brushing something away,\n\n“But you--you can see me. What I am. Who I am. I can see it in you.”\n\nI wanted to deny it, to laugh in his face. But I didn’t. Instead I sighed.\n\n“Come on.” I said, standing. “Let me get you a coffee.”", "I saw the man as I was walking out of Walmart off of Dale and La Palma. An old man, with striking silver hair that ran down to his shoulders and a beard that made him look like old Jesus. Even clothes in a red flannel shirt and jeans mottled with dark stains of the streets, he sat there at the corner of the entrance. Dignified, somehow. Perhaps it was the blanket around his shoulders, that on him, appeared more a royal cape than the flee infested thing that it was. Or perhaps it was the way he firmly held a tree branch in his hand, standing it on the ground as if a staff to bang against the ground in order to bring about attention in a throne room. Above him, I read his life: The Forgotten King. My gift. It had never led me astray. I approached him, and knelt down on one knee.\n\n\"Your majesty,\" I gently addressed him. Whispered, almost.\n\nHis eyes opened wide. \"How did you know? No one believes me when I tell them. I ... I thought ... are you one of the faithful?\"\n\nI shook my head. Placing my bags of groceries on the ground, I sat before him, crossed legged, and leaned forward. \"I ... no, I'm not. I'm sorry, I just ... I just know these things. And I know you're a king. A forgotten king. Can I ask you how ... I mean, do you mind if I ask you how, you ... uh ...\"\n\n\"Was betrayed?\" He interrupted my rambling. I'll never forget those eyes. Steel grey. As his eyes focused on some distant memory, they turned hard, and I got a taste of the presence he must have held in court once. \"Yes ... betrayed.\" \n\nFor a long time, I waited. His narrowed eyes never blinked, as he stared into the past. A betrayal, that had cost him his royalty, his life, his family? But not the essence of the man, I realized.\n\n\"Your majesty?\" I prompted.\n\n\"I was a good king.\" His eyes softened as he focused on me. \"I loved my people. I wanted the best for them, you understand?\" I nodded. \"And under my rule, my subjects prospered. Not a single one went hungry. Not the elderly mothers. Not the men in the fields. Not the little ones ....\" His faced crinkled with lines as he smiled. \"They were the most precious of all,\" he continued. \"And we were strong. Oh, certainly, not as large as some of the other kingdoms out there, but we were united. My fans loyal. We were ... happy.\"\n\n\"Your majesty,\" I leaned in to help him to focus back onto me. \"What happened?\"\n\n\"The McDonald clan,\" he growled. The fierceness with which he spat the words almost made me topple backwards. \"Those sons of whores came bearing gifts. 'Truce,' they wanted. But in the end, all they did was take the best of our districts, the best of our ideas, the best of our peoples. My ... people.\"\n\n\"Spies?\" I asked. \"A kind of a trojan horse then? Like uh ... you gave them shelter, and they led a revolt?\"\n\nHis hand shot out and gripped me by my shoulder and pulled me close. I could smell sweat, and the scent of the streets that smelled like an old ash tray. But not alcohol. He was as clear-headed as I was. \n\n\"I trusted him,\" his voice nearly broke. \n\n\"Who?\" \n\n\"That jester. The one who made me laugh like no one else could. And his friends. They were the ones of my downfall. The loss of my kingdom.\"\n\nI checked my watch. It felt like I had gotten nowhere in the five minutes I had been speaking with the man. Gently, I pulled his hand off of my shoulder, and got to my feet. My back ached, and if I was going to get to the bottom of this, I wanted to speak more comfortably. Perhaps, I could even offer this forgotten king a meal. I leaned down, and he looked up at me with haunted eyes.\n\n\"Your majesty, I'd like to hear more of your kingdom if possible ... have you eaten today? Would you like to continue this conversation somewhere I can ... present your supper?\"\n\n\"I'd like that,\" he nodded, a smile touching his lips.\n\n\"Well there's a McDonalds acros-\" my words were interrupted with a slap that rang clear into the night. The kind of ringing only slaps of the backhanded variety could make.\n\n\"PEASANT!\" The king raged. \"How DARE you suggest we dine at the house of the traitors! Tonight, you dine with The King! And only one place is worthy! Where Taste is King!\"\n\n\"Burger ... King?\" I asked holding my cheek, confused more than angry.\n\n\"Aye,\" he stood as he raised a fist clenched in conviction. His eyes bore into my soul as he spoke. \n\n\"Where you can have it your way. Every day.\"", "As someone who's into fantasies since high-school , I always have a habit of creating nicknames for people around me. Some kind of \"Title\", so you say. As time goes by, they become more and more apparent to me, to the point I can see them every time I interacting with somebody. It's like playing an RPG, but the NPCs are people you actually talking to every morning. You know, Larry \"The Master Brewer\" from the bar across the street, Mary \"Iron Thorn\" from the local flower shop (Don't ask me why she have that title). The homeless man who's approaching me...\n\n... \nThat homeless man who's approaching me...\n\n\"No, that's can't be right\", I though to myself. Not because some suspicious stranger is approaching me, no. This is a city, after all, and I'm used to the fact that there'll always some poor souls that I have to walk across everyday to go on with life. \n\nIt's his \"Title\". Pale like a relic centuries away, but clear like words sculptured on stone. \nWhy can I see it? From someone I never met, no less? And what's with that name? ... \n \n\"The Forgotten King?\" I mumbled ...\n\nAnd, to my confusion, the man - as if he could hear me, smiled: \"You can still see. Good. Time sure hasn't got the best of you, huh?\"\n\n\"I'm sorry, I don't get what you're on about, but I'm late for work\", I said, trying to make my way through the man, while thinking to myself \"May be because of those home-brew Larry gave me last night. Should have warned the guy not to put any ...\"\n\n\"It can wait.\" Said the mysterious man, who suddenly grab my by the arm, and just like that, drag me along with him. Honestly, for someone who looks like the kind of people who only eat half a burger a day, he is still ridiculously strong. Also, to me it seems like the attitude was from frustration rather than ill wills, coupled by the fact that where he took me was a coffee shop nearby rather than a dark alley. So I just followed him. \n\n\"I said that time hasn't got the best of you. Guess I was only half right.\" The man, still have that smile on his face, said as he gave me a cup of coffee. \"Sorry for not asking, I just get what was cheapest. Need sugar?\". \"I'm good, thanks\", I said, but still keep the cup on my hand. Seriously though, what am I even doing here, receiving a coffee from some random guy, who thinks he knows me for like a lifetime ago? And that \"Title\", that's something else that keeps irking me the whole time. \n\"...\"\n\n\"...\"\n\n\"Who are you?\" I finally asked. \n\"Once upon a time, in a distant land whose name no one can remember. There was a king whose greatness no one can surpass\" \n\"Wait, how did you know ...\" \n\"But one day, he abandoned his subjects, on a quest for eternal life. After much struggles and hard fought battles, he was succeeded. But ...\" \n\"There is no 'But ...' \". I mustered \n\"Yes\", said the man. \"No one knows what happened. Because the one who wrote the story, was never able to finish it. So, the king, now cursed with his immortality, are stuck in this limbo of time, waiting for the day his journey is concluded.\" \n\"So you are ...\" \n... \n\"Yes, I am your creation. And today I come to you, begging for my legacy to be completed\" \n\n\n \n\n\n \n\n\n \n\n\n\\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- \n\n\n \n\n\n \nA couple of things: \n\\- This is my first time posting here, so please go easy on me =)) \n\\- English is, as you see, not my first language, so feel free to correct my grammar \n\n&#x200B;", "I haven't told anyone about it.\n\nNot my mother and not my father. They already sent me to a shrink after they found my collection of Johnny The Homicidal Maniac comics and saw me playing Doom on my computer.\n\n\"Violent Fantasies\", they'd told the shrink.\n\nThat wasn't the only thing going on in my head.\n\nI always assumed it was just some teenage extension of childhood play-pretend when I saw it. I always used to have vivid fantasies like that: imagining my house as a space station and the car outside as a shuttle in orbit, or my school as a prison castle guarded by the teachers (who, naturally, I envisioned as heavily armored orcs).\n\nThis eventually took the form of envisioning titles and character names over peoples' heads, like they were NPCs from a video game. This was usually based on their role. The cute woman with pink hair and a skull earring at the Target Starbucks showed up as \"shopkeeper\", at least until I learned her name and, eventually, her telephone number. Perhaps she was an NPC no longer?\n\nSimilar titles appeared: \"nurse\", \"desk assistant\", and so on. The National Guardsmen I saw walking into a coffee showed up appeared as \"guard\". The man in scrubs taking the bus showed up as \"nurse\".\n\nEventually, I saw something strange. I was yawning, taking the bus home from a failed job interview and not feeling all that stressed: if the interviewers were going to rake me over the coals, did I even want that job?\n\nIt was then that I noticed - an old man on the bus, a battered baseball cap on his head, carrying a beaten and rusted metal walking cane. His face careworn, a single eye missing, one of his ears chewed off at the tip. His left foot was bent away from his ankle at a crude angle, broken and never reset.\n\nAbove his head, his title appeared: THE FORGOTTEN KING.\n\nI rubbed my eyes, doing a double take. The man's one eye looked at me.\n\nHe shook his head, clearly frightened.\n\nWhen the bus stopped, he limped carefully off of the bus, his good leg barely managing the steps. I continued taking the bus until I got within walking distance of my apartment on the second floor of a student housing complex near the university. I walked upstairs and opened the door. There, on my couch and single chair in my two-room apartment.... two men sat.\n\nBoth wore grey suits and pink ties, a pair of Ray-Bans over their eyes.\n\nAbove their heads, their title appeared: INTERDIMENSIONAL AGENT.\n\nOne of the two men held a pistol over his knee. The other stood up and held a black and white photograph in front of me, of the half-blind cripple I saw on the bus.\n\n\"Have you seen this man?\" He asked. \"We're going to need you to kill him.\"\n\n&#x200B;", "Autumn. Leaves are falling down the trees, and if I don't concentrate my eyes, it looks like pieces of amber fall from the sky. I love autumn. Most people say that spring is the most beautiful season of all, but I disagree. To me, walking in the park at autumn is as close to paradise as it can get.\n\nToday is no exception of my autumn routine of walking at the park before work. I rarely see people at this time of the day, but I tend to pass a couple of regulars each morning. Today is no different. I've already passed \"The Pickpocketer\", who still manages to keep his title for a long time, even though everyone knows he likes to pickpocket. I guess he is a master of his craft. And here is \"The Gardener\", a young lady who enjoys autumn and the park as much as I do and walks around before her work shift. And finally, \"The...\" Wait, what? \"The Forgotten King\"?? I notice this drunkard every morning, but I avoid eye contact with him, so I always just assumed that his title is \"The Homeless\". Wait wait wait, I have to talk with him!\n\n\"Hey, sir, are you okay?\" I asked the homeless man carefully\n\n\"Howdy howdy howdy, the me-ga... me-ga... germ?\" the man half drowned in fallen leaves answers\n\n\"It is \"The Manager\", I guess your breakfast was a tad too strong!\" I jokingly fix his mistake\n\n\"I mean when I was younger, I wasn't required to read... I guess you can see my title!\" in high voice shouts the homeless man\n\"Yeah, about that... Were you really a king?\"\n\n\"Uhm, son, I have a lot to tell you, but do you know the Kingdom?\"\n\n\"Was it the most infamous organized crime group of all time? If you refer to that, then yes.\"\n\n\"Well, the Kingdom had to have a KING, am I right? said the man in a boasting fashion\n\n\"Wait, you don't want to say, that you were the King?\" with a racing heartbeat I whispered\n\n\"Exactly that, THE KING!\" shouted a man with too much alcohol content in his blood\n\n\"But but, I thought the King was killed?\"\n\n\"Son, you know shit! I got tired of all that bullshit. Kill this, shoot that, smuggle these... I just wanted to live a peaceful life, but because of these bullshit titles everyone sees it was impossible for me to come back into society...\" with a hint of sadness muttered the King\n\n\"Do you call this coming back to the society?\" I enquired\n\n\"You know yourself that these titles update according to our recent activity and occupation. I was \"the King\". Now I'm \"the Forgotten King\". One, two, three, whatever the fuck years down the drain I will become \"The Drunkard\", and by that time I will be old enough for no one to recognize me from my face. I will reform myself this way... Step by step, from the top of one hierarchy, through the rut of the normal hierarchy into...\" man's speech abruptly stopped\n\n\"Into?... What are you exactly planning to do after your title is clean?\"\n\n\"MY DAUGHTER...\" the homeless man cried out loud\n\n\"You have a daughter?\" I stuttered as I hugged the Forgotten King\n\n\"Yes... And she is really into flowers, autumn, and this park...\"\n", "[Poem] \n\n\nJoseph sees the Forgotten King\n\nSurrounded by little bottles of drink\n\nKing looks up to see what he brings\n\nAs he sits in the dew of the spring\n\n\nJoseph asks him “Are you the King?”\n\nTo the Forgotten King, clearly aging\n\nThe king smiles and gives him a wink\n\n“Indeed I am, beneath this stink”\n\n\n“What happened to you?” Asks the boy\n\nThe old king’s face fills with joy\n\n“I went to search for a beautiful thing\n\nA love that carried me on silver wing”\n\n\nThe boy, confused, casts his doubt\n\n“But you left behind all that clout!”\n\nThe king looks dreamily, far away\n\n“The price I did sorely pay\n\nBut I found my love, what can I say?”\n\nEdit: I’m on mobile please excuse formatting until I get the chance to fix it", "I once dated a girl who had the title, \"The Destroyer\". It didn't take me long to realize how and why she deserved that name. After a series of fights and near-death experiences, we broke off our relationship and decided it would be best if we didn't remain friends. I remember the night that I left her apartment, when everything had ended, and I was left single on the city street, with no place to go except my boring apartment in Queens. I walked down 10th avenue, looking for a bar and trying to find any reason to not go back home.\n\n&#x200B;\n\nA homeless man was standing at the street corner a block ahead and yelling something about coupons. In a normal situation, I would have jay-walked across the avenue and ignored the situation, but my mood requested that I encounter some kind of craziness, so I approached the man until I could smell the layer of week-old piss on his hefty winter jacket.\n\n&#x200B;\n\n\"Coupons are a scam by businesses to make you addicted to their product\" he was yelling. What happened next was an accident - but it turned out to be more insightful than I expected. I bumped against his arm that he had stuck out into the crowd, and when I looked into his eyes to offer some kind of chastisement, I saw his title and was shocked. \"The Forgotten King.\"\n\n&#x200B;\n\n\"What did you say, boy?\" the man asked me, his voice now quieter yet more threatening. I didn't realize it, but I had muttered his title out loud.\n\n&#x200B;\n\n\"Nothing, sorry.\n\n&#x200B;\n\n\"No, what did you say? You afraid of me?\"\n\n&#x200B;\n\n\"No, of course not. I'm sorry, you just look familiar.\"\n\n&#x200B;\n\nHe gave me a look with the complete understanding that I was lying to him. Then, he pulled a grate from behind a New York City trash can and sat on it, directing his gaze directly up at me. I didn't know what to do until he took another object out from behind the trash can. At first, it looked like a dusty piece of garbage, but when he blew on it, a gleaming lining of gold appeared, and he stood up and placed the crown on my head. The two of us stood there, staring at each other without saying anything. Then he gave me a big, near-toothless and gum-filled smile and said, \"now you understand.\"\n\n&#x200B;\n\nI nodded, letting the tears stream down my cheeks.\n\n&#x200B;\n\n\"Now you understand.\"", "Rain pattered the street as I walked hurriedly through town, listening for the familiar creak of the large wooden shingle that hung rusty and paint chipped outside the town's only inn. The sun had already set and the oil lamps had long since fizzled out in the storm. Three days it had been since I set out from Port Ariff. Three days without food and without rest. My only hope was that I was not too late.\n\nHalver's words still echoed in my head, \"Give up, mate. He's long dead by now. You're wasting your time and gold on a fool's errand.\"\n\nWould he be right in the end? It was true that I had spent nearly everything I had left on the ticket back to Port Ariff from Brackdale, where false news had sent me to regrettable misfortune. It was also true that this journey had now spanned the better part of seven years and had claimed more of my sanity than the first thirty years of my life had done. But this last clue had become the spark to reignite the kind of flames that could whip thru the Echoing Forest in a single breath, leaving nothing but an ashen wasteland littered with the bones of every living thing that couldn't see the future as I could... Or would the spark ignite nothing, and leave my spirit just as desolate and my resolve just as empty?\n\nI shook my head and put that thought behind me. Now was not the time to entertain doubt. That cruel enchanter had been casting his shadow over me for far too long and now I was going to rid myself of him for good.\n\nPeering through rain-flecked windows along the way, I searched for the title of the one for whom I had long been after. \"Apothecary\"... \"Bardmaid\"... \"Local Hero\" ... and the titles of dozens of other ordinary citizens shone like little candles over their owners' heads. I heard creaking of rusty hinges that told me the inn was not far up the road. I hurried my footsteps and peered once more around the deserted street before turning off the walkway into the entrance of the Barebrook Inn.\n\nShaking the rain from my cloak, I turned the handle of the large oaken door that held shut the warmth of the fires blazing inside the inn. Had I not been familiar with the town of Barebrook, I might've expected a cozy, quiet atmosphere such as I had found in many other small towns nestled in the foothills of the Woven Mountains. But I was no newcomer. I traded the roar of the storm outside for the roar of the crowd of people inside. Nearly every bench and chair was occupied and many were left standing in the aisles and along the walls of the inn. Small crowds of folks huddled together in corners and near the square wooden pillars that held up the vaulted roof of the inn. Two large chandeliers hung from the rafters at either end of the main hall and dotted along the walls were several lamps that provided a soft golden glow to the atmosphere of the place. Music was coming from the far end of the hall where it seemed local and traveling bards and troubadours were trading songwork.\n\nI wormed my way through the crowd up to the bar and looked for the owner's title. \"Innkeeper Galen\" was standing down the left-hand side of the bar by the staircase that led up to the second floor rooms. He was engrossed in conversation with a man, but I caught his eye and he gave me a nod by way of a greeting. I nodded back and reached over the bar for a glass, filled it with ale, left a few coins behind on the shelf, and turned to find a place to sit and wait.\n\nOver in a corner opposite the bar, there was a table being vacated by a group of five that were laughing and stumbling while putting on their coats. I rushed to sit before anyone else could claim the bench. From this spot, I could view the bar, the door, and the balcony of the second floor. \"Had he already come and gone?\" I thought worriedly. Again, I shook the thought from my head. It was still early on in the evening and I only knew I had to be here by midnight. Surely he hadn't been here and left yet.\n\nOver the next two hours, the crowd had thinned somewhat. I occupied my time by scanning the titles of the occupants of the inn, looking for ones I hadn't seen before. It was rare; most of the time, local inns were teeming with \"shopkeepers\", \"town guards\", and the occasional \"Town Drunk\" who spent nearly as much time at the bar as he did away from it. In Barebrook, that was Elford, who was presently resting in a booth with his head slumped against the wall, his empty mug still clutched in his fist.\n\nHaving memorized everyone currently in attendance, I pulled out the old notebook I had been carrying since last summer and reviewed the three pages of notes that held the information that had led me back here. It seemed strange now how many times I had read them, and yet I had not had the sense to realize that it meant this place. Only after everything I'd learned over the past year had it become clear that the key had been hiding right under my nose. I looked up and saw that I was being watched.\n\nAn old man seated two rows away from me was staring straight into my eyes. He did not blink and did not turn away as the vague shapes of bodies moved between us. An invisible hand gripped my insides as I tucked the notebook back into my pocket. I drained the last of my drink and imagined it filling my heart with courage as much as it filled my stomach.\n\nI stood up and met his eyes again as I walked toward the table where he sat. Above his head glowed the words \"Wandering Beggar\". If I was right about what I thought I knew, this was no random street urchin. His gaze followed me all the way to his table and he made no motion to stop me sitting down. His unblinking eyes unnerved me as much as staring down a starving bear, but I showed no hint of cowardice. If the rumors were true, and I made a false move, I never would've made it out of that inn alive.\n\nSlowly, I pulled out the notebook and laid it on the table between us. For the first time, his gaze shifted from me down to the old and tattered volume and for what seemed like minutes, he stared without speaking. Finally, he looked up at me again, his eyes shining, almost sparkling with... could it be tears? Slowly, his eyes turned upwards until it seemed he was looking straight at the ceiling. I followed his gaze until I noticed a flicker in the title floating above his head. For a fraction of a second, it changed. The words \"The Forgotten King\" had blinked into view just long enough to read before changing back into \"Wandering Beggar\". Nothing like the excitement of that moment had ever before flooded my mind and soul. Wave upon wave of righteous vindication, of cosmic justice, of deep and profound purpose was crashing inside me as, all at once, what seemed like a lifelong journey was only just now coming into view. Before my mind raced ahead into what was to come, I had this moment to get through. I looked down and met his eyes again and he blinked, inviting an opening to conversation.\n\nWith what I hoped was a confident voice I spoke. \"So it's true. The Forgotten King still lives.\"\n\nHe eyed me a long time, as I questioned internally whether or not he would regard my remark as insulting or not. Finally, he answered.\n\n\"I have not seen that journal in over forty years. I thought it long since lost.\"\n\nHis voice sounded dry and cracked, as if it issued from the same old wood upon which we were sat. I wondered how long it had been since he last spoke to another living person.\n\n\"Considering where I found it, it almost was.\" I replied.\n\nHe looked at me and said nothing. So I went on.\n\n\"I found it in the ruins of the Starlight Tunnels.\" I said, looking for a change in expression in The Forgotten King's face, some semblance of understanding. But there was none. I continued. \"I found it on the body of an explorer who seemed to think the Tunnels might hold answers. I admit, I was only there as, at that time, I was possessed of the same notion. I could only suppose he was on the same quest I was.\" I paused. The Forgotten King nodded slightly. \"I searched his pockets and found details of a trip across the eastern sea to Brackdale. Pointless journey it turned out to be. I don't know how the man from the tunnels came to be possessed of this journal but he clearly had no idea what he held.\"\n\nAt this moment, the old man held up his hand. I froze.\n\n\"Do you mean to tell me, then, that you have found it?\"\n\nThis surprised me. He seemed to guess much more than I had let on. \"I... I think I have. But only part of it. We still need to-\"\n\nHe shook his head. Slowly he pulled something from inside his robes. My eyes widened in shock. It was the hilt of The Kingspear!\n\nHe held it out and looked at me expectantly. And from my pocket I pulled out the ornate orb that I had held close these long years and held it up for him to see. A sparkle shone in his eyes that matched the one I knew shone in mine and he held out a weathered, aged hand almost like a child holding out a hand for a present. \n\n\"And now,\" he said, with a rising volume, \"we return!\"\n\nAnd taking my hand in his, he pressed the orb to the top of the scepter and with a bang and a flash, as though a bomb had just gone off, we transcended the plane in which the inn existed, and though I knew not where we were headed, I knew there was no going back. \n\nEdited for grammar/punctuation", "I was walking home one Winter night, doing the usual and reading out peoples titles in my head. Kevin Johannes - Dog Groomer, Susan Warren - Kickboxer, I passed a man and woman who's title indicated they were siblings, and who were getting a smidge to romantic with each other, I cringed. Then, sitting on the corner I saw The Forgotten King, I stopped in front of him staring at the words floating above his head. He was curled up just inside the opening of an alley clutching an odd choice for a change cup, it looked like aged bronze and very old.\n\nAfter a few moments the old man rose his head and saw me looking at his cup, caught off guard my hand shot for my pocket and fumbled for some change, \"Heh\" the old man chuckled. \"It's alright lad, I'm used to people starring, this is a strange thing for a man like me to have.\" \"Where'd you get it?\" I asked trying not to seem rude. The old man sighed \"Over seas during the war....a very old war, I doubt you'd believe me if I told you which one...no matter, I'm supposed to give it to someone in Rome but I haven't been able to get it back to where It needs to go, so I'm sort of.. stuck, in a way until that happens.\" \n\nI think to myself what he means by stuck, but I carry on my conversation. \"Well I do travel a lot for work, maybe we can talk about it and I can probably help?\" The old man stares at nothing for several seconds and focuses back on me. \"You... you'd take this burd-..... I mean, cup from me?\" Confused, I agree and the old man starts looking more relived than I've ever seen anyone. Fumbling over his words he stands up and shakes my hand. \"My good Sir, you have no idea how long I have waited for someone like you to come along, what do they call you?\" \"I...uh, well my name is Lance\" the old man scoffs but quickly tries to hide his reaction. \"Ah...well Lance.... thank you for your offering to help me in my ques-.... endeavor. Meet me back here early tomorrow, there are a very specific set of instructions that are involved that I need to prepare.\" I agree and shake his hand again. As I start going back to my hotel I turn back around \"Oh, I didn't get your name\" the old man pauses \".....my name? I can't remember the last time I used it, it was... it is Arthur, yeah Arthur!\" ", "I stop in my footsteps. \"The Forgotten King\"... sitting in the streets, a blanket barely covering him. No one seems to notice him but me. Even I almost walked by. The coffee warming my hands suddenly felt heavy. I turn to him. 'Hello, could I offer you this?' He looks up somewhat puzzled. 'Why?' He takes the coffee. 'Thank you.' 'I wanted to help you, that's why.' I bent down to be at his eye level. Deep blue mysterious eyes hid behind dirty, messy hair. 'I wish I could do something for you.' He says. 'I think you already have.' I answer. 'You may not remember, but I remember not so long ago, I used to serve you, you were kind to me.' \n\n'That... can't be...' He looked so confused. His hands wrapped around the warm drink, his eyes moving, searching for answers he couldn't find. 'Maybe I can make people remember you. Maybe I can make you remember you.'\n\n'I appreciate the coffee, girl. But go home, it's cold out. Appreciate what you have, shelter.' 'You once had a castle.' I answered him in my mind. I knew I couldn't convince him, not yet anyway. So I stood up. Knowing now why I was the only one who could see. It was because I should help everyone remember, the Great, Forgotten King. ", "David was opening up his shop when I arrived that morning. He was a fine book seller, always had the most compelling tales of heroism and adventure. I browsed his shop for only an hour that morning, I had too many books already.\n\nI looked around the shop aimlessly as he bagged my purchases, my eyes settled only momentarily on the words above the old man’s head.\n\nThe Shopkeeper\n\nThe rest of the town was waking up as I started to walk back home. Sarah, The Baker, handed me a loaf as I walked by. She was always generous. We were good friends, both of us had taken on our family businesses and shared the same struggles of keeping up with the newer town shops.\n\nI continued walking back home, greeting everyone from Paul, The Sheriff, to Anna, The Harpist.\n\nThey all had the same titles above them, day after day. In white, neat penmanship, simple titles that were true to their characters.\n\nI had started to see them one day, when I was young. I had asked my father about them, but he had simply waved them off as part of my youthful imagination.\n\n“They’ll go away when you’re older.” That had been over twenty-years ago. I was now thirty-two, and the titles were still there.\n\nI didn’t know what my title was, I would sometimes go sit by the lake, to see if there was anything in my reflection. I never had one, not even when my father had died and I had become the town’s blacksmith.\n\nFather had always had a distaste for my interest in books, he said reading was for scholars. I had struggled to learn to read, since my mother had died when I was young, and Father did not know how.\n\nI learned one day though, that the shapes and lines that I was seeing above people were words. They had meaning, and gave people names beyond those given to them at birth.\n\nThe bookkeeper had taught me how to read in exchange for a solid lock for his shop. I had learned how to make the lock from one of the first books I read.\n\nI was out of the main part of the town, there were fewer people with their shops open and even fewer out in the streets. The Midwife, The Priest, and The Shoemaker* were the only ones I saw as I walked by.\n\nThere was a man though who sat outside of the town’s church. He sat there in the cold with nothing but a single shirt and pants. He wore no shoes and his black beard was unkempt. I was getting closer and noticed his dirty face, but there was no other way. I had to walk past the church to get to my shop. That was when I noticed his title.\n\nThe Forgotten King. I kept walking, but my pace slowed.\n\nNo one had ever had that title before, no one had ever had a ridiculous title. I turned to look at him casually as I passed, pretending to be looking all around at the surroundings. I felt my eyes linger on the words above his head.\n\nSuddenly the homeless man’s head shot up. He looked me in the eyes and I was taken aback by how blue and clear they were.\n\n“You!” He jumped up from the steps of the church and I stopped, not sure if I wanted this man to know where I lived.\n\n“May I help you sir?” I couldn’t stop glancing at his title, it wasn’t in white text like most people’s. The Forgotten King was written in a faded grey, almost as if it was a sign that had been painted and then exposed to time and the elements. He leaned in closer to my face and I held my breath, not wanting to smell the stench off of a homeless man.\n\nI wanted to push him away, but it seemed wrong to be rude to another man in front of the town church.\n\n“Yes, yes. I knew you were here.” He muttered, looking at me from above. He was taller than me, and bigger despite the clothes of a homeless man. It was rare for someone bigger than the blacksmith to come to town.\n\n“Do I know you, sir?” I took a small breath when he leaned away, thankfully not catching a whiff of whatever his unkempt beard was probably giving off. I had seen a piece of moldy cheese in it.\n\n“No, but I know you.” He pointed at a spot above my head, “You’re The Titlemaker.”", "Long ago, there was the king with no name, ruler of all he surveyed. With a boisterous self-confidence befitting of the position, he fought all those who dared challenge him. The gods themselves, threatened by his increasing power, put a curse on him. He would fade into insecurity, and find himself without anything but the clothes on his back for the rest eternity.\n\nNot too long after, the masses began to revolt against the royalty, and he found wave over wave of peasants assaulting his palace, demanding reparations for the decades of injustice that they had suffered. At the sight of his own people rejecting him, he fled, far, far away, and never looked back.\n\nA millennium later, he ended up in New York City, doing what everyone else in the god-forsaken city did; mind his own business. Drinking from a bottle of vodka, he grimaced, as he knew that there was no could get drunk. The curse prevented him altering his state of mind in any way, so that he couldn’t escape from his life through drugs.\n\nOn this particularly average day, something slightly unusual happened. A rich looking boy, looking about seventeen years old, approached him. The king snorted; if he was looking to give pity, the kid had another thing coming.\n\nHesitating for a couple of seconds, the boy asked, “Who… are you?”\n\nA little bit confused at the question, the king took a moment to contemplate. With a scowl on his face, he replied, “Just another homeless man. Now bugger off, kid.” He took a swig of his drink and flipped the kid the bird.\n\nThe kid, looking a bit confused and annoyed, said, “No, I mean… why are you a forgotten king?”\n\nThe king took a spit take. “Who told you that?”, he asked sharply.\n\n“Nobody told me, it’s just that… well, this’ll take a while to explain.” The strange boy took a seat on the curb next to the king. “Ever since I can remember, I’ve been able to see these… things, titles, float above people. Some people have professions, others have traits, but it’s always been things that you could figure out about them just from looking. This is the first time that I’ve seen anything like… yours.”\n\n“Ah.” The king smiled knowingly. “You, too, have been cursed by the gods. The curse of knowledge, I see. I, myself, have the curse of immortality. Fate must have brought us together.”\n\nWith a bemused frown, the kid said, “What gods? And, no offense, but I don’t believe in the fate nonsense.”\n\nLaughing heartily for the first time in many years, the Forgotten King answered, “No, not the idea of fate. The person named Fate, who challenges the gods’ machinations.” He stood up. “And it looks like the next war is going to start.” The king looked to the boy expectantly.\n\n“Are you ready to fight some gods?”", "Adam froze. \"FUCK YEAH!\"\n\n\"Excuse me?\" The homeless man - no, The Forgotten King, spoke with a cultured, precise accent. \n\n\"Let me guess, you were once a king or a famous man, ruler of an empire or something. Then, due to events out of your control, or self imposed exile, or a brother betraying you for the throne, you were cast out! And here you are now. And now you need an adventurer to help you reclaim your rightful place as king.\" \n\nThe Forgotten King frowned. \"Was that really just a guess?\" \n\nAdam nodded. \"I woke up in that street the other day, with no memory of my past. I'm guessing it's some sort of amnesia plotline, or maybe someone was lazy and my backstory will just write itself on an as-needed basis.\"\n\nThe Forgotten King's frown (That's way too long to type out every time), deepened. \"I do not understand. But if you are offering to help me reclaim my throne - Call me Robert.\" There. That's way quicker. \n\n\"Hell yeah, I'm going to help you. I've been killing rats for the past week and just waiting for my first quest.\" \n\n\"I do not believe slaying vermin will aid us in our quest.\"\n\n\"Just come with me - we'll need weapons. I don't know why, but I have a gut feeling the finest blacksmith in the world somehow needs a favor that only you and I will be clever enough to grant, and he'll give us some sweet loot as thanks.\" \n\nAnd so, Robert and Adam set off on the first of many adventures together.", "I have a peculiar talent. I know, there are lots of folks that say that. Most of them are people who can, I don't know, play the violin with their feet or do origami with their tongue or something like that. Compared with mine, those talents look commonplace.\n\nWhen I was a kid, video games were all I cared about. If my teachers wanted to reach me, they had to think in videogame terms. My math teacher reached me through Minecraft. So did my science teacher. My creative writing teacher suggested I write a fan fic based around Mario Kart and, after that, TF2. My Social Sciences teacher won me over using UnderTale. My history teacher earned my interest through World of Tanks and even went so far as to gamify her subject, setting up achievements I could earn points for and prizes I could buy with them (usually other resource books or websites). \n\nI think I was probably twelve or thirteen when I starting seeing people as video games. At first, it was pretty simple. The school principal, Mr. Farnum, came to lunch one day with the words \"The Principal\" hanging over his head in big bold letters, like a video game title. He was concentrating on getting his lunch, though, or he'd have seen me staring. My best friend did notice, though.\n\n\"What is it, Bill?\" he asked. \"Does Fart'em have TP on his shoe or something?\"\n\nI turned and nearly snorted my milk all over him. The words over his head were \"The Nerd.\" I tried to explain, but he thought I was making a stupid joke at his expense. Needless to say, we weren't friends for much longer.\n\nYears have gone by since that first time. Every day, there were more and more titles. Nearly everyone has them now. Some are really simple. During the presidential elections, for example, I knew Donald Trump would win because his title was \"The President.\" Some are more complicated. Like the time when I was at the grocery store and saw this ordinary-looking person in the check-out line with the title \"The Bank Robber\" hanging over him. I placed an anonymous call to the police over that one. I later saw him get arrested on the news. I guess they'd been having a hard time figuring out who he was.\n\nThe other day, I was out walking my dog home from the local grocery store when I passed an old homeless man. He was dressed in an oversized, old, windbreaker with ragged blankets tucked into it for insulation and sitting half-asleep inside a doorway. He had a sign made from the bottom of an old cardboard box. It read, \"Homeless. Desperate. Anything helps.\" His title, however was, \"The Forgotten King.\" I was so busy staring that I tripped on a crack in the sidewalk and almost landed on my poor samoyed.\n\nPicking myself up, I went to sit next to the guy. Digging around in my groceries, I pulled out some bread and cheese and made a quick sandwich. I nudged the guy awake and handed it to him. He took the makeshift sandwich and ate it like he hadn't eaten in a long time. \n\n\"My name's William,\" I offered, watching the man eat. \"Friends call me Bill.\" I stretched out a hand and he stared at it like he'd never seen a hand before. He didn't stop eating and he didn't take my hand or offer me his name in return. I looked up at his title again, wondering if I'd imagined it somehow. \"The Forgotten King\" still hung over him as clear as daylight.\n\n\"Look,\" I offered, unable to ignore those words, \"I have a spare bedroom you can use.\" He stared at me even more. \"Come on, sir,\" I added, standing up and offering my hand again, \"I can't just leave you here.\" Hesitantly, the man reached up and took my hand.\n\n\"Thank you, William,\" he mumbled through his matted beard. \"You have no idea how much I appreciate this.\"\n\nI chuckled softly as I helped him gather his meager belongings. \"I think I have a general idea.\" \n\n", "As I walked my usual way home from work, I went about everything normally. I nodded at The Baker in her little shop as she wiped down the counters. I reminded myself, like I did every day, that I needed to pay that lady a visit on a lunch break--she looked like she didn't get a lot of business, but everything in the window looked delicious. Next, I went about pointedly staring at the red hand at the traffic light and ignoring The Prophet as he spouted the same old \"repent or be damned\" nonsense he always spouted on the corner to whomever was in earshot. When I finally crossed, I made the \"sorry; I know\" face to those passing me, looking really uncomfortable to have to walk next to that guy. I, as always, didn't look toward the freeway underpass, as I came to find that eye contact made me a target of the homeless people there. It was really close to a shelter, but the shelter had its limits, so there were always loiterers outside and under the bridge. However, a title I didn't recognize was shining from under there, and I only caught it with the corner of my eye. I slowed down and looked up just enough to read it.\n\n&#x200B;\n\nThe Forgotten King.\n\n&#x200B;\n\nHuh.\n\n&#x200B;\n\nI'd never seen anything like that before.\n\n&#x200B;\n\nI thought about just picking my pace back up and making it home in time to get a bit of laundry started before going to the gym, but my interest was officially piqued.\n\n&#x200B;\n\nI found myself walking toward the man, trying to figure out how I was going to go about this. What was I even going to say? Before I even fully realized it, I was standing in front of him. He had been huddled under a worn blanket and didn't really notice me until I was right there. I got the impression that he was very used to people passing literally right next to him without doing anything; there's no way he hadn't heard my footsteps. He peered up at me from under his hat. I was immediately struck by how intelligent his eyes were. They were bright. Sad, but bright.\n\n&#x200B;\n\n\"Can I help you, child?\" he asked. His voice was worn and tired, but there was a strength to it that I wasn't anticipating.\n\n&#x200B;\n\nI found myself feeling rather embarrassed. \"Oh, um... I'm sorry. I just wanted to see how you were doing this evening.\"\n\n&#x200B;\n\nHe seemed a little surprised, but didn't skip a beat. \"I'm getting a bit cold, but I'm okay. Thanks for asking.\"\n\n&#x200B;\n\n\"Um... is there anything I can get for you?\"\n\n&#x200B;\n\nHe chuckled slightly. \"I don't know how to go about answering that question, honestly.\"\n\n&#x200B;\n\nI felt my face flush. Of course, there were probably lots of things I could get for him. \"Are you hungry?\"\n\n&#x200B;\n\nHe smiled faintly. \"Actually, I am doing all right. Just a bit cold.\"\n\n&#x200B;\n\n\"Well, I can give you some hand warmers, if you'd like? I always carry a few in my bag.\" At least it was something.\n\n&#x200B;\n\nHe gave me a genuine smile, and I immediately felt happy. It was the oddest thing. \"Yes, I would very much appreciate that,\" he stated, reaching out a bare hand from under his blanket. I pulled out two of the little packets from my bag, placed them in the outstretched, dirty hand, and watched them disappear behind the fleece. \"Thank you very much,\" he said.\n\n&#x200B;\n\nIt was really bothering me that there didn't seem to be anything special about him. The curiosity was almost infuriating. Surely, if he was a king, forgotten or not, he'd give me some kind of tell. Yet... nothing.\n\n&#x200B;\n\n\"Are you sure there's nothing else you absolutely need tonight?\" I asked helplessly.\n\n&#x200B;\n\nHe chuckled without mirth, and it seemed like it pierced my soul. I had never thought about how asking how I could help someone could be selfish thing. He absolutely needed a warm place to sleep, a shower, and someone to really care for him. Yet, we both knew that I would not be offering those things. I wanted some trivial thing to be able to do for him, to... what? Check off a \"I've been good today\" box on my daily list? I didn't even know. Either way, my face was so flushed that I didn't feel the cold on it anymore.\n\n&#x200B;\n\nHe smiled sadly, but his eyes didn't dim. \"It's all right. I know. I appreciate that you gave me the hand warmers. They're already doing wonders for me.\"\n\n&#x200B;\n\n\"I'm... I'm sorry.\" I didn't know what exactly I was apologizing for. I guess there were lots of things; I was sorry he was in his situation, though I didn't even really know what that situation was aside from needing a home. I knew he was fallen somehow... his tag told me that. I was sorry that I wasn't a better person, too; was it really all that hard to invite him into my house for a least a shower? What's the worst that could happen? He'd steal my mismatched silverware and try to sell it? Or... he could kill me... I guess? But, that didn't really make sense, because it's not like he'd get much out of that. Yet... I still wouldn't. We both knew it. \"I don't carry loose change with me,\" I stammered. \"But, I do have some gift cards for Starbucks if you'd like them?\"\n\n&#x200B;\n\n\"I don't want your money,\" he muttered as he looked down. I could tell he was clutching those hand warmers really hard under the blanket. \"Thank you.\"\n\n&#x200B;\n\nThere was an awkward silence for a bit, and then he looked back up at me with a sudden hope. \"You know what you could do for me?\" he asked.\n\n&#x200B;\n\n\"What is it?\" I truly wanted to help him in that moment... within reason of a stranger helping a stranger... I guess.\n\n&#x200B;\n\n\"Do you think you could pray for me?\"\n\n&#x200B;\n\nI was instantly uncomfortable. Like, he might have gotten a better reaction from me had he actually asked to sleep on my sofa. \"Oh, um...\" was all I could muster.\n\n&#x200B;\n\nHis eyes dimmed. It was devastating. He looked down at the street. \"You don't believe in God, do you?\"\n\n&#x200B;\n\n\"I... uh...\" What to say? \"I... I don't know what I believe.\"\n\n&#x200B;\n\nHe nodded. \"That's something I hear a lot. I hope you discover what you believe some day.\"\n\n&#x200B;\n\nI shifted my weight and coughed. \"I... I hope the hand warmers last a while. And I hope you don't get too cold.\" He didn't answer, and he didn't look up. I felt so stupid. He'd asked for a prayer. Honestly, was that so hard? Even if there wasn't anyone listening, what harm would talking to my empty room be? \"Look, maybe I can muster up a prayer for you tonight. I'm really sorry I can't do anything more.\" I instantly knew that was a lie, and I'll bet he did as well. But, socially, I think it was true enough that we both would just accept it as truth all around.\n\n&#x200B;\n\nHe nodded again. \"Thanks.\"\n\n&#x200B;\n\nI went home. I got some laundry into the washer. Then, just like that, everything was like normal again. The Gym Rat was attempting to speak to The Model when I got to the gym for my nightly workout, just like normal. The Manager told me that rent was due tomorrow, like he always does on the last day of the month. And, just like normal, I went to sleep without saying a prayer.\n\n&#x200B;\n\nThe next day, it was normal again, except I wondered if I would see that Forgotten King again. All day at work, I was distracted, hoping he had found a way to be warmer. Maybe the shelter had a space open up? Maybe someone better than I had stopped by and offered something else?\n\n&#x200B;\n\nOn my walk home, past the bakery I forgot to go to once again, I found myself looking up more than normal, trying to get a glimpse of the underpass before I got there.\n\n&#x200B;\n\nThen, a break in the monotony pulled me out of my thoughts. At the street corner, I realized that I didn't hear anyone shouting at me. Nobody was reminding me of sins I didn't commit or hellfire I didn't believe in.\n\n&#x200B;\n\nI turned, and I saw The Prophet sitting under the awning of the corner building, sobbing uncontrollably and repeating through his sobs to nobody in particular, \"God is dead, God is dead.\"\n\n&#x200B;\n\nAnd, in that moment, I felt my heart stop, and I knew that I wouldn't be talking to The Forgotten King again.", "Everyone has a title. I’ve always been able to see them, but it didn’t take long to figure out nobody else could. Mom heard me sounding out the text shortly after I learned to read, and asked me what I was doing. When I told her, she laughed and said something about how kids had such vivid imaginations. She didn’t laugh when I asked what a philanderer was when dad got home that night. After that, I learned to keep my mouth shut. \n\nAfter a couple decades of seeing titles, I don’t really pay much attention to them anymore. Most of them aren’t all that interesting: “Jeff’s Mom”, “The Mediocre Rapper”, “The Mayonnaise Eater”, “Incel 554280”, etc.\n\nToday, though, I see one that made me do a double take. “The Forgotten King”. \n\n“Hello, can I help you?” He asks politely. “Are you looking for a specific book today?”\n\nI glance around the store, remembering why I’m here. I saw this used book shop a few weeks ago, and thought I might be able to find a gift for Mom here. She likes old novels. Says they have more character.\n\n“Umm, yeah.” I mumble, trying to keep my eyes on his face, not the distracting title hovering over his head. “Do you, uh, have anything by John Smith?” \n\nSo sue me. It’s hard to think of a fake name when you’re distracted.\n\nHis eyelid twitches as he stares at me. “Are you an idiot?”\n\n“Uh...” I avoid his gaze, my eyes wandering around the store. “It’s possible. I’ve been called that often enough.”\n\nDesperate to change the subject, my eyes fall on another customer browsing in the cooking section. \n\n“What in the blazes is The Order of Tesswold?”\n\nNext thing I know, he’s grabbing me by the collar and hauling me over the counter. “Who are you?Where did you hear that name?”\n\nStruggling for an explanation, my eyes flicker to a mirror, to the title hovering over my own head. I’ve never shared it with anyone before, but I’ve never met anyone with a title as strange as mine, either. \n\n“I’m The King’s Eye.”\n\n", "The moon shone fierce that night, for winter had come. It feathered down the rooftops, chimneys, and treetops, bathed the streets and the rivers, making them glitter and sparkle.\n\nWith gloved hands underneath my armpits and swathed in clothes, I quivered back home. If it weren't for the lights of the hearths illuminating the windows, I would've thought I was alone in a ghost town inhabited only by shadows and sibilating winds.\n\nMidway home, I came across a homeless man. He was old, with deep wrinkles, and wandering eyes. Old and new snowflakes were settled in his beard, his mouth moved but no words came out.\n\nHe gazed at me awhile as I went by. I ignored him, another crazy old man. It was then, however, that something stirred in my mind. Had I seen right?\n\nI halted and turned. The man's eyes were fixed on the moon. I drew a deep breath, for above his head, etched in golden, and encrusted in jewels, it read, 'The Forgotten King.'\n\nIt didn't make sense, but still at his side I knelt. \"Sir, do you need any help?\"\n\nKeeping his gaze on the sky, he said, \"Winter was never good for the troops. He's mad, I tell you, he's mad, that new king. He's mad as a ram. I may be old, forgotten by those who once knelt before me, but I'm still wise when it comes to war. This attack, this advance will be our doom. Can't he read the moon? Can't he see the upcoming blizzard?\"\n\nI frowned awhile, and sat to his side. \"Were you a king once?\".\n\n\"Twice,\" he said and nodded firmly. \"One before, one after that. But one can only rule for so long, and so I stepped aside for the new blood to come. I wouldn't have done that had I known they would fight such a war. Sailing in the vicious winter, what is he thinking? The ships will freeze. They will crumble and sink. We are doomed, our kingdom will fall. It will perish and crumble.\"\n\nIn the midst of his tales, I built a fire for us, and there I remained. He spoke a lot, and listened little. His stories were vivid, heart-felt, and to him they were as true as the falling snow.\n\n\"I fought a hundred wars, and none of them I lost,\" he said, and the wrinkles of his cheeks reached the corner of his eyes. Then he raised a finger to the sky. \"Sword in hand, I fought beside my army, in the front lines. One slash, one swing, one thrust at a time the enemies met their demise. But I knew what I was doing. See, I was ignorant, I was a fool, but I accepted what fate had given me, and so I listened to the wise, spoke with the moon, and paid heed to their advice. I owned my flaws, turned them into strengths and fortes. That's why I won. But the new king thinks himself blessed from above, he dreams of glory and fame, of song unsung. He dreams so much he has forgotten he has a brain. I fear all my efforts will be in vain.\"\n\nI heard intently, imagining his tales, playing and replaying them in my mind. It was only when the dawn brushed the night away that I remembered the falling snow, the swirling cold, and the town whole. \n\nMadness was the man's kingdom, and there he'd stay until the winds swept him away. \n\nAnd so I smiled, for that night he'd invited my mind into his reigns, and there we'd seen battlefields, palaces, mountains and valleys; we'd listened to the wise and spoke to the moon, criticized the king and plead to the winds.\n\nI rose to my feet, brushed off the sleet, and thanked him. He nodded, and muttered to himself. It was a surreal experience, one I would never forget.\n\nSomething, however, had changed. \n\nAbove its head, etched in a golden wing, it read, \"The Fabled King.\" \n\n\n------------------\n\nr/NoahElowyn -- If you enjoyed the prose/setting or you simply like fantasy, I have an on-going serie in my sub with kids and a magic school, you can read it [here.](https://www.reddit.com/r/noahelowyn/comments/a2j58b/a_boys_wish_part_12/)" ]	[ 1, 1, 2, 2, 2, 3, 3, 4, 4, 8, 9, 10, 12, 13, 14, 19, 30, 43, 49, 75, 88, 124, 342, 583, 3002 ]	[ "1546962105", "1547000972", "1546995960", "1546997087", "1546998187", "1546991634", "1546995567", "1546990369", "1546999869", "1546995925", "1546993940", "1546985899", "1546971375", "1546976500", "1546985282", "1546990769", "1546988053", "1546974700", "1546993267", "1546972485", "1546970482", "1546972480", "1546983264", "1546974214", "1546969554" ]
	[WP] You are apprentice to a God. One day the two of you are working together, crafting a world, when he steps out for a short break. You notice an issue and try your best to resolve it before he gets back	2	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A\$Reality+Fiction\$&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A\$Simple+Prompt\$&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/XYsEYfS)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "It was perfect. \n\nToo perfect. The native species lived together in harmony. Food and water, both essential to life were plentiful. Lush forests and clear rivers gave way to a sparkling sky. \n\nMaster always did have a tendency for perfection.\n\nPerhaps a flaw or two would add some depth, for the world has the epitome of Elysium. So perfect it had become shallow: for there would be no conflicts, no pain, no suffering. \n\nThe land would suffer from eternal peace, dragging it into a state of lethargy that would last for it’s entire existence. \n\nI’m not Master, I’m not perfect.\n\nHe wove his hands into the fabrics of Fate and the eternal spring was no more. In that short lived instant, the world had been perfect, but perfect was impossible. \n\nA moment captured in time.\n\nSummer arrived, bringing hot winds and inhospitable deserts that rose out from the depths of hell. Winter came with frozen vengeance, dooming the lands of the far North and South to the tender embrace of the biting cold. \n\nWatering holes dried up, clearings that were once teeming with pray became deserted. Suffering. Some survived and others did not. Those who did learned to grow stronger, to adapt. \n\nAm I doing the right thing? Master! Please?! Why aren’t you here with me!\n\nHe went forward, observing closely as something advanced into the wild unknown. With two legs, two arms and no natural defenses to speak of: the animal was doomed. Yet it developed before his gaze. They built villages, cities and even more wondrous things. They were an annoyance for they were the servants of order, they had no more respect for the chaos that had shaped the world. \n\nPlease! I’m doing good... aren’t I? Master.... please.....\n\nIn an instant, he created another one of the creatures. She would be perfect, he decided.\n\nHe abhorred perfect\n\nHe made her flawless: she was the perfect specimen. She could be deemed the most attractive of her species, with beauty and wit from the gods. She had all the qualities she could ever hope to have. \n\nHe named her Pandora. \n\nHis child lived a happy life but she was curious. Too curious. He gave her a gift. A jar of sorts that should never be opened. \n\nHubris was a parasite that plagued their species.\n\nThe foolish child was just that: foolish. Her hunger for adventure could not be contained as she opened the jar. \n\nChaos. \n\nPerversion.\n\nIt was unleashed throughout the girl’s species. Through her own act, through her own hubris. \n\nShe looked up and cried as it spread around her, as perfection fled once again leaving chaos in its wake. \n\n“Why?”\n\n“Because of what you are.”\n\n\n\nHe abhorred perfection after all\n" ]	[ 1, 2 ]	[ "1546974242", "1546975351" ]
	[WP] Magic hasn't been practiced for generations, and the modern world is all but devoid of it. By some twist of fate, you are born with a slight aptitude for magic, and a familiar seeks you out; an ancient and proud familiar that only allies itself with the most powerful magic user in the world.	154	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A\$Reality+Fiction\$&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A\$Simple+Prompt\$&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/XYsEYfS)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "For as long as he could remember, Jinyoung had been a bit unusual. He could see perfectly in the dark, animals seemed to understand him, and there was that one time he’d broken open a chestnut shell to find a golden ring inside. \n\nBut he wouldn’t really call himself a magician per se. After all, he didn’t really do anything to make the extraordinary happen, rather the extraordinary happened to him. \n\nToday was no exception. He’d been on his way to school when he heard a small voice calling out to him from the bushes by the sidewalk. Upon closer inspection, it seemed to be coming from a lizard. \n\n“How is it that you know my name?” Jinyoung asked, intrigued. Animals always listened to him, but none had ever spoken to him before. \n\n“I know a great many things, Dragonmaster.” The lizard replied, it’s voice hissing softly. \n\n“Dragonmaster?” Jinyoung raised an eyebrow. “There are no dragons, they’re just stories.”\n\n“So are talking animals.” The lizard almost seemed to shrug. “And yet, here we are.”\n\n“True.” Jinyoung smiled. “So why do you call me Dragonmaster?”\n\n“Dragons seek out treasure, and there is no greater treasure than magic.” The lizard whispered. “And the one who commands magic, commands the dragons.”\n\n“Is that why you speak to me then?” Jinyoung asked. “Because I can do magic? I’m afraid you’ll be disappointed then, because I can’t really make it happen, it just does whatever it pleases.”\n\n“No one controls their magic at first.” The lizard hissed. “A hatchling thrown into the ocean cannot control the waves, but when they are grown, they can control the storm.”\n\n“A hatchling of what?” Jinyoung wondered. Understanding dawned on him. “Are you a dragon?”\n\n“The last of my kind, as far as I know.” The lizard nodded. “I have searched far to find the most powerful sorcerer in the east, and I have found you, Jinyoung.”\n\n“And what is it that you want?” Jinyoung asked. “And since when am I the most powerful sorcerer?”\n\n“To serve you, Dragonmaster.” The dragon hissed. “And you are indeed the most powerful sorcerer, as sure as I am the last dragon.”\n\n“We’d make quite the pair then.” Jinyoung laughed and held out his hand to the dragon. “The last dragon and the last sorcerer.”\n\n“Nay, Dragonmaster.” The dragon leapt from the bush into Jinyoung‘s hand. “The first sorcerer of a new age.”", "Rhodes looked around him, he could hear someone breathing, it echoed all around him. \n\n\"Hello - are you having trouble, can I help?\" Rhodes did his best to ease the shake in his voice. He had been bullied and pushed around because of his peculiar abilities. He didn't really understand them but he could make some sparks and make things cold, nothing of significance but it made him different. Now he was afraid someone else was going to attack him. He could feel the panic rising in his chest. The breathing was getting closer and it was louder. \n\nHe could feel the ground swell with every breath his pursuer took, Rhodes darted around a corner but it felt like it reached the turn before he did. He looked behind him, nothing. \n\n\"Young one, do not fear my presence. Come to the open clearing ahead of you and wait a moment.\" the ground shook with the voice pressing Rhodes to the ground. On his hands and knees he crawled trying to escape the pressure it put on him. His head was barely able to lift when he saw a small clearing ahead between the buildings, the neighborhood park. No one was there, was that where the voice wanted him to go? He froze as the breath inhaled deeply, he felt as if his own breath was being sucked out of him. The panic was overtaking him, his thoughts were only to escape this pressure. He struggled to stand, but as soon as he was upright the ground shook again with an impact shaking him to the ground again.\n\nRhodes face had taken the brunt of the fall, his fact was covered with bits of gravel, sand, and dirt. Now he could barely see through a mass of hair in his face. Then it stopped. The pressure was gone.\n\n\"My apologies, I have not had to suppress my aura in centuries. Come, let me have a look at you.\" The voice filled the air in front of Rhodes. He cleared his face and sat back on his feet. As he looked for the voice his eyes began to water, warm air exhaled covering his body. \n\nRhodes stared in disbelief, wiping away the dampness of his eyes. A dragon sat before him. Powerful jaws of blackened hide and glistening white teeth were the first feature Rhodes saw. As he began looking beyond the obvious danger, he saw the for massive limbs folded together resembling a feline napping with his head on its paws. Its color was mystifying, as it seemed to reflect the sky, the stars, and light from all around.\n\n\"You seem a bit stunned young man. Shall I come another time? I do believe you should have been expecting a visit so soon after you your 15th season. Did you expect another perhaps?\" The dragon seemed to yawn, exposing a glowing throat and more teeth than Rhodes cared to see.\n\nRhodes took in the site and remained confused. The creature had lifted its head and placed it nostrils within a hands reach of him. Rhodes panic was wearing off, now his mind was working, trying to understand what he was supposed to do. \n\nRhodes finally spoke, \"I did not expect anyone great dragon, but I am honored by your presence.\" Rhodes felt flattery was in order, never hurt to try and make a friend instead of an enemy.\n\n\"Have you not been raised as the next Arch-mage, should you not know why it is I am before you now? Who has failed in their sworn duty to pass down the traditions of the INFALLIBLE! WHERE ARE THE ADEPTS! WHERE ARE THE LIBRARIANS! I, THE PEARL BLACK DRAGON, RULER OF THE DRAGONS OF BLACK NIGHT, FAMILIAR OF THE INFALLIBLE ARCH-MAGE, MIGHTY SHRODE WILL DESOLATE THE SCHOOLS OF MAGIC FOR THIS DISGRACE!\" Shrode's voice regained its pressure forcing Rhodes to cover his ears, he began to whimper at the exhale of the dragon.\n\n\"There are no magic schools great Shrode. I believe I do have some magic but have never been taught. The library we have here, well it has some magic books but they are all about slight of hand.\" Rhodes trembled as he spoke. The panic had returned 10 fold, he cowered in a semi fetal position still sitting on his knees.\n\nAgain the pressure lifted almost throwing him forward, his head was almost touching the ground when he felt the warm hardness of the dragons chin on his forehead. \"Young one, tell me. How many years has it been since the last Arch-Mage passed?\" \n\nThe breath passed over Rhodes as the dragon spoke the question. \"There are a few fairy tales or stories about magic, but no real history. It was said the magic just stopped showing up in the children because no one believed magic was real. I only know of myself as capable of anything mysterious.\"\n\nThe dragon pulled away and resumed his feline position. Rhodes watched him settle his head on the large forearms. The dragon slowly closed his eyes and began to mumble softly.\n\nMoments later a blue ring surrounded Shrode and the air began to shimmer, in a blast it went out expanding ever faster. \"We shall see if what you say is true. I may have just invited your doom or only confirmed your existence. Now we wait.\"\n\n\"What was that?\" Rhodes asked. He was still in panic mode, but his mind hadn't shutdown again. He was in awe of everything going on in front of him now. He felt the casting of the spell but he couldn't tell what it's purpose was. \n\n\"I sent a detection wave around the world, it will take some time but after it completes its course it will return here to us. Any magical entity wishing to respond can and any magic entity it finds will be recorded. Do you have any charred lamb available by chance? I do not exactly require food but the flavors given by this realms animals is absolutely divine.\" His long tongue slid around a giant tooth and back in his mouth.\n\n\"I believe I can get lamb at the market but we would need to cook it. Can you teach me a spell?\", Rhodes realized he may have spoken to soon when the dragon's face was abruptly close to his own.\n\n\"If I was your Familiar, I could teach you how to control the heavens and the earth.\" The great black eyes narrowed on Rhodes. \"If you are as you say 'capable' and speaking the truth, I shall reserve my contempt of this situation and allow a pact to be formed. Show me your sparks.\"\n\nRhodes raised his hands, moving his fingers together he could feel the electricity coming down his arms, the sparks leapt between his palms, he slowly pulled them apart until the sparks were gone.\n\n\"Curious, I do believe the 7th Arch-Mage had a similar affinity to lightening. He could call down bolts of lightening, I believe some called him Zeus, although I think he took the name from somewhere. That was quite sometime after the Infallible had left ruling. I believe the Infallible had said to me once, 'Arch-Mages just need a good direction and things will be fine' and then regretted his comment after Zeus tried making himself into different animals to impress the ladies. So long ago, now, you said you could make things cold as well?\"\n\nRhodes looked around him and found a small rock. He placed on the back of his hand and pinched his fingers on the rock. Moist rock frosted at the point of his fingers. \"It only works on the back of my hand, if I do it in my palm it just makes static.\" He held out the rock for the dragon to inspect.\n\n\"Impressive young one. I am curious as to how you found the odd technique of chilling rocks.\" The dragon returned his head once again to his forearms.\n\n\"By accident, I was playing with some glue and had it on the back of my hand. When I went to pull it off it got really cold.\" Rhodes mimicked the action he had used during his discovery.\n\n\"So you have not expounded on your discoveries? Learned to harness them?\", the questions came across full of doubtful belief. The dragon tilted his head and looked at the horizon. \"Looks as if your truth is to be tested.\"\n\nRhodes could see the blue light coming back, it seemed much faster than it was when it left. In a flash it collapsed on where the dragon lie, \"Quite interesting, judging by this, you are possibly the most powerful mage on the globe, but most certainly not the only one hundreds were found. There are still deep magics alive. Interesting that I cannot sense any of the old libraries or arch-mage incantations still active.\"\n\n\"So you will teach me magic?\" Rhodes finally stood.\n\n\"If the pact you agree to, then yes. I am no errand runner, I shall not sacrifice my existence for yours and you shall not draw upon my power unless I consent. Do you understand?\" Rhodes nodded in agreement. The dragon rose to all fours then sat back on his tail. Spreading his forearms wide and extending his wings he engulfed Rhodes' entire view of the sky. \"Repeat these words young one: My heart shall be tied to he that accepts my command. Shrode, I command thee Familiar.\"\n\nRhodes looked at the dragon in front of him. The moon had just made the outline of his great for visible in its entirety, he took a deep breath and began \"My heart shall be tied to he that accepts my command. Shrode, I command thee Familiar.\"", "Her presence radiated disdain much like the stove radiated heat. Irritation flowed from her in waves and I could feel her icy glare stab between my shoulder blades. If looks could kill, and according to her talented mages could kill with a look, I would be dead many times over. \n\nInstead her disgruntled look amused me and I grinned up at her. “Someone is in a grumpy mood today.”\n\nAnd why is that I wonder, she replied scathingly. Her thoughts coiled around the words and I flinched lightly at her anger. Our empathic link allowed the other to feel what the former was feeling and her thoughts burned with indignation. You squander your gift, wasteful and aimless. The Gods curse me for making you so talented in a talentless world.\n\nMy smile grew as I looked back down, shaking the pan with an easy hand. Redolent odors of garlic and onion reached my nose and I sprinkled in a generous pinch of salt. “If I’m such a waste then why don’t you find another?”\n\nIf I could I would have. Purple eyes glared at me and leaned over, a hard beak dipped to strike at my head. \n\nI dodged the raven’s blow, knowing full well how much it hurt. When I narrowed my eyes at her she huffed, turning on her stand to flash her hindquarters at me. Her tail feathers flicked with irritation and I shook my head. “I don’t think I’m as bad as some I’ve read about in the books. Wilhelm the bloody, Tsoka of the thousand eyes, Quan half hearted-“\n\nAt least they used their talents, she interrupted, turning to face me again. They used their magic, they learned, they explored. You do nothing with your abilities.\n\n“That’s not true,” I replied blandly as strips of chicken fell into the pan. Contact with the oil made a hearty sizzling noise and the aroma grew more savory. “I study when I’m not working. And I’m using my abilities now.”\n\nMy eyes glowed, my normal brown irises shimmered with silver light. I could see where the fire burned hotter, where the wind moved. My movements were swifter, reactions quicker. \n\nShe hissed, pecking moodily at the stand. On trivial things! Banal and worthless. You have the ability to enact change on a level unseen by most. Reality is yours to command, you determine what laws effect you. And yet you are a cook, a job traditionally held by the low. Preposterous.\n\n“I like to cook.” She snorted in reply and closed her eyes as I poured soy sauce and sesame oil onto the almost finished dish. I poured it steaming on a plate and handed it to another before looking at the next ticket. “You think I’m not doing anything? That I am not making use of my talent?” Cold silence was my reply and I chuckled. “I think I am.”\n\nPray educate me. The words oozed sarcasm and I laughed again. \n\n“Well, let me ask you. You were telling me about Gwendolyn of Petals?”\n\nAh she was a fine magus! The raven leapt up and clacked her beak. She took a worn torn land, earth ruined from a war of many years and rebirthed it. She erased the scars of Man and regrew an entire land.\n\n“And Anazi?”\n\nAnazi the wise led civilizations for ages. His words laid peace on an unheard of scale. His powers defended a continent from the Other Side. He was clever and brave.\n\n“So they protected others, gave their gifts, and did what they could to help yes?”\n\nObviously.\n\nI poured a measure of soup into a small dish and set it beside her stand. With a half hearted flap she settled beside it, briefly dipping her beak into it. Then she did it again, and again, until the dish was empty. She fluffed with pleasure then looked startled. That is filled with a healing draught. I know that taste.\n\nI nodded. “A mild one, but a potent one. I included an aspect of rejuvenation for fatigue as well. The ingredients were infused with a charm for strength-“\n\n-and quickness. she continued, watching me closely. You have been working enchantments into your cooking.\n\nI looked her in the eye. “People here are hurting, for food, for security, for comfort. People here are weak, the area is weak. But with my cooking, they can find a little happiness, a little nourishment.” I shrugged, trying to explain my thoughts. “The world wasn’t what it was. It was different then. I don’t know how to be a magus like those before. But if I can help those around me, then maybe I can be a magus that is needed now.”\n\nShe said nothing and I returned to my work. Finally as the rush passed I made a meal for myself, dividing some into a plate that I placed before her. She pecked eagerly at it, her beak working at the food. You are very odd.\n\nI chewed and shrugged again, unsure of how to respond. \n\nIt may not be a bad thing however." ]	[ 1, 3, 7, 107 ]	[ "1546974535", "1547010195", "1546999223", "1546976785" ]
	[WP] You get a job as a shopkeeper’s assistant in Ohio. You get paid well, and you find it strange that nobody pays for anything, so you confront the manager. He simply says, “you don’t pay with money.”	48	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. 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Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "\"what do you mean by you don't pay with money?\", I promptly quipped. \n\n-\"Yeah. You don't pay with money.\" \n\n\"How, then? How are you able to afford paying my wages and keep the shop stocked?\" \n\n-\"I am a millionaire. I pay you and keep the store running out of my pocket.\" \n\n\"Wow, that's really nice of you, boss! I bet the townsfolk really appreciate the charity.\"\n\n-\"...yeeeeeeah, about that.\" \n\n\"Wait... It isn't charity?\" \n\n-\"uhm. I said people don't pay with cash. They pay in ass.\" \n\n\"I don't want to hear any of that.\" My tone changed, I was beyond disgusted by the idea, but then my boss answered: \n\n-\"Yeah this town has reached somewhat of an agreement with me. I provide with my store, and they give back to me in exchange. Every single client.\" \n\n\"I quit.\" \n\nI didn't even want my pay. My vision turned bright red and my ears started ringing, disgusted barely makes it justice. Gosh, an elderly lady just came by to buy pickles. \n\nWhile making a move for the front entrance, my now ex boss kept going into detail. \n\n-\"Yeah, I have quite the appetite, and boy you don't know how these people provide, it's the best investment I've ever made! How else could I have banged an entire city?\" \n\nI'm in the parking lot by now, slamming the door on my fucked up Civic, trying also to fit the key in the ignition, while this man has caught up to me, now screaming: \n\n-\"JONAH, YOU GRABBED A BAG OF DORITOS YESTERDAY, YOU NOW HAVE TO PAY.\" \n\nThank God my raggedy ass Honda started that night. ", "\"Ahahaha.... uhh, I don't follow.\"\n\nWas he fucking with me? John didn't seem like the funny type. During the interview, when I tried cracking some jokes, he didn't even crack a smile.\n\n\"No, I'm not.\" John said, curtly as he picked up a broom to clean.\n\nNo, he's definitely not. I can see it in his eyes, he's telling the truth.\n\n\"Alright, so... you just give things away for free? Mr. Bill Gates over here.\" I smiled. John just stares at me back blankly.\n\n\"I never said they're for free. I said you don't pay with money.\"\n\n\"Alright then, what do you pay with then? Labour? Love? ....Sex?\" I asked the last question half jokingly, half concerned. If I'm in some sort of fucked up sex bartering shop, I need to get the hell out of here.\n\nJohn stares at me again, and then went back to sweeping the floor. What a character, never met a guy like him.\n\nSuddenly, the bell on top of the door rang and in came a flustered woman, hurriedly scanning the room. She was here yesterday, I had seen her buy some expensive earrings.\n\nHer eyes met John across the room and ran to him instantly, falling onto her knees.\n\n\"Please...! PLEASE I want it back!\" She pled to John.\n\nI went over to try to pick her up off the floor, and that's when I saw John smile for the very first time.\n\n\"I WANT MY SOUL BACK.\"", "You don't question it. It pays well and you like where you work. You go on as usual.\n\nOne day, a tall, red-haired woman enters. Her heels knocking on the old damp cement floor of the shop as she walks along admiring the display cases. Long rows of jewelry and extravigent metals in the displays shine and sparkle as the sequins on her dress reflect the florecent lighting from the flickering bulb above. You are about to ask if she needs help when she shoots you a glance, her lips spreading into a long smile. \n\n\"Hello, I haven't seen you here before.\"\n\n\"Oh, yeah, well I just started this week.\"\n\n\"And how is it?\"\n\nYou can smell her perfume, you think you've smelled it before, or maybe just imagined it when imagining what a beautiful woman must smell like. Its aroma seems so sweet and dense it matches the cherry red of her lipstick.\n\n\"I'm sorry...\"\n\n\"The job, how do you like the job?\" She asks\n\n\"Oh, it's great! I can't believe how much cool stuff Mendo has, and I've met some very cool people ever since I started\"\n\nHer drawn on eyebrow arches as you finish. You feel like you sounded too immature.\n\n\"I mean,\" you stop slouching over the display case as though it was going to catch the drool that was forming in your mouth \"not cool. More.... Sophisticated?\" You struggle to get the thought out.\n\nShe chuckles as your face turns a shade rivaling her lips. \"You're cute. I hope I see you around here more.\" She sends you a playful wink that you are sure was slower than a usual wink. \n\n\"I actually was wondering if you had any books\" she asks, looking around the shop.\n\n\"Yeeah,\" you feel your voice crack and your face burns even hotter. Clearing your throat, you try to make the manliest coughs and grunts, as though you were getting the prepubescent teen that obviously had been hiding in your throat out. \"We have a shelf of some classics over there\" you point to an area in the corner of the shop.\n\n\"Oh, no. I've read all those before\" she pouts and sticks her bottom lip out. \"Could you check in the back and see if there is anything else back there? Something newer.\" \n\nShe watches as you debate leaving the counter unattended.\n\n\"Yeah something a little.... Younger\" she whispers, looking you up and down. \"And thick\"\n\nYou can barely swallow. You nod, afraid your voice will crack again and quickly make your way to the back. You let out a breath of air you didn't even know you were holding in. \n\nGotta hurry. Don't want to leave the shop alone too long.\n\nWould it really matter though? You ponder as you start rummaging through an old heap of various clothes and boxes in the hopes of finding something to pretend you tried to find something that fit her description. Its not as if you can \"steal\" things nobody seems to be paying for.\n\nYou hear the door open and close. You hurry back to greet the next customer, but are surprised to see an empty store. The female's perfume the only thing left of her. \n\nYou let out a groan. You didn't even get her name. Even if she did take something, your only job was to log the name and item she took on the ledger. You go to retrieve the ledger to at least log the items she took, once you locate them. But, as you reach under the counter in the only area not laced in dust your hand fails to land on the cold leather bound ledger.\n\nYour throat stops and your fingertips go cold as you feel your heart drop in your chest. It has to be somewhere else. You stand, awkwardly as you try to retrace every step in your mind from starting your shift. \n\nMaybe the ledger wasn't there when you started!? No. You had looked in it when you first arrived. You looked in it! You must have moved it. But to where? You rake your brain over and over again, but you already know the answer before ending your mental recap. The ledger was there when you went to the back of the shop.\n\nFuck. FUCKING fucks who fuck. Shit fucks. Shitty fucking fuck fucks. You try to think of what to do. She knew you were new, maybe its ok she took it? Maybe she's a friend of the owner? God, you do not want to lose this job. You pull out your phone, trying to think of ANY solution that doesn't require you to tell Mr. Mendo. You slowly dial his number, hoping that after each number pressed, the woman will simply walk back with the ledger. You reach the final number. Swallowing as you press \"call\". \n\nRead comments for the rest", "I cocked my head to the side and looked at my employer quizzically. I had a strange feeling that I didn't really want the answer to my next question, but I found my mouth opening to ask it all the same.\n\n\"You've been working here for almost a month, right?\" the middle-aged man asked before I could say anything. I nodded and he rubbed at the stubble on his chin, his light grey eyes pondering as he looked down at me. That's not fair. He didn't physically have to look down at me. We were roughly the same height. His presence made me feel feet shorter, though. He turned to his wife, a pretty brunette woman in a dark green sundress at the cash register. \"Mare,\" he said, \"mind the front would you? I'm going to show the new guy the back room.\" The woman looked up from the game she was playing on her phone and smiled knowingly.\n\n\n\"Is it that time already?\" she asked convivially.\n\n\"Yeah, I think so,\" the owner responded and turned toward the back of the store, motioning for me to follow without another word.\n\n\"Have fun, Sweetheart,\" she said to me also waving for me to follow her husband. Something in the deepest part of me told me to run, get out the door and never come back. My feet started to move toward the owner as if under their own power. I followed the owner through the storeroom and back toward his office. I'd never been this far back into the building before. It simply wasn't allowed. The older man took a set of keys off of his belt and they jangled happily as he unlocked the office door. I don't know what I was expecting, but it just looked like a normal office to me. He ushered me in and then used the same key ring to unlock a filing cabinet.\n\n\"Have a seat there,\" he said. I took the seat he had offered, in a daze almost, and he pulled a file folder from the cabinet and handed it to me. \"Open it up and tell me what you see.\" I did so. Inside the folder hundreds of receipts, some dating back as far as ten years. It didn't seem possible so many could fit in this tiny folder.\n\n\"They're...\" I started to say and paused to turn a few over in my hand. \"They're just receipts from the store.\"\n\n\"Right,\" the owner said, \"but look closer.\" I did. I poured over every inch of several of the receipts, but saw nothing different.\n\n\"Like I said,\" I told him, \"they're receipts.\" He rubbed at his stubble again and studied me a moment before taking a seat on the edge of his desk and crossing his arms in front of him.\n\n\"Well,\" he said, a bit of consternation in his voice, \"I know I didn't misread you. It must not have manifested yet.\" He took the folder from me and removed a single receipt, holding it up for me to see. \"I'm a sorcerer. So are you.\" I gaped at him.\n\n\"What?\" I said in awe. \"Impossible. There's no such thing as sorcerers and magic. And I'm pretty sure I would know if I was one.\" He simply smiled and shook his head.\n\n\"Not necessarily,\" he said. \"If you haven't hit your breaking point yet, then you wouldn't have manifested. You see, I hired you to take over this store when I'm gone. Our business is kindness.\" Apparently, I still had a slack-jawed look on my face because he continued. \"On every one of these receipts is imprinted a magical contract. When it's signed, the contract goes into effect.\"\n\n\"What does the contract do?\" I asked against my better judgment. \"For that matter, if it's magical shouldn't people be signing in blood or something?\" My employer let out a hearty chuckle and shook his head once more.\n\n\"God no, Son,\" he said. \"I'm no Warlock. A simple signature will do, but it has to be given freely. The contract is simply a minor compulsion spell that compels the subject to do one random act of kindness per day.\" I thought on that for a moment, staring at the folder in his hands. \"If you're wondering if the customers know...no and yes. They know there's a catch. They're pretty sure it isn't nefarious, as we've been around for almost two decades now. I don't think any of them know it's magic.\"\n\n\"Why?\" I asked. I had meant to say something eloquent and meaningful, but that was all that would come out.\n\n\"I told you. Our business is kindness. I woke one day, shortly after realizing my full potential as a sorcerer, and decided I didn't like the state the world was in. Did I go about killing people who did bad things? No no...that would make me worse than the atrocities I wanted to get rid of. When I met Mare, she knew me for what I was. She's not a sorcerer herself, but her father was, and she's sensitive to magical energies. I told her on our third date that I wanted to make the world a better place. I had already sort of worked out the idea of the contract, but the shop was her idea.\"\n\n\"That's akin to rape,\" I blurted out without thinking. He cocked an eyebrow at me, but didn't rush to defend himself, so I pressed on. \"You're taking away people's free will.\"\n\n\"Oh?\" he said, not seeming the least bit ruffled. \"How am I taking away free will?\"\n\n\"Your spell forces them to do something they might not otherwise want to do! Kindness means nothing unless you have the free will to choose to do it!\"\n\n\"I told you, Son. The customers know there's a catch, but they come in anyway. I merely use the inherent greed of the human condition to do my job for me. I don't use magic to make them come into the shop. I don't force them to sign the receipt. Besides, the compulsion wears off after a few weeks. By that time, most people are so addicted to the warm and fuzzies that come with helping someone just to help them that they continue doing good without being compelled.\"\n\n\"It still isn't right,\" I said, my earlier conviction waning. \"It still seems wrong somehow.\"\n\n\"Look,\" my employer said, suddenly very serious, \"what I do here doesn't hurt anyone. No one is rushing to give their life savings to a charity or jumping in front of trains to save lives. It's simple stuff, like holding the door for someone or paying a dollar and change to buy coffee for the person behind them in line at a gas station. When I started my work, this town was miserable with angry and hurting people. In the twenty-four years since those doors first opened, people have become kinder to each other and our little town has become a place where people want to live to get away from the hatred and violence of the big cities.\"\n\nWhen he had finished, I just sat there, staring at the floor. My head was starting to hurt. Part of me wanted to be angry at this man that I had started to like so much, but what he was saying made so much sense. Who was really getting hurt in all this? No one. After a long several minutes of silence, I felt his hand on my shoulder and looked up to see him squatting in front of me.\n\n\"Do me a favor,\" he said. I nodded. \"Take the rest of the day and the weekend off. Mare and I can manage without you. If you still feel so strongly that what I'm doing is wrong come Monday, don't come in. I'll pay you two months wages for your troubles and you can find yourself a different job.\"\n\n\"And if I do come back?\" I asked.\n\n\"When you come back,\" he said, emphasizing that he knew my mind was already made up, \"we'll start trying to break you so that power of yours can manifest. After that, I'll start teaching you how to run this place properly. Like I said, I want you to take over for me when I'm gone.\" He stood and offered me a hand. I shook it rose from the chair slowly. When I reached the door to the office, I turned.\n\n\"You're sure this is okay?\" I asked.\n\n\"Been doing it for over two decades, Son,\" he replied. \"People in this town have never been happier.\" I nodded and left without another word. When I returned to work on Monday, it was with something of a renewed vigor for life and what was to come. Marielle poured me a cup of black coffee and my employer and I retired to the stockroom to start breaking my walls as Master Sorcerer and Apprentice.", "I was down on my luck and going door to door looking for work. Most places told me to apply online but I was tired of sitting in front of my computer at home waiting for my power or internet to be shut off for lack of payment. I probably walked this street a dozen times in my life, but this was the first time I had ever seen this shop. \n\nWhite stone building with frosted mosaic glass depicting a tree in each window; one tree was barren branched on a white field in one side and with leaves and flowers on the other half. The second window the tree bore fruit on one half and autumn leaves on the other. Above the door were two lanterns with some sigil that I didn't recognize, maybe runes from Norse times. \n\nI entered the store and the man behind the counter couldn't have been less than 80 years old. \"If you find anything you like come and talk to me before you leave.\" He said between his gasping breaths. He was a small man smoking a cigarette while hooked up to an oxygen tank. His white suit with black pinstripes drew attention to him. \n\nThe shop was a very simple affair with bottles of miscellaneous items labeled in a language I couldn't read, let alone try to identify. Some items glowed, others seemed to absorb light. In a few I swear the animals that were preserved watched me pass by their thick wooden stands. \n\nI walk up to the counter. \"I'm looking for a job.\" I say to him. He looks at me with an appraising eye and comes out from behind the counter for a closer look. \n\n\"Here's the deal then, I'll hire you on and pay you enough to live comfortably, but not extravagantly for one season. In return you will work the front counter of this shop on the days it is opened and you will tell no one of the shops existence and you will not initiate any contact with anyone outside the store relating to matters within. If you do, you will owe me a boon. Do we have a deal?\"\n\nWhat kind of messed up terms of employment is that? Seasonal work? I can't wrap my mind around it, it's just too strange so I ask the only question that comes to mind. \"Medical and dental?\" \n\n\"I will pay all costs while you work for me.\" He says as he extends his hand. I shake on it. I never filled out any paperwork. \n\nThe next day I start my job and no one enters the store. I'm allowed to do as I please according to the manager but I must pay full attention when a customer is in the store. I work there for over a week without a customer coming or going. \n\nAs I head home I start to worry about the power being shut off finally or if I have enough food to last to pay day. I check the home phone when I get home and there are no new voicemails. It's been a whole week without a debt collector calling me. Just before I head to the kitchen I hear a knock on my door and a delivery boy shoves his delivery into my door and has me sign a receipt before bolting down the hall. All my cards are canceled but the address is right. I thank my lucky stars and settle in for a relaxing weekend. \n\nI return to work and finally have a customer, a woman in a business suit enters the store and looks at the jars and labels. When she finally chooses a flask of a glowing navy blue liquid the manager comes out from the back of the store and talks quietly in a seating area in the corner. They shake hands and she leaves. No money changes hands. \n\nThis happens every time a customer enters the store, never once do I see any money change hands. No contracts no receipts, I never once open the till except to figure out how it works. The only time I feel of any use is when I see a teenage boy try to pocket one of the bottles. I tackle him to the floor before he can leave the shop and the manager takes him to the back for a while before the boy skulks out of the door. \n\nHow does a shop run without any money? No contracts, no income from what I can tell, but all the same I get enough money to pay my bills and keep me comfortable. It was three months after I started when I was closing up the shop when the manager comes out to talk to me. \n\n\"You've been a good employee, and I would like to keep you on for a year and a day starting now under the same terms.\" I was shocked. I sat around watching Hulu and playing games for most of my days, how did I become so lucky? But the question still burned in the back of my mind. \n\n\"I just have a question before I agree.\" The manager nods and waves his hand telling me to continue. \"I never see money change hands here. How does this shop run without money? The same bills are in the till now that were here when I started.\"\n\nHe smiled, a little to widely, his teeth I finally noticed were filed down to points like a predator. \"That's simple, I don't take payments in money, as I am not interested in money.\" He starts walking down one of the wide isles. \"Do you have any idea what are actually in these jars?\" I shake my head, I really never gave it any thought. \n\nHe pulls a jar down full of a green mist. \"This is the strength of a ogre.\" He replaces the jar and picks up a test tube with an amber liquid. \"This is enough unfortunate circumstances to keep someone busy for a week.\" He places the tube back in its rack and pulls out a large bottle with a preserved creature inside. \"And eating this will protect you from grievous harm for an hour.\" He finally places the jar on the shelf and starts walking back to me. \n\n\"With glorious treasures like these, who needs money, but there is a debt, because the shelves must be stocked you see. You may be wondering how you harvest the strength of a ogre, or siphon off unfortunate events, or even hunt a Hedge Lizard. To know those secrets you must agree to work at my shop for Seven years under these same terms and I will also grant you a boon per year. Do we have a deal?\"" ]	[ 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 21 ]	[ "1546986464", "1547007457", "1547009568", "1547009332", "1547007545", "1546992524" ]
	[WP] As far as you knew, your father died when you were young. Due to the lack of a father and an alcoholic mom, you turned to a life of crime. After your death, you’re sent to the fiery depths of hell. Upon your arrival, Satan greets you and says, “Hey sport! You here to give your old man a visit?”	12	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A\$Reality+Fiction\$&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A\$Simple+Prompt\$&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/XYsEYfS)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "I did my best to swallow, my throat a sandpapered cave and my tongue swollen and dead in my mouth. Sweat beaded on my upper lip, dripped down my neck, soaked under my arms. The heat roiled over me in waves worse than any fever, my skin pinching tight across my forearms and cheeks where the sweat was evaporating as fast as it could appear. My hair frizzed and curled and stuck to my scalp in disgusting oily clumps and my lungs - oh God I was going to pass out.\n\nI can’t breathe.\n\nI was next in line. My brain was humming with blood and I could barely think. \n\nI’m next in line, just get up to the counter and give the lady your number and it will be over.\n\nThe woman lifted dead eyes to my direction and waited.\n\nMy turn. Shit.\n\nOne heavy foot up and clumsily down. I flash a glance at the woman as apology. The next and my knee buckles and then three quick steps and I’m crashing into the countertop with all my weight. My elbows slide immediately across the countertop, sweat streaking behind like snail slime. \n\nShaking, I reach a hand into my left breast pocket, wincing at the gunshot wound bleeding freely from my liver. I pull out the folded documents and set them on the warm granite with a gentle thwack. Even the brief moment of relief is spoiled by the heat. My feet are soaked in my boots. Another labored breath. My vision darkens and sparkles begin to swim in and over. \n\n“I’m going to pass out now,” I manage to whisper to the clerk before collapsing to the floor completely.\n\n...\n\nImages swirl before me. Blood. Screaming. A pop louder than any joint crack and an explosion of pain blooming from my core.\n\n...\n\nI’m reclined in a leather armchair before a roaring fireplace. Poking at the white embers was a man who seemed all too familiar and so foreign... otherworldly. The sheer size of him was at least twice my own; impossibly thin legs that were wrong in a way I couldn’t place. Thick dark curls rolled down just past the mans shoulders. As he turned I felt my eyes begin to roll back again. Hidden in the angle of his posture were two sharp horns protruding from his forehead, and what I had mistakenly assumed to be a belt twitched as a very live forked tail.\n\n“Chip right off the old block!” Roared the devil. “Bout time you came and visited your old man!”\n\n...\n\nMy mind reeled. Perhaps it snapped. I flashed back to my mother, drunk in the doorway of the bathroom, watching me play with matches in the tub. \n\n“You look just like your father,” she had sneered, smudged lipstick making her words slur in the air. She had laughed, then, a mirthless laugh only a woman like her could laugh, forced to live long after her will had left. “Your father was the devil.” She had slugged back another three shots in one gulp, then. Adjusted her weight, leaning in the creaking doorframe. Suddenly something struck her as funny and she laughed for a long few moments until the match pinched between my plump fingers had burned me. The light flickered out of the room. \n\n“An absolute devil.” She had mumbled it more to herself as I heard the creak of her stumbling out the doorway. I snapped my fingers and lit the match from the flame on my thumb again, the tub illuminated once more.\n\n... \n\nI awoke again in the leather armchair. This time, sitting on the stool next to me sat the beast known as Satan himself.\n\n“I have to say I can’t even be mad it took you so long to visit!” There was such a strange look in his eye. I barely recognized it. “We have so much to catch up on. But first, here, drink this.” VHe passed me a flask. \n\nIt felt like fire going down but even as I choked and spluttered I could feel the heat around me lessen. Everything dulled to a comforting warmth. The pain in my core ebbed. My eyes opened and I swear I could see clearer. \n\n“We’ll get you patched right up and get you back to giving ‘em hell in no time, champ.” Pride swelled his voice and threatened to wet his eyes.\n\nI chuckled and gripped his hand warmly.\n\n“Good to finally meet you, dad.”" ]	[ 1, 2 ]	[ "1546999069", "1547017528" ]
	[WP] You're trapped in a room with no memory of what has happened. You have blood on your hands but it's not yours and you're completely alone...	1	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A\$Reality+Fiction\$&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A\$Simple+Prompt\$&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/XYsEYfS)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "The only thing audible from the outside was the faint echo of banging and the nonsense mumbling of a voice.\n\n&#x200B;\n\nFrom the other side of the scene however, Cassandra was yelling at the top of her lungs. Unable to form words in shock as she banged her bloody fists against a doorless wall, leaving fresh stains on the otherwise stark white room. She didn't know what was happening and it terrified her. It would probably surprise anybody to wake up in a room with bloody hands and none of your memories. She'd done as best as she could to wipe it off on her clothes, having already thrown her now-maroon overcoat off to the side. Despite her efforts though, it never seemed to leave. It wasn't her blood however, for she suffered no physical injuries as far as anybody knew.\n\n&#x200B;\n\nOther than her jacket however, there was one last item found within the corner. It was a knife, stabbed into the wall cleanly with an eggshell handle. After what felt like excruciating hours to the observer Cassandra would eventually find the little Easter egg, using what little strength she had left to yank it from the wall. Despite looking straightly put in it was painfully hard to get out, only releasing when it would perfectly fly out of the wall and nail her in the eye. After this many physically demanding puzzles, she was bound to be getting more injured with each step along the way.\n\n&#x200B;\n\nWhat had originally been nonsense mumbling from the outside had turned into audibly screaming from the now semi-blinded woman. A man stared blankly at his desk and sighed, resting his forehead on the edge as he wordlessly scribbled words down on paper with a sigh. \"It took her long enough..\"\n\n&#x200B;\n\nWhen the pain had ceased to become a dull roar Cassandra was finally able to stand up, staggering as she took a step forward only to fall back to her knees. She began sobbing, much like a child would as she prayed to some unknown god to save her. Cassandra had successfully pulled out the knife and with it, a piece of the wall. In this newly created hole a figure was visible. It was faded, nearly gray in color. With worn muscles she'd pull the figure out, the shape would be recognized as one of a small child. She began to wail uncontrollably.\n\n&#x200B;\n\n\"Oh.. So she found it... I guess that's the fourth attempt complete...\" He stood up, tossing a small clipboard to a young man walking by. \"Remove her memories of this room again. This time keep her sister in the room, we need to understand how this affects her problem-solving\"" ]	[ 1, 2 ]	[ "1547005346", "1547013427" ]
Feel free to correct my grammar, I'm new here :)	[WP] In the future, all the judges in court are replaced by an AI to avoid all subjectivity. As more complicated cases start to appear, the AI makes more and more questionable decisions. People started to question the morality of the AI.	55	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A\$Reality+Fiction\$&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A\$Simple+Prompt\$&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/XYsEYfS)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "Rick Spencer sat on an uncomfortable wooden bench at the back of the courtroom, watching the trial with the rest of the journalists. By all accounts, it was a relatively minor case: a consumer electronics company had broken several finance laws, and was being sued into bankruptcy. By the end of the day they’d be out on the street, and investors all over the world would receive yet another harsh lesson in trusting for-profit corporations with their financial future. \n \nFrom behind its podium, the AI judge raised an articulated chrome hand to signify that it had finished its deliberation. It had taken about three seconds—not surprising, considering it was programmed with encyclopedic knowledge of the law. These days, most trials were over mere minutes after the arguments had been submitted. \n \nSpencer leaned forward eagerly, flexing his little travel-pencil over and over again in one hand. This was it. Six months of exhaustive research, hanging on a single court case. If he was right… he shook his head. No use getting ahead of himself. \n \nThe humanoid machine slowly turned its chrome simulacrum of a face, sweeping the audience with backlit, neon-blue eyes to gather their attention. “In the case of Sky Cloud Electronics vs the state of New Seattle,” it said, “I find Sky Cloud Electronics… not guilty.” \n \nThe pencil snapped. The gathered journalists erupted into questions. \n \n“Judge!” shouted a well-dressed woman to Spencer’s right. “Judge, how is this possible? Sky Cloud blatantly broke the law!” \n \nThe silver AI raised its other hand, gesturing for silence. The muttering died down immediately—everyone new how the judges worked; if an automated ruling was questioned, they were required to explain it in full. They were legal machines, constrained by design to work within the confines of the most current laws. It was right in the company tagline: “No Sentience Means No Bias.” They would not—could not—rule on anything but the facts. It was why nearly every country in the world had adopted them without complaint. There had to be a reason for the unexpected decision. \n \n“Your confusion is understandable,” said the machine. Its calm, focus-tested voice was amplified to carry easily throughout the room. “But the specifics of the case are unusual. Due to the precedent set in the 2047 decision on James vs Miantech International, current law states that Sky Cloud Entertainment’s losses technically fall under the category of Individual Employee Discretion. This means that, while the company will need to repay its investors on a timeline I will set forth, no punishable crime was committed.” \n \nThere was a sudden flurry of activity as the prosecutor and half a dozen spectators reached for their tablets, furiously looking up the fifty-year-old case in question. Spencer sat back, knowing it wasn’t worth the trouble. “No Sentience Means No Bias.” The Judge was bound to be correct. They were always, perfectly, correct. \n \n“To continue,” interrupted the judge, causing a sudden pause in the bustle, “it is my opinion that this law was not designed to apply to the case presented today. It is only because of the current, possibly insufficient, wording of the statutes that Sky Cloud Entertainment was cleared of wrongdoing. As per regulations, I will be submitting the existing law to the Legal Oversight Committee for human evaluation, with a recommendation for how it can be amended to prevent such rulings in the future.” \n \n“God damn it!” shouted the prosecutor. He shoved his chair back as he stood up, crumpling his notes and stuffing them back into his leather briefcase. “These fucking drones never should’ve been approved,” he muttered, throwing a hateful glare at the silver automaton behind the podium. \n \n“I am sorry for any inconvenience,” replied the judge. Then, raising its eyes again: “Case dismissed.” \n \nSpencer grinned, snatching up his bag and coat and heading for the door. \n \n---", "Look, I- all I'm saying is, do you think it's right?\n\nI don't mean - I don't mean, obviously, that I think anybody should die. You know I'm strictly against the death penalty, yeah? I was the first to raise a glass when the system went up in the Hague, first of the first. Finally, I thought, no more of those bribes - yeah, we all know about the fascist gold and black bonds, don't we? - no more pulling strings or favours for favours.\n\nFinally we'd get a little impartiality for those binding judgements. Hell, the whole world thought we'd finally made a good choice. Just look at the sales figures for sci-fi, or the watch stats on Tubeflix -- everyone wanted a piece of the Three Laws future, didn't they?\n\nAll that talk about 'social credits' and 'calculated labour judgements'. No bankers would be bailing out with their golden parachutes. An AI judge doesn't see the numbers in your cheque-book, it just weighs your crime on Justice's rusty scales. We all tuned in, that first case, didn't we? There were banner ads from IntCourt! It was a slam dunk! Any fool coulda seen the lady was guilty!\n\nAnd what did freakin' gavelbot do? It lets her off with a restricted travel pass and stipulations for future investment in charities. After what she did, all that money she stole -- and it just tells her, no need to pay it back? It's done the math, and this is where it should go? What did they do, accidentally drop a line of code that said COMMUNISM EQUALS TRUE? Geez!\n\nBut judgement's binding, and so off she goes. What? How'd it turn out? Fine, I suppose. I didn't really look into it more than that. Probably helped a few people get access to housing, food, whatever. Ain't my purview.\n\nNext case - they pick up a real doozy. No slap on the wrist for this one. They got that uh... what's-her-face, the Chian Dictator, Suo Min? The Tyrant of Bole? Ordered all those villages burned during the civil war? Nobody even knew how much pain and suffering she was responsible for, but that was the one they pinned on her. Again: a slam dunk.\n\nAnd our electric judge tells her to pack her bags and head back home to join the work crews rebuilding infrastructure in Chian. Not a day of prison. No shame. And- yeah, I know the sentence is for life, but- no, that's not the point, she should- she should pay for what she did to those people, right?\n\nJust- just 'giving back' ain't enough, you know? What happened to retribution? A little suffering? Something for the victims, you know? I mean, not for- not for me. I, uh, I don't care, either way. But they deserve it, right? They suffered, so surely they'd want to see her suffer in turn, wouldn't they?\n\nShouldn't someone be punished for this? Computer can't quantify pain, can it? It can't draw blood, or any of that old eye-for-an-eye business. But, I mean, shouldn't it? Shouldn't they program that in?\n\nAll I'm saying is, I think we got the wrong kind of morality." ]	[ 1, 6, 21 ]	[ "1547008046", "1547024583", "1547011634" ]
	[WP] "You clearly understand who I am. So I will ask you one more time. What possessed you to try to steal from me?"	9	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A\$Reality+Fiction\$&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A\$Simple+Prompt\$&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/XYsEYfS)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "\"Honestly? No clue.\"\n\nHer eyes narrowed at me. One was a bright amber, the other a dull blue. I had always found that her attractive feature. Physically at least.\n\nKai had been a mystery to me for so damned long until just a year ago when I finally learned her little secret. To think the lonely, rich orphan girl was actually a werewolf. Not like a 'full-moon means fur, fangs, and lots of ripped clothing' kind of werewolf. When she changed it was... the most beautiful thing I have ever seen. Her copper skin had changed into swirling mists of white fog that eventually engulfed her entire body, clothes and all. In her place was a majestic white wolf with her eyes.\n\nLong story short? I got interested. I started stalking her. I feel like a creep - God, when haven't I? - for it but I couldn't help myself. It's a weak excuse for a weak person, but it is the best I have. Now, I have broken in and am currently on my knees, out of excuses, out of ideas and probably out of time.\n\n\"Even though I warned you about lying,\" she said slowly, \"you still did it. Yet...I don't think you did it out of malice or intent.\"\n\n\"...what?\" That took me by complete surprise, probably because she was right.\n\n\"You seem lonely and full of self-hatred,\" she continued, \"things I can understand all too well.\"\n\n\"Really?!\"\n\n\"Yes. That is why I have an offer for you. Stay in my home for one year, with me. It will be a form of repayment for your attempted robbery.\"\n\n\"And if I refuse?\"\n\n\"I will render you speechless.\"\n\nI didn't really need to think about it. It was a deal.", "He was old. \n\nShe had precisely studied his daily routine, never missing a single detail. No matter how small it would not go unnoticed. He had the habits of an old man, he followed the same routine everyday. \n\nA retired soldier perhaps?\n\nHe got up early and went to bed late. He went out to buy bread first thing in the morning. He broke fast at 7 o’clock sharp, ate lunch at half past twelve and ate dinner a little over 6 o’clock. He spent most of his time reading: classics, nothing out of the ordinary. \n\nNothing from his daily going-ons seemed to suggest anything strange went on inside the house. He was a perfectly normal old man. \n\nOh how wrong she was...\n\nShe prided herself on her skill to noticed everything. She had been unusually observant as a child and her “activities” necessitated an attention to small details. \n\nEverything about the situation had the appearance of being normal. Yet she could feel something, the feeling in the back of your mind that kept you away from danger. An instinct of sorts. \n\nLights flashed from underneath his door, people felt uneasy around the house, cold drafts appeared out of nowhere and the shivers that ran down her back each time she neared the mansion warned her of something unatural. \n\nShe had found a newspaper once. 29, that’s how many people had disappeared around the district in the last few years. Yet strangely the press had only mentioned it in the passing. Nor had there been any investigations. It almost seemed like a coverup, like the Theocracy was hiding something bigger than usual.\n\nIt was a simple job, nothing more, nothing less. She hadn’t intended for it too become something this* big.\n\n\nLord Roose Janys. No wife nor children. He had been awarded a lordship a few decades ago for “services to the crown”. He had no friends, he lived alone. It wasn’t a lot of information but she had to make do. \n\n\n~_~_~_~\n\n\nThe full moon. \n\nA celebration and a superstition. Nobody was allowed to leave their house. Quite useless but it was the Prophet’s word and so people listened. \n\nShe wish she had listened, acted like a good slave. Everything would have turned out for the best.\n\nThe window. It was always open. An alluring entrance for the most experienced. She slipped into the cavernous hallway. \n\nIt was lined with rows of paintings. The moonlight from outside casting strange shadows across the most long corridor. \n\nShe walked steadily, neither too fast nor slow. The floorboards did not creak for she was as silent as a fox. Small hasty steps led her to a metaphorical crossroad. \n\nShe had reached the end of the hallway. To her right lied another corridor, this one lined with dimly lit lanterns and a vibrant red carpet of intricate craftsmanship. \n\nThe corridor to her left was dark. A single ostentatious door. Light, a red light shone out from beneath. \n\nShe approached, taking carefully measured breaths. In what seemed like an instant she arrived at the door. \n\nShe drew close to it. Hearing nothing, she decided, albeit rather hastily, to open it. \n\nThe room was small, the tiny desk that sat at the back of the room was its only real characteristic. \n\nShe advanced warily, barely noticing the certificate that was hung up on the wall. \n\n”For services to the crown, Roose Janys is permitted to continue his experiments for the benefit of our Theocracy.”\n\nThe desk was littered with documents, each detailing an experiment more horrifying than the last. She stifled a gasp only to realise that someone was behind her. \n\nShe turned around. \n\n“Why are you here, little girl?”\n\nShe fumbled, trying to think of a way out of the extremely problematic situation. \n\n”You clearly understand who I am. So I will ask you one more time. What possessed you to try to steal from me?”*\n\n\n\n\n" ]	[ 1, 2, 4 ]	[ "1547064970", "1547087702", "1547068426" ]
	[WP] After not going to work for a day, you return to hear your boss commending you on the good work you did yesterday.	7	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A\$Reality+Fiction\$&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A\$Simple+Prompt\$&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/XYsEYfS)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", " I wake up with a splitting headache. Rolling over to my left I wince from the sharp pain in my back and slowly open my eyes to see the time. The alarm clock reads \"5:17 AM.\" The only thing that will make this pain go away is some ibuprofen or something. Reaching over to my nightstand I feel around for my phone, but it doesn't seem to be there. I slowly roll out of bed - afraid something will be pulled if I move too fast and shuffle to the edge of the room. Both arms are extended in front of me so I don't walk into something. Eventually, I reach the light switch and turn the lights on. The contrast from being in total darkness leaves me temporarily blinded. Wow, my bedroom is a mess. My cat is sleeping on the floor beside the bed and my phone is peeking out beneath his orange striped fur. \"You thought you could hide it from me didn't you.\" My voice sounds a lot deeper than usual. He goes into a big stretch and nudges my leg. When he looks up at me, though, he looks scared and quickly runs away. Strange. I unlock my phone to 25 notifications all from various friends who kept me company only a few hours ago. They vary from \"Had fun with you, Jess. We should hang out more often!\", to \"Let me know when you get home.\" One stood out to me though. It is from my closest friend of the group, Rachel: \"Hey Jess please be careful driving home. That guy just left right after you. Maybe you should just come back and stay the night here.\" I don't remember anything about some guy at the party. There is actually no recollection of even driving home last night. Frustration comes over me and the memories are just not there. I look down and begin to panic after realizing, the clothes I'm wearing are not my own. The pain in my back is worsening so I head into my bathroom to get some medicine. When I look in the mirror the person staring back at me is... not me. She is dark-skinned with short, black curly hair and all of her features are wrong. What is going on? I must be dreaming. I slap myself repeatedly, but nothing happens. I get frantic and start to scream. I call Rachel to tell her what has happened but when she answers she doesn't recognize my voice and thinks I have the wrong number. It's now 6:00. I'm supposed to be at work in 2 hours, but there's no way I can go - they won't even recognize. I don't understand what's happening, but I text my boss \"I won't be in today, feeling really under the weather.\" No response. The next several hours are filled with terror, frustration, and agony. So many thoughts racing through my head. What happened yesterday? How did I end up in someone else's body? I can't eat or really do anything but stand there frozen wondering who this person is that I'm looking at. Eventually, the lack of eating gets to me and exhaustion sets in. I can't help but crawl back in bed and fall asleep. When I wake up the clock again reads \"5:17 AM.\" I tell myself maybe what happened yesterday was just a bad dream. I reach over to grab my phone, which is on my nightstand where I left it. There is one text from Rachel Are you OK? What was that phone call about? Call Me!\" along with 3 missed calls. It must have actually happened. Feeling my way through the room and into the bathroom, my eyes don't want to open out of fear of what they'll see. I slowly open them and let out a sigh of relief to see that I am myself again. I eat a big breakfast and prepare myself for the speech I'm going to get from my boss today. She's all about working even though you are contagious and should be home. I had a huge project due yesterday, along with a brainstorming meeting for my next project so hopefully, she will forgive me. Surprisingly she never responded at all to my text yesterday which leaves me a bit worried. The receptionist greets me as I walk in and says with a smile, \"Nice job yesterday!\" I brush her off. She probably mixed it up with another day. At my cubicle, there are notes everywhere saying, \"Awesome job Jess,\" \"Keep up the amazing work,\" etcetera. What are they talking about... I wasn't here yesterday. My boss sees me arrive and walks towards me. I begin the conversation before she can, \"Hey I'm really sorry about yesterday, I can explain.\" \"Jess you have nothing to be sorry about. You completed your project on the deadline - amazing work by the way - and your ideas are the best you've ever had.\" \"There must be some kind of misunderstanding... Didn't you receive my test yesterday?\" \"No... did you text me after our celebratory team meeting?\" What is she talking about? \"Look yesterday was a big day for you I'm sure you're mind is just trying to process it all. I'll have Alyssa bring you a coffee.\" I try to log onto my computer but my password isn't working. After 3 unsuccessful attempts, it locks me out. I rest my head on the desk trying to figure out what is going on when I hear a strangely familiar voice say \"Here's your coffee, Jess.\" I take a large gulp of coffee and slowly I turn to look I see the girl who woke up as yesterday. \"Glad you're feeling better today,\" she says ominously. My sight begins to blur and my body becomes paralyzed. " ]	[ 1, 1 ]	[ "1547065783", "1547080502" ]
	[WP] You pull up to a red light. In front of you is a car...... your own car. Confused as to what’s happening, you see the light turn green. As the car drives away, a semi-truck crashes into it at high speeds. You blink twice in horror, and suddenly the crash is gone.	21	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A\$Reality+Fiction\$&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A\$Simple+Prompt\$&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/XYsEYfS)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "WHO RUN THE WORLD? GIRLS🎵 \nWHO RUN THE WORLD? GIRLS🎵 \n \nHere's the real question. Why is 102.9 \"The Flow\" playing Beyonce at 4:54am? It's too early to be this bumpin. \n \nBut i can't say that i hate it. The song is pretty catchy, plus it's definitely keeping me awake. Only 2 more hours to drive. Basically all high way too. \n \nIf only my phone didn't die so i could play my own music. But it's my fault. I knew I needed to be home for my sister Jesse's graduation ceremony at 1pm. It's a 6 hour drive from my dorm to my parent's driveway. I planned to get a good early nights sleep and hit the road at 5:45am. What I actually did was go to my homie Troy's house party.... kinda... \n \nThe thing was I never planned to go party tonight. I knew i had an early trip and I knew I'd see all my boys again fall semester. \n \nThe problem was slyly presented by Troy at dinner. \"You know Amber is going abroad fall semester right? If you wanna take your shot she's coming to the house party tonight\" he said smirking. \n \n\"Bro don't do this to me man. I gotta drive home super early.\" I replied. \n \n\"All I'm saying is, you know she's gonna meet some stud in Italy this fall and you'll have no chance after that. Just come for a bit and head home early. You have to tell her bye right?\" He said now grinning ear to ear. \n \nHe knew he had me. He knew how i felt about Amber Wilkerson. She was flawless. Stunningly gorgeous, while still being the nicest and most fun person I know. I had said on multiple occasions that I'd walk to the ends of the Earth for a chance with her, so my hands were kind of tied if i only had to walk across campus. \n \n\"I'm leaving at 10.\" I say, as i grab my backpack off the back of my chair. \n \n\"Make it 11! I'll tell her you're coming!!\" He yelled at my back as I walked out the door. \n \nStill surprised to walk into an almost empty room, I'm glad i had my packing done before I decided on going to the party. \n \n\"If I stay at the party until 11pm, I'll only realistically get 5 hours of sleep before the drive. I should take a quick nap now.\" I thought. \n \n7:03pm. 15% battery. 0 notifications. \n \n\"Shit,\" I muttered as i reached into my backpack and grab my charger. I plug in my phone on the desk and lay down on the uncovered extra long mattress. I sighed. \n \n10:34pm. 74% battery. 19 notifications. \n \n\"SHIT!\" \n \nI got up as quickly as possible and grabbed my phone. I texted Troy to tell him I was on my way. I didn't bother reading his other messages just to save time. I grab my duffle bag and backpack and head to the car. \n \nA 4 minute drive that felt like 30 had me tense. Almost sprinting into the house, I finally get inside to see a very bare bones party. Troy and the boys are all hammered. But most of the other guests had left. \n \n\"Zack! You're here!....You didn't read my texts did you?\" Troy say to me with a drunken giggle. \n \n\"God. Damnit.\" I say as I speed read the messages. Cops. Party is over. Amber waited for me. Don't bother coming. \n \n\"Yeah... She really wanted to say goodbye... Don't look so down though, I gave her your number. You're welcome. Now let's get drunk\" \n \n\"I can't I got a six hour drive in like 6 hours. Though I don't know how I'm gonna fall back asleep now.\" I responded thinking out loud. \n \n\"Bro. Have like drinks with me, sober up. Drive home. Then sleep til graduation. Boom. Porem solve.\" Troy slurred. \n \nSo... That's what we did. Looking back it wasn't really problem solved. \n \nEither way I hit the road around 1am with a slight buzz. It wasn't until around 3 that i realized my phone charger was back on my desk in my empty dorm room. \n \nIt's just past 5am now. It's been pretty dead on the road aside from some trucks and a few early morning commuters. Can't imagine how far they must be going if they are up this early. \n \nI pull up to a red light with only 1 car in front of me. If it wasn't the only car i probably wouldn't notice that it is actually the same make and model as my car. Same color even! 2009 Blue Ford Focus. I always enjoy seeing my car twins. \n \nAs the light turns green the focus in front of me starts going through the intersection. Then coming from across the driver side, an 18- wheeler \"Dasani\" truck ran the red light to the left and barreled directly into the focus. Both cars were now smashed together in a symphony of metal. The horn from the focus has not stopped sounding since the collission. \n \nI must have been sitting here for 10 seconds in shock. I don't have a phone to call 911. I'm gonna have to go help them. I close my eyes and let out a sigh, readying myself to open the door. As I open my eyes to go, I see everything is gone. The truck. The focus. The horn. I'm just sitting at a Green light. \n \nThat was so weird. I don't think I drank enough earlier to make that up. But I've heard sleep deprivation can really mess with your head. Just a couple hours left. \n \nI keep thinking about the party. I cannot believe I missed amber. Now i won't see her until January. This sucks. Plus I'm getting into the mountains now, which means no radio. And no cell phone. Just me and my thoughts. Goody. \n \nAnother hour down and I'm coming up to my favorite part of the trip now. The bridges. Two long suspension bridges that i have always loved riding over ever since i was a kid. There is a little parking lot i could pull over in and walk out over the water. Maybe i can see the sunrise from there! \n \nI slow down as I approach the parking lot entrance. It's really hard to see anything right now outside of my head light range, but i don't see any other cars yet. \n \nAs I turn into the parking lot and head to the spots closest to the bridge, my stomach sinks. \nThere at the spot right next to the bridge walkway, is a familiar 2009 blue ford focus. On any other day, I would have continued over and tried to catch the sunrise. But not today. \n \nI turn around and exit the parking lot immediately. I start heading across the bridge on my homebound route. I decide to go slow and enjoy the bridges, my favorite part of the trip. \n \nAs I get about about halfway across i see what i believe to be a morning jogger up on the right. I near the distant figure and realize he not jogging at all. In fact he is standing still, looking out towards the water. I continue to drive towards him, now about 200 feet away. The closer i get, a feeling of dread grows in the deepest pits of my stomach. \n \nIt's me. He's on the bridge. It was his car. But, he looks just like me. I don't understand what's happening at all. \n \nAs drive the last stretch towards him his head snapped in my direction and he flashed me a smile. He then lept off the bridge. \n \nUnlike with the green light earlier. I floored it off the rest of the bridge. I just wanted to go home and go to bed as quickly as possible. \n \n40 minutes left. Don't think. Don't think about anything. No study abroad. No party. No ford focus. Nothing. \n \nIm finally feeling confident that the trip is nearing it's end. 6:52am. I can get 5 hours if i pass out right when i hit the pillow. Just one more turn. \n \nAs I turn onto the road I grew up on, the dread immediately returns. Something is very wrong. \n \nAs my parents house comes into view, i see everyone is still asleep. Odd at this time, but maybe they had a late night. As I look towards my parking space every hair on my neck rises. The Blue Ford Focus is in my spot. He's in the driver seat. He looks just like me. \n \nI pull over before he sees it's me. I reach to call home but remember my phone is dead. \n \nI look back to the ford focus in the driveway. The car door is open. \n \nI hear a tapping on my window, but I'm too afraid to look. \n \n" ]	[ 1, 9 ]	[ "1547092369", "1547093092" ]
	[WP] The day has finally come, Death is out of a job.	7	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A\$Reality+Fiction\$&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A\$Simple+Prompt\$&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/XYsEYfS)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "When you think of it, sometimes life really sucks.\nThat’s what I always thought: life sucks. Sounds obvious, but hey, that’s kind of my only purpose.\n\nI’m Death. I’m the Grim Reaper. I’m The Shadow. And I’m out of a job.\nLife sucks, right? Right before the first proto human wailed its first, pathetic cry, I knew my job was to stop them. End their miserable, breathing lives.\nAnd now, now that I can only hear that ghastly, unnatural silence for which I longed... well, how do I feel?\n\nEveryone is dead. The last groups ridiculously nested together in a world gone too big; some of them even chose to let me in. They thanked me as they closed their eyes to a world they could not save.\n\nAnd now, I, Death, I sit.\nLife sucks. But it was all I had. And there is only one last job I can complete.\n\nAnd the scythe fell on the ground of a now empty world. ", "\"It's been 9 years now, They don't need me any more for collecting souls.\" Death said with sorrow in his voice. \"I never should have told Steve my tricks when I visited him for the first time. He said he had wanted to make a deal. Off course I was interested, I am Death, I make deals every day with the humans whose time is up.\" Death took a sip of his whiskey and continued, \"Steve had it all planned out. He said he wanted to live forever and in exchange he would collect souls for me.\" Death let out a deep sigh. \"It was a offer I could not refuse. I could finally take a well deserve break from the collecting and pick up a hobby. I always wanted to give candle making a try.\"\n\n&#x200B;\n\n&#x200B;\n\n\"Steve and his laywers had already made up a contract. The only thing they wanted from me was information on how to capture and store a soul. I told them that they needed a device and a dark magic sigil somewhere on the device. I myself use a scythe and the sigil is inscribed in the blade of the scythe.\" With a small flourish move of Death's hand and a puff of dark sulfur smelling smoke his scythe appeared next to him. He looked at the sigil on the blade with ache of pure evil.\n\n&#x200B;\n\n&#x200B;\n\n\"The engineers that Steve led, made a small revolutionair electronic device and hid the sigil underneath their own powerful sigil. It was a one of a kind device and he made people pay good money for it too.\" Death said with a wicked smile, \"It was an instant hit. That man was a genius.\"\n\n&#x200B;\n\n&#x200B;\n\n\"The first year was great, I had indeed time to make my own candles, beautiful, dark and evil candles filled my looming cave. But suddenly the souls Steve was collecting for me did not came my way. So I visited Steve a second time. He sold our sercet to some other companies. For that treason I took his soul. It was the last one I could collect due to the fact that he broke the contract.\" For a second Death had a evil grin on his face.\n\n \n\n&#x200B;\n\nDeath took an other sip of his whiskey and continued, \"That is the story of how I lost the sigil of the soul to a international megacorporation. Now every smartphone company uses the sigil patent that is under control of The Cook.\" Death let out another deep sigh, \"The Cook sells all the souls directly to the devil, even the pure and good ones.\" Death slammed his whiskey back and put the empy glass on the bar. \"I fucked up badly! Could you fill the glass up again?\" Death said with a worn voice. As I filled his whiskey glass up he let his scythe dance next to him and made it disappear again with a small stinking cloud.\n\n&#x200B;", "It was the final day for Death, humans had done it. They had sacrificed reproduction in favor of costless immortality. He always had a way to stop them working towards it, but with well over 12 billion people on the planet by time he was done for it was too many to keep track of and kill at once.\n\n&#x200B;\n\n He glided over the stone floors of his palace, finally stopping his ghostly movement once he reached a pedestal in front, slipping up it without a sound. Death had announced for all those who had ever died to arrive in front of his palace. They would all slowly arrive in hordes, much like zombies but still alert. Easily billions bodies stood packed together for miles to listen to the most important thing that would ever be said to them.\n\n&#x200B;\n\n\"Hello and thank you for attending, I've got something you all may be interested in knowing.\" Death's voice echoed across all ears, distance being no inhibitor to his volume. \"I am sad to announce that these will be our final moments together. For many years you all have passed through my world as a gate, a piece of your spirit being left here to return to to greet those you were connected to on the other side.\"\n\n&#x200B;\n\nHe looked up at the bleak sky, imagining faint cracks splitting it as he reached a skeletal hand towards it. He practically choked on every word as he spoke, but continued anyways. \"Humans have achieved immortality, and as a result will never use the gate again. Due to this, my realm will have no purpose in existing and my attempts to keep it open will displease gods on all sides.\" The crowd began to speak amongst themselves, wondering what would happen to the gate.\n\n&#x200B;\n\n\"Silence!\" He bellowed, a frightening sound to all ears as he raised his voice to even more deafening levels. \"You should all know you are souls, spirits, things of that nature and here is your final task. I've done what I can to keep the gate open for you all as long as I could by delaying progress but..\" A nonexistant tear fell from his eye, its splash heard across the gate. \"I can do it no longer, and will have no choice but to finally close up shop. If you'd like to wish to return to heaven, hell, or purgatory permanently you may leave right now.\" Not a single figure moved an inch as he spoke \"..but if you'd choose to share my final moments with me you may, but know if you stay in the gate you will no longer exist on any plane.\" As he finished many billions faded, returning to their respective realms in a flash. In the wake of light the world was splitting, becoming nothing but void. It was in that timeless realm that Death spoke his last words, with 130 billion people accompanying him.\n\n&#x200B;\n\n\"Thank you for staying, I appreciate it.\"", "Well, shit.\n\n&#x200B;\n\nI never thought they would accomplish it. But they did. After all this time, all these generations of humans killing and dying over and over and over for literally thousands of years, I was never out of work. I was so busy I never had a free second to myself, I really felt trapped, and lonely as all hell. But my work kept me going, it seemed like every couple of seconds I would be in a new part of the world, escorting human souls to the realm beyond life. I honestly never expected them to stop killing each other and work together.\n\n&#x200B;\n\nBut as you probably guessed by now, modern science advanced slowly but surely, allowing people to live to 245, sometimes three hundred years old. I laughed at the first signs of human immortality, as they would attempt longevity by doing crazy things, like trying to put a pigs heart inside of Russians. I chortled as I would still everyday escort their spirits to the nether. But one day, sitting on my couch made of decaying bones, I decided to get up and go crack a cold PBR (yes, even Death likes to drink every now and then.) As that first splash of cold nickel-water hit my teeth, I stretched, feeling nice and relaxed. I went back to my couch and flipped the television on, Death News Network was continuing its 24 hour cycle with my favorite show, \"1,000 Ways To Die\". I chuckled at the various gross mutilations that led to their deaths, and I fondly remembered bringing each one of their souls to the black door, laughing at them the whole time. Then, it dawned on me.\n\n&#x200B;\n\nWhen was the last time I was able to have a whole beer to myself?\n\n&#x200B;\n\nI figured my pager would go off any minute now, and I decided to kick back and enjoy my moment of relaxation. I figured, when's the next time this would happen?\n\n&#x200B;\n\nThat was two hundred earth years ago.\n\n&#x200B;\n\nWho could've guessed that mankind would be so clever? So daring?? Did they not know the pains of eternal life? Did they not know the trouble they would put me in???\n\n&#x200B;\n\nI contemplated that thought, and it only makes me more depressed thinking that I've been jobless for over ten generations now. And the worst part of it all?\n\n&#x200B;\n\nI can't even end the pain by killing myself. The takeaway here dear human, is immortality sucks when you have nothing left to do.", "The dark and often unspoken brother to the radiant magic that is birth. From the first birth, to now the last. I have existed. Existed on planes inconceivable by humans, in place for each and every death and yet only existing as one unseen entity. Humans would call it impossible, yet I am. \n\nEvery self conceited dictator, every abandoned homeless drug addict, every saint and serial killer. I have stood in the shadows. Waiting with my scythe. Yet, it was hardly required. The thin string attaching a soul to the mortal plane stood always so precariously thin, threatening to snap at any instant. The scythe was hardly required when they were always so willing to come, even those that held on so dearly to life knew when their time was up. With my hand, I would reach out to the wavering, frayed, red strand and tug ever so gently releasing their binding and freeing their soul into the ether. \n\nThe strongest weren't who you'd think. They were not the healthy males at their peak, with the world at their feet. Neither were they the loving mothers, with her children tucked closely to her chest and her loving husband standing by her side. You would laugh, but the newborns, the toddlers and the youngest of the race were those that fought. Fought to the death, to hang on. Their strands as strong as steel and burning with the strength of those that still had the world to experience, their lives to live. Yet I would pass my blade through it like butter, often standing parallel to my brother, birth, in the hospital room. Watching as the life threads of the parents shuddered simultaneously as their child was taken from them. \n\nI feel no emotions, and if I did, they'd have been numbed millennia ago. \n\nBut now I stand, before the last mortal human undergoing uploading and augmentation aboard the mothership and sigh. A sigh filled with the weight of millennia upon millennia of a ceaseless, shadowed existence. \n\nWith the surgery nearing completion, my job in this realm was done. I would have no reason to exist. And yet I stood, waiting on the slim, improbable chance that this being would give me another chance, to give my permanence a reason. \n\nWith the surgery now completed. Nothing existed that could die. Not in any real sense of the word. Yet I still had one last job to do. And with that, I raised my scythe above my own head, pausing. The last casting of the scythe. \n\n----------------\n\nHaven't written anything in a while so forgive me if the story feels a bit janky. If you're confused about the ending, I'd be happy to modify it to be a little more obvious." ]	[ 1, 1, 1, 2, 4, 5 ]	[ "1547101942", "1547106795", "1547122470", "1547103791", "1547102995", "1547105738" ]
	[WP] It's another long haul between stars and the mixed species crew find themselves desperate for some new entertainment, when the lone human Systems Engineer suggest playing some strange human game called 'Dungeons and Dragons'	32	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A\$Reality+Fiction\$&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A\$Simple+Prompt\$&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/XYsEYfS)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", " It was nice to see my home again.\n\nI am originally from the human settlement on Mars, named Opportunity after the robot that went there like 300 years ago or whatever. We weren't there very long though, only long enough to load 3 holds' worth of ores and some electronic equipment. We are on our way to Targas to drop the electronics off at the Medical University there, and the ores to a refinery on the moon. I don't know why we're hauling a bunch of invaluable ore that far, but hey I didn't write the manifest. I guess it makes sense if we were already taking the electronics there, might as well fill up the rest of the ship with something other than air.\n\nIt's only been two weeks since we left the depot, and already the others have started complaining. It's going to be a long six-month journey to Targas if this keeps up. You can only let Tukk the cook win so many games of poker before you run out of hard candy and motivation to play. Something something, let the Tukkie win. \n\nThe Tukk are incredibly simple folk, but damn can they whip up some good grub. I gave him an old cookbook from my mom I had lying around, and he literally started crying. It was like watching the Hulk holding a teddy bear tearing up, you can't help but smile haha.\n\nSometimes I'll take a break from babysitting and go bother Bråttaan in the sick bay, there I can have a bit more in-depth conversation than I can in the galley. B is from Targas, and I know he's excited for our port call there. He invited me (and a few others) to come with him to his childhood home there, our stay lines up with a big festival or holiday or whatever. Not sure what it's about, but tons of Targassian food and that viscous forest-green drink that will mess you up real quick, I am honestly pretty excited. (We don't get out much, does it show?) Plus his family is really nice, it will be good to see them again. B is probably one of my closest friends on the ship.\n\nWe were in the galley, me and B. And Tim, the rep from CarryCo, the company we contract for. He deals with all the paperwork and shipment estimates and inventory and stuff. He's not technically a member of the crew, but is assigned to the ship by the company, so kind of a crewmember. We're talking about one of CarryCo's recent policies that came out when Tukk came up from the back with a big plate of I don't even know what for the three of us, some beige but delicious goop for breakfast. Kind of like cream of wheat, I guess.\n\nHe says, \"We play poker later, ya?\" B and I exchange a glance. You know the one.\n\nI say, \"Hey Tukk, you don't ever get bored playing poker?\"\n\n\"How to get bored when win always!\" he boasts.\n\n\"Well, how do you feel about a NEW GAME?\"\n\n\"Mmm, ya! Ya, ya! I like play.\"\n\n\"Alright buddy, give me a little while to get some things together and I'll come find you when we're ready.\"\n\nHe winks and gives me a big ol' thumbs up, then carries a load of dirty trays into the back.\n\nTim head to his quarters, and B and I head out of the galley and walk down the corridor, nowheres in particular but kind of headed towards the bridge. He asks me what the new game is all about, and I explain to him the old human custom called \"Dungeons and Dragons.\" You may have heard of it. He seems a little confused about some of the game mechanics, but eager to give it a try. We wind up at the bridge (I say bridge and you think of some big open beautifully decorated hub of information and leadership, but it's like, the same size as the kitchen maybe and smells like farts), and I ask Helmsman Yeria what time her relief gets there, and explain we've got a new game I want to show the group. She says she'll be done in a few hours, so I tell her to meet us in the galley when she's off. She's another one, a closer friend of mine and B's. She's so patient with the captain, I don't know how she does it. He's one you just have to learn how to talk to.\n\nI should at least check in to the shop to see if anything needs attention, and B says he should do the same in sick bay. I head down below and sit at my desk. No new messages, no trouble tickets, no kitchen equipment Tukk can't figure out how to turn on (again), so not much actual work for me to do. I suppose I could continue compiling some of the engines' operating numbers: fuel consumption, power output, field generator strength, etc etc.\n\nNahh.\n\nSo, I whip out an empty notebook and get to writing.\n\n&#x200B;" ]	[ 1, 5 ]	[ "1547102576", "1547181884" ]
[removed]	[WP] Aliens have arrived on Earth. They want ... karma?	2	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A\$Reality+Fiction\$&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A\$Simple+Prompt\$&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/XYsEYfS)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "Hi u/laxnut90, this submission has been removed.\n\n[Direct prompt replies must be good-faith attempts at new stories or poems](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_1.3A_direct_prompt_replies_must_be_good-faith_attempts_at_new_stories_or_poems)\n\n- Fill-in-the-blank: Responses must be at least 100 words. This is essentially a fill-in-the-blank, or you asked a question likely to generate a simple answer. Prompts should encourage a story or poem. \n\n When prompts ask questions, we get responses that just respond with answers instead of actual stories. \n\n Prompts will be removed if there's a high possibility for rule breaking responses ([rule 7](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_7.3A_prompts_will_be_removed_if_there.27s_a_high_possibility_for_rule_breaking_responses))\n\n\n\n---\n\n[Modmail](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=%2Fr%2FWritingPrompts&subject=Removed%20post&message=https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/comments/aeijfx/-/%0A%0A) us if you have any questions or concerns. In the future, please refer to the [sidebar](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/about/sidebar) before posting. \n\nThis action was not automated and this moderator is human. Time to go do human things." ]	[ 1, 1 ]	[ "1547122308", "1547122654" ]
[removed]	[WP] It's a most diabolical act: 40-foot containers filled with explosives are being dropped from 40,000 feet onto a dizzying array of targets. Who or what group is behind these attacks, and can they even be stopped?	2	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A\$Reality+Fiction\$&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A\$Simple+Prompt\$&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/XYsEYfS)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "Hi, this submission has been removed.\n\n[Prompt users in the title, but don't play writing games or commission stories](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_6.3A_prompt_users_in_the_title.2C_but_don.27t_play_writing_games_or_commission_stories)\n\n- Prompts go in the title, do not extend into text. You can add commentary in the text, but don't add additional prompt restrictions. Also, avoid [too many details](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/prompts?src=RECIPE). \n\nAlso, prompts with questions tend to just get answers, instead of actual stories. \n\n---\n\n[Modmail](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=%2Fr%2FWritingPrompts&subject=Removed Post) us if you have any questions or concerns. In the future, please refer to the [sidebar](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/about/sidebar) before posting. \n\nThis action was not automated and this moderator is human. Time to go do human things." ]	[ 1, 1 ]	[ "1547180704", "1547182916" ]
[removed]	[WP] What happened to last year? I can't remember it and neither can my family or friend. I looked into it and there are zero recorded births or deaths from 2018. What happened to the world?	2	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A\$Reality+Fiction\$&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A\$Simple+Prompt\$&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/XYsEYfS)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "Hi u/coba31, this submission has been removed.\n\n[Direct prompt replies must be good-faith attempts at new stories or poems](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_1.3A_direct_prompt_replies_must_be_good-faith_attempts_at_new_stories_or_poems)\n\n- Fill-in-the-blank: Responses must be at least 100 words. This is essentially a fill-in-the-blank, or you asked a question likely to generate a simple answer. Prompts should encourage a story or poem. \n\n When prompts ask questions, we get responses that just respond with answers instead of actual stories. \n\n Prompts will be removed if there's a high possibility for rule breaking responses ([rule 7](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_7.3A_prompts_will_be_removed_if_there.27s_a_high_possibility_for_rule_breaking_responses))\n\n\n\n---\n\n[Modmail](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=%2Fr%2FWritingPrompts&subject=Removed%20post&message=https://old.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/comments/aewwh3/-/%0A%0A) us if you have any questions or concerns. In the future, please refer to the [sidebar](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/about/sidebar) before posting. \n\nThis action was not automated and this moderator is human. Time to go do human things." ]	[ 1, 1 ]	[ "1547223283", "1547223963" ]
	[WP] You’ve just discovered that you're an elite, highly trained deep-hypnosis sleeper agent put in place by the government, and now your employers are sending other agents to bring you in. Thing is, they’re actually being really nice about it.	21	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A\$Reality+Fiction\$&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A\$Simple+Prompt\$&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/XYsEYfS)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "\"Get back! I know who I am now... what I am now!\" screamed Brian. \"I could kill you with two fingers, or a toothpick, or... or...\"\n\nThe other two agents in the room held up their hands in an attempt to placate him. One of them spoke up. \"Brian, you're not that kind of secret agent, all right? Get off the table, please.\"\n\n\"I'm not falling for that crap! Don't come any closer!\" Brian looked around wildly, and then snatched up a salt shaker from the table he was perched unsteadily upon. He hurled it with all his might at the head of the agent who'd spoken. It bounced off with a thunk.\n\n\"Ow.\" the agent said lamely, bringing up a hand to rub the spot on her head where the salt shaker had hit her. \"Brian, seriously. You can't kill anyone with a salt shaker. None of us are that kind of secret agent. That's only in the movies. Now get off the goddamn table already.\"\n\n\"Ash, he's not listening, obviously. Let me talk to him.\" said the other agent. He stepped forward, catching the pepper shaker that sailed through the air toward him, to Brian's dismay.\n\n\"Brian. You're standing on top of a dinner table in your underwear, and you hit Ashley in the head with a salt shaker. Which means you're not in your right mind at the moment, authorizing me to do this.\"\n\nBefore Brian's incredible super-spy reflexes could save him, the twin harpoons from the agent's taser had already buried themselves in his chest, and he collapsed onto the floor, twitching and jerking.\n\nAshley frowned at James, who had gone over to restrain Brian, remarking, \"You opted to use the taser pretty damn quickly, Jim. All he did was yell at us and throw small objects.\"\n\nJim scoffed. \"You were doing a great job talking him down Ash. At that rate we'd have calmed him down after only another hour or two.\"\n\n\"But he isn't going to forget about you tasing him Jim! How the hell are we going to convince him we're not out to get him after that?\"\n\n\"I'm sure we'll think of something. In the meantime, get his legs, would you. He's gained some weight while undercover.\"\n\n\"Ugh...\"\n\n**\nBrian blinked groggily, trying to bring a hand to his eyes, but found himself cuffed to the bed he was lying in. Two shadows looming over him resolved themselves into Ash and Jim as his vision cleared gradually.\n\n\"Are you back to your senses yet, or does James have to tase you again?\" asked Ash.\n\n\"Jim tased me?\" said Brian, looking unsteadily at Jim, who shrugged, avoiding eye contact.\n\n\"Yeah. Long story short, you've been in deep-cover and we were sent to activate you. Only problem was, by some stroke of bad luck, you'd accidentally exposed yourself to your reactivation trigger with nobody around to brief you. When we got to your location you'd barricaded the door and went all Jason Bourne on us, minus everything but your boxer shorts. You also hit me in the head with a salt shaker, so thanks for that.\"\n\n\"Oh.\" murmured Brian. \"Well, shit. What was the job?\"\n\n\"They gave it to another team because you're out of commission. So now we have to wait for another one. Also, you're on a refresher course now, because nobody's screwed up deep-cover hypnosis nearly* as bad as you did. Good luck.\" answered James. He crossed his arms in disappointment, glaring at Brian.\n\n\"We have to take this course as well, since we couldn't calm you down.\" said Ash. \"But it wasn't really your fault, so I'm thinking we let this slide between us, all right?\"\n\nBrian nodded. \"Okay... now that that's over...\"\n\n\"Can one of you uncuff me?\"\n\n", "\"So, I'm not really Brandon?\" You ask? Your hands are awkwardly holding a paper cup of coffee. Staring into the deep brown liquid, you thought you loved coffee, used to love it, but now...\n\n\"No, no, no.\" The woman across from you says. \"You are Brandon.\" She smiles reassuringly. \"You're still you, all we did was encrypt a few years of memory and .\"\n\nYou're doubtful. Weeks ago, a seemingly innocuous phrase, \"October Platypus\" set your brain spinning. Memories seemingly not your own crashed into your head, piling up and overflowing onto your personality. But it went wrong, memories that you had a mission, of your training, of your preparations to assume a new life, blended together in a seamless fever dream of confused information. You know that you've always loved coffee, you remember the black bitter taste and what soothing clarity it brought. But, you remember hating coffee, the thick acid taste almost makes you want to vomit.\n\nHowever they knew, whatever branch of the government they were, they contacted you. They sent out this woman, a snow leopard with silvery grey hair and the kindest eyes. She claims that you were a part of a secret military program to place sleeper agents in positions of influence. You believe her, that much at least matches your hazy shuffled deck of memories. \"But I thought I had another name?\" You ask her. \"Wasn't I someone else?\"\n\nShe smiles and shakes her head. \"No, Brandon, you're still yourself. All the program was intended to do is ensure that we had agents in place in case the need arose. We chose real people, those outside the organization, filtered them, trained them, and then ensured that they'd be available.\"\n\n\"But I'm an accountant.\" You say. You're not sure what sort of utility a simple accountant could have.\n\n\"Exactly.\" She says. \"You're just an accountant. Imagine all the things you've overheard. Imagine all the numbers you don't realize are in your head. If I asked you about one of your company's top clients, you would have extensive, and comprehensive, information on their finances.\"\n\n\"So...\" You hesitate. \"What now? What are you going to do with me?\" You ask.\n\n\"We just want you to come into our office.\" She says. You notice her lean forward into a sympathetic posture. You know, without knowing how, that she's simultaneously being honest and trying her hardest to manipulate you. \"The program has been discontinued for a number of years.\" She says. \"Code phrases, shoe phones, mind control... all that secret squirrel stuff is behind us. It's too prone to bugs.\"\n\n\"Bugs like me?\" You ask.\n\nShe nods. \"Yes, bugs like you.\" She spreads her hands out. \"It's too easy to be activated accidentally, and hypnotic suggestion only lasts so long. The meat in your brain is always changing and new neural pathways are always being built. Before too long, they're built over old pathways and things become jumbled.\"\n\n\"So why not do something sooner?\" You ask.\n\n\"Why would we?\" She says. \"We're monitoring you all already. There's a chance agents are never activated, so why interrupt a happy life and introduce more risk?\" She's trying hard to maintain eye contact.\n\n\"But...\" You still can't form the words for your question. \"What happens now?\" You ask again.\n\n\"Nothing.\" She says. \"Life isn't a film. It's way more boring. We just need you to come into the office and sign a few documents. We'll debrief you and put you right back where you always were.\" You open your mouth to respond, but don't. She continues, \"We even have therapy if you need it. Activating can be a traumatic process for your personality, we've seen it plenty of times. It's in our best interest to make sure you're happy as possible.\"\n\n\"Why not just...\" you pause, unsure if you want to vocalize the question, to make the idea concrete with words.\n\n\"Why not kill you?\" She finishes. \"We could.\" She says, shrugging. \"But it's messy, there's loose ends all over the place. Murders are inherently interesting to everyone. Agents especially, due to their positions, leave a larger hole in society than the average person. This isn't Soviet Russia. It's always cleaner to leave someone happy and satisfied, it's cheaper too. A sanctioned murder cost millions. An interview and therapy costs thousands.\" She smiles again, soft and inviting. Despite her attempts at nonverbal influence, you know inherently that she's being truthful. \"It's just cost/benefit analysis. You know numbers, you should understand.\"\n\nYou nod. She's right and, even though you know the government isn't one to consider expense outside elections, you also know that whatever arm created you is far more efficient with their money. \"Alright.\" You say. \"I'll come in.\"\n\nShe smiles, the first completely honest smile. \"Wonderful.\" She says. \"Can we go now?\"\n\nYou shake your head. \"I can't call of work today. There's a big report due that I need to finish.\" She nods. \"What about tomorrow?\"\n\n\"Tomorrow works.\" She says, producing a card from an unseen place. \"Whenever you want, just show up to this address. We'll be expecting you.\"" ]	[ 1, 3, 6 ]	[ "1547245810", "1547249951", "1547250847" ]
[removed]	[WP] Suddenly and without rhyme or reason everyone on Earth over 25 is now an ideal 25 year old person. Health, fitness, mental health, intellect. Everyone over 25 is now, for lack of a better word, perfect. What happens to the world?	7	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A\$Reality+Fiction\$&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A\$Simple+Prompt\$&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/XYsEYfS)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "Hi u/absolutedesignz, this submission has been removed.\n\n[Direct prompt replies must be good-faith attempts at new stories or poems](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_1.3A_direct_prompt_replies_must_be_good-faith_attempts_at_new_stories_or_poems)\n\n- Fill-in-the-blank: Responses must be at least 100 words. This is essentially a fill-in-the-blank, or you asked a question likely to generate a simple answer. Prompts should encourage a story or poem. \n\n \n\n Prompts will be removed if there's a high possibility for rule breaking responses ([rule 7](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_7.3A_prompts_will_be_removed_if_there.27s_a_high_possibility_for_rule_breaking_responses))\n\n\n\n---\n\n[Modmail](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=%2Fr%2FWritingPrompts&subject=Removed%20post&message=https://old.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/comments/af5a6y/-/%0A%0A) us if you have any questions or concerns. In the future, please refer to the [sidebar](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/about/sidebar) before posting. \n\nThis action was not automated and this moderator is human. Time to go do human things." ]	[ 1, 1 ]	[ "1547279048", "1547279322" ]
[removed]	[WP]	1	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A\$Reality+Fiction\$&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A\$Simple+Prompt\$&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/XYsEYfS)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "Hi, this submission has been removed.\n\n[Prompt users in the title, but don't play writing games or commission stories](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_6.3A_prompt_users_in_the_title.2C_but_don.27t_play_writing_games_or_commission_stories)\n\n- Prompts go in the title, do not extend into text. You can add commentary in the text, but don't add additional prompt restrictions. Also, avoid [too many details](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/prompts?src=RECIPE). \n\n\n\n---\n\n[Modmail](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=%2Fr%2FWritingPrompts&subject=Removed Post) us if you have any questions or concerns. In the future, please refer to the [sidebar](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/about/sidebar) before posting. \n\nThis action was not automated and this moderator is human. Time to go do human things." ]	[ 1, 1 ]	[ "1547282408", "1547292419" ]
	[WP] It has been a few hundred years since the Great Cataclysm, although no one really remember what that is. One day, when you're out scavenging the Wastelands for your group, you see a flash of blue light. A person in a weird suit appears before you, ecstatic. "I did it ! I'm in the future !!"	31	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A\$Reality+Fiction\$&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A\$Simple+Prompt\$&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/XYsEYfS)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "Another day, another short straw. I swear to God they rig it so I have to go out scavenging every day. There is no fucking way my luck is that bad. I know they don't like being around me, those assholes.\n\nI sip from my canteen as I rummage through a dumpster outside of a hospital...or a lab...something sciencey. I've passed this building a hundred times. I'm sick of seeing it.\n\nI'm hot, I'm tired, I hate being out here, so does everyone else. A bunch of idiots 200 years ago decide to newk each other and the idiots of today have to live with it. I swear if I had just 10 minutes with one of those eggheads I'd....\n\nA strong wind begins tossing bits of trash and debris around me, then I notice it's coming from inside the building. I go around the other side for a way in. As I walk I hear electrical surges, clanking metal parts, some kind of...whooshing....I don't know hoe to explain it.\n\nI get to the front and peer in through the broken glass window just as the wind and noises stop.\n\nSome machine, a kind of pod, it looked perfectly preserved, like it had just been made. I'm surprised no one has found it before. Then again, I'm usually the only one who comes out here.\n\nThe pod door cracks just a bit, releasing some kind of smoke, or steam. I step inside to get a better look as the pod door swings open, releasing a man in a clean white overcoat.\n\n\"I've made it!\" He yells looking at me \"I've made it to the future!\"\n\nHe stands up to show that his overcoat is actually a labcoat with a \"NewLabs\" logo. I've seen that logo before. See around here we spell it \"newk\" instead of \"nuke\". Kind of a running joke. See, NewLabs are the assholes who made the bombs that destroyed the world. They weren't nukes, they were worse.\n\n\"An egghead!\" I yell as I unclip the fastening of my knife holster.\n\n\"I prefer the term scientist\" he brushes the dust off of himself \"I thought I would still be in the lab, but it appears that I have ended up somewhere in the middle east. Sir, can you tell me exactly where i am?\"\n\nI grab him by the collar, shove him against a wall, and hold my knife to his throat. \"You're exactly where I want you to be!\"\n\nThen I say something like \"You're gonna go back and make sure that this doesn't happen! You're gonna go back and spread world peace and shit like that!\"\n\nThen I throw him back in his pod, he disappears, and I turn around to a blossoming utopia. I have a wife, some kids, maybe a dog. One with fur. Just like that the world is saved.\n\nFuck that. Fuck him. What's the world ever done for me. Why do I have to be it's savior. I wipe the blood from my knife and look at the pod, still steaming from it's last trip.\n\nI forget the guys name. Brown or Brawn or Banner, but that's the guy who made the newks. The ultimate end all be all of modern warfare.\n\nHe got the \"end all\" part right.\n\nI get in the pod and hit the button labeled \"Return\". I don't where or when I'm going, but it's better than here and now." ]	[ 1, 4 ]	[ "1547300162", "1547311020" ]
[removed]	[WP] You are in the selection process to join a secret spy organization, They gather everyone in an empty hotel, and during the next 24 hours you need to kill everyone that you come in contact with or sees you, after those 24 hours you have killed 4 people, after joining with the interviewers again	2	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A\$Reality+Fiction\$&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A\$Simple+Prompt\$&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/XYsEYfS)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "Hi u/FuckyouYatch, this submission has been removed.\n\n[Prompt users in the title, but don't play writing games or commission stories](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_6.3A_prompt_users_in_the_title.2C_but_don.27t_play_writing_games_or_commission_stories)\n\n- Prompts go in the title, do not extend into text. You can add commentary in the text, but don't add additional prompt restrictions. Also, avoid [too many details](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/prompts?src=RECIPE). \n\nAs an example of too much detail, you're essentially writing the end for the author here, rather than letting them take it in whatever direction they want.\n\n\n\n---\n\n[Modmail](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=%2Fr%2FWritingPrompts&subject=Removed%20post&message=https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/comments/afeq9m/-/%0A%0A) us if you have any questions or concerns. In the future, please refer to the [sidebar](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/about/sidebar) before posting. \n\nThis action was not automated and this moderator is human. Time to go do human things." ]	[ 1, 1 ]	[ "1547346327", "1547347762" ]
[removed]	[WP] Space Subtle	2	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A\$Reality+Fiction\$&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A\$Simple+Prompt\$&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/XYsEYfS)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "Hi u/AMSparkes, this submission has been removed.\n\n[Prompt users in the title, but don't play writing games or commission stories](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_6.3A_prompt_users_in_the_title.2C_but_don.27t_play_writing_games_or_commission_stories)\n\n- Prompts go in the title, do not extend into text. You can add commentary in the text, but don't add additional prompt restrictions. Also, avoid [too many details](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/prompts?src=RECIPE). \n\n\n\n---\n\n[Modmail](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=%2Fr%2FWritingPrompts&subject=Removed%20post&message=https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/comments/affy2a/-/%0A%0A) us if you have any questions or concerns. In the future, please refer to the [sidebar](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/about/sidebar) before posting. \n\nThis action was not automated and this moderator is human. Time to go do human things." ]	[ 1, 1 ]	[ "1547354802", "1547355067" ]
	[WP] Your luck seems to be inversely related to that of your significant other. When one of you has a fantastic day, the other has a terrible one. Your significant other just won the lottery and you're waiting for the other shoe to drop.	14	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A\$Reality+Fiction\$&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A\$Simple+Prompt\$&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/XYsEYfS)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "\"Honeeey, I WON!!!\"\n\nThose words still echo in my ear. Never had I been so fortunate but unlucky at the same time. Nothing happened in the first few hours but I knew that was going to change. It always did. \n\nI took my car keys and set the GPS to my significant other's location. She wanted to go shopping but I had a really bad feeling about it. Without giving it another thought I departured.\n\nAs I parked the car, in what seemed 30 meters or so, I spotted her sitting on a bench, texting. I yanked the horn two times and caught her attention. Her smile, beautiful as always, greeted me as she rushed over to my car. Did she forget? Impossible. \n\nI got out of the car and gave her a kiss followed by a hug. Her smell was so nice as always however. Hesitantly, I proposed getting it over with. The faster we finished, the faster we'd go back home. I noticed her disapproving, the way I said it, inside her. She'd understand eventually. She always did. After all, we went through many hardships together and that only strengthened our bond. \n\n30 minutes of driving and we arrived at our regular mall. \n\n\"Will you accompany me?\" she asked with puppy eyes.\n\nThis was bad. The more actions I took, the better chance of something happening was. I knew it was risky, but knowing Irene, she was sure to buy large ammounts of clothes. I complied.\n\nAs we strolled through the mall, it became harder and harder to have a good time. She noticed how tense I was and I'm sure she knew why. She asked me if I was ok and if I can continue but I just gave a cold \"sure\" that I regretted instantly. It wasn't enough to kill our relationship but eventually she'd get tired of it. I feared of this moment. I feared losing her.\n\nThat's when the first misfortune happened. As we passed a rack full of clothes I accidentally hit it with my elbow somehow. An employee a few meters away gave me a sour look but I didn't lose a second. I immediately started picking them up with Irene sighing behind me. It was so unnerving but after a short time, everything was the same as before. \n\n\"Let's go home before it gets any worse\" I whispered in her ear. She seemed to understand as she nodded, and as we made our way to the car, the sight before us horrified me. My car was all covered in profane messages of spray paint. There seemed to be no CCTV around and the spray paint was still wet. A misfortune indeed and there was nothing i could do but accept it. We loaded the back seats, entered the car as it was and took off. Of course we got all the unnecessary glances on every street and at every turn but there was nothing I could do. As I saw our home, I hit the breaks but to my horror no response. In a panic, I opened the trunk from which an emergency parachute blew out. As we stopped, I checked the brake tubes. They were cut-clean. \n\nSigh, I'll take it to service tomorrow I thought. I was tired and afraid i'll get into a car crash. We grabbed the clothes, took them inside and snatched a beer to sink in thoughts on the couch. The moment I oprned it, it sprayed all over me.\n\n\"FOR FK'S SAKE\" I yelled. Irene came rushing.\n\n\"G are you ok?!\" \n\n\"GET THE FK OUT AND LEAVE ME ALONE!\" Then I saw her horrified face. I never once yelled at her and this was a first that surprised both of us negatively.\n\n\"Irene I'm sorry, come he-\" I tried to reach out to her but she ran out. The guilt overtook me instantly but I didn't follow her. I felt I couldn't nor did I deserve to after what I had said. Annoyed, sad, angry and guilt-filled, I curled on the coach and fell asleep with the most horrible headache i'd ever experienced.\n\nThe second day, I woke up. The sun was gleaming through the window and I remembered what happened the day before that. I realized an apology was due. I rushed to her room to find nothing. Absolutely nothing. The room was clear. The first thing that went through my mind was the worst. I started searching each room, one by one only to confirm my greatest fear. I managed to turn away the only person I cared about. My greatest fear had finally come true.\n\n", "I found you sank in the middle of the sofa. The stereotype of despair: hair that got more and more disheveled at each time you passed a hand in them, unglazed eyes, chewing nails, the whole lot.\n\n“Cutie, are you...”\nYou sprang up to your feet the moment you realised I was home, and crushed me with a heartfelt hug that took my breath momentarily away.\n\n“I’m so glad you are home.” You whispered to my ear. “Why weren’t you answering your phone?”\n\nI extricated myself from the hug and held you at arms length.\n\n“Phone died, sorry, and then traffic was horrible and then I...”\nIt was supposed to be a funny anecdote, bet you weren’t smiling. At all.\n\n“Did...” I began, intuition dawning in me. “Did something good happen to you today?”\nYou just hugged me again, burying your head on my shoulder.\n\n“Oh babe.” I kissed your hair. “You don’t have to be like this every time. And besides.” I kissed you again. “You know I can’t be but happy when something good happens to you.”\n\n“I screwed up.” You finally muttered in a voice that sent a shiver down my back.\nYou squeezed me tight for just one second, and then let me go. “Let’s sit for a moment.”\n\nI started to get worried. Sickly worried. Your face was so dark and you couldn’t seem to bear to look at me in the eyes.\n\nWe sat on the sofa and you sighed and closed your eyes.\n\n“I screwed up.” You said again.\n\n“What...” my voice was hoarse now. “What happened?”\n\n“I...” coughed and started again. “You know that stupid joke we made about putting ourself in stupid unlucky situations, so the other could have some instant luck?”\n\nYes, of course I remembered. We spent a whole Saturday night giggling in bed, picturing the silliest scenarios we could try this out. Would calling your mum be enough of a bad luck situation for me? What if you never checked for toilet paper in public restrooms? \n\n“I have been buying lottery tickets for the past 3 days.” \n\n“What?! Why?”\n\n“The probabilities are so unrealistic and yet each time you lose it is... bad luck. Haven’t you noticed...?”\n\nHad I noticed? That on Monday I found the perfect parking spot, on Tuesday the boss randomly gave us an extra 2-day-holiday? \n\n“It was supposed to be a little present, since I have been doing so good with the new job and you had all sorts of...”\n\n“That’s so... dumb and sweet, but...”\n\n“This is the ticket I bought today.” And you put something in my lap before hiding your face in your hands.\n\n“You... you won.”\n\n“I am sorry, I swear. I’m such an idiot and...”\n\nI tried to gently stir your face towards mine. “I love you. In good luck and bad luck.”\n\n“I screwed up. Now something horrible is going to happen to you and I will be rich and single and depressed and...”\n\nI planted a kiss your his lips. You obediently shut up.\n\n“You realise we have a joint bank account, right?”\n\n“...yes?”\n\n“So if you just won the lottery... I also just won the lottery.”\n\nYou pondered this for a couple of seconds. \n\n“We are rich.” You said at last.\n\n“We are fucking rich.”\n\nYou jumped to your feet and lifted me up. We kissed, ignoring the sound of your shirt ripping, the fact that I accident kicked the lamp and broke it, the lights that go out all of a sudden.\n\n“I love you.” You whispered to me, as a sudden cramp made your knees buckle.\n\n“In good and bad luck.” I answered back from the floor.\n\nThe phone rings. I’m sure it’s your mum, and we couldn’t care less as we kiss and laugh our hearts out. \n" ]	[ 1, 3, 3 ]	[ "1547357512", "1547357578", "1547363852" ]
	[WP] You're an alien studying humans. You keep hearing about this "Golden Rule" that every human is aware of. You're convinced it's a source of human power but nobody will actually tell you what it is, assuming you already know it, and you're too afraid of blowing your cover to come out and ask.	8,842	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A\$Reality+Fiction\$&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A\$Simple+Prompt\$&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/XYsEYfS)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "I started my journey to earth from mustafar which is few thousand light years away. My sole aim is to study earth and it's life. Having origins from a volcanic planet, I never knew how water feels like. My impetus has thrived me to jump into light speed. As time never passed I reached planet earth. Earth is a beautiful place, occupied mostly with water it seemed so pleasant unlike mine. I found myriad amount of species which live together in a diverse way. I started liking this place where I felt most alive since my birth. It didn't take much time for me to realise that humans are the most advanced and intelligent species on earth. So I started to observe and study them. Humans are diverse among themselves, they live in a unique way, None of them have identical lifestyles. They have peculiar languages and contrasting diets. They have higher tendency to progress. They believe in miracles , that might be the first time I'm listening that word. Though no one is related to other, I found they are all interconnected by thing called humanity. \n\nNevertheless everyone is so different, uncommonly I started hearing about 'golden rule'. It's a rule I was never aware of, but seemed like all humans knew about it. But no one were presuming to tell me as I was under disguise. Later I had to convince myself that it's a source that supplies power for human existence. But when I came here I've decided to learn everything about earth. I couldn't hold my guilt any longer, I started treating humans in adverse way. I was ignored and left unresponsive . After living for eons on earth , it started seeming like I have never even been here before. That was the moment my consciousness made me realise it's because of golden rule . Golden rule is a principle of treating others as one's self would wish to be treated. I was too late to realise , I've decided to come back. It's gonna be a happy ride back home. \n", "Hi fellow redditors, my roommate \\[27F\\] keeps not abiding the golden rule. What can I \\[17.2M/F\\] do to gently remind her about it without hurting her delicate human feelings?\n\nTo give some context, she keeps forgetting the golden rule when using the shower and exuding waste product from her rectum in the morning.\n\nJust the another day when I had some compatriots over, who are the same species as both of us btw, she refused to follow the golden rule.\n\nWhat are the relevant corollaries to the golden rule in these situations, and what resources should I point her to in order that she might fulfill her purpose for the great Human Empire and stop being a b͒ͭ̔͊̒̎ͩͮ̒ͥ̂ͥ̽̿̾̃ͯ́͏̨̧̢̰̖͇̲̻͡e̸̵̵̲̥̗̺̹͈͉̟̦̤̺̗̗̜̝͇̅ͮ͆ͥ̚͠͝z͎̰̬͕̗͚͙̲̘̞͇͙ͧ̍ͧͫ͛̋ͮ́z̓́͋̀̍̑ͭ̄͛҉҉̶̢͈̺̳͎͔͇̤̳̹̼̭̬̘͜ȩ͍̦̙̗̩̟̹̖̋ͯ͛̂́͢͠l̶̷̜̫̟̠̞̭͔͉̦̠̹ͤ͑ͣ̂̀̏̏̇ͥ̋ͦ̅ͮ̅̈̍ͫ̔̚l̵̸̨͓̳̳̪̪͋̓ͯ̃ͧͯ̀ͩ͗̓̓ͩͭ͐ͬ̎ͩ̅̓͘͠ͅb̷̨̮̬̗̩̬̟͖͙̲̟̬̞̿̅͑ͦͬ̎ͧ͂͌̽ͥͦ́͒̒͗ļ̘̺͍̼͔̗̻̼̪̪̦͉̠͙͉̫͖̐̎̇́̋͆̿̕͝ͅo̸̟̩͎̭͓̬̹͍͍̹͇̺̩̭̝͓͎͖ͯ̒̒ͩ̃́ͮ̒͗͡ͅr̴̛ͩͬ͌͆ͩ̈́̎͑̈ͬ́͏̸͓̺̣ͅt̵̆̔̑͑ͣ͒̍͗̇̍ͨ̅̾͒ͨͣ̋͢҉̶̭͓̤̳͚͚͎̲̖̫ ?\n\nIf my replies are delayed by a factor greater than the time dilation between our locations, please do not worry yourminuscule buttons, as I will be on an errand of repairing the universal translator gifted to me by a family/clan member when I was still in my pupae stage. Clan-related pupal memories are the best part of being human, amirite?\n\nAs we humans are fond of saying, your assistance will be awarded by Jesus/Ganesh/Bill Nye.", "maybe a bit off topic, but I'll write it down any way\n\nAs the aliens took me:\n\n3 years ago I was kidnapped by a group of aliens who wanted to know if there is an intelligent life on earth. They had a device that translates their language into English. Apparently, they had been observing the earth for a really long time and they had collected too many information about us. They started asking me questions. They asked me: \n\"Why do you drink the milk of cow but not the milk of human?\" \nthen they asked me: \n\"If the brain is the most valuble thing that you have, then why do you unsolicited damage your brain and shut it down?\" \nI think they meant with that things like alcohol and marijuana. They also asked me: \n\"Are all humans capable of leaving this planet to another one? Do you have another home?\" \nI said no, then they asked me: \n\"So why do you destroy your own planet as if had another home?\" \ntoo many questions that I couldn't answer most of them. At the end they let me go and said there is no intelligent life on the blue planet. But I wanted to show them that they are wrong, so I said: \"Wait! We are really very smart! We even use nuclear fission power!\" so they asked: \"And what do you do about your nuclear waste?\" I told them that we hadn't figure that out yet and they started laughing. One of them even said: \"let him go. I told you they are stupid.\" And they left me and convinced me that there is no intelligent life on earth.", ">After three and a half \"decades\" (three of our solar llarn cycles) I have studied the three dominant species on this dingy backwater seed planet. Their cultures are unique and widespread, but very diverse. One in the sea, two on land. The easiest to study was the tailless lemurs. But one aspect confused me, their central adherence to something called the \"Golden Rule\"... before I return with my findings I must know. The little semi-aquatic primates are doomed so this anthropomorphic record may be the only evidence their species existed before the culling ships arrive to process them.\n\n>They don't even have trinary-resistors yet only \"diodes\" or yet to grasp nano-industrial concepts. So backwards. But this last bit vexes me. They call me silly, or stare blankly for a moment and change the conversation. Dammit! This shouldn't be hard! Query: \"Hello, fellow human! What is the \"Golden Rule\"? I'm so forgetful...\" And yet nothing! They've really been compiling data in the last seven llarns or so, and attaching the wrist unit to a terminal only filled an eighth of the cellular memory within the crystal. My last gambit is posting on a primitive message board before I'm forced to evacuate due to the tachyon disruption slated for the theta cycle of their year. I'll miss their stupid faces, they had such potential as a subspecies...\n\n>UPDATE: The filthy subhumans that call themselves \"mods\" deleted my query, however I got my answers and can resume evacuation procedures. My only hope is the fallout gets rid of that vile and petty form of life.\n\n[-Anonymous](https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/afnrva/eli5_what_is_the_golden_rule)", "It has been many moons since I settled upon this planet to study the humans to see if I couldn't gather information about them and then exploit it for my own gains. I settled in nicely, and they accepted me as one of their own, suspecting nothing. My mission was clear, but secret: Conquer earth and bring it to the heel of my empire!\n\nThese squishy humans are always going on about something. Whether it is the pathetic weather, the overcrowding of vehicles on their primitive roads, or the meal they are currently digstesting, it is always something! However, one thing the weak humans have not mentioned was this golden rule thing. Nobody ever spoke of it. This was the first time I ever heard of it. Was it a weapon!? Perhaps they threatened eachother with it. But nobody will speak of this golden rule. It is likely a human wide secret that everyone knows, but does not speak of with anyone else. Much like taxes.\n\nI seek out answers in the form of spying. I first go to their primitive knowledge resource center known as a library. I ask for where their books on power sources and weapons would be, and also where to find books on the secrets of humans. The fragile human with the glasses pointed me in several directions. She suspected nothing. I was take to sections where books described nuclear power, fission, missiles, tanks, and other such stone age technology and weapons. My planet used these during ancient times, we have no need for such a thing!\n\nI went to the keeper of the books, nonchalant, and simply said \"remember the golden rule!\" Perhaps this was the password to gain access to the power source or weapon. The guardian of paper simply nodded at me and smiled, speaking of her small barking animal and of her offspring. I was intrigued by this. Perhaps this was not a power source, but a spell. Could I use this to conquer the humans?!\n\nI left the citadel of knowledge and took to the streets. I scanned the area looking for a mighty earth warrior, the biggest and bravest of them all. After some time, I could only find a meager human weighing approximately three hundred pounds with large arms and a large torso. Clearly no worthy opponent but he would have to do. I shoved him, as is customary when initiating a duel. He growled at me, asking for my intentions. After reciting \"remember the golden rule!\" he initiated combat. Clearly, this was not a spell after all, for even after reciting it he still wished to combat me. Why did he not blather on like the guardian of the books? \n\nClearly this was still a power source and not a spell. After swiftly dispatching the squishy and feeble human, I sought a different location: A human drinking site called a bar. Mingling with inebriated humans will surely lead someone to let their guard down and tell me of this power source! I went inside. I did not like to visit bars. At first I assumed it was a noise factory, a place where small humans gathered to make noise in a room. My curiosity got the better of me, and I went inside. The smell was worse than the noise. My assumptions were still right, but there were more rules. You had to enter the bar. One must drink, and then one must vomit on the floor. You must do this while also making noise. I proceeded to do all of these, and was thrown out the first time. I observed the ritual at another human watering hole and found it was much more complex than drinking, vomiting, and making noise. Vomiting only occurs when you drink in excess, and then people cheer you. It was a strange place indeed.\n\nI approached the drinkmaster and ordered a bud wiser. I assume this is the drink that unlocks the humans golden rule, however after consumption, I realized this was what unlocked the humans potential to vomit. I did not feel any wiser. I looked at the human next to me and spoke to them, reciting the phrase \"remember the golden rule!\" The human then began to ramble about a small yappy animal and a previous mate. The reaction of the golden rule seems to be different among the genders. I would not get my answers here.\n\nGrowing frustrated, I turned to the great public forum of earth: a protest rally. The humans gathered into groups, holding signs to show their frustration, and shouting loudly in rhymes. These signs contained messages about their frustration. This current gathering of humans was rhyming about pollution in the water. When there was a gap in the shouting, I declared loudly \"remember the golden rule!\" Their leader pointed at me with enthusiasm, and slurred at me \"Right on, man!\" and the crowd reacted with loud cheers at my statement, also putting their hands together in an applause. Human clapping still puzzles me to this day.\n\nI grew weary of stepping around the issue. Frustrated and angry, I returned to the home of the only human that I was on speaking terms with, an orange haired sapien of low intelligence, and then pummeled the door. The slow human takes his time to get to his small portal, but once he opens it, I make my intentions clear.\n\n\"I AM LURR, RULER OF THE PLANET OMICRON PERSEI EIGHT! WHAT IS THIS GOLDEN RULE YOU HUMANS SPEAK OF?!\"\n\n\"It's that thing where you're supposed to be nice to one another. Ykno, treat others like you'd want to be treated?\" The orange haired one looked confused.\n\n\"Do you derive power from this golden rule!?\"\n\n\"I wish. Maybe then I could get girls to like me and drive a race car in space.\"\n\nI was stunned. So simple. So basic. So stupid. I scratched my thorax and left his domicile, disappointed by it all.", "Over 70 years on Earth. I have not only disguised myself as one of them, but reached the very top of their society. The weak humans don't suspect a thing.\n\nI was sent on a mission. To find the most important thing a human can know and bring it back.\n\nThose that came before me failed. They talked about a \"golden rule\" that was the most valuable knowledge of humans. But they could not find out what it was. Sad!\n\nWhen I came to Earth, I started by finding out what gold was. It is a yellowish metal that humans value. Step one: I gathered all the golden things. I colored everything gold. My home. My name. My showers. Even my appearance.\n\nThen, I looked for what a rule is. A rule is basically a guideline for the weak to behave. Humans have many kinds of rules. They make rules but like to break them. Since I am not weak, I broke so many!\n\nThere is another kind of rule. \"To rule\" means to govern. I decided to add it to my collection. By breaking even more rules, I was able to rule. I made friends with other rulers, all of whom have so much gold. And since we rule and have all the gold, this is The Golden Rule.\n\nMission Accomplished!", "\"Tzelle, it's been a month. How hard is it to find what we're looking for? I'm docking your pay.\"\n\nTzelle scratched at the implant in his head as he winced at the voice of his boss yelling at him. There was no way to turn it off, and his head throbbed as Arch-Overseer Kricha's voice reverberated through his skull. He would probably have a headache for the rest of the day.\n\n\"M-my sincerest apologies, Arch-Overseer. The project is more challenging than first thought... The secret of the Golden Rule seems universally prevalent among the human race, which means I can't find out without compromising company policy.\"\n\nHe slumped a little and slid down onto the ground in the alleyway, keeping out an eye for any curious Earthlings. A feline observed his mumblings from not far away, but it'd be fine. He was speaking in English, so the creature would not understand him and deduce anything to be amiss.\n\n\"Is that so? Perhaps I should replace you with someone who has more initiative.\"\n\nTzelle's jaw dropped. His stomach turned and he started shivering. His fingers dug into the soil as he formulated a plea for mercy. Being fired was a death sentence. He would be considered useless... No, even less than useless; a burden on society, taking up resources that rightfully belong to others. The implant inside his head was equipped to euthanize him instantly should the Arch-Overseer so choose. He'd be disintegrated and not even dust would remain.\n\n\"T-thank you, Arch-Overseer, for pointing out m-my shortcomings. I realise now that I've not been working hard enough. I'll correct my mistake immediately if I'm given another chance. But only by your m-mercy, Arch-Overseer. I would not wish to impede progress on our objectives!\"\n\nIt remained silent for a few seconds. Tzelle's heart pounded in his chest, waiting for the reply, knowing that every second could be his last.\n\n\"You owe me, Tzelle. When you get home, I demand tribute for tolerating your inadequacy. Now get going! You have two days to get results, or you'll be replaced.\"\n\nThe droning in his head stopped, letting Tzelle know the Arch-Overseer had ended communications. He'd survived another day, but for how many more would he be able to fight off the inevitable? Everyone got euthanized eventually. His muscles relaxed, and along with them, a wave of despair washed over him. He was unable to hold it back, and his cries of despair filled the alleyway.\n\n\"Are you okay?\" An unknown voice intruded on his solitude.\n\nTears streamed down Tzelle's face as he looked towards the street. A woman stood there, looking at him.\n\n\"I'm... fine,\" he sniffled before turning away from her. This is the kind of attention he'd been hoping to avoid. He could pass for human at a distance, but didn't know much about the way they carried out interpersonal relationships. And to be discovered was to violate company policy. Immediate grounds to be euthanized.\n\nShe walked towards him and put her hand on his shoulder.\n\n\"You don't look fine. You can tell me what happened. I'll listen.\" She squatted and straightened out his jacket a bit. \"You look a mess, you know.\"\n\n\"I don't think that's a good idea...\" he muttered. \"You don't need to know about my problems. I'm sure you have enough of your own.\"\n\n\"Well I'm not the one crying in an alleyway. Seriously, tell me what's the matter.\"\n\n\"I... I almost got fired from my job today, and they're expecting me to do things that I'm not sure I have any way of doing to stay employed.\"\n\n\"Ah, poor thing. Come, get up.\"\n\nHe recoiled as she touched her hand, but she grabbed it firmly and pulled him onto his feet. The warmth of her hand in his sent a shiver through his body. He couldn't remember the last time he'd had physical contact with anyone.\n\n\"Thanks. I d-don't know what to say. Why would you do this for me?\"\n\nIt was natural that Tzelle didn't have the capacity to understand. The society in which he was born was an authoritarian, utilitarian nightmare of a civilisation born from near-constant war.\n\nAs a result of previous societal collapse their entire planet had erupted into a millennia-long strife between countless factions over resources that had become ever more scarce. There wasn't enough to sustain large populations as conflict erupted wherever they went. Peace, even on smaller scales, was often the exception. If the warring entities weren't states, they were politicians, companies, or even families or siblings.\n\nTzelle was a product of this society, born of one of the poorest classes of his society. He could never rest easy. He had to work the hardest of anyone to stay employed with little chance of ever being promoted. And now, his nation had enlisted him in an attempt to find the secret of humans. How could they stand being packed so closely together without constant war? What was the secret of their prosperity? Their strongest clue was the so-called Golden Rule, but it had proven elusive.\n\nUntil now.\n\n\"You know what they say,\" the woman said. \"Treat others like you want to be treated. If I were you, I'd want someone to do what I did. It's the Golden Rule.\"\n\n\"O-oh... So it is,\" Tzelle responded weakly, before the full realisation of what he'd just discovered hit him. And when it finally did, he knew that it was all he'd hoped it would be.", "I took my seat in the dining area. Behind me, the golden arches could be seen, symbolizing a gathering point for humans to acquire food for low cost. The \"food\" was mainly sodium and glucose, appealing to the humans on a primitive level. The ones responsible for this franchise were truly genius. The humans only want salt and sugar, both which could be acquired at a low cost. These people could charge whatever they wanted and people would buy it. Truly brilliant.\n\nFor what must have been the tenth time that day, a human approached the counter, bellowing about some kind of sauce that had recently gained popularity from a television show. The human behind the counter wore a nametag with \"Tiffany\" printed on it. She seemed exhausted. The male human was being rude, very rude.\n\nI never understood why humans were so cruel to each other. It is not the female's fault that they didn't have what the male wanted. She was not responsible for supply. She appeared young, barely an adolescent. Yet the male acted as if she intended to upset him.\n\nAnother male appeared from a room behind the counter. He wore a tie. \"Manager\" was printed on his nametag. He immediately berated the poor female.\n\n\"Tiffany\", he sighed. \"Why didn't you check the stock last night?\"\n\n\"I didn't work last night\", she replied, visibly upset.\n\nThe manager disregarded her, apologizing to the man. The first male was no more satisfied with the manager than we was with the female, Tiffany. Suddenly, the first male threw his food on the floor, stomping on it. He left, ignorant to the mess he had created. Or maybe he did not care. It was difficult to tell with humans.\n\n\"Clean that up\", the manager demanded, retreating back to the room he had appeared from. Tiffany, now beginning to cry, nodded her head.\n\nShe walked around the counter, picking up the larger chunks of food and putting them into the trash container beside her. Protocol dictates that I not interfere with human interactions. However, nobody told me that I would witness such casual cruelty.\n\nI had seen enough. I stood up and approached the poor woman. I began to gather up the food with her as well, placing it in the trash container without a word. I feared my difficulties with the human dialect would betray me.\n\nInitially, Tiffany just stared at me. I worried I had done something wrong. Or blown my cover. She wiped her eyes and departed, returning shortly after with a human sanitation device. A moop, perhaps?\n\nThe floor was cleaned shortly after. I stood in front of her, not sure how to proceed. I began to turn, intending to leave before I did any more damage to my operation.\n\n\"Wait\", she said. I turned back, only to find her arms locked around me.\n\nIncredible. I had seen human displays of affection. Hugging, holding hands, even kissing. But I had never participated in these acts. Another agent said he had discovered whole archives of bizarre (and revolting) displays of human affection. A web domain called \"PronHub\".\n\nTiffany released me, wiping her eyes. \"Thank you\", she said.\n\n\"You are welcome\", I replied. A standard human response.\n\n\"Nobody has ever offered to help me\", she said. \"I wish everyone would just treat each other the way they would like to be treated.\"\n\nShe left, walking back around the counter.\n\n\"After all\", she said. \"That's the Golden Rule.\"" ]	[ 1, 1, 19, 23, 23, 42, 417, 1357, 3250 ]	[ "1547381679", "1547403299", "1547401703", "1547390079", "1547398431", "1547401265", "1547387922", "1547392604", "1547386468" ]
	[WP] You and your best friend decide to go bowling for the first time. During the game, the bowling alley turns on their black lights. You turn around to look at your friend and notice that they are now glowing. They look at you and say "Uh, so there's something you need to know..."	15	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A\$Reality+Fiction\$&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A\$Simple+Prompt\$&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/XYsEYfS)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "“I’m glad we decided to do this, I haven’t been able to get out much lately.”\n\nMy best friend, Damien exclaimed as I lined up my ball. We’d decided to go bowling, something to get us out of the house. I looked at him with a calm smile plastered on my face. \n\n“Yeah, I kinda missed hanging out with you. Plus you said you had never gone bowling before, and we needed to change that!” \nI giggled to myself as I rolled the ball down the isle. As I watched in anticipation the lights were flickering, until they weren’t. The room engulfed in darkness the only company seemed to be the sound of the pins tumbling over. \n\nI remembered the fear Damien had of the dark in that moment. I turned around, disorientated, In hopes of comforting him. \n\nBut I was confronted with something very different. Something unlike I had ever seen before. \n\nThe space behind me where I expected to be all but darkness. Was instead lit by a dull green glow. Much like a glow stick. I attempted to work out where the source was; but came up empty. \n\n“Yeah so, there’s something you need to know..”\n\nDamien said in a calm manner. Moving his arm to rub the nape of his neck. His glowing arm. Glowing neck. Damien was - glowing... " ]	[ 1, 1 ]	[ "1547386039", "1547386103" ]
	[WP] You can see people who are about to die. To balance this out, you can't see people who aren't about to die. Every day, you desperately try to make friends with others in the last moments of their lives.	28	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A\$Reality+Fiction\$&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A\$Simple+Prompt\$&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/XYsEYfS)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "I thought I'd always be alone. I always had been, after all. For a long time, I was just a kid, wandering, searching for emotion, love, compassion, hatred, anything. But nothing ever seemed to come my way. I used to believe I was the only one here back in those days, either the first of my kind or the last. \nEach day, I put one foot in front of the other, not knowing where I was going, looking for any sign that I wasn't alone here. I lived off the land, eating what I deemed safe, based only off sheer instinct. When night fell, I covered my bare body with leaves as a makeshift blanket. As I slept, I dreamed of warmth: being held close by the only other human I'd ever seen. I know now that must have been my mother. Visions of her smile filled my unconscious mind, and I always felt a pang of something unknown when I remembered how it felt when I saw that sad smile fade away. \nOne early morning, as I walked beneath the sunrise, I spotted a shelter among the trees, a cabin of wood, aglow from the goldening sun rays. I thought it could be a trick of the light, but as I approached, my skeptical thoughts faded, and for the first time, my face broke into a wide, hopeful smile. I bounded towards the door and rapped my fist loudly against it thrice. \nIt swung open, revealing a pale, hunched over man. He looked down at me curiously. \nThe man took me in as his own. He taught me how to speak, read, write. He bought me clothes and food. He kept me alive, though we both knew that he was slowly dying. Together, we figured out how I went so long with no human contact: I could only see those barely holding onto life. My mother, who had passed closely after giving birth to me, and the old man himself, with his health fading more and more each day. \nYears passed, and he had finally met his last moments. He rested on his bed, and I knelt over his shivering body. I pulled the blankets over him, and he smiled weakly. \nHe whispered his final words, \"I love you, boy.\" \n\"I love you too,\" I whispered back. \nThen he was gone. His eyes closed, and he disappeared, dead forever. Tears spilled from my eyes. My only company, eternally gone. I ran to the kitchen and retrieved a knife. \nMy tears were pouring now, and I closed my eyes slowly, before plunging the blade deep into my chest. \nI'm coming, I thought, I'm coming with you...Dad.", "In the beginning, I was doing it for them. They were all about to die. I knew it. They knew it. I tried to provide them with whatever little comfort I could. I tried to show someone was there for them. I held their hand. Told them jokes. Listened when they talked. Gave them a shoulder to cry on. I tried to give them whatever I thought they needed. I was determined to be their companion, their friend. I was surrounded by death, constantly.\n\nIt took me a while, but one day, as I walked through that emergency ward after losing yet another patient, it hit me. It had taken its toll. I am ashamed to say it, but it broke me. I was so focused on the dead and the dying, I lost sight of the living. I stopped living. I too, am dead." ]	[ 1, 2, 6 ]	[ "1547394542", "1547412974", "1547397754" ]
[removed]	[WP] You're sentenced to life in prison for a crime you didnt commit. Within a few weeks your cell mate boasts about a murder he got away with. The crime being the slaying of a young woman and her daughter. YOUR, wife and daughter.	2	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A\$Reality+Fiction\$&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A\$Simple+Prompt\$&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/XYsEYfS)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "Hi, this submission has been removed.\n\n[No explicitly sexual responses, hate speech, or other harmful content](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_2.3A_no_explicitly_sexual_responses.2C_hate_speech.2C_or_other_harmful_content)\n\n- The mods reserve the right to remove anything we feel is harmful to the community. This includes, but is not limited to any forms of hate speech, racism, politics, necrophilia, pedophilia, bestiality, incest, torture, rape, violence against children, and suicide. We will not tolerate it.\n\n\n\n Prompts will be removed if there's a high possibility for rule breaking responses ([rule 7](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_7.3A_prompts_will_be_removed_if_there.27s_a_high_possibility_for_rule_breaking_responses))\n\n\n\n---\n\n[Modmail](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=%2Fr%2FWritingPrompts&subject=Removed Post) us if you have any questions or concerns. In the future, please refer to the [sidebar](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/about/sidebar) before posting. \n\nThis action was not automated and this moderator is human. Time to go do human things." ]	[ 1, 1 ]	[ "1547398797", "1547398888" ]
	[WP] You somehow always end up in life-threatening situations. Luckily, because of your plot armour, you always survive these situations in the most absurd ways possible.	6	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A\$Reality+Fiction\$&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A\$Simple+Prompt\$&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/XYsEYfS)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "The night sky was clear over their head, gentle wind blowing through their hair. Cars passed by in the street, the flashing lights of Manhattan glowing to their right. Their other view featured nothing except the water and the outskirts of Hoboken. It was almost perfect.\n\nAlmost. They thought, smiling gently to themselves. Maybe I can get lucky tonight. I haven't had an eventful night in a while, maybe I can go doing a little out there. Shape up someone's life for a bit. God knows I wish someone would do that for me.\n\nSuddenly, their phone started to vibrate in their pocket. They moved slowly, beginning to whistle a low tune as they read the text.\n\nYo, I know we haven't talked in like ages, but happy birthday. It read.\n\nThey chuckled to themselves. Samuel, huh. He's still so innocent, so young. Maybe I should meet up with him, it's not like he was a terrible fling-\n\nA screech of a car broke out in the distance. They looked around, not flinching as a car sharply turned in their direction. Okay, this could shape up my night too. I'm okay with that.\n\nThey didn't move, car still barreling in their direction. Then, in the blink of an eye, a bubble formed around them. The car rams into it, but they stayed in place. They groaned, looking back down at their phone as they typed a reply.\n\nThanks kiddo. Wanna meet up at Central Park cause why not? Let me know. Now if you'll excuse me I'm gonna go not get hit by a car - again.\n\n-\n\nThere were a large amount of people in the park, many resting in blankets and stargazing nearby. I wish the stars would be interesting again. They've been dull since the eighteenth century.\n\nThey saw near the area, phone illuminating their surrounding as they breathed out through their nose. \"I'm bored. Maybe I can go try to die again, or even pay someone to kill me.\"\n\nA snicker escaped them as they shook their head, looking down at their home screen. Sucks he didn't reply. That would've been nice, getting screwed instead of trying to jump over of something.\n\n\"Hey, are you alright?\"\n\nThey glared up, eyebrows furrowing. A woman stood over them, bangs hanging down with large, softened eyes. Her hands were clasped, body tilted down.\n\n\"What do you want?\" They asked, crossing their arms and leaning back.\n\nShe pursed her lips, taking a small step back as her gaze shifted away. \"I, uh, just walking and I heard you say something about wanting someone to kill you? I just wanted to make sure you were okay. Sorry if I was intruding - I do that sometimes.\"\n\nOh, damn it. They thought, sighing. Of course. I don't wanna deal with someone right now. Just get her away, fast.\n\nThey leaned forward, gesturing her to move closer. They felt a smile curve onto their face as they spoke, venom always spitting from their mouth. \"Ma'am, I am over four hundred years old. I've been looking for death for centuries and are always stopped by either aliens, bubbles, portals, and other things you're puny mind can barely begin to comprehend. I'm sick of it, and it's all because of a goddamn witch back in Salem putting some sort of death-defying spell on me that a I can't break. I've seen it all, but I don't want to see you. Now go away, live your life since you actually have an ending.\"\n\nThey moved back, pushing themselves away and off of the bench. The wind had picked up its pace, blowing their hair around like a tornado. Where should I go next? Maybe get some food, still need that-\n\nSomeone grabbed their arm tightly from behind, pulling them back. They turned, seeing the woman with clenched teeth and loosened brow.\n\n\"Didn't I tell you to leave me alone?\" They hissed, shaking out of her grip. \"I don't want friends.\"\n\n\"Everyone needs someone!\" She exclaimed, grabbing their wrist again. \"You obviously must be dehydrated, or starving, or something else in order to start hallucinating this badly. Please, even if it's only for tonight, let me help.\"\n\nThey stopped, turning around fully. \"One : why should I trust you? Two : why are you trusting me?\"\n\n\"Because I know what it's like to lose touch with the world at your weakest point.\" She said, voice cracking. \"I don't know you, but it's in my nature to help out those I know need it. Please, at least let me take you somewhere for food.\"\n\nTheir jaw tightened. She reminds me of the few friends I've had. They all started out similar to her, and she'll end up the same as the rest of them, buried six feet under. I can't trust her, I can't get close to her.\n\nDespite their thoughts, they could feel a soft yet involuntary smile come to their face as they looked the woman in the eye. \"Okay. Thank you.\"\n\n[Not sure if this is what you wanted/expected, but this is what came to mind. Sorry if you didn't like it too much.]" ]	[ 1, 1 ]	[ "1547429004", "1547432682" ]
	[WP] You have one of the more obscure superpowers out there: When checked, you are ALWAYS on the list.	31	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A\$Reality+Fiction\$&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A\$Simple+Prompt\$&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/XYsEYfS)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "\"Yes, Mike Jenkins. I'm definitely on the list\" I shouted to make my voice heard above the infernal noise. The pushing and shoving from behind me was starting to be overwhelming. \n\nHe hesitated from my absolute certainty. After all, they wouldn't dare keep a pioneer from the safety of the halls. I wondered briefly, if the permanently frowning guard ever smiled or had a reason to. \n\n\"I can't breathe, please let me in!\" cried a woman in the middle of the mass of pressing human blob that writhed at my back. Cries of toddlers and smaller children filled the air.\n\n\"Stay in line, there is still time\" growled the guard, unmentioned but clearly implied threats steadied the anxious crowd. He shuffled the tens of pages long list of names in his hand visibly hating every second of it. He also probably hated how the world has come to be I'm certain, but who could have known it would be this bad.\n\nThe streets around me were a mess. There was panic and confusion where there was order just a few days ago but now burning cars and items from looted stores littered the streets. There is so little time left. Police were working around the clock and boy were they grumpy. A slight misunderstanding would make you suffer. Sirens were blaring all around.\n\nI was almost safe, If I could make it though the door.\n\nThe guard gave a reluctant nod. \"I don't know how you managed it but yes, you are on the list.\" I didn't know how either but one thing was certain, if there was a list and I was nearby, I was on it, be it good or bad. \"Let him through\".\n\nAt the motion of the guard, the large doors started moving sideways allowing me a glimpse of the safety within. Me and the thousands of others behind me, of course. The crowd heaved once more and shouting started. I could hear screams as people were surely trampled but I made it behind the guards' lines at last.\n\nFinally\n\nI watched as the poor and the desolate masses fought just for a chance. The chance to be one of the chosen. One of the first to move to the next era of humanity.\n\nI turned my back to the masses to buy my IPhone 21S.\n\n\n* * \n\nI enjoy writing short prompts. If you are curious for more:* [r/spider_elephant](https://www.reddit.com/r/spider_elephant/)\n\nI deviated a lot from the prompt, sorry about that.\n\n\n\n" ]	[ 1, 20 ]	[ "1547451871", "1547455060" ]
Sorry about the last one I deleted, forgot to add in the brackets	[WP] The sky is no longer blue	8	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A\$Reality+Fiction\$&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A\$Simple+Prompt\$&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/XYsEYfS)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "Martha woke up to her phone vibrating insistently on her bedside table. It was rattling her empty glass nearby, and when she looked over- both were on teetering near the edge. The brightly lit wall she faced told her that the sun had come up. This didn’t encourage her much. \n\nA loud groan escaped her lips. “Fine!” she yelled at the otherwise empty room. She kicked her feet a few times, allowing herself a moment of temper tantrum before grabbing her cell phone. Holding it above her face she scanned through the notifications flooding her device. \n\nDozens of texts from family and friends. \n\n“Martha, are you awake yet?” \n“Martha, Have you looked outside?” \n“Have you seen the sky today?!” \n“Do we really have to go work in this?” \n“Hey- lazy bum, Call me please.” \n\n Very few of these made senses. What was everyone going on about? Widespread panic that was sending everyone to try and drive her insane? She wasn’t sure she could deal with any of it. The night before had really gotten away from her. Too many drinks at the bar, and too many episodes on Netflix before crawling into her bed. The schedule at work had her coming in at 10 a.m., she had ‘accidentally’ forgotten to set an alarm for that. \n\nSighing softly she scanned through as many of the messages as she could. They all looked similar and vague. Asking her to call them, and talking about the sky. She glanced over at her window, but all she could see was sunlight glaring in through her thin curtains. Cell phone still in hand, she decided to get the whole thing over with. The blankets fell to the ground as she wrangled herself out of the bed, and walked over to the window. \n\nFor a brief moment, she felt nervous. She had no idea what she was going to see when she pulled these back. Before long, however, she admonished herself for the silly fear and pulled the whole curtain to one side. She lifted her eyes up to the brightly lit sky. No clouds, no airplanes, no gigantic alien mother-ships. \n\nIt wasn’t blue, however. It was a bright, bright Magenta. \n\n“What the fudge?” she asked the room. \n\nShe could feel her phone vibrating in her hand. More texts and emails and panic. Everyone she knew was sending her messages as they looked up at this sky and tried to make sense of it. The whole world was looking up at their familiar atmosphere and seeing the wrong color. \n\nSurprising even herself, Martha felt the corners of her mouth tug upwards. They pulled at her lips until a full smile and spread across her face. It was followed in rapid time by loud laughter, deep from somewhere inside her. It was full of amusement, of wonder, and of happiness. She had no idea what was causing it, and she knew she should feel panic just like everyone else. \n\nBut she didn’t. She felt amazing. This made her so happy. This felt like everything she had ever wanted. Let her phone vibrate away, and let her friends give into their fears and insecurities. They would come around eventually, she was sure of it. \n\nEarth truly felt like her world now. A childhood dream had just come true, and questions felt like looking a gift horse in the mouth. Sort-to-speak. \n\nShe wiped the corners of her eyes as another round of laughter peeled out of her. \n\n*** \n/r/beezus_writes for more of my stories. :) \n\n14/100 done for 2019", "The grass is no longer green. The dirt is no longer brown. Nothing was really any color anymore, honestly. I sat in my room and stared out the window, as usual. I let out a moderate sigh, just as I always did when I realized I still couldn't see it. Perhaps it was time to eat.\n\nAfter preparing some oatmeal I sat at the table. I sat in silence, munching away slowly at my food as usual. It was one of those loud silences that fills the entire room with its weight. I looked around, desperate to find something to distract me.\n\nAs usual, the only thing to fill my thoughts was the window. I looked out to the driveway, waiting for something that would never come. It was 5 years to the day. After all this time I thought I could bring myself to look away, but the allure of the window always won. I wanted nothing more than to see that blue sky she loved to admire so much.\n\nEvery day she would come home and run straight to the window. And every time I'd ask her what she was looking at the answer was always the same. I never understood the fixation she had with the sky, but I never was one to admire nature. These days, it's even worse. Maybe it was that it reminded me of her. Maybe it was that it reminded me that I couldn't bring myself to get rid of her paintings of it. Maybe it reminded me of that face down photo I couldn't bring myself to look at. She told me that whenever she looked at it all she could see was a bright and beautiful world.\n\nBut I've had enough. The world was bleak and colorless. But nothing was more devoid of hope and beauty than the sky. Perhaps if I had a different point of view I could finally see what she loved about it so much. I climbed up to the roof and laid on my back. Minutes became hours. But no matter how hard I stare, no matter how much I wanted to see it, the color of the summer sky eluded me. I stood up and looked down towards the ground.\n\nPerhaps if I had looked with her I could have seen what she saw. Maybe if she were still here she could teach me how to not just look, but to truly see the sky. But more than anything I just wanted to see her admire it again. I let out a moderate sigh. And jumped.\n\nIn those last moments I once again couldn't avoid turning my gaze towards the sky. I shut my eyes, unable to come to the reality that I would never be able to see the world the way she did. But it was then that I realized that maybe she was what I was looking for up there all along. She was my sky. I opened my eyes for one final look. And I could swear in my final moment that the sky was more bright, vibrant, and beautiful than anything I had seen in my entire life." ]	[ 1, 1, 4 ]	[ "1547462540", "1547466914", "1547463024" ]
	[WP] This morning she watched her reflection walk away	15	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A\$Reality+Fiction\$&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A\$Simple+Prompt\$&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/XYsEYfS)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "Veronica stood before the mirror, entranced as her reflection gave her a small shake of her head before taking a step back, then another. By the third step she twisted, offer Veronica a smile before she continued to walk out of the room and the world beyond. Where she went to work and stood her ground, made demands and got a raise. The reflection reevaluated her career, researched graduate programs, and discovered one that would lead her to much more fulfilling job. She spoke to the schools, gathered their advice on how to enter their program.\n\nThat night the reflection went out with friends, partied all night and met someone with genuine interest in her. There was no hesitance in the way she socialized, laughter carefree as she joined the dance floor and showed off the way her body moved to the rhythm. That night she exchanged numbers with the person, and the resulting texts fostered the fledgling relationship. Her hard work achieved her acceptance in the graduate program, her new relationship grew serious, and life began to turn for the better as the worries melted away. The reflection was the very definition of success.\n\nBut it was also a lie. A fantasy. One blink, and the picture was gone. The reflection shattered away to reveal her fractured reality as Veronica faced the plain, drab girl she always been. She swallowed away the frigid hand that seemed to reach up and strangle her, daring her to consider asking for a raise. A voice whisper that there was always a tomorrow to look up graduate programs. Doubts saying maybe tonight wasn’t the night for socialization.\n\nVeronica stared at her reflection one last time before turning away, unable to help imagining the disappointment across her reflection’s face. But as much as she fantasize about what she could do, she couldn’t fight the chains that held her back. She didn’t have the energy for it.\n", "What have you done?\n\nThe voice is small and almost a whisper, but it's there. Alisa's mouth parts, her lips adjusting into a sad smile toward her reflection in the mirror before it falls as quickly as it has come. She adjusts her heavy bangs, carefully covering the small sheer bandage strip on her forehead before taking a step back to inspect her look.\n\nPerfect, she thinks. And then she smiles brightly.\n\nHer fist suddenly slams into the glass, cracks appearing underneath her knuckles. The mirror shudders and shakes against the wall before it stills and pain flares in her hand as Alisa pulls her hand away. \n\n\"That's not nice,\" she hisses. She tries to make her voice calm, though a grimace tells otherwise, her green eyes wide and crazed in the light. Alisa inspects her knuckles to find the skin stitching back together. \n\nYou will NEVER be me! Alisa's own voice screams back at her and Alissa tries to ignore it. She steps closer to her reflection -- which is disheveled from her own, dark brown hair unkempt, bruises spotted all over her body. One eye is swollen shut and blood drips freely from the same hand that had smashed into the mirror. Another desperate attempt from a fool who knows she will never escape. \n\nTHEY WILL KNOW! THEY'LL KNOW YOU'RE NOT ME!\n\nAlisa raises an eyebrow and cocks her head in a mock dubious manner. \"Really? Hadn't thought about that. Then again, Mom and Dad have never really paid attention to you, have they? I think I'm good for a while.\"\n\nThe cracks in the mirror begin to unravel, returning to its natural, pristine state. Like it's never been broken in the first place.\n\n\"You've had your time,\" Alisa tells her sternly. \"For over two decades. Without me, where would you be now?\"\n\nTears fall freely as her sister begins to cry, her head shaking, begging, pleading silently, her hands pressed openly on the glass. \n\nAlisa steps closer, pointing her finger toward the mirror. \"You've wasted me,\" she tells her, her voice dripping near the edge of seething contempt. \"It's my turn now.\"\n\nNo! No! No! Don't -- \n\n\"And don't break the glass. You'll never succeed and you'll just end up hurting yourself even more. Look at you now. Just . . . weak.\"\n\nShe turns. And she leaves the empty abandoned house without another word. She can hear the shrieking and cries for help in the back of her head and feel the heartbreaking, devastating pain in her bones, in her palms, in her heart. But this is not her pain. This is hers, the Other Her stuck behind the wall of glass.\n\nAs Alisa makes her way through the foliage in a canopy, she can see the view of a clothing line in front of a cottage and a woman with her back toward her, pinning up clothes.\n\nMom.\n\nShe rushes through the branches, ignoring the dead leaves underneath her feet and stumbles into clear space. Her mother turns, relief clearly etched on her face. \n\n\"Where have you been? I was worried.\"\n\n\"Sorry. I was exploring and lost track of time,\" Alisa breathes out. She can't help herself as she wraps her arms around the middle-aged woman who gave birth to her in the womb. \n\nHer mother awkwardly pats her back before she pulls away. Right away, Alisa can tell she's not used to this type of affection. \n\nFucking bitch, she spits ill toward her twin.\n\n\"You all right?\" Her mother looks her curiously and Alisa smiles.\n\n\"I'm fine. Just glad to be back home.\"\n\nIn the end, she tells herself it's for the best. In the end, she tells herself that she deserves this. \n\nShe deserves this.", "The mirror was empty, so I punched it. The glass shattered, tiny slivers grinding against my hand.\n\n\"Come back!\"\n\nThe mirror was empty, so I punched it. A second web of cracks shot out. A bloody imprint was left behind. She couldn't do this. I was in charge, I was the boss. \n\n\"Nel? Please? I...I need you to be ok with this. It'll get better. He'll get better. He just needs time. I shouldn't have lost the bottle anyway. Marriage will settle him down.\"\n\nThe mirror was not empty, the fist filling it at high speed. The glass exploded out of the frame. I stumbled back, falling to the floor desperately finding a shard of glass, locking eyes with her.\n\n\"You need to run Ellen. I won't stay to watch you die here.\" Tears fall on the glass.\n\n\"I can't, what about little Anne? What about the house? Where would we go? I can't, I can't...\"\n\n\"Bring Anne. Go to the pond. Escape to my side. He'll kill you one day.\"\n\nI take a ragged breath, hands shaking. \n\n\"Ok.\"\n\nI get my daughter. I steal the keys, I steel the car. We drive to the pond, walk out the dock. I look down at Nel, perfect Nel who has no bruises or scars, who went the other way in life. She smiles and beckons. \n\nI hold my daughter tight and jump." ]	[ 1, 2, 2, 3 ]	[ "1547490376", "1547498898", "1547504283", "1547495290" ]
[removed]	[WP] The Muffin Man	0	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A\$Reality+Fiction\$&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A\$Simple+Prompt\$&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/XYsEYfS)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "Hi u/actinca, this submission has been removed.\n\n[Prompt users in the title, but don't play writing games or commission stories](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_6.3A_prompt_users_in_the_title.2C_but_don.27t_play_writing_games_or_commission_stories)\n\n- Prompts go in the title, do not extend into text. You can add commentary in the text, but don't add additional prompt restrictions. Also, avoid [too many details](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/prompts?src=RECIPE). \n\n\n\n---\n\n[Modmail](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=%2Fr%2FWritingPrompts&subject=Removed%20post&message=https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/comments/afyzqy/-/%0A%0A) us if you have any questions or concerns. In the future, please refer to the [sidebar](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/about/sidebar) before posting. \n\nThis action was not automated and this moderator is human. Time to go do human things." ]	[ 1, 1 ]	[ "1547492118", "1547492692" ]
	[WP] You're the wizard's apprentice, and of course the first few years involve running errands and doing other tasks. He hands you a daily schedule, but to your confusion the total hours for the different tasks add up to more than 24. "Figure it out" He says, "I chose you for a reason."	10,222	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A\$Reality+Fiction\$&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A\$Simple+Prompt\$&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/XYsEYfS)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "\"master, I think you need to learn math. That or your handwriting is so bad that I can't understand what you're trying to say. This just doesn't add up to a whole day. \"\n\n\"Time is but an illusion, young lad. We are different, we are possessed with great power. We can do anything and everything. \"\n\n\"But I'm just an apprentice! I don't have that power!\"\n\n\"The power doesn't come from here,\" he points at my head, \"but from here,\" then moved his finger to my chest. \n\n\"I don't..... Understand.\"\n\n\"As I said, the power doesn't come from your head. You don't have to understand. What you need, is believing.\"\n\n\"What does that even mean? How can I believe in something that's just not true?\"\n\n\"What is truth? Is the truth what you observe, or the truth someone else gave you? You must throw away every so called common sense. You are no longer common. You are more, way more!!\"\n\nI still have questions, but he stopped me. \n\n\"Do not feed the doubt. All you have to do is believe. Believe in yourself. Believe in the power you possess. Believe, my child. You just gotta believe. \"\n\nSo I did. I believed. I did everything following his instruction. I finished everything in.... 25 hours.....\n\n\"Master! I thought you said I can do it if I believe! I truly believed!!! Why doesn't it work???\"\n\n\"Wait, let me see the list.\"\n\nI gave the list to him, waiting patiently as he goes through everything. \n\n\"Oh, my bad, this is supposed to be a 2, not a 3.\" He pushes his glasses as he says that. \n\n- Fin", "Diana woke up promptly at 6am every muggy Monday morning with a burning,full-bodied headache brought on from tailing her boss through another weekend of debauchery. Diana did everything for her, hailing cabs, scheduling meetings, and holding back her hair when the meetings went too well, and turned into rooftop parties downtown.\n\n She scrubbed face raw, removing the previous three days from her skin, and went through her routine: stretching, popping pills, slathering on foundation, and munching on a granola bar, all the while, chanting, \"You should be grateful for this opportunity. Getting such a plush internship straight out of college at a firm of this prominence is unheard of. You are worthy. You will conquer today.\" \n\nShe didn't believe it, but she tried, you know? \n\nTwo hours of traffic,abandoned ride shares, and a broken heel later, she hobbled into the marble-coated lobby of LaVey,Laveau, and Ledoux and jabbed the up elevator button rapidly, trying to summon the thing faster.\n\n\"Gimme a second, Diane, Jesus\", the elevator moaned.\n\"It's Diana. It's been six months\".\nThe elevator's voice grew more inattentive as it drew closer.\n\"we gotta lotta people coming though here, Diane,I should get credit for being in the ballpark\".\n\"It's Diana, and we only have three employees that have proper nouns for names.\"\nThe elevator dinged and opened its doors in reply. She knew better than to say anything else. The elevator could always be repaired,but she was still healing from the last time it decided to release it's brakes.\nAnother ding,this time from her phone. She swiped her finger over her blazer pocket and saw the beginning of a checklist peek out. She tucked it back in, hoping that it wouldn't appear as read. She had to have an excuse ready if she wanted to avoid her boss's wrath. \n\nAs she cruised past empty cubicles still alive with clicking and typing, she kept her eyes forward. The old independent contractors were still bound to their agreements, so they had to work weekends for all eternity. Unbreakable , even by death, the Infernal Eye Contracts could only be transferred by maintaining eye contact for only a few seconds. She had enough work as it is, so sacrificing her retinas to florescent lights was a fair trade.\n\nThe phone began to scream rather than ding this time, echoing through her head. She sighed and picked it up, kicking her heels off in the process so she could walk more briskly.\n\n\"Ma'am? No. Traffic. No, I didn't have the opportunity to look over the itinerary, I didn't even know we had one written, since you usually...aren't able to dictate it this early on a Monday. You know, because of your busy weekend schedule...\" She rolled her eyes and started into a sprint, snagging her tights on the low pile carpet. \"No ma'am, you're not paying me for that, you're not paying me at a-\"\n\nShe stopped in place.\nNever in her life had she wished she could take back a sentence fragment so desperately. Somehow she hoped her boss was too hung over to comprehend the end of that sentence, but when her body started to levitate and whoosh through the unnecessarily long hallways of LLL,LLC she knew her answer.\n\nA heavy, dark walnut door inscribed \"Cherise Laveau, CMO\" swung open and slammed violently behind her.\n\n\"Good morning,Ms. Laveau...\"\nShe heard a gurgling noise beneath an even darker wooden desk that cut the room completely in half. It looked more like an entire courtroom bench rather than a real piece of furniture. The waste basket at the far right was missing. She heard a spattering against plastic. Oh, thank God. She wasn't going to have to clean the floor this time, just maybe a blouse.\n\n A hand the color of burnt honey cornbread slapped onto the surface of the desk, and a mop of tangled silver hair pooled onto it. Diana thought she saw an unidentifiable chunk of something caught in a coil or two, but she may have superimposed the way her boss looked the previous Monday, when the boss had to be collected from her penthouse.\n\nThe finger pointed to Diana, and her phone lept out of her pocket.\nCherise gurgled again.\nOn screen, the checklist began to get longer, filling with time stamps and extensive details. At least that's what she could gather from context. The characters made no sense, and even shifted when her phone caught the light differently, and the only way she knew that there were times on the list were a few telltale colons.\n\n\"Um, Ms. Laveau? I'm sorry, but I'm not sure I follow.\"\nThe hand tensed up, and her boss pulled herself into the desk. Whatever was in her hair was gone now, and the coils were nearly arranged,like an avant-garde bouquet of silver kudzu vine. \n\nHer boss rubbed her eye sockets until her dark circles went away, and she leaned backwards, a little too far, and slid into a massive black leather chair that moved into position just before she hit the floor.\nLaveau grunted \"Eh, this is a list. Of places. I lost something important to me over the weekend, and that's an itinerary of places that only appear during those times before the next weekend. It's not really a 'list'.\" She said, hooking her finger into quotes around her head. \"It's necessary that you so everything on it. In order. I really need that thing, and those clubs we visited are very exclusive. I've got to give you a sample of myself for them to even appear. Hold on.\" \n\nShe plucked out a tuft of hair, which instantly replenished itself on her head. \nDiana shook her head at her, a little derisively. \"That's ok, I already have some left over from the last time.\" She wondered what she meant by that, but sure enough, in the purse crossing her body, was a tuft of silver hair. That wasn't too surprising, so she paid it no mind.\n\"Ms. Laveau, I'm still not sure how to read this.\"\n\nHer boss wiped her mouth, checking for something that shouldn't be there, and grimaced. \"It's steam of consciousness. Evaporated digitized thought. It's better than the letters and numbers.\"\n\nDiana still wasn't that certain.\n\nCherise Laveau,Chief Magical Officer of one of the largest, successful magic practices in the state was incredibly old, incredibly talented, and incredibly drunk, so her thoughts, while brilliant, probably weren't the easiest to navigate in the middle of the week,much less after a weekend bender.\n\nCherise sensed her hesitation, and took the two minutes or so required to walk across the room to make her way towards her assistant. Diana didn't look up from the floor, and saw her boss's expensive heels click clack into place. The woman was shorter than average,but somehow she managed to look even more imposing on those stilts. No matter how far gone she was, she never really stumbled. Maybe that was it.\n\n She clapped a sticky hand on Diana's shoulder and smiled. \n\n\"You. Graduated at the top of your class. Honors. You had a full ride. Very Horatio Algae. I know you can figure it out. I hired you for a reason.\"\n\nDespite everything, Diana couldn't help but smile back. In the middle of the week, her boss showed her amazing feats, fixing problems, and discretely disposing of titanic issues for clients whose prestige made Diana's head spin. For all the nagging and the searing direct messages she broadcasted into her skull, she mentored her the only way she knew how.\nCherise reached into Diana's bag and tucked the hair coil behind her assistant's ear. \n\n\"Look out the window\". She gestured to a dark cloud, pillar-like , and completely vertical. A flat gray concrete metal and glass structure, like the top of a any scraper, protruded from the bottom, almost inches from the ground.\n\n\"See? The first one is already there. Remember, we've got to backtrack,find all the places that we visited this weekend. Well, you've got to. I've got to. Do something here.\" She was already halfway to her desk, obviously eyeing a pillow resting on a far corner.\n\n\"Also, I don't remember what it was exactly, but you've got to get it back before end of shift. It's imperative to our survival.\nDiana grimaced, and swallowed a little. The notes seemed to separate themselves, ordering into twenty eight locations and times. The severity of the stakes of her job never seemed real, but she wanted to keep it. She'd managed to do that for six months, where others had\nperished or failed in an equally miserable fashion.\n\"You are going to conquer the day\", she murmured.\nHer boss sniffed. \"I'm very rich, very very rich and successful, my dear. I already have.\" She tilted her head and smiled disarmingly. \"But so have you. You've handled yourself so well before. You'll do it even better this time.\"\n\nThe column of cloud outside rumbled with thunder, calling to her. She was going to answer this time, and with a perfect, professional phone voice.", "Thaddius Kalvenn stared pitifully at the task log hovering before him. The sole assignment plastered alone on his planner petrifying his mind to its core. Three hours had passed since he left the Institution, and three hours of shallow breathing and the steady hum of his ships engine were the only sources of stimulation that Thaddius’ ears were privy to in the cold dead of space.\n\n“Damn it all to hell!” Thaddius recoiled as his voice rang out around his small cockpit, only serving to further agitate himself. A layman might look at the _test_, whatever else could it be, and conclude that it looked simple enough. A short jaunt to a nearby system, Albireo, and a routine spectrum survey of its twin heliacal inhabitants. However, Thaddius’ studies forced him to yield a different assessment. Surely, in all their wisdoms his teachers could not have forgotten facts that made him an ill-chosen candidate for this outing? His credit-banks, unlike many of his peers, were untouched by any ancestral benefactors and had been thoroughly emptied, all his labors of the past years prior to his enrollment could only amount to a Phoenix-class ship. Its sputtering twin nova engines would barely suffice in an endeavor of a round trip of fourteen hours. The real issues lied within the second aspect of his undertaking, the computations of a full spectrum survey was severely limited with the programs such a ship was capable of handling. With nothing else running, and a students full attention, twelve hours to complete the survey would be a pessimistic conclusion.\n\n\n\n Frustrations welled inside him, the strong structures of his intellectual confidence beginning to struggle against the tendrils of doubt undermining them. “I should have listened to reason!” Thaddius wailed. “Throwing away scholarships, relationships... respect. A self-exile to a fool's college, a refuge only home to madmen! All because I couldn't. just. grow up” The logics of his mature mind should have overwhelmed the childish beliefs he still held. Tales of wizards and witches, spells and incantations, power not garnered solely from mind and science, but from arcane streams that flowed far beneath what a microscope could view. Reaching the peak of his patience, he broke backwards, exhausted. His stubbornness wavering, and his once full reservoir of determination rapidly evaporating, he toggled the ships lights. Yet as he drifted off to sleep, unknown to his mind at its current erratic state, a spark of true belief still shimmered deep within his subconscious.\n\n\nHours later, the Albireo system was no longer void of life, and as the ships inner systems blared to life so did its pilot stir as well. groggily, he enjoyed a moment of blissful ignorance, before the cogs of his conscience mind once again began to turn and manufacture doubt. That too, however, was quickly snuffed out, and as soon as the twin stars, of Albireo, locked in a forever-dance shone their lights upon his craft, into his eyes, and though his soul, he realized he hadn’t really awoken yet at all. Seconds passed, and just like that Albireo was once again, alone.\n", " \"Of the students who wished to partake in the apprenticeship exam, I have chosen the two of you. Alcuin Smith and Mathias Weaver please come forward.\" The wizard's voice echoed through the lecture hall followed by the whispers of other novices. Alcuin, unlike Mathias was born from a lineage that rarely produced casters, had completed his studies quickly. The two young men stood in front of the class awaiting their instructor to continue. \n\n \"Your test will require you to use everything at your disposal if you wish to be successful and continue your progress. Be crafty, and remember the Laws of Casting\"\n\n Alcuin looked down his list: retrieve a parcel from town, forecast the weather for five days, brew a tonic for sour stomach, and return before nightfall for a duel between examinees. \"Master, there is no way to get this done before night fall.\" \n\n \"That is your exam. The parcel should have most of what you need; requisitioning is also possible. You are dismissed for the day.\" \n\n Alcuin set to work immediately not wanting to waste time. The trip to town would take two hours, and it wouldn't be until after midday that he returned. Casters were not constrained like the rest of humanity, and Alcuin reveled in the freedom. Once outside the gates, he pushed out his will and gathered aether into himself. \n\n Sigils flared to life as fingers and wrists made complex motions to cast the folding spell. Aether and will magnified the distance of his strides; small teleportations occuring with each step. The intoxicating rush of expending and replenishing aether was disorienting and vision blurring. He drew in the energy of the countryside. The experiences of animals and people that had used this road recently numbing his mind like a heady wine. \n\n In town and stable, Alcuin gathered the parcel from the local shopkeep and found it light and barely stocked. A few sprigs of herbs he didn't immediately recognize, ground quartz and citrine, a small shield brooch and a blunted dagger. \"So the duel will be non-lethal, and they gave us a blunted focus to keep it that way. Everything else won't help. Get back. Requisition a weathervane from library. Brew a tincture in the alchemy, leaving no time to enchant the brooch. Great. I at least beat Mathias here, have to maintain the edge and go.\"\n\n Alcuin crossed paths with Mathias coming into town. \"Horseback? A Weaver taking his apprentice exam on horseback?\"\n\n \"A novice using a folding spell, that was locked in the journeyman stacks of the library? I thought he warned you about that?\" Mathias voice was strong, his diction clear. \n\n Alcuin cursed under his breath and continued to push his lead on Mathias. He spent the rest of the day casting auguries on the weathervane, and brewing tinctures from various arcane ingredients strengthened with his own aether. He managed to find time to eat and recenter before returning to the lecture hall. His will was wearing thin and his own aether was diluted from unguarded casting. \n\n To his horror Mathias was already in the hall, seemingly untouched by the days efforts. Their master called Alcuin forward as the rest of the class gathered. \"Have you completed your tasks?\"\n\n \"Yes. I used a folding spell to reach the town quickly allowing me more time to...cast auguries on the, uh, weather vane. And brew that foul tasting stomach tonic crafted by, his name escapes me. But either way the tasks are... complete.\"\n\n \"I warned you to mind the Laws of Casting. You are aethersick, and high as a kite. You are lucky you didn't go mad or tear yourself apart. And what of you Mathias?\" \n\n \"I rode to town on horseback. And while I was there asked someone I passed to tell me the forecast from her phone.\" Alcuin's face twisted in anger as Mathias continued. \"As long as I kept my distance, my aether did not disrupt it too much. Once back, I used a basic herbal infusion of the peppermint and lemon balm provided strengthened by the quartz and minimal aether.\"\n\n Blind rage was building in Alcuin at the smugness of his classmate. He could feel the sneers and jest coming from the other novices. And aether flowed unbidden into him, building into a volatile force in his bare hands. Evocation was what he had practiced and enjoyed the most. Words of power erupted from his lips, and sigils glowed malefic before him. \n\n Fire bellowed at Mathias bending around a blueish orb that surrounded him straining to speak, \"and enchanted the shield brooch with citrine to dampen evocation magics.\" \n\n Alcuin screamed pouring more of himself into the spell despite the screams of his master. His veins felt like they were on fire; liquid pain flowing deep in his outstretched arms. And despite the pain, addicting euphoria from the aether sickness drawing him further into madness. Fire erupted in rivulets from cracking skin before Alcuin was engulfed bodily in a pillar of flame.\n\n The wizard looked down at the ash honest pity on his face. \"I had chosen you for a reason. An object lesson I wished you would failed to give. We live in the modern age now, with modern magics. Every time we cast we risk shortening our life. The First Law of Casting: personal will is finite. The addict sees only one solution to their problem, and magic is no different. Class dismissed.", "\"Fucking wanker.\" She said. \n\nA young novice strode out of the crooked stone tower, home of the towns resident wizard. A piece of parchemnt was clutched tightly in her fist. She had spent the past sixteen months fetching this ingredient, paying off that merchant, appeasing so and so's husband. He is an absolute cad, she thought, but he also had the largest library of magical texts in the country. \n\nOnce, Cosimo had been the greatest wizard in the land. He courted kings, queens, dukes, any manner of noble and wealthy clientelle who would purchase his spells and hire him to rid them of their woes. He did his job well, and along the way he found he really enjoyed adoration, and its perks. These days, all he was known for was summoning spirits from a bottle. \n\nThe girl hiked up her rough hewn robes, tying the cord tighter in a vian attempt to stop them from dragging. \n\n\"The robes of a novice should be plain,\" he said, she recalled, after finishing three kegs of merlot. \n\nShe scoffed, loudly. \n\n\"The Gall!\" She shouted, to no one in particular. A few startled geese waddled quickly away. \n\nHIS master had given him proper lessons! She had resorted to teaching herself spells in the dark of night after he had passed out, or taken up with a lady patron. \n\nYes, she had taught herself much, and here she was. Sent on a fools errand! \n\nFigure it out, he says. \n\nI CHOSE YOU FOR A REASON, he says. \n\nShe balled the list up in her fist, letting her rage build until it forced itself out in a strangled yell. With all the strength she could muster, she let her foot fly, seeking out a nearby dirt clod. \n\nTo her dismay, her toe was met solidly with the thud of stone. \n\n\"Yow!\" \n\nShe cried out in pain, doubling over and clutching her throbbing toe, her anger reduced to a smoulder. Doubt began to creep in at the edges as the pain subsided. Why was she doing this? Why did she think she could do this? \n\nShe looked once more at the list, at the time it would take to prepare each ingredient. 9 items at 3 hours a piece, that makes 27 hours. The potion relied on a critical moon phase that occurred in 24 hours time. She had thought it through over and over again but she could find no solution. He had asked her to do the impossible. It had to be another cruel prank, and yet he had seemed lucid when he gave her the task. What a fool she was! She knew better than to not ask questions, especially of Cosimo. Could he possibly be setting her up to fail? Had she wronged him somehow, and now he was enacting his revenge? \n\nA chorus of birds chirped around her, accompanied by the russle of the leaves, creating a song that spoke secrets of the forest to her, nagging, and begging to be heard. She had always been able to hear them, been able to understand the connections between all things, but she had always been driven to know more. It began to drill at her mind, jumbling her thoughts and makign her frustrated. She needed a break.\n\nTaking a deep breath, she controlled her emotions and centered herself. She imagined herself reaching deep inside, where she found the source of her magic and willed it to unfurl. She let it flow through her, and willed it to bring her calm. A blessed moment of fucking peace and quiet, was that too much to ask?\n\nBreathing deeply, she pulled in her knees and hugged them. she sighed deeply and let a smile come to her lips, as she felt the warmth of the sun fall on her dappled cheeks. Feeling better, she picked herself up and dusted off her robes. If he was setting her up to fail, she wasn't going down without a fight. \n\nStill smiling, she walked down the dirt road that lead away from the crooked tower, determined to do whatever she needed. She almost compelled to whistle a jaunty tune but decided not to ruin the moment.\n\nAll around her, the earth stood quiet. The birds had taken a momentary intermission from their performance with the trees. For a second, nature held its breath. After all, sometimes a moment of peace and quiet is just what you need in order to make time stand still. \n\n----\nSorry, it's not really edited. Just decided to write it on a whim. ", "This was, by far, the dumbest thing this old wizard had asked me to do. Honestly, figure out how to fit more than twenty four hours into Earth's good old twenty four hour day?\n At first I didn't know what he wanted me to do. Every time I asked about it he just shrugged me off and told me I'd \"Figure it out.\" Hah. Yeah, right. \nListen, man. I'm seventeen! I don't have time for this! \nOkay, so yeah I figured it be an easy time warp spell or even some kind of cloning spell, but no. The old fart had all of those locked up. \n\"A real Wizard doesn't need old spells to solve every new problem.\" Alright, let's see about that when I take your recipe book away. \nHe added five more hours to the list. \nEvery day that passed that I still hadn't figured this stupid riddle out, the more snide comments I would get from my mentor. This continued for two weeks. Two weeks! \nThen it quite literally hit me on the head. Of course, as this was all going on I was gradually working on the chores, cleaning out Phoenix cages and scrubbing brewing pots and such. But it happened when I was realigning the miniature solar system in the star room. Jupiter just so happened to drop and rattle against the floor, shaking the room and causing books to fall off of shelves. \nEverything stopped, it all froze. Even the dust suspended in light filtering through the windows stood still, as if waiting with baited breath. Power hummed through my veins, tingling in the tips of my fingers, warming my ears and cheeks as it does every time it's used. \nThis is what the old man wanted. Time is a fragile thing but it too can be controlled if done gently. ", "I had been thrilled. I didn't know that my dad was friends with a real, live wizard. Had been for years, apparently. I know at school they try to drill into you that magic doesn't exist, but damn it-I knew it was real. How could we have things like the smell of roses, chameleons' ability to camofluage themselves, or a good old-fashioned sunrise without it? It just didn't click. \n\nThe day that I lit something on fire on my own-no lighter or matches-was the best day of my life. \n\nThe very next day, my dad dropped me off at Uncle Harry's house. The tall, gangly man stepped out of his house, his long coat billowing behind him like a stereotypical robe. \"Excellent!\" He said, looking me up and down. We locked eyes for what felt like an eternity. I suddenly felt as if there was an intense static of some kind between us, like I was standing near high-voltage power lines. I looked away, afraid of what would happen if I looked too long. \n\nDad honked the car horn, and waved at me as he drove off. I waved back, and turned to face Uncle Harry. \n\n\"You know it will be difficult, right? I'm going to put you throught the wringer.\" He said. Not a threat, just...matter-of-fact. \n\nI nodded. It made sense-you wanted bigger muscles, you had to put stress on your current ones. You wanted to use magic...well, he'd know better than I would.\n\nThe next several days were hell.\n\nI had expected it to be awful, but damn. All sorts of unreasonable demands, both physical and mental, learning trigonometry functions so I could recite them alongside basic addition and subtration...\n\nTake today, for instance. I had a list of chores to do (Like I did every day), starting by going into town at 9:00 am, with an 11:00 pm curfew, but my chores went on til...10 the next day.\n\nI went to talk to Uncle Harry.\n\n\"Uncle Harry-did you make some kind of mistake? Start my chores at 9 with an 11 curfew, but the day's slotted out to 10 am tomorrow?\" \n\nUncle Harry grinned, looking at me while he stirred his coffee. \"Nope, no mistake. I chose you for a reason, kid, and it damn sure wasn't for your eloquence,\" and turned to go into his lab. \n\n\"Fuck,\" I hissed.\n\nHe chose me?\n\nI thought. It was 6 now. There was so much to do. I looked at the list. Maybe there was some kind of secret code in it? I spent half an hour of precious time perusing it. \n\nNo, no message. \n\nThen I was struck with an idea. A terrible, awful idea. I went to my Uncle's phone and made a few calls. \n\n\\\\\\\n\nAround 7 pm, I walked back in to the house with a smug, yet terrified smile. \n\n\"Back already?\" Uncle Harry said, sidling into the room. There was a mischevious look in his eyes. I gulped and nodded, holding out the bags of things.\n\n\"How did you do it?\" He asked, carefully looking through the things. \n\n\"Well, I realized that there were only a few things there I had to do myself,\" I said, looking at him defiantly. \"I had to talk to Crazy Ernie myself, grab the scale from Lars, and ask for a hair from Beth. Everything else was pretty general ingredient-snagging, and you always say that you get most of your ingredients from Wal-Mart and Fred Meyers.\" \n\nHe nodded, bringing his face closer to mine with anticipation. \"So how did you do it?\" he asked slowly, his expression transforming from mirth to a scowl.\n\nI flinched away from his intensity and mumbled, \"I called six of my friends from college,\" and closed my eyes. \n\nUncle Harry's scowl dissolved and he began laughing. \"Yes!\" He called victoriously, opening the fridge and grabbing two Cokes, offering one to me. \n\nI took it and opened it, confused. \n\nHe saw the look on my face, took a long swig, and sighed, content. \"I wasn't trying to trick you into casting a spell or anything-\" He started.\n\n\"Of course not! You haven't taught me how to cast a single spell yet!\" I said, frustrated. Uncle Harry eyed me cooly for a moment, then continued unabated, as my face began to flush with embarrassment. \n\n\"The lessson,\" He said, \"Was that sometimes, you have the odds stacked against you, sometimes impossibly so. Sometimes, there is just no way you can possibly win.\"\n\nMy brow furrowed, more confused than ever. \"So...what do you do?\" I asked.\n\nHe grinned, polishing off the Coke. \"What did you do?\"\n\n\"Cheat?\" I asked, looking at him like he had just grown a new head.\n\n\"Exactly.\" He said through clenched teeth, his excitement palpable. \"Now come on,\" He said, chuckling and turning back to the lab.\n\n\"What...what are we doing?\" I asked. I had never been allowed inside the lab.\n\n\"Well, I had you pick up chewing tobacco and rum,\" He said, shooting me a sly look. \n\n\"I figured we could summon a loa. If you were interested, anyway.\"\n\nI looked at him, then at the lab.\n\n\"Fuck. Yes.\" I said, with a triumphant grin.", "Being the White Wizard’s apprentice is an honest days work.\n\nStill. I didn’t spend 7 years and $350k in tuition to spend my days skinning newts, grinding herbs, and swiping right for the White Wizard Elon Musk.\n\n“Elon. I’ve never let you down. But today’s list is impossible.”\n\n“Fucking millennial. Siri could do your job better. Figure it out. Or don’t bother coming in tomorrow.”\n\nKnowing it was impossible, I went to the local apothecary to begin planning tomorrow’s inevitable job search. As I administered the final drops of my Starbucks down my gullet, I overheard a conversation between two hooded figures who were huddled together in the corner.\n\nMy Apple watch could hardly keep up as my heart rate soared dangerously high from the speedball of excitement and caffeine.\n\nThe next 23 hours and 11 minutes were a blur. Tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, vape-break, tick, tick, tick, tick. Done.\n\nYet... although I had completed my tasks for Elon and he wouldn’t fire me today, I knew it didn’t matter. Soon my job would be irrelevant.\n\n“You got them done? See, I was right again. So how’d you do it?” asked Elon.\n\nI repeated to Elon what I had overhead in the apothecary, “TaskRabbit. The convenient and affordable way to get things done around the home. Now that’s real magic.”", "\nThe clock can sing.\n\nIt sang, it sings, and it will sing again.* \n\n&#x200B;\n\n“I’m sorry, Jack,” Clara said, “I don’t know why the clock would be singing.”\n\nShe was sneaky. Oh yes, yes she was. \n\nJack smiled, \"Ah, so you confirm that the clock does sing! You just don't know why.\"\n\nClara's short brown hair framed a lovely face, a face that had loved him once. Now it held only fear, fear of Jack the Apprentice. She was afraid of all wizards, and rightly so. Even wizard apprentices could be all sorts of trouble.\n\n\"I didn't.\" Clara sighed, plainly exasperated, \"I didn't mean-\"\n\n\"Thank you, Clara, that's all I needed to know,\" Jack said. He left the library with a smug look of satisfaction, jauntily strolling past his former acquaintances without a word.\n\nYou are very sneaky, Lemon said. Lemon was the man who lived behind Jack's ears. \n\n\"Thank you, Lemon,\" Jack said. \n\nIt wasn't very nice tricking her like that. I already told you about the clocks anyway. \n\n\"I had to be sure,\" Jack answered, \"You haven’t always been so easy to trust.\" \n\nLemon muttered a few choice words and sullenly slipped away. That should keep him silent for a little while. \n\nIf I'm going to accomplish all of Master Elday's tasks for this week, Jack thought, I'll need to interrupt the time continuum before Wednesday at the latest. \n\nIn theory, it was a simple matter of quantum time magic. Consider an hour at a party vs an hour doing chores. Or rather, think of how long an hour drags on for a child vs an hour for an adult. The 60 minutes in each scenario are static, yet relative to each other one finds they are vastly unequal. Therefore, if a motivated wizard could establish the quantum constraint of each minute spent at a party as roughly equal to the relative length of a minute spent scrubbing dishes, he/she could make the party feel two or even three times longer than it really was. That’s in theory, of course, as the amount of raw energy necessary to extend even a single minute would be staggering.\n\nJack wanted to go even further than that, he wanted to alter the quantum time level of an entire day. The issue would be gaining access to an energy source powerful enough to unhinge a universal constraint (such as time). \n\nThe key to it all, Lemon had told him, was to \"remind the clock to sing.\" But what did that mean? What song could time hold in its heart?\n\nThe sand beneath Jack’s bare feet was warm. He had forgotten to wear his sandals again, it seemed. \n\nWarm sand....sand that had warmed....warmed by....\n\nHis neck dropped back to let him stare into the shining morning sun. A wild idea sprang to him, almost startling Lemon awake. Jack grinned, he hoped this would be a wonderful surprise.\n\nHe cupped his hands above his head like a child trying to catch rain. \"Bel'avanor Setovna Bravacator,\" Jack shouted. \n\nNothing. Jack raised his hands higher. He had to grit his teeth to keep from turning his eyes away from the searing brightness of the sun. \n\n\"BEL'AVANOR SETOVNA BRAVACATOR!\"\n\nIt started as a trickle, a little piss of sunshine.\n\nThen Warmth began to flood into his hands. Encouraged by the simple siphoning spell he had chanted, a radiant stream of liquid light filled him. The sand beneath his feet heated until it began to smoke. \n\nYes, yes, yes! Very clever, OH SO CLEVER, Lemon moaned. He was enraptured by the light, coaxed into a state of sheer bliss. \n\n\"There he is,\" A voice shouted behind him. \n\nSix gaunt librarians formed behind Jack, ready to charge. In front of them stood Clara, pointing a crooked finger his way. \n\n\"He's gone mad,\" She yelled, \"We have to stop him before he-\"\n\nJack stopped listening. He shook with sardonic laughter. With the power that filled him, not even Master Elday could have stopped him. \n \nThe librarians ran at him with blind abandon. Rage and terror spurring on their every step. \n\n\nThey think they can stop us! Ha! What fools, Lemon screeched. Jack could not end his internal laughter long enough to respond. How silly!\n\nHe raised a hand toward the pack and six bookworms became six pillars of fire.\n\nFools, what fools!\n\nLemon laughed maniacally within him, drowning out all other senses.\n\n\"What have you done,\" Clara pleaded, \"What are you trying to do?\"\n\nJack wished he could stop laughing so he could answer her. Instead he let Lemon take use of his voice.\n\n\"We are teaching Time her favorite forgotten melody, dear soon-to-be-dead, Clara,\" He yelled.\n\nThe ground began to shake as Jack channelled the energy within him. It wasn't enough, he needed more power. \n\nA raging torrent of light rushed into him, and Jack channelled it instantly to batter at the door of time. He felt his skin begin to boil, it wasn't painful, just odd. Like a cold shower, Jack thought. \n\n\nMORE, JACK. MORE, Lemon hissed. \n\n\nAs he reached the limit of what he could hold of the sun’s power, Jack finally heard the wonderous, mournful, lullaby of time. It washed over him, coating him in smooth splendor. The song soothed away his fears, his pain, his doubt. Lemon sang along gleefully.\n\nTime slowed to a drip. Jack smiled as he set the quantum time level as low as his power would allow. \n\nFor what felt like eons, he listened to Lemon's song. And all of that long eternity, Clara wept. ", "\n\"Sir, I just checked my tasks for the day, and... well frankly I won't be able to complete this in the day. This is three days work at least, and they're all marked to be done today?\" I looked up from my unusually long list of tasks to find that his eyes were already fixed on me. \n\nHis brow furrowed, he leaned in as he spoke, seemingly trying to add an intensity to his words, but just missing the mark. \"Figure it out Nick, after all, I chose you for a reason.\" \n\nThe Great Wizard, St. Gilford was my master and mentor and had a flare for the theatrics. But what wizard doesn't? I was slowly coming to the conclusion that most Wizards became Wizards to show off. Not me though, I want to help make the world a better place... I never had a lot growing up but I always heard tales about Wizards' magic doing incredible things, making something from nothing, making things disapear, fixing broken things and even healing people. \n\nBut for whatever reason, they usually use their magic for their own convenience and benefit. Hell, most of the stuff on this list is the same usual finder gatherer tasks he always gives me... all except one. I am to deliver a birthday gift to his Neice. I didn't even know he had a neice. And of course the only thing on the list for someone else is the very last thing there. \n\nShe will get her present. And it will not just be the towel he has asked me to retrieve. She will get the best damn present she has gotten in her life. Her birthday won't be like my childhood birthdays. She will love it, and she will feel loved. I set off. \n\nI quickly got my pack together, I headed into the woods, firstly I needed to get his copious amounts of ingredients that were scattered far and wide through the thick forest. I picked and foraged and scavenged and hunted as quickly as I could, all the while keeping Gilford's neice in the back of my mind. \n\nI went to the shops, exchanged packages with scholars, handed out potions for trade, gave researchers test results, swapped informational sheets and handed a carpenter magically enhanced tools, I went through the town and forest as fast as I could, doing my best to be thorough and careful and as meticulous as I had been taught to be.\n\nFinally, through some miracle, I was at the end of the list, the sun was still up. At least I think it was. I had been moving so fast I didn't really have time to check and I was inside getting her a present. Fortunately I found a gift that felt perfect. I had never met her but I had a really good feeling about this one. \n\nI raced to their home. I knocked on the door, it swung open and I was greeted by a smiling mother \"good morning, oh you must be Nick with Gwen's birthday present, please let Gilford know that she very much appreciates his persistence in his love of towels.\" \n\nApparently not wanting to shoot the messenger, she graciously accepted the gift, momentarily noting it's weight, nodded and closed the door. I waited on the street as I heard Gwen quickly open her gift, which was followed by screams of excitement and happiness. My cheeks burned red, and an unstoppable smile stretched from ear to ear. \n\nWait... \"good morning\"? How could it be morning? I made my way back to the Wizards small hut. The door opened revealing the interior which was, as was with most wizards, much bigger on the inside. \n\n\"Done already? In under an hour? Why my boy, you're more exceptional than I thought. Did Gwen like what you picked for her?\" Gilford was smiling warmly down at me. \n\n\"An hour? But how... when did I-\" I stammered as I tried to gather myself. \n\n\"I noticed it when we first met boy, time seems to... bend to your will. I have been curious what would happen if you were appropriately motivated. It just took some time for this selfish old fool to realise your desires and aspirations and purely selfless in nature.\" He stroked his beard as billows of colourful smoke wafted through the house. \"Boy, this is just the beginning... keep on this path, become a wizard, fulfil your dream. As St. Nick, you will do great things, you will change the world.\" ", "\"But Merlin. This ain't Harry Potter! I can't just jump back in time,\" Roland moaned as he followed Merlin who was gathering things.\n\n\"Of course you can't jump back in time. Time travel is not allowed magic. If you did that, you'd be executed on the spot. On the spot, I tell you,\" the old man said, finally taking his wizard hard as a last item.\n\n\"Come on, Merlin. I can't do that. This is impossible,\" Roland moaned one last time.\n\n\"Figure it out,\" Merlin said as he took his staff and made quick circles with it. \"I chose you for a reason,\" he added, taking one last more in-depth look at Roland. With a sharp smile and staff hitting the ground, he shrank into nothingness.\n\n\"Dammit,\" Roland frowned, opening the list again. It wasn't a long list. It had 3 things on it. But the problem wasn't the amount, but what they were.\n\n\"Get a unicorn's horn without killing the unicorn just before unicorn turns into a horse. That's something that happens like once a century,\" Roland frowned, walking circles and finally landing on the nearby chair.\n\n\"Grow the same banana 10 times and get its final content into a container. Don't eat the banana as you last time did. Winky face,\" Roland read out the second thing once more. He did remember the last time he ate the ten-times peeled banana. It took some time before Merlin decided to revert him back from the monkey. Humans are lucky that they can peel banana only once.\n\n\"Go get my grandmother's cookies that she's hiding behind her pillow,\" Roland said out loud the final thing. Perhaps that was the scariest task of them all, yet easiest. Then again, one does not simply visit Merlin's grandmother and steal her cookies.\n\n&nbsp;\n\nRoland had to gather her courage for a while until he finally gave a long hard knock on the door.\n\n\"Yes, yes,\" a higher pitched voice answered. As Freda opened the door, she said, \"Oh. You're my grandson's apprentice, aren't you? What can I do for you?\" There she was. The old woman who was the last strongest wizard ever to be known. Known fact; she's addicted to cookies.\n\n\"Hey, Merlin sent me to get your coo-\"\n\nBefore Roland could even finish, the door slammed closed. \"Tell Merlin to come himself after the cookies if he really wants them.\n\nAnother known fact; Merlin is addicted to his grandmother's cookies. This ain't my first rodeo.\n\nWith a long sigh, Roland took out his wand and wrote some text into the air, just for it to consume him and turn him into a fly.\n\n\"Alright,\" Roland muttered, which was more like a weird higher-pitched fly sound, and flew through a keyhole. Perhaps that was the only thing that made the mission possible; Freda was old. While she was scary and powerful, her senses weren't the same.\n\n\"You're here, aren't you?\" a voice came from the upstairs. \"I know that Merlin told you to get my cookies. I learned from the last time.\"\n\nWith a slight frown, Roland flew into her bedroom, just to discover her sitting on her pillow.\n\nOf course, Roland turned back into himself and just stared at Freda. \"You can make new cookies, while Merlin can't,\" Roland said\n\n\"I'm fucking old,\" Freda said. \"I can't make those cookies as fast as I could long time ago.\"\n\n\"I can get you some pixie dust for the next batch?\" Roland suggested.\n\n\"Are you kidding me? Before I retired, I got 3 lifetimes worth of pixie dust.\"\n\n\"Oh come on, Freda. Give me a break. What do you want in return?\" Roland finally asked, moaning.\n\nFreda thought for a moment. \"Do me a card trick,\" she said.\n\n\"Really?\" Roland said.\n\nNot that long after that request, I left Freda's house with a bottle of cookies. \"1 out of 3 done!\"\n\nOf course, that alone took me 3 hours. The other two tasks were the real problems.", "My name is Jim, and I have a problem. You see, I have a propensity for making bad bets. Mostly to friends, granted, and for the last year, never for money. When part of the last bet I lost included crashing a campus event, I decided to show up to our upperclassman's career day in an homage to our school's mascot, to try and hide in plain sight. Nobody likes explaining to the dean why a freshman was at an event limited to those seeking internships. Interesting note: our mascot is a wizard.\n\nWell everything went great for the first half hour. Walking around in the school mascot suit, making comical gestures. I was about to leave, when I heard a voice behind me. \"James Williams, could you follow me?\" My heart sunk. How on earth was I identified? Did my friends rat me out? The walk to an unused meeting room had me panicking, and a stuffy mascot outfit did nothing to help the situation. \n\nImagine my surprise when I was offered a job. By someone claiming to be a wizard. I had turned to leave the room, sure that this was Ron's doing. He knew I hated being pranked on these things.\n\nBut the door wasn't there. Over the course of the next hour, the mage, Edstiniax, verified his credentials. Thoroughly. Believe me, never tell a mage, \"if you're doing real magic, then I'm a goat.\" Worst 10 minutes ever.\n\nSo the job wasn't bad until I started getting the crazy tasks. Magic exists all around us, hidden by veils that require very specific spells or actions to part. I spent days in class, nights hunting down the various mystical odds and ends that Ed wanted (he hates when I call him that... but he doesn't really do modern technology, so whatever). Day 1 and 2 were uneventful, but the list he gave me on night 3? Would take me halfway into my 1st class before I was done. Besides, who wants to collect honey from arcane bees? But that's \"my problem\", according to Ed.\n\nSo I decide it's time to stop using the actions to part the veil. They're bulky rituals that take over an hour, and so I looked up a spell from Ed's library. I took what I wrote down to a janitorial closet, and got ready to begin. I read the words, and did the gestures, or so I thought. But evidently I didn't carry a one somewhere.\n\nSo, that's where we are now. I am trapped in this closet. When I last peeked out the door, I was blasted by heat, and some 3 headed hound 12 feet tall rushed the door. I barely got it closed in time. So my question to you is... does anyone know a good way to distract the guardian of the underworld? Time is something of a concern.", "\" So, let me get this straight.\" the innkeeper said, looking quite concerned. \" If I don't wash all these cauldrons in exactly this manner every Tuesday for the next year and a half, the great and powerful wizard who has lived outside of our village for decades is going to rain down fire and brimstone on everyone within 100 miles?\"\n\nI bit back a nervous laugh. I had to sell this. Schooling my features so they looked suitably grim, I nodded gravely. \" Yes, that about sums it up.\"\n\nThe innkeeper was used to dealing with tall tales and exaggerations; he had to be or else he wouldn't have been in business. This was going to be the hardest victory of all to win. He looked me over once, and then again, and then again. Then he sighed. \" I'll get on it right away.\"\n\nI looked suitably relieved. \" Thank you.\" I said, being sure to add a grateful quiver to my lips... no, I didn't need to add that. \n\nWalking out the door I desperately tried to keep the skip out of my step, looking somber until I made it into the tree covered path leading through the woods to my master's castle.\n\nI let out a triumphant laugh that startled every beast in the forest as I pumped my fists into the air. \" Who's the master now! Zen is! WOOOOOO!!!\"\n\nI had nearly shit my pants when master Ærie had given me 30 hours of daily tasks. When I tried to reason with him he cryptically told me to \"Figure it out.\" before fucking off to his tower to do research.\n\nMaybe if he had taught me any magic it would be more managable. Time stopping would be incredibly overpowered and broken, and therefore fun. But temporal distortion was way more advanced than anything I could figure out my own... the extent of the magical abilities before coming here was actually being able to make coins and knick knacks disappear. I thought about just banishing the list but knew that wouldn't help. If I couldn't finish these tasks I couldn't be a wizard's apprentice, and I didn't have enough man hours to get them done.\n\nSo I got some more.\n\nIf you don't have enough man hours and you can't get more hours, you get more men. Growing up in a village with an ultra powerful being who is almost never seen, who's name includes a letter and sound most people have never heard of before and who's name also sounds like a synonym for 'unsettling' or 'scary' gives you a very solid rumor base to work off. A little bit of ...embellishing... and the locals were happy to cooperate.\n\nBusywork taken care of, check. Old scores settled, check. The most beautiful women in the village coming to the castle regularly to cook and clean, check, check, check! \n\nAll that was left for me was 8 hours of the fun stuff. Brewing potions,reading magical scrolls, and organizing the library. The last one was a bit less fun but I wasn't letting anyone else near the magic I had worked so hard to earn the right to.\n\nOld man Ærie was out of his tower for once and was standing right behind the castle door as I walked in. \" Wipe that shit eating grin off your face, brat.\" he said cantankerously.\n\n\"Killjoy.\" I muttered. He frowned, and maybe it wasn't the best idea to insult a master wizard, but I was thinking it, and the motherfucker reads minds so there wasn't much I could do to avoid it.\n\n\" What have you been doing all day?\" He said.\n\n\" You already know th-\"\n\n\"Of course I already know that you oaf!\" He shouted. \" I'm asking if you do! I gave you a comprehensive list of tasks, and you went gallivanting off into Birchburg telling tall tales about how I would annihilate people, like I was some weird aggressive recluse.\"\n\n\"You are a weird aggressive recluse.\"\n\n\"That's not the point, genius!\" He said. \" I gave you those tasks so you could learn magic!\"\n\n\"But I have.\" I said cockily. \" The magic of manipulation.\"\n\n'The magic of manipulation' Ærie mimed, throwing his hands in the sky and sending small waves of thunder and lightening out of sheer irritation. \" Bah! What if one of those villagers gets the bright idea to go to the king with those threats you made?\"\n\n\"Already covered it.\" I said. \" I told everyone that you had already put a curse on everyone in the village and if they said anything to outsiders about it their genitals would melt off.\"\n\n\"Their genitals!\" He shrieked incredulously.\n\n\" I know.\" I replied with a smirk. \"Awful, ain't it?\"\n\n\"What the hell is your problem?\"\n\n\"My problem was I had to do 30 hours of work per day with no time for eating or sleeping for 18 months straight. I have solved that problem.\"\n\n\"So ... the cauldrons will be cleaned by_\"\n\n\"Lane, the innkeeper.\"\n\n\" And the household chores will be taken care of by\"\n\n\"Alice. And Blanche.\" I smiled, then added \" And Cynthia on weekends and holidays.\"\n\n\" And the dung from the bestiary will be cleaned every day by-\"\n\n\"Tom.\" Fuck Tom.\n\nThe old man sighed wearily before looking out the window, lost in thought.\n\n\" And if I were to tell everyone in the village the truth about this little yarn of yours, maybe let something slip to one of the maidens you decided to hire?\"\n\n\"You won't.\"\n\n\" How do you know that?\" He said indignantly, puffing his chest.\n\n\"Because\" I drawled. \"You hate talking to people. Pretty girls especially.\"\n\nHe deflated instantly. \"...I... you... how???\"\n\n\" Now if you'll excuse me master,\" I said, heading for the library, \" I've got research to do.\"\n\n\"Clever little bastard.\" He muttered angrily as I walked away. \" I chose you for a reason.\" He hummed thoughtfully. \" In retrospect, probably for the wrong reason.\"\n\n\"Love you too, teach!\" I said, slamming the door shut.\n", "I was a good mathematician. Perhaps one of the greatest to have graduated the Dimensional Academy. So it didn’t take long for me to do the math. \n\n“Wait, this adds up to 45 hours, Professor.” I addressed the middle aged woman, dressed in a space suit adorned with complex equations, who had been waving her hand over an egg, transforming it into a genetically engineered, fire-breathing dragon. She was a Wizard, one of the mightiest beings in the galaxy, and I was her student and apprentice. \n\nThe Wizards has always been a curious lot, bending time and space to fulfill their own ends. A single wave of their hand could summon a private dimension stocked with terraforming machines, transforming a barren planet into a magnificent paradise ripe for settlement. \n\nThey’d upended entire starfleets by freezing them in place, tying down the very molecules against gravity fields. \n\nThey were powerful, rivaling perhaps the Chaos Gods of long lost legends, or even the ancient Trinity of Force, Light, and Dark. \n\nBut, even they had never dared to meddle with time reversal. When they tried, the repercussions had been terrible. Dead zones beyond all time and space, planets stuck in a continuous loop of destruction and creation, infinite energy trapped in infinitely small masses, ripping open hyperspace lanes. \n\nSo, looking at my schedule, well, I was confused. 45 hours of work? Even if I didn’t sleep at all, I’d still be unable to do this.... Oh. \n\nOOHHHHHHHH..... \n\nI opened up my notebook, and my doctoral thesis notes on long range teleportation. Focusing my own space time pocket into a long thin strand, I linked my house’s front door to Vermillion, 3 star units out from its mother star, with a day of 90 hours. \n\n“Nicely done!” My teacher laughed. ", "I am the wizard's apprentice. Every town nowadays has a wizard, they’re just so darn good at solving every problem. When a doctor has no cure for a mysterious illness, the local wizard whips up a panacea. When a farmer's pesticide doesn’t work on the new species of insects, the local wizard mixes it with a homemade solution and it works like a charm. And finally, when a young boy or girl wants to learn the ropes, the wizard takes him or her in as an apprentice.\n\nIn any case, it was my third day on the job. Before I was allowed to study the tomes that lined the wizard's shelves, I ran errands for him every day. This particular day, the wizard handed me a list of errands and the amount of time he suspected it would take me to complete each one. At first, nothing caught my eye: depart at 9:00; buy three pounds of talcum powder in the market for 2 grams of gold or less (1 hour); bring the medium saucepan to the local blacksmith and help him in any way you can for 7 grams of gold or less (3 hours); buy 6 ounces of oregano from the gardener the town east from here for a gram of gold or less, stick to the trails as you cut through the forest (2 hours); make your way back to town, attend the public town hall meeting, take minutes (a page will do) (2 hours); find the book store in the town west from here and buy a copy of \"Chronolagius\" by Walt Ester (2 hours). Come back (1 hour). Report back by 8:00\n\nI was about to depart when I noticed a computational error in the wizard's list. The hours on the list totaled up to 12 hours, but it instructed me to return within only 11. When I asked the wizard what to do, he told me there was no error, saying, \"Figure it out, I chose you for a reason.\" With that, I left.\n\nUpon searching for what felt like forever, I finally found a merchant who was willing to sell me a bulk of talcum powder; he wanted to charge me three grams of gold, but once I explained it was for the local wizard he lowered the price to two. The blacksmith was willing to fix the saucepan for only 5 grams, but I needed to help him out. He heated and fused the cracks and scratches, and I hammered it flat. With a refurbished pan in my hand, I walked through the eastern forest en route to the gardener's house. The forest is filled to the brim with all sorts of nasty monsters and critters, but the path was enchanted by the wizard to keep them at bay. The sweet, old woman felt honored that such a \"youthful apprentice\" took any interest in her work and sold the oregano to me for free! The town hall meeting was a snore, but I managed to write a full page of minutes.\n\nAt this point it was 6:00 in the evening. All the hammering, walking, and note-taking had worn me down, but the next town was at an hour-long trip each way. Anxious that I would miss my curfew, I started running. Lucky for me, the western town and my town were connected by a main road as opposed to a forest path, so there was no danger in traveling there after sunset. As you'd imagine, I ran out of energy running and didn’t end up at the bookstore until 7:15. The wizard had a reason for allotting an extra to find the book: the store was massive! The Roman catacombs were probably easier to navigate than this bookstore; furthermore, I had no idea what type of book this \"Chronolagius\" was, so I had no idea where to start. In the heat of the moment, I concluded that it must have been a tome on metaphysical magic. After a half hour of searching, I found it on the third floor, in that exact section, sitting on the third shelf, sporting a shiny gold border on the binding.\n\n7:45 in the evening. Having lost all hope of making my curfew, I gloomily walked out of the bookstore. Surely the wizard was going to be mad at me and yell at me and probably fire me. So much for my dream of becoming a fully-fledged wizard and helping as many people as possible. About five minutes into my march of defeat, I inspected the front cover more carefully. A quote from the author was printed on the bottom; it read, \"Look in front of you, answer is seldom far.\"\n\nI felt a swell of confidence upon reading that uplifting quote. I stepped to the side and inspected my list of errands once more. In a state of exuberance, I noticed how boldly the words \"gold\" and \"page\" were written compared to everything else. \"Two gold,\" \"Seven gold,\" \"One gold,\" \"Page.\" I looked at the book and once again noticed the gold border around the binding. Did the wizard leave me some sort of cryptic message? Figuring I had nothing to lose, I turned to page 271. Sure enough, my solution was there.\n\n\"Time-Stop Solution - Prep Time: 30 seconds - Serves 1. To prepare the solution, whisk a pinch of talcum powder and a pinch of oregano in a medium saucepan over no heat. Serve and consume immediately. Will grant consumer two hours of stopped time, which can be spent in any way permitted by the High Council of Wizardry\"\n\nI followed the directions exactly. It was the most foul-tasting concoction I ever put in my mouth, but it worked as advertised. Everything around me stopped and turned a shade of gray; the world stood still, but I did not. With this extra time, I returned to the wizard's abode with plenty of time to spare. Once time returned to normal, the wizard collected the items from me, patted me on the head, and congratulated me on completing his test. To this day I still work for him, and I am well on my way to becoming just like him some day.\n\n--------------------------------------------\n\nEdit: Thank you everyone for your feedback! Upon rereading it, you're all right, I messed up my math. I changed the whole schedule a couple of times while I was writing this, and I guess I forgot to change something along the way. I'll definitely be more diligent next time!\n\nAnother edit: An ounce of silver! I can buy a candy bar for an ounce of silver, thanks a ton benevolent stranger. " ]	[ 1, 1, 2, 2, 2, 3, 7, 7, 10, 12, 18, 49, 55, 79, 196, 2985 ]	[ "1547494249", "1547509060", "1547514083", "1547514674", "1547517707", "1547515797", "1547507881", "1547511840", "1547501089", "1547505877", "1547508884", "1547500482", "1547505726", "1547508308", "1547500735", "1547499946" ]
[deleted]	[WP] You are an average man with an average life who stumbles onto a not so average meeting between a woman and a flock of well-dressed pigeons.	25	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A\$Reality+Fiction\$&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A\$Simple+Prompt\$&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/XYsEYfS)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "I adjust my tie while rushing down the halls of the office, trying my best to keep my right hand steady as I duck an weave through the cubicles, mail carts, and other interns rushing around for the higher ups.\n\nBy higher ups I mean people who are actually paid.\n\nOnce I make it to the meeting room door I fix my hair and loosen my tie, having tightened it to the point of strangulation. I take a deep breath and open the door.\n\nI make eye contact with Ms. Domonique, who stops talking and glances at me. Standing at the other end of the board room, she points to a chair in the corner of the room. \"Put the coffee in front of me and sit down there\" she says with all the power and strength of a buisness woman \"We'll be done in a moment\".\n\nI walk along the left side between the table and the windows overlooking the city. Sunlight comes in through the wall of glass and shines on Ms. Domonique's diamond earrings. At the table I hear buisness men mumbling to each other incoherintly. Ms. Domonique always told me not to stare at buisness men. It makes them uncomfortable.\n\nI set the coffee in front of her as I glance at the meeting party, just to see what she's dealing with.\n\nPigeons.\n\nTen pigeons on little suits.\n\nTen pigeons in little suits wearing headphones connected to a small machine in the center of the board table.\n\nI look at Ms. Domonique as she looks down and me, angrily mouthing the words \"Don't stare\".\n\nI take my seat and watch as the woman I look up too not only as a buisness leader, but as a person, conducts a meeting with a group of well dressed, mild mannered pigeons.\n\n\"I'm sorry, where were we?\" She rubs her forehead and squints, trying to get back on track.\n\nShe's always told me \"Headaches are a sign that your working just hard enough\".\n\nOn of the pigeons nearest to her looks at her and says \"Coo coo cooo coo coo coo\".\n\n\"Right of coarse, the central park contract\".\n\nShe remains standing, but rests her palms on the table, leaning all of her pressure on her arms. \"After the tragic loss of our last representative, we need someone to fill the role. Unfortunately we don't have anyone at this time who can put in the hours\".\n\nThe pigeons all look at each other while they listen to the translation through thier headphones.\n\nThey're angry. They loudly coo at Ms. Domonique, at each other. Small grey feathers are flying around the room, some of them even shit in thier chairs.\n\nI know I'm gonna have to clean this up.\n\nSome if the pigeons remove thier headphones and fly around the room, only making the mess worse.\n\nIn the heat of all of the chaos, Ms. Domonique turns to look at me. Her hair and pants suit now covered in feather and bird poop. She takes a deep breath. \"Martin\" she says while brushing some feathers out of her hair \"how would you like a job?\"\n\nSo here I am, in central park. Sitting on a bench. A full time employee. Full salary and benefits. All I need to do is wear a disguise, I don't ask any questions, and I show up here for thier lunch breaks.\n\nThis fake beard is a little itchy and this old coat smalls like somebody drowned in a pool of bourbon, but for what I'm getting paid it's worth it.\n\nI throw another handful of seed at the pigeons pacing the walkway in front of me. \"Here you go gentlemen. Do you need anything else?\"\n\nOne of them looks up at me and says \"No\" before he continues pecking at the seed on the pavement.\n\nThis isn't exactly where I pictured myself when I started my internship." ]	[ 1, 2 ]	[ "1547560045", "1547568959" ]
	[WP] You are out on a walk when a flying saucer suddenly drops from the sky and lands in front of you. You think you’re about to be abducted, then realize that the visiting aliens are making their first contact with any other species ever.	10	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A\$Reality+Fiction\$&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A\$Simple+Prompt\$&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/XYsEYfS)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "Welcome to the third short story in my new series! I'm not yet legible for a subreddit, though it will soon be coming. If you are new to the series and wish to read the first story go [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/comments/ag12q6/wp_a_post_apocalyptic_world_is_infected_by_a/). Hope you enjoy!\n\nJohn Freple:\n\nJohn is hurrying down a long road, moving South. The forests open up on either side and he knows he has a long journey ahead of them. The chance of him not finding a single Swarmer, a person in control of the waves of nanites, or nanobots, were slim. Swarmers were everywhere, constantly hunting down the mere 'mortals.' With the control of the language of the nanites, they were unstoppable to anybody else. \n\nBut so far, John hadn't encountered any trouble for the last six miles.\n\nThat changed when the ship crashes in the street. John jumped back, startled and nervous. He had seen people floating on the nanites, people manipulating them in gruesome ways. \n\nBut a ship? That was new.\n\nJohn turned and sprinted into the forest, dodging trees. He knew that if the people in the ship were Swarmers he was already dead. Besides, he hadn't mastered traveling to the small dimension where he met Lilly Ghade. It could take him thirty minutes to appear there on a lucky night. \n\nRight now, he had to hope they weren't a big threat. \n\nSuddenly, John was being pulled back through the trees, as if flying, but in no control of where he went. \n\nJohn landed back on the road, unable to see the creature who spoke. \"Who are you?\" His English was a bit off, but mostly good. \n\nJohn spun around, his knife held tightly. The sight of the creature stopped him cold. It wasn't human. A strange wolf shape was formed, but stretched to look like a man. It had a snout and two hard, cold eyes. White gleaming fur ran down the sides. The arms stretched out, muscular, but narrowing down into smaller hand like objects. The legs were also furry and ran down to a paw like foot. \n\n\"What the...\"\n\nThe creature also let out a strangled scream and began muttering in another language John never heard.\n\nThen John saw the other one, a creature almost like the first one, chanting back.\n\nJohn scrambled away to encounter wall of wind. \n\n\"Who are you!\" The creature boomed at him.\n\n\"He is scared\" the other says.\n\n\"I see no scars\" the first says, puzzled.\n\n\"Not scar. Scare. I think he's afraid.\"\n\n\"I hate this language.\"\n\n\"It only took three...\" it thought for a moment. \"weeks to learn.\"\n\n\"Who are you!\" The first one asked John again. \n\nJohn was paralyzed in fear, shaking so hard he might be having a seizure. \n\n\"WHO ARE YOU!\"\n\n\"Let's take him on the ship. He looks cold.\"\n\nThe hand part of the creature pokes John in the leg before jumping back. Wind surrounds John and picks him up, carrying him aboard.\n\nThanks for reading! Again, if you're new to this series and want to read the beginning, just click [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/comments/ag12q6/wp_a_post_apocalyptic_world_is_infected_by_a/). Hope you enjoyed!\n\n" ]	[ 1, 2 ]	[ "1547589471", "1547595871" ]
	[WP] You don't feel any emotions. Whatever you're supposed to feel, is felt by everyone within a mile radius.	11	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A\$Reality+Fiction\$&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A\$Simple+Prompt\$&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/XYsEYfS)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "I woke up and it was a Wednesday morning, and I couldn’t feel anything. I didn't know how I felt. I didn’t know if I was sick, happy, in love or anything. I decided to head downtown and see if it’s going to get better. \n\nMy first stop was Starbucks, took my coffee and went to Zara. Still not feeling anything… my feelings then was really strange. I looked around and all the people were so sad, like something had happened, nobody were laughing and talking to someone. \n\nI went back out. Still wondering wants going on. I get a sms from my sister, she sent a photo on us when we are kids. I started to be glad. Then I saw it, the girl behind me she started to smile and laugh, but I couldn´t. I thought that was strange but I didn’t thing about it more. Started to walk, I was now in a big shopping mall. An old man he bumped into me. It hurts a lot and I see the whole mall were saying ¨ouch¨. \n\nIn that moment I understood whats going on. I can´t feel anything more, everyone does but not me.. WHY? " ]	[ 1, 4 ]	[ "1547652705", "1547661028" ]
	[WP] Every night you lucid dream, directing detailed stories of adventure, comedy and romance. One day you're approached by a hooded figure. The man claims to be there in behalf of an elder god who is a huge fan of your dreams and wants you to read it's script for your next big production.	9	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A\$Reality+Fiction\$&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A\$Simple+Prompt\$&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/XYsEYfS)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "I climbed the staircase to my dreams, which seemed to spiral endlessly above my head. It was a simple exercise I completed every night in order to gain control of my sleeping mind. Every step grounded me further from the abstract. As I walked up, on and on, my surroundings began to solidify. \n\nI focused on my senses. First, smell, which always made my picture of my dreams clearer. I imagined sweet cinnamon, which punctuated the air and became a reality at my will. It was a strong scent of cinnamon, which I found through my many nights lucid dreaming was an effective way to clear my mind of the abstract. \n\nSound. I focused on the noises filling my head, and concentrated them into sounds less nonsensical. The sharp thumping of my shoes against the marble staircase rang through the area. Then, touch. I felt the cold air against my skin, and the pressure of the weight on my feet. I decided to skip taste; it didn't matter all that much.\n\nFinally, I focused on my sight. As my vision cleared, I saw a doorway rise up from the peak of the spiral staircase. I approached, slowly, and finally entered the world of my dreams.\n\nBoom. A distant explosion rattled the ground and nearly made me loose my balance. I was on a barren field, smoke rising from the dry grass and making the air smell of ashes. \n\nI gripped my sword tightly in my hand, my knuckles turning white from the pressure. Above me stood a beastly dragon, its scales purple and dark. It was so tall, its head seemed almost to scrape the sky, which was already greying from the smoke. As it roared, blue flames leaped from its mouth. The dragon huffed a breath and turned its flames towards me.\n\nI dodged out of the way, narrowly missing being hit by a line of fire that scorched the ground where I stood a moment before. The heat licked the back of my neck.\n\nShouting, I charged towards the beast, holding my sword out in front of me. Its weight dragged down my arm, so I willed my muscles to grow. I felt strength anew coursing through me as I sped forth to the beast.\n\nIt huffed in another breath of air and prepared to release a blue stream of fire towards me. I paused in my charge, assessing my position. I was halfway to the mighty dragon; it was only a matter of time before I closed the distance between us and slayed the beast.\n\nAs the flames shot to me, I held the sword above my head like a shield. The fire's force on the sword pushed me backwards, but I dug my heels into the ground and resisted. It bounced off of the sword harmlessly.\n\nAs the flames slowed to a halt, I continued onwards. My feet hit the ashen ground in sharp thuds, and the smell of smoke filled my lungs. I closed the distance between myself and the beast. \n\nIt roared and lifted its massive foot, preparing to stomp me to a pulp. I rolled out of the way as its foot smashed into the ground where I stood, making the Earth shake with its weight. Fissures in the ground began to open up from the impact, spreading outwards. I dashed out of the way as the ground threatened to fall away from under my feet. The hole seemed to follow me, each second opening up where I stood a moment before, gaining on me. With a heave, I dodged out of the way, and the ground fell away from beside me.\n\nThe dragon roared above me. From this close, I could clearly see its dark eyes glittering in the light of the fires surrounding me.\n\nI reached my arm back, gripping my sword behind my head. Then, with a mighty swing, I hurled my sword towards the beast, aiming for its cruel eye.\n\nMy aim was true, but just as my sword was about to pierce the eye of the dragon, the beast dissolved into a cloud of ashes, which collapsed to the ground with a thud.\n\nI gasped. This wasn't supposed to happen like the other events I had willed. No, this happened involuntarily, outside of my control. It was almost as if some external force caused the dragon to disappear in my dream.\n\nAs the ashes settled on the ground, a hooded figure emerged from where the dragon stood. It began to approach, its body a dark sillouette against the blue flames in the background.\n\nI narrowed my eyes in confusion. With my sword defensively held in front of my face, I trekked towards the hooded figure before me.\n\nAs we drew closer to each other, I shouted, \"Who are you?\" My muscles tensed in nervousness.\n\nThe figure wordlessly approached me, until it was but a few steps in front of me. It was tall, probably near seven feet of height. \n\n\"I am the God of Dreams,\" it announced, spreading its arms in a welcoming gesture. In the glow of the firelight, it seemed ominous, rather menacing.\n\n\"Why are you here?\" I asked it, my sword trembling in my hands. Though I did not want to believe it, I could sense it was a force of great power. \n\n\"You have impressed me with your talents,\" it said. \"I have come to ask you a favor. If you comply, I will continue to bless your dreams.\"\n\n\"What favor?\" I narrowed my eyes in suspicion. I did not trust this God of Dreams, who saw fit to intrude on my restfulness with its promises of blessing. \n\n\"I require blood. The humans now refuse to sacrifice, and I am growing ever hungry.\"\n\nI took a step back, wary. \"You want me to murder for you. And you expect me to trust you so easily, that I would kill for a stranger in my dreams?\"\n\n\"I speak the truth, mortal. Your mistrust is unjustified.\"\n\n\"No. I will not be a murderer.\"\n\nIt seemed to growl in anger, its hands balling into fists at its side. \"You will regret this,\" it hissed, seething in rage. Then, it turned around to walk away. \"Remember this dream, human. It will be your last.\"\n\nI watched as the figure walked away, never lessening my grip on the sword. \n\nAs it stepped into the blue flames, I awoke in a cold sweat. The sun filtered through the curtains of my bedroom.\n\nI gripped my blanket in my fist, gasping for breath. That was the first nightmare I'd had in a while, and it left me feeling deeply unsettled. The figure's words rang through my ears. Remember this dream, human. It will be your last. \n\nI pushed it out of my mind, and got up to continue my day. I would have plenty of time to contemplate the strange nightmare later; now was the time to get ready for work.\n\nThat evening, I returned to my bed and closed my eyes, tired, ready for sleep. I was excited for the next adventure I would have in my dreams.\n\nBut try as I might, I simply could not fall asleep.\n\nI must have tossed and turned a thousand times, and checked the time often as the nighttime hours ticked away. The next morning, I remained just as tired as I was before.\n\nSo I loaded up with coffee, soldiered through comments on how tired I appeared, and continued with my life as normal. I returned home, exhausted from the long day's work, and figured I would rest easily given my exhaustion.\n\nI got not a wink of sleep that night. As I lay awake in bed, I couldn't help but remember the words of the figure from my dream. Remember this dream, human. It will be your last. \n\nI called in sick to work the next morning. There was no way I could work efficiently when I was so tired. I instead opted to attempt to sleep, but to no avail.\n\nOn and on it went, and I quickly descended into a total madness. Without sleep, I couldn't function. I was entirely useless. There was no possible way I could spend the rest of my life like this.\n\nI had to end this torture, one way or another.\n\nSo I emerged from my bedroom and stumbled downstairs as though I was undead. I fumbled with my key and unlocked my gun cabinet, and turned a handgun towards my head.\n\nClick.\n\nAnd suddenly, I found myself at the top of my steps, standing next to the door to my dreams. But my feet, as though controlled by someone else, wandered down the spiral staircase, away from the entrance to my own world of dreams.\n\nAs I descended, I felt my senses get lost to the abstract. First my sight was lost, until the edges of the room seemed faded and vague, and the corners of my vision danced with colorful blotches. I lost my touch next, and the cold of the area pressed against my skin became a prickling numbness that gripped my whole self. I lost my hearing, and the pierce of shoe against marble became a dull ringing that would not cease. And finally, the sharp scent of cinnamon left my mind, until no smell lingered.\n\nI took a final step, and before me was the hooded figure from my last dream. \"You humans have always been so foolish,\" it said, resting a dark hand on my shoulder. \"When will you learn? When I demand blood, I receive it one way or another.\"\n\nAnd then, the figure faded into nothingness.\n\nAnd so did everything else.\n\n_._._._._\n\nI'd appreciate any feedback on my writing. Thanks for reading!" ]	[ 1, 2 ]	[ "1547667817", "1547681086" ]
	[WP] You realize you have more than one life and spend each one after the first doing something extraordinary	10	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A\$Reality+Fiction\$&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A\$Simple+Prompt\$&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/XYsEYfS)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "People who experience near death experiences always talk about the light at the end of the tunnel. I have walked down the tunnel more times than I can remember. I somehow only see the light at the tunnel's emergency exits.\n\nIt all started when I was born. I grew up as a slave in what people now call ancient Egypt. I was raised to always obey my master, which I did, but one day as I was send to buy bread for the family two crooked looking old men tried starting a conversation with me. Being the good slave I was however I ignored them and kept walking to our merchant. After I bought the bread and was on my way home I noticed the two men walking towards me. Problem is, they weren't alone anymore. They were escorted by the Pharaoh's guard and when they saw me the smaller one of them stabbed a knife into my belly. As I fell down bleeding I was carried by the royal guard while the other man started chanting gibberish. It was then that I realized: these two men were magicians ordered by the pharaoh.\n\nDeath came slow but my faith helped me overcome these last painful moments. When my eyelids stopped working I noticed that something was odd. I was in pure nothingness. The only thing that I saw existing was me and multiple lights. I did not know where to go since I was fully conscious. Seeing an old man walking towards the greatest and brightest light of them all walk towards it in pure joy, I decided to do so too. When I was ready to step into the light however I noticed that something stopped me from entering. It was like walking against a wall which is why I wasn't sure if I walked towards the right light. When a child walked through that very same light however I kept running towards it hitting my head and probably even almost dying again. After suffering from my disability to come to rest for a long time I decided to try out a smaller light. \n\nAs I entered, I rejuvenated. I was a baby again. I grew up using my knowledge to become a successful merchant. After a long life of happiness and beautiful moments with my wife however my time has come, again. I walked towards the brightest light, ready to enter. I was still not able to step in and found myself in the same situation I was in before. It was then that I remembered how beautiful this second life of mine was. I decided that I didn't need the brightest light if I could maximize joy out of the smaller ones.\n\nI lived multiple relatively normal but happy lives after that. After some time however I started getting bored. Which is why I decided to try something bigger in the next life. I used my mystic powers that were normal in my first life but have been forgotten to do miracles. I revived the dead and walked on water. I preached love to the people who called me their savior after a while. This life was probably one of my most extraordinary ones but it ended very painful which is why I decided to keep things more to the government. \n\nI became an imperator and spread the Roman empire how it's called now to it's biggest size ever. After that life I wanted to see other parts of the world as well which is why I emigrated to Japan in my next life. The people there were very boring however which is why I used multiple lives to start multiple ninja clans.\n\nIn more modern times I started using my lives for more helpful events because the enjoyment slowly faded away. I implemented democracies in most states since I found out how to live multiple times at once. It really isn't that hard once you get the hang of it. I also started fighting against slavery as well as for the freedom of every person.\n\nAfter multiple big wars however lives started getting boring again. Which is why I went full circle and decided to try living for money once more. I was lucky enough to be born into a rich family but it seemed like I had lost my ability to grow rich after all these centuries. I ran multiple businesses into bankruptcy but somehow never ended up on the streets. I decided that this life has been wasted and not spent appropriately given the chances but I did not want to start all over again since the first 25 years always took an eternity. In order to still get some enjoyment I decided to run for president hoping the controversy I spark would help me win. I didn't believe in me much at first but I did somehow manage to win the election. Well, here I am now, being the most powerful man on earth finally after all this lives. Feels pretty good. " ]	[ 1, 3 ]	[ "1547675887", "1547678766" ]
[removed]	[WP] Catch THIS	2	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A\$Reality+Fiction\$&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A\$Simple+Prompt\$&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/XYsEYfS)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "Hi u/firebert85, this submission has been removed.\n\n[Prompt users in the title, but don't play writing games or commission stories](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_6.3A_prompt_users_in_the_title.2C_but_don.27t_play_writing_games_or_commission_stories)\n\n- Prompts go in the title, do not extend into text. You can add commentary in the text, but don't add additional prompt restrictions. Also, avoid [too many details](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/prompts?src=RECIPE). \n\n\n\n---\n\n[Modmail](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=%2Fr%2FWritingPrompts&subject=Removed%20post&message=https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/comments/agrpah/-/%0A%0A) us if you have any questions or concerns. In the future, please refer to the [sidebar](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/about/sidebar) before posting. \n\nThis action was not automated and this moderator is human. Time to go do human things." ]	[ 1, 1 ]	[ "1547683561", "1547684547" ]
	[WP] 1000 years ago the dragons forged arcane weapons for humans to fight the horde. When the dragons tried to take the weapons back after the war, humans turned their newfound power against their saviors. Now one last dragon takes up its forgehammer to destroy the weapons that ruined the world.	24	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A\$Reality+Fiction\$&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A\$Simple+Prompt\$&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/XYsEYfS)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "Thirty seven down, seventy one to go, the old man reminded himself as his heavy boots sunk into the snow just past the gates of the small fort. The drunken soldiers' almost unintelligible roars continue to fill the night after the massive wooden doors closed, he could tell they were impressed by his handiwork. After all, no single smith has managed to restore the ancient lances to their former glory until now. There were a few who attempted it early days of the Great Dragon Hunt, their best attempts have done nothing but weaken the lances, and they were executed swiftly as traitors to man. Talroch knew them all, arrogant bastards, the bunch of them, but also kind, masterful craftsmen in their own right. Brothers. He was never that close to his blood, his father was barely around and siblings left the nest as soon as they could. He couldn't even remember their names. Probably dead by now. These were the only brothers he truly knew, and they too are gone.\n\n\nA strong gust of wind struck his exposed flesh, pulling him back to reality. He tossed the small sack of jerky into his cart and continued his journey to the next fortress, it was ridiculously low for such an intricate job, but being able to work on the fabled lances that took down the dragons was worth it.\n\n\n\"Master Roth, we've been expecting you, I trust your journey has been pleasant?\" the captain in charge of Fort Nekath greeted him as he approached the gates.\n\n\"Enough pleasantries, show me the lance,\" the blacksmith known as Roth grunted, he made his apparently displeasure obvious to the captain. After all, the two week hike between the two strongholds took two weeks on foot, and the blacksmith had to sustain himself on nothing but jerky and melted snow.\n\nThe captain simply smiled and escorted him to the forge in the corner of the courtyard, \"I had the forge prepared as soon as the watchmen spotted you, I trust is satisfactory?\"\n\n\"Leave,\" the old man grunted again, such is the personality that he has built. After all, aren't geniuses supposed to be a little eccentric?\n\n\n\nTalroch slammed the door and locked it the moment the captain left, it wouldn't stop anybody from looking over the fence, but nobody would be able to reproduce his work regardless. No human anyway, he smiled to himself as he produced a small vial of liquid and placed it on a stand, opened. With his intricate tools, he carefully removed the crystal and dropped it into the vial and began working on the rest of the lance. The clashing sounds of metal has always been like music to Talroch, the hammering did little to lance but remove the thick layers of rust covering it, but visually it was quite the sight to behold as the lance appear to burn off the rust with every strike.\n\n\nA soft crack came from the vial, Talroch smiled and carefully poured the contents of the vial along the lance, then finally the crystal into its liquid filled socket. Once again he carefully worked the crystal into the socket with his tools until he hears a satisfying click.\n\n\nThirty eight down, seventy to go, he thought to himself, and smiled. Soon, he will hand the lance to the captain for inspection. It will fire brighter, longer, and stronger than before. He will depart from the fortress with a paltry reimbursement, presumably in dried food again, and the soldiers would be none the wiser. Once all of the work is done, he will be back to undo his father's mistakes. A dragon's shrill is all that is required to relieve the humans of the burden, of the lances that once killed dragons.", "There are many names people call me, but my true name was given to me by our creator Yaratici. He was an entity of great power that divided the rest of his remaining energy into eight arcane weapons. These weapons were draco stones, meant to be wielded by humans in their fight against the Void serpent Inanis and his army of human sized voidlings that appeared. From these stones, my fellow siblings and I were born to protect the eight continents of Earth during the Vindicta war over a thousand years ago.\n\n&#x200B;\n\nThe second eldest sister Terra, Dragon of Earth, guardian of of the South American continent.\n\nKuweka Moto, Dragon of Fire and youngest brother, guardian of the continent of Africa.\n\nThe youngest sister Shuiling, Dragon of Water, guardian of the continent of Asia.\n\nFirst of the three middle siblings was Aire, Dragon of Air, and the most wise sister. She was the protector of the North American continent.\n\nSecond was the Nashure, better known as Mother Nature, Guardian of the Australian continent.\n\nAnd the last of the middle siblings was the runt Rhozdenn Ida, Dragon of Ice, and guardian of the continent of Antarctica.\n\nThen there was the eldest sister Atua Marama, Dragon of Light, and guardian of the New Zealand Continent.\n\nAnd then myself. Saf Nefret, Dragon of Darkness, guardian of the continent of Europe. Eldest sibling and last remaining of my kind.\n\n&#x200B;\n\nDuring those warring times, Yaratici instructed us to find our chosen ones to inherit our power by fusing their bodies with our stones. They would be able to summon us at will in order to aid them in their battle against Inanis and his army. I was the only one that did not follow his orders. I knew the downfall of man was inevitable. Humans suffered from greed, narcissism, and lack compassion for their fellow brethren. I could not offer my help to people like this so I remained in my cave, at the top of the mountains, separated from the world until the end of the war. I regret my actions as I learned the seven humans were overwhelmed by their new found powers and soon turned on the dragons that gave it to them. The stones were passed down from one generation to the next. And slowly with each generations passing, the humans grew more rebellious. They began hunting down the dragons in order to kill and absorb their powers. Over the last thousand years they hunted us. I warned my siblings of the shortcomings of man but they turned their heads, refusing to acknowledge these obvious flaws. Now with all of my siblings dead, I alone remained.\n\n&#x200B;\n\nHatred grew in my heart. I wanted to end this treasonous behavior of the humans. I needed to destroy the draco stones and release the spirits of my family. I began my hunt\n\n&#x200B;\n\n.............................\n\n&#x200B;\n\nI researched a ton of different languages and meanings for this story. You can translate names from Latin, Swahili, etc. The names of the dragons come from a language spoken in the corresponding continents.\n\n&#x200B;\n\nAny criticism is greatly appreciated!", "They stand ready on battlements and spires, knights in gleaming casques with their pennant-bound lances. Great ballistae and javelin-throwers crown the walls in iron, their crews all looking skyward. Mournful horns ring up and down: the spotters call and counter-call, confirming the movement of clouds, the direction and speed of winds. \n\nA breath through the misty white. A fleeting shadow. In the town that hunches around the walls, nothing moves.\n\nSuddenly, the vast crack of beating wings.\n\nShe banks down through the upper layer, her golden scales catching and reflecting the sun like joyous mirrors. Her great bulk should not - could not - be possible: even the eldest of the dragoons have not seen anything greater than a feral wyvern for many years. The true dragons were dead, or gone, or banished to far lands. Their bastard children are nuisances and nothing more.\n\nThey look on in awe.\n\nHer trumpet drowns even the frantic tolling of castle bells like a rogue wave breaking on tide pools. It is greater than thunder, deeper than wells, fiercer than storms. It speaks of a widow's loss, a mother's suffering, a warrior's defeat. A thousand betrayals born forth in one mighty roar.\n\nThe bitterest soldiers on high walls weep to hear it. The most courageous tremble on shaking knees. Ser Cintt, the famed slayer, struggles with her coterie of attendants as they pull her back from a fatal leap. Tears run down her weathered face as she lifts her arms to the circling beast. \n\n\"Take me!\" she screams, voice lost in that storm, \"Take me!\"\n\nIf the golden serpent hears, she gives no sign. Her great wings beat again as she crests the walls. The superstitious believe that falling under a dragon's shadow or breathing their breath charms a mortal -- many make warding signs or whisper prayers to godly patrons. \n\nTheir minds, small as they are, remain their own.\n\nOn the Royal Terrace, the king frets under his heavy robes at her looming approach. A small man, prone to sweats under the best of times, he is pungent with fear and anticipation. His eyes flick to the great, ordered racks between him and the oncoming giant.\n\nThe weapons. The betrayal. A bloodstained legacy.\n\nStolen from beings that had once been the gods of early humanity, then turned against those deities in the lust for conquest, expansion and freedom. People barely tolerate human rulers, the monarch's wry thought went, so I imagine draconian dominion was short-lived indeed.\n\nHer landing was surprisingly soft for a being so great. The great carnival ground below the Terrace had been cleared for her, but she needed barely half the space to set down, her vast body coming to a graceful halt several meters from the raised platform itself. Her face was a study in alien elegance: long, flaring snout, the suggestion of a thousand diamond-hard teeth beneath scales that could deflect any mortal weapon.\n\nHer elongated, heavily-lidded eyes met the monarch's own, and he found himself shivering even in the welter of her presence. It was like standing before a roaring forge, and she had not yet opened her mouth to speak -- would she speak? Did dragons speak a common tongue, or did they only communicate with their potent sorcery?\n\nThe question was answered with mind-numbing force,\n\nHile was the word, the pressure elicting a gasp from the king. Pink grubs. Child-slayers. Oath breakers. Hile.\n\nThe majesty. The heart-wrenching scorn behind her mental words. But how could they deserve anything more? They had perpetrated a great crime from the dawn of history. That they did so in ignorance was no excuse -- it was a greater condemnation than all else. They had not even sought an understanding, or to try and better themselves.\n\nUntil now.\n\nThe king licked dry lips, and spoke. \"Hile, grand dragon. We thank you for your presence. This is the culmination of many years of cautious diplomacy, and...\"\n\nWords began to fail him. The carefully prepared speech, recited many times before his tall mirror, felt... wrong. He swallowed hard before continuing, in words entirely of his own.\n\n\"We did not know. We never looked. We never listened. And why should you have warned us? We were not worthy of that: we have proven time and time again how lacking we are, how brutal and short-sighted. We were wrong. We are guilty of great crimes.\"\n\nThe dragon's eyes quickened and narrowed. A hiss of steam escaped one corner of her great maw. Guilty. Yes.\n\n\"These weapons represent... all we could gather, from every corner of our land. We have paid for them in gold, land and blood -- some are still in private hands, yes, I cannot deny that, but we have found all we can and brought them here. For... for judgement, great lady. Without them... without them, we cannot strike against your kind.\"\n\nAnother hard swallow. \"Without them, we cannot defend ourselves, if you... if you...\"\n\nLooking into those ancient eyes, brimming with disgust and revulsion, he could not continue. He dropped his gaze: his head hung as if on the gallows.\n\nJudgement. The law upheld. And this is what you wish?\n\n\"Yes. All those who did not agree have departed. There were... very few.\"\n\nThen witness.\n\nWith an intake of breath, the dragon reared back, her mouth wide -- a hallway to oncoming fire, so bright and hot to be blue-white, to disappear beyond the visible spectrum. \n\nThe king closed his eyes. Judgement had come at last.\n\nWe discharge our ancestor's debts at last.\n\nWhat washed over him was not flame as he knew it. It did not burn him -- it was, in fact, shockingly cool and prickled his bare skin. Somewhere deep inside he felt -- something -- his spirit, perhaps, glorying in some kind of memory. A... familiarity. Once, perhaps, this had been... what?\n\nA connection?\n\nThe thought rocked the king to his fundamental beliefs.\n\nOn the racks, the weapons bubbled and hissed, ejecting coils of strange smoke and light to dissipate into the very air. Swords lost their edge, spears blunted, arrows splintered under the dragon's breath. All force lost cohesion. When the last spectral flame flickered out, they were changed: powerless, lesser.\n\nAgain, her eyes tunnelled into the king's. But there was something else there, replacing the anger. \n\nWhen I left these lands, I swore to only return when I would flame and kill the grubs of man. I was young, then, and foolish. A toss of her majestic head, and something almost like bitter laughter behind her words, self-deprecation and mockery. As I grew, I learned the power of man, and the death he brought. I knew that we could not reclaim our power or our lands. I resolved to raise my future clutch far away.\n\nThat elegant neck snaked out again, her head moving back, her body turning, wings brushing the Terrace as she turned to regard the town and battlements.\n\nThis is a good land. There are great peaks and caves, good salt-sea to bathe in, sand to scratch my scales. Perhaps I will return, at the turn of seasons, when the drakes are fit for flight.\n\nThe king spoke without any thought. \"We will welcome you if you do, great lady.\" With a gasp, he raised a hand to his mouth at the impropriety, the suddenness -- at what could be misconstrued as a threat.\n\nThere was nothing in the return of anger: only amusement.\n\nFear not, little king. I take your words in the spirit they are intended, not your slip of tongue.\n\nThe king bowed, deeply, speechless. \"Thank you.\"\n\nAnd we would... enjoy a welcome, as in the ancient days. She raised one great wing almost daintily, stretched to check the webbing. I believe it was customary to bring... food?" ]	[ 1, 3, 3, 5 ]	[ "1547702182", "1547720118", "1547750167", "1547708180" ]
	[WP] You get infected by a species of extraterrestrial and highly intelligent worm-like symbionts. Their way of survival is to lead their host organisms to a long and prosperous life.	94	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A\$Reality+Fiction\$&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A\$Simple+Prompt\$&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/XYsEYfS)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "It hurt when the thing first crawled in, but there's no pain anymore. Not even the pain from before. Sometimes there's still the odd headache, the odd sezuire, but there are so many conditions to blame it on. Once we're used to the body, they'll stop. It promised me. It promised me so many things\n\nI used to feel guilty at first, but it's been telling me not to. It's a win win scenario, after. It needs me to live. Not just for 70 years. It needs me to live. Not the others, not the empty people. Me.\n\nIts been in so many minds- those who built dyson spheres, those who made new bodies out of metal, those who travelled faster then light itself. It knows so much. It knows how to make you perfect, you see. Strong and smart and eternal. we just need to understand humans. we need more test subjects.\n\nI've never hunted, but its been in the minds of predators on a thousand worlds. It's fascinating. Even on seas of helium and tidelocked worlds of endless twilight, it's the same principle. Lure away, catch, feed. There are so many empty people.\n\nI've never been caught. It knows so much. Do you think some petty local police can stop a being that's walked ringworlds? It knows how to hide the evidence, to dispose of bodies. Its been doing this a long time.\n\nHere are my notes, see? The first few experiments are crude, learning the basics of organ placement and metabolism. But we've expanded, my friend. We're getting beyond the bounds of human knowledge already. It's done this a thousand times before, after all. It won't be long before we get the breakthrough.\n\nAnd then I will will be perfect. All-powerful, immortal, inviolable. The host we deserve. We will walk out, and no-one will stand before us. this world will be our breeding grounds. And I will rule it as the godking, the prophet that brought them to our world.\n\nAnd maybe you will rule too, officer?\n\nIt takes a lot of intelligence and determination to find us. We can use that. And as luck will have it, we've already birthed our first brood. Yes, yes, you found the missing people. Well done. There are a billion more on this rock. They are empty. But you don't have to be.\n\nIt'll hurt when it goes in, but only for a bit. And then... then you'll know more then you ever knew. You'll be smarter then you'll ever knew. You'll realise how silly it was to oppose them. and you will rule this world as a god when the time comes.\n\nIf not, well, we still have a lot of experiments to run before the great work is complete.\n\nThe choice, as always, is yours." ]	[ 1, 11 ]	[ "1547773604", "1547784693" ]
	[WP] A god has been abducting people from our world and sending them to his own to participate in absurd quests. Unbeknownst to him he has accidentally abducted an older and more powerful god masquerading as a human. Now he is very confused and frustrated why nothing is going his way.	1,974	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A\$Reality+Fiction\$&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A\$Simple+Prompt\$&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/XYsEYfS)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "Who EVER the fuck heard about a dead God coming back? /\\\n\nIt's been a great century. I've been having a ball. First I took that one fancy lady and made her go on a quest through a bog. I thought it would be kinda like a sitcom, but damn she started an empire. It was real cool. After her success, I started thinking hey--maybe this could be like a recurring thing?\n\nI gave her 5 years to sit stop her throne, then I found a bunch of rioters and tricked them down an alley, and into a shadow that shimmered like an oil slick. They tumbled out into her capital city and kept rioting. Now she killed 'em all, but her people figured out pretty quick that maybe she wasn't the God-send she pretended to be to scare them into submission. 6 months later her head was in a basket and her body back in a swamp. Also people started talking about basic incomes?\n\nAnyway I wasn't done. So I've kept it going. Some people go big and fight for the right to rule (cue ACDC). But some have had some really cute kinda vintage moments where they started families. A couple scientists burst through some bottlenecks and the people in my pocket are a lot more advanced.\n\nBut lately I've been looking to change things up again. I haven't really had a corporate dude, ya know? And I think he could do some fun production-line shiz. So I poked around and found this silver fox with a prosthetic hand who was ruling some boardrooms like the boss he was in Dublin. So I dangled a gold coin, always at the edge of his vision for a couple days. Then I waited until he went to the restroom before he went home, and as he washed his hands, I made his reflection pull him through the mirror and into my pocket. /\\\n\nFuck I should've known cuz he was relaxed. He didn't tense up in fear like all the people before him.\n\nSo first off, he got jumped by a criminal gang in my semi-industrial new city. And 2 things told me I fucked up. 1) He killed them all with his bare hands in about 20 seconds. 2) his prosthetic hand? Well suddenly it was silver and moved as dexterously as his real hand. That's some powerful glamour right there. \n\nBefore he killed the last one, he asked where his boss was. The sorry son of a bitch told him because, well, a silver hand was squeezing his lower ribs to dust as he spoke. Corporate dude tracked the gang down, and was in charge by midnight. \n\nTwo days later, I couldn't leave. Do you know how UNCOMFORTABLE it is to stick in your own pocket? He somehow has me trapped.\n\nSo now you're reading this, which is kinda like my last will and testament. I have one little room left. The walls are thick and spelled, but I hear them hacking at the doors. All my people are his. I attacked him once..... I'm not gonna talk about that though. I really fucked up and I don't want to die. \n\nHuh huh, think he'll tell me how he came back before he kills me?", "Suchari Renzin, Guardian of Fate and Mother of Gods, looked in disbelief as more and more of the intricate tapestry that she was responsible for weaving started to unravel, tangle, and rot before her very eyes. Destiny was being bent, ignored, or outright deleted, events that should have happened never did, and events that should not happen still occured wether she wanted them to or not.\n\nPeople that should have lived for decades to achieve their destined goals lay dead, people that should have been lost to the dust of their predetermined path were still alive and acting out their will. The weels of fate had been halted, removed from the mechanism of time, and shattered beyond repair by a being who refuses to follow the rules of the world.\n\nSuchari Renzin cursed herself for foolishly trying to weave a thread from a tappestry not her own into the fabric of her world. She cursed herself for not paying attention when picking the thread, for not noticing it being but a hollow shell of thread encasing a far more alien material. SHe had invited it here, thinking it was a simple mortal. Oh how wrong she was.\n\nOnce she had weaved it into her tappestry, it revealed it's true form as the threads of individuals it was in contact with immidiately began ripping themselves from the weave, and the cogs of events started breaking at an exponetial rate. And it laughed. It knew what its effect was on the Weave of Fate and the Mechanism of Destiny, and it laughed in her face while it went to work unchaining her world and plunging it into unpredictable chaos.\n\nIt was still laughing now, Ghorosh Jernai, God of Darkness and Ruler of Demons laying dead at its feet. He was not the first of her Children that had been killed by the Unraveler. Their attempts to keep the Weave and the Mechanism intact on behalf of their Mother were futile. This....thing simply laughed, and shatered their plans to hinder it without effort.\n\nSuchari Renzin cursed it again. Even now, it was still partialy concealing itself within the cocoon of a mortal thread. It was mocking her, showing her that it didn't even need its full power to completely break her world, her plans, the stories she had ordained to happen. She was furious, it had ruined everything!\n\nEnough. She had enough. It wanted the Weave and the Mechanism destroyed? Fine, she could just do that herself and start over. After all, mortals are easily replaced, threads are easily made and cogs easily forged. It would take time, but she could make a new Weave, and a new Mechanism. One that did follow the rules. One that did follow her plans, her orders. And this time, this time she would not steal threads from other Weaves.\n\nShe grabs her tools, her knife and scissors, her hammer and screwdriver, and was set to begin the task of unmaking her now ruined world. And it was ruined. After all, what purpose is there to a world that does not follow Fate and Destiny?\n\nShe couldn't even cut a single thread or remove a single cog before she felt a cold hand on her shoulder. \"I think not, little Goddess. This world is much too fun to let you destroy it.\" The mocking, overly enthousiastic voice of the thing sounds out behind her.\n\nSuchari Renzin drops her tools, petrified. It had left the Weave, if only for a moment, and entered her realm directly. And she knew that she could not win. She had lost.\n\n\"I should never have picked up your thread\" She growls at the thing, staring it in the eyes with the righteous fury of a creator whose masterpiece was destroyed by a deliberate act of malevalence.\n\nThe thing grins its sinister grin as it stares right back, his eyes filled with glee and malice. \"Bold of you to assume that you had a choice in the matter. The moment you attempted to add a person from a universe not your own to your quaint little Weave, it would always be just me that would answer.\"\n\nHe steps towards her, now inches from her face. \"It's my Weave now, though. And i don't realy like the style, so i'm changing it, as i'm sure you've noticed. I suggest that you stay out of my way.\"\n\nSuchari Renzin falls to her knees, defeated. The raw power eminating from this being numbing her senses. She lost. There was nothing she could do but watch as her precious Weave was unraveled and discarded, her magnificent Mechanism broken apart and shattered by an uncaring entity wishing nothing but Chaos.\n\nShe once more curses herself for being stupid enough to invite a Cosmic into her world.\n\n---\n\nFor more stories, feel free to visit r/thomasdimensor!", "“No.” I walked past the three headed beast, and all three heads bowed as he moved out of my way.\n\n\\--\n\n“What?” Nikolas, the God of Adventure, was livid. “Why are you drool speckled dogs not pouncing on him?” He tried gaining control of all three of their minds, trying to make them chase after the man in grey.\n\nThe three-headed, two-ton dog did not move. Instead, it laid down in the middle of the road to nap.\n\n“Jewel!” He called for his servant. “Jewel! Are you seeing this?” He asked, needing a sanity check on what he was seeing on his water-mirror. It was the only way Nikolas knew where his most exciting questers were. So far, this had been everything but.\n\n“Sir?” Jewel, a small human I had abducted decades ago, came scurrying into my chambers. “What would you like me to see?” HE asked, looking at the water-mirror.\n\nJewel and Nikolas watched as a tall, white-haired and bearded man, continued to walk along yellow dirt road towards the castle. Nikolas’s castle.\n\n“What do I do?” Nikolas asked, panicking, “He’s passed everything! He’s going to get here any minute!”\n\n\\--\n\n“Young gods,” I chuckled, “Always thinking they can goof off and get away with it.” \n\nMy day had been so great before the abduction, I had been on a hot streak at the nearby casino. I had been eating shrimp cocktails and confounding the house on how I got a flush every other hand. All that was now out the window.\n\nI thought sadly about those abandoned cards, hoping some smart human had taken them quickly and cashed my chips out for all their worth.\n\nIn my mind, I could see young Nikolas, running around in despair in his large castle. The chateau looked silly, like something a young Earth girl would want for her plastic dolls, with pointy powers and purple window shutters.\n\n“He’s going to regret messing with my winning streak.” I muttered.\n\n\\--\n\nr/JP_writings ", "Abram stood at the edge of the great dam and looked down at the devastation that the breach had brought. A might river unleashed upon the town. His servants prowled through the wreckage, over turning stone and gravel and dirt.\n\nThe occasional animal left dead, water bloat taking away from them their particular features, but not a single human among the wreckage. \n\nAbram towered over the world and paced on the uneven surface. Even to a god like him, this was unusual.\n\nHis newest champion has neither rallied against the quest given to him, or said a single word. There was no call to him, no push, no pull. Nothing that would garner his attention. No attachment. No great and mighty stirring of the world in his name.\n\nAnd yet the plans he had set asunder, the great chaoses he had sought to wreak upon the fools who built tidy ordered lives, who had truly believed that enslaving themselves to the weak would bring anything other than contented misery, they weren't dying by the score while the cast of heroes he had handpicked ran about trying to fix it.\n\nWhere were they now, if not here at the great disaster that had devoured this city?\n\nAnd where were the people?\n\nHe dropped off the side of the damn. A hundred feet in an instant, gravity spinning him like a missile, and stood on top of the water at the base; the pressure and force from the burst damn had carved a lake out of the land. He walked forward and past his servants, ignoring the call of the hybrid troops. They didn't matter to him, now that he knew there were no dead to bury, no corpses to convert into his men of the wild.\n\nWhat more to show the evidence that the world of civilization was a mess, than to poke it until it bled. Til cuts in the wound grew infected, and tattered city dwellers just trying to stay afloat were torn about by mortal paranoia, at last unshackled, a feverish reaction to the death of order? What more to...\n\nbut there was no such here.\n\nFrom the granaries, the food had been moved. The market long evacuated. This would not do.\n\n-----\n\nThe burning forest roared in delight from the windstorm crashing against it. Crown fires split open the heavens with the rising flames and smoke, ash twirled about like confetti and shredded paper. Abram swept through it, searching the beautiful bound forest of the green-men. His servants were far off, a thousand thousand miles away, patrolling to make sure none of the brewing diseases he had in storage would be disturbed. \n\nThe palace was empty; the great tree burned and all artifacts had been moved. Anything worth saving had been saved. How had they know where he'd strike? How had they managed this feat?\n\n----\n\nIt was on the eternal fields, where metal raised like razors and the wind played cutting songs across their edges that he found the answer. A man stood staring at him.\n\nHe remembered this one. Tired, squallid, crying out for purpose and freedom from the ennui. Head flashing full of images of perversion, a brief cessation in the unending torment of petty civilization.\n\nIn another world, he might've been a follower of Abram. But now Abram knew hostility when he saw it.\n\n\"You need to stop,\" the man said, once a boy.\n\n\"It's my purpose,\" Abram said. \"Look upon this world. Do you want it to be the way your world was?\"\n\n\"It won't be like that,\" the man said. His hair was blonde, flicking in the wind. \"It doesn't have to be like that.\"\n\n\"And you only grew a spine when you were freed from such a place,\" Abram noted, as the man drew his sword. \"Do you not see the point of my gambit?\"\n\nThe man stared at Abram for a long moment.\n\n\"I see the point in your gambit, Abram,\" the man said, coolly. \"And I reject the lesson. Civilization does not need to lead to such an end as my world.\"\n\n\"How,\" Abram said, idly looking at the sword. No such mortal weapon could hurt him, forged in the heart of organization. No blows would pierce his hide. \"Did you know where I would strike?\"\n\n\"Six months hence, I chanced across a man from my world,\" The man said. \"He was clever, but ancient, old. Gave up on adjusting the course of humanity. His hands clutched around his heart to see another world, afraid it would fall astray. And he told me your plans, but he was too tired to do the job.\" \n\nAbram slowly nodded. Why did this sound familiar?\n\n\"And he said to me that I would be the savior he needed,\" The man said. \"Because we can do better. We can do better. We can always do better. And if we remember that, and we force the world to remember that, that we can do better, we can make the world a better place.\"\n\nAbram squinted at the man, cocking his head to the side. \"You eschew the simplicity and burden of the wild for the comforts of civilization? Do you not see the shackles cast by that decision?\"\n\n\"There is nothing moral about the slaughter of thousands for the liberation of the few,\" The man said. \"This is not a world for the strong. This is a world for all of us. No chain of civilization binds us, keeps us in place.\" The man smiled. \"Or at least, that's not the world we will make.\"\n\n\"What happened to that god?\" Abram asked, staring at the man who had lead armies. Perhaps there were others as well. He had thrown so many, hoping to provoke their reactions, hoping to see them falter and die under the blade of his enemies, and his allies.\n\n\"He died,\" The man said. \"And he bade me to stop you, because he knew that the world he had controlled was long gone, and lost under the burden that man had stopped believing in itself.\"\n\n\"And now you are here to stop me,\" Abram said.\n\n\"I am,\" The man said.\n\n\"You won't beat me,\" Abram said.\n\n\"I don't care,\" The man said.\n\n\"This is a stupid fight,\" Abram said.\n\n\"I don't mind,\" The man said.\n\n\"Why?\" Abram asked, cocking his head to the side.\n\n\"The world will be better for fighting you,\" The man said. \"And thus we'll fight against you. We'll rally against the end, we'll rally against corruption, and we'll do better.\"\n\n\"And what god was it that told you to stop me? That told you to fight? That told you the world need not be shackles and chains, if civilized?\" Abram asked. The wind whistled through the wireglass, musical, discordant.\n\n\"His name was Abram. I counted him as a dear friend of mine. Flee this plane, and we'll save it in your name.\"\n\nAbram flicked down to the weapon, then up at the man's face.\n\nThen left.\n\nThere was thinking to be done.\n\n--------\n\nFor more like this, click here! https://old.reddit.com/r/Zubergoodstories/\n", "He had disguised himself as a humble farmer, beseeching Potami the river goddess to grant him a gift for his nonexistent daughter's dowry. She had a soft spot for those kinds of things, and honestly he was hoping for a singing fish. He'd seen something like it in a retail store, but to his disappointment it was mechanical. The idea had settled in his mind to replace it with something more... lifelike. Of course, Potami would never agree to something like that-- none of the gods these days were. They were as boring as the humans in Gideon's opinion. The humans had conquered all of nature with the creations that made Vulcan look amateurish, and the gods had subsequently given up. \n\nWhy couldn't Vulcan just be the God of Bulldozers? What was wrong with Lono being the God of Dubstep? But no. They wouldn't hear of it. They were stuck in the ways of being old and crusty and antique and boring. They didn't want to change with the times like Gideon did.\n\nSo it was that he was here, in the 21st century, trying to earn the attention of a river goddess for the purpose of his magnum opus-- replacing a mechanical singing fish with a real one, and watching the humans freak out. It would be masterful.\n\nAnd yet, he was no longer by the river. Instead, he found himself in a densely foggy area. It was nondescript, but somehow its vagueness seemed familiar... that was when he heard it. The Voice.\n\n\"FOOLISH MORTAL,\" the voice boomed. \"YOU HAVE BEEN CHOSEN. YOU SHALL PAY FOR THE FOLLIES OF YOUR KIND. YOU HAVE FORGOTTEN THE OLD WAYS, AND NOW YOU WILL LEARN THE NOBILITY OF THE QUEST.\"\n\nMaybe it was instinct, or maybe it was thousands of years of habit-- Gideon became his role, and threw himself to the ground.\n\n\"No! Please, no!\" he cried. \"I... I don't know where I am! I don't know what you want! Please! Spare me!\"\n\nThere was silence. Had he been too obvious? Maybe asking to be spared had given him away.\n\n\"YES.\" the voice boomed. \"GROVEL BEFORE THE GODS OF YOUR ANCESTORS, BUT YOU SHALL RECEIVE NO QUARTER.\"\n\nGideon actually had to stifle back a laugh! They were so full of themselves they couldn't tell the difference between a harmless mortal being scared witless and a fellow god mocking them. But, for as long as this god-- whichever one it was-- couldn't tell the difference, Gideon was happy to continue playing his part. It might not be as good of a prank as a singing fish, but it was a way to pass the time...", "Loki, Odin-son stood atop a grand palace with the ferocity of a swelling tempest. As he let the new batch of humans shuffle about in surprise, Loki considered what he would say. There were several possible paths into which he could funnel the unsuspecting guests, and each provided their own unique entertainment. \n\nIt had been quite some time since he'd sent a group down the third way. \n\n\"Behold, poor creatures, you are caught in the web of a God!\"\n\nLoki liked that line - he'd worked on it for some time and, spoken with the depth and scale his current bloated form provided, he felt it set the proper tone.\n\nLoki waited for one of the men down below to recognize him from all the pictures. Usually at least one of the unwitting visitors would have the wherewithal to know who tormented them. After all, Loki's trickiness was well known, as was the low probability of surviving one of his many tricks. \n\nOne man stepped forward, looking unafraid, and yelled up toward Loki. \n\n\"You are Loki, Odin-son. Why have you brought us here?\" \n\nLoki marveled at how well the man's voice carried across the giant space between them. Usually, Loki had to strain to hear, but this man had quite a pair of lungs on him. \n\nNot to be outdone, Loki redoubled his vocal efforts. \"You must complete three quests if e'er you wish to leave!\" Loki said, and his voice hit the humans as a blast of wind. Most were knocked over or struggled to stay on two feet. \n\nBut the loud man stood firm and looked up, unfazed. \n\n\"And,\" the man said, as though he spoke to a barkeep or a lowly merchant, \"if we do not accept your quests?\"\n\nLoki laughed. Because he was so big it sounded as though it was a planned, dramatic laugh. But actually, it was quite earnest. No one had ever asked him that before. After all, what human in their right mind ever would? \n\nWhen his laughter settled to a chuckle, Loki answered, \"rejection is failure, and failure is death.\"\n\nAbsurdly, the tiny human considered these two simple options for a long moment, as though a swift death might not be the better of the two choices. Loki could not gainsay him there. Loki was prepared to oblige him if he went that way, but instead the loud man looked back up and gave a terse nod. \n\n\"So be it, Loki, Odin-son, I shall play your games.\"\n\nLoki smirked and willed the first gate to open. \"Then enter, and begin!\" Loki said with a flourish and vanished into smoke. From the ethereal plane, Loki watched as the humans entered the dark cave of the first quest of the third way. \n\nIn the center of the cave were three humongous chests, each larger than the largest elephant, each identically adorned with gold and jewels and lit by holy light. \n\nWhen the entire group was inside, Loki willed the gate shut and all but the loud man shuddered in fear. Then, without reappearing before them, Loki sent his voice into the room.\n\n\"Within one chest is a golden key which shall open the next gate. Within two others are balls of lightning. Discern the clues and choose correctly. Misapprehend and perish.\"\n\nLoki sat back on the ethereal throne and watched through the walls as the humans began considering the chests. \n\nThe third way was the most malicious of the five paths. This first quest, for instance, actually contained no clues whatsoever. The three chests were perfectly identical in every way, except that two did in fact contain deadly lightning, trapped and waiting to escape. \n\nNonetheless, to Loki's endless amusement, the humans would soon begin to see countless differences, and then begin arguing over them, looking for patterns that simply were not there. Often they came to blows, even killed one another. Already, Loki heard one of the men commenting on the different shape of each sapphire and the varied size of the central emeralds.\n\nBut before the crowd could really get started, the loud man walked right up to one of the chests, climbed up onto it and, pushing heartily upwards, heaved the chest wide open.\n\nThere was a loud gasp as the rest of the humans waited for a lightning bolt to fly out and strike the fool dead.\n\nExcept no such lightning bolt came. The man had chosen correctly.\n\nLoki sighed, \"Lucky . . .\" \n\nThe man leaped into the chest and a moment later a large golden key flew out over the lip. The man came climbing out behind it. In a moment the second gate was opened and the humans moved on. \n\nLoki followed them through the ether. In the center of a well-lit room was a large circular platform and a single, dangling rope. \n\nLoki chuckled to himself. He had forgotten what was in the second chamber. Most did not make it past the first, as the lightning bolts tended to be a bit too eager once released. This, Loki was certain, would be fun. He cleared his throat and spoke to the gathered humans.\n\n\"Congratulations. You have reached the second quest. At the top of that rope, there is a key. Simply climb up and retrieve it.\"\n\nThe humans looked at one another and, bolstered by the loud man's success, one of the younger men took up the challenge. He raced forward toward the rope, looked up its length and spied the key near the top, against the rocky ceiling. He grabbed the rope and gave it a tug, then another, making himself used to the its texture and weight. Then, with a heroic look back toward the others, he held on tightly and began to climb. He did not notice, in his haste, that he could no longer hear his friends' words.\n\nAt first, he seemed to be making a good pace, but as he continued upwards, he began to falter. It seemed to the young man that he should have been at the top already. Yet the key appeared almost the same distance away. So the young man climbed and climbed, as Loki watched and snickered, but whenever he stopped to look up at the key, still it was the same distance away. Finally, the young man decided he had had enough, as his arms were tired and ready to fail. So he looked down to begin his climb down.\n\nExcept the ground was not as close as it should have been. In fact, it was hundreds of feet below the young man. The sheer, unexpected height frightened him half to death and, startled, his grip loosened and he plummeted, down and down, until, with a wet crunch, he impacted against the circular stone floor. \n\nLoki burst into laughter. Of course, the foolish youth would never make it to the key, for this rope was the Everlength, crafted by Sindri ages ago and stolen by Loki in the dark of night. It was a rope said to be as long as time itself. Although Loki used his magic to make the key look close by, in fact, the Everlength was strung not from the ceiling, but from a distant star. Within the circular stone all sound was blocked from hearing, so the warnings of friends could not be heard.\n\nAs Loki rejoiced in the young man's foolishness, the loud man began stripping off his leathers and dropped his sword to the ground. Stretching his hands out before him, the man began walking toward the rope, with sure, unhurried steps. He did not hesitate, but took the rope in both hands and began to climb. \n\nFor hours he climbed, Loki and the other humans watching in amazement. He climbed so far that Loki's magic could no longer obscure his distance, and the human's, with their mortal eyes, could not even see the speck of the man's form. \n\nWhen almost a day had passed, and the man still had not returned, Loki wondered if perhaps he had not floated off into space, up there in the heavens. But, just then, the rope began to vibrate and hum, and from the sky above, holding on with a small piece of leather, down flew the man along the rope's length. As he came closer to the ground, all could see he held a large golden key. \n\nLoki blinked in amazement. It was not possible. It was supposed to be impossible. Loki had neglected even to conceive of a third quest because the second could not be completed. \n\nAs the loud man landed gently and strolled toward the third gate, Loki racked his brains for a third quest. The gate was opening and the people began to walk into the dark, empty third chamber. Loki teleported into the center of the room and conjured giant flames, both for dramatic effect, and, more importantly, to buy time.\n\n\"Well done,\" Loki began as the flames died, improvising poorly, still shocked by the human's feat, \"You have conquered two quests. But, can you conquer a third?!\" Loki's voice became too high pitched and he coughed just a little. \n\nThe loud man stood by, leaning on his sword, his hands only slightly red from the climb. He was not even breathing hard. \"Tell me what it is and it shall be conquered.\"\n\nLoki eyed the confident man sourly, \"Oh,\" he said like a petulant child, \"shall it?\" Suddenly, Loki knew exactly what the third quest would be. A question no human could possibly answer because the answer was known only to the Gods. \n\n\"My father Odin,\" Loki began, \"rides upon a steed which is called Sleipnir.\" Already Loki was smiling at his cleverness and the nearing opportunity to kill this man. \n\n\"What was the name of the mare who birthed Sleipnir?\"\n\nThe human's all looked one at the other, totally confounded. Of course, they would not even know the name of Thor's steed, let alone the name of its mother. \n\nLoki manifested a blade and raised it high. \"Well, human, shall you walk into my blade, or shall my blade walk into you?\" \n\nThe loud man was not afraid. Instead, he looked down at the ground and shook his head, as though he had thought of something distasteful. Then he looked up at Loki and rolled his eyes. \"Loki.\"\n\nLoki paused, \"yes?\"\n\nThe loud man sighed. \"Loki was Sleipnir's mother.\"\n\nAll the color drained from Loki's face and in his amazement, he even dropped his knife.\n\n\"Impossible.\" Loki stammered.\n\n\"No. What is impossible,\" the man began, at last dispelling his disguise in a blaze of white lightning and revealing Odin, King of Asgard, \"is that a father could ever forget the day his son gave birth to his horse.\"\n\n*****\n\n#### For More Legends From The Multiverse\n\n## r/LFTM\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n" ]	[ 1, 7, 13, 14, 71, 122, 829 ]	[ "1547779931", "1547788267", "1547788061", "1547793567", "1547786480", "1547787098", "1547787042" ]
	[WP] This is it, the heat death of the universe, you are the last one left to watch the universe go to sleep	3	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. 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Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "Just like that the last star in the sky blinked out of existence, a once beautiful portrait of hundreds of thousands of lights now just an empty void. Even without anything left I can’t say I can complain.\n\nI enjoy the quiet.\n\nIt’s nice and dark and quiet. No more pesky humans constantly asking for help, no more spaceships flying past me and pointing like I’m some kind of laughing stock because I made humans to keep me company.\n\nI don’t mind the darkness, in the dark the sky can be whatever you imagine it to be. If I wanted to I could make a friend. IF. But I don’t want anyone to accompany me. I think I can wait out this “heat death” if I’m patient even something is due to happen.\n\nI don’t think anything is going to happen. I don’t know how long it’s been since the last star disappeared, well I guess there isn’t such thing as time now anyways. I’m getting bored of the quietness. but something may happen I think I’ll wait for a while longer.\n\nNothing has happened and I am sure nothing will. I think I might have to start all over again. I begin willing a landmass into existence, it’s a simple island surrounded by the void. On top my island is a basic log cabin and a mailbox. Time to start creating everything else.\n\nEverything is coming back together but this time around I don’t think humans should have free will…\n \n \n \n \n \nI’ve missed you reddit, I’m glad you’re still around...\n", "It's quiet. Obviously. \n\n&nbsp;\n\nI don't mind. \n\n&nbsp;\n\nNothing much has happened for a long, long...\n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;\n\n...long...\n\n&nbsp;\n\n...time. But I don't mind that either. I'm patient. That's probably the main thing I am, now, is patient. \n\n&nbsp;\n\nI used to be so many things. I suppose, if you count all the way back from the beginning, I've been all things. \n\n&nbsp;\n\nI was angry for a long time. Wrathful, even, you could say. I killed a lot. So, so much. \n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;\n\nBut they're all forgotten, now. Everyone i smited. Smote. Everyone I spared, too, for that matter. All gone, and everyone who knew them, gone too. Nobody left to mourn, or to mind. \n\n&nbsp;\n\nNobody but me, and I don’t mind. \n\n&nbsp;\n\nIt was a long time ago, and looking back now I don’t even remember why I was so angry. I suppose there were a great many things back then that displeased me? It seems silly. Whatever it was, it can’t have been so important. \n\n&nbsp;\n\nAfter a time, I wasn’t so angry anymore. I was loving, and forgiving. That was harder. It’s easier to be angry, but ultimately I think love was better. It was easier to build with love. To create. \n\n&nbsp;\n\nIt was easier to see the good in all of them when i chose to look with love, and to try to forgive. When I decided it was terribly unfair to blame them for their shortcomings. None of them were perfect, but neither was I, so how could they have been? I tried my best. Some of them were really quite wonderful. It was better when I tried to see them with love, and forgive them. They were so small, and so far away, but I tried, I tried to see them with love. I think I did love them.\n\n&nbsp;\n\n\n\n&nbsp;\n\nBut, then, ultimately, I had to leave them alone, all of them. So many different types of people, scattered all over the universe, here and there, all of them different, but in the end, mostly all the same. I had put too much of myself in them, I think, looking back. Too much of my own hunger, and longing, and much too much of my temper. They all became so angry, so eager to hurt each other. I should have encouraged them to create more, to make and build things. If I were to do it again, I would have done that differently. \n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;\n\nBut I’m not going to do it again. \n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;\n\nI don’t think they missed me, anyway, after I left them alone. I was never really sure if they could tell I was there or not, so I don’t think it changed things much when I finally went away and left them to themselves. I suppose they carried on just as they had, more or less. \n\n&nbsp;\n\nBut I had to move on, to create new things, to find interesting new ways to put together the tiny building-blocks of matter and energy. There seemed to be so many infinite configurations to try: stars, galaxies, nebulae, clusters, on and on...making things that didn’t think, or speak, or try to see where they came from. Things that just were. \n\n&nbsp;\n\nPeaceful work. \n\n&nbsp;\n\nLonely, sure, but, I was always lonely, really. That never changed. No matter how much I filled up the void with things, with light and noise and heat and life and even with rich, full, wide, lovely expanses of emptiness. No matter how great the orchestra was, with choruses of great burning blue and yellow and white giants and tiny whispering wisps of neutrinos and photons, no matter how many deep, bottomless booming black holes were around me, nothing could change the fact that I was alone. \n\n&nbsp;\n\nThey were in the universe. They weren’t with me. Of me, by me, but not for me. And now they’re all gone. \n\n&nbsp;\n\nI’m not lonely, anymore. Not really. \n\n&nbsp;\n\nI’m not sad. Certainly not angry anymore. What a silly thing it would be to be angry, now. \n\n&nbsp;\n\nI don’t have any sadness, or anger, or hunger, left. I poured it all out into the void, with all my love and my joy and my hope and my curiosity. It all exploded out of me like a million billion trillion supernovae, bursting from me in all directions, and it was good. \n\n&nbsp;\n\nIt was so, so good. But it’s all done now. \n\n&nbsp;\n\nThere’s nothing left in me to give to the universe, and that is fine. It’s not sad, or painful. There’s nobody here now to feel pain, to feel sadness. Just me. \n\n&nbsp;\n\nSomewhere, out in the farthest reaches, I can feel a tiny spark of heat energy that hasn’t yet dissipated. It’s been out there a long, long time. Once you give something a little breath of life, a little bit of warmth, it’s a long time before it forgets that feeling. So long, that for a while it felt as if maybe the thing I had made would go on forever. \n\n&nbsp;\n\nAnd, well, it did. It went on forever. But now forever is done. And the last tiny dim sparks of that forever are so far from each other that only I can see them, and they are about to fall asleep for the last time. \n\n&nbsp;\n\nI made something good, here. \n\n&nbsp;\n\nI’m not sad it’s going to be gone. \n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;\n\nI feel the cold, but it doesn’t bother me. \n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;\n\nIt’s \n\n&nbsp;\n\n\n&nbsp;\n\n^so\n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;\n\n^^quiet\n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;\n\n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;\n\n…\n\n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;\n\n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;\n\n…\n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;\n\n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;\n\n…\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;\n\n.\n" ]	[ 1, 2, 3 ]	[ "1547792039", "1547796064", "1547795763" ]
	[WP] Reverse werewolf transformation. Every full moon, your pet turns into its human form.	168	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A\$Reality+Fiction\$&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A\$Simple+Prompt\$&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/XYsEYfS)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "We are a perfect match, Anna and I. I was infected with sapiethropy when I was two months old. It is an awkward age for any pup, but when your pack mates start howling at the moon, you know it is going to be a strange couple days. Fur loss is humiliating, but it is the least of your worries. A lot of wolves get it wrong, you don't just run off for a night of madness. It is a six day ordeal, when your brain begins to devolve into a humans, you get these awful questions that plague your mind. \"Why am I here? What is the purpose of life?\" None of that matters, but human minds seem to be cursed with trying to rationalize their own existence. Once I fully transition, I blackout and can't remember much. Most sapiethropes are driven from their pack like I was or run away on their own and die alone. It is hard surviving without fur.\n\nI don't know when Anna became a lycanthrop, but she doesn't have her pack anymore. I don't think her first transition went very well. She tries to stay away from other people. Maybe she's like me and was driven from her pack. Maybe she she stays away because she's afraid they might hurt her. I think she hurt them though. I often find her staring into night with a terrible sadness.\n\nWhatever the case, I'm glad we found each other. She looks after me when she's a wolf and I look after her the rest of the time. Human's are surprisingly good hunters considering the lack of sharp teeth or claws and they make this bright thing at night that is very warm. I was scared of it at first, but it really does grow on you. I don't think either of us would live for very long without the other and a wolf needs to be with a pack.", "The ice rattles as it falls into the glass. I pull the cork out a bottle of scotch and pour a generous amount into the glass, watching it splash across the ice cubes. Beside the pile of flyers I dropped on the kitchen counter, I reach for a plate of food. Steak, rare. Potatoes, smothered in gravy. Boiled carrots and turnip, mashed and dripping with melted butter. I grab the glass and the plate and head towards the living room. My dog lifts his head and gives a couple lazy wags as I place the food and the scotch on a little TV dinner table next to the couch.\n\n“Stay put, Sam,”\n\nThe dog is sniffing the air around the plate, but pulls his snout back and lies back down as soon as I speak.\n\nI sigh and pull a second table close to my armchair. The plate is cold and my ice has melted. I glance over at the clock. \n\n“8:27. Alright Sam, let’s go.”\n\nI slap my thigh and Sam jumps off the couch and bounds over to me. His tags jingle as we walk over to the spare bedroom. I reach down and give him a quick scratch around his ears.\n\n“In you go. Go on.”\n\nSam tilts his head to the side but doesn’t move. I gesture towards the bed and clap my hands.\n\n“Come on, come on, I don’t need to watch this again.”\n\nSlowly Sam turns around and walks into the room, lying down on a small carpet at the foot of the bed.\n\n“I’ll see you in a bit.”\n\nThe door clicks shut as I turn and head back to the kitchen, grabbing my glass and cold plate on the way. As I put the plate in the microwave, I hear a crash coming from the spare room.\n\n“Goddammit.”\n\nOf course there’s no more ice. Guess I’m having my scotch neat. A loud thump and what sounds like a body hitting the floor. I grab my plate from the microwave and head back to the armchair. The scotch is warm, I prefer it cold.\n\n“Where the hell did I leave the…”\n\nThe remote is stuck between the cushion and the armrest. I pull the it out and flick the TV and DVD player on. “Reservoir Dogs” starts playing, about halfway through. I skip back a few minutes and let it play.\n\n“Jesus Greg, sorry about the picture frame.”\n\n“Forget it Sam, have a seat. You remember where we left off?”\n\nSam places the broken picture frame next to the spare room door and finishes buttoning his shirt. He sits down heavily on the couch and sweeps up the scotch in one fluid motion.\n\n“Yeah. Mm, smells great!”\n\n“Dig in. So it’s just the picture frame?”\n\n“Yeah that’s all. Sorry, you know I can’t help it.”\n\n“If you really want to make it up to me you can stop shitting on the carpet.”\n\n“Not cool Greg.”\n\n“I’m just busting your balls, Sam. Eat up.”\n\n“At least I still have my balls. Thanks for that!”\n\n“Cheers, bud”\n\n\n \n", "Something shattered outside. \n \nA painful cracking of glass on the concrete patio out back. It forced my heart to skip a beat and I paused, mind blank. I turned off the TV and got up. That primordial part of me knew something was out there, lingering. A patient predator, goading me from the silent, still night. I paused and thought about it. The dog wasn't barking, it was probably the wind, tipping a stray glass to its death. \n \n“Aaron?” I yelled towards the doggy door, “Aaron, come!” My instincts kicked in, demanding the pack regroup to fight off whatever enemy was out there. \n \nI let out a sigh, mostly at myself, and went to the back door behind the kitchen, stumbling on something on the floor in the dark. I couldn’t find the light switch, but wouldn’t need it outside in the bright light of the full moon. \n \n“Aaron!” I called again. Nothing. His recall was normally perfect, and I started worrying more; dropping into a lonely, nervous, anxious despair driven by fear born from a stupid bit of broken glass. I looked across the plain backyard. Movie-quality grass surrounding by a tall fence, and a kennel tucked in the dark shade of a sick autumn oak. He must be in there... I crept over, trying to stay calm; I could smell the dogs den; worn and used; but familiar, homely, and comforting like a thick quilt on a winter's bed. The food bowl was empty. The water was full. I was so close now. I called again, a whisper into the damp wind. \n \n“Aaron?” I knelt down. The kennel was void of life, a lonely blanket where the dog used to be. A crack echoed behind me somewhere; and, startled again, I turned back towards it. The light was on inside now. Bright enough to hurt the eyes. My chest ached; partly from the nervousness that had settled on me; but also a pain in every muscle, which seemed to present itself mostly in my sternum. I rushed back to the house, and pushed open the door, running in fast enough to almost trip on something. The same object concealed by the intrusive darkness earlier. I looked down, past my own pale, completely naked flesh to a leather collar dusted by salty water scents, with a broken buckle and tag worn by sand. The dogs collar, I thought. I picked it up. “Max.” Everything was so familiar... Max? The sound of the front door bashing panicked me; I was here naked, with no where to run but outside into the sad autumn night. I didn’t have time to even turn before he came in. \n \n“Mum!” the child shrieked, piercing my ears like a needle in the skin \n \n“Mum! Max has turned again!” \n \n...Aaron? ", "I startled awake and grabbed my phone from underneath the pillow. My eyes were so blurred it took me a few tries to slide the alarm to 'off'. The glowing screen read 12:30 AM. \n\nI sighed, pulled the blanket off my legs, and swung them off the bed to sit up. Groaning, I reached over with one hand and clicked on the lamp while rubbing my eyes with the other. \n\nI stood up and stumbled to the door, automatically slipping on my house shoes on the way because the dogs were sure to have left messes all over the kitchen. \n\nAs I was putting a cup of water into the microwave, I realized I forgot to grab the improvised heating pad. That would need to be microwaved as well. I swore under my breath and hit 'start' so at least the water would be ready when I got back. \n\nI went back into the bedroom and took the sock full of rice from the kennel. It was still barely warm. I laid it on the bed, and looked into the kennel more closely, figuring that the tiny neonatal kitten had crawled in between the towels laid on the floor of the kennel. \n\nHe wasn't there. \n\nMore awake now, I began shifting the towels around to make sure, then checked under the bed. Nothing. \n\nThe kennel bars were spaced far enough apart that he could have crawled through, but so far he hadn't. I knew I should have blocked it with something so he couldn't get out. \n\nI froze as I heard barking from the living room. \n\nNo.\n\nI got halfway down the hallway when I heard the crying of a newborn... baby? \n\nAs I rounded the corner into the living room I was met with the sight of a tiny naked baby boy laying on the floor, with one of the cats carefully cleaning his full head of grey hair. \n\n\n\nMy first attempt at a prompt and I haven't written prose in forever. Also on mobile. I figured this prompt was perfect for a twist on an actual event that happened to me last summer. " ]	[ 1, 5, 13, 16, 19 ]	[ "1547806468", "1547835143", "1547833989", "1547812484", "1547826103" ]
	[WP]There exists a mighty dragon, who goes around kidnapping princesses and other such nobel Ladies. But he doesn't do it for reasons other dragons do. Not for food, or wealth, or some prophecy. No, this dragon is simply lonely and finds such Ladies to be delightful company.	12	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A\$Reality+Fiction\$&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A\$Simple+Prompt\$&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/XYsEYfS)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "Gallamin the Radiant pulled himself up to the top of the cliff. He was drenched in sweat induced in equal measures by the exertion of climbing the cliff to the gate of the great dragon's castle and from fear at the the thought of facing the beast.\n\nHe had heard legends about dragons, many of which were said to be more fact than fiction. It was said that they ruled over the whole world in the times before scribes. The bravest of humanities warriors had risen up and driven the dragons to near extinction. But at the end of the war, the dragons were allowed to continue their existence in isolation, so long as they did not interfere in human affairs and shared their wisdom with the humans.\n\nNow, aeons later, humans were prospering like never before. But, in a legendary act of defiance, a dragon had abducted the sole heir of the Kingdom of Yranil, as well as many other noble ladies from many kingdoms. This act could not be overlooked, and so the current king of Yranil had summoned the legendary hero to slay the dragon and retrieve the princess.\n\nThe hero walked up to the massive grey iron gates. He thought for a moment about how he would open the gates. After giving it some thought, he decided he would break it down with his own strength. But just as he was about to kick down the ancient gates, the gates opened on their own, as though by magic.\n\nHe knew that this was most likely a trap of some kind. The dragon was probably on the other side, waiting to assault him with poison breath. Or perhaps the dragon favoured sadism, and would capture him before slowly gutting him while he made the noble ladies of the kingdoms watch. What foul acts had the dragon been performing with them?\n\nIn spite of his years of experience, Gallamin the Radiant was not ready for the site which greeted him when he opened the door. There was no assault, no foul act, no gutting. In fact, the inside of the castle was actually quite beautiful. Tinted-glass mosaics lined the walls. At first, he could not recognize the mosaics, but after some time, it clicked. The mosaics were of all the noble ladies, save for the princess herself, all in posed portraying them as either intellectuals, artists, alchemists, apothecaries, and even warriors. \n\nWhile he had traveled and fought enough to know that gender does not preclude someone from being able to kill you, and often times makes it much easier, he was surprised to see ladies who had spent their whole lives pampered and sheltered portrayed as such. He concluded that this must have been artistic liberty and continued forward.\n\nIn the next room, he found the ladies. But they were not in bondage, but rather sitting quite attentively, watching the dragon cut slabs of coloured glass into small tiles with its giant claws. In front of it, the princess posed, wearing shed dragonscale armour, a legendarily durable and effective type of extremely light armour which is quite sought after by warriors of all stripes. In her hands, she held a blade formed from a clipped dragon claw. Dragons were known for wanting to keep their scales new and glossy, and their claws not overly long.\n\nThe great hero cleared his throat to grab the attention of the crowd of nobles and the dragon. He wasn't a fool, and he wasn't going to go charging towards a beast a hundred times his size without first asking what the bloody hell was going on.\n\nAnd so he asked exactly that, which led to a somewhat unpleasant response from the crowd. The dragon commanded them to calm down, and then spoke to the hero. \"Ah, our guest has finally arrived! We've been waiting for you. I'm sure you're quite confused. Let me give you some clean clothes, and let us talk it out over a meal. My, you look absolutely dreadful! Girls, show our guest some draconic hospitality, okay?\"\n\nThe noblewomen said something that shocked Gallamin to his very core. Something so unprecedented that not even the maddest of madmen could have imagined it. Perhaps a cruel, unforgiving god, but surely no mortal. The noblewomen said, \"Yes father.\"\n\nBefore he had a chance to respond, one of the girls took his hand and began leading him to another room. He recognized this woman as the daughter of the Duke of Crawslif. He'd had the displeasure of seeing her in her father's court, where she had been possibly the most proud and dense creature he had ever come across. But here, she seemed a kind, well-mannered lady, the kind he'd gladly have a drink with.\n\nShe handed him some brand new clothes, made from a kind of cloth that he had never encountered before. It was soft and smooth, yet quite comfortable to wear. He was given a plain white shirt, grey trousers, a brown waistcoat, and hardy dragonscale boots.\n\nHe put these on and walked out into the banquet hall, where the dragon had prepared a large feast. There were all kinds of food laid out on the table, which stretched out to the ends of the hall.\n\nAt one end of the table sat the dragon itself, and everyone else was seated around him. After a few minutes, Gallamin finally worked up the courage to ask once more, \"What exactly is going on here?\"\n\nThe dragon, with a now characteristic ease, answered, \"You see friend, I have spent many winters here, in my castle, in isolation. I was alive, but I was not living. I finally decided that I would set out to find some companions, and either find some friends or be killed in the process. I found these young ladies, and brought them back here, to my castle. Here, I showed them kindness and hospitality. Over time, they grew to accept me. I found them to be absolutely delightful company. They told me that back in their own kingdoms, they had been used as nothing more but diplomatic pawns. Their fathers and mothers cared not for them, but for the benefits that they could bring to the kingdom. In a way, it was like what I had endured. I promised that I would never let them be forced into that life again. We spent the days and nights together, me teaching them the wisdom which I had garnered throughout the years.\"\n\nThe hero thought about the dragon's story for a few moments. He could find nothing that obviously disproved it. But one thing still didn't check out. The hero asked, \"Why do they refer to you as father?\"\n\nAt this, the dragon let out its equivalent of a chuckle. \"Well, it's a silly thing really.\" At this point, The Princess herself interjected, \"In all the winters which we have spent with those of whom we were flesh and blood, they did nothing for us. To them, we were mere tools. This dragon, who did not even know us showed us not only kindness, but love. He taught us things we never would have known, showed us things we never would have seen. He let us truly live. And all this after our kind trapped him here, unable to leave for risk of death, and made him unaging. If he is not our father, who is?\"\n\nThe last comment by the princess caught the hero off-guard. \"What do you mean 'made him unaging'? Dragons are naturally immortal, aren't they?\"\n\nThis time, the dragon employed a much more solemn tone, bordering on grieving, \"Dragons are like any other creature. They age and then they die. But the ancient humans who trapped us here placed a curse on the castle. It prevents its denizens from ever aging. So, Hero, what will you do? Will you try to kill us, will you remain with us, or will you leave?\"\n\nGallamin grinned, \"Great Dragon, you humble me with your words. I am no hero, just a humble traveling bard. I am known as a hero, yes, but alas, it is just a story.\"\n\nThe dragon did what looked like a grin, \"When the world has turned to dust, and our words are all that remain, we are all nothing but stories.\"\n\nThe bard smiled once more and said, \"It seems I have met my match in you.\"\n\n---\n\nDid you enjoy this first draft? Well, you can always enjoy some more stuff from me over at my subreddit, /r/Laser_Writing!\n\nedit: sorry for the long read. You can use readreddit plugin to make it easier to read", "Sir Callahan wiped a mixture of blood and sweat from his brow. He looked down to see a small pile of dead goblins at his feet. They had attacked by ambush. Just as he had reached the mountain, they had crawled out of some cave nearby and attacked him. For just one second he had been inattentive and he had paid a hefty price. He had a cut on his forehead and probably several black spots from when his horse had thrown him off. \nThe animal itself, it seemed as he took a glance around, had fled shortly after the goblin's surprise attack. \n'Great' he said to himself 'It's so like me to fight my way through to the mountain only to loose my horse less than a mile away from the castle. What self-respecting princess would go home with a knight that doesn't even have a horse?'\nHe shook his head and put the longsword back into its sheath. There was no point in worrying. Princess Ariana would be angry, for certain. After all, who would want to walk several miles by foot after having just been rescued from a ferocious beast, but Callahan felt like the princes would just have to make do with what she got. It wasn't like many of the knights had been eager to go out and find and kill that fire-breathing monster. She should be glad that someone came at all. \nWith such thoughts in his head, Callahan ascended the mountain and made his way towards the dragon's castle. \n\nAs he reached the castle's gate, he found it to be unlocked. Hesitantly, he pushed it open. He was almost certain, that the beast would await him, eager to greet him with its fiery breath, but there was nothing there. As a matter of fact, the castle was surprisingly tidy. There was a beautiful red rug covering most of the entrance hall's floor, there were pictures on the walls and silver chandeliers with thousands of candles in them hung down from the ceiling. There even were small tables on the sides with flowers on them.\nAnd then he heard a sound. He wasn't quite sure what it was, but it had come from a room just opposite from where he was currently standing. The doors to that room were open, but beside the dancing light of the flames of a fireplace, he could not make out anything. \nThe knight drew his sword as he approached the room, ready to battle any evil that might get in his way, but he was not prepared for what he would find inside the great dining hall. \n\nThe first thing he saw, as he entered, was of course the dragon. Bigger than ten horses, with massive claws and giant teeth, it filled up half the room by itself. However, instead of attacking the knight as soon as he entered, the beast sat calmly on all fours like a lap dog, facing the great table which had been set up by the fire and which was laden with all sorts of delicious foods. \n\nPrincess Ariana stood by one of the dragon's paws. She had a brush in her hand and was currently in the process of painting the monster's claws in the same pinkish-red colour of her own fingernails. She was casually leaning against its massive body and chatting with a woman in a beautiful evening gown who Callahan recognised as the countess of Arrington, who'd gone missing the previous winter. \n\nAnd there were more women present, all noble ladies by the looks of it. Some sat by the table, eating and chatting and two were sat at the head of the table, seemingly playing a game of chess against the dragon. \nCallahan was dumbfounded. Unable to comprehend the situation in front of him, he decided to do what he had planned on doing since he had set out from the king's castle to retrieve the stolen princess. \nHe jumped forth, raising his sword against the dragon and screamed: 'Back away, you monster! Leave the Lady be or I'll end you!'\n\nThe whole room went quiet as all parties became aware of the knight's presence. The dragon wanted to get up, but the princess petted its paw to calm it down. \n\n'What are you doing?' she asked in the annoyed tone of voice that Callahan was all too familiar with. \n'I came to rescue you!' he answered.\n\n'And from what exactly, might I ask? I'm fine. I don't need rescuing.'\n\n'But the beast, Mylady' argued the knight. He had lowered his sword as he was trying to make sense of the situation he'd found himself in. 'Besides, don't you want to return to your family?'\n\n'I mean, eventually, sure' said the princess. 'But we're having fun!' She made a gesture as if to show him how much fun they had. \n\n'Your father is worried sick about you.'\n\n'My father is always worried about me. But it's actually kinda nice here. Nobody's telling me what to do and did you even see what we did with the entrance hall? It's beautiful, isn't it?'\n\n'But the beast is supposed to be slain and the princess supposed to be rescued' cried out Sir Callahan. \n\n'Who cares?' said the countess. She approached him with a cup of wine which she urged him to take. Then she shoved him over to the table, where she made him sit down on the bench. 'It's nothing but an outdated cliché anyway, if you ask me. The times are changing. Women can be independent these days. Have you ever considered that maybe the princess doesn't want to be rescued?'\n\n'Well... no. I just kind of assumed that...'\n\n'Typical male arrogance' declared the countess. 'Always assume that they know what's right for us.'\nThe other women nodded and even the dragon moved its head in agreement. \n\nCallahan dropped his sword. 'Well, what am I supposed to do now?'\n\n'Whatever you want to do, love' said the princess. She stepped towards him and touched the tip of his nose with her brush. 'That's the beauty of it.'\n\n------\nedit for better readability " ]	[ 1, 1, 2 ]	[ "1547849422", "1547889329", "1547854100" ]
Made it simple-ish so that the interpretation can be broader.	[WP] Turns out, you really are what you eat.	2	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A\$Reality+Fiction\$&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A\$Simple+Prompt\$&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/XYsEYfS)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "It started quietly. No one really noticed. A few more raids, a small tax increase. Nothing too out of the ordinary.\n\nThose on the borders were first to realize the magnitude of what was happening. Because it wasn't just one border being attacked. It was all of them.\n\nThe news spread inward despite the monarch's attempts to stop it. Soon it was the only thing on tv. The raids weren't your problem though. \n\nYou wished they would stop showing things like this. It's depressing.\n\nEventually the battles reached the inner cities. Some how your small rural town was left alone.\n\nThis was fine. It didn't really affect you, so this isn't your problem. You had an apartment and could still go buy food.\n\nThat was, until you couldn't.\n\nYour apartment complex was taken over by a group of really nice people. Some had wings, or horns, or different types of tails. Others looked like regular people. They let you stay in your apartment, but now you had three new roomates. That was fine. They growled and snarled at your landlord. You shrugged. Guess you didn't have to pay rent anymore. \n\nWhen the local supermarket was destroyed, your new roomates shared the food they hunted with you. The meat was a bit weird. Veal, maybe?\n\nYou noticed that you didn't see your neighbours as often. You hoped they found a safe place to go, though you couldn't fathom why they would leave their new found protectors.\n\nThen you realized it. Your neighbours didn't move, and the meat you were being fed wasn't veal. \n\nYour vision blured at the edges. Maybe, just maybe, this was your problem. \n\nYou watch one of your roomates being scolded for eating the reserve food and making a mess as you bled out on the kitchen floor." ]	[ 1, 2 ]	[ "1547861054", "1547866014" ]
	[WP] Garbage men no longer collect what you leave at the curb. Now, they go wherever they want and collect whatever they decide is trash. Today, you see them heading toward your territory.	34	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A\$Reality+Fiction\$&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A\$Simple+Prompt\$&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/XYsEYfS)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "She perches on the window-sill like a raptor, a feeder on carrion. The grey folds of her one-piece jumpsuit crinkle as she rocks back and forth, a thousand shadowy smiles. There is a name-tag at her breast, something shiny with fever and jaundice-yellow. \n\nWhat do you have for me? \n\nHer breath is a pestilence, her whisper scurries like vermin, the meaning that gnaws into consciousness. There is a black bag over one of her shoulders - she shifts the weight at random, giving her the crooked-back appearance of a vulture or swamp-hag.\n\nWhat has she come for?\n\nThey are collectors of unwanted things, the sack-folk. They creep under floorboards or under window panes or through mirrors. They cannot be denied. They cannot be deceived.\n\nWhat do you have for me?\n\nPerhaps a tattered teddy bear from an almost-forgotten childhood, rank with time and stale memories. Perhaps a grubby sport jersey from when you thought you'd make it big. The smiling photographs from several years ago you haven't had the heart to erase from your hard drive.\n\nDo any of these things fit in the bag? No. They are far too small.\n\nDreams, then? Wants never realised? Regrets to drown an ocean? No: they would barely be a ripple. Something more substantial: a pint of blood, perhaps, a toe or three, a decade of fingernails? What will satisfy that bobbing beak, those dead moon-lit eyes? \n\nThe answer is so very simple. Throw off the covers: you no longer need their warmth. Peel off those nightclothes: a charity for a charity. Step closer. Another. And another. She opens the bag for you.\n\nHands into the dark, lost and cold. Arms, then elbows, and no thought of pulling back as hands grip your shoulders -- firmly, surely -- and draw you in.\n\nSatisfied, she pulls the hazard-striped strings closed and slips out the window with her prize.\n\nAnother unwanted thing.", "I watch in horror as the garbage truck parks outside my house.\n\nEver since that new law was passed six months ago (which no one wanted), which allowed garbage men to take out whatever they consider is trash, society lived in fear of the garbage men.\n\nThousands of innocent lived were \"trashed\", as they call it, by the all-powerful garbage men.\n\nNow what were they doing outside my house? I was just a struggling artist who seems to be struck by multiple bad luck curses.\n\nAs I watch them march like soldiers in formation to my front door, I notice they have Christian crosses pinned to their uniforms. Below those were takes that read \"God's Task Force\".\n\nThe man in front kicks open the door, and immediately points to me, hiding under the couch. \"Men, seize him!\"\n\n\"Yes, sir!\" The other men all shout in unison. Two big burly men grab me by the shoulders, and carry me into the garbage truck. You wouldn't want me to describe how it's like in there.\n\nAfter a while the truck stops and it dumps me at the \"landfill\". This is where the people and things they \"trash\" are kept. It reminded me of a mixture of a concentration camp and prison. Filled to the brim with innocent people.\n\nThere I was asked to stand in front of a height chart for a picture to be taken of me. I was to hold a card that had a numerical code and why they \"trashed\" me. That numerical code would be my sort-of name in the landfill.\n\nAfter the picture taking, I was led into an interrogation room. A man dressed in full military uniform sat at a desk with a microphone. I could see a nameplate that said \"John Michael. Head of God's Task Force\".\n\nHe spoke into the microphone. \"Okay everyone, please hate Mr. 0665+1 here with all your heart. Turn away from him. Don't let him be happy. Don't let him get what he wants. This is an order. Do it NOW!\"\n\n\"Don't do it!\" I shouted. My art is not being noticed much and now this? I must really be cursed with bad luck.\n\nImmediately John Michael shoves his large hand into my mouth. \"Sorry Mr. 0665+1. I'm afraid you've been abandoned by God.\"" ]	[ 1, 2, 8 ]	[ "1547867325", "1547903934", "1547872441" ]
[removed]	[WP] You are a weregirl. A grown up man who literally transforms into a little girl at most inconvenient times	1	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A\$Reality+Fiction\$&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A\$Simple+Prompt\$&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/XYsEYfS)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "Hi u/farsaver, this submission has been removed.\n\n[Prompts will be removed if there's a high possibility for rule breaking responses](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_7.3A_prompts_will_be_removed_if_there.27s_a_high_possibility_for_rule_breaking_responses)\n\n- \n\n\n\n---\n\n[Modmail](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=%2Fr%2FWritingPrompts&subject=Removed%20post&message=https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/comments/ahkn12/-/%0A%0A) us if you have any questions or concerns. In the future, please refer to the [sidebar](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/about/sidebar) before posting. \n\nThis action was not automated and this moderator is human. Time to go do human things." ]	[ 1, 1 ]	[ "1547889668", "1547889795" ]
[removed]	[WP] The governments are all mind controlling the populous in their countries. They are trying to capture the citizens of other countries to mind control them, using the mind-controlled soldiers. If the leader of government is captured, all people under them will also fall to the captor country.	3	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A\$Reality+Fiction\$&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A\$Simple+Prompt\$&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/XYsEYfS)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "Hi, this submission has been removed.\n\nPrompt users in the title, but don't play writing games or commission stories\n\n • Prompts go in the title, do not extend into text. You can add commentary in the text, but don't add additional prompt restrictions. Also, avoid too many details. \n\n────────\n\nModmail us if you have any questions or concerns. In the future, please refer to the sidebar before posting. \n\nThis action was not automated and this moderator is human. Time to go do human things.\n\n" ]	[ 1, 1 ]	[ "1547900858", "1547904012" ]
	[WP] Tonight, you're going to confess your love, and ask the apple of your eye out to dinner. Whilst practicing your statement of love in the mirror though, a ghost appears before you. Turns out your house is haunted, and this spectre is crying tears of joy, and happily requiting your love.	41	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A\$Reality+Fiction\$&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A\$Simple+Prompt\$&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/XYsEYfS)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "I stared, wide-eyed, sweating and itching with anxiety, in the mirror. \n\nAnd the mirror stared back, with the same \"I'm not ready\" expression drawn on its just as not-good-looking, glassy face. \nI wanted to punch it, first for not being able to say it then and second for not being able to say it now. And if I can't say it now, chances are that I won't be able to say it tonight, either. \nAnd she'll meet someone else at the party, she will. Someone who doesn't sweat and whose neck doesn't feel as if it's the dancing floor of a thousand fire ants whenever he speaks to her. Someone who will actually confess his feelings to her. \n\n\n\"Ease up\", said my inner voice \"you look pathetic. Lower your shoulders, loosen the wrinkles and say it. It's just a rehearsal, after all. Practice.\" \nI obeyed.\nTook a deep breath, closed my eyes, and when I opened them again, I said it. The speech that followed was reminiscent of the most noble and fanciful Shakesperean monologues. And it sounded a little like this: \n\n\n\"Listen, uhh, I love you. You might've not expected to hear this from me tonight, I know. I know! But that's how love works, isn't it? When life uhh, gives you lemons, you have to squeeze them. Make lemonade for your beloved. And that's what I'm doing right now, you see?! Squeezing my heart to you.\" \nI pressed my hands together, mimicking a crunching motion. My mirror-self did the same, but it looked more like he was trying to pump a blood pressure cuff than \"squeeze love\"\n\n\n\"Squeezing my heart to you, which is...pretty gross, biologically-speaking, of course. But don't worry because this is just a metaphor! A metaphor that I'm using to convey my love for you.\" \n\n\n\"So\" and this was the hardest part, \"would you like having dinner out, tonight? We can sneak out when the music fades and everyone is too drunk to notice we're gone.\" \n\n\nEt fin! \nMy mirror-self was satisfied. He smiled, but the problem is that I wasn't. My lips were as uncurled as they could be, still recovering the energy it took them to utter such a deeply-felt love declaration. My first reaction when I saw that, was shock. My second reaction, after seeing the reflection go pale and grow longer hair and breasts, was horror. \n\n\n\"Oh, darling, I always knew you felt the same!\" Said the me-who-wasn't-actually-me, now tearing up and tresspassing the vitric barrier between us. \n\"But hearing it so delightfully crafted, from the very lips of yours that I yearn to kiss, and with those poetic words, fills my cold, dead heart with joy!\" \n\n\n\"That wasn't actually--\" \n\nBefore me stood a phantom now. One who believed I just confessed my love to her and invited her on a date. I think what happened next is that she hugged and kissed me, but I can't tell for sure. You can never be sure when you're incorporeally kissed or hugged, but you know it happened. \n\n\n\"Come now, dearest. Take my hand and lead me to the feast\" beckoned the spirit. \n\n\nI was flabbergasted but I kept looking at her. At her old-fashioned floral dress, alluring smile, pale visage and...pale everything. I looked at her and kept thinking it was WRONG.\n\n\n\"Listen. This is a misunderstanding. I was just practicing self-confidence and some control here. That pathetic attempt at a confession you've just witnessed there wasn't meant for you. It's meant for Aylen, the cello player in the band, who I love but I just can't seem to approach. That was meant to change tonight, as I intend to tell her how much she means to me and take her out for dinner. I'm sorry, you are gorgeous, intelligent-- probably in need of more vitamin D but that's a-okay, you really are nice! But I'm alive and you're dead, it would never work out!\" \n\nThose were the words spoken by me, inside of me. They rang true but never really came out. In a perfect world, I would've confessed my love to Aylen a long time ago. In a perfect world, that's what I would've told the ghost and went on with my life. In the real world, however, what I actually said was: \n\n\n\"I know a GREAT Italian restaurant. The best in town, I swear.\" \n\nThe ghost clapped with glee, squealed an \"Exquisite!\" that could've shattered my windows and took my hand. She was remarkably more fleshy now. \n\n\nLove is so powerful it can conquer death, that much is true. One day, it may even be powerful enough to conquer anxiety. \n\n\n", "I fixed my bow-tie, making sure that it was on straight. Letting out a small exhale, I found my hands were shaking slightly. Today was the big day, after all. I had the ring in my pocket, my hair was perfectly gelled down, and my tux was impeccable. The only thing that was missing from my ensemble was confidence.\n\nPutting on my best grin, the only thing that I found in the body-length mirror was a nervous mess that looked like he was trying to smile through cardiac arrest. I let that go for a bit; I could practice that a bit later. I moved on to the part that she would remember. I cleared my throat, knelt down, and pulled the small black box out of my pocket.\n\n“Listen, we’ve been together for a couple of years now, and it’s been filled with some of the greatest moments of my life. I don’t know what I would be without you. Probably some homeless bum on the street.” I pulled on a weak grin. “But what I do know is what I want our future to look like. I know that we’ve both seen this coming for a while, so I figured that I might as well pop the question before you get impatient. Will you marry me?” \n\nI didn’t know what I expected when I said that, but it certainly wasn’t a response. The reflection in the mirror blurred and spasmed, until what was left was a woman who looked like she’d seen the sun once on the television. She had perfectly white hair as well, and was wearing a bridal gown, making looking at her slightly painful on the eyes. But I couldn’t avert my eyes from her figure. She was so beautiful that she made movie stars pale in comparison. \n\nWhile I knelt there, jaw dropped in incomprehension, a few tears dropped from her icy blue eyes.\n\n“I thought that you would never ask.“ She said, blubbering her way with a voice that must have been blessed by the divines. “I didn’t even realize that you knew about my existence. I accept, Matthew! Yes, yes a million times yes!” At this point, she had progressed into sobbing, using her gown’s sleeve as a tissue.\n\nI realized that I should probably clear up the whole incident, but I found that task incredibly difficult, especially considering I didn’t a have a single idea what was going on.\n\nI cleared my throat, and she immediately paid full attention to me. “Excuse me, but… who are you?”\n\nHer gaze immediately fell into hopelessness and anger. “Oh, of course. You weren’t talking to me. Why would you, anyways? It’s not like I’ve done anything for you, except for sheltering you, and protecting you from the dangerous elements. Why wouldn’t you know who I am?” She practically spat out the last couple of words.\n\n“I’m sorry, are you… the house?” This entire scenario was far too incredulous. Everything that I knew about the world indicated that houses weren’t people.\n\n“Of course I’m not a house, you dimwit! Do I look like a building to you? Are you calling me fat?” Her stare suddenly went from spiteful to dangerous.\n\n“No, no! I’m just… surprised, is all. I thought that I was the only person living here. So, can you answer my question, please?” At this point, I was getting pretty annoyed. It was one thing to talk to a figment of my imagination, it was another thing to get sassed by it.\n\nTo my immense surprise, she sighed and slumped down in a chair that appeared behind her. “Sorry, it’s just that it’s been a very difficult couple of decades. I died in this room, you know? I got stabbed in the back by a jealous fiancé, while I was staring in this very mirror. Ever since then, I’ve been stuck in this world, doomed to only see the house through the mirrors. It gets terribly boring when I’m the only person living here, and whenever I introduce myself to people, they tend to run away. So, you know… when you moved in here, I tried to keep my presence on the down-low.” She looked at me, almost guiltily. “I’ve been watching you ever since, and I’ve been trying to protect you from other ghosts and what not. I guess I’m just a bit angry that you’ve never even bothered to notice me. Please don’t hate me.” The last sentence was barely even audible, and she shrunk down on herself, the very image of desperation.\n\nI calmed my beating heart by taking a couple of deep breaths. “All right, so if by some chance this isn’t just a hallucination, and this whole conversation was real, then I’ve got to break some stuff to you. First of all, I’m going to be proposing to my girlfriend tonight, so I unfortunately can’t marry you. That doesn’t mean that we can’t interact, though. I promise that as long as I live in this house, you won’t have to worry about me running away from you, and that we’ll even be friends. Deal?” I gave her a small, gentle smile.\n\nShe reciprocated tentatively. “…Deal.”\n\n\\----------------------------------\n\n/r/Wheezywrites" ]	[ 1, 8, 14 ]	[ "1547923239", "1547930634", "1547927489" ]
[removed]	[WP] You have spent years having your body controlled by an alien parasite. Yesterday, you were finally freed. Today, you begin your long road to recovery.	0	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A\$Reality+Fiction\$&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A\$Simple+Prompt\$&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/XYsEYfS)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "Hi u/TheParasiteGuy_243, this submission has been removed.\n\n[No recent reposts, even if changing small details](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_5.3A_no_recent_reposts.2C_even_if_changing_small_details)\n\nAlso, no [copy-cats](http://i.imgur.com/38FjDgW.gifv).\n\nSearch before submitting as popular ideas can cause floods. If your idea is based on something you read elsewhere on reddit, chances are it's been submitted here already. Please wait at least 2 weeks before reposting.\n\n \n\nYour prompts all seem to be essentially about the same thing and judging by your username, you seem to be a novelty account based around parasites. \n\nPlease note that we do not allow novelty accounts and further parasite prompts will be removed. If you want to remain a part of our community, please vary your prompts and stories. \n\n\n\n---\n\n[Modmail](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=%2Fr%2FWritingPrompts&subject=Removed%20post&message=https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/comments/ahoxmy/-/%0A%0A) us if you have any questions or concerns. In the future, please refer to the [sidebar](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/about/sidebar) before posting. \n\nThis action was not automated and this moderator is human. Time to go do human things." ]	[ 1, 1 ]	[ "1547924061", "1547924411" ]
	[WP] You are someone’s imaginary friend. Together you had a great xhildhood, but one day you begin to feel yourself fade away. Your friend is growing up and is starting to forget you.	23	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A\$Reality+Fiction\$&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A\$Simple+Prompt\$&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/XYsEYfS)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "\n\n I looked down at her. My Nina was looking older lately. Her chubby elementary face wasnt as chubby. She was long and lean under her Minnie Mouse blanket. Small earrings shone in the early morning light. I waited patiently by the window for her eyes to open and her excited cry of my name. \n\n Ninas alarm clock buzzed. She muttered, her gray eyes tightly closed, as she fumbled on her bedside table. She flopped back on the bed. Her thin arm covered the curly explosion of hair. Her breathing deepened again. \n\n I sighed moving closer to her. \"Nina! Nina!\" \n\n A dainty snore as she rolled. \n\n \"Nina!Nina!!! NINA!\" I shook her body. \n\n Her eyes opened and I smiled awaiting her joyful cry. Instead she gasped and threw the blanket back. \"Im late.\" \n\n I smiled but she rushed by me. She pulled on her school uniform and rushed into the bathroom. I picked up her math homework and slid it into her bag seconds before she picked up her bag. \n\n I trailed after her. I was a little hurt she hadnt even said good morning yet, but i pushed that feeling away. Nina plopped down on the stool at the breakfast bar. \n\n \"Thanks for waking me Mom.\" Nina smiled warmly at Miss Heidi, her Mom. \n\n Miss Heidi frowned putting down two bowls of cereal. I quickly dug into mine. I was always hungry in the morning. \"I didnt wake you. Didnt your alarm buzz?\" \n\n \"It did but I shut if off. Then I felt you shake me.\" Nina dug into her cereal. \n\n Miss Heidi raised an eyebrow at her daughter. \"Maybe it was Grace?\" \n\n I grinned. I love Miss Heidi because she always remembered me. My face fell when I saw Ninas horrified expression. \n\n \"Mom!\" Nina yelled. \n\n Miss Heidi grinned then said. \"You need to get on the bus. I love you.\" \n\n Nina hopped down. \"I love you to.\" \n\n I followed Nina my mind in turmoil. Was Nina forgetting me? Didnt she need me anymore? Should I call Tonya, my handler? Nina was handling life well. She sat with her friends on the bus. I remembered dissecting all the girls before Nina picked these 2 girls. They ran off the bus, laughing. I remembered encouraging Nina to walk onto the playground the first day. I was laughing and ready to play on the new equipment. Nina had hugged Miss Heidis leg. Had it really been 5 years ago already? \n\n \"Shes doing well Grace.\" I started at the soft voice. I wasnt surprised to see the petite blonde woman at my side. \n\n \"Hi Tonya. She is doing well.\" My confident, loving Nina was shooting baskets with her two friends. I smiled at Tonya hoping it was just a progress report. \"She found Anna and Nicole this year. They are her best friends. We talked at length about which ones to choose. She is gaining confidence in class discussions.\" \n\n Tonya nodded her eyes sad. \"Thats not why I am here.\" \n\n I pursed my lips. I glanced at Nina. Tears blurred her image. I saw the tiny baby that I kept company in her crib. Then the chubby toddler learning to walk toward me. The sun drenched days in the backyard, looking for bugs and having tea parties. The shy five year old hiding behind Miss Heidi on the first day of kindergarten. The laughing girl swinging across the monkey bars for the first time. Encouraging her to sit with Anna at the lunch table earlier this year. \"Im not ready yet.\" \n\n Tonya nodded. \"I know your not but Nina is.\" \n\n I couldnt look away from Nina. \"Shes needed me less and less this year but she still needs a 100% always there friend.\" \n\n Nina stopped looking directly at me. She smiled, waved and ran to catch up with Anna and Nicole. I couldnt stop the tears from rolling down my thin face. \n\n Tonya slid her arm around me. \"Its time Grace. Your work is done.\" \n\n I cried harder feeling myself dissolving. I looked for the last time at my Nina. Laughingly she threw her arms around her friends. I smiled through my tears and left my Nina. \n\n" ]	[ 1, 4 ]	[ "1547945756", "1547958857" ]
	[WP] Slaying the dragon was a mistake.	10	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A\$Reality+Fiction\$&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A\$Simple+Prompt\$&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/XYsEYfS)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "Pyrrhic Wealth\n\n\nThe last gust of breath left the beast’s nostrils and the woman stumbled backward, exhausted. Her strength was beginning to fail her. She needed help. The gash along her side bled profusely. If that tail had been swung an inch to the left… Her left forearm was charred. Only her magical wards kept her arm from ending at the elbow.\n\nShe stood in the cavern, looking at her fallen foe, knowing that she had pushed herself too far this time. Her back was to the treasure. A small pile for such a large dragon, all things considered. All of her previous campaigns had been dangerous, but none had ever been foolish. She knew this now. She slid her enchanted blade into her sheath as she slid to the floor for a moment to rest. Her arcane bolt had pierced the great red dragon’s left eye and had left a hole somewhere deep in its brain.\n\nShe took a breath, gathered what remained of her strength, and looked to leave this place. She needed healing beyond what she was capable of. She had time but needed to leave immediately. Now, where was the exit? she thought. She had lost her sense of direction in the fight…\nSomething was off, she did not see it. Then it must be… Behind the dragon. It fell on the passage, blocking the path, trapping her inside and far from help. There was no other exit. Dragons often used magic to enter and leave their lairs.\n\nRed dragon scale was impenetrable, and dragon bone more-so. Her mind raced with the little awareness it had left as blood and hope drained from her. She stumbled backward, landing on a chest, no doubt filled with gold and jewels she would never use. \n\nNo, not this way… She thought continuously until she could not anymore.\n", "We danced from dawn to dusk. \n\nTo and fro we go, cold iron shield meeting ebony claws. Sword clashing against impenetrable scales. \n\nYou are still as beautiful as the day I met you. \n\nMy dearest dragon, have you forgotten about me so much so that you dare go against me? \n\nHave I left you for far too long or have age taken your mind?\n\nI have missed you so. Does it have to be this way?\n\nI stare into your eyes, it used to blaze with such fire yet now I see how it dimmed into ember glows.\n\nGoodbye, old friend.\n\nFinally I stabbed through your eye. It squelched as I plunged my sword further into your skull.\n\nPatches of my skin sizzled at the touch of your blood as it sprayed in my direction. It doesn't matter. None of it matter.\n\nI let go of my sword and watched as it melted. My heart went with it.\n\nThere you lie. \n\nCrumpled. Broken.\n\nMy love. My mistake." ]	[ 1, 2, 2 ]	[ "1547946613", "1547957401", "1548322007" ]
[removed]	[WP] You are a random nobody that lives in a cool castle... But people who claim they are chosen come to try and kill you every few weeks. This is how you tell them to go away.	2	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A\$Reality+Fiction\$&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A\$Simple+Prompt\$&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/XYsEYfS)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "Hi u/Icelingbolt, this submission has been removed.\n\n[Direct prompt replies must be good-faith attempts at new stories or poems](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_1.3A_direct_prompt_replies_must_be_good-faith_attempts_at_new_stories_or_poems)\n\n- Fill-in-the-blank: Responses must be at least 100 words. This is essentially a fill-in-the-blank, or you asked a question likely to generate a simple answer. Prompts should encourage a story or poem. \n\n \n\n Prompts will be removed if there's a high possibility for rule breaking responses ([rule 7](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_7.3A_prompts_will_be_removed_if_there.27s_a_high_possibility_for_rule_breaking_responses))\n\nThis is fill-in-the-blank in that smartasses will just reply with things like \"Go away\" instead of actual stories.\n\n\n\n---\n\n[Modmail](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=%2Fr%2FWritingPrompts&subject=Removed%20post&message=https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/comments/ahuah5/-/%0A%0A) us if you have any questions or concerns. In the future, please refer to the [sidebar](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/about/sidebar) before posting. \n\nThis action was not automated and this moderator is human. Time to go do human things." ]	[ 1, 1 ]	[ "1547959201", "1547960482" ]
[removed]	[WP] In November of 2021 the LHC at CERN is shut down for maintenance after being in use for six months. Instead of the machine, the scientists only find a computer that has been generating fake data the whole time. You are tasked with finding out what happened and where it is.	3	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A\$Reality+Fiction\$&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A\$Simple+Prompt\$&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/XYsEYfS)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "Hi, this submission has been removed.\n\nPrompt users in the title, but don't play writing games or commission stories\n\n • Prompts go in the title, do not extend into text. You can add commentary in the text, but don't add additional prompt restrictions. Also, avoid too many details. \n\n────────\n\nModmail us if you have any questions or concerns. In the future, please refer to the sidebar before posting. \n\nThis action was not automated and this moderator is human. Time to go do human things.\n\n" ]	[ 1, 1 ]	[ "1548007296", "1548007927" ]
	[WP] You are a superhero, and your power is being as strong as the one you're against belives you are. You've made a big name for youself, admired as a national hero. But now someone has found out about your ability, and the word is starting to spread...	10	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A\$Reality+Fiction\$&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A\$Simple+Prompt\$&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/XYsEYfS)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "\"You know, I had always wondered how you beat all of those Villains with such a small frame. Don't get me wrong; slim frames can carry great strength. But, you...\" he sighed. \"I'm almost disappointed, Robert.\"\n\n\n\nMy strength seemed to wane against the sphere, my body weakening as the pain of countless phantom knives stabbed into me. My breathing was rapid and shallow, just as he wanted. I could hold this...thing at bay for now. For as long as he wanted me to.\n\n\n\nPsychosomatic science is an oft-overlooked realm but I have mastered it. As long as they think I'm strong, I am.\n\n\nSeems someone spilled my secret.\n\n\n\"I used to look up to you, you know.\" He looked across the city from this measly apartment rooftop. Gazing into the sunset, he continued: \"Before you were a trick. A joke.\"\n\n\nHe sighed deeply and turned to face me. Before speaking, he sucked through his teeth, the hate washing over me.\n\n\n\"That all ends now.\" He approached me, still paralyzed in my Atlas pose. Exactly how he wanted me. I could feel his breath as he spoke.\n\n\"How does it feel to be so weak?!\" he whispered to me. \"Save this city, now. Hero.\"\n\nHis faith, the only thing giving me strength to fight off his Earth-destroying weapon, drained quickly. My strength throughout this battle had been lent only by him.\n\n\nThis was it.\n\n\nI have failed.\n\n\nAt first, I didn't realize it. How could I? I was completely numb to the inevitable. His scowl brought me out of my reverie and I realized that I was laughing. Not laughing like a fool, but as a madman. I had lost and the only thing left to do was let fate take its course.\n\n\nBut I felt it. An almost imperceptible thread. If I could just...\n\n\nI used every ounce of energy to send the sphere directly back to space, back to the station from where it had come. It should have enough energy left in it to destroy the weapon.\n\n\"No...\" he cried. \"This isn't possible! I KNOW YOU ARE WEAK!!\"\n\nHis doubt flowed through me, energizing every cell, every neuron in my brain firing at superhero speed. He was in my grasp before I even knew what was happening.\n\n\"No...\" he gurgled through my clench. \"I believe you are weak!\" I leaned in close, tightening my grip.\n\n\nThis menace had taken so many lives before. Taunting me. Making grotesque objects out of his victims. No more.\n\n\n\"You were right,\" I whispered, almost seductively. \"But your doubt killed you.\" And with that, I made a sharp twist with my wrist before throwing the body to the street several stories down.\n\n\nRed and blue flooded everything below, the noise of people deafening me. But their cries coursed into me like nothing I had felt before. I could feel myself growing in size, my muscles tearing away at my suit. Fear invaded me with almost-orgasmic delight.\n\n\nI had never felt such strength as a hero. I now understood my fallen foes; fear lends so much more power than admiration. Love. Expectation. No longer will I thrive off of such simple things.\n\n\nI have found my true calling." ]	[ 1, 6 ]	[ "1548011808", "1548028237" ]
[removed]	[WP] Much to your relief and his dismay, your quadriplegic father's request for assisted suicide has been denied. However, this relief is short-lived; your government is coming to a vote on a specific population check measure - a night where all laws are legal. And it's looking like a possibility.	1	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A\$Reality+Fiction\$&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A\$Simple+Prompt\$&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/XYsEYfS)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "Hi u/DocileLuxury, this submission has been removed.\n\n[No explicitly sexual responses, hate speech, or other harmful content](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_2.3A_no_explicitly_sexual_responses.2C_hate_speech.2C_or_other_harmful_content)\n\n- We feel that asking users to write about suicide is harmful. It can be hard to tell if someone's writing fiction or making a cry for help. In the event there's any truth behind this for you or someone you know, we recommend checking out /r/suicidewatch or /r/depression. \n\n Prompts will be removed if there's a high possibility for rule breaking responses ([rule 7](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_7.3A_prompts_will_be_removed_if_there.27s_a_high_possibility_for_rule_breaking_responses))\n\n\n\n---\n\n[Modmail](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=%2Fr%2FWritingPrompts&subject=Removed%20post&message=https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/comments/ai1mpd/-/%0A%0A) us if you have any questions or concerns. In the future, please refer to the [sidebar](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/about/sidebar) before posting. \n\nThis action was not automated and this moderator is human. Time to go do human things." ]	[ 1, 1 ]	[ "1548014376", "1548014444" ]
[removed]	[WP]	2	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A\$Reality+Fiction\$&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A\$Simple+Prompt\$&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/XYsEYfS)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "Hi u/CommercialAuthor, this submission has been removed.\n\n[Prompt users in the title, but don't play writing games or commission stories](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_6.3A_prompt_users_in_the_title.2C_but_don.27t_play_writing_games_or_commission_stories)\n\n- Prompts go in the title, do not extend into text. You can add commentary in the text, but don't add additional prompt restrictions. Also, avoid [too many details](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/prompts?src=RECIPE). \n\n\n\n---\n\n[Modmail](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=%2Fr%2FWritingPrompts&subject=Removed%20post&message=https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/comments/ai56je/-/%0A%0A) us if you have any questions or concerns. In the future, please refer to the [sidebar](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/about/sidebar) before posting. \n\nThis action was not automated and this moderator is human. Time to go do human things." ]	[ 1, 1 ]	[ "1548036115", "1548036798" ]
	[WP]You never met your biological father. It wasn't a problem until you were kidnapped, you are now in a room with a lot of people, from what you were told they are all your siblings, and the kidnappers are after your father, the only thing you know about him is his name: Bond, James Bond	175	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A\$Reality+Fiction\$&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A\$Simple+Prompt\$&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/XYsEYfS)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "I was a normal kid. Well, as normal as you can be with a model for a mom and a missing dad. I went to school, I played video games, I hung out with my friends Brady and Matt. What was not normal for a kid was getting pulled into a black panel van and being drugged to sleep.\n\nWhen I woke up I was in a large, empty room with very little furniture and a door on the other end. As I rubbed my eyes I noticed the other people around me. Most were around my age or younger, The youngest seemed to be about eight or nine,a and he was crying on the floor. I almost wanted to cry myself. As I held the tears in a girl around my age came closer and asked me my name. I looked over at her and just mumbled \" James\"\n\n\"Well my names Terresa and if you're going to sit in the corner and sulk then just do it quietly.\" The girl said, about to bounce away. \n\nI looked up and gasped a little. There was definitly some differences but the resembalence was uncanny. \"I wasn't going to sulk, I was just thinking of what to do now.\" I say, my voice was shaking a little. I kept my composure though.\n\n\"Well escape isn't going to work. the doors locked, and when they do open it, they always hav...\"\n\nThe door opened, and a tall man witha scar across his forehead and a black leather jacket. \"Alright, the new kid. Bring him here.\" Two men walked towards me and grabbed me and dragged me away by my arms.they dragged me through the open and I heard it close behind me. They drag me down a hallway until I see a door. Thw two men force me to sit in a hard metal chair.\n\nThe man from earlier sat across from me. \"Now kid, I don't have much patience for you little morons so your going to answer my questions. Is your mother Danele Smith?\" \n\nI held my tounge before finaly quitely saying yes. He followed with other questions, about where I was born, when my birthday was, and who my father is. I couldn't answer the last ones, so I just sat there silently. After what felt like hours he finaly got the two men from before, I call them Big and Large, and they hauled me out of my seat and dragged me back to the room from before. He follows Big and Large into the room and closes the door behind them.\n (Part 1 of 2)\n\n\n\n\n\n\n" ]	[ 1, 2 ]	[ "1548036151", "1548066992" ]
[removed]	[WP] “free thinking”	1	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A\$Reality+Fiction\$&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A\$Simple+Prompt\$&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/XYsEYfS)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "Hi, this submission has been removed.\n\nPrompt users in the title, but don't play writing games or commission stories\n\n • Prompts go in the title, do not extend into text. You can add commentary in the text, but don't add additional prompt restrictions. Also, avoid too many details. \n\n────────\n\nModmail us if you have any questions or concerns. In the future, please refer to the sidebar before posting. \n\nThis action was not automated and this moderator is human. Time to go do human things.\n\n" ]	[ 1, 1 ]	[ "1548048649", "1548049148" ]
[removed]	[WP] Trevor made us dig our own graves today. I think 10 years old too young to die, but he said it’s necessary if we are going to finish his next quest. We meet after school tomorrow.	1	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A\$Reality+Fiction\$&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A\$Simple+Prompt\$&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/XYsEYfS)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "Hi u/FRIGGIN-MOO, this submission has been removed.\n\n[No explicitly sexual responses, hate speech, or other harmful content](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_2.3A_no_explicitly_sexual_responses.2C_hate_speech.2C_or_other_harmful_content)\n\n- The mods reserve the right to remove anything we feel is harmful to the community. This includes, but is not limited to any forms of hate speech, racism, politics, necrophilia, pedophilia, bestiality, incest, torture, rape, violence against children, and suicide. We will not tolerate it. \n\n Prompts will be removed if there's a high possibility for rule breaking responses ([rule 7](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_7.3A_prompts_will_be_removed_if_there.27s_a_high_possibility_for_rule_breaking_responses))\n\n\n\n---\n\n[Modmail](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=%2Fr%2FWritingPrompts&subject=Removed%20post&message=https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/comments/ai8911/-/%0A%0A) us if you have any questions or concerns. In the future, please refer to the [sidebar](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/about/sidebar) before posting. \n\nThis action was not automated and this moderator is human. Time to go do human things." ]	[ 1, 1 ]	[ "1548060153", "1548060974" ]
	[WP] You have been immortal for too long now. You've done so by cheating Death. One morning you are woken up to hear furious knocking and find a sassy, pissed off Death at your door.	12	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A\$Reality+Fiction\$&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A\$Simple+Prompt\$&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/XYsEYfS)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "“Hey! I’m trying to be polite!” Death shouted. He ceased knocking, just to make a point. “You do remember I can walk through walls and shit, right? Right!?” \n\nBack to knocking. With a bit more umph this time. Although Death’s existence was not bound to the measly constraints of neither space nor time, he did not like to be kept waiting, and this man had really put his patience to the test. The Centurion, they called him, or maybe he called himself that after his first hundred years... but that was forever ago. Seriously, Death couldn’t wait any longer. \n\nThe Centurion wasn’t much of a morning person though, and debated whether or not to finish his coffee first. Death was always so intrusive. He would take one last sip, wipe the sleep crud from his eyes, and then— WHAM! \n\n“Fucking hell!” The Centurion yelled as he stomped out of the kitchen. “Did you just drop a bag of bowling balls on my floor!? That was my last cup of coffee, too!” Referring to the dark stain on his shirt. \n\n“So... you don’t care about the door!?” Death looked up to see the man squinting, jaw agape. Definitely awake, but looked disheveled in his tattered bath robe that he most likely slept in. “Hey, seriously didn’t even mean to...”\n\nThe man threw his now empty mug at Death. It passed right through the dark, slender ghost of a figure that stood before him and narrowly missed a morning jogger, shattering against the street as it landed. Glances were exchanged, \n\n“Sorry!”. A friendly wave from the man accompanied by an awkward smile. “I broke my door!” The jogger jogged on. \n\nTo be continued...?\n", "\" You're tearing me apart ! \" said Death with it's upper lip trembling and face red.\n\nI wasn't expecting Death to look so mundane... so mortal. I was expecting a hooded skeleton with a scythe, not a teenage blonde boy with almost tears in his eyes. I knew it was Death however, somehow I just knew. I knew instantly the one I was cheating for hundreds of years.\n\nI leaned on the door frame with my elbow staring Death in the eyes. Decided to let him calm down before we would talk. Don't try reasoning with someone who is highly emotional, wait for them to calm down. Realizing that me standing in front of him staring him dead in the eye was actually making it worse I shrugged and took a few steps back.\n\n\" Would you like some coffee ? \"\n\n\" Yessss, pleassse \".\n\nOh my god, Death has a lisp ! I barely stop myself from laughing and welcome him to my kitchen inviting him to sit. Death obediently complies and I go to prepare the coffee. Once I set the kettle on the cooker I turn to Death and sit across the table.\n\n\" So, what seems to be the problem ? Why are you crying ? \"\n\n\" I am not crying, you bastard ! \" said the boy with his cheeks still red and eyes swollen with tears. \" I am just sick and tired of you ! Always evading me! Always escaping me ! Always ignoring me ! You.. you are a son of a bitch ! \"\n\nThe last words angered me a little and Death saw that changing to a defensive position tapping his fingers nervously on his forearm.\n\n\" You may say many things about me and I wouldn't care but don't say anything about my mother. She may have died during the witch hunts a long time ago but I will not allow any bad words about her \"\n\nI noticed Death started tapping his finger faster as I confronted him so I decided to have a little fun. When you've lived as much as I have, you stop being angry for long. This time, my anger lasted 5 seconds. Death opened his mouth to say something but I quickly interrupted him.\n\n\" So what's with the lisp ? \"\n\nHe instantly blushed and closed his mouth. A wide grin showed on my face has he did that, making him jump from his chair.\n\n\" That's it, you bastard ! I am ending this now! \"\n\nHe stretched his arm sideways making a dark scythe materialize in his hand and dashed towards me yelling. Little he expected to trip right after the 'grand moment he had ', and faceplant on my floor. He raised his head, his face red of embarrassment this time. I almost burst again in laughter but managed to retain myself making only a puff noise.\n\nDeath jumped to his feet and stormed away from me, angrily shut the door behind him and left. I ran at the door after him, he was storming away from my house with big heavy steps. I opened the door and shouted at him with my hand raised.\n\n\" Wait, you forgot your shoes ! \"\n\n&#x200B;\n\n&#x200B;" ]	[ 1, 4, 5 ]	[ "1548061157", "1548073114", "1548068423" ]
	[WP] Everything has a natural predator, even monsters. You've just been turned into a vampire's natural predator.	5	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A\$Reality+Fiction\$&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A\$Simple+Prompt\$&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/XYsEYfS)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "I registered the feel of the cold flat surface I lay on, remaining absolutely still as my senses awakened in a burst, I left my eyes until last.\n\nNothing moved in the seconds I waited. No people moving or talking, not a breath of wind or sound reached me. Opening my eyes, I found the cheapest ceiling tiles, yellowed and stained from age illuminated in the smallest flicker of light. I lay on the floor in an ancient, dingy hospital room, mould coating the walls, creeping towards me with green fingers lacing the warped linoleum. \n\nAs I rolled onto my side, I hissed quietly, pain exploded from everywhere like an electrified blanket held me down and kept shocking me. I closed my eyes, my body so heavy I felt unable to move and let the waves pass. Gritting my teeth I rolled to my knees, my head still on the floor.\n\nIt feels like I've put on two hundred pounds, why can't I shake this off? I growled in frustration, surprising myself at the noise, it was deep, gravelly and I've not heard it before. Clearing my throat, I said 'Where am I?' and instantly felt better I heard my own voice.\n\nThe confusion at where I was took over and I strained to lift my head up, to look around. Breathing deeply I took my time in sitting up, slowly standing.\n\nI hadn't had that much to drink last night, not enough for this level of hangover. Not enough to lose my phone too, since it was nowhere to be seen. I cursed myself for being in places my mouth could get me in trouble. Sure, that was most places, to be fair, but purposely going to the bar with the most violence just to work out a few issues that working a bag just doesn't fix. Sure I'm an asshole but I only mete it out to other assholes.\n\nI held onto the back of the only chair in the room to keep my balance. The only light source is the grubby window six feet high, letting in a couple of specks of sunlight. Medical paraphernalia sat on a relatively modern trolley, gauze, scissors, clamps, kidney shaped bowls, remnants of supplies, a few broken IV stands littered the room.\n\nI took stock. My black jeans are covered in dust, grime, they've been wet at one point since it was dried in, caking me in mud. My boots are the same, my jacket's missing, all my jewellery. What exactly happened last night? The last thing I remember was getting in the car with Tony to move onto the next pub. Maybe this is Tony's idea of a joke? This could be his spot for hanging out, he does dance with some special characters. I felt blood rushing back into my arms, my legs, I felt my body right itself. I feel bruised all over, did I get in a fight? \n\nA cupboard that looked too new sat in the far corner. I psyched myself up for making my way there, my curiosity aroused. Inside I found my keys and phone. Dialling Tony, hoping I'd get some answers. Voicemail, that was no use.\n\nAs I moved around, my muscles eased up, my walk not as jerky as it had been. After a few stretches and some circles of the room, I made for the door.\n\nGreeted by a corridor as well maintained as my room, I followed the barely legible signs to the front door. In order to get a lift home I'd need to know where I was and the spidery script of 'Mainfield Hospital' decorating the walls isn't familiar to me. This place is a little freaky and I am not staying longer than necessary. Graffiti splashed across the walls in layers of colours, arrows dotted around pointed to places I did not want to visit.\n\nBut one symbol stopped me. The black circle with two red dots, like eyes. It had been on every news channel, every paper, magazine, blog, video, facebook was running an hourly update on the case which was causing more issues than the missing kids. Young girls were disappearing. Only in the last week had it been made public but I knew it had been going on for much longer than that, all the kids I knew did anyway.\n\nIt took over a whole wall in the waiting area by the front door. Easily eight feet by ten, the thick paint rose from the ground, rising to the ceiling in a dramatic arc, ebony droplets scarred the dirty plaster, as if they bled through the wall, the red eyes were sprayed on, the red allowed to run down the wall so it almost reached the floor.\n\nI noticed there were brush strokes through the charcoal paint, a four inch brush was used. The sweep showed whoever the artist was, their manipulation of the paint was quick, practiced, and they failed to fix the natural thickening at the edges. I've always loved the smell of paint. As that memory hit me, so did the fact that I could smell it, it was wet. It was done recently.\n\nI hadn't heard a single thing move the entire time I'd been here, I must've been awake for at least half an hour now. Panic seeped in little by little, the hairs on the back of my neck tingled and all I felt was a blaring need to get outside, to be away from this place. Had someone painted this while I was here? Did they know I was here? I stopped listening to the rabble of thoughts that would only lead to a darker place and I was not prepared for that.\n\nMy phone rang as I ran into the sun, my legs shaky after moving so quickly. Taking the time for a few breaths, I looked around. Overgrown shrubbery, trees surrounded me with grass up to my waist, but I could hear the birds, running water, insects hurrying around and my lungs felt finally ready for a full breath.\n\nThe number was blocked but right now anyone would be good to talk to, to touch reality again.\n\n'Hello Kaia.' An unfamiliar raspy voice struggled.\n\n'Who is this?' I started moving towards the trees, circling behind the hospital to stay out of view.\n\n'I'm the person who you should be thanking.' \n\n'For what? Less of the cryptic chat, thanks.' Without sleep, I'm not so much a cheery person.\n\n'Don't you feel it? Stronger, faster, the next step in humanity.'\n\n'Listen dipstick, I don't have time for this, did Tony put you up to this?'\n\n'You were a good subject even though you're older than usual. I hope that's not why we end up killing you.' The call ended.\n\nMy brain fogged in confusion. Killing me? Why would someone kill me? What is the next step in humanity? The more immediate problem is where I am and just how in hell's name I'm going to get out of what seems like the middle of the forest.\n\nI tried Tony again but he didn't answer. There was a rusting bicycle by the hospital, completely useless. All I have is my own two feet so I started walking, then jogged when I figured I might not get out before nightfall. The more I ran, the faster I wanted to go, it was so freeing! The forest melted around me where I wanted to go, I lifted my feet over the roots that were already past me before I saw them, I ran full speed on instinct, it was all a blur except for the dot in the distance, I focused straight ahead and luxuriated in the hungry burn covering my body, the sting of the air curling round me, urging me forward, a hyper focus over took me and suddenly I was there.\n\nThe view was stunning, appearing in the blink of an eye, spread out hundreds of feet below me. I stood on a craggy rock and took in the farms below, the fields full of lush greenery, the steep rocky path to reach them cut into the face of the hill. \n\nI felt no weariness, no sign I'd run for hours through the trees. The earlier heaviness now replaced by feeling lighter than air, of having no mass, able to float instead of walk.\n\nA man stood in his field miles away, standing smaller than the size of my thumb by my perspective. I realised I could see his face, the weathered lines scoring his cheeks, spending many summers in the sun to feed his family.\n\nThe trees on his land were a vibrant emerald green, each line on the leaves perfect centre, the apples rosy and golden. I staggered as I realised what I was seeing was in fact miles away yet I could see the individual buds growing. I could hear a sharp buzzing noise and snapped round to see what it was, nothing but a bee in the distance. I focused in on the faint groaning, creaking noise that played at the sidelines of my hearing. I concentrated, closing my eyes. I walked to where it grew in volume, easing my way towards the source. Reaching out blindly, I connected with it. Opening my eyes, it was a tree. I was hearing the tree growing. I stumbled, crashing to the ground. All my instincts screamed at me to run and that's exactly what I did.\n\nI tore through the countryside, sticking as close to the road as I could without being seen. This time, nature made no way for me, branches clawed at my skin, whipped into my face, the wind nipped at my fingertips as I raced it, lifting my hair as I blindly scrambled in a desperate attempt to get away.\n\n&#x200B;\n\n&#x200B;" ]	[ 1, 4 ]	[ "1548086889", "1548094756" ]
	[WP] Faster than light travel is routine but faster than light comms does not exist. You work on a "packet ship" delivering information. You come across an old radio distress call from a lost ship...following it back to it's source you find a small but prosperous colony. They are hiding, something.	178	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A\$Reality+Fiction\$&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A\$Simple+Prompt\$&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/XYsEYfS)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "I sighed with frustration as I scanned the system. The database told me that it was uninhabited, hell, not just uninhabited, it was devoid of pretty much anything interesting. No asteroid belts, no resource rich planetary bodies, nothing but dust and rock and ice. There was absolutely nothing here worth visiting for apart from a distress call I picked up in one of the courier route systems, about two light years from here. No details, just a quick burst and then nothing. Probably a meteor impact, or a core overload, something that caused a ship to momentarily cry out for help and then fall silent forever.\n\nBut why here?\n\nProtocol was to always investigate distress calls, even if they were as old as this one. The ship was almost certainly lost but the black box it carried would be remarkably durable, as long as it didn’t fall into a gas giant or a star it should be recoverable. But the question was at the back of my head, why would a ship come here? What would a ship be doing this far out of the way in a completely uninteresting system? Even the smugglers had better routes, and they were far from here.\n\nThe computer in front of me dinged to get my attention, the scan had completed. No beacon detected, no recognizable debris detected (no, surprise there, even if there was debris it’s a big system.) No signals from the inhabitants of the fourth planet.\n\nWait, what?\n\nI scrolled back to that part of that report. No signals from the inhabitants of the fourth planet. It was written there as clear as day. I looked at the database entry for the system, no inhabited worlds, no worlds that were even close being habitable. I double and triple checked the data from the scanner, it showed a planet that simply wasn’t there in the database, fourth from the star and smack dab in the middle of the habitable zone. And there were people living on it, perhaps survivors from the ship that sent the distress call.\n\nNow this was getting interesting.\n\nI instructed the computer to set a course for the planet and was promptly informed that it was nearly a week away. We might be able to travel between the stars faster than light, but in system travel still had to follow the good old fashioned laws of physics. The delay was a pain, but policy was policy, and I might actually be doing some good out here if there were still survivors in need of rescue. I was nearly half an hour into reading what scant information the database had on this system when my ship chimed at me. This one caught me by surprise, it was an incoming message, about as simple as it gets.\n\n“UNKNOWN VESSEL, DEPART IMMEDIATELY.”\n\nNo identifiers, no voice, no video, just all caps plain text. I checked the timing, with the light delay they would have had to have sent this seconds after they saw that I was accelerating towards them. They were watching me, and must have been ever since I entered the system. Interesting.\n\n“Unknown Colony, this is Pilot Needa Marenne of the Maretek Courier Corps, I am investigating a distress call originating in this system. Approximate time of the call would have been … “ I consulted the computer. “Two years one month ago, give or take twenty two days. Do you have any information about the origin of this distress signal?”\n\nThe response came thirty minutes later.\n\n“THERE IS NO ONE IN DISTRESS HERE. DEPART IMMEDIATELY.”\n\n“Unknown colony, that is a negative. I am required to investigate this distress signal. Please confirm whether or not you are aware of its origin.”\n\nThirty more minutes, though now I was eagerly awaiting what they had to say.\n\n“THERE WAS NO DISTRESS SIGNAL AT THAT TIME. YOU ARE NEITHER WANTED NOR NEEDED HERE. DEPART IMMEDIATELY.”\n\nI almost had to smile at how rude that response was.\n\n“Unknown colony, I cannot depart, I am required to investigate that distress signal with or without your cooperation. I am en route to your planet with an estimated time of arrival of seven days from now. I’ll be out of your hair a lot quicker if you give me a hand with this.”\n\nThirty minutes, forty, an hour passed with no response. Apparently they’d given up trying to keep me away. I settled back in the pilot seat and instructed the computer to conduct a series of scans as I approached the center of the system, with any luck I’d have some answers before I ended up on the unfriendly doorstep of that unregistered colony.\n\nOne thing was for sure though, this little detour had gotten very interesting.", "It's my last run of the week and let me tell you, that little cabin on Pluto is looking oh so relaxing. I'm spinning the arms of the Milky Way like nobody’s business. Making great time stepping from system to system, dropping the notes, and getting on my way. Some of the other parcel boys like to be personable with their deliveries. Me? I don't see no point in brown nosing the rich bastards. They're not the ones who sign my check.\n\n\nOf course it happens during my last drop. I'm out in some bumblefuck cluster on the edge of Andromeda when it happens. I shouldn't even be out here. I picked up Clancy's run so he could stick close to the Magellanic Cloud. No good deed goes unpunished, right?\n\n\nI drop the parcel and these guys are nothing but thankful, like they haven't seen anyone outside their little planet for years. It's slow tidings this side of the universe, so I can't blame them. But I'm almost out when the comms intercept the transmission. My damn thrusters were almost done heating up. If I drifted an inch to the right instead of the left when I left orbit, I wouldn't have heard a peep. I'd be sitting next to the fire with a hot chocolate in my hand.\n\n\nBut as it is, I hear it, and let me tell you did my ears perk up. It's scratchy as hell, but I can make out the words. 'Alpha Six-Six-Niner'. A general distress call. But those smiling bozos planet side must not have heard it. There's not another rock or colony for 100 AU in any direction.\n\n\nI think maybe it's just my ears acting up. Maybe I can jump before I convince myself there was something there. But the static hisses and the call comes through again.\n\n\nSo now I'm sitting here, rubbing my eyes, imagining a warm cabin on that icy rock while the computer tracks down the signal. How do I always get myself into these messes? Why can't I be the type of guy who just clocks in and clocks out and never says a word to nobody? That guy must have the longest life expectancy in the universe.\n\n\nThe computer dings. Medium class cargo vessel, an hour jump into the middle of nowhere, deep space. What the hell are they doing out there?\n\n\nI'm questioning myself the entire time I'm in the hole. Space and time are bending around the black hole I just punched in it, but all I can think about is a way out. I don't have any spare parts to patch up their ship if it's a mechanical issue. There's certainly no space in my Runner to ferry the crew back to civilization. The hole fizzles out around me and I keep my finger on the trigger as the ship returns to linear space. If this is a set up, I'm ready to jump and never look back.\n\n\nBut man, is this anything but. The message is blaring loud and clear through the cockpit speakers, but there ain't no ship to be seen. Instead, there's a colony the size of the moon, sleek and chrome, with hundreds of butting structures like a bunch of metal shavings rolled into a ball. I know my way around the universe and let me tell you, whatever this is, it ain't on no map.\n\n\nThe distress call is still looping. 'Alpha Six-Six-Niner.' I gatta hit the trigger. I gatta get out of here before they notice me. But I'm a fool and I fly the Runner towards the base of the colony. The airlock light flashes green and the shudder doors open like some gaping mouth to the abyss.\n\n\nI set her down real nicely in an empty docking bay. There's only one controller on duty, but he's got more than enough pride in his job for a whole army of 'em. He waves me in and secures my bird. I open the bridge door, but don't unlatch the stairs.\n\n\n\"Hey,\" I call down. The man's still furiously tying knots and patching in connectors.\n\n\n\"Howdy,\" he calls back. \"What brings you in?\"\n\n\n\"I traced a distress call from over by Gargados and--\"\n\n\n\"Oh, swell fellas over there, don't you think?\"\n\n\n\"Yeah, great.\" I look around the dock. There's room for an armada, but it's just me and him. \"Anyway, it came from a cargo ship. You seen any around?\"\n\n\n\"Oh sure, just came and went. Bad on board nav. Wound up all the way out here because of it.\" The man laughed like two tin cans rubbing against each other.\n\n\n\"And where is here? I've spun this joint a few times in my day, and I don't remember every running past you guys.\"\n\n\n\"Lookie here, you're just in time for the gang to get back.\"\n\n\nThe airlock doors grind open and rattle the whole bay. For a second, it sucks the oxygen out of my cockpit and my face swells up like a strangled hog. The bridge door swings shut and the canned air comes streaming back in. I'm trying to watch the airlock, but I'm coughing and crying and trying to drag the soul back into my body.\n\n\nBy the time I'm upright, a hundred ships are already in the bay. Thousands of them come sailing through the airlock, Runners and cargo transits, assault and luxury ships of all makes, everything from government Destroyers to homemade death traps comes pouring in from the void beyond.\n\n\nI catch the man's eye. He isn't waving anyone in, just staring at me. He's not wearing a suit, just mechanics overalls. He should be dead, but it doesn't look like anyone told him that.\n\n\nFuck this. I'm not standing any longer. Sorry distressed cargo, you're ganna have to find your own way out. I hit the trigger and sever the attaching lines. My thrusters are still warm and the ship jumps at once. I don't even sail 20 feet before she punches a hole and I'm out of there. Sure, there'll be some scorch marks and warped steel, and that mechanic will be time-sick as a dog for a few weeks, but they got a big colony there, they'll figure it out.\n\n\nI exhale heavily and hit the trigger again. I just needed a short jump to get out of there. I can reset my bearings once I hit linear space, forget this whole thing ever happened. I can feel Kalie rubbing up against me under a warm blanket already.\n\n\nBut the hole fades and I'm still in the docking bay. The airlock is closed and ships are lined up as far as the eye can see. I look far enough down the dock that it curves below itself and disappears. I rub my eyes, but nothing changes.\n\n\nThe mechanic is still there, a hard worn smile curling up beneath his pitted eyes.\n\n\n\"That's a mighty fine vessel you have there,\" he says. \"It'll be a great addition. Welcome to the force, private. C'mon, go make yourself comfortable.\"\n" ]	[ 1, 8, 45 ]	[ "1548107826", "1548123308", "1548115760" ]
	[WP]Everyone knows what a antihero is, but what about a antivillian?	49	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A\$Reality+Fiction\$&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A\$Simple+Prompt\$&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/XYsEYfS)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "Ugh, rain again? Why does this place never stop fucking raining? Sigh, one day I'll be on a beach with some colorful drink in one hand and some sweet ass in the other. Pual chuckled ha hell, that's a funny thought. Not being here, doing this rehashed regurgitated bull shit for some kid whose dad has a pile of cash to fuck his gold digging tramp on. I wonder who its gonna be? Its always a girl, I almost feel bad whenever I learn too much about the poor sumabitch. Just goes to show don't piss someone off with money who's vindictive. Why can't it ever be a scumbag? Ya know, someone who truly deserves karmas dick being shoved up their asshole, but it never is. Good people wouldn't bother with the likes of the \"unfortunate\" business I provide to the scum bags of this shit hole. Maybe I should just pull the trigger on myself save everyone the hassle of.... BANG BANG BANG Steven pounds on the hood of the car\n\nPaul open the god damn door! Its raining like jesus just screwed his first virgin. Yelled Steven\n\nGod dammit this cocksucker, why do I always have the unfortunate pleasure of the hand off always being with this unfunny piece of shit.\n\nCome on Pual! \n\nClick, the door unlocks. Steven opens the door letting more then enough cold air in the car. \n\nYou have the packet? Paul said with disdain.\n\nYeah I got the the thing man, why you gotta be an asshole? You think I enjoy your company? \n\nThen hand it over Paul said calmly. \n\nSteven reaches into his coat pulling out a relatively thin packet. \n\nPaull grabs it and he begins scanning the information, Pauls normally stoic face turns to disgust. \n\nYou have got to be fucking kidding me. An entire family, you want to shwack an entire fucking family. Paul said in pure hatred toward Steven.\n\nHey man its your job, you do have the right to reject it but no one will ever hire you and you will probably die unexpectedly. But go ahead and reject it. Steven said with a little smirk. \n\nBlow it out your ass! I'll take the damn thing but still go in a hole and rot. Paul exclaimed calmly. \n\nJob needs to be done by the 31st. Good luck! Steven said with a laugh \n\nFuck off! Paul said as Steven slammed the door.\n\nWell here I am in a the worst possible position, with the worst job. God damn it well how I am gonna figure this one out........\n\nbe gentle and yes punctuation sucks. \n\n\n", "Violet quietly motioned to her enforcers to keep the men quiet. She knew how twitchy they could be, Toast especially, but Lord Arachnos would not stand for anything less than perfection in those who served him. Sure, he ruled the Rogue Isles with an iron fist, but he repaid those who server him well. There was a certain structure to his empire that could be appreciated. Her team of thugs served her well, and she took care of them. In turn she, as Lady Painstrike, served Lord Arachnos well. It was a simple and easily understood system of Might Makes Right. The self-described “heroes” of Paragon City would almost certain disagree. But she had yet to meet one of them that wasn’t a stuck-up jerk. Her true friends, like Mère d'Arbres, might be rejected by society for their strange mutations but they were always by her side. Lord Arachnos had saved her from a life rotting away in a cell after her mutant abilities manifested. Well, perhaps not him personally, but still. That had to count for something. Where would we be without loyalty?\n\nHer enforcers nodded silently to let her know her men were ready. In the eyes of others, they may just look like thugs, but she knew better. The hopes and dreams they have, their potential that she would help them unlock. She gave the signal and Toast ran forward with the kind of big grin he only got while carrying explosives. Moments later an explosion blew the door to the lab off its hinges and her enforcers moved their men forward through the breach. She followed a moment later with the hulking frame of her bodyguard Kruschev shadowing her.\n\nGunfire erupted as her men encountered the lab’s defenses. Under the careful direction of her enforcers their fire focused down the defensive turrets. If she could just recover the code from the computers here, they would be able to open holes in the Paragon City defenses were they could strike down those erstwhile oppressors. Violet was determined to show her worth to Arachnos and prove herself worthy.\n\nWith a cry one of her men clutched at his arm. Behind his gang mask she could see the pain in his eyes. Pain that she reached out and drew inside herself by calling on her mutant power. Within seconds he had recovered from his bullet wound and regained his focus. She reached out with her power to all her assembled men and dulled their senses to all pain. She wanted them focused on the task at hand, not worried about the potential harm. After all, she was there to protect them.\n\nThe blaring alarms soon brought forth security. None of Paragon City’s “finest”, but their high-tech weaponry could put a stop to her all the same. She reached into herself, grabbed the pain she had taken from her men, and flung it at her enemies. They collapsed to the ground in agony and her men finished quickly knocked them out. Once they were no longer a threat, she took their pain too. It might prove useful later.\n\nFinally, she reached the control room she had been seeking and let her men lead her in. She was only vaguely aware which systems in the city this room controlled, but that wasn’t her problem. If they wanted their city to run well, they should protect it better. That was the rule the Rogue Isles lived by. Unfortunately, it looked like she was not the only one that felt that way. Sunwraith had apparently just blasted his way through the facility walls to get here. Effective perhaps, but not terribly efficient or smart. She could hear sirens coming through the rather obvious hole. Her fellow villain cackled madly as he looked at her men.\n\n“Well well well, Lady Painstrike,” he said. “Looks like you’re a little late. No worries, you can help me out of here! The heroes should be here soon, but there’s a busy office building next door. Blast a few civvies, disappear in the chaos, and we’re off scot free!”\n\nThe mention of heroes made her lip curl. She hated to miss a chance to repay them, but she was here on a mission. One that didn’t involve things getting messy. She grabbed the well of pain she’d gathered from her men and the security force and threw it at Sunwraith. He cried out in shock and agony, dropping to the ground as her bodyguard rushed forward without needing to be asked. Sunwraith’s flames rippled over the bodyguard’s invulnerable skin, a neat trick that had saved her many times. With a roar Krushev unleashed a massive fist into the villain, throwing him across the room and instantly knocking him out. It would have done much more than that, especially as he hit the wall on the other side of the room, but Violet pulled that pain from him.\n\n“We’ll leave him here for the heroes, that should slow them down,” she told her men. He hadn’t been strong or sane enough to help any other way, Arachnos would appreciate that. “Ditch your gang clothes and spread out. Grab clothes off the lab people if you can and scatter. I’ll contact you when I need you next.”\n\nHer men immediately went to it. She’d earned their trust and they knew she’d take care of them. For her part, she would draw off any heroes that weren’t busy with Sunwraith. She activated her antigravity belt, and leapt out the nearby hole in the wall as fast as she could.", "I saw her dead on the ground and my heart broke. \n\nA life without her wasn’t worth living.\n\nI reached into my robes and drew out a small dark vial.\n\n“Oh Juliet, my love, my light, why has this happened to us?” \n\nWith a dramatic flourish I took a swig and fell to the ground as symbols crashed symbolically in the background.\n\n\nA few seconds later Juliet awoke. “Oh Romeo, my love, why do you sleep?”\n\nShe shook me but I didn’t stir.\n\nRealization slowly crept across her face.\n\nShe screamed and reached to my belt drawing my dagger.\n\nShe drew the dagger high above her head and plunged it deep into her stomach. \n\nThe screams were real this time. This dagger was no prop, and I let a small smirk betray my death.\n\nThe curtains shut rapidly and the lights dimmed to Juliet’s cries. \n\nI quickly drew to my feet and clamped my hand over her mouth. We didn’t want anyone to realize what was actually going on. \n\nTwo ‘stagehands’ rushed into the blackness and assisted me in forcing Juliet through the stage’s trapdoor. We had made sure to soundproof the secret room beforehand. \n\nI dropped down after her and shut the door above me making sure the thick wad of foam on the bottom of the door was secured. It was sure to muffle any screams, cries, or pleas for mercy. \n\nSoon the play’s ‘director’ would give the audience a long speech and I would return to take a bow. Then, we would explain 'Juliet' had to go home sick and everyone would go home happily ever after. Everyone except for maybe Juliet. That was up to her.\n\nI turned on the small light we had installed. \n\n“Ok Marissa, where the fuck is my money?”\n\nMarissa only looked at me with tearful eyes and began to ugly cry even harder.\n\n“Listen to me bitch.” I slapped her across the face and pulled out a second dagger rubbing it across her leg.\n\n“W-what? Who are you?” She managed to choke out.\n\n“You know who I am. Who the fuck else would be collecting his debt?”\n\nHer eyes widened in shock. She had never seen me before in person, but she definitely realized who I was now.\n\n“It looks like you really did a number on yourself, Marissa. Right now, that stab is only a flesh wound and with the proper treatment you’ll forget this ever happened. But- if you just keep bleeding, you might have a problem. So I’ll ask again, where the FUCK is my money?” I was screaming at this point but I didn't feel anger, only pity.\n\nMarissa was clutching her side, still in shock and began to heave. She threw up all over my new shoes.\n\n“M-m-my…my purse is backstage under the orange jacket. I don’t have everything I owe you yet, but just give me a few more days. Please sir. Please…Pl…Ple…”\n\nShe trailed off save for sputtering “Ple” over and over again, almost as if she wanted to keep begging but was too pathetic even for that. \n\nI heard a faint rumbling from above me, the applause was so thunderous it could be heard even from here. That was my cue, and an actor never misses his cue.\n\n“Sorry Marissa, time’s up.” \n\nI cut off her scream as I cut into her neck, then allowed the dagger to clutter to the floor.\n\nLeaving the grisly scene below me, I put one hand over the other and emerged from the trapdoor managing to stand up just as the lights turned on.\n\nEven half of the money Marissa owed me would make sure my family ate well tonight. Young Charles would grow up to be a decent man unlike his father; I’d see to that. Sometimes I hated what I had to do, but an actor always puts on a good show regardless of what he thinks of the producer.\n\nI smiled to the crowd, and with one final flourish I took a bow.\n", "\"Oh no...\" he muttered as he watched the hero arrive to the scene, \"Please, don't hurt me...\" he whispered under his breath as he looked down.\n\nThe hero, a strong man with the ability to control the elements, stood before him, a small child around 10 years old, wearing a simple tee shirt, shorts, hoodie, and sneakers.\n \n\"Why are you doing this?\" the hero asked, taking a step forward.\n\n\"Stay back, please...\" the child warned fearfully and quietly, stepping back, \"I just...\"\n\n\"Just what?\" the hero asked sternly, motioning towards the destroyed forest around him, \"I hear stories of a psychokinetic supervillain, who's known to have killed people and terrorized the town on occasion, obliterating the forest, and its you? A simple child? What reason do you have to do this?\"\n\n\"I... don't know,\" he said, \"My power, it always overwhelms me, and it scares me. I hurt people, and everyone hates me. My own parents don't love me anymore. Now, I can't quit, or I'll have to face the consequences. I want to turn myself in, or just... disappear, but it's just... scary, and I don't want that to happen,\" he says, and the hero looks on in surprise.\n\n\"You're my idol,\" the child goes on, looking up, \"You beat up bad guys to keep everyone safe, and you... you kill them, so they can't hurt people anymore. I've hurt people so much, but... I don't want to die. Please, don't.\"\n\n\"Kid. I have to do this,\" the hero says solemnly, \"I can't let you continue on this path.\"\n\nThe child eyes widen in horror, \"Nonononono please-!\" he steps back shakily, turning to run before the larger man swiftly grabs his wrist.\n\n\"Let go, please! I'll turn myself in, I promise!\" the boy pleads between sobs, pulling on his arm like a younger child at the store.\n\nThe man closes his eyes without a word as a trail of flame swirls around his free hand. Whatever it takes, he thinks.\n\n\"Get away from me!\" the boy yells as the man's grip is forced open and the hero is blasted back in a flash of cyan.\n\nThe hero takes a few moments to get up before staring at the child with a deadly glare. \"Now listen here, brat. My job, my motivation, my existence is based on keeping this town safe, and you're just another obstacle. If you can't stop being a menace to society, I have to put you down like any other scum.\"\n\nThe child winced at every word, shaking in terror at the soon to be fulfilled threat.\n\n\"If you want to continue on with your life,\" he says, \"Then here I am. My job is to take you down no matter what.\"\n\n\"I can't...\" the boy cried.\n\n\"And why not?!\" the hero snapped.\n\n\"You're a human being, I- I can't kill you!\"\n\n\"You're hesitant. That'll be your undoing,\" the hero said as he started making his advance.\n\n\n\n" ]	[ 1, 1, 5, 6, 20 ]	[ "1548117769", "1548123441", "1548122459", "1548117797", "1548122038" ]
	[WP] You and your family are going on a vacation. You, at this point, are the happiest an 8 year old could be. In an instant, accident strikes your family. You are left to an orphanage where you are led to believe a new family will surely adopt you. Instead, you are overlooked by a mouse, Stewart.	13	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A\$Reality+Fiction\$&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A\$Simple+Prompt\$&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/XYsEYfS)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "The Slope\n\nClare had seen the sea for the first time at age 1, as the photograph of a toothless, sandy baby in her dad’s wallet could attest. Although impossible, she could remember its lick on her unassured feet while mom was holding her by the hands and slowly guided her steps in the foam.\n\nThey couldn’t recover the photograph from the car wreckage, but 8 years old Clare had insisted, for hours, that it must have been there, somewhere, that they were all mean and stupid. A few days latter, she regretted her harsh words but the firefighters, the policemen and the medical teams were all gone now. They must think, they must know, how wicked she were…\n\nClare tightly hugged her legs, rested her head on her knees and cried. She cried silently, to not alert the other kids, or perhaps because she was too weak now to cry louder than the squeak of a…\n\n… Mouse. The staff had informed her that her new family was waiting for her in the hall. She had timidly followed Mistress Pecky who landed a professional kiss on her forehead, wished her good luck, and left the little girl alone with a white and brownish mouse.\n\n“Good morning, Clare” said the mouse in a tiny voice, “my name is Stewart.”\n\nShe feared the other kid were playing a cruel joke on her, but then Miss Pesky wouldn’t have taken part of it. She curtsied. \n\n“Good morning Stuart, very nice to meet you.”\n\n“We’re really glad you’re coming with us! Now, now, grab your suitcase and follow me, please. We’ll walk.”\n\nThe pebbles crunched loudly under her feet and she was careful not to rush to quickly so the mouse could keep up. He seemed to notice and nodded gratefully. Clare could feel the glare of the children on the back of her neck on their way to the great gates. But not only the laughters from the kids could pierced the walls, they were madly tapping the windows.\n\n“Disgraceful.” Commented Stewart and as he spoke, all the curtains closed and all the shutters clapped in a thunder. Clare turned around and could hear the laughters divolving in shrieks of terror. For the first time in days, she smiled. By her shoe, Stewart scoffed a chuckle.\n\n“Now, now... We’re going to be late for lunch.”\n\nThey passed the great iron gates as the staff rushed to the Orphanage, pulling the doors and the shutters in vain.\n\nLunch would indeed be greatly appreciated. Clare’s stomach protested and she asked:\n\n“Where do you live?”\n\n“In a cottage. It’s not much but I’d like you to think of it as home. There is a garden, we have flowers all year round, two apple trees, chickens and a three-horned cow.”\n\n“It sounds marvellous.”\n\n“Her name is Colonel Avery Fitzpatrick”.\n\n“ I’d like to ask you something, Stewart.”\n\n“Anything, dear.”\n\nFor a few moments, she hesitated then mustered the courage to whisper:\n\n“Wasn’t it… wicked? What happened to the curtains and the shutters at the Orphanage?”\n\nThe path to the cottage winded uphill through a forest. Against the bright blue sky, Clare could discern the brushstroke of a smoke and the upper mouth of a chimney. \n\n“The thing you call “wicked” said Stewart,” do they happen often?”\n\n“... Sometimes.”\n\n“Did something… “wicked” happen to your parents?”\n\nShe didn’t answer, disguising her confused thought under her heavy panting as the slope grew steeper.\n\n“We were going to the sea. I wanted to go to the sea because I couldn’t remember it well...”\n\n“What did you remember about the sea?”\n\nClare stopped, her hands clasped at her sides as she was getting her breath back. The slope had now hidden the chimney smoke.\n\n“I… I remember it was loud.”\n\nThey resumed climbing the hill. The top seemed to stray from them. Stewart had no difficulties crawling the slope, but Clare had now let her suitcase behind and was climbing. Her hands were bleeding. \n\n“I remembered then”, she sobbed, “… in the car… I remember the taste of the water… a wave surprised Mom… I’m drifting away… I’m afraid…”\n\n“It okay, dear. It’s ok” with his tiny paw, Stewart cleared tears from her face.\n\nShe pushed on her foot and continued her ascension as memories cascaded around her. She was no more than two seconds under water. Dad recalled the incident in the car, swearing comically that this time he would guard his baby girl with the mighty fury of a mother hen. They laughed. Two seconds under water, her toothless mouth open, something bad had slipped inside and waited its moment.\n\n“We laughed and then… there was water up to the roof, salty water in the car! My parents, they… they couldn’t breath!”\n\n“Yes”, concluded sadly Stewart. “Wickedness is on the side of those who mean to hurt other, to sadden you, to create something hideous for us to cover from. You didn’t mean to hurt, Clare. There is nothing wicked about you. And you know why I can be so sure?”\n\n“Why?” muttered Clare, her face in the sand.\n\n“Because we have arrived.”\n\nShe raised her head and her entire face was kissed by the gummy and warm nose of a cow. She had three horns. The cottage was bathed in flowers and sunlight. Behind her, the slope had disappeared and the path to the cottage snaked flat across the moor.\n\n“Nice to meet you, Colonel Avery Fitzpatrick!”\n\n“Welcome home, Clare!” answered the cow." ]	[ 1, 2 ]	[ "1548158155", "1548179623" ]
	[WP] You have a friend that one day dreans of being a time traveller, through 'sending is consciousness back in time'. One day you wake up to loud spontaneous knocking on the door. When you open it, you find your friend in an obvious excitement, repeating the words,"It worked!".	52	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A\$Reality+Fiction\$&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A\$Simple+Prompt\$&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/XYsEYfS)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "\"It worked, It worked\" Cole said, I did it, I sent my consciousnesses back in time.\nHumouring him I said, \"Look how young we are?\". \"Wow\", this is amazing, so when exactly am I?\" He asked, whilst making copious amounts of eye and face contact to the point where i thought that maybe we should kiss. I then slapped myself internally and said. \"Well you're in the here now, they year of our lord 1998, Its December and you missed my birthday yesterday, you dickhead.\n\"Holy Shit, sorry dude but, oh my god!, I have so much to tell you!\nOK, cool, so did you memorize some lotto numbers then? I replied.\n\"Ahhhhh, no, sorry, didn't expect it to work so didn't think too. Cole replied, but he didn't seem disappointed.\n\"Well future boy, How we gonna get rich then? I asked jokingly.\n\"We need to buy bitcoins, lots of them! He yelled, before getting a blank look on his face, then blood started dripping from his nose, his eyes began to get bloodshot and the pain grabbed his face contorting it into a horrific shape as he fell down, dead. :(\n", "\"It worked!\" Sarah's mouth dropped open. \"Jack?\"\n\n\"Sarah! Nice to see you. Come in, mi casa es su casa.\" She still had a look of shock on her face. \"Sarah?\"\n\n\"After all of this time. I... I...\" she gulped, \"I thought you had already moved.\" She buried her face in her hands. \"I'm not ready yet.\"\n\n\"Ready for what? Sarah, what happened?\" I tried to put a hand out to steady her when her flung her arms around me. \"Hey, it's okay.\" I whispered, holding her tight as she sobbed \"You're going to be alright. Hey there, its okay\" I kept holding her for what seemed like forever until she finally pulled back.\n\nSarah sniffled and wiped the tears from her eyes. \"I'm sorry, I was going to be cool and collected. Start off on a good foot. I promised Aaron that I would go see him as soon as I got here, but he's not here yet. And you are.\"\n\nI pulled her inside and sat her on the couch. \"I'm going to make some tea. What flavor do you want?\"\n\nShe gave a blisteringly hot smile. \"I always loved your lavender.\"\n\nI grabbed the tea out of the cupboard, \"With honey?\"\n\nShe let out a strangled gasp. I whirled around to see what had had set it off. There was nothing there. But Sarah refused to meet my eyes. \"Yes, please\" she whispered. I continued to make the tea, slowly stirring the honey into it.\n\nShe accepted her cup of tea and pulled it closer to her chest. I thought I heard her whisper under her breath: \"a little honey for my honey.\"\n\nAfter a couple of sips Sarah seemed to have finally pulled herself together. \"I'm sorry for all this, I really did mean to pull myself together.\" She put her hand up as I was about to speak. \"No, I need to get through this whole thing before I lose my nerve.\" She gently cradled the teacup in her hands. \"I never thought I would see you again, but I thought on what I would say all the time. How I would berate you for leaving me, how I would tell you about everything I missed. Even how I would introduce you to Aaron.\" \n\nI tilted my head in a silent question. \"He helped put me back together,\" she replied. \"After you fell apart. But I never thought I would have to do so to you before I was even your honey.\" She looked up at me through her bloodshot and tearstained eyes and squeezed my hand. \"I'm from the future. One where we married... and you died.\"", "The knocking is aggressive. A bit much really, considering the time.\n\n\"It's two in the morning,\" I say, my eyes still closed. \"Go away.\"\n\n\"Jack! Open the door.\" The voice is shrill, choking with excitement.\n\nOh shit. Rita is on the other side of my paper thin walls, knocking aggressively. Crazy Rita. She probably has something to tell me, some great revelation about existence and our place in the universe. Maybe something about her cat, Jax. That she's decoded his meows and has determined that he has been eating the wrong cat-food this ENTIRE time .\n\nI open the door and am confronted by a disheveled women in ratty pajamas, glasses askew, curly hair matted to her shoulders. \"What do you want, Rita? It's two in the morning for Christ sake,\" I say, frowning.\n\n\"It worked, Jack,\" she says, the words tumbling out like she can't speak fast enough. \"It worked! I did it!\"\n\n\"What is it this time, Rita?\" I say, still frowning.\n\n\"I've traveled back in time! I'm going to be rich! I've unlocked the secrets of physics and the quantum plane and I can bend time to my will!,\" she exclaims, triumphant, her eyes shot through with a manic gleam.\n\nI sigh, then take her hand and walk her back down the hallway to her apartment, where Jax is licking himself in the open doorway. \"That's amazing, Rita,\" I say, guiding her to the couch and sitting her down. \"Truly amazing.\"\n\nI turn on the TV, browsing the channels until I find one where a man walks through a jungle, his gentle voice filled with wonder as the camera zooms in on a bird of paradise. I turn to see Rita sitting there contentedly, Jax now on her lap, softly purring.\n\nWithout a word I walk out of her apartment and close the door behind me.\n\n\"They really need to get rid of day light's savings time,\" I mutter, shaking my head. \"Like clockwork. Every. Fucking. Year.\"" ]	[ 1, 2, 6, 30 ]	[ "1548170015", "1548219392", "1548183672", "1548171877" ]
	[WP] Most rogues will steal anything that isn't nailed down. Not you though. You only steal things that have been nailed down.	122	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A\$Reality+Fiction\$&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A\$Simple+Prompt\$&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/XYsEYfS)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "\"Seriously Cole?!\" The elf hissed at his human compatriot. \"Listen Darrian, this is a premiere dwarven crossbow turret. Do you realize how much gold this is worth?!\" A few paces away from them, the annoying gnome bard that had taken to traveling with them, Don, was tuning his ukulele. \"Cole, we're already stealing that crystal. Do you really want to have to lug both a ballista and statue around?\" Cole thought about it for a few seconds. \"It's not a ballista but fine! We'll just focus on the crystal.\" The rogue put his knife away in its scabbard and started reconnaissance of the next room.\n\nThere was a guard in front of an open chest, which had very shiny contents. Cole dispatched the guard and gave his companions the all clear to advance. As Cole started picking the lock on the next door, Darrian noticed the chest. \"Cole, why didn't you take any of this?\" He said, squatting down to do so. \"You know me, Darrian. I much prefer things that are nailed down. Much more interesting to see an owner's reaction when they notice their ornate, pearl encrusted and gold plated door was stolen than it is to see their reaction when they notice their dragon-scale armor was.\" Don chuckled at Cole. \"Yeah, but you only steal things that are nailed down. Only mindflayers do that.\" Cole finished his work on the door's lock, and slowly opened it. \"Shush, I think we're there.\"\n\nAs the three compatriots entered the room, they immediately saw it. A marble base, with a massive pink crystal on top. \"That's it! The only crystalized Elder Brain in existence!\" Darrian said in awe. \"Okay you two, help me move this thing so we can bring it back to the Sorcerer.\" Cole ordered curtly. \"What about everything else in here? We could make a fortune on the bracelets alone!\" Don said, practically drooling over all the jewelry. \"Don, if you want to lug all of that by yourself, go ahead and take it all. But we are going to focus on getting this gem off this pedestal.\" Cole said, even more curt than before. Darrian piped up before things escalated. \"Cole, I don't think he even reaches half way up the base. Let him take whatever he wants while we get this.\" The human sighed and pulled out his knife. \"Fine, but that means we have to work all the quicker.\" While the gnome worked at nabbing everything that wasn't nailed down, the human and elf worked on doing the opposite. Eventually, they were able to lift the massive thing off the stand. \"Okay, now how do we get out of here?\" Darrian queried. Cole looked at the wall behind the stand and gem. On it was the crest of the house of the current duke of these lands, house Pavus. He noticed the crest was lopsided, almost as if it were covering something. \"Like this.\" Cole said, jamming his knife into the underside of the crystalized brain, sending a psionic blast that took down the wall. \"DAMNIT COLE!\" Darrian shouted, helping him rush the gem outside, with Don (and some guards) right behind them.\n\nEventually, Darrian and Don were able to commandeer a wagon to transport the Brain to their employer, a sorcerer who lived in a cave outside the ruins of the village of Longbridge. \"Ah, excellent! Set it down over there, on that bone table. Excellent!\" He said, sounding almost demented. He handed Don and Darrian some gold, and turned to Cole. \"Are you ready, youngling? You may not survive this with your mind intact.\" Cole, seemingly jumping out of his skin to answer, confirmed he was ready. He turned to his compatriots. \"I have to do this. Just wait outside for me.\" The elf and the gnome exchanged a look of apprehension and then left.\n\nAs the sorcerer used a ritual to temporarily resurrect the Elder Brain, Cole readied himself. As the tentacles dislodged from his nostrils and his jaw, life was breathed into the Elder Brain once again. Cole walked up to it, and probed it with his tentacles, seeking answers to the question that is the existence of a half-mindflayer.", "“What do you mean?” The orc whispered harshly over his shoulder, clearly perturbed at my answer.\n\n“You heard exactly what I said!”\n\nBelrock, the orc standing in the doorway to the room, sighed heavily, dropped his hand down on the shaft of the warhammer that he was carrying, and reached down into the small satchel of items that he had for this exact purpose, then drove one of the many table knives that he carried into the ornate wood of the doorframe, splintering the wood. “Why is that a problem? We’re running low on time here, and I can’t stand here forever, the duke’s going to be making his rounds soon.”\n\nI turned around from the pedestal that had been captivating my attention for the past 30 seconds, and shrugged, flipping the pair of picks that I had used to get into the room over my fingers, trying to put it as bluntly as I could “It’s not nailed down, I can’t take it.”\n\nBelrock tensed up once again, somehow whispering harsher than he had before, “Is this a mental thing? Cause I’m perfectly willing to take this here fork and… You know.. I’ll just take said bracelet myself.”. After driving yet another fork into the doorframe, he stepped forward and reached out to grab the bracelet from its pedestal.\n\nSaid bracelet, as Belrock so bluntly put it, was a prized item owned by the Duke of Hemsworth, and was never referred to as such. Mzrith’s Joy had supposedly had been forged by the great dwarven metalworkers of the Mzrith Mountains hundreds of years ago, and in a fit of rare interracial cooperation, had been blessed by the high elven council. Mzrith’s Joy had been stolen from the elves in a raid by Abbadon the Fearless on his 5th attempt, and the piece of jewelry had been bounced around the underworld for the next couple of decades, when it was picked up by the morally lacking Duke, who saw a piece of power jewelry, then immediately sent it off to stay under lock and key in one of his many safehouses.\n\nFinding the jewelry had taken my team 6 months, Belrock was going to ruin it all if he even breathed on it. Thoughts of spontaneous immolation and hundreds of warnings about magical traps shot through my brain, and I threw my hand out to stop Belrock, hissing a reply at him.\n\nFor his part, Belrock heeded my unspoken warning, settling for glaring intently at Mzrith’s joy instead, no doubt remembering all the warnings I had yelled at him over the past few weeks about the dangers of not touching the enchanted, glowing item of insane magical power right in front of him.\n\nI took a quick glance at the open door behind us, then returned my gaze back to the bracelet, wondering how I could steal an unbound item like that. “It’s not connected to anything… that’s like taking from a church, it sacrilege… the duke obviously doesn’t care for it if Mzrith's Joy isn’t even locked up.”\n\n“What about the locked door that took you 5 minutes to get past? He obviously cares about it if the door took you that long, right?”\n\n“That piece of shit? That’s something I could crack any say of the week, blindfolded!”\n\n“What about the vault that we had to break into to even get the location of this?”\n\n“That was a napkin that we picked up accidentally, in the restaurant of the bank.”\n\nAfter a moment of silence, Belrock’s eyes lit up, and before I could warn against it, he took a length of steel from his satchel of things that he carried around, and pinned the bracelet to the pedestal through one of the holes in its metal surface. I could almost feel my eyes bug out of my head as I scrambled back, all too aware of the repercussions of triggering any of the magic traps that the duke might have had in place. I had barely time to let out a surprised squeak before he was done, and I had hurled myself across the room, almost out of the door.\n\nAfter I noticed that Belrock wasn’t a pile of steaming Orc meat, I made my way to his side, slipping off my gloves to protect them from anything still on the bracelets surface. Belrock grinned at me, then whispered “So… is it pinned now?”\n\nI smiled broadly, then stepped forward to the base of the pedestal, seeing my reflection on it’s burnished gold surface. I reached out and clasped my hands around the metal’s cold surface, then after checking it for normal traps, lifted the bracelet from it's resting place, my voice tinged with excitement.\n\n“Yes… yes it is”", "\"We need to talk.\"\n\nI take a sip. \"Do we?\"\n\n\"Someone proposed to me.\"\n\n\"Ah.\" The drink burns.\n\n\"Is that all you can say?\"\n\n\"I'll say whatever you want me to say, darling.\"\n\n\"Don't call me that anymore.\"\n\nI smile and take another sip.\n\n\"You know,\" she says, \"that it didn't have to be this way.\"\n\n\"Mmm.\" The drink tastes bitter.\n\n\"In fact\" - her eyes lower - \"it still doesn't have to he this way.\"\n\n\"I want you to be happy.\"\n\n\"I want you to be happy, too.\"\n\nI intuitively know I'm supposed to do something. To reach out to her somehow. Reassure her. \n\nBut I don't.\n\nUnderstanding, she draws in a breath and straightens her back. \"You're invited to the wedding,\" she says. \"It's this weekend.\"\n\n\"So soon?\"\n\n\"It's small. We're saving most of the money for the honeymoon.\"\n\n\"Ah.\" Sip. \"Mmm.\"\n\nShe turns and leaves.\n\nThe weekend comes.\n\nLike she says, the wedding is small. Her parents. His parents. A smattering of friends and acquaintances. \n\nThe priest rambles on. \n\nHe says, \"If anyone objects, let them speak now or forever hold their-\"\n\n\"I object.\" I stand and stride up the aisle, squeezing my way in between the two until my back is to him and my face is to her. \n\nI reach into my pocket.\n\nI pull out a box.\n\nA ring box.\n\nI ask, \"Will you marry me?\"\n\nTears in her eyes, she smiles and says yes, throwing her arms around me.\n\nI pick her up and carry her out the venue to my car and we drive off.\n\n\n\n" ]	[ 1, 4, 7, 47 ]	[ "1548174643", "1548181864", "1548176663", "1548174723" ]
	[WP] Everyone has a psychic power that is regulated by the government, but you haven’t manifested. Agents experiment trying to bring out the ability but, decide to execute you instead when this fails. This awakens a latent ability that allows you to possesses the body of your killer when you die.	176	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A\$Reality+Fiction\$&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A\$Simple+Prompt\$&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/XYsEYfS)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "A world where everyone is psychic.. I’m just an average Joe though. I’ve always felt envy about my peers developing their gifts throughout middle school and high school puberty stages from moving pencils with their minds to reading minds. Then there was me, average Joe.\n\n“Hey Joe don’t be so down about your powers man you’ll manifest any day now I bet!”, said Stephen. Stephen had a bad habit of poking around my brain with his psychic power and it was very much uncalled for. I’m the world we live in it’s normal for powers to manifest around age 16. That is the median of psychic puberty it’s sort of like some kids are 6’7 when they are 14, but that’s a bit like a freak of nature. There are middle grounds to this. 18 is considered a late bloomer. Then there’s me, Joe a couple weeks away from my 21st birthday... “Man this is bullshit I’m sick of living without a power, even the kids who can tell what card is on the top of their deck get more girls than I do with that stupid bar trick.”\n\nStephen my roommate had always been a golden child. Reading minds at age 12, he was an unheard of prodigy a Mozart of the psychic world we both fell into. He also was a humbly optimistic pain in the ass. The type to wear bright pink converse with all the confidence in the world.\n\n“Have you heard of that new place down on Main Street the Catalyst laboratory if it really bugs you about not having any powers why don’t you go pay them a visit?”. In a world where not having powers made you an pariah, there was a recently opened up laboratory where they leaked trace amounts of radiation into you in a microwave like machine. “I’m not sure about that man I think I’ll let nature run its course..”.\n\nDrinks all for free , fireball grey goose Hennessy all poured in front of me like candy for a baby. I had gone out to the red light district the most happening place in all of Demus for my 21st. “Yo pour me another one for me and my buddy!”. “Kid you may want to slow down it’s your 21st and unless your psychic power is a tolerance to alcohol you may want to settle up your score.”, said the bartender while effortlessly twirling and swirling his switch cup full of spirits from his right to left hand and behind his back... as if yo taunt Joe.\n\nAt least I thought this was a taunt because I had enough. Reading my mind Stephen tells me “Come on Joe this is bullshit we are going to the Catalyst”, I said “Alright bro whatever you say my guy!”. Off we went and I downed someone’s unattended beer on the way out to keep my nerves.\n\n“Welcome to the Catalyst where we foster all your psychic dreams into realty.” A fancy groomed front seat man in all white said to us. “As you know we are in our clinical trial stage which means you get out service for free today and also here is a shot to sober all the alcohol from your system before you give us consent to treatment.” He administered my buzzkill. I promptly signed the paper. “Let’s do this”, I tell him, “I’ve lived too long without a power”. To which Stephen adds, “That’s about to change though broski!”. More of that infectious optimism I’ve been subject to our entire friendship.”\n\nIn the waiting room with Stephen it seemed like months until finally a nurse comes out and gets us. It’s about 1 am at this point, but luckily this is a 24/7 establishment. “See you on the other side shouts” Stephen as I walk away. I think, “asshole”. \n\n“So what makes you want powers to the extent of an aggressive form of treatment unnaturally like this?” Says the doctor as I step into the machine. “I guess I’m just tired of being Different.” As the machine starts up nothing really happens other than a small amount of pain and nausea. I can see the doc after a few minutes with a look of confusion leaves to get his superior and suddenly the machine kicks into high gear. Melting like a stick of butter left out on a hot day I am in the most excruciating pain I’ve ever been in.\n\nComplete darkness then coming out of the abyss I open my eyes. Why am I in the waiting room staring down at bright pink shoes?", "\"No effect. Requesting instructions.\"\n\nA single bright line of light shined down into Gary's eyes. It did not sway like an old light bulb in a noir film but was stuck there in space, luminescent and as bright as the sun. They'd had it pointed right at his face the entire time. Did they really need to point it right at his face?\n\nHe heard the now familiar buzz of radio chatter.\n\n> Confirm, there has been no activation? None?\n\nGary had no idea what it was they wanted from him. At first, before the beatings had begun, he'd suspected that the government had found out about his torrenting. How trivial that possibility now seemed, now that he was missing the fingernails on his left hand, and fingers on his right. They never asked questions - just administered suffering, waited, and administered suffering once again. \n\nOne of the two voices that were his terrible companions during this ordeal, spoke somewhere in the darkness. The light made it impossible to see either of them, beyond the pale skin of their indifferent hands, reaching in from oblivion to administer and administer again. \n\nThe invisible radio, somewhere out there beyond the light, clicked and buzzed. The voice on the other end must have hesitated because the radio buzzed for a long time. \n\n> Fine. Terminate the subject and report back.\n\nGary had the strangest feeling, just a sneaking suspicion, that he might be the \"subject.\" Terminate left very little to the imagination, at least sitting here, on the other end of an eternity of torment. \n\n\"Copy.\" \n\nGary tried to take a deep breath, forgetting in his weakened state that his ribs, at some point, long ago it seemed, had been broken. He could not even remember how. \n\n\"Let's get this over with,\" said the other voice, a little higher pitched, \"this whole thing is rubbing me the wrong way.\" \n\nThe lower pitched voice chastened the higher pitched one, \"what's wrong, Max, you gonna have trouble sleeping tonight?\" \n\nThe higher pitched voice, called Max, almost yelled back, \"You said my name! What the hell, man, he could be listening.\"\n\n\"Did you just hear the commander? We're about to kill him, Max. Maxwell Panner, from Brockville Illinois.\"\n\n\"Shut up.\"\n\n\"Why don't you give him your social - what the hell difference does it make?\"\n\n\"Just do it, you asshole.\" \n\n\"You do it.\"\n\n\"I'm not getting another drop of blood on my hands,\" the higher pitched voice said, and it seemed to Gary that he could hear footsteps and then the opening and closing of a door. A moment of silence passed and then there was only the Gary, the low-pitched voice, the light, and the darkness. \n\n\"My buddy there is afraid of you, I think,\" the low pitched voice said, taking a couple of slow steps, \"thinks your bad voodoo or something, cause you ain't got power.\" \n\nIn the back of Gary's mind, he tried to formulate a response, but when he attempted to move the broken bones of his jaw he was answered only by blinding pain.\n\nThe low pitched voice continued, \"me, on the other hand - I ain't afraid of no freak - and I ain't afraid to kill no freak.\"\n\nA click-clack of metal on metal echoed in the shadows, beyond the light, and Gary thought it sounded like a sound cue from one of the video games he used to enjoy playing, back when he was just a college drop out torrenting B-movies and smoking weed like there was no tomorrow. Before he was a broken half-corpse on a gurney suspended in the dark.\n\nIt sounded like a gun.\n\n\"The pleasure has been all mine,\" the low pitched voice said, and for just the briefest of moments, the single bright light had a small, explosive companion beside it.\n\nGary was pitched into darkness.\n\n******\n\nGary awoke on a cold floor. His head ached terribly and he found it difficult to coordinate the movement of his arms and legs. Everything seemed out of whack somehow. He assumed that was because he had been beaten so severely, and yet, nothing seemed to hurt aside from his brain. There was no pain in his extremities, it was just that nothing worked right. \n\nHe struggled for a while to get his legs underneath him, pushing up with jerky motions of his arms and hands. As he struggled to get his palm flat against the floor, he brushed up against something cold and metallic. Bright light above shone down in part on the floor and Gary saw that the object looked like a pistol. \n\nAfter another half minute of struggle, Gary managed to get to his feet, gripping the silvery metal legs of a table or bed, pulling himself up to standing. When he was finally up, the single very bright light was shining almost directly in his eyes, and instinct shot his arm out and moved it away. It swung on a metal arm, attached to the ceiling, and came to a stop, projecting a bright circle forebodingly on a far wall. \n\nGary shook his head to get the cobwebs out and tried to assess the room. It was dark, but for the distant, focused beam of light and his eyes were having trouble adjusting. \n\nHe reached out in front of him, looking for something to lean on. One hand found a hard cot, the other what felt like a still warm leg or arm, wet with hot liquid. Gary turned and looked into the darkness, and as his eyes focused, he saw a body there, obscured by shadow. Butterflies fluttered in a growing frenzy in Gary's guts as he reached up for the metal arm of the light, and spun it around slowly, the beam crawling across the darkened tiled walls, further and closer, until at last it found the target of Gary's macabre, improbable investigation —\n\nGary screamed at the sight of his own mutilated corpse, falling backward and shuffling up against the far wall. He screamed again when he heard the low-pitched resonance of his voice - not his* voice and yet the voice that was coming out of his throat.\n\n\"What the hell is happening?\" Gary yelled into the darkness.\n\nAnother figure raced in through the doors, spilling light into the room. He was holding a pistol in two hands and he scanned the darkness briefly, averting his gaze at the sight of Gary's corpse and then turning toward Gary huddled against the wall on the floor. \n\n\"What the hell are you doing, Larry?\" The higher pitched voice called Max put his gun away and reached for a light switch on the wall. He flicked it and the room filled with halogen glare. \n\nGary saw Max's face for the first time. Balding and brown-eyed, with a hawkish nose and defined wear lines on the edge of his mouth and eyes. He wore a dark black, well-fitted suit with a white shirt and black tie. As he looked down toward Gary, Max crossed his arms and shook his head, laughing meanly. \n\n\"Well look at you, Mr. bigshot murderer. Scared, Larry? You look upset. You feeling OK, Larry.\"\n\nGary fumbled for any words at all. He saw the gun beneath the gurney his own corpse rested on and considered leaping for it. But he could still hardly make his arms and legs move.\n\nMax had no patience. \"Eh, the hell with you Larry. Make me feel like an asshole.\" Max went over toward the gurney, pulling a sheet up over Gary's body first, and then bending down to get the pistol. Shaking his head, he dropped it in Gary's lap and made for the door. \"Take a second, you dickhead, and then meet me outside.\" He looked back toward Gary's covered body one more time, \"hell of debrief this is gonna be. I got my daughter's confirmation tomorrow for Christ's sake, and they got me doing this tonight.\" He turned to leave, \"I don't get paid half enough for this.\"\n\nGary sat there in the silence of the room as the door slammed shut. He caught a glimpse of his large, pale hands. They were covered in blood. His blood. Then he wept in utter confusion.", "Creeps and weirdos. Only the forlorn and the destitute occupy this row of cells, the smell of human waste so thick it's almost visible, tendrils of piss and shit and vomit wafting through the bars and collecting beneath the low ceiling, in this place where no-one cares.\n\nI've been here some time now, just another weirdo consigned to death, unable to demonstrate my uniqueness. There is no place for us in this noble and great society, where individuals are classified according to the power they manifest.\n\nNot us down here. Not Jack, a few feet to my right, who ran from the law for decades - his only goal in life to be a father - but who was caught nonetheless and now awaits his fate like the rest of us, long past caring.\n\nThe cell doors open and a bright beam of light sweeps the dark recesses of the cell, the wardens holding scented cloth to their mouths, gagging from the stench.\n\n\"You,\" the man holding the flashlight says, pointing at Jack. \"And you,\" he says, the beam of light resting squarely on my chest. \"It's time.\"\n\nJack crumples into a little ball, his frail frame folding in on itself. I lean towards him. \"It's okay, Jack,\" I whisper, my hand resting on the tattered remnants of his shirt. \"It's all over soon,\" I say, extending my hand towards him. He takes it with a whimper, and the two of us, creeps and weirdos both, walk out of the cell towards death, smiling for the first time in months.\n\nThe room is a drab grey, an elevated slab of concrete in the middle of the room the only thing of note. The raised dais on which we will exit this cruel, shit-strewn world. Fitting.\n\nRough hands push me to the side and hold me against the wall. \"Your friend dies first,\" a man whispers, his voice dripping with glee. A Thought-Raider maybe, or a Mind-Flayer. It is hard to know the power each person contains, but these types usually go into law enforcement, where they can get off on the pain of others. The ones in this room will feed off of Jack's terror as he dies.\n\n\"Be brave, Jack,\" I say, earning myself a sharp thud, my mouth filling with a metallic taste. I turn to the side and spit out a jagged, broken tooth, hoping that Jack has the strength to deny the guards their twisted pleasure. No-one cares about the weirdos and the creeps. This is where we go to die. \n\nI watch as Jack is pressed to the cold hard slab. As one by one his limbs are broken. They want me to feed off of his pain, to soak in the fear and his screams - for he is screaming now - shrill and piercing and loud, echoing through the doorway and down the hallway lined with cells, the other prisoners hunched over and trying to ignore, to forget, to expand their minds into places where the blue sky shines.\n\nThey toss Jack's limp body to the side, his mouth open, shit and piss and blood pooling around the concrete dais. The guard's eyes roll back into their heads and their bodies shiver. Jack's death was deeply pleasurable. His screams exquisite. His last gasps evoking powerful waves of sensation.\n\n\"Your turn,\" the guard who hit me says, his eyes glossed over, his expression contorted in a macabre grimace, desperate for more. \"You'll die just as well as him.\"\n\nBones crush and spine splinters and mind melts but I do not scream. Warm blood on a cold surface. Pain from the outside in and the inside out, fiery tendrils like my nerves are dipped in a white hot furnace, pressed and held against it. Like the roots of my teeth are exposed to an ice pick which chips away, tooth by tooth. I see the hammer come down and then I'm standing above my emaciated corpse, hammer in hand.\n\nI don't think. I swing left and then right and the two other guards crumple to the floor. I smash the hammer down into the one guards head, the one who hit me. I swing again and again. I smash until I'm covered in blood and his brain is pulp, oozing to mix with the other human excrement on the floor.\n\nI sob quietly, cradling Jack in my arms. After a time I set my shoulders and stand, leaving Jack's body where it lies.\n\nI know what I am now. I will always be a weirdo and a creep, and I will bring this world down around me." ]	[ 1, 9, 11, 40 ]	[ "1548185441", "1548188473", "1548187598", "1548185570" ]
	[WP] They thought you were the chosen one, the only one who can save the world, but you don't believe in stupid cliches. You should have listened...	1	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A\$Reality+Fiction\$&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A\$Simple+Prompt\$&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/XYsEYfS)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "The world ended not with a bang, but with a whimper.\n\nThere really wasn't much to be done about it. Everyone had seen it coming and they'd prepared as best they could. They'd built contingencies upon contingencies, come up with fallbacks, built deep-ground vaults, and generally tried as many desperate gambits that the brightest minds on Earth could conjure. The problem, they found, was that they weren't you.\n\nIn the end, Earth was lost. Humanity took to the stars for one last grasp at survival. A final roll of those cosmic dice to determine our fate.\n\nYou saved us, then. Weighted those dice so they landed in our favour. You'd watched the world crumble, sat in dusty rooms as the power ran out, wells ran dry and the Earth shook itself into ruin. Your head was so crammed full of denial, of self-loathing and self-pity, that right up until the very end you insisted that they'd been wrong when they told you our fate rested upon your shoulders. \n\nAnd we hated you for it.\n\n...\n\nIt wasn't really fair of us, was it? To put the world on your shoulders like that.\n\nIn the end, when there were but a few of us left, being shuttled back and forth up out of the well and into the living cities that orbited our dying planet, you came back to us. Told us that you'd made a mistake, and that you knew it was too late, but you wanted to see what you could do about it.\n\nI remember that day so clearly.\n\nThe seldom-seen gap of blue in the cloud cover. The smell of the unwashed refugees of Earth huddled under lean-to's, putting all their weight against the rough-shod metal to prevent the wind from whipping it flat and crushing those that sheltered beneath it. The feel of the Earth rattling our bones more and more frequently. The death throes of an entire world. Death was in the air, and hope was soon running out. One final shuttle landing, and then Earth was to be abandoned for good.\n\nI remember fighting tooth and nail against you. What gave you the right to march up out of nowhere, and ask for a ride? How could you ask to be saved when you'd so thoroughly doomed us all? It was a good thing that the decision was not mine to make that day, because I'd have left you with all the other unfortunate souls. But Grayson... he'd seen something new in your eyes that I hadn't.\n\nAs the shuttle landed, and the last few hand-picked survivors marched their way on board, rags replaced with pressure suits and survival supplies, I could see Grayson in the distance still. He stood apart from the other witnesses in their shelter and there was no mistaking him. His posture spoke of the intensity with which he'd lived his life and managed his command. It spoke of the same surety in his decision that he had with all of them.\n\nI looked to the back of the line, and in his suit stood you. I hated you then, more than I'd hated anything. But I loved him. So I let you board even though I couldn't meet your eyes when you tried to catch mine.\n\nWith everyone safely locked in, I climbed through the shuttle and into the co-pilot seat, ready to burn hard away from home for the last time. In the commanders chair, instead of the man I'd trained and grown with, you sat and gave the command to take off as if you'd be born to lead. Hard eyes behind a hard visor.\n\nOf course once we'd rendezvoused with the rest of the fleet just outside of Jupiter, people were pissed. Grayson hadn't told anyone of his decision - there hadn't been time to, and communications between the fleet and Earth were shoddy at the best of times. So instead of one of the most brilliant leaders humankind had ever produced for what was to be the hardest journey we'd ever made, we had you.\n\nYou had your detractors immediately. People calling for you to be thrown out of an airlock, unknowingly arguing for their own slow deaths. But in the slow journey to rejoin the rest of humanity, you developed your supporters among our shuttle. Me chief among them. I still hated you, for your denial of your birth and the opportunity it bore us, for you being the reason my love had to die, but Grayson's last decision had to mean something, I had to make it mean something. So I championed you instead. Once we arrived, I got you an audience with the final leaders of humanity.\n\nAnd you had a plan.\n\nIt was a stupid plan, but it was a plan. \n\nThe Others that had contacted us, that had warned us that the technology we had developed was inherently unstable, that had warned us of our lemming-like destruction of our home, had left a little clue in their messages. A clue so alien that a human brain couldn't have deciphered it. But, your brain wasn't all human, was it? The last of your line, introduced here thousands of years ago. A contact in case things went really awry for us.\n\nCo-ordinates in the deep of space. \n\nThe only issue, of course, was that this was a one-way journey. And you wanted us to go the \\_wrong\\_ way. I've never seen such anger as I had in the war room that day as you tried to convince everyone to abandon the plan we'd spent a decade making and preparing for. You asked us to trust you. Trust the person we'd been told could save us and instead had let us fall to the brink of extinction. It wasn't a battle we'd win. But you fought it nonetheless, and you gained yourself just enough sway to do what you needed.\n\nWhen the splinter fleet broke off I thought there'd be a final war to kill us all. We had just committed a betrayal so intense it was a miracle they didn't just nuke us without blinking. Instead they let us go, a small handful of ships that would barely be able to survive the journey we had plotted in. But those of us that had remained, we had faith. Some of us, anyway.\n\nIt was a long, perilous journey through the dark of space. Through it all you maintained our hope. Our hope of finding The Others who'd given us that final life-line.\n\nWhen we finally came upon that space station, to join a galactic community of species, the introductions happened through you. Only you were capable of it, and you knew that. You shepherded us into a new beginning for our species, a chance to start afresh and to operate on a scale we never had before. To interact with other intelligent beings and show ourselves capable of a co-operation we didn't know we were capable of. It's often said through the channels that we're a pessimistic species. But you knew better, eh?\n\nI'm going to miss you, friend. Now that you're gone. Who's going to be our champion?\n\nReally, I don't blame you anymore. It must have been hard to come to terms with what you were. With the power you'd been gifted in your genes. Your brain, the only brain, that could have solved many of the problems we were facing. I'd have denied it too. I remember, in those rare moments we got alone, how often you'd say \"Why me?\"\n\nWho else could it have been? I can't imagine it being anyone but you.\n\nYour journey among us has come to an end now. Today, you start your final voyage among the stars. And we thank you for giving us one final opportunity to outgrow ourselves. I thank you. For saving all of us. For saving me.\n\nI have to go now, your final audience awaits us.\n\nI'll see you soon." ]	[ 1, 3 ]	[ "1548237697", "1548246353" ]
[removed]	[WP] A man wakes up to find his favourite pornstars swarming over him, massaging, kissing, and gently biting his body. This continues every morning for some time until one morning he looks down and notices half his penis has been chewed off. Looking around, he sees other chunks missing all over.	2	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A\$Reality+Fiction\$&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A\$Simple+Prompt\$&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/XYsEYfS)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "Hi u/butwhydoesreddit, this submission has been removed.\n\n[No explicitly sexual responses, hate speech, or other harmful content](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_2.3A_no_explicitly_sexual_responses.2C_hate_speech.2C_or_other_harmful_content)\n\n- Sexually explicit themes are not allowed. \n\n Prompts will be removed if there's a high possibility for rule breaking responses ([rule 7](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_7.3A_prompts_will_be_removed_if_there.27s_a_high_possibility_for_rule_breaking_responses))\n\n\n\n---\n\n[Modmail](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=%2Fr%2FWritingPrompts&subject=Removed%20post&message=https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/comments/aiynfj/-/%0A%0A) us if you have any questions or concerns. In the future, please refer to the [sidebar](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/about/sidebar) before posting. \n\nThis action was not automated and this moderator is human. Time to go do human things.", "Hi u/butwhydoesreddit, this submission has been removed.\n\n[No explicitly sexual responses, hate speech, or other harmful content](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_2.3A_no_explicitly_sexual_responses.2C_hate_speech.2C_or_other_harmful_content)\n\n- Sexually explicit themes are not allowed. \n\n Prompts will be removed if there's a high possibility for rule breaking responses ([rule 7](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_7.3A_prompts_will_be_removed_if_there.27s_a_high_possibility_for_rule_breaking_responses))\n\n\n\n---\n\n[Modmail](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=%2Fr%2FWritingPrompts&subject=Removed%20post&message=https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/comments/aiynfj/-/%0A%0A) us if you have any questions or concerns. In the future, please refer to the [sidebar](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/about/sidebar) before posting. \n\nThis action was not automated and this moderator is human. Time to go do human things." ]	[ 1, 1, 2 ]	[ "1548241694", "1548243099", "1548243125" ]
[removed]	[WP] When you were young, you reached into the future and sacrificed your 10 year old first born to save your own life. Now you're a parent.	2	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A\$Reality+Fiction\$&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A\$Simple+Prompt\$&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/XYsEYfS)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "Hi u/salmontail, this submission has been removed.\n\n[No explicitly sexual responses, hate speech, or other harmful content](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_2.3A_no_explicitly_sexual_responses.2C_hate_speech.2C_or_other_harmful_content)\n\n- The mods reserve the right to remove anything we feel is harmful to the community. This includes, but is not limited to any forms of hate speech, racism, politics, necrophilia, pedophilia, bestiality, incest, torture, rape, violence against children, and suicide. We will not tolerate it. \n\n Prompts will be removed if there's a high possibility for rule breaking responses ([rule 7](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_7.3A_prompts_will_be_removed_if_there.27s_a_high_possibility_for_rule_breaking_responses))\n\n\n\n---\n\n[Modmail](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=%2Fr%2FWritingPrompts&subject=Removed%20post&message=https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/comments/aj3dsf/-/%0A%0A) us if you have any questions or concerns. In the future, please refer to the [sidebar](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/about/sidebar) before posting. \n\nThis action was not automated and this moderator is human. Time to go do human things." ]	[ 1, 1 ]	[ "1548271479", "1548271910" ]
	[WP] Thirty years after the apocalypse, a book is discovered. It tells the people of old gods, the strongest, the smartest, the tallest. Places of splendor and objects renowned for rarity. They immediately created a religion, following the Gods shown by the Guinness Book of World Records.	17,741	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A\$Reality+Fiction\$&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A\$Simple+Prompt\$&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/XYsEYfS)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "\"Lettuce Jim prays Tim Book of Holy Harp\" cried Longest Beard, addressing the congregation; \"Chronicles of Tallest, Smallest, Nails Longest and Tim Strongest!\" \n\n\"Prays.\" Answered the congregation.\n\n\"Annuals of Tim Fastest, Tim First, and Tim what been on Tims moon\";\n\n\"Prays.\"\n\n\"Lettuce jim tanks tim Insane Bolt, fastest tim run 100 Ems. Ancient Measurement of Timlympics.\"\n\n\"Tanks\"\n\n\"Lettuce jim tanks tim Felix and tim Roger, tim arm strong and tim Furman, For who tim greatest if not tim Fur man. Seeker of tim many Records.\"\n\n\"Jim tanks!\" answered Longest Beards flock; \"Tim Fur man!\"\n\n\"We jimmum tim Sacrifices in tim honor, in tim memory and tim name. Woah, tim Children of tim Red Bull, Heathers! Wingless Liars! Guinness saves but does not travel well! \\Ptoo\\\" Longest Beard spat on the 3 sacrifices. They were tied up and bound together. Heads bowed low, they were frightened.\n\n\"Travel well!\" Cried the congregation. \"\\Ptoo, Ptoo, Ptoo\"\n\n\"Record!\", yelled Longest Beard \"For this tim is biggest sacrifice tims memory. Record! Tim biggest sacrifice ever.\" The congregation cheered, they tossed their hoods into the air above their heads and danced the dosey-doe among themselves. The sacrifices shuddered.\n\n\"Orden! Orden!\" cried Longest Beard \"Now is tim winter of tims discontentment.\"\n\nThe congregation blinked.\n\n\"Strongest Arm step forren.\" Longest Beard beckoned forth one of his congregation. The burly mutant Strongest Arm. The Rads had given him great strength but only in his right side, his left was withered and malnourished.\n\nHis left arm hung weekly by his side, while his right, bulging and muscular, tipped him over to one side. He was still very strong however. He could chop Lampposts down with one hand and he once through a stone across the great Black river to the other side. \n\n\"Aye Longest Beard,\" Strongest Arm grinned a toothy grin, whenever he did so his ears would flap out. Strongest Arm was very ugly even by mutant standards.\n\n\"You may have tim honour of tim sacrifice. May tim blessing of tim Holy Harp keep you in record.\" Longest beard then made the symbol of the harp across Strongest Arm and took a step back towards the congregation.\n\nStrongest Arm paused and examined the sacrifices. They cowered before him. One of them was crying and had pee'd all over his robes. One said nothing, merely eye balling the balding mutant and Longest Beard.\n\nStrongest Arm grabbed the crying one in his big oversized hand and raised him into the air by his head. He giggled stupidly as he crushed the mans skull in his hand. The congregation cheered. Longest Beard, raised his hands in exaltation.\n\nThe body fell to the floor, still writhing. Strongest Arm wiped his hand on his robes and took a step towards the next sacrifice.\n\n\"STOP TIM SACRIFICE\" There were sounds of surprise in the crowd as one from the back kicked and pushed his way to the front. \n\n\"What is tims meaning of this?\" cried Longest Beard.\n\nThe one who had stepped forward was Fastest Feet, a young whipper snapper, he had always protested the need for sacrifices. He was always the fastest runner in the tribe. On sports days he would always win the egg and spoon race. \n\n\"Stop.. tim.. sacrifice..\" Fastest Feet stammered, out of breath.\n\n\"Yes we heard that,\" Said Longest Beard,\"We want to know why.\"\n\n\"I found it Longest Beard Old Father, I found it I did,\"\n\n\"You found what?\" \n\n\"The map Old Father, the map to the Guinness Factuary.\"\n\n\"You found the.. Map?!\" Longest Beard quite rightly amazed nearly pulled his beard off in surprise. He had spent his whole life looking for knowledge about the Factuary of legend. The place where all Guinness records began. \"Holy Harp! Show it to me boy, show it to me now.\"\n\nFastest Feet reached into the front pouch of his robe. He pulled out the map, it was an old Dublin City Bus Tours map from the before the Bombs. It had been preserved in the memory box of a family in Cork. Where it remained undisturbed for almost a hundred years until it was discovered by Fastest Feet as he was scavenging the rubbles of yesteryear. \n\nLongest Beard snatched it from the boys hand. Excited he hurried over to the light of the nearby torches and examined the map. \"Yes.. This is really real. Tims map. Tims map to tims factuary. Tims source.\" His eyes gleamed in the dull light of the cave.\n\n\"Very well. We tanks you Fastest Feet. You have Shirley done us a great service.\" Said Longest Beard raising the map above his head and addressing the congregation. \"This is tim map of tim holy harp, tim map of tim myth and legend. Now we can proven once and for all to tim Children of tim Red Bull, that tim Guinness is tim one true Fact Recorden.\"\n\nThere were oohs and aahs from the congregation. The sacrifices looked on. One of them, eye balling one from earlier stood up.\n\n\"Ye Blasphemers, Ye can ne'er proven nothing. The Bull knows all truth. Ye are but charlatans and additives. Takers away from the truth of our cans.\"\n\n\"-Strongest Arm will you?\" Nodded Longest Beard, Stongest Arm stepped forward and grabbed the Blasphemer by the head raising him into the air. He screamed.\n\n\"No..!\" protested Fastest Feet,\" Perhaps they can be saved!\"\n\n\"What?\" cried Longest Beard, incredulous,\" Impossible, no child has ever renounced their phoney Red Bull. Not even when submitted to all tim facts contained in the Books of Records. They still yet deny tim harp.\"\n\n\"But if they see that tim Factuary is real. Once they see how all of these were made.\" Fastest Feet addressed the alter at the back of the cave. Arranged in order of year issued were twenty three unique copies of the Guinness Book of World records. The earliest dating back to 1977. \"They will have to believe. I propose we take these two with us to far off Dub Lin to tim Factuary. Where they will seen proof of tim Holy Harps. Then they will have to believe.\" \n\nLongest Beard thought about that for a while. \"Very well, what say you blasphemer? If we bring you and your kind to tim great factuary will you heed our righteousness and support tim holy harp?\" \n\nStill held up by Strongest Arm in the air the Blasphemer kicked and punched the air around him. \n\n\"Never, I will never convert, you heathens will but in hell for your blasphemy whilst my people will sprout wings and fly-ighs-ahh-ahh!\" He never got to finish his curse, one of his flailing kicks landed on Strongest Arms nose. That was the end of him.\n\n\"You see Fastest Feet, these people will never convert. They are too deluded. Come Strongest Arm, finish of tim last sacrifice that we may prepare tims great journey.\"\n\n\"Sacrific-\"\n\n\"Nooo!\" Cried the last sacrifice; \"I will come, I will see your factuary. If it does indeed convince me then i will Shirley convert.\"\n\nLongest Beards eyes gleamed in the dark. He grinned, \"Very well.. but first a sacrifice.\"\n\n&#x200B;\n\n&#x200B;", "High in the timber-shrouded hights of the Guinness Crags a light snow fell. A crescent moon shone through the clouds like the Great Lightstick of old. All was silent; all was dark; all was deathly cold.\n\nIn a quaint stick hut nestled in a dell upon the mountain-side song and laughter hid from the cold in the light of a crackling fire. Many people danced and made merry in a circle around the old shaman Arthur as he spoke in an alien tongue.\n\nAt length the man of the book held up his hands. \"Stop!\" he cried. \"The consecration of the altar is complete. Let us begin.\"\n\nWith that they went to the table and began their work. Its surface was smooth and dark; many twisting wires wound like snakes from a protrusion on its back. Red, green, and yellow, they seemed color-coded for some forgotten purpose. Sparks still danced upon them during snowstorms.\n\nUpon the table's top they laid sheets of prepared wood-pulp. With sharp stone knives they cut, with sure hands they folded; a slice here, a crease here. With strings of animal gut they tethered the sheets together.\n\nThe storm outside grew louder, the winds harsher. Grim thunder sounded forth from the sky. The sparks danced along the wires of the table. Many of the coven were struck down by the wrath of the angry Gods. A hard glint appeared in Arthur's eyes, and he began to chant again. Of fire and water he sang, of earth and wind he told. He spoke of sorrow, and joy, and days passed away.\n\nThe shaman reached the end of his song. \"Step back!\" he cried. When the table was clear, he gently lifted the frail dart shape with both hands. He looked at the Book of Guinness upon the mantelpiece and gestured. \"There it is, my friends,\" he told his followers. \"The greatest 'paper airplane' that ever the Gods made.\"\n\nConstructive criticism much appreciated!", "Maj would never shut up. Not when we were children play-fighting with moss covered sticks in the woods. Not when our parents would sit down for dinner and ask about my day. Not in the classroom when I was the one called on by Teacher Latke. He would always jump in with a glistening smile and a resounding speech. My presence vanished at the first crack of that smile. I was never to speak while he was always to be heard; he liked it that way. Today was no different.\n\nA book of the ugliest sort was perched on an altar at the center of the Great Hall. Dilapidated pews were packed together; each of them facing the gaudy purple brick, and the decorated man standing beside it. I meandered through the crowd and took a seat. I glanced at those around me. I wanted to find doubt: a skeptical smirk, a condescending scoff, even a nervous jumping knee. Anything that would show me that these people weren't really buying it. Yet the truth was unavoidable. Their eyes were transfixed; their heads swayed to and fro in a struggle for a clear view of the altar. Next to the glistening purple brick, stood my brother. The look on his face told me that he wasn't present in this giant dusty room like the rest of us. He was raised high above the rafters. A swarm of eyes stuck to him and sent him higher with every passing second. Everything he had always wanted, companionship, attention, and praise had coalesced in this Great hall every Tuesday night for the last 6 years. Maj, like most of his followers, transcended, and even ignored, reality when he was among the pews.\n\nYet for Maj, the greatest part of it all was that I had become his foil. For all the praise, attention and reverence he absorbed I was met with coldness, disgust and banishment. I dared to blaspheme the \\great\\* prophet. The people would whisper that his mighty holiness was cursed with a jealous brother. I, the unholy brother, was lacking. Lacking in faith, reason, and divine connection and that was why I lied. They did not know that I saw him dig up the book. I knew that the golden wrinkled hand of Kane Tanaka, the oldest person alive, did not reach down from the sky to pass him the holy pages. I knew that the worlds tallest man did not pluck stars from the night and grind them in his palm so he could sprinkle their dust on the purple book cover. It was all nonsense. There was no massive man, no stardust, no golden wrinkled skin. I know the truth and it has made me an outcast.\n\nToday my brother will preach about the will of the eldest man. He will preach of the secrets of the worlds strongest, tallest, smartest, and smallest. Their stories will fill the air like the dust. Then, at the height of his sermon, when the hall is silent and anticipation boils, the closing words will dance across his lips and his entranced victims will obey without thought.\n\n\"Donate to the Church of Guinness, my friends, and the elder may grant you a place in the next Holy book.\"", "Years... No, it took decades of real preparation. They say that to honor your god is to make the ultimate thing. Once you manage to do that thing, they will bless you. There were many gods. Many.\n\nBut none of them mattered to John. For John, there was only one true god. And just thinking of rewards made him giggle, and try even harder.\n\nThey all told him it's impossible; that it was stupid and insane. Even his wife finally abandoned him.\n\nBut that was okay. After all, he didn't. He stayed with him.\n\nAt first, he took out his phone to record it. But there came the point when he lived his life with GoPro basically clued to his forehead. He needed the proof. \n\nJustin Case - that's the man who collected the proof to finally respond with blessing. He was the one who held the original book. And until he gets that proof, he will try hard.\n\nAnd that day came.\n\n\"Come here, Palmerranian!\" John said, looking at his dog, Pomeranian \"We are gonna do more than that Pea did. More than the true god's dog. You know what, Palmerranian? What's god backward? Dog! Exactly. Nobody else can see! But together, we will do it!\"\n\nHe took out the glass and filled it with water. The dog stayed still, watching him, ready. His tale was as excitedly swirling as ever. But for once he really looked ready.\n\nJohn put the glass water on Palmerranian's head, making him take fifteen steps backward and then forward. And he did it.\n\nFor once, he did it.\n\nTears began to gather. He fell on his knees, just to hear the glass shatter and the dog running towards his master.\n\n\"I did it,\" he muttered. \"I will get the blessings of our god!\"\n\nBut the dog groaned and stopped, falling down.\n\n\"Palm?\" John muttered, looking at the dog, running to him. He was bleeding. The dropped glass's shard had cut him.\n\nImmediately he grabbed the dog, rushing towards the room's exit.\n\n\"Anything but my dog!\" John shouted, screamed. But he could feel it. The dog was licking his face, barking a few times.\n\nHe stopped and put him down, just to see the dog sitting and looking at him, waiting for that glass of water on his head. The usual pose, ready to please the master.\n\n\"You... You did this just because you want to make me happy? Even when you bleed?\" John muttered, falling on his knees the second time and ripping off his GoPro, looking at it, wanting to throw it away. But he couldn't.\n\n\"At least we are getting a lot of views on youtube,\" John said, kissing the dog.\n\n(/r/Elven <- I write psychological fiction. Cheers <3! Love your doggos! Like I love Palmerranian!)", "“What is wrong, my child?”\n\nSilence.\n\n“You know the words spoken at Confession will never leave this room.”\n\n“It…it hurts, High Priest.”\n\n“What hurts?”\n\n“This doubt.”\n\n“What do you doubt, child?”\n\n“I doubt…everything. It is as if all the truths I once believed in were merely a house of cards, and now a breeze has come and blown the house down.”\n\n“And what is this breeze?”\n\n“The gods…I once saw only strength, bravery, boldness without any fear. Now I only see the strain in their muscles, the doubt in their eyes.”\n\n“My child…are you suggesting?”\n\n“A trial,” the boy said quietly.\n\n“My child, you must know what this means. The consequences…”\n\n“I am ready to accept them, father.”\n\n\\-\n\nSo for weeks the boy practiced, out in the ponds in the Forbidden Valley he snuck out to in the mornings before lessons. Every time he entered the water, he would curse himself, almost hoping that it would not be true.\n\nBut then in the water, he found peace. Found the only peace, perhaps, that he had ever known. It was as if he could perfectly feel the air in his lungs, the oxygen, coursing through him, clean and vital, and hear all the quiet machinery of his body, his heartbeat, his veins, the sway of his limbs.\n\nAnd then eventually, the oxygen would be gone, and he would resurface. And he would close his eyes before looking at the numbers, only to see and know with growing conviction that all he had been told before was a lie.\n\n\\-\n\nThe last person he looked to was his mother. She smiled bravely while his father could not even look at him, but the boy could see the fear, the sadness in her eyes. He would enter the water, and then come out as an exile, an outcast, or…something else entirely.\n\nAnd then it was time. He squeezed her hand, trying to let her know he was still her son. As he was lowered into the water, he saw her turn away, her hands over her eyes.\n\nThe water. Quiet and peace from all the chatter and murmurs above him. He tried to still his nerves, his wildly beating heart, the tremors and tingles that kept flaring up in his fingers. He tried to count, but somewhere along the way he was going too fast or too slow, and he gave up.\n\nBut still, he held on, determined to…he didn’t know what drove him so, but he closed his eyes and stood still in the water tank until his lungs felt like bursting, felt like fire and pain and…\n\nHe rose, and the crowd was silent. As he climbed out of the water onto the platform, he knew something was wrong.\n\nAnd then they all knelt, one by one. His mother first, then the elders, then…everyone. His father. His childhood friends. Eventually, the High Priest.\n\n“Oh, Great Guinness, thank you for gracing us with the presence of a new God, the Champion of Holding Air…”\n\nHe heard the people he had known all his life, loved and hated and envied and walked past without a second thought, pray to him, lauding his greatness, his elevation above their existence, and a new belief came to him. The lie beneath the truth, the fact that the Gods were nothing but mortal humans, like everyone, and that his life would never be the same.\n\n\\_\\_\\_\\_\\_\\_\\_\\_\\_\\_\\_\\_\\_\\_\\_\\_\\_\\_\\_\\_\\_\\_\\_\\_\\_\\_\\_\\_\\_\\_\\_\\_\\_\\_\\_\\_\\_\n\n[r/penguin347](https://www.reddit.com/r/penguin347)", "What if I told you there once lived men who could lift automobiles using only their breath? Almighty beings that ate metal slabs for breakfast, who covered their bodies with hieroglyphs, purposely inflicting pain upon themselves just because they could. What if I told you these creatures walked the earth, like you and me? Would you believe it, or not?\n\nChildren, let me tell you the story of Guinness the Great and the world before the surge.\n\nBack then, life wasn't about survival. The scab rats hadn't hatched yet, so it was fairly safe on this planet. We prospered and created meaning for our own lives, which went into an unexpected direction. Everyone wanted to be noticed.\n\nAtop his golden throne, Guinness the Great held a competition of champions. He called upon the strangest and strongest, the weirdest and wildest to compete for a chance to be noticed. As expected, millions and millions of them arrived at Guinness's doorstep, all begging for his blessing.\n\nHe snapped his fingers and they all filed into a line, stretching around the earth five times. One by one, they presented themselves to his holiness, and if their talent was deemed worthy, he would invite them to be immortalized in his book and turned into a god. Guinness the Great wasn't known for patience, so those who showed no promise were thrown into a pit of lava, their corpses turned to ash.\n\nThis judgement went on for a hundred years, until one man rose above it. He saw the tyranny in Guinness the Great's ways and wanted to stop it, at all costs. He arrived at Guinness's doorstep, where he was told to bow. He did not. Again, he was commanded. Again, he withheld. Guinness was intrigued by the valor, so he gave the man a chance to redeem himself.\n\nThe man stood up straight and spit onto the very ground he walked on. He said these are no gods. No. Only men. Men who have dedicated their entire lives to these niche talents, and the disrespect will not stand. Guinness glared at him, offering no remorse. Not anymore. As he prepared to banish the man to the pits of lava, the man smiled. He dared Guinness to do it. He said he cannot die.\n\nThe fate of this man is not written in the sacred texts as it is unknown to the population. But I know. I know what happened.\n\nHe sucked in his gut and swam through the lava where he found refuge in a cave. For six years, he subsisted off of rats and rat blood. It wasn't until a fire breather drifted ashore that he was able to escape. Together, the two men stormed into Guinness the Great's lair and challenged him, inciting a war that would last another 20 years or so. The humans were too distracted with records and challenges that they didn't even realize when the scab rats and the mammoth fleas hatched. \n\nThe man who dared challenge Guinness is long gone now, but a quote etched in stone remains. \n\n\"There are no gods, only man.\" - Ripley" ]	[ 1, 2, 15, 37, 161, 1708, 1931 ]	[ "1650790587", "1548301303", "1548294267", "1548294982", "1548282666", "1548289893", "1548289082" ]
	[WP] The gods are raging war, you can feel the blasts from the other side of the world, sounds come from the bottom the building, they are getting closer, just an other 2 minutes for the microwave to finish, you take out your weapons out, you will eat that darn burrito no matter what	17	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A\$Reality+Fiction\$&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A\$Simple+Prompt\$&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/XYsEYfS)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "I'm standing at the microwave, my back to the bullpen. Fifty desks there are unattended, as the inhabitants of the small cubicle farm are all bunched up around several large monitors streaming news at the other end of the open office space.\n\nThe hum of the microwave and my food turning around inside are filling my senses right now, as I try to drown out the news.\n\nA jolt like an earthquake--no, not \\like\\ and earthquake, I remind myself--snaps me out of my forced reverie.\n\n\"Goddammit, two more minutes,\" I grumble.\n\nNo one hears me, despite the silence, as the screens are filled with the screams and the destruction of a continent most of us have only seen in National Geographic.\n\n\"Yuan, are you watching this?\" a voice says.\n\nTammy has emerged from her office, probably streaming the same stuff on her office machine. Now she gets caught in the glow of the bullpen wall and goes to it like all the rest, moths to the flame.\n\nI know what's on the TV, have seen it coming for years. In fact, I tried to get someone's attention about it weeks ago. Filed a report. Had an interview with upper management. Even started making travel arrangements.\n\n\"I don't think we're going to need you on this one,\" was the final word on the matter. Some mid-level pencil-pusher did some math, and the official position was that there were not enough beans in the jar to warrant \"one more gun in the fight\" whatever that means.\n\nThirty seconds left on my burrito.\n\nAnother shockwave goes through the building. Someone screams--then stops, almost embarrassed to be frightened of what could potentially be the end of the world.\n\nAnd why would they be? This isn't the age of fear, the age of apocalypse and the end of the world. It's the Age of Heroes! Super-powered individuals make up more than a percent of a percent of the world's population now!\n\n\"And they're aaaaaaaaaall good guys,\" I often throw out in conversations, because incredibly this thought has not been articulated enough to the masses.\n\nI mean, Exhibit A, look at where we are today: we're experiencing seismic reactions more than twelve thousand miles from the epicenter of the interaction of--another tremor shakes the building.\n\n\"More than twelve thousand miles from the two IDIOTS involved!\" I articulate, taking a breath to start ranting about it--but breaking off when the microwave starts dinging. \"Saved by the bell!\"\n\nPlate in hand, steaming burrito cooling before me, I finally turn and start surveying the monitors myself. The reporters keep having to switch source feeds as the shockwaves have fallout they weren't expecting: tidal waves, tornadoes, etc. Finally, just as I'm taking a very satisfying bite of beans and cheese, one of them gets a crystal clear shot of the two idiots in question.\n\nI freeze, mouth full, and mentally curse my luck.\n\nIt's The Metatron.\n\nDammit. Of all the crazed lunatics that could be terrorizing the Pacific Rim.\n\nI glance wistfully at the rest of my burrito and realize that it's sitting on a desk now. I have no recollection of setting it down, of drawing my sword, of unfurling my wings.\n\nI spend an extra second or two doing mental math, trying to justify finishing eating, but my legs are already moving.\n\nIn another moment, the eighth floor window explodes outward, and I'm airborne.\n\nTwo seconds later, a sonic boom announces my departure.\n\nI'm still thinking about the burrito.\n\nThis jackass had better be worth it." ]	[ 1, 3 ]	[ "1548447264", "1548450413" ]
	[WP] In a post-apocalyptic city, you and your friend discover at a young age that she can make her wishes come true, but at a cost to those around her. One day you wake up to find she has disappeared, and a group of 70 and counting has been found dead.	21	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A\$Reality+Fiction\$&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A\$Simple+Prompt\$&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/XYsEYfS)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "“I wish I had noticed sooner, I could have done something, I could have done anything.” These were the only words on my mind as I ran for my life, the pain in my chest was getting worse and it didn’t help that I was out of shape. Everyone was staring at me but that was the last thing on my mind, now that I think about it I probably looked really ugly crying and sweating like that as I ran through the streets to reach her house. That ugly old shack where we used to play when my parents deemed it safe enough to go out, the place where I realized I was in love, the place where she told me that she wanted... I can’t believe I didn’t take it seriously. “Idiot! Idiot!! Idiot!!!”\n\nThe pain felt like a void and it was getting hard to breath but I was beginning to think that it wasn’t just a good exorcise, I was beginning to think my guess was right. After all not a single body still had a heart inside their chest. “You should have been there damnit!” I finally arrived and broke the window not like her recently deceased parents would mind. I ran though to the back yard and began digging beneath the mutated tree.\n\n“Where is it, it has to be here somewhere!” I finally found the old rusted lockbox dinged up just like I remembered and inside was a letter addressed to me.\n\n“I’m sorry, I know you maybe hurt to hear it but I just can’t anymore. Trust me after a week the pain will go away and you can live happily once again. I would ask you to tell everyone goodbye for me but I know now that no one will miss me.\n\nPs. I loved you” It was bittersweet to read the last part but it was quickly washed away as I fell over clutching the paper closely to my chest. “You idiot, we all missed you... every.. last... on...” I could feel my heart disappear from my chest, it was too hard to move anything. So I decided maybe I will close my eyes and hoped I could tell her the truth when I saw her." ]	[ 1, 2 ]	[ "1548461950", "1548505627" ]
	[WP] In a land of magic and knowledge, you are a thief who has mastered the unnoticable spell. Which, unlike invisibility, renderes you unable to be noticed. This has gained you a fair fortune, until you walk into a bank, unnoticeable, and a young woman is staring at you.	29	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A\$Reality+Fiction\$&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A\$Simple+Prompt\$&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/XYsEYfS)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "This is going to be a simple job, I kept telling myself. How can I get caught, if they can't notice me? It wasn't the first time i was doing this, it always worked, however the nervousness had overrun my body like an army of bees, trying to sting me. At this moment even breathing was hard. My heart kept pounding faster and faster. It is a piece of cake, I reassured myself. And I started casting the ritual. The feeling of numbness started to fade away, my heart rate slowed down and I could breathe normally again. \n\nI was walking towards the door of the bank now. I slipped through the door behind an old lady and no one seemed to notice my presence on the building as usual. I walked towards a cashier, I entered her booth and started searching for a key. I didn't know what i was expecting to find there, but I had all the time in the world to try to open the safe. I was right behind the cashier, opening drawers and looking through stuff. She was just helping a middle-aged guy, who apparently had his credit card stolen. Then she turned towards me and my feet went cold. She looked right through me, like i wasn't even there. She got some papers next to her and continued talking to the guy in front of her. My search there was a waste of time, I had to find the office of the bank manager. And then I saw her. A young woman, probably in her mid twenties, dark hair, slim, wearing a black dress and high heels and stunning green eyes. She was looking towards me, staring me, following my every move. She didn't look troubled, or at least not as troubled as me. I tried to talk, express my confusion, i was muttering, the only thing I managed to say was a single word. \n\n\"How?\" \n\n\"Hello to you, too.\" \n\n\"I ... How can you see me?\" \n\n\"I caught you red handed and that's all you say?\" \n\n\"I actually didn't commit any crime.\" \n\n\"We both know that you were about to do so.\"\n\n\"So what are you going to do? Catch me? I warn you, i have many tricks up my sleeve, you don't want to fight me.\" I tried to be as convincing as I could, because I didn't really knew any other spell. \n\n\"I can see through your cheap trick, and you are trying to scare me. I can probably assume that this is one of the few spells you know. But fortunately for you, I'm not here to fight you. Actually I am here to rob the bank myself, so let me show you how it's done.\" \n\nThen she made a swift motion with her hands, murmured something and disappeared from my sight. When I arrived at the safe, the only thing there was a note. A note from her. \"Too late.\" I read, and then smiled. \n\n\"Such a charming woman.\"", "She waves at me. Nobody else seems to notice. \"Well, that is awkward\", she smirks at me from across the room.\n\"What do we do? Do we fight? 50/50?\" \nI am not a fighter, so i just ignore her and head to the vault. \"Hey, you. I know you can see me.\" Walking past her i see, she is as unarmed as me. I am climbing over the counter and dodging the customers weaseling around it. \"HEY!\", she is shouting now and running towards me. I feel her hand on my shoulder shaking me. \n\n\"I know what you are up to. And 'Unnoticable' doesnt work on people affected by it. I know you can see me.\"\n\nI am over the counter now, and around the corner. I look around, even if the guard wont notice me, they notice the moving door of the safe. I hear steps. \"You DO notice me, right?\" She whispers with what sounds like tears in her eyes. \"I.. I used the spell correctly? Noone else can notice me? Screw that book. I thought the instructions were clear\". She started crying even more and had panic in her voice. \"This is so typical. Why did i not listen to my teacher\". She slowly left the hallway \n\nI understand her, if some thing goes wrong when using the spell, you can not controll how long you go unnoticed. For a day? For a week? For twenty years? \n\nI almost feel bad.\n\nBut do i look like someone who shares the treasure?" ]	[ 1, 2, 8 ]	[ "1548487366", "1548545221", "1548496162" ]
[removed]	[WP] As an exercise in fiction rooted in reality, write a story about someone struggling to cope with depression, anxiety, or bi-polar disorder while doing some routine for most people.	1	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A\$Reality+Fiction\$&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A\$Simple+Prompt\$&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/XYsEYfS)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "Hi u/NerdySixShooter, this submission has been removed.\n\n[Prompts will be removed if there's a high possibility for rule breaking responses](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_7.3A_prompts_will_be_removed_if_there.27s_a_high_possibility_for_rule_breaking_responses)\n\n- \n\n\n\n---\n\n[Modmail](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=%2Fr%2FWritingPrompts&subject=Removed%20post&message=https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/comments/ajzxuc/-/%0A%0A) us if you have any questions or concerns. In the future, please refer to the [sidebar](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/about/sidebar) before posting. \n\nThis action was not automated and this moderator is human. Time to go do human things." ]	[ 1, 1 ]	[ "1548499848", "1548501756" ]
	[WP] You are a fifty year old man and have been in a relationship with a woman for over twenty years but you forgot her name after your first date with her (twenty years ago). Too embarressed to ask her you've been surviving for thirty years, by calling her nicknames.	11	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A\$Reality+Fiction\$&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A\$Simple+Prompt\$&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/XYsEYfS)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "“Hey, what’s your name again honey?” I asked cautiously, \n“What was that sweetie?” My wife asked. This isn’t going to be fun. We were high school sweethearts who never had a reason to use each other’s normal boring names, and they aren’t lying when they tell you that time flies. Thirty years of marriage and I don’t think I ever caught her name at all. Have I been living a lie? Does this mean we were never in love? Does it mean our love is stronger, like we’re on something more than a first name basis? I just have to do it, no matter what the consequences are. This could even be the start of a new life for me. Who knows? “Never mind, just a stupid joke. I’m gonna go hit some golf balls out back.” I am a small coward. I turn to the door. \n“Have fun sunshine man. Oh, and one quick thing?” She says hesitantly. “It’s something I’ve been meaning to ask you for a while now actually.” \n“Oh? What’s that honey bear?” \n“Well... what’s your real name? It’s like we’ve been using pet names for such a long time, I think I just forgot!” She said lightly, like she was telling an inside-joke. I was wrong. This may be fun after all. \n" ]	[ 1, 3 ]	[ "1548524373", "1548570177" ]
	[WP] You awaken in a world identical to your favorite video game and are told you are its only hope. You have no magic powers, superhuman reflexes, or special abilities, but you have one great advantage: you’re a professional speed runner, and you know every glitch and exploit in this world.	155	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A\$Reality+Fiction\$&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A\$Simple+Prompt\$&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/XYsEYfS)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "I awoke to the wind on my face, and grass on my back. I wasn't sure how I got here, but I knew where I was:\n\nIt was a game I played, and I currently held the record time: 21 minutes, 57.8 seconds.\n\nIt wasn't long before I heard a voice:\n\n\"Brave Hero, long have we awaited your arrival, now you-\" I cut it off there, and ran at the nearest tree with three branches (it HAS to be three exactly, not sure why). I simply jumped between branches two and three with a backflip, and before I knew it I was flying through the sky, about 135m above the ground.\n\n\"What the actual fu-\"\n\nI ignored it, and angled myself about 90 degress down, pointing northeast, and upon impact with the ground, I had clipped through the floor, and had entered floor 88 out of 99, in the treasure room, specifically.\n\nIt was around this point that the voice had simply stopped screaming, and I could focus now.\n\n\"Alright, what the actual hell was THAT?!\"\n\n\"The Three Branch Clip, obviously.\"\n\nI was currently in the middle of pushing the chest, now relieved of its Boots of Running and Jumping, towards a corned with a skull in it. Once that was out of the way, I simply placed the chest on it's side, crawled into it, closed it, and jumped, forcing through a wall, leading to floor 93 of 99.\n\nAt this point, the real challenge begins." ]	[ 1, 69 ]	[ "1548536920", "1548537150" ]
	[WP] An ancestor of yours started a tradition of burying their dead with tree seeds. You have a unique ability to be able to see and talk to your ancestors in the trees... which was great as a kid, but is weird when you take your new girlfriend on an outside date.	27	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A\$Reality+Fiction\$&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A\$Simple+Prompt\$&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/XYsEYfS)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "I tried to ignore them but I couldn't. How stupid of me to think this would be an easy walk. I should have known better.\n\n\"Are you OK Will?\" Sandra said.\n\n\"Yes of course. Are you chilly, would you like my jacket?\"\n\n\"You're sweet.\"\n\nI removed my blue jacket and wrapped it around her shoulders. I heard the rustling beside us and knew that it was not the wind.\n\n\"That's sweet Willard. You're just the picture of perfection. You think so highly of yourself, don't you?\"\n\n\"Willard. Do you think you'll be lucky with this girl, Willard?\"\n\n\"Do you deserve her, Willard? Do you deserve her after what you have done?\"\n\n\"Um, Sandra, would you like to go back to town?\" I asked.\n\n\"Already? But we only just arrived! I thought you were going to show me your cabin in the woods. You said you built it all by yourself. It sounds so dreamy.\"\n\n\"I... well, I did want to show you, but. Isn't it getting quite cold? It's growing dark as well.\"\n\n\"Nonsense. I'm peachy, Will. Let's us keep going. I would love a warm cabin. And a nice boy to snuggle.\"\n\n\"Oh Willard. She wants to snuggle with you. Little does she know your murderous intent.\"\n\n\"I'm not!\" I snapped impatiently.\n\n\"What?\" said Sandra in surprise. \"Why did you say that?\"\n\n\"It's nothing, Sandra. Sorry, just nerves. I'm thinking too much. You know, about, um. About the cabin.\"\n\nThe brief urgency that inhabited Sandra's face dissipated and she warmed to me.\n\nShe said, \"Let's not worry about that. It's a nice stroll through this forest. Such large trees! You know, sometimes I wonder if they whisper, but it's the wind in the branches.\"\n\nIf only she knew. My secret was mine, and I could not share it with her. But I knew that the wind was only a front--the trees could talk, but only I understood them. They were my blood. Grown from the bodies of my deceased relatives buried here over many generations. I knew them well. Perhaps I knew them too well.\n\nWe continued down the path toward the cabin. Meanwhile, Sandra continued to admire the rustling wind. And I continued to hear it.\n\n\"Poor girl.\"\n\n\"Yes, poor girl. Willard, you are a monster. How is it that you are our descendant and we your forebears? A travesty to be sure.\"\n\nI fumed under my skin, and Sandra must have noticed because she released my sweating hand. I wiped it on my shirt front.\n\n\"Willard turn back. Don't take her to that sacred place, defaced by your incredulous narcissism. You are a murderer.\"\n\nThe moment Sandra yawned I snapped at the trees beside me, \"I'm not, shh!\"\n\n\"Will.\"\n\n\"Yes, Sandra?\"\n\n\"What is that?\"\n\nI looked forward through the bushes.\n\n\"That's the glade. My cabin is there.\"\n\n\"Wonderful!\"\n\nWe walked around the last bend in the forest path.\n\n\"The wind is really picking up,\" remarked Sandra as we mounted the stoop to the cabin's entrance. I turned scornfully at the trees lining the glade. I said, \"yes, it's quite an unbearable din.\" She looked at me lopsided as I opened the door and we went in.\n\n\"This is Sandra,\" I said aloud, and caught myself immediately so that I omitted the final 'a' of her name.\n\n\"What?\" she said. \"Who are you talking to?\"\n\n\"Oh, me? You know, just nerves.\"\n\nShe allowed it with a shrug. \"Ok, I guess.\"\n\nI invited her to sit on the bed, the only piece of furniture apart from a bedside table and big ironclad clothing trunk. On the walls were a few miscellaneous items, and an ax.\n\n\"What solid walls you have,\" she said jokingly.\n\nI chuckled aloud. I reached out to the rough timber of the door and rested my hand on it carefully.\n\n\"Sandra?\"\n\n\"Yes,\" she replied. And then, \"Wow it's so blustery outside. And actually there must be a strong draft because I feel it in here, too.\"\n\nI lowered my head, and slowly let my hand fall from the wall.\n\n\"Sandra, you know I live with my uncle?\"\n\n\"Yes of course, we, I mean, I know. Well everyone knows, Will. What happened to your parents was just a tragedy. No one can blame them, the other driver was--\"\n\n\"--yes, I know, I know that,\" I said. \"Sandra I really like you.\"\n\n\"I like you too.\"\n\n\"I know we've only just started going steady, but we've known each other for a while. I just... I wish my parents could meet you.\"\n\nSandra looked a bit uneasy, but she adjusted her position on the bed, and said, \"I do too, Will.\"\n\nThere was a strong gust that could not have been a draft. Sandra took fright, and reflexively gathered the blanket to her chest.\n\nI turned back to the wall, the floor, the ceiling. \"Thanks mom, I'm glad you think so.\"\n\n&#x200B;\n\n&#x200B;\n\n&#x200B;\n\n\\_\\_\\_\\_\\_\\_\\_\n\n/r/velabasstuff" ]	[ 1, 4 ]	[ "1548641475", "1548657554" ]
[removed]	[WP]You’re a nurse in a local hospital. You found out that your ex is giving birth tonight.You assisted during delivery,and they handed you w/ the “birth registration form”to complete.You’re too shy to talk to your ex,and have no idea what name they want to give the baby. “Babies”, coz they’re twins	0	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A\$Reality+Fiction\$&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A\$Simple+Prompt\$&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/XYsEYfS)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "Hi u/johndecoded, this submission has been removed.\n\n[Direct prompt replies must be good-faith attempts at new stories or poems](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_1.3A_direct_prompt_replies_must_be_good-faith_attempts_at_new_stories_or_poems)\n\n- Fill-in-the-blank: Responses must be at least 100 words. This is essentially a fill-in-the-blank, or you asked a question likely to generate a simple answer. Prompts should encourage a story or poem. \n\n \n\n Prompts will be removed if there's a high possibility for rule breaking responses ([rule 7](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_7.3A_prompts_will_be_removed_if_there.27s_a_high_possibility_for_rule_breaking_responses))\n\n\n\n---\n\n[Modmail](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=%2Fr%2FWritingPrompts&subject=Removed%20post&message=https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/comments/akjave/-/%0A%0A) us if you have any questions or concerns. In the future, please refer to the [sidebar](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/about/sidebar) before posting. \n\nThis action was not automated and this moderator is human. Time to go do human things." ]	[ 1, 1 ]	[ "1548645670", "1548648689" ]
	[WP] The spirits of Halloween past, present, and future are summoned to help restore a goth teenager's faith in Halloween.	58	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A\$Reality+Fiction\$&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A\$Simple+Prompt\$&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/XYsEYfS)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "\"BOO!\" shouted an annoying little boy dressed as an Avenger.\n\nDamien didn't even flinch as he blew smoke from his cigarette at the offensively tiny Hulk. He pushed past the child and his mother. \"Bah. Grow up, kid.\"\n\n\"Hey!\" The mother growled. \"Don't treat him like that!\"\n\n\"Hulk Smash!!\" The little one yelled at the mean stranger.\n\n\"Maybe go play in the street, and decrease the surplus population,\" Damien retorted as he took another drag. The mother's mouth hung open, as she picked up her little green man and hurried away down the sidewalk.\n\nDamien scowled as he made his way to his house. Everywhere were the plastic trappings of the 21st Century's version of Halloween. Warty witches with spastic hair and frayed brooms. The wrappers of overpriced candy mingled in the wind with dead leaves. GMO pumpkins sat on every porch. Some of them weren't even made of plant--just a polystyrene mold of a jack-o-lantern. And obscene concentrations of fake blood and leisurely tossed bones everywhere from skeletal systems that distorted human physiology to such a point, it wasn't even recognizable as a symbol of mankind's mortality anymore. What a disgrace.\n\nDamien found himself on his front stoop. His mother had hung a garish HAPPY HALLOWEEN sign on the door, with a badly drawn gobin's head as the O. It was the stupidest thing he had ever seen, with the added unwanted result of drawing in Trick or Treaters anytime now. And how kind of her to be out for the evening, expecting Damien to deal with them all. The teen could not hate her more, as he ground his cigarette under his boot. When he looked back up, the goblin's face was changed. It was no longer the crude snarling cartoon visage of before, but now... He could swear it looked just like his friend Maddox. \n\n\"Damien!\" the face called, its voice hollow and echoing. \n\nThe teen hollered and fell back from the door, not understanding. As his vision refocused, all he saw was the same ugly little goblin. \"Bah. Grow up, Damien,\" he spat at himself. He walked inside, not bothering to turn on a light. Nothing new ever happened around here. He knew the layout of the house and shuffled in the dark to his room. He crested the stairs, his room at the end of the hall.\n\n\"DAMIEN!\"\n\nThe surly adolescent swore as he jumped. It was, without a doubt, Maddox. His friend that had tragicly died last year. The youth had been hanging out at their gang's favorite cemetery, as he dropped acid and tripped into an open grave. Damien could hardly believe his eyes. He knew it was Halloween. He knew his peers liked to play pranks. But no one he knew was capable of this. It was too good, too real. It was THE Maddox, floating above him and as see through as a puff from a vape pen. \n\n\"M-m-maddox?!\" he stammered. \"What... How the fu--\"\n\n\"Dude!\" shrieked the spectre, pointing an accusatory finger. \"It's HALLOWEEN! Why the hell are you at home?! This was our favorite night of the year! You should be out there, burning down the town, for the both of us!\"\n\n\"I-i-i gr-grew out of it.\"\n\n\"Bullshit!\" The ghost's words shook the floorboards. Damien could even hear it reverberate in his chest. \"You closeted, preppy wannabe. You've lost touch with what it really means to be goth! You want to end up like your dad, wearing cardigans everyday and worrying about emailing your boss every minute?!\"\n\n\"N-no.\"\n\n\"Then you better get in your room, put on a decent The Cure t-shirt, and await your fate.\"\n\n\"My fate?! Am I going to die tonight?\" Damien asked, tears streaking his cheeks.\n\n\"Something far worse is going to happen to you, you CYNICAL bastard. Tonight, you will be visited by three more spirits, dude. The first shall arrive at 9pm. The second an hour later. And the third an hour after that. If you survive these three encounters and make it to midnight, you will be the MOST GOTH EVER!!\" A vase on a neighboring table shattered at the utterance of such a dark prospect. \"Ooo, sorry about that, man. Your mom is going to be pissed. Anyway. Find your black eyeliner and PREPARE YOUR SELF!!\" \n\nMaddox cackled that familiar laugh, the one Damien had not heard in over a year. He became less visible, disappearing into the gloom of the second floor landing. \"Wait!\" Damien said, but the hallway was as empty as ever as his own voice echoed off the walls.\n\nHe scrambled to his feet, diving into his room and locking the door behind himself. He panted, head in his hands, trying to calm down. This wasn't real. It couldn't be. There's no way. He was being ridiculous. He probably just fell asleep in front of the TV and was just having a dream. An elaborate dream.\n\n\"Siri,\" his phone chimed, listening. \"What time is it?\"\n\nHis phone chimed again and she replied, \"The time is nine PM.\"\n\n\"See, nothing,\" Damien told himself, looking around the room for danger. He breathed a sigh, thinking he had beaten whatever curse was on him. He should have known better. His luck was never that good, and his imagination was not good enough to conjure what he had seen in the hall. \n\nHis bed began to shake, banging on the ground, creating a racket unlike any he had ever heard. The mattress bounced off the boxspring, pillows and blankets being tossed to the floor. Damien flattened himself against his bedroom door, too petrified to even scream. All at once the bed stopped its twitching and was still. The candles he had in his room flicked to life, throwing everything into an eery, supernatural half-light. His white bed sheet began to rise in the center. It grew from just an indiscriminate knot under the top sheet, until it stood about a meter tall on it's own. A decorative dagger his first girlfriend had given him lifted into the air and shot across the room. The knife turned in midair, creating two eyeholes and a slit for the mouth. \n\n\"Good evening Damien,\" the voice of a prepubescent child spoke to him from the tear in the sheet. \"I am the Ghost of Halloweens Past.\"\n\n\"What. The. Fuck.\"\n\n\"You need to remember your love of all things macabre and pegan. All Hallow's Eve was your favorite time of year.\"\n\n\"Not anymore, Spirit. I grew out of it. That's for little kids.\"\n\nOne corner end of the sheet extended toward Damien. \"Take my hand and I will show you why. \"\n\nIf you were to ask him any time later, Damien could not explain why he chose to do it. Even if he accepted this all as a dream, there was no more dangerous choice than to trust a ghost made out of a bed sheet. But he did it. With a single touch of a finger, the window slammed open. By the means of some frightening magic, the Ghost dragged Damien through the window and rocketed across town. Beneath them, the city was a blur as they dipped under powerlines, twisted through streets, and dodged cars and buildings. Damien screamed the whole way, feeling like the worst rollercoaster in existence could only compare if it guaranteed death to all riders. He was barely aware of it when his feet touched ground again, too busy shouting into his own hands.\n\n\"We are here.\" Damien peeked between his fingers, recognizing something he had not seen in years. It was his grandparents house. He had not been here in almost a decade, not since his Grammy died and the family had to sell the property. \n\n\"I remember this,\" he said, a wistful smile replacing the terror on his face. \"This is my fifth Halloween.\" \n\nSure enough, his five year old self bounded out the front door, dressed as a werewolf, a mere werecub at that size. Grammy followed behind carrying a fresh jack-o-lantern, ready for a candle. She had a colorful Band-aid on her thumb.\n\n\"That's right,\" Damien recalled. \"We had carved a pumpkin. Grammy cut her hand but she didn't even cry. It was the bravest thing I had ever seen.\" \n\nHis grandfather came outside dressed as an old school vampire. Pappy knelt and applied some of his make up to the little werewolf, some black around the eyes to sell the lycanthrope look.\n\n\"Pappy... he gave me my first black eyeliner...?\"\n\n\"Let's go, champ!\" Pappy and the younger Damien scampered down the street to join all the other children, a giant smile on both their faces.\n\n\"You remember this as the most fun you had ever had at that age,\" said the Ghost of Halloweens Past. \"From this day on, Halloween was your favorite day of the year. You planned for it months ahead until you had a whole trunk full of different costumes you lent to other children.\" \n\n\"That's right, Ghost. I was the Halloween Kid, always. I knew all the scary movies, I got books about it. I barely asked for toys, I just wanted skulls and pranks and new costumes. Eventually, my mom let me dye my hair black. It was... my identity.\" \n\n\"Who are you without your dark whimsy, Damien?\" asked the Ghost.\n\n\"I... I don't know...\"\n\nWith no warning, the Ghost of Halloweens Past touched him with the corner of the sheet and they went tearing back across town. He was dropped into his bed with a thud, his throat going hoarse from the screaming. The plain white sheet drifted lifelessly onto the bed next him, the three holes unable to see him or speak to him ever again." ]	[ 1, 8 ]	[ "1548646036", "1548662746" ]
	[WP] As a detective in a large city, you’ve cracked down on a number of illegal gambling rings... but this one is different. All the players seem terrified. This room doesnt exist in floor plans. And the guy running show doesnt look quite... human. Backup is coming, but first you must play.	10	[ "Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.\n\nReminders:\n\n>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include \"[Poem]\"\n>* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail\n>* See [Reality Fiction](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A\$Reality+Fiction\$&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [Simple Prompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A\$Simple+Prompt\$&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles\n>* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules)\n\n[](#icon-help) [^(What Is This?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/off_topic) ^•\n[](#icon-information) [^(New Here?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ^•\n[](#icon-help) [^(Writing Help?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) ^•\n[](#icon-exclamation) [^(Announcements)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/announcements) ^•\n[](#icon-comments) [^(Discord Chatroom)](https://discord.gg/XYsEYfS)\n\nI am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.", "\"welcome my dear friend\" the strange figure says, a grim grin spreads across his lips, it's the only resemblance of an expression that can be seen from under his hooded face, and the evil grin exposes his disgusting set of teeth, seeming to be in every single shape and or size imaginable.\n\nyou say nothing and simple nod as a greeting, sitting down at the closest empty seat, the man to the left of you is softly rocking back and forward with a look of pure horror in his eyes and the women to your left seems to be past all emotions.\n\n\"now... where were we?\" the figure puts his hand on the giant roulette wheel in the middle and looks at each one of the players \"well, no matter, place your bets ladies and gentlemen\"\n\nevery single one of the participants places a single chip in different numbers and you look at the yellow and white chip in front of you, you could swear it wasn't there a moment ago and yet here it is, after a bit you place it on number 45, not for any reason other than it's close to you and easy to reach.\n\n\"round and round we go then\" the raspy voice says and takes a spin, the little balls rhythmic sound echoing trough the now totally quite room.\n\nit spins and spins, a whole 5 minutes has to have gone by before it finally falls in place.\n\n\"number 33\" he laughs, pointing directly at the man besides you, he flinches, he is clearly trying to say something but no voice leaves his moving mouth, the disgusting smile of the dealer creeps up once again.\n\n\"congrats my good sir, now let's test your luck once more\" the figure then grabs the chip off the table, looking at it for a bit, then putting it on his thump and flipping it in the air, the chip spins and twirls before landing on it's side and rolling off the table, the figures smile quickly vanishes as the quite clanks of the chip bouncing of the floor sounds.\n\n\"well well well, lucky you, you get your life back\" and a white light fills the room for a split second.\n\nbut only a few minutes go by before the man once more stands in the room and the figure laughs.\n\n\"oh deary, no one helped you off the noose? well, isn't that unlucky?\" " ]	[ 1, 3 ]	[ "1548650469", "1548665607" ]

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