Thanks, it was a very creative scenario!

Thanks! I had to resist trying to name-check a bunch more specific subreddits for this one.

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>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include "[Poem]" >* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail >* See Reality Fiction and Simple Prompts for stricter titles >* Be civil in any feedback and follow the rules

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It was a great prompt!

Thank you!

Thanks! This was probably the one I was least confident in so far.

I've been on Reddit for less than a month. I'm glad to be officially initiated.

You’re already at the party when I arrive. Of course you are. You don’t make an entrance; you’re the one who’s there to greet everyone. You make sure they feel welcome. I can’t help but admire that about you. Of course, you also can make sure they talk to the right people, and make the connections you want them to make. That’s one of the ways you wield your power, so subtly it’s almost invisible. I can’t help but respect that too.

I don’t mean to make an entrance. But when you stop mid-sentence to look at me – well, that makes everyone else look too. Part of me still hates how your gaze makes me tingle, that gaze that I know is just for me, no matter how many other beautiful women are in the room. I watch as your eyes go over my neckline, but your biggest smile comes just above it.

“You’re wearing it,” you mouth silently to me.

I was wearing it the first night we met. It was the last thing Infiltration Wing gave me, after months of tests and months more in the secret clinic under New Carthage, where I got the genetic alterations and cosmetic surgeries I’d need to get close to you. A single-use attack swarm, hidden inside a crystal pendant the size of my thumb.

I didn’t use it at that first party. Too much risk of collateral damage. I wanted to get you alone. And I did. But by then, you had looked at me like that – and had given me the other, more private look that you saved for my eyes only. You had whispered my name that wasn’t mine in my ear so passionately that I wished it was my name, I wanted it to be my name. And at the end, you had touched the pendant.

“This is so beautiful,” you told me. “Wear it for me always, so I’ll remember the night we met.”

Now, you put your hand on the small of my back and guide me through the crowd. I feel so safe, when I’m with you. I spent my whole life never feeling safe. And I know that was because of you too, so much of my fear and pain were because of you, I should want you dead, I want you dead, but this feeling of safety that you give me now – it’s so hard to give up. I want to get to feel it just one more night.

I lean against you as you discuss a new opera, old literature that’s banned for people who aren’t here in this room, how to improve the flow of traffic in the upper city. This is what I always wanted. Listening to these kind of conversations. I want everyone to be able to, of course I do, but deep down I know I wanted it for me. And now I have it. And I have you.

You’re engrossed in your conversation with one of the regents, but my mind is wandering, and that’s how I see the assassin.

One of the waiters isn’t as mind-wiped as he appeared, and he’s dropping the tray, and he has a knife in his hand, and he’s coming for you. “Death to tyranny!” he’s shouting.

Nobody else is moving. Not even you. Not even me. I have an image in my mind of you stabbed, dying on the floor. Leaving me alone. And I know, in that moment, that I couldn’t bear it. I can’t lose you.

And so I touch the pendant. I release the attack swarm at the assassin.

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The emu war is very weird but a significant portion of people on Reddit probably know about it by now due to Australia constantly being made fun of as the only country to wage a war against birds and lose.

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I went through it and I didn't recognize any grammar or tense issues. I find it's easier for me to notice that kind of thing in others' writing than in my own. Can you point them out for me.

I was worried while I was writing it whether the whole thing might come off as cliché but I guess that's not always a bad thing. As you said, you think it's well executed and I would agree that the manner of writing can sometimes be more important the substance.

As for the bear? I was thinking about putting more gags in involving it, but it was really late in the morning for me and I just wanted to post something.

All said and done I'm really glad that you enjoyed it, and based on my upvote count so far, others are enjoying it too. This is a real confidence boost for me to continue working on my writing skills and putting more work out there.

never expected that, amazing, great writing and great ending

I love it!

👍👍👍😄🐶🐶🐶

I fucking love it.

Make sumn up then :p

Still... These seem insanely obscure.

Thank you! I possibly will depending entirely on how I feel in the next little bit.

I have an approximate knowledge of many things.

It's that easy. "Karma" they call it, the "Contrappasso". I call it blind, for it knows not what it does. A blind judge is no judge at all. She sees no truth, but can hear every lie. My Karma is no justice either. It hears only what I wish it to hear. Only sins. Only harm.

Each and every man does harm in the course of his life. They balance it out by aiding other people, repairing items or healing injuries done by others. It's a simple cycle... and one I ignore.

I tighten my grip. The "Hero" before me is no more than a child. He may wear a mask and black clothing... but he's a child nonetheless. And he too, is powerless before me. I can tell that his greatest sin is making his mother cry. That one is his biggest shame too. He tried to repent many times. Tried to help civillians, tried to save hundreds of lives, just to say that he really tried to do better. And truth is, he did. "Night Walker"... he truly is this country's hope.
But I do not care. Throughout his righteous work he slapped many wrists. One cracked bone is a small price to pay, right? So long as in the end, you've done more good than evil. Well, one crack slowly grows into a hundred. At some point you look at what you've done and you see thousands of cracked bones, each and every one exchanged for tens of saved lives. You're a hero, right?

Well, he's certainly one. But then he decided to cross me. I can tell he's crying by now. I did not even hurt him that much beforehand... and so I know that it's not a lament of pain, but one of fear. He can already tell there's no getting out of this one. The skin on his forearm, once pure and white, now withers into gray. Then it cracks. Then so does the flesh beneath. Within seconds, Night Walker, the impossibly gifted and powerful Night Walker, is reduced to ash.
For a man of my profession that should be an amazing achievement, but I do not even smile. I'm not the kinda villain that laughs after killing... but that one really hit a somber tone. I was once a kid like him. Joined the league, done my service as a sidekick, all the jazz. They really liked the kid who could "Immobilize people who did evil!" Yeah, back then I caused *just* overwhelming pain. Eye for an eye kind of thinking. But then I accidentally stole the spotlight from the wrong "hero" and I learnt that there is no true justice in this world. I don't really blame the guy for thinking I was dead. Even after all these years, the limp isn't getting any better and well, the eye never regenerated.

That man, "The Blaze", was my first kill. More soon followed. They really never connected the dots. There is no innocent man before me. Every brother is a murderer, every sister a whore. What hope do you have? Well, there is one. That when we meet, it is to make business and not war.

"Justice is blind..." that much is true, but she's willing to listen. And this old man's got his silver tongue.

Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.

Reminders:

>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include "[Poem]" >* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail >* See Reality Fiction and Simple Prompts for stricter titles >* Be civil in any feedback and follow the rules

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“So do you have a girlfriend?”

“A girlfriend? Nah, not me. Nothing serious like that. You?”

“Me neither.”

“But I like to have fun. With girls!”

“Love to have fun with girls, man.”

“If I meet the right one- the right girl I mean-”

“The right girl, for sure, man-”

“-Maybe that’ll change things. But for now I like to keep things chill.”

“I like to keep it chill too. My mom keeps asking me when I’m gonna get a girlfriend, I just tell her, mom, chill.”

“My mom would freak out if she knew about… all the girls, you know?”

“My mom would freak the girls out. Wait- dude, you okay?”

“Yeah, I just-shit- Oh, hey, Derrick, how’s it going?”

“Hey Alex, how’s it going! Oh man, Carlos? You two know each other?”

“We were just-”

“Oh damn, am I interrupting?”

“No, no, we were just chilling.”

“You sure? Because the last thing I want is to be a third wheel on your date.”

“He’s not- wait-”

“Well, gentlemen, now that I’ve made things less awkward after all – would you both be down for a nightcap up at my place?”

“Oh, thank god.”

The missle accelerated faster to a fraction of c while the generational ship ramped it's speed up (and then down) slowly in comparison, since it was humungus in size?

That wouldn't make much of a difference over 65m years, since even at 1g acceleration you get to 10% of c in a few decades.

It was at this moment James knew, he fucked up.

I have less plot than george lucas when he had to explain why darth vader was designed like he was