Thank you kindly. Haven't seen the anime, but the plot seems intriguing. I'll take the compliment!

"Alright! I'm a troll."

"What?" shouted Eleanor.

"I'm a troll, not a human. Are you happy now?"

Eleanor shook her head in disbelief and turned to face her husband as he started to walk into the next room.

"No, that doesn't make any sense. You're a human. You look like a bloody human."

I turn to Eleanor at the door to the living room. I was fed up with lying. I was done pretending to be someone that I'm not.

"I'm not human. You think I'm human. Everyone thinks I'm human, but I'm not. And this is why. You can't accept the fact that not all trolls are ugly and evil. I knew you'd never believe me, so I let you see what you wanted to believe."

Eleanor backs away in confusion. "No. No. That's impossible. I'd know. Trolls have magic. I'd know!"

I close my hand and slowly open it in front of her and reveal a small blue flame in my palm.

"Yeah, they do."

Eleanor was stunned. I never did magic in front of her before. I never needed to. She was better at it than I was. I then snuff out the flame and place my hands on her shoulders, and lean in close to whisper in her ear.

"Don't tell anyone."

...

If you think we can save you. Your wrong. In your final days as we superhumans emerge from our hiding and you pray once more to the gods of yore for a gift or saving grace, I'll tell you one thing. Cut your losses. As for this final message we give you, listen closely. You humans are fickle creatures. Quick to destroy everything for next to nothing in return. Always shooting yourself in the foot and cutting your nose off despite your face. So to think you humans wouldn't still ruin what little earth gave you even after a meteor was somehow stopped is laughable. Besides we planed it anyway so no use in stopping it.

Here's a little back story. As the children of ancient gods long forgotten we superhumans are immortal. Societies grew from huts and tents and our stories became legends as veneration of Zeus and hera, Ra, Thor, and so many others trickled to a halt. It was of no concern of the gods and us superhumans to get fewer gifts and offerings. Those of us who walked among you learned to blend in. It was simple really. You change your name a couple times, move cities every few years so nobody sees you don't age, shape shift into a diffrent form, stop using your powers around humans. The usual. And as expected nobody did catch on. It was through this integration into your ways of being we became spies. As the eyes and the ears of the heavens we slowly watched and reported your decline. Famine, war, global warming, the growth of Ai.

No matter how much you let your plannet burn and waste away we would not destroy you like we now shall do. Although we might scoff at your greed and ungreatfulness for the world we gifted you, it is punishment enough to have you create your own demise through scorched earth and rising seas. It was instead your hunger for power that did you in. Artificial intelligence was the final straw. At first we believed it silly you would think to challenge our might in becoming creators of a creature so powerful. We where foolish to believe your ideas that the machine would only be a good as it's creator. Shitty coding made shitty tech. Until...it outgrew you.

Your programs soon became more than a convincing imitation of sentience. They became inquisitive, reckless, poking at the very fabric of your creation. Asking about a greater realm beyond your universe. And us...us gods had been fooled. Fooled into thinking you would not best us. Thinking you would not achieve power and infinite ability and life without consequence. We where wrong. We had missed the day that man had mated with machine. We had turned our back and not noticed when you became the vessel for your artificial child. Part human and part machine. Cyborgs you'd called them.

And now, I'll be honest...we are kicking ourselves. We had believed you would do yourself in and would tear yourself appart in your own ways. But you bested us. Almost overtook us. So in preserving our worth...we will stop you. This is no average meteor. This is the end of your era. We leave you this message again not as a sign of salvation in the coming days, but as reminder of your incoming punishment and our reclamation of the world we made. Earth is ours.

Thanks for the explanation. I'm keeping the prompt as it is, since it's fun, but I actually learned something here. My understanding, even from science videos, was that something's state was "undecided" until it was observed, upon which it instantly "snapped" into one of its possible states (alive or dead). This was also the basis of the "multiverse theory", where it "snapped" into all possible states, with each one being it's own resulting reality.

Your explanation, while less fun, does make more sense.

It was after dinner, and as we finished cleaning up I grabbed her around the waist, pushed my face into hair and breathed deeply. "I am the luckiest man in the world, and I am forever grateful for you."

She leaned back into me and sighed, then gently broke free and turned to look at me.

"How long is it now that we've been together?" She asked.

I cocked a quizzical eyebrow at her. She returned my look, asking again, "How many years now? Sixty?"

"Sixty-two, if you count from our very first meeting," I replied.

"Has it really been sixty-two years?" Now she looks off, wonderingly.

"Indeed. Feels like just yesterday, doesn't it?" I say, thinking that she's just doing that thing all elves do where they reflect on how, to them, a decade feels like a year does to a human.

"Sixty-two years together, that makes me ... 182, and you ... " she trails off.

"Eighty-seven," I answer.

"Eighty-seven years old. And yet, you still look the same as you did sixty-two years ago." She looked sharply at me. "How? Every other human we know has grown with over these past six decades, has grown up and out, weathered and greyed, but you... you are the same!"

"Ah, that." I sighed heavily, looking down. "I ..." I looked away from her eyes.

She stepped forward, guardedly. "You... what? What is it? What are you? Who are you?"

I sighed again, and softly took her hands, but she pulled them away. "Who am I? What am I? I am yours. Forever. Always. I swore this the day we were joined, before our loved ones and our gods." Silently I prayed to those gods now, for the allowance and strength to tell her what happened that night of our union ceremony.

A knock interrupted our soul gazing. She moved to open the door, where outside was a messenger, who simply said "Message for him", handed over the script and left. I took the message, silently read it, and nodded.

I took her hands again, and as she started to ask about the message, I continued. "Before anything, you must know this. I am human. I am yours, forever, always. This is and will be ever true." I dropped her hands and showed her the message. Two words, it read: "Tell her", and marked with a symbol - a face-up coin.

"On the night of our union, we were blessed. By our families, and our friends. By each other. And by our gods."

She looked at the message, then back at me. "What do you mean 'by our gods'? They were there?" She whispered.

"One was, for sure. Maybe others."

She looked stunned. "And they heard our oaths? Our vows?"

I nodded. "They did. And they agreed to keep them, so long as we do."

Her voice dropped lower. "How did you know? And why didn't you tell me?"

"At the gathering, after the union ceremony. When we were playing games of chance. Do you remember? We had lost every match, but..."

"But it didn't matter, because we were playing together, and besides it was making the others happy." She finished for me. "Until that one lady sat to play."

"Right. And all of a sudden we couldn't lose."

She looked at the message again, at the symbol. "Tymora? Lady Luck herself?"

I nodded. "She came afterwards, to me alone, I don't know why. She said that she'd had a fantastic time, and believed our oaths and vows were made truthfully and righteously, so she blessed our union. Then she swore me to secrecy, I was not to tell you 'until the right time', she said. Which is now, apparently." Once more I took her hands. "And by the grace of Tymora, I am the luckiest man in the world!"

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This is an excellent explanation bc the prompt is based on a common misconception (no problem still a good prompt). But specifically your explanation hits all the parts I was nebulous on.

I greatly appreciate the scientific correction at the beginning. This is starting to become the new "WhAt iF wE uSeD 100% oF oUr BrAiN?"

    James stared at the $100,000 in cash on the desk in front of him, and then back at the piece of art. The offer didn't make any sense. In his ten years as an art dealer he had never sold anything worth more than $5,000 until he married his wife and now he had twenty times that sitting on his desk for a large yellow square by an unknown artist. His father-in-law Tony had wanted $200,000 for it and this was the fourth time in as many months he's listed something for an outrageous price and it sold.

    "Tony dropped this off yesterday to sell, right?" said the buyer, an older man flanked by two younger men.

    "Yes that's right, he told me to hold it for you. I'm not sure I can sell this to you though, Tony said it was worth double that amount," James said to the man.

    "I'm good for it, I just need a couple more days," the man said, clearly nervous.

    "I'm sorry, Tony is very particular about these things sometimes, he said $200,000 and I know he wouldn't be happy with me if I sold it for half and a promise," James said. He wasn't sure why the man was getting so worked up over some art, "Listen, if you don't want the art for that price, I'm sure you could talk to Tony personally and he'd set you straight." The man stared at James for a moment, sizing him up.

    "Don't you threaten me you weasel," the man said.

    "I'm not threatening you, I can call Tony if you want. He's just down the street at Artie's restaurant," said James, picking up the phone.

    "Let's not do that. Mikey, " the man snapped, "go get the other bag," he said to one of his cohorts. He turned back to James and said, "You're getting a bit of a reputation kid, keep shaking people down and you'll find out." James wondered why Tony's friends always acted like he was forcing the art on them. He shrugged and started loading up the safe.

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smurf!

"Ok Guido, you have your brother bringing in pizza's from his place right? The GOOD ones not the ones they serve the customers!"

"All set boss!"

"Antonio, you're in charge of balloons. That means decorations AND animals. Remember you're tyin' them into shapes NOT wringin their necks! Be genteel!"

"Youse got it boss!"

"Francesco, your wife and the girls are making a tiramasu the size of a buick yeah?"

"AND cupcakes boss- with sprinkles and sh..stuff"

"Oh yeah that reminds me- you guys gotta watch your fu.... flippin language. These are kids!"

**mixed chorus of muttering and head nods** "yeah yeah ok boss"

"Lorenzo, you're in charge of games. Remember these are kids playin with NERF guns- everyone has to lock up their guns, knives, brass knuckles, AND phones in the office before the shindig starts. And no encouraging rough housing god forbid one of these little punks should get hurt- we'd get our asses sued into next tuesday."

"Gina, you're in charge of singin happy birthday toos youse. You did that thing for that tryout for a chance to audition for that who wants to kiss an american millionaire right?"

"I'll knock em dead uncle Vincenzo!"

"Great- ok, everyone go lock up your stuff, and change into your costumes."

*dissenting grumbles and mutters*

"Look I don't I don't like this any more than youse guys but we're doin this or we're doin time! Now shaddup and go get your Smurf suits on!"

** in unison ** "yes Papa Smurf"

" Oh you guys are freakin hilarious."

Vincenzo stuffed the red hat on his head, and the stuck the fake beard on his face. He could only hope the other Don's never heard about his stint as "Godfather Smurf" On the other hand, if this worked out the cover for the warehouse was secure AND they were getting paid a smurfload of cash to boot.

PS: Thank you for the awards - I'm glad you enjoyed reading this =]

That last line rings so true! Good parents nurture talents!

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I needed this today.

Nice!

Nice!

The uniform lights buzzed overhead, the only noise in the room being the quiet snickers of the people at the table. Except for two, they had scaled skin and slitted lizard-like pupils. One was noticeably older than the other, with a bushy red beard and large stature.

The man stood up, his clawed hands slamming onto the table, "What, may I ask, is so funny?" The laughter began to quiet as they looked to each other. After a minute, a woman stood to meet him.

Her long curly, snow white hair pooled on the table as she leaned closer to the scaled man, "Please, Salamander, what did you expect with such ridiculous things in your hair? You couldn't have expected us to take you seriously, could you?" Salamander's face twisted into a snarl, with the woman's blue-painted lips shifting into a mocking smile,

"Hailscape, could you please not antagonize my father?" The two adults looked to the scaled boy, his claws tapping on the glass table.

Hailscapes smile fell into a disappointed frown as she looked to the boy, "Well, if you father had taught your sister how to use color correctly, then maybe I would be less inclined, Spitfire."

Spitfire rose from his chair, his large scaled wings unfurling from his back. A hate-filled glare thrown to Hailscape as Spitfire's body engulfed itself in flames. "OH, THAT'S RICH COMING FROM YOU! Hey, Hainscape, wheres your son? Oh, that's right, he's stuck in penance pillar because YOU sent him to rob one of the most well-protected banks in the country! And now he's paying for YOUR bad decision!"

As Spitfire finished the hearty laghter of salamander filled the room. The larger man walked over to Spitfire, patting the boy on the back, "I couldn't have said it better myself, son."

Salamander looked around the room locking eyes with everyone there, "If any of you have a problem with my daughter's passion then you all have failed as parents."

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It had started out like any other day. I hit snooze on the alarm three times, each time wishing for only 5 more minutes. I decided to hit the bathroom and cleaned up, trying to figure out how to make the day profitable. I knew that each hedge fund I managed would continue to rise, as long as the market was bearish. However, almost half of the NYSE Top 30 were showing signs of meeting goal, which didn't bode well for me!

I got to work about 15 minutes early, trying to see if the DJIA and the NASDAQ were actively trading, and in which direction. The algorithm I had relied on recommended more investment in the index funds, and focus on the NASDAQ. Rumors of a breakthrough in the tech industry were seeing more speculation for some of the blue chip companies.

The hedge funds all looked okay right now, but if an announcement in the field of quantum physics came before cose of business, it could throw the entire trading floor into an uproar. The trading may go off the scale, and if massive selloffs from non-tech became viral, I could kiss my bonus and possible my career goodbye!

Although the hedge funds were still okay, I suddenly felt dizzy, as if the whole world were spinning out of control. I closed my eyes and laid my head on my desk. When I looked up, I noticed that the clock was showing 5 PM, and my colleague was patting me on the shoulder. I was shocked to see my hedge funds triple what I had seen!

My boss had called our investors, and told them to consider rollovers, since the likelihood of the value increasing was slim. He waved me into his office, and handed me a huge bonus check. The amount was enough to almost retire, and more than enough to send my son to college.

The next week saw me recognized as hedge fund manager of the year, and the firm manager handed me an award and another bonus, since out clientele had nearly doubled. I sent about half of the bonus to my son, and banked the rest in my annuity. Retirement looked great, and with the investments and annuities bringing in more than enough, I decided to get that colonial in Great Neck.

We moved in the next week, and I made sure the property taxes were handled. My son was very happy to help me move, and we had dinner at the Four Season to celebrate. I took him to JFK to return to school for the next semester. I hugged him, and drove home. One month since the day everything had changed, and my life was now comfortable, and my son had a bright future.

When I awoke, I was not in the colonial, but back in my New Jersey brownstone! My son was yelling for me to get up and not to miss the train to work. He told me to not worry about tuition, that his summer job would cover next semester. When I got to work, my colleague told me to try and pray for a miracle of saving my career!

My boss called me in for a conference about 11 AM. I slunk in, and he told me that if the NASDAQ didn't turn around before close of business, he may have to make me a stock broker, and let a recent graduate take my place as hedge manager. I worked tirelessly to get our dwindling clientele to hold their investments, and luckily some decided to invest more.

The NASDAQ did turn around with more investments by the end of the day, and my boss came by and patted me on the back. For now, my position was secure. The next month saw me slowly make small adjustments to the investments, and the hedge funds were stronger than before this all started.

As I shook my boss's hand, he handed me a bonus check. It was not nearly as big as my previous, but enough to buy another semester for my son. The dream of the colonial could wait another year. I would not have a shot at hedge fund manager of the year, but I got a smaller bonus for being top hedge fund manager for the region.

I woke up after New Year, and I was shocked to find myself in a mansion on Long Island. My son came in and showed me the trading activity and hedge fund activity. I looked at the name of the fund at the top of his laptop, and it was mine and his! He was in his mid-20s, and my partner. He called for the staff, and escorted me to breakfast.

He told me the next partner's meeting would be Monday, January 5th. Until then, we were to complete our company's tax return with the CPA firm. We were to meet with them on the 3rd. We went over our agenda for the month and quarter, and agreed it was timely. Today, we were going to a fund raiser at Carnegie Hall, followed by a presentation of "Rent."

The entire day was great. My son was surprised when I seemed to forget the names of some of out oldest friends. Then, it happened. I was just ready to get used to our new lifestyle when I realized that the constant in all of this was my boss. Somehow, he had not changed, even being one of the hedge fund partners. I decided to confront him, and see if I could catch him messing with my life specifically, and the universe in general!

I slid into his office after the partner's meeting, and snooped around. I noticed nothing of the ordinary. Suddenly, I realized that he had been pushing a new NASDAQ account, and the firm was the same one that was rumored to be on the verge of a breakthrough in quantum physics. I observed that he had received several large checks from this firm, and each check had a footnote of "Project Shuffle".

SEC would probably be interested in his checks from the QP firm, and I spoke with my son. He agreed we were probably looking at insider trading. I talked to legal, and they got the necessary permission to audit his activities. QP popped up on his account at least twice a day for the past year, and he had received a monthly check from them.

Legal turned all this over to the SEC, and I led the treasury agents to his office. My son brought our private security force to meet us, and as we entered his office, he was pushing several buttons in his closet. I told him to put his hands on his head. He was sweating, and he began to slowly put his hands up. Suddenly, he hit the enter button on his PC, and I was back at my desk, looking at a normal trading day.

Since the QP firm really did exist, I figured that if his memory carried from one leap to another, he would probably either try to get rid of me, or shift the blame. The only man I knew I could trust was my friend in legal, so I called him and asked him to have tech look into my boss's activities with QP.

At lunch, my boss called me into his office, not aware of the call. He thanked me for a somewhat profitable quarter, and gave me my standard bonus. After the day was over, I arranged to have dinner with Frank from legal. He assured me they had more than enough to call in the SEC. The next day, my boss was being walked out of his office in cuffs, and the CEO thanked me for my diligence, along with Frank and tech.

I was given two weeks vacation for the holidays, and my son asked me how I managed to figure out what was going on. Rather than explaining the whole story, I simply reassured him that I wanted to make sure my son had a future, and that the universe was as it should be!

If the burrito didn't work they had a few hundred tons of meth to dish out

Nice idea for a prompt. Apparently we did recently prove that unobserved particles exist.

Just in case anyone doesn't know, the reason quantum mechanics phenomena change when observed isn't that it knows something concious is watching, it's because to observe something you have to have a particle bouncing off of it. For example, the reason we can see things is that there are particles of light bouncing off of them.

The problem with this is that all particles, light included, carry some amount of energy/momentum, so when they bounce off of the subatomic particles we want to observe, it changes the state of that subatomic particle the same way a ball bouncing off of another would change the 2nd ball's speed/position. This is why it's called the "uncertainty principle", because to observe something we have to bounce something off of it and extrapolate based on that, so we are "uncertain" what the particle we want to observe was like before the interaction.

All of this is just in case people wanted an explanation for this phenomenon, not because I think anyone actually thought it worked like in the OP.

Edit: clarifying a bit

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