The tiny oculus stood still for a fraction of a second and then continued scraping along the surface of the board. "Y O U" laying still on the U, the ghost had finished its message.

"Oh you sonova... This isn't a joke you asshat, pay your share of the rent, spirit, or else".

A moment passed and the scraping on the board continued "O R E L S E W H" but before it could finish "you sassy spectre, I'll call ghostblasters to blast yo haunting ass, that's what". It was a bluff, of course, choosing violence wasn't an option, but getting rent was priority enough to warrant hardballing the freeloader. Only hope was that the spooky ghost didn't call the bluff.

As if pondering on the threat, the oculus stood still on the board for a minute, when suddenly the drawer with all the house documents burst open and a single sheet of paper flew next to the ouija board.

The oculus then enlivened and scraped along "L I N E 4 7" before again remaining still, taunting with its mere presence.

The paper was the rent agreement and reading out loud line 47: "of every month, the tenants living in the residence SPOOKSTREET 5 B3 must pay a sum of 669 shillings- Yeah, you've got to pay half, so uh 315". Immediately the oculus continued "R E A D I T A G A I N". Instead going for the immediate retort "No, this is pointless, you give me rent".

"N O" the ghost replied, "I D O N T L I V E H E R E" the oculus continued while the full realization kicked in.

"I A M D E A D Y O U I D I O T".

Thanks for the critique, I'm still figuring out what "voice" would be suited for each piece I write, like is it narrated or in first person. I've been told recently I need more detail in my writing, other times too much detail. I'm glad you liked it though

Don't apologize! This has some really fun ideas. Is the pet a bird?

Excellent question that i tpo would like an answer to

Not sure if it's the same for computer, but on mobile, I click the 3 dots under the comment and then the bell that says 'get reply notifications'

I looked around, curiosity eventually giving way to worry. I'd been given the job of cleaning out Medusa's lair, taking all the statues away, all that stuff. There would probably be people who wanted to take over the area as land. I knew how people worked. They'd tell "the great tale of how they took this land from the terrifying monster," as if they'd ever swung a sword in their life.

This... wasn't what I'd signed up for, first of all. I considered for a good portion of time whether I should pull back, report what I'd found and leave the actual movement for someone else. But my curiosity prevailed and overcame what I could only imagine was my common sense trying to keep me safe-ish. So I made my way towards the cabin, gazing at the numerous statues.

What was odd was... there seemed to be two types of statues. One were the traditional "big shot heroes," swords, bows, axes, whatever their weapons of choice were. I'd heard stories, my friends heard stories, everyone had heard stories. They were all frozen in what you imagine when you hear about Medusa's stone gaze. Mid swing, shouts frozen forever in throats, petrified armor shielding cold skin.

But there were a few, and it was a remarkable few, that... weren't heroes. I almost felt I recognized one or two faces. Faces of people in repose, of people sitting or kneeling amongst stone- no, actually carved flowers. Someone made these very intentionally. There weren't faces of terror either. It seemed relaxed, often with faint smiles or such.

That's when I noticed the boxes. Not stone, either. These were wooden boxes. Out of curiosity I opened the closest one, a box by one of the heroes. There was a handwritten note in it, which I opened. It was the name of someone I didn't recognize, but the note said they were a hero of some sort. As a matter of fact, it listed a couple other things they'd done. They weren't a major hero like Achilles or... Hercules or whatever, but they'd saved a few villages.

The other boxes contained similar notes, at least in the heroes' cases. Those few that seemed happy were very different, though. While the heroes' notes were seemed to be written by the same person, those notes were written different styles, probably by different hands.

Those notes also had varying contents. Some talked about how they were just tired with the world. Others expressed a fear of death. Still others didn't want to grow old and withered, wanted to stay young and pristine forever. A rare few wanted to be reunited with family.

...They'd posed on purpose. They wanted Medusa to freeze them. Medusa had frozen mostly people who'd attacked her, but there were some who came here to intentionally to be petrified. I crouched by the last box I'd opened for a time, considering.

Then I stood up and turned towards the cabin.

Nice!

The conductor had saved this piece for his final encore. It was to be his last performance, but he wanted it to mean everything. This was for his idol.

After getting the signal that the audience was at attention, he looked out over his charges. Violins at the ready. Percussion standing by. A choir taking their deep breaths. With subtle flicks of his hand, he counted off the 6/8 time needed. And with a nod, he brought the instruments in for the final movement of the Ninth.

The many stringed instruments played their intro, loudly sending the tones of the great German echoing through the concert hall. As they finished setting the tone, the percussion joined in, a long cymbal roll producing a crescendo designed to invite singing. And sing, the choir did, at full volume:

Freude, schöner Götterfunken,
Tochter aus Elysium,
Wir betreten feuertrunken,
Himmlische, dein Heiligtum!

The lyrics of Schiller joined the glorious melodies and enraptured the crowd who had gathered. But the old master conductor wasn't satisfied. It wasn't enough that they heard this glory; they must feel it! As his baton wagged back and forth in time, his free hand raised upward, encouraging both orchestra and choir to be louder. Always, in his mind, fortissimo, FORTISSIMO, maximum volume!

As the choir switched from German to English, from Schiller to Van Dyke, from Ode to Hymn, the conductor felt it in the podium and in his heart. This, THIS was what the idol had intended. A noise to rock the heavens, a paean to the very feeling of positivity that the universe would sense! Let them know, he thought! Let them all see what humanity can do when blessed with euphoria!

Choir and orchestra ended their beautiful noise in a frenzy of heavenly inspiration:

Melt the clouds of sin and sadness,
Drive the dark of doubt away.
Giver of immortal gladness,
Fill us with the light of day!

As the performance ended and the musicians recovered, the conductor waited. The orchestra stood first, as one, and bowed. The conductor pointed to his choir, which in turn took their bows. And as he caught his breath, he saw his first violinist telling him to turn around.

Thousands of men and women, in their finest suits and dresses, were standing, their hands producing a noise that reciprocated the piece. The conductor bowed as well and, after sufficient time, walked off the stage to the back.

Stagehands first, directors second, then his fellow performers -- all greeted him, congratulated him on a fine career and a wonderful finale. The conductor stood and took notice of their words before turning to his interpreter. With a flurry of hand gestures, the interpreter helped him understand what they were saying: Ludwig would have been pleased with that final encore.

He stood and smiled in his personal silence. He had done his idol proud.

[WC: 480]

Looking forward to the isekai adventures of Truck-Kun in Bearworld.

Then I succeeded what I was going for.

Thanks!

[removed]

Uhm. How can I know when part 2 arrives?

Eh, writing prompts are meant to inspire stories, not make them stick to the formula defined in the prompt.

General kenobi

My owner is rather crazy. Their mating partner had a beast for a pet. It was tall, fat, and had voids in its fur. The sound it made was as loud as thunder. No it was thunder itself. Its cold dead eyes stared at me now. Thunder streaming out of its mouth. I was now squeezing in to the farthest corner away from the beast, awaiting death at its sharp teeth that could probably cut through my cage. I’ve seen it eat what I think was bones of it’s enemies. I had heard myths when I was in the shop of a thing called a dog. Now what stood before me was it the beast a dog. Shortly there after I heard the mating partner come stomping down the stairs. She too had a void instead of the protective fur that humans can take off. She was skinny and ugly. She said “ Aww, Max you can’t play with the Gina.” In a cute voice. She was even crazier than my owner. She owned the dog. She pet it. She said you can’t play. When the beast wanted to eat me and chew on my bones. She was the one who gave the beast its bones. Ever since she moved in I haven’t gotten out of my cage. I was trapped in a smaller cage then what a used to have. In a house with the beast. Sorry if its bad it is my first time commenting on this subreddi.

Done, check the comment you replied to

She's been missing for a few hours now.

She didn't tell me where she went or where she wanted to go, she just stormed off. Nobody around has seen her and nobody heard of her going anywhere. I searched around for a while, was close to giving up and then I decided to look around our backyard just for good measure. There I saw the door on the old toolshed half opened with a strange glow peeking through.

My God.

She was sitting on the ground, covered in her blood, in a strange circle drawn on the rotten wooden floor with a knife deep in her chest right next to a locket producing that glow. At first, I was filled with confusion, then regret, then sorrow and then confusion again. She saw me, stood up and hung that locket onto my neck.

I've never felt like this before. I could feel a deep warmth within me, as if my own body was trying to keep me from going cold. I could feel my own weight pressing upon my legs. The confort of my shoes and the coldness of the air. Sensations I could feel, but that I couldn't experience or savour.

"I gave you a piece of myself, of my soul, so that if I ever go away something will always keep you warm and so that if you ever go away I'll rest safely knowing that you'll always carry a piece of me".

And from that day forth, I always wore it no matter what I did. Wether it be swimming, riding or sleeping I always wore it. Wounds hurt a little harder and my nose has been getting runny, but I don't care. I love her.

It's haunting. Really really good!

“Hey, you’re Cade Lear, right?”, Natalie happily asked, “The new guy? Oh, is it alright if I call you that? Or you prefer another…?”

“Oh, it’s fine. I usually go with ‘they / them’, but you can also use ‘he’ or ’she’, I wouldn’t mind”, Cade casually explains, “Same with ‘mister’ or ‘miss’, either of them is fine.”

“Ah, I see.”

“And yes. That’s me, Cade Lear”, Cade lends out a hand, “It’s a pleasure to meet you… um…”

“Natalie Carol, Nata for short”, Natalie took her hand, giving a small but welcoming shake, “Welcome to the PCID, Cade. We’re glad to have you here.”

After they let go, Natalie picks up the glass kettle, pouring out some hot coffee, “Would you like some coffee? I guarantee you the drinks here are nothing like those crappy, cheap ones you saw at other offices.”

“I’d love to. Thank you.”

Cade takes a warm cup Natalie handed to her, filled with black coffee, fresh and steaming. They blew on the hot drink, took a quick sip. Wow, they are absolutely astonished by the incredible taste of bitter mixed with sweet. Natalie was right, this stuff is ambrosia.

“Hm, this is good. Did you made this?”

“No, it was Kallen, our boss man”, Natalie puts back the kettle, “He rocks this stuff.”

Cade’s eyes landed on the small logo sticker on the object, the logo of their department, “Um, mind I ask?”

“Go ahead.”

“Why is ‘PCID’ named… like that?”, Cade points at the logo, “It’s called ‘Paranormal Counsel and Investigation Department’, right?”

Natalie leans back at the counter, hands resting on both sides, “Yes. And Kallen is the one coming up with the name.”

“Huh…”

“And yeah, it actually sounds better if we use ‘Supernatural’ instead of ‘Paranormal’, seeing what our department expertise in. But when you write out the acronym, it will spell ‘SCID’. We don’t want our department to share its name with a disease now, do we?”

Cade laughs, “No, I guess. The name was not very cash money.”

“See, you get it now.”

So the spirit is willing to give rent as long as they fuck?

In real actuality the coin would just act as a normal classical object, since the environment will act as observer.

Read the Sir Bearington greentext. One of DnD's finest shenanigans.

Thanks for the comment, and for pointing out the name mixups. Edited to fix that

I was the last human on Earth. This is what I think happened. Nuclear War ravaged our planet, destroyed every city, every town, every man woman and child. But not me. See, I was an astronaut. I was slowly descending from space, and barely avoided the barrage of nukes set off by every country. I landed near where Australia should have been, but found myself in an ocean with no Australia. The ship that was supposed to pick me up was nearby, and still moving. The people on board that ship were well alive, but as it got closer I could tell something weird was happening. All of a sudden, the ship burst into flames. The crew had fought each other to the death, so I figured. The boat blew up in front of my eyes. One man had managed to get aboard the life boat, a roughly twenty foot fishing vessel, but by the time I reached that boat, he had succumbed to his injuries. Anyways, decades later, after traveling the world alone and desperate to find another singular being, I was sleeping in a cabin in the Rocky Mountains. A cabin I claimed as my own. The town outside had been full of bodies, decomposing and rotting before I got there. I buried as many as I could find. Men, women, children. Their pets too. Most animals had also died in the great explosion. I truly was the last human on Earth. I enjoyed my life, growing my own food, living off the land. The winters weren't so bad either. No companies to turn off my power, no need to use electricity. Besides the occasional repair tool, that is. A life of solitude and peace. Until that night about twenty years ago. As I slept, a loud humming noise came from the sky, waking me up. Startled, I ran outside. "Is it a car?" I thought out loud. Then, a light shined down on me from the night Colorado sky. Several figures appeared, almost as if they teleported right in front of me. They saw the town I had lived in and maintained. I couldn't understand them, but it seemed they were impressed. Next, they motioned me to follow them into their ship. I went, having no other choice and no way to defend myself from these figures from space. They gave me what seemed to be a weapon of sorts, wanting to see what I'd do. I accidentally broke it half with almost zero effort. They looked shocked, and impressed. One made me lie down, and used some sort of laser to pull my blood without even using a needle. Then they showed me the way out, and left. It was once again just me on Earth, until about five years from then. The aliens had returned. This time, they opened their doors wide. It was like watching a football stadiums roof opening, except it was a door. Excited, they led me towards their ship. When I arrived, I saw many humans. I was skeptical, for I had flown all over the world looking for life, and had found none. But here they all were. I went to greet them, only they didn't understand me. The aliens pointed them towards the town, and pointed at me. When they pointed at me, all of the almost 400 humans bowed towards me. Then, the aliens were gone again. Like magic, just disappeared without a trace. The humans came to me, speaking a language I knew nothing of. It sounded like the language the aliens had spoken. Then I noticed something disturbing. All of the males looked like me. All of the women had the same face as well, but not mine. I shouted above the crowd "Does anyone here speak English?" The crowd parted like the Red Sea, and the most beautiful woman I've ever seen stepped forwards. "Hello, I'm Gerry, the original human these women are based on. You must be Archer. I've heard about you, from the alien host." Shocked, I just stood there. She shouted to the aliens in the alien language, before turning to me to say "I told them this is their home too. They will learn to live as you have, and they have been instructed to procreate." I finally was able to speak, and I said "Oh good Lord the last thing we need is humanity on this planet again. Look what happened before, nothing good can come of this!" Laughing, she turned towards me and said "Oh, how wrong you will be."

​

And that kids is how I met your mother.

Knew that someone had to go the "Bear was summoned to Isekai World and became a Hero" route.