Prompt inspired by DanbyDraws' comic on r/comics!

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

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>* No AI-generated reponses 🤖 >* Stories 100 words+. Poems 30+ but include "[Poem]" >* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail >* [RF] and [SP] for stricter titles >* Be civil in any feedback and follow the rules

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Thanks for writing. If I have any critique at all, it's that you stayed too close to the prompt (I know, usually it's the opposite people complain about). Don't be afraid to kick it up a notch, add it some more details of your own.

• Where... Where am I?

• Where do you want to be?

• I'm... Not sure...

• That's why it's so empty in here... Is there any place you like?

• There's... The park... It's calm...

• Oh, good choice. See the grass? The trees? The birds?

• Wait... Is this real?...

• What does "real" mean to you?

• Am I dreaming?

• In a way, you are. In a way, you are not.

• ...

• I think you know already what happened.

• So... I'm not alive anymore?

• In the way you're used to... No, you're not.

• I see...

• Surpised?

• No... Just... Getting used to it...

• Sure. Take your time. You'll have plenty of it now.

• Who... Who are you?

• Who do you want me to be?

• Are you... God?...

• Most humans call me that way.

• And where are you?

• On your right.

• AAAAAAH!

• An old, bearded man? Well, I guess that's the most common impression of me. Oh, and sorry for the sudden appearence. I had to wait for you to choose how I would look.

• Wait... So you don't look like that? How do you look like?

• I don't "look" like anything, in the way you're used to. Even if I were to appear in your Universe, light wouldn't interact with me. Few things would.

• So you look like... What I think of you?

• Everything does, now.

• So nothing's real...

• Or everything is. In a way, this is more real than the life you just left.

• So I imagine anything here and it just happens? It just appears on thin air?

• Not exactly "air". But sure.

• Seems like the perfect afterlife.

• It is, if you want it to be.

• It seems... A bit too perfect...

• Too perfect to be real?

• Yeah...

• Look. I don't make the rules. You do.

• You don't make the rules?

• Not here. Think of it like... A game... I programmed it, but you choose how to play it.

• So, what rules did you program into it?

• Basically none. Or at least none you need to worry right now.

• So what's the meaning? What does this achieve?

• Philosophical thoughts already? That's nice to hear. See, this is so you get used to the idea of being here. And you can have a nice time while doing so.

• A nice time? So there's no punishment for bad people?

• No. No punishment or reward for being here. This is a common place for everyone. Punishment and reward are mostly something to happen in life.

• I see... Weird to think it happens like that...

• You'll get used to it.

• So, can I see my deceased relatives?... I mean... Not a visual replica of them, but the real them?

• Oh, them? No. They're not here anymore.

• Oh, so they... Went somewhere else?

• They were reborn.

• Oh, so reincarnation?

• That's it. But you can still interact with them. Or, exactly what they would do and say.

• This feels... Less real...

• Life on Earth itself isn't much different than this. It's just that you have less power there.

• How would it be real? If I wanted my uncle to say what I wanted, would he?

• Yes he would. But if you wanted your uncle to be your uncle, he would be.

• Seems like too much power...

• You'll get used to it. Back to the game analogy, some players like to play with cheat codes. Some like to play the game as it is. Some play both ways, depending on the day. I just gave you some cheat codes to play as you want to.

• And then... I reincarnate?

• When you're ready.

• And that is...?

• You'll know when it happens. But to be fair, you could reincarnate right now. I just feel like you don't want to, right now.

• Yeah... I'm still... Absorbing it...

• Take your time. Some reincarnate in a couple of days, others take a few thousand years. Either way, on Earth time, it's basically instant.

• So reincarnation is instant?

• Not really. You reincarnate in a time and place where you are needed. After it is your turn, at least.

• So... I got time... Right?...

• A bunch of it. You can do what you want with it.

• Any ideas?

• Oh, you humans do incredible stuff in this space. But in the first moments, some deal with regrets they had while living... Get the answers to any questions they had, even though they would forget it before reincaranating... Or they just... Have a nice time... Is there any place you would like to travel to?

• Oh, a bunch of them... Just... Not right now... I'll stay in this park for a little longer...

• Take your time.

• Hey... Just another question... How do I know you're real? I mean... How do I know you're really here, talking to me? Instead of being something inside my own mind?

• That's a good question... By the rules of the game, I guess you don't.

• I see...

• Does this bother you?

• No, no... I mean... Kinda...

• You'll get used to it.

• Yeah...

• Anything else?

• Well... Just some time alone, for now... Can I have it?

• Sure. Take your time. I'll be back when, and if, you need me.

• Thanks... I'll enjoy the view, for now...

• A sunset? Nice choice.

• It felt... Fitting...

• It is. Sunset, sunrise... The whole cycle. Not to mention it's a very nice thing to see.

• It is...

• Ok, so I'll be going now. Good night, I guess?

• Good night... And thanks for everything.

>Mentally managing thousands of complex relationships based on deceit sounds like an absolute fever dream

Man, synchronicity. It's weird you said "fever dream" and not literally anything else. I'm watching Bob's Burgers s7.e1 and the beginning has a bit that mentioned a fever dream and then my son told me about his fever dream, then I fuckin read your goddamn comment.

[removed]

[removed]

No amount of magical mushroom-stew was going to make me forget. Nothing would. I had kept chasing this idea that if I put enough lifetimes under my belt, somehow, someday, I'd look differently on things. That maybe if I put myself through enough mundane everyday shit from a 100 lifetimes, eventually I'd run out of space and have to leave some memories behind. And in a way, I did. I don't remember the name of the street I lived on as a kid, or the name of my first teacher in elementary school, I can't even picture the face of my first mom, but I still remember how you smoked your cigarettes like joints, how bad your jokes got when you became comfortable with someone, that one tuft of hair on the back of your head that you never managed to tame, and how you always looked at me like you wanted me there with you.

I also remember the lights flickering on our street, the song playing at the party next door, the smell of the kitchen, the bags under your eyes from all the crying and the makeshift-tourniquet you tried to use when you got cold feet.

I regret everyday that I wasn't able to make you see yourself how I saw you. For not being able to show you that it wasn't your fault, that no child can be held responsible for the dysfunctionality of their parents. Broken words from broken people gradually broke you, and you carried it with you until the day you finally left. I'm sorry I couldn't be more.

I think I'll live another couple of lifetimes, trudging along, doing nothing, passing from family to family. There is no rest until I let you go anyway.

frustrated river noises

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Unbelievably good. You should be proud of this.

As I stood with my fingers brushing the back of my beloved adventurer's neck, I thought of how silly my last words to him were. How silly...

​

A common misconception about cockroaches is that they can survive a nuclear bomb. I always thought it was silly how the can of Raid in my garage could be stronger than an atomic force. I was told that when the bomb hit, almost everything was eradicated. Everything but the few hundred people working in the mines, the Raid, and the cockroaches.

"Never question anything", screamed our hometown slogan on electronic billboards above the palace, the hum of the electricity so strong I could feel the hairs on his neck softly grasping at my fingers. The brakes of vehicles screeching in my ears, the snapping of the surveillance cameras coming off the billboards, the chatter of the bots whisking in and out of view, yet all of that was drowned out by the guilt echoing through my head. When we signed our life contracts, his swearing him to a life of conquesting adventure for the Empire, and mine to become a workerbot sworn to protect him against the cockroaches, I never thought this was how it would end.

At some point in time, the Empire decided that safety was in pairs, not numbers. They implemented a buddy system for life, with one partner carrying out deeds to advance the rebuilding of society, and the other remaining to labor and defend their assigned buddy from the cockroaches. It had only been 5 years since Gideon and I signed our contracts. The Wardens warned us not to pair up with someone you knew, especially someone you cared about, but we had promised each other since we were just kids quizzing each other on cockroach anatomy and the Beliefs of the Empire that we would always be best friends. To us, that meant that we were each other's safety in this world, and so of course it only made sense to pair.

But we were just kids then, and the pact we made all those years ago seems so silly now. Back then, "protecting" Gideon meant standing up to the kids who made fun of him for caring so much about the problems of our society, or letting him sleepover and cry in my bunker when he had dreams about his real parents coming to find him. We were just kids back then.

​

The cockroach soldier was gracious enough to give me this time to stand by him before he took his body to his leader to eat, although we both know he was long gone from this world by the time I arrived from his summons. "It isn't the cockroach's fault, this is just a war that the grunts of both sides were forced into fighting", I tell myself. But that reasoning pales in comparison to the anger I feel. I should have been here sooner. Maybe if I had been here sooner, Gideon would still be alive, and I would be the one on my knees thanking the heavens that he is okay, and we could both unsheath our swords and take on the world together again.

"How silly..." I remember telling him as we signed those fated contracts, and were subsequently separated into our designated job assignments. The contract that we are by law forced to remain on our persons at all times as to never forget who our lives really belong to. The contract that remains in my jacket pocket now.

I let my fingers graze across Gideon's neck once last time and, looking into the cameras of the electronic billboards above us, then I tear my contract apart.

The only animal that I can think of that’s dead are viruses (I could be wrong, science class was forever ago) and the genie can just go right ahead and harm them further into death XD

Are you okay? Please tell me this is just a prompt… you’re aren’t really dying, right?

Excellent writing. Good job.

[removed]

######

A cold winter's breeze tickled my nose, my teeth chatter for a moment before I finally make it to their... What the human's call their "final resting place."

I take a seat across from their stone marker. The howling wind my only company.

My mind wanders back to that day, I was getting the coffee ready for you, french vanilla with a dash of caramel, your favorite. I teased you about a similar caffeinated beverage I had three generations ago, told you that I'd like to take you there sometime. We kissed and I said "I love you" for the last time.

It all happened so fast. One moment you were there the next, I'm being visited by the authorities regarding your sudden demise. At first, I didn't quite get it. It wasn't like my ex who left me then we awkwardly met each other a few generations down the line. It wasn't like reuniting in a completely different body and having to rearrange the furniture because one of us was two feet shorter all of a sudden. It was... Completely new to me. My parents had warned me about the dangers of cross-species relationships, I brushed them off because I thought they didn't believe in us, but I'm starting to understand what they meant wasn't in the short term but the long-term.

Maybe... Maybe in the back of my mind, I didn't want to believe it either. I thought we would grow old together or I'd die a couple times first and we'd to file new paperwork or something like that. Now... Now you're here and I'm... I'm still around. I'm still alive and breathing. Walking. Talking. Our species doesn't have death in the same way yours does. When we die, we kind of... "Stick around" for a lack of a better term until our new body is ready. Maybe that's why I started getting these calls from your family about grief counseling and them checking in if I'm alright, if I'm fine...

I'm not fine. It's not okay without you. Coffee hasn't tasted the same. Our home is somewhat of a wreck. I'm already on my fifth generation since you passed on to wherever you might be now...

I... I miss you. I would want nothing more than to have you back. How could you human's go on about life when you have but one life to live? Is this how you felt when your grandmother died? I know you didn't want to talk about it so I didn't pry. Sometimes, I wonder if I could be with you in this "afterlife" your species keeps preaching on about but...

I know it would be a betrayal of everything we worked for, everything you meant to me, to be given the ability to keep going when you could not and squander it.

I'm... I'm going to see Dr. Mina next week. She's a counselor experienced with this kind of stuff.

But... But it's so hard... It's the first time, the first time in my countless lives, that I have to go through something like this.

And despite all the pain, if I had to go back to the day we first met at aquarium in front of the jellyfish, knowing exactly what would happen, I would say "Yes" in a heartbeat.

Because as much pain as I am in now, I finally appreciate a life well-lived.

You wake up sitting on a large, comfortable sofa. Looking around, you notice the room you are in is well decorated (at least to your taste) and the sofa is larger in the middle, with a crescent shaped space cut out of the back to lie down or pile pillows and such. That's an awesome idea, and you wonder why it's not a common thing. Next to you on the sofa sits god.

You ask it where you are. "you are in your own space. I went ahead and made the space I knew you would enjoy the most.

You take another look, appreciating it's work. There's an absolutely enormous tv, and while you can't see one, you assume there's an excellent sound system to go with it. The room is painted deep purple, and to your left is an open area with an Olympic length swimming pool, and diving boards for every meter up to 10. The deck overlooks a temperate rainforest, and fog shrouds your view. You take a walk through the house, admiring every detail. You can certainly confirm that you love this place. You turn to God, and ask why it's here.

"Being omnipotent means it's not too much of an inconvenience to spare a separate form to accompany all 108 billion dead humans. I'm here in case you want anything. Anything at all really. I'm basically like a genie except you have as many wishes as you want, and I'm fulfilling them out of the good will of my heart."

"Can I ask to be alive again?" You said

"Of course. But you killed yourself. Why would you want to live if you went to all the trouble of ending it?"

"Well maybe I could change things. I could be a hedonist, and completely avoid everything and everyone that brought me pain."

"But you could have done that before. While you were still living, you could have done all those things."

"I thought I couldn't. But now that I'm dead it seems like the obvious course of action. Death just feels to.. over. I'm not going to get anywhere with infinite wishes. None of this has any meaning. Life felt a lot more real. Besides, one day I'll end up back here naturally. It's not like I'm wasting an opportunity."

It smiled back at me, and I woke up on the sofa and looked around. The sofa didn't have a cool crescent shaped cutout, and the walls were boring and beige. There were dried tears on my face. But still, there was something different. There was no dread. I felt free, even though nothing had really changed. I remembered feeling that way just before I left. But I was wrong. I had been feeling free for the wrong reason.

I picked up my phone and texted my boss that he was an asshole and I quit. I'm going to change things up.

First off, love the classic "Bully makes me rage enough to jumpstart my powers" used here. Second, love that the power is reminiscent of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds, that being your main character turns into a drawing. This was really well written; Wish the pacing was slowed down a tad to build more of what led up to the fight, but overall very well done!

As my eyes are slowly closing, i try to look at everything in the room in details a last time. I try to let it all sink in, as i feel the darkness creeping in, slowly but surely. There is no turning back, and memories are flushing in like a fresh deck of cards at a blackjack table. I have no time to judge them, it is just there. One after another. And then, it is finished. And there is only black. Nothing else. I am staring at a black void. Endless. No panic, no sufferings. For the moment, i am just not thinking. At the second i realise that, a light appears, growing and getting more and more intense.

-You ve been a sinner Josuah.

-My name is John.

• Let me finish please.

I stay quiet, eager to know what s next.

-You died of covid Josuah. You did not get the vaccine, why ?

• Because it is poison.

-Josuah for that you will come back to earth as a covid arn. You will be covid. Is that ok for you ?

-Absolutely not.

-Or you can be an irish pastor.

-okay that ll do.

And thereafter i was crying in the arm of a lady, and it was my mum, and love was here again.

[removed]

Bro. Write a book, a series, just write and send it to me!

I just sat there in my hospital gown, trying to process what the shaman had just told me. My parents, sitting in a pair of seats next to my hospital bed, were in their human forms. They sat their patiently, holding each other's hands, allowing me time to process what the shaman had just told me.

​

The shaman finished typing something on his wall mounted computer and said, "well, I need to make some phone calls, that'll give you time to change and make arrangements. If you have any questions or anything at all, don't hesitate to ask anyone at the nurse's station." With that he walked out the door, closing it quietly behind him. I was still in shock, just sitting there, nothing like this had happened in centuries.

​

"Alex," my mom said after several minutes of silence, "sweetie, are you ok?" I nodded my head slowly, "I uh, I just can't believe it, it's uh..." I trailed off into silence again, still trying to wrap my head around it, it was a lot to take in. "Everything's not going to happen all at once," my dad said softly, "you're always going to be our son, I'm sure there will be a transition period and training and what not." I nodded my head, his words were helpful, I was a lot like him so his rationalizing of the situation started to bring me back to reality.

​

"I just can't believe it," I said, "I'm relieved, and it explains why I've never been able to make the transformation, but it's been what? Three hundred years since there was a new elder dragon?" My parents both nodded their heads in agreement, and my dad said, "I know, it's completely unprecedented, but you can do it, you'll be great." My parents stood up in unison and embraced me, and they held me for several minutes before separating, tears in mom's eyes.

Confusion. Probably some horror too.

I rarely ever save a story to read again later. This one I think I’ll treasure for a long time.