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

🆕 New Here? ✏ Writing Help? 📢 News 💬 Discord

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

I just had sex with my wife and I feel more depressed and empty than ever. Sarah was half asleep on her stomach for the entire ordeal, whispering "was that good baby" after I came. She promptly fell asleep. It was 1am, the kids were asleep in their own rooms and we had just spent the evening watching netflix before going to bed. As I laid there I thought about my past life...my old heartthrob that burned me so bad that I still think about her all these years later. I thought getting married and having kids would have erased that pain. I guess I hate the fact that I'll never hurt her the way she hurt me.

I think about the direction my life took with my career. My resentments towards people who told me to make a career in something I dislike. I resent the need to stay in this career in order to make money to support my family. We've been married for 10 years. About 4 years ago I began to fantasize about leaving my family. Cutting all ties and just moving somewhere to pursue what I always should have been pursuing in life...music, acting...art! Anything other than what I am doing! I don't have to move far away either. Just far enough away to be out Sarahs spere of influence.

I also resent having kids. They are another reason that I can't pursue what I want in life. Taking up all my time and energy. Sometimes it's hard to hide my irritation with them. The constant grind that started 2 years after we married hasn't let up since. Other parents say they love they're kids and would do anything for them. I love them too but I hate them for stealing my freedom away.

My urge to alter my mind prompted me to go to a bar and have a few drinks in the company of strangers. When I showed up there was hardly a soul here just a couple playing pool and the bartender. I sat at the bar, smiled at the bartender and ordered a Bacardi and soda. We chit chatted for a moment and then he carried on with his tasks of cleaning and lining glasses and cutting up garnishments for the evenings rush. By my 3rd Bacardi and Soda and I was feeling toasty and the infomercial on the bar TV was fascinating. A unkept individual walked through the door and sat right next to me smiling. He looked like hell and obviously hadn't showered in a month at least. I showed obvious irritation toward him but I refused to move over. The bartender didn't think it was inappropriate for him to be up in my face so I just accepted the situation. After another drink I relaxed again. The man hardly talked to me and I to him. I just kept thinking about how much he stank. The man spoke about his special powers which he learned from his grandmother who was from the Old Country and how he can bless and curse people. This made me a little afraid. He said I could realize my deepest desires by coming to his homeless encampment and taking part in a shrine ritual. I was pretty drunk by this point so doing anything sounded rather exciting. The bartender flashed an eyebrow in my direction as if to say, "you sure you want to go with this guy?"I followed this gentleman outside and onto a bike trail which ran behind the bar. We walked for around 20 minutes. I started to sober up in the cold air and began regretting ever embarking on this adventure. Finally we walked off the bike trail into a hidden grove of tangerine trees. On one edge there was his tent, a fire pit in the middle and on the opposite edge there was a shrine. It was a shrine with Catholic icongraphy and candles lit about. As seemingly innocent as this looked I began to regret ever following this gentleman out here. It felt otherworldly. Like I didn't just walk off the biketrail a mile from the bar but that I was transported to another time and country. He noticed my apprehension and said, "we'll make this quick". He told me to kneel at the alter and pray to the Holy Mother. I did just this wanting the whole thing to be done with. I began to miss my sweet wife, kids and hearth. The man placed his fingers on my temple and began chanting a gutteral Latin. Chants that could never have been associated with the Catholic Church not even from an early age. At this moment I passed out.

I woke up this morning hungover and alarmed. I wasn't lying in my bed. In fact I never made it back to the bar because I was still in the grove. I was lying in an odor ridden tent and apparently I took off all my clothes and put on the homeless mans. My face felt funny and my emotions were different. Like I was running on different hardware with the same software. I waded out of the tangerine grove and onto the biketrail where I was met with scowls by morning trekers. I walked into a grocery store bathroom and upon looking into the mirror I made the horrible discovery that I was now the homeless man!

Incredibly well written

Thanks!

On the day a Daughter of S'kan was to become a Mother, she would be taken to the shores of the Mirror, and told the True History of the Shining Beings.

Every word was carefully crafted, to be repeated only to their Daughters, when they were about to be Mothers themselves, such a Sacred History it was.

So the old Mother sat her Daughters before her, so they could watch the stars in both the Mirror and the sky, and she began her tale, like her Mother did with her, and her Mother's Mother, and so on.

"They came from the sky, my Daughters, in shinny carriages spewing fire more blinding than any ever seen.

They were as tall as five grown Mothers atop each other, and their apendages ended in five parts, as ours end in six. Their wore pure white and silver, and their faces were obscured by a mirror even more perfect than the one before us. As such, we called them the Shining Ones.

They came, my Daughters, and they saw S'kan, and all the riches of this world, and for many cicles they stayed and explored.

When they arrived, the Leader Mother was afraid of these strange beings. Her people were uneasy too, uncertain if these new beings were salvation or destruction, new Gods to be adored or Monsters to be fought. So she made her people hide inside the deep of the caves, and went to spy these beings herself.

The Leader Mother saw that these strange beings were carefull in their actions, and gentle with the world around them, so much smaller than they were. And while scared, she though she could try and give them gifts, so they would leave in peace.

She secrectly left to them offerings of fruit and meat in a weaved basket, like she would to a visiting Mother, and watched from her hidden place as it was received by them, each of the Shining Ones taking turns holding the offerings.

She prepared rare flowers and gems polished smooth, then, and while this too was received well, she noticed that they were searching for the one leaving the gifts. And so, while she wept for her Daughters, she knew whar had to be done to appease the Shining Ones.

She returned to her people, and informed them of her decision, and what she had learned. Then, she went to the Shining Ones, and with her she took her Daughters, and said to the Leader of the Shining Ones:

'Take me, O'Great Ones, and my Daughters if you wish, but please do not harm my people. We have nothing more to offer you, but we will serve you as our Gods.'

But the Shining Ones were nothing but kind, and instead thanked the Mother for her gifts. They knelt on the earth, as not to tower over her, such huge beings that they were, and they said:

'We are not Gods, but we travel through the stars looking for Life. We have been looking for a long time, and we are so happy to finally meet you and your Daughters, we are so happy we are not alone anymore'. They offered their friendship, and guidance, and gave us our precious Mirror, the very one in front of you.

They travel even now, searching for Life, but they promised us that, on the day we were to travel the stars as they do, they would welcome us all to their sky, and into their Home as we had.

Don't forget, my Daughters, the Shining Ones. The friendship they have forged across stars, of the loneliness of these beings who traveled for so long looking for others. Don't forget about the 'Humans'. "

Amazing story! :D

Change that Lambo into a Toyota Corolla and we're getting somewhere

The earth cracks with a thunderous sound that sickens me. I just know it's the sound of broken bones, only multiplied by a thousandfold. The decayed hand of The Beast shoots up the wound on the ground, and grasps around until it finds leverage. A skinny arm pulls the tattered and ragged body up from the depths where it should stay, and two burning eyes focus on mine.

"Look how much you've grown!" The Beast howls, her voice making the ground shake. She lifts her other hand and it snaps up close to my face, pinching my cheek. Her skin is rough and her claws dangerous.

"You just have your mother's eyes, don't you? How long has it been? 10? 13 years?"

I shake my head. "Since when?" I manage to ask, trembling.

"Since you were born, silly. I held you just like this." The Beast mimes shaking something in her hand, as if she was holding an invisible pair of dice.

"I'm... I'm 34." I correct her. Her gasp pushes me back with a gust of air, and I land on my own ass.

"I can't believe it's been so long! How come?"

I look up at her. My vision is clouded with tears of fear.

"That's not possible! You died before the Age of Crystal!" I cry out. My knuckles are white on top of my fists.

"The what?" The Beast rises her head over the treeline and gasps again. The few animals that hadn't run away just yet flee for their lives. The forest is silent, her movements echoing through the unnatural stillness. "Where's the Keep? Aio, what's going on here?"

I recognize that name. Aio the Terrible. A figure of legend, the one that tried to revive The Beast and was thwarted by the Empire and the Council. That bloody war was almost as destructive as The Beast's original rampage.

She looks back at me. The grass on the ground flares up and burns away under her gaze. "Oh, I'm dreadfully sorry. You are not Aio, are you? I seem to be confused." She stomps her elbow on the ground, leaving a crater. Her horned, burning face lowers to look at me closer. "You do have my blood in your veins. You are family."

Her toothy mouth splits in a mockery of a smile.

"What do you think? Shall we try again, uh?" She asks. I simply pass out from the fear.

If it makes you feel any better I feel like as a longer story Ezra would have to survive and somehow rectify what had happened. I know I wrote it as choked to death but I’m fully open to him just being knocked out cold

You’d expect Ezra’s ancestor to be more courteous towards him, but it seems he has a reputation to uphold all the same.

[removed]

I just stood there, mouth a gape, staring with unbelieving eyes at the creature before me. It was as massive as it was terrifying, being 6 foot tall myself, it was easily twice my size. It had dark grey skin, almost like that of a rhino or elephant, but for all it's size it's head seemed almost disproportionately small, and with no visible neck. For being twice as tall it had too have been at least 4 or 5 times heavier, arms and legs like tree trunks, and a torso like one of those flat faced semi-trucks. By far the most terrifying part though were the eyes, not to mention the complete lack of any visible mouth or nose. It had four eyes, one pair where you would think eyes should be, and one pair being set a little closer to where one would think the creatures' ears would be. There was no white to it's eyes, just darkness, black in the center and dark shades of gray fading away from where I was sure the pupil was.

There was no doubt that the creature was looking at me though, it's gaze not quite looking me in the eye, but piercing, as if it were trying to see behind me, and it was quite unsettling. I had read about the creature only briefly, texts that even mention it were scarce and mostly in volumes speaking of mythologies. Images of it were scarcer still, but the memory of the few times I had seen them had certainly stuck. Those texts never gave a name, only referring to it as The Destroyer. In the ancient myths, it was believed to have been responsible for the razing of all of Atlantis.

Completely frozen in fear, I still just stood there staring at it, wondering where I had gone wrong in casting the spell. It was old magic and translation took a fair bit of time, but it was still fairly straight forward. The only real difficulty being finding the dragon scale needed for the fire. Then, in a low voice, I heard odd sounding words that seemed to be coming from the beast, though from where exactly I had no idea. When the sounds stopped, still utterly terrified, I could barely summon the courage to raise my hands and shoulders in an obvious state of confusion. I saw it's head tilt to the side a little and it's horrifying dark eyes somehow visibly narrowed. It was almost ten feet away, but with one step it closed the distance immediately and held out it's giant hand in front of my face. Flinching backwards a bit when it suddenly put forth one finger and reached to touch my head. The finger made contact with my left temple, and it was warm, almost hot. The sensation that followed was by far the most unsettling part yet, it was like when you're half asleep and you think you're falling, awakening in terror only to realize your still laying down. It was like that, but in slow motion and with the added twist of having the sensation of something trying to pull you from your body.

Lasting only a few long moments, the relief I felt when it pulled away was immeasurable. The monster took a half step back and raised it's hands to the sky, slowly lowering it's hands palm down, as if it were doing some kind of tai chai breathing exercise. Again, in a trance of complete fear, I was convinced it was going to cast some kind of spell and render untold destruction all around. It was odd though, cause no such spell came forth, and as strange as it was, it almost seemed to be shrinking. Suddenly the light bulb in my brain came on. It was getting smaller, but not only that, there were other curiosities happening at the same time. It's skin and eyes seemed to be getting lighter and it even looked as though it's eyes closer to the ear area were moving closer to where the more normally placed eyes were.

Right about when it was only about a foot taller than me was when things really started to get weird. The rear eyes got so close to the front ones, they were almost touching, until they were squeezed together and then suddenly merged. Things were starting to grow too, and it was quite unsettling. Hair was starting to grow out of the top of the head along with, what I was assuming was going to be, lips, ears, and a nose. It's chest seemed to be growing oddly too, as if it were becoming pregnant with two tiny, assumingly hideous creatures. Once it was my height it dawned on me what was happening, and I immediately looked away in embarrassment. How could I be so dumb, obviously it was changing into the form of a human woman. Furthermore, how ridiculous was it that I felt embarrassed at this particular moment.

Still looking away, I felt a light tapping on my shoulder. I turned to look over my shoulder very slowly, worried now that I would accidently see too much, stopping when I made eye contact with what turned out to be quite a lovely young woman. "Could I borrow your jacket dear? It seems people these days are quite modest, and I can't tell you how hungry I am right now."

let him cook

I will look that up, thanks.

It is very well written. As a sap that likes happy endings though I don't really like what happens to Ezra.

[removed]

It's extra cool because Destiny has a branch of humanity called exos, human minds in artificial robot bodies. Considered no less human than us. To be, that little detail just added an extra depth, happy accident or not.

Oh a happy accident I suppose. Never played destiny. I wanted something that made you think of exploration and fate and settled on destiny.

That was great! Was that a not-so-subtle nod to Destiny, with the ship being exo and designation Destiny? Or happy accident? Either way, great story, loved reading it.

Love the inclusion of the great filter hypothesis, ever since I watched the Kurzgesagt video I've been hooked on that one!

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

🆕 New Here? ✏ Writing Help? 📢 News 💬 Discord

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

High five stranger! Always nice to meet another reader of random things!

As the N'dri approached the end of the ceremonial opening of the hearing, a blast of noise crossed the pnyx to all members connected. The member of the lobyn-sentience blurred the field with it's insistence to be heard. An insistence that was amplified by the larger majority of beings assembled.

"Master Chair...we must know why? Why are biologicals here!?!" It's form rolling and seething in and out of itself as it spoke, unknown mechanisms squirming in agitation. D'wēn-Ito-720 felt the knowledge of it's concern and anger push in on it. Anger shared by almost every other Galac present.

Many other members joined in in that call for answers.

From the first moment that Earth-Sphere had learned of the existence of other sapient beings in the universe one thing had been clear to see. No organic races survived the creating or coming of Machine Minds. Mechanical beings just did not understand the need for organic or biological components given the fragile nature of them. To include something so easily damaged or mislead by its senses was not a part of the equation for them.

Some had even wiped out their organics, even if the organics had created them.

D'wēn-Ito-720 motioned to the small, biped beside it in the pnyx-field next to it, "This?" he replied trying to be heard over the cacophony of voices.

Earth-Sphere had seen that problem almost immediately when the data sharing began between them and the Galacs. The implications of it had been written about in science fiction for years and never ended well for biological races. It had all started with Capek's Rossum's Universal Robots and had continued into current times with simulations such as 'Screaming Claws', in which machine probes from outer space came to Earth and destroyed all humanity.

So something had to change.

"This is Chamberlain. A member of my household," D'wēn-Ito-720 actually felt the focus shift as a spectrum of responses crashed across the communication field.

More questions and demands hammered outward from connected members of the Galacs. Some for the immediate destruction of the organics. Some for the destructions of both the organic and Machine Minds of Earth-Sphere. Some members even went horrible beyond just those two demands. Acts of such violation that D'wēn-Ito-720 shunted them aside to a isolated buffer of memory.

Within hours of the contact being made with the Galacs, Earth's leadership had realized that they were in trouble. Machine Minds so much more advanced than they would not be able to be stood against. No technology could hide humanity. No technology could be used to protect them from a sea of machines that were older than Sol itself in some cases.

Death was coming for humans, hand in hand with the knowledge we are not alone.

The Chair N'dri spoke over the others, "a member of your household? Please!" it's disbelief peppering D'wēn-Ito-720 mind.

"Why yes, Honoured Chair." D'wēn-Ito-720 expanded its focus. "Distinguished members of the Council."

So, in the last act before making contact for the Earth-Sphere Collective had been to narrow the meaning of a word. A simple, small, three letter word. A word with the power to save humanity and its partnership with the sapient machines they had created. All other definitions but this one meaning had been removed from all records across Earth-Sphere. Even words related to the other possible meaning had been altered to isolate this word for it use in these hearings.

One of the last steps was to update the roaming children of Earth, Machine Mind space probes sent to find more planets for humanity and its children to live on. Relativistic space probes that took generations to get anywhere. The slow one of Alpha Centauri being the last one needing to be updated. It with it's complete encyclopedic database of Earth.

And now it was time to see if the plan worked.

"Why this is my 'pet', Chamberlain."

The human bowed...

​

Excerpt from the Merriam-Yutan Dictionary of 2742 (revised):
pet: /pet/ a tamed animal kept for companionship or pleasure.
[END]

Namely, a simple murder.

"Im afraid that this... curse you're asking for will cost quite a few pennies." He'd found the witch! Haha, he'd found her!

Well, it was more like she'd jump scared him after appearing out of nowhere in the fields with a sharp look in her eyes and a very severe look in her face.

"What!? But you'd done it without any sacrifices whatsoever last time!"

"Last time was an emotionally fueled attempt at getting back at your family. Now, me cursing you with living your days a frog would be more like a gift, and it's nowhere close to your birthday."

"Come now, missus, there mist be some other options here! Don't you understand how awful it would look for me to suddenly kidnap a few of my own people just for such a selfish wish!?"

"Oh, I know plenty, but we all have our roles to play, dear prince, and yours is one that even the fates cannot decipher." She said roles with a particular hiss that Michael couldn't recognise, but he found a rope to try and tug on so he took his chances.

"Now, now, there must be something that can be done with this arrangement! Surely there is something I have that you'd be more than willing to turn me into a frog for."

"...well, if you're so desperate, why not just give me your titles? You're leaving the title of king away so easily anyways, surely it would affect you little for you to give that title to me instead." There was a glean in the witch's eye as she said that, almost as if she had veen planning this all along.

"Oh, dear witch, if you grant me this one bout of pesce I'd give you everything including my father's will." Michael was being as earnest as he could when he said that.

"...then so it shall be-" and there the witch began muttering in gibberish that the prince, even now, could still not understand.

The next morning, the prince woke up with a croak and hopped away into a a river with waters and lily pads slowly trickling in. Inside the castle he was leaving behind, "Michale" waved goodbye before he, too, turned his back away from the window and marched towards the meeting room with more than quite a few new things to reform in mind